In later years of life I've gotten in touch with my art side, and even sometimes consider myself a pop artist who uses Amazon book covers as a medium. My own art education is a tragic story. In high school the art teacher let kids play whatever music they wanted to, but they had horrible taste and I am a musician, sensitive, so I was angry; I kept talking in class and pretty soon was assigned to write a 500-word essay on "why you shouldn't talk in art class." I wrote it all in one sentence, and my art career went downhill from there.
Fast forward to today I'm a 71-year-old with business in the University of Iowa Hospitals and while in town I try to find an artist, another TL, to ask him a couple of questions about people he knows, my first girlfriend, and a woman who died recently who was his father's personal assistant. His father was famous, you can probably already put two and two together, so he was born into the art world. He started a gallery in Iowa City in a pretty redecorated building just south of the tracks.
But here's the thing: the art world has just undergone a huge crash. Apparently people were rolling in it just a couple years ago, and now nobody can sell anything. None of the high rollers are investing in art at all. Now I guess if you're really rich you just ride it out and the art will still be there when this is all over, but who knows. I peer into the windows of his gallery and it's locked, again, with a single mattress in one of its main rooms. Maybe it's open by appointment. Maybe he's found another way to make money. I'm not sure what's going on. There were a few cars in the driveway, as if someone is using the back part of the gallery to live in.
It's curious, the world of art. I should make an appointment, but I don't want to buy anything. Also have an aversion to phone calls. I emailed him but he didn't answer.
Instead, I just head home to make more of my own art. To be continued.
Friday, October 3, 2025
Friday, May 30, 2025
book covers as media
Let's continue on what I was saying before: I am a pop artist who uses book covers as a medium.
Now it's true that I had to write 28 books, give or take a few, to have any kind of range out there in the world. There are four or five that I've taken off the market, not because I didn't like the art, but more because I didn't like what I had written within them. Or, it was old, or stale, or whatever. But the art wasn't. There is a sense that the art is secondary: that I choose it only after I have published something, or while I am publishing it.
Sometimes when I'm about done with a book I start fishing for cover ideas. I have a consistent font and a consistent style so I have what amounts to an exhibit, for sale on Amazon. Pretty sneaky way to get your art in front of the public, eh? If I were a better writer there would be people all over my art.
I have new books coming, so that keeps my pop mind alive. In addition I find myself changing covers on some of my books some of the time. This makes the older stuff inherently rarer and harder to find.
I could use that kind of reverse marketing to make it. Warhol made it, in end, as a kind of belwether for the pop market. One could do worse. He however is not around to enjoy his fame.
Now it's true that I had to write 28 books, give or take a few, to have any kind of range out there in the world. There are four or five that I've taken off the market, not because I didn't like the art, but more because I didn't like what I had written within them. Or, it was old, or stale, or whatever. But the art wasn't. There is a sense that the art is secondary: that I choose it only after I have published something, or while I am publishing it.
Sometimes when I'm about done with a book I start fishing for cover ideas. I have a consistent font and a consistent style so I have what amounts to an exhibit, for sale on Amazon. Pretty sneaky way to get your art in front of the public, eh? If I were a better writer there would be people all over my art.
I have new books coming, so that keeps my pop mind alive. In addition I find myself changing covers on some of my books some of the time. This makes the older stuff inherently rarer and harder to find.
I could use that kind of reverse marketing to make it. Warhol made it, in end, as a kind of belwether for the pop market. One could do worse. He however is not around to enjoy his fame.
Saturday, April 19, 2025
Here's my elevator rap. It's what I'd tell you about myself very quickly, if I want to impress upon you that I'm a pop artist.
My medium is book covers. So, if I have a book about McDonald's, and I come up with some new pop art on the subject, I can and do exchange an old cover for a new cover. Some of the books that I own are unique - there isn't much out there that is exactly the same. But when I make a good one, I hope it lasts for years even if nobody cares that much for the stories within.
Lately I've been drawn into the national politics, which has rendered my writing somewhat pointless. I was a big fan of the USA and now all I can say is, boycott the heck out of us. Don't let us have any of those rare earths, we'll just use it to invade Greenland. I take pictures of the demos and hope they get bigger. A nation that has gone fascist is something one doesn't want to take in silence.
If I make some of these covers, what should I put in the books?
My pleasing, humorous look at the US in better times just makes me uncomfortable; I don't even want to market it. But what do I really want? To warn the world of the rising fascism? to mock it?
The pop art will keep coming, I hope. I'll work on what to put in the books.
