What's New

Finishing?

Abstract 2 - digital art painting with time limit - Dan Beck 2008

Recently I wrote a song about there not being enough hours in the day, the night, or a lifetime to do it all - and certainly not enough hours to do it all right.

So basically we have time limits on everything we do - whether we realize it or not.

So I guess my conclusion is to be a little less of a perfectionist and not take the adage about doing things right the first time to heart - because there is no such thing - no artwork is every done - no fix is permanent …

All of our efforts are more like “treatments” if you will - we make an adjustment and it improves things and then needs another adjustment.

I’ve been trying to limit the time for various tasks in my life - even works of art - when the rule strikes my fancy -

For after all - even the rules are like a treatment - needing readjustments as we go along.

See Also

• Digital Painting - insight into the art form and process of creating by Dan Beck at Outhouse Studios
• Managing Perfectionism - there is good insight here - my focus is a bit different because the process for me has always been about gaining a certain level of expertise - enough vocabulary or technique to express myself or determine it isn’t my thing - but focus can be very focused to very broad- we can be extremely specialized experts to dabblers in everything

My dog symbolically pushing me around.

It has been too blogging long since I have last contributed anything to the blogosphere - the unwritten rule I hold is to write at least once a week - once it was more - and may well be again.

Not too long ago - I wrote I would only write when I had something to say - something new.

So today I say - rules are often meant to be broken - meant to be changed - meant to be pushed against - meant to be rewritten and revitalized - until they need adjusting again.

Complacency is not a good thing - as my dog keeps reminding me.

Listen or View

• Red Eye 2 - introduction to part 2 of the Red Eye Recordings - original music, lyrics, and all performance - Dan Beck @ Outhouse Studios
• Unwritten Rules Fun - and the oxymoron of having them written down
• Other Music Projects - listen to tracks and clips of previous Outhouse Studios’ cd’s not found in Innovative Music channel of blog

ahead of myself

Self Portrait - Dan Beck - digital painting 2007

Multiple meanings are to me as much fun as multiple solutions - and generally more obvious than all the different ways to get to a solution to a problem…

and yes I believe there is almost always more than one way to solve any problem.

In most cases, I find myself thinking through all the things that need to be done in a project and try to foresee the obstacles. Somewhere along the line, I got the idea that the most efficient way was the best way.

I am no longer certain that either that is true or that there even is such a thing as the best way. Sometimes the longer route is the better - and most of the time we can not see our way around all the obstacles anyway.

In art and music - I seem to know this. I start and work around the problems as they come up; but in life - I sometimes think I can no more teach myself than I can anyone else …

such is life.

Listen or View

• Don’t Get Ahead of Yourself - track 4 of the Red Eye Recordings | Dan Beck | 1danband - they say “you can’t see the forest through the trees” but if one is only focused on the forest one can’t see the trees either
• Listening - outhouse studios commentary on what this means and the recording process- although it does not touch on my recent assertion that listening is one of the most important things separating music from noise
• Where teaching oneself and listening coincide - this sounds like some young question and answer session - but a good answer and pertinent I think

seeing for the first time

Rooted Tree - digital art - finger painting - rendering from memory impression - Dan Beck 2008

There are trees like this at one of the places I frequent with my exercise craving dog - it took me a while to notice them.

But like with most things - once one finally sees something - one starts to see the same thing more frequently. Even though I am an artist and probably more observant than most, I am keenly aware of how much of life I miss, until I become finally aware.

Perception, attention, and understanding are all fascinating subjects - I paint from an impression - a memory - quite frequently - knowing that my understanding plays an even bigger role in what I project when painting.

The intention here is not fantasy, but fun and freedom to portray the essential double rooted nature of these trees on the hillside - blasting with my own color but attempting to convey

the beauty and oddness that strikes me and makes me smile when I see them.

See Also

• Composite Nature: A Conversation with Stan Brakhage - an image search result for double rooted nature - found the work rather interesting
• Celebrated Poets - another interesting search result - the top poem seems to even relate
• Digital Art - a look at the wide definitions and usage for the digital art term - and what it means at Outhouse Studios

slow release

Red Eye Recordings - cover art - digital art (painting) - Dan Beck 2007

There is no right moment and yet I find myself waiting.

If we find ourselves sick - we wonder what we were waiting for -

We can understand life is a gift - that the amount of time is limited - but none of us - including me - embrace it until we really feel the fear of death - we see ourselves immortal

we put off until tomorrow - how can we not?

I don’t know why it is time today to release - the music from last Spring - but I believe it is.

Free to listen, free to download - free to donate - I doubt that I will be able to put all the pieces in place today - but I have to start somewhere - and to quote … well Hillel as it turns out “If not now, when?”

proving once again - that one of the most innovative things about music is that melody helps us remember content.

