GUEST BLOG: Traditional Calligraphy and Project Gustav at Microsoft

Is calligraphy being replaced by the computer just like digital cameras replaced analogue film?

Inkscape software is possibly the most sophisticated at producing calligraphy strokes with a stylist, rather than a traditional pen and ink.  And with Inkscape you can make adjustments to pen width, angle, pressure etc to create calligraphy.
I still perform calligraphy using pen and ink, rather than a tablet.  I post process my hand done art by scanning my works and finishing them using GIMP and Inkscape, (popular graphics software packages).

I was watching developments in this area of human user interfaces, and I was highly impressed with some recent work out of Microsoft labs.  Watch a video of the Project Gustav work over at Channel9  http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/NicFill/An-Extended-Look-at-Project-Gustav-Immersive-Digital-Painting/ -- a touch based natural user interface that Microsoft is developing to interface with the next generation of high end art applications.

I am hoping they will create a calligraphy pen that digitally acts as a real calligraphy pen while managing: angle, slant, pressure, ink flow, ink opacity, speed, paper texture, edge weight/balance, etc...  I would love to even beta test that or be a part of that development process.

Calligraphy seems so simple, yet must be incredibly complex to develop software to replicate the fine art perfectly.  I had a high school art teacher back in the late 1980s who once told me that computers would never replace art or fine art.  While I understood and respected her point, I think in my lifetime computers will be able to provide a natural user interface that emulates the creation of fine art and will be respected by the top percentage of fine artists on this planet, even though they may still choose to use the traditional medium.  Breakthroughs in the area of natural user interface, touch devices and output devices will achieve this in time.

Some of the drawbacks are that we are lacking greatly in the area of output devices.  How you do you print a painting in 3D showing the subtle variations in paint thickness?  How do you show this same painting on a webpage through a computer monitor or handheld device?  How do you replicate the smell of a museum through your iPad or tablet?  While the natural UI is advancing other areas should keep pace and they are falling behind.
And the main drawback is a drastic change to the art process itself.  There is something to be said about getting your hands messy when creating art, smelling the paint, smudging the charcoal, seeing the imperfections, the fear of making a mess, experimenting with different papers or inks.  This is all part of the experience that I like and enjoy.  I know that in the world of photography, many top photographers completely resisted digital photography as an alternative, possibly for the similar reasons.

I wonder if there will be a day when it is difficult to buy a paint brush or a calligraphy pen just like its hard to buy analogue film today?     What are your thoughts?

By: Steve Czajka
Blog Contributor
http://steveczajka.posterous.com

What art you should hang on the wall

So you have a small or a large sum of money and have decided to buy a painting or piece of art. You have the blank wall… What now?

A great place to start is to express your self. Make that wall your “artist canvas”. Before you start thinking “ugh, I don’t know how to express myself” stop, and think of one thing that you automatically think of when you are asked: What are you interested in? If you could tell someone what/how you want the world to see you as, what would it be? Educated, social, funny…


Artwork by: Serge Chriqui

As an example, the piece above is a great option if you love the clean lines and art of architecture. Where is this piece below, says you enjoy laughing and light-hearted jokes.


Artwork by: Lisa Rotenburg

Detailed botanical pieces say, affluence.


Artwork by: Ruth Thomas

Abstract says I like to think and examine.

Artwork by: Elena Henderson

Think about what you want to tell everyone about you when they walk into your space. It could be as simple as I like to horseback ride, I like the colour red or you can get more complex. Either way, choose pieces that tell the world a little about you. Don’t be afraid to share yourself with the people around you. It could just become a great conversation in the end.

Can Art in the Museum Live in Your Home?

As a general rule, no. National art galleries and museums all over the world display art and artifacts that reflect our culture and history. Traveling exhibitions are a great way to get an idea about the culture and history of people in other cultures or countries. We go to see these exhibitions and showings in order to be educated, to understand or to appreciate. However, we do not always leave wanting to (even if you could) take home these works. Art on a very large-scale, priceless art or, historical art, is to be viewed in the context of a museum. It is not the same as the art that we might choose to live with – what we can display and enjoy at home.

Looking for art that can live in your home? Visit Artistically Connected Today!

Art Meets Design

Should art dictate the design and colour of rooms, or the other way around? Some artists might hope that a piece of art will determine the look of the room and that the new owner will redecorate around it. Although designing the décor to suit the art can produce wonderful results, it isn’t often practical, especially if you keep adding to your collection. The objective is that the two concepts – the art and the design of the room – come together, so that the whole thing “works”.