My medium is book covers. So, if I have a book about McDonald's, and I come up with some new pop art on the subject, I can and do exchange an old cover for a new cover. Some of the books that I own are unique - there isn't much out there that is exactly the same. But when I make a good one, I hope it lasts for years even if nobody cares that much for the stories within.
Lately I've been drawn into the national politics, which has rendered my writing somewhat pointless. I was a big fan of the USA and now all I can say is, boycott the heck out of us. Don't let us have any of those rare earths, we'll just use it to invade Greenland. I take pictures of the demos and hope they get bigger. A nation that has gone fascist is something one doesn't want to take in silence.
If I make some of these covers, what should I put in the books?
My pleasing, humorous look at the US in better times just makes me uncomfortable; I don't even want to market it. But what do I really want? To warn the world of the rising fascism? to mock it?
The pop art will keep coming, I hope. I'll work on what to put in the books.
Monday, April 29, 2024
As a pop artist, I have created most of my art for the benefit of a certain facebook site, which has given me somewhat of a reputation as a Quaker pop artist. But basically, for the purposes of advertising a Cloud Quaker meeting once a week, I have taken a number of interesting pictures, let the "kandinsky" function of lunapic make them impressionist, and used them as advertising. Some people are mad at me for basically just stealing pictures I find on the web. To me, nobody really owns a view of a place, and the doctoring of it makes it legal, or so I believe, though I realize I'm walking onthe edge of copyright theft. I'm not making money off of them; that's probably my saving grace. They could sue me, but for what? Me and Andy Warhol, we just are interested in the image and people's reaction to it.
Now I have a new topic and I'm slowly warming up to it. That is, I want to market my books in about 80 sites, and really give Facebook marketing a try. To do this I'm heavily leaning on pop art. And the more I can make every site different, the better I can do. I'm not sure I have eighty separate images for any given book, but with e pluribus haiku I have almost that many, and so I find myself digging into the archives for old pop, bringing it up to the surface, and using it.
For example, in a recent campaign I was doing Do Unto, which has Barbie as a theme. I only had about ten images with Barbie but a few more were similar, and the cover images were good too. I tried to hit all eighty or so sites but in the end probably only got about sixty or seventy. Some people who are on multiple sites were surprised, I think, to find different pictures on different sites. I had one where Barbie was in the sand and it's in general best when someone has "done into" a barbie clearly. I had some Barbie pictures with no clear "do unto" idea and I ended up using them more sparingly. I only have eighty slots, might as well put the best pic possible in each one!
I cruise around the different sites, and if they let me, I drop my version fo the ad with a piece of pop art - no words on it, just a picture. These had a lot of deer bones along with the Barbies as if they'd been thrown in a pile with all the deer carcasses. My version of a twisted Georgia O'Keefe/Andy Warhol collage, and for those it's clear that someone has "done unto" both the dolls and the deer.
I am beginning to fall asleep, as I write this. The whole thing, making pop art, dropping it on FB, taking in the chats from marketers, on top of writing and door-dashing and other marketing, is wearing me out. I need to get more sleep. Warhol I'm sure would agree with me.
Now I have a new topic and I'm slowly warming up to it. That is, I want to market my books in about 80 sites, and really give Facebook marketing a try. To do this I'm heavily leaning on pop art. And the more I can make every site different, the better I can do. I'm not sure I have eighty separate images for any given book, but with e pluribus haiku I have almost that many, and so I find myself digging into the archives for old pop, bringing it up to the surface, and using it.
For example, in a recent campaign I was doing Do Unto, which has Barbie as a theme. I only had about ten images with Barbie but a few more were similar, and the cover images were good too. I tried to hit all eighty or so sites but in the end probably only got about sixty or seventy. Some people who are on multiple sites were surprised, I think, to find different pictures on different sites. I had one where Barbie was in the sand and it's in general best when someone has "done into" a barbie clearly. I had some Barbie pictures with no clear "do unto" idea and I ended up using them more sparingly. I only have eighty slots, might as well put the best pic possible in each one!
I cruise around the different sites, and if they let me, I drop my version fo the ad with a piece of pop art - no words on it, just a picture. These had a lot of deer bones along with the Barbies as if they'd been thrown in a pile with all the deer carcasses. My version of a twisted Georgia O'Keefe/Andy Warhol collage, and for those it's clear that someone has "done unto" both the dolls and the deer.
I am beginning to fall asleep, as I write this. The whole thing, making pop art, dropping it on FB, taking in the chats from marketers, on top of writing and door-dashing and other marketing, is wearing me out. I need to get more sleep. Warhol I'm sure would agree with me.