Listen or View

• Red Eye Recordings - alone & contageous - Dan Beck | 1danband
  • Track 1 - Red Eye 1
    
  • Track 2 - Do What You Believe In
• If Not Now - acoustic guitar and vocals - video - Tracy Chapman - a beautiful melody and partly why I remember the phrase

art and project remain remote

Remote Tree - digital art painting - Dan Beck 2008

I am working on a new project which I am not quite ready to reveal - but should be coming along rather quickly. Until I get the pieces in place, I am keeping a bit of a lid on it.

Like a lot of the art I do - I like that moment of unveiling - that moment when the image becomes printed - that tad bit of out of control and luck which can be better or worse, but is mostly better than one anticipates.

This is one of the first images from a new template which I am most excited about - size wise. This image was about a specific tree - a place - a feeling - more than an actual - but also about fitting the new project. I believe I have improved upon the template since and it will prove to be an invaluable size - opening up many new doors for a larger range in the size of art prints.

In any event, this digital painting was fun enough to warrant sharing - and so I am.

See Also

• Treework - first tree image with digital medium - still strong - but certainly not as developed with the medium. Innocence is worth noting
• Moment of Unveiling - a strange link to be sure - but google keeps getting more interesting in its results - part of a book by Nietzsche - one of my favorite (though unfortunately misunderstood) philosophers
• Opening New Doors - not so related but an interesting read and another link between art and life

Creating Changes Rules

Self Portrait - digital art - finger painting - Dan Beck November 2007

I have not been writing much - rather formulating some next moves - next art - next music projects. Too much of the blogging time, we write just to write - to bring attention to our work or simply share into cyberspace.

Whether I am able or not - my hope from here is to write when it is right - when I have something new to share.

My previous self-portrait done earlier this year was done the way I do most of my work - from my head with some tweaking from visual inspection (when available).

This self portrait - also an exercise - of how well can I paint with my fingers? utilized the camera of my new laptop.

I don’t really like the idea of painting from a photo - seems a step removed to me - but I couldn’t resist the technology. And although it is a perfectly acceptable practice in digital art to paint and alter a photograph - that is not the tact I took here - just used it as a model.

See Also

• Art Not to be Sold - recent artwork, work for other purposes, and work I am undecided on how I want to sell or am simply saving for local purchase only - a guide to blog articles
• Creating Changes Rules - whether the verb is “Changes” or “Rules” - I am not the only one who has noticed

originality and sameness

Three Way Figure 1 - original digital painting -Dan Beck 2007

Once again I shall try to defy the common sense meanings of original art and continue to demonstrate that there is more to original than one might originally think.

The above piece is one of three digital paintings. Each started with a very similar background - but I chose to fill in the emptiness in three different ways - deciding that all three were good and I would treat each piece fairly differently from there.

The figure is also mostly the same in each digital painting - but differs slightly in how I chose to fix some problems with the original figure and how I chose to embellish.

Each of of these three pieces is original - digital - intentionally much the same - but each of the prints is an original print.

Therefore - even in its sameness - it is all original - but then again - I think it is!

See Also

• What Makes a Print Original? - I think this is fairly in line with my understanding and use of the terms
• What is an Original Print? - this explanation is more designed to differentiate from individually done mono prints from other types of original - etchings, lithographs, and in my case - pigment prints from original digital paintings
• Digital Painting - additional info about the process and intention by artist Dan Beck and Outhouse Studios

quilted blades and aerial spray have added meaning

Quilted Spray - art prints / digital painting - Dan Beck - 2005

I am featuring this piece today - one because I gallery chanced and image rouletted upon it and two because it is getting to that time of year. Spring is rampant here and pollen and every other allergen upon us - throw in a few sprays and who knows what the results might be.

I love my surrounded by fields setting, but I know I need to get out.

When I wrote about this digital painting before, one of the things I omitted was the ridiculousness of the blades of the helicopter - the seemingly most dangerous aspect of a helicopter. Everyone crouches even though they couldn’t hit them.

The blades have been turned into fabric here- quilted looking - thus making the spray - though cool and beautiful, appear even less safe.

One can always add meaning.

See Also

• Quilted Spray - art print options and availability for above digital painting
• The Other Side - there are always at least two sides to anything - but yipes
• Budworks - haven’t seen this but it sounded interesting

limits, language, and symbolism

Symbolic Language 7 - digital painting - Dan Beck 2007

I thought this was pretty cool when I just finished - interesting, layer upon layer. I tried coloring only by tinting sections - the most subtle way of coloring I have at my disposal.

At the end, I couldn’t take it any more and changed my own rules adding some touches of pure color. But with all that I find the digital painting a bit too subtle and drab - but like the old joke - good though.

It was intended as an exercise, intended to be fun, intended to be unpressured learning - and it was.

I could probably do things to make it brighter - improve upon what is - but successes come in different forms - and the limits and language are intended to be symbolic of that as well.

See Also

• Abstract Art Gallery - some of the other abstract art work at Outhouse Studios
• Moose Turd Pie - my father told this joke a little differently - but it the same story - though Utah Phillips does really personalize it.
• Pure Color - I looked up pure color for the heck of it - there really is no such thing - color is relative - but good information here plus nice images.