All In Moderation

[EDIT - 05/09: I've turned off comment moderation, requiring only the word verification. I still get an email when comments are left, so reason #1 below still holds. #2 does as well, so if I end up getting spam comments I will turn moderation back on. We'll see how it goes!]

As I begin to get more comments (thank you thank you!), a question comes up that I suppose deserves to be addressed by way of a policy.

Should I moderate comments?

I do for 2 reasons:

1) I want you to know that I read every comment. Moderating them means that when you see your comment show up, I've read it. I've paid attention to what you've said. Often, I've already left a reply somewhere on your blog or in your inbox. I created this blog to communicate with people passionate about creativity. I want comments to encourage connection. I moderate to let you know I listen.

2) That said, I also want to maintain this blog's quality of communication. That includes the comment section. I don't like the idea of having inappropriate comments that I have to remove, leaving a "This post has been removed by a blog administrator" message. I'm talking about spam with crazy links as well as socially offensive or personal messages. Fortunately, I haven't had any yet, but prevention seems the way to go.

So please don't take the fact that I moderate to mean I'll discard critical or argumentative posts. In fact, those are what I like the most. They provide an opportunity for increased understanding and awareness, and show you care enough to voice your opinion.

Peace.

Marketing Connections (Or How To Make The World A Better Place)

My friend Robert Benson just invited me to join a new site for vinyl lovers. Here's my profile. It looks kinda like a specialized Facebook. I hadn't looked at ning.com before, but it looks versatile and easy. The welcome email for this ning site said I was #59, so it's not big yet, but could grow if you guys join.

Growing the online network of people passionate about music, art, and creativity in general is perhaps my main lofty goal of this blog. Along those lines, I figured I'd give a list of blogs I've been keeping tabs on one way or another. These are people standing up for culture in their way:

Layla's Classic Rock
Imagine Echoes
Music Obsessive
Seth's Blog
davistudio
Think Simple Now
dig this / dig that
Zero influence
Magical Mystery Blog

This is an odd collection, but then I'm odd. I've commented on all of them, except Seth's which he has set up only to accept trackbacks and for some reason blogger won't do trackbacks right. So I email him. He emails back. He really does.

I got to thinking about marketers like Seth this morning. I like'em because they're job is to think of ways to make you make your life better. Or at least think it is. In any event, marketers push positive messages generally. Yes they do play to fears a lot, but that's what we respond to. If you haven't seen it, watch "The Day The Earth Stood Still" to understand that. Imagine if the Internet just stopped? Yikes. It's hard to remember what it was like before, say 1995 or so when the Internet took off commercially.

Anyway, marketers usually don't bash other products. They know they've got your attention for a limited time, so why waste it talking about the competition? I was thinking what it'd be like if political campaigns did that, promoting their candidate in and of themselves, not as opposed to the other one.

I don't like comparisons. My sculpture teacher liked to say that there'll always be somebody better than you and somebody worse, so worry about yourself. So much energy is spent by humans comparing themselves to others. Yes, society has to operate on norms to hold together, but participants in society don't have to judge themselves that way.

Be you, for cripes sake.

Be positive, too. Why spend so much time complaining about what you don't like? Like Zappa and so many others creative people say, if you don't like it turn it off, don't buy it.

Go one better and promote what you DO like, pay for music, contribute to society to make it what you want.

I know this post rambles, I know. My mind is a mess right now.

But it's me.

Peace.

SOLD - Jim Morrison 09/24/08

What Do You Want From Me?

Let the tweaking begin. Now that I've overhauled my website and modified my blog template to match, my obsessive perfectionist tendencies are making me itchy.

It's about you though. By "you" I mean those who have found me, discovered what I do, maybe bought one or told a friend, and continue to be interested in what I have to show and say. I need your help.

What could I do to make it even better for you?

As this blog serves partly as a journal for me, this is a question directed at myself first. I'm generally my worst critic (aren't we all?).

But if you can beat me at that, I might just have to give you something for your trouble.

Peace.

Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You

When all is said and done, what will humanity be remembered for, what will the ages say about you?