What we put in our homes divides loosely between function and form. Fine art is distinguished from design, in that design suggests an underlying practical function or agenda other than being created purely for aesthetic beauty. Good design improves the quality of our lives by combining a smooth function with good looks.

A truly great designer will combine aesthetic form with advanced technology. Design has evolved rapidly, to a point where it is not merely addressing the functional, but also the aesthetic and sculptural roles that play a part in the finished look of the design. Good design, like good art is now accessible at every budget level. Looking out for classic products, designs, furniture and art when finding pieces for the home can provide great enjoyment, whether in flea markets, online galleries or auction houses - or a combination of sources. In fact, the broader the hunting ground the greater will the personality if of the mix.

When choosing art, decide what you want to express or accomplish – express yourself, your interests, your feelings, or attempt to change your mood or to stimulate your mind. Most importantly, choose what you love.

My Favorite Quote of All Time

Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you'll land among the stars.

I have loved this quote as long as I can remember and do not know who said it. It is a great reminder that setting your goals high and doing your best to meet them will put you a lot further a head then you were before - even if you miss.

What is yours?

The Best Advice I Ever Received

Its business, not personal.

Unfortunately it was after I let my personal emotions get involved when a business deal went south however. Remembering to deal with business as business and not on a personal level, has helped me to excel ever since.

The Art of Seeing

Within every piece of art there is a story told using visual imagery, rather than words. The way we see art to a greater or lesser degree is how much we engage with a particular image and how its “story” impacts us – be it positively or negatively.

The fun in art is to become aware of what we see more keenly; the shadows cast on a persons face, the shape of the objects, the folds in the fabric or colour of the sky. Doing so is developing what is called a “discerning eye”. By using your discerning eye and asking yourself “why…?” while judging how it makes us feel, you are finally able to say you can see the story; the art.

Want to develop your discerning eye? "See" local art on Artistically Connected

Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibit: Day 1 Review

Alarm buzzing at 6 am I look out the window excited to spend my weekend out in the warm sun. However, much to my disappointment (among many others) dark clouds and rain, sums up today’s opening for the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibit. By 7am Nathan Philips Square was packed with rain jackets and umbrellas as artists scurry around heavy rains to set up for this weekends much-anticipated show - usually driving thousands of art lovers from Toronto and abroad.

Leaking tents and flooded areas caused frustration among the artists and resulted in last-minute relocating for many.

The first four hours mostly consisted of attempting to protect pieces and get all the artists settled and registered. After spending the morning in the rain, it was time for me to check out some indoor activities. I was lucky enough to get a seat in Toronto-based studio potter and ceramic instructor, Susan Card’s presentation on working with clay. Not previously knowing Mrs. Card and always interested in learning new (and new to me) things relating to art, I was excited to meet her and hear her speak. Both educational and entertaining her presentation illustrated a comprehensive review on different techniques and styles of ceramics and pottery. Her passion and knowledge made me want to try it myself as she brought her collection of artwork out for us to see.

Feeling inspired, I left to face the rain once more. Much to my surprise the rain had let up and the artists were hanging their art. By the time I left, the show was beginning to pick up and the area was abuzz.

I am excited to see how the rest of the weekend turns out. If you are in the city this Friday, Saturday or Sunday, come on down and check it out. We will be there rain or shine!

Brittany O’Donnell

Looking for local Canadian Art? Check out Artistically Connected today!

What is art all about?

Art reflects society and the times we live in and over the centuries has described history and the changing views in culture and beliefs. Art has reflected poverty, wealth, love, challenge, conflict, freedom and even war. But what is art? Who decides what constitutes art – or even good art? The fabulous thing about it is, art is subjective! The work created by an artist will reflect the personality and emotion of its maker. Where technique can be thought the creativity and expression is unique. So how can you deem the artist’s personal expression of feelings and culture to be good or bad – you can’t.

What you can decide is; is this art for me? You should never buy art because someone else tells you its good. Always remember that you are the one living with it, so you should love it. You can love a piece for its colour, content or style. No matter the reason, it's because you decide its good for you.

If you are looking for art, take your time and read the artist’s biography – not necessarily for awards but for personality, stories and commonalities between you.  And lastly, check out Artistically Connected to see what local artists are doing, they usually have great work reflecting similar emotions/events as you (and its easier and more cost-effective to buy local).

Art’s big missed chance

Below, an interesting take on the new show I found in the Globe and Mail today. What are your thoughts?