Monday, January 1, 2024
Pop resolutions
I'm actually a fairly prolific pop artist, though I don't talk about it much, as evidenced by the fact that this blog is somewhat sleepy asd poorly linked to most of my work. I'm most active on my Cloud Quakers site, but that's not the only place I post. I consider myself an impressionist, and a kandinskyist, since I almost exclusively use the kandinsky function on the lunapic app to create impressionist art for various sites and book covers.
I don't plan on changing any of this any time soon, though you never know when another app will come along that will make ordinary photos into impressionist masterpieces. One thing I like to remember is that it's the book covers that will survive, as most of the stuff I put on these blogs or facebook is really somewhat temporary and in any case not easy to find. What is the cover of the book, though, is in an entirely different arena. Those will still be looked at years from now, and will serve as a kind of record of my ability to get words on a piece of pop art and still have it do its job. Of my thirty books, almost all are pop works of some kind or the other, and three I'm itching to delete, I'm saving now for the pop alone. It's occurred to me to change the covers regularly and have a revolving door of covers such that all the books of a single series (e pluribus haiku) are spread out and quite random in terms of their pop covers. They are, as it is, a kind of record of my pop journey. But that is a kind of abuse of the zon's liberal policy of letting artists change their covers easily, which I don't want to upset really.
I've noticed lately an explosion of good artists, many of them impressionist, who have good Facebook pages and aggressive marketing strategies based on those pages. I don't really have a desire to do that, to move into an independent identity as pop art producer, but I still have this undeveloped side of me that yearns to be known as a pop artist. I no longer make calendars, but would like to do it again. These are all hazy bucket-list resolutions, but resolutions nevertheless.
1. Consider making a calendar again. Specifically, a Quaker Book Charity calendar.
2. A pop artist should have t-shirts.
3. Take a good hard look at all thirty book covers: these will go down as my legacy. Make them as good as possible. Some that need work are: CRTLI,HOTP, and AfB4 (these are acronyms, but you can guess or find them)
4. Explore other impressionist-making apps.
See you in a month or two, to see if I've made any progress!
I don't plan on changing any of this any time soon, though you never know when another app will come along that will make ordinary photos into impressionist masterpieces. One thing I like to remember is that it's the book covers that will survive, as most of the stuff I put on these blogs or facebook is really somewhat temporary and in any case not easy to find. What is the cover of the book, though, is in an entirely different arena. Those will still be looked at years from now, and will serve as a kind of record of my ability to get words on a piece of pop art and still have it do its job. Of my thirty books, almost all are pop works of some kind or the other, and three I'm itching to delete, I'm saving now for the pop alone. It's occurred to me to change the covers regularly and have a revolving door of covers such that all the books of a single series (e pluribus haiku) are spread out and quite random in terms of their pop covers. They are, as it is, a kind of record of my pop journey. But that is a kind of abuse of the zon's liberal policy of letting artists change their covers easily, which I don't want to upset really.
I've noticed lately an explosion of good artists, many of them impressionist, who have good Facebook pages and aggressive marketing strategies based on those pages. I don't really have a desire to do that, to move into an independent identity as pop art producer, but I still have this undeveloped side of me that yearns to be known as a pop artist. I no longer make calendars, but would like to do it again. These are all hazy bucket-list resolutions, but resolutions nevertheless.
1. Consider making a calendar again. Specifically, a Quaker Book Charity calendar.
2. A pop artist should have t-shirts.
3. Take a good hard look at all thirty book covers: these will go down as my legacy. Make them as good as possible. Some that need work are: CRTLI,HOTP, and AfB4 (these are acronyms, but you can guess or find them)
4. Explore other impressionist-making apps.
See you in a month or two, to see if I've made any progress!
Sunday, September 17, 2023
lately
I have to say, that although I am not having exhibits around town, or gathering up fame and notoreity like Banksy is, I am at least creating art regularly. Check this out if you doubt me. It's not much, it's not organized, but at least I'm cranking it out.
That's because I'm determined enough to keep creating that I put it on a schedule that is otherwise very full with writing. I need pop for my covers (see that Disney one? that will be a cover) but to make good covers I have to be in good practice, not only keeping an eye for what makes a good 6 X 9 or 6.25 X 10, but also evaluating how the cover will look when script is put in it. My titles sometimes change in the course of working with them, but they might change even according to the kind of space I have to put the words in.