[EDIT - 5/15/08: To all those finding this post while on a quest for information regarding JFK's inaugural address and his famous quote, I found out that it was inspired by a line written by Khalil Gibran, the author of "The Prophet". The line can be found in "The New Frontier". It's the 7th paragraph. This isn't to take away from JFK's rephrasing it into a monster of an directive to a nation, though.

Also, the contest described below is over, but I'm hoping I get to do another one! I need your help. I need enough subscribers either by RSS feed or email so that I'll get enough entries. So make it easier on yourself to keep up with my oh-so-neat little blog, and subscribe!]

"No man is an island, he's a peninsula," said Jefferson Airplane. We are all connected and we're the better for embracing that: "Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other because they can not communicate; they can not communicate because they are separated," said MLK. I guess my main purpose in creating and promoting Vinyl Art at all is to contribute as I can, seeking my way of bringing people together. So, I'm taking King's first step even though I definitely can't see the rest of the staircase, and starting my contest. Woohoo!

Your Grand Prize: one (1) piece of Vinyl Art of the recording artist of your (reasonable) choice, framed and delivered

The 9 Second Prizes: your entry featured on the sidebar of this blog

Everybody's Deadline: February 29th, 2008

How You Enter: I want to know your story (you feel comfortable enough to share) of when music had the biggest impact on your life, like a concert, or a song you danced to with your future mate, or an important moment in human history that changed you in large part due to music involved. It's gotta be true and about you. The entry can be in any form: you can write the story in a comment here, you can post an image on Flickr and send me a FlickrMail about it, you can make a video to upload to YouTube and send me a message there with it attached, you can create a post on your own blog with a trackback to here, or you can even use regular ol' snail mail (address available on request). Basically, any format, online or off, is acceptable as long as it's your creation and your story. Every entry will be moderated for appropriateness (my blog isn't "adult", ;) ) and listed in the comments to this post for all to see.

How You Become A Winner: On March 1, 2008, I'll start going through all the entries and pick the 10 top ones. By "top", I mean the most successful at communicating your story. I want to really "get" why you've chosen that particular story to tell. I'm not going to judge it based on comparisons of content. I'm going to judge the entries based on the whole package, kind of like how dogs are judged in Best of Show competitions. I know there aren't "breed standards", but I mean I'm going to look at the facts of the story and judge the entry on how well I think it conveys your experience of those facts and the impact it had on you. Then I'll pick one of the top 10 randomly as the Grand Prize winner!

I thought about putting the top 10 up for voting by you to pick the winner, but for this first contest, I want to keep it simple. I don't really know how big my audience is and how many hoops you'd be willing to jump through to win a painting at this point. Also, I'll see how many entries I get before committing to when I'll announce the winners. I'm going to do my best with this, but everybody has told me that contests can go haywire, so let's just make it a good one! You can always ask me questions to clarify before submitting your entry, I'll make important ones public. I don't care if I get all the entries on the last day of this month if you want to keep refining or if you just procrastinate, but if you want more people to see your entries, get them submitted!

If you want inspiration, or if you don't understand the Grand Prize:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: WWW.VINYLART.INFO

and also the more entries, the better a contest will result for us all, so tell your friends! Peace.

Why Eminem Should Be Respected

I wanted to see if you'd picked up on something. Peace. I've been signing that quite a bit recently. You might not have noticed because it is a word thrown about too freely I think. I don't have it as a "sig" anywhere. I type it each time. Each time, hitting that period after typing the word makes me think, makes me feel. I feel different emotions depending on when I type it, but I type it each time deliberately to stay connected to Life. Peace period. That's all that should need be said. Quietly, simply, with gut-wrenching true feeling. Do you almost cry when you say peace? The huge weight associated with it, does it come to mind when you flash the peace sign? I hope so. Like "love", "peace" should have meaning behind it when it's said, I think. It should stir in you the desire to act, to do.

Eminem's multi-faceted message in his music communicates his anger and frustration with the state of affairs both in his life and in the world. He seeks peace. Venting, he makes it ok to feel and express dark emotions. He conveys how conflict itself ends up winning when the two sides involved battle each other instead of uniting against the problem underlying. I respect his creativity, his way with words, and yes, what I see as his message. I know his productions, his words, are controversial, pointed to as inciting and insightful. Good. Discussion brings issues into the open and can lead to tolerance and understanding if people are open. People usually have walls up for protection, though. I wish people would be open. Pain exists, but it can be used towards understanding instead of hate. Hate means you care about the other side, means you can love too. You try listening for where the hate is coming from, and you can break downs walls with trust, compassion, and openness. And what you put out always comes back around too.