By: Lynn Crosbie From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

Opines Sarah Jessica Parker, that sly doyenne of modern art and theory: “Art is this sort of intellectual exercise for people.”

I see. Art is like jumping jacks for the mind.

Parker made this declaration in a mildly frantic interview this week, as Bravo TV put its shoulder behind her highbrow reality-TV competition (she is the executive producer), the tritely titled Work of Art: The Next Great Artist. Two weeks after its U.S. debut, the show is generating very little heat, hence the full court press – I also saw hundreds of advertisements this week, featuring a sepulchral critic cruelly pronouncing “What you are doing here, is not ... ahhhht” to a devastated contestant.

We are just getting to know the 14 international contestants’ styles and strengths; the aesthetics and epistemological biases of the four judges, one of whom, China Chow, is a uniquely qualified model, actress and “art enthusiast.” (A guest judge appears each week as well, an artist whose work is related to the project at hand: This Saturday, the mixed-media sculptor Jon Kessler was on hand to watch the New York loft dwellers work with materials salvaged from an appliance graveyard.)

We are also a nation still benighted, just learning that TV, for so long the arch enemy of art and culture, can be – in a Project Runway meets Bathroom Divas: So You Want to Be an Opera Star? sort of way – a significant element in the production and dissemination of high art. Parker’s mother-in-law, she has revealed in interviews, was a largely unknown painter whose work is only now being recognized. With Work of Art, the winning contestant not only nets $100,000 and a show at the prestigious Brooklyn Museum, they showcase their practices to audiences that far surpass the tightly knit, tribal and infamously elitist art world.

Imagine showing a new work (contestants work on their assignments through most of the show) not only to the occasional tightly wound, maniacally attired art connoisseur, but to a (relatively) vast, loosely connected group of reclining, snacky and boisterous people who are, for good reason, suspicious of and disinclined to care about art.

Because if you can make one tired, hostile dude in a recliner tilt forward and say, “That doesn’t make me sick,” you are a real artist. Not in the traditional sense, where art’s merit is assessed within small, refined and moneyed circles, but in the new, collective sense, for art is moving toward community and away from precious little pilasters in the gilded corners of museums filled with jittery guards and sniffy observers.

Parker calls this “accessibility”: In her interview, she declares that all art should be furthered democratically and received by all. (Or maybe she said, “In Sex and the City 2, we take The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert to an edgier, darker place.”)

But accessibility and art-for-all arguments are ludicrous. Art should not be accessible to everyone: One must be prepared to engage in art’s history and various contexts in order to respond to it. Analogously, a book like James Joyce’s Ulysses is not accessible to everyone: It is difficult, inter-referential and slow going, and is that an error on the author’s part? Should he have used big, bright blocky letters and puns instead of his infamous quadrivial gestures?

Yet Parker is right when she says, in the same interview, of art: “You are a part of it.”

Art, ideally, is a tripartite conversation between itself, its creator and its observer(s.)

The average person does not visit museums and galleries because they are designed to repel anyone but the most intrepid viewer, assured in the chin-in-hand, hand-on-hip posture and mistress of the terse, acute remark, such as, “Oh, what a Fauvist nightmare!”

Work of Art, with its struggling iconoclasts and ridiculously pompous judges (“There’s simply no life here! I learn nothing about YOU!” one judge brayed this week, as though “life” and autobiography are the top-secret sine qua nons of visual expression), misses such a good opportunity to break down, to truly demolish the barriers that have always separated precious art from the barbarous hordes.

What if the 14 artists were asked, as critic Lucy Lippard suggests Warhol did, to reserve their comments (they explain each piece interminably) and instead “align” themselves with us, the spectators?

What if, contrary to what one horrible and championed contestant did by sculpting the body of an idiot with a TV for a head, the artists insisted that we collectively participate in the work at hand? This would be like voting for the next American Idol but far more creative: Think of Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree (in which viewers are invited to write down their wishes on scraps of paper and attach them to a tree) expanded into a forest, into a mass dialogue about beauty, politics, self, truth, lies, being and nothingness.

Public art, such as Choi Jeong-Hwa’s installation-homage to recycling (Happy Happy is constructed from plastic donations), is the way of the future – Jeong-Hwa’s work appeared in a show of Korean artists’ work called Your Bright Future.

One hopes this TV art show, laudable for its earnestness, erroneous in its sense of modern art, will make a new appliance voodoo graveyard by reaching through the glass of all the thousands of TV sets, and seizing us with a simple question: “What do you think art is?” Or, more urgently, “Help us!”