Ideally I would organize this pop art and put it into exhibits - say, one for Disney, one for Illinois, one for anything else - and these would appear on my blog. This, as I've inferred, is not happening, or at least not happening well. Maybe what would be ideal would be if I were more like Banksy, and got in everyone's faces more readily. I noticed with joy the other day that a Banksy pop-art with Trump, Putin, and Jong-Eun got in my Facebook and I thought, that's clever. Somebody is getting himself out there. But it wasn't me; I'm still sitting here talking about it.
Some of the good pop art is related to the book of Quaker plays; I have Hoover, Nixon and Nayler so far but really this could be a whole collection. In addition I'm still creating a Cloud Quaker pop art every week here. Check it out. I like to keep it coming.
That's because I'm determined enough to keep creating that I put it on a schedule that is otherwise very full with writing. I need pop for my covers (see that Disney one? that will be a cover) but to make good covers I have to be in good practice, not only keeping an eye for what makes a good 6 X 9 or 6.25 X 10, but also evaluating how the cover will look when script is put in it. My titles sometimes change in the course of working with them, but they might change even according to the kind of space I have to put the words in.
Ideally I would organize this pop art and put it into exhibits - say, one for Disney, one for Illinois, one for anything else - and these would appear on my blog. This, as I've inferred, is not happening, or at least not happening well. Maybe what would be ideal would be if I were more like Banksy, and got in everyone's faces more readily. I noticed with joy the other day that a Banksy pop-art with Trump, Putin, and Jong-Eun got in my Facebook and I thought, that's clever. Somebody is getting himself out there. But it wasn't me; I'm still sitting here talking about it.
Some of the good pop art is related to the book of Quaker plays; I have Hoover, Nixon and Nayler so far but really this could be a whole collection. In addition I'm still creating a Cloud Quaker pop art every week here. Check it out. I like to keep it coming.
Sunday, February 12, 2023
Monday, October 24, 2022
I've got a secret that I've been dying to share, and there's no better place than on a blog that very few people read, for who wants to actually read about pop art? People want an exhibit, they want a big Marilyn in their face, they want a bold statement like those that Warhol was good at making. All on the surface. All in a single picture. All with the boldest colors one can imagine.
Here's my secret: I make book covers; that's my medium, and though I'm not great at it, I've found it to be a fascinating way to crank out pop art. First I have the book, of course. The book doesn't need to have all its copies have the same cover; a cover can last a few years, and then I can change it to another cover. In fact I can change that cover after I've sold only a single book. It doesn't seem to be against Amazon's policy and it doesn't even necessarily upset them all that much. If they feel inclined to make a few test copies or have a few sitting around to prepare them for orders, then of course they risk wasting those few as I move on to a different or better cover and they're stuck with the old ones. But I never hear about that. What their machinery tells me is that if I make a new one, they'll put it on there. That can be tomorrow or any day.
What that means is that theoretically, I can print as much pop art as I want. I can get all my pop art out there in the world, one book at a time, and with every bizarre bold pop-art creation someone will look at it and say, wow, that's a wild picture. That's a piece of work. That's like Andy Warhol.
What I'm working toward is to have every book, every cover, every iteration, be as special as an Andy Warhol work. I have twenty-seven books out now and many of them if not all of them have some kind of pop art on the cover. Sometimes the titles and author's name ruin it a little - if it looks too much like a standard book cover, I'm a little disappointed. I want it to be bold, striking, intense. I want them all to be like that. If one of them is not, I want to change it until it is.
The world of pop art requires someone to be the kind of hustler Andy Warhol was. I don't know if I have the kind of genius it took to take a Campbell's soup can and make millions off its image, which actually has some problems with copyright probably, but I do know that Warhol did not let copyright keep him from splashing images all around the world and becoming one of the most easily recognized artists of the modern era. He had a kind of genius that I admire and am following up on. My books will for the most part be full of haiku, but that's ok, you have to have something in a book, otherwise it's just blank pages with pop art on the cover. The haiku is part of the bargain. And you know the kind of thing that goes along with haiku: flowers, roads, monarch butterflies. Vistas of incredible beauty. Impressionism through computer-aided cartoonization.
In this pop art site, I keep my best secrets. In plain sight.
Here's my secret: I make book covers; that's my medium, and though I'm not great at it, I've found it to be a fascinating way to crank out pop art. First I have the book, of course. The book doesn't need to have all its copies have the same cover; a cover can last a few years, and then I can change it to another cover. In fact I can change that cover after I've sold only a single book. It doesn't seem to be against Amazon's policy and it doesn't even necessarily upset them all that much. If they feel inclined to make a few test copies or have a few sitting around to prepare them for orders, then of course they risk wasting those few as I move on to a different or better cover and they're stuck with the old ones. But I never hear about that. What their machinery tells me is that if I make a new one, they'll put it on there. That can be tomorrow or any day.