I thought I'd share with you what I think, but I certainly won't take it personally if you disagree. Disagreement can lead to wider understanding. Understanding can lead to...

peace.

Eminem 02/01/08

Stephen Covey Would Be Proud

Painting Robert Plant is hard! Wild About Music sold two Zeppelins last month, though. It seems to be my most popular there, as one sells about every month. I guess people in Austin really love Zeppelin. Well, who doesn't! Primitive Kool also sold the Johnny Cash they had. I'm going to paint several blues-related musicians for them again now.

Speaking of Johnny Cash, I received a comment on my post about the YouTube clip: http://vinylart.blogspot.com/2007/10/man-in-black-on-his-ring-of-fire.html. I responded there but I thought I'd elaborate (read: ramble) a bit more here. It seems fitting because this post is also about the selling of art already. The gist of the comment was that art isn't free to create, so it shouldn't be free at all. I really appreciate the sentiment. The more money I make, the more I can paint, and I could reach a wider audience if I could afford marketing. So, money is definitely a means to an end. My purpose in creating Vinyl Art is to express my passion for music and art, and to show it with the world, connecting and building relationships with others who share my passions. So, yes, as the post at Brain Pickings, suggests, selling my pieces does support and spread my idea.

However, the money is just a means. In saying this, I don't intend to imply I don't want to sell them. The ultimate point is to sell them so people have them to share with others. That can also be directly achieved though, on occasion, by giving them away for an event, Free Art Seattle, or contest, http://vinylart.blogspot.com/2008/01/using-competition-to-create-community.html. (I need help with that, by the way, or it may move to the back burner). The return for giving may not be instantly monetary, but you get what you give, and giving builds relationships. Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" discusses how important creating and maintaining relationships is to success in life. Indirectly it does help business too. In my opinion, giving doesn't devalue the artwork. Quite the opposite, it adds value to the artwork as a symbol of the connection made. The recipient can look at it and remember how they got it, a plus. People can ask them how they got it, and they'll share the great story as well as their passion for music, another plus. And from a business perspective, the resulting cross-marketing that can happen benefits everybody, a win-win!

This is a great issue to discuss, so after you've looked at my idea for my contest, let me know also your thoughts on this issue. I've only stated my perspective which isn't the only one, and there is no "right" one. I like creative dialogue, so please share!

Meanwhile, I'm off to paint B.B. King! To see a couple previous B.B. Kings, you can read this post: http://vinylart.blogspot.com/2007/09/creative-repetition-top-8-musical.html, or you can:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: http://www.vinylart.info/

Peace.

SOLD - Led Zeppelin 01/25/08

Using Competition To Create Community

I need your help.

I've got a very diverse, yet ephemeral audience. It is growing, which is terrific, but I want to engender communication and networking as well, creating long-term relationships. Basically, I'm going to try to encourage people to share, to be heard. I know a lot of people who hit this blog have their own way of sharing already: their own blog, a profile somewhere with a comment wall, or a forum they post to regularly. And there are those who comment on others blogs, profiles and forums, creating feedback and dialogue. And there are those who, as yet, do neither. I want to make everyone feel welcome to speak their minds, share what they want, and respond with their reactions here on my blog.

To that end, a contest. I know the prize will be a piece of Vinyl Art of the artist of the winner's choice, but I need help. Please help me create the contest. I'd like to start it in February and have it run for a month. I'm going to let all of my connections know about it, so I should get a fair amount of initial interest at least in knowing what the contest entails. That is the question, however.

Since my audience in general are music-lovers, I'm thinking about something along the lines of asking entrants to share their favorite personal experience related to music. Then I'd pick the top 10 in my opinion, with the winner a random one of those. Entrants would be able to share their story in any online manner: a post on their blog, a YouTube video, a photo set on Flickr, etc. They would just add a comment with a link to it on my blog post about the contest and every night I would moderate the posts, making sure the entries were suitable. Or they could just put their story in the comment. Then everybody could check out everybody's story and along with it, get introduced to a whole new network of people.

I want to keep the judging part simple for now, not including the entrants in the winner selection this time, but trying to just get people to communicate with each other, celebrating their passion for music. I've given my pieces away through radio station contests and free art shows, so I thought, why not give one away as a means to bring my audience together?

What do you think? Let me know your reactions to any part of my idea, good or bad. Give me suggestions to make it better, to make it so you would enter it yourself. That is, of course, the purpose. If you need to know more about Vinyl Art, read through this blog, even starting at the beginning. Also, watch my YouTube videos, and certainly,

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: WWW.VINYLART.INFO

and give me some feedback! Thanks for any help.

The Verve - Blackpool - 6 Nov 2007

I'm sitting here looking out of my Phoenix window at a day that belongs in London.

I'm listening to a very good taping of the show 3 days before the show we saw in London.

I'm feeling very overwhelmed, overflowing with emotion, Life's an Ocean. Intense gratitude for life. Their music definitely is directly connected to what's real. Space and Time. I'm aware of how big little moments can be. Even though I've only got a handful of subscribers yet, and most people who've found my website are looking for vinyl art toys, I'm extremely thankful and want to shake the hands of everyone whose given me moments of their energy, their life. I know it can go unnoticed, unappreciated. I know.

But then you can connect, communicate with Life. Everything happens for a reason, a reason one might not know at the time, but a reason. To be open to that is a trick. Computers crash, garage door openers hesitate, websites show up unexpectedly. I get to paint portraits of musicians I and others love. Then I get to share them. Cool. I really do crave feedback. Not to validate my existence, just to know if I've impacted others' existence. I keep creating profiles at every social networking site I find to do just that, give others a chance to find me, to see what I do, maybe to share me with other others.

I know I'm rambling a bit, repeating myself from earlier today. But I just want to emphasize this content's connection to Life, to what's real. Human contact. Community. And with that, appreciation of individuality and uniqueness. Who are you? Tell, show the world. Open up. I'll listen, and respond.

SO, that's that. Gotta box up Willie! See him in my post from a coupla days ago, or:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: WWW.VINYLART.INFO

and thanks for listen, no I mean, reading.

Family And Friends

Stevie Ray for my brother-in-law in Austin and Lennon for our friend down in Tucson. I love giving gifts! I'm painting these for music-lovers who share our passion, so why not give them away too? Obviously I need to sell some, and the holiday season is the perfect time to get your commissions in, but sharing the love of music is what it's all about. This weekend I'm going to try to find the ones I'll do for Free Art Seattle. More giving. I'm looking forward to participating in other shows like it. If you know about art shows in your area that you think my work might fit into, please let me know!

I also created a profile at XING, kinda like LinkedIn. We'll see what connections I make there. Also, happened upon LiveVideo, so I created my channel there too. Basically, it's a duplicate of my YouTube channel, but it'll reach a whole new group of people. I'm tellin' ya, if I ever have to change E-mail addresses with the number of accounts I have... yikes. I just want people out there to know about what I'm doing and to give you all as many ways to find and connect with me as possible. I'm hoping to get more regular subscribers to this blog, but I'll take what I can get. Just give me feedback! Also, sorta important, if you haven't seen my online gallery, please:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: http://www.vinylart.info/

and E-mail or even call me. Don't be shy, I won't bite.

GIFTED - Stevie Ray Vaughan and John Lennon 11/30/07

Exposing Myself

I love doing what I do! I get paid to expose myself! Being an artist is hard, but satisfying in that my direct creative expression is getting attention and appreciation. I put part of myself, my soul, into my art, and yes, my goal has become to sell myself. I used to shudder thinking about that aspect of being a professional artist. Now, though, it feels better than working for someone else. I AM my business. It is frustrating to not get feedback and to feel ignored sometimes, but it has built my self-confidence a great deal. I believe in myself. I'm not sure anybody would recommend becoming an artist to bolster one's self-esteem, but it definitely encourages self-reliance. I have to be my own biggest fan. For me, that's big, as before now, I was my biggest critic, not cutting myself slack for mistakes and imperfections that I far overlooked in others. I still hold myself to high standards, but optimistically!

I'm realizing this on a day with little visible progress. I painted Otis Redding because I wanted to, not for a client. I added an XML sitemap to my website for search engines which already have me indexed. And I created yet another profile/gallery for a free artists' directory with no other posts in its forum since September. Yet, the more things I do to promote my online presence, my artwork, myself, the more I realize that I must consider myself worth it! I'm spending all this time on me!

This post, then, is meant to share my inspiration. Not quite an epiphany or anything too profound, just a simple acknowledgement of how lucky I am to be my own business. My ultimate goal in being an artist is to spread my idea and creativity to as many people as I can, to bring people together by communicating about our collective culture, and to live a human life. It's why we're here I think, to be humans and to be understood as the individuals that we are within humanity.

What do YOU think?

I also submitted a press release to AP.org regarding Newport Nights this October 27th at Primitive Kool in San Diego. Hopefully they'll find it suitable for distribution, but in the meantime, if you haven't:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: http://www.vinylart.info/

and see the 16 pieces that'll be on display and for sale!

Otis Redding 10/19/07

Call Me

Or, at least:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: http://www.vinylart.info/

Al Green 09/28/07

The Purpose Of Education In Life

It's hard not to question myself. I do it all the time, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. I end up talking myself out of doing things and taking chances. I got lucky and was sort of hit on the head with the realization of who I am. Before that, I was floating, unsure of myself because I didn't know who that was. I suppose everyone goes through that during their formative years.

One of the main reasons I got anywhere was my sense of commitment. It also made it difficult to start anything, because I would try to plan out the whole thing in my head before even attempting it. But I did do school well, really well. Academics was my commitment from an early age. I've since realized that that wasn't who I was meant to be, so I stopped after getting a B.S. at UCLA. However, after elementary, middle, high school and university, I've come to understand what school was for, at least for me. I think my understanding would benefit others and help avoid the frustration many have with academic education, so here goes.

School is a framework built to teach how to learn and how to communicate. At least up until grad school, the content of education, in and of itself, isn't as important as the structure. Every field of study ended up being another language, another way to communicate about humanity and our place in the universe. It seemed all academics basically sought to understand who they were and where they fit into life, but did that by focussing on just one framework of understanding. I characterize myself as mostly a "big picture" kinda guy, so the best pieces that I gleaned from different areas of study ended up being those that were new ways to learn and communicate about life as a whole, not those simply useful as independent frameworks. I think schools should begin to realize their place in people's lives as providers and facilitators of communication and understanding. The purpose of learning the 3 Rs is not just to learn them independently of each other and separated from all other aspects of a student's life, but to begin to provide students with a common language and way to learn about themselves and society. Tools, they're tools.

Pop culture is humanity's most immediate and purest communication of what it's about at any given time on a large scale. One of the beautiful things about the Internet is that it's making more facets of our culture widely available more rapidly and generating more communication, which pushes our popular culture in new less explored directions. It's very inspiring to me and it's why I'm trying to be a part of it. Everybody's got something to say and school's job should be to facilitate that communication and others' understanding of it. The actual knowledge passed on is so much less important than passing on the ability to access and understand new knowledge. Hence, communication and learning to learn.

I think following this would create a more satisfying educational experience for everyone. Students wouldn't be made to feel inferior/superior to others by focussing so much on test scores, but instead would revel in being able to find out who they are in their own lives and to share that with classmates, receiving acknowledgement and understanding. Teachers wouldn't have to concentrate on regurgitation, but instead would get to use their subject matter to connect with their students' lives and help them relate to their own culture to future generations' cultures. Then students would have the desire to seek new knowledge and see how it can enable more understanding of life and a greater sense of belonging to the world.

I hope this ramble isn't ill-conceived. I certainly mean well. I'd like to think that communicating my viewpoint, sharing my passions, and being creatively productive is worthwhile. I value it in others. I do also seek acknowledgment and understanding, so please give me feedback, whether it be a comment here or an E-Mail or phone call. My E-Mail address and phone number can be found on the contact page if you:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: WWW.VINYLART.INFO

Like all artists, I just want to be heard.