What that means is that theoretically, I can print as much pop art as I want. I can get all my pop art out there in the world, one book at a time, and with every bizarre bold pop-art creation someone will look at it and say, wow, that's a wild picture. That's a piece of work. That's like Andy Warhol.
What I'm working toward is to have every book, every cover, every iteration, be as special as an Andy Warhol work. I have twenty-seven books out now and many of them if not all of them have some kind of pop art on the cover. Sometimes the titles and author's name ruin it a little - if it looks too much like a standard book cover, I'm a little disappointed. I want it to be bold, striking, intense. I want them all to be like that. If one of them is not, I want to change it until it is.
The world of pop art requires someone to be the kind of hustler Andy Warhol was. I don't know if I have the kind of genius it took to take a Campbell's soup can and make millions off its image, which actually has some problems with copyright probably, but I do know that Warhol did not let copyright keep him from splashing images all around the world and becoming one of the most easily recognized artists of the modern era. He had a kind of genius that I admire and am following up on. My books will for the most part be full of haiku, but that's ok, you have to have something in a book, otherwise it's just blank pages with pop art on the cover. The haiku is part of the bargain. And you know the kind of thing that goes along with haiku: flowers, roads, monarch butterflies. Vistas of incredible beauty. Impressionism through computer-aided cartoonization.
In this pop art site, I keep my best secrets. In plain sight.
Monday, September 5, 2022
covers to die for
Nobody buys haiku; the market for any poetry whatsoever appears to be pretty small. When I buy one of my own, I shoot straight up in the ratings and become one of the best sellers ever. With a single book buy I can own the haiku ratings.
Of course I could get the "author's copy" where it only costs a couple bucks but they charge a couple more for shipping - they have to make back on the shipping what they don't make simply printing the book - but I'm too cheap to pay any shipping whatsoever. And besides, it comes out to about the same. You pay over the top, you get about a buck royalty and your ratings skyrocket. So when my ratings swoon I've taken to just buying my own.
And if I'm going to do that, then I'm going to have my own pop exhibit, by having pop covers that are essentially the best I can make them. I'm only at the beginning stages. I'm not sure I've mastered this art of covers. These books that have professionally made covers seem to have gold and silver embossed lettering on them or something like that, and mine are not quite like that yet. Also they tend to make the author's name really big like it's more of a draw than the book itself - I'm not sure if I'm ready for that either.
But the covers themselves are the new pop exhibit. It appears to be a book. But actually it's pop art, in your face.
Of course I could get the "author's copy" where it only costs a couple bucks but they charge a couple more for shipping - they have to make back on the shipping what they don't make simply printing the book - but I'm too cheap to pay any shipping whatsoever. And besides, it comes out to about the same. You pay over the top, you get about a buck royalty and your ratings skyrocket. So when my ratings swoon I've taken to just buying my own.
And if I'm going to do that, then I'm going to have my own pop exhibit, by having pop covers that are essentially the best I can make them. I'm only at the beginning stages. I'm not sure I've mastered this art of covers. These books that have professionally made covers seem to have gold and silver embossed lettering on them or something like that, and mine are not quite like that yet. Also they tend to make the author's name really big like it's more of a draw than the book itself - I'm not sure if I'm ready for that either.
But the covers themselves are the new pop exhibit. It appears to be a book. But actually it's pop art, in your face.
Wednesday, May 18, 2022
update
I'm in the doldrums with my pop art. I've been Kandinskying things - almost all my pop art over the last couple years has been Kandinskyed (sp?) photos - and it hasn't really run its course. I produce one for the Quakers every week. I produce book covers. That's about the run of my pop art these days.
On the topic of book covers, I've had trouble, actually, getting the inspiration to remake all the ones that need to be remade. I've remade a few - Kandinskyed, in most cases - but have a dozen to redo. I've had a few ideas but I'm having fewer hours to click together to pull them together.
Furthermore, I'm not happy about my pop gallerie, which doesn't really display the pop art the way I want it displayed. And, I don't have much time to redo it although I've had plenty of chances.
Life is just so bizarre. I'm going to take my phone out, and try to record more of it.
On the topic of book covers, I've had trouble, actually, getting the inspiration to remake all the ones that need to be remade. I've remade a few - Kandinskyed, in most cases - but have a dozen to redo. I've had a few ideas but I'm having fewer hours to click together to pull them together.
Furthermore, I'm not happy about my pop gallerie, which doesn't really display the pop art the way I want it displayed. And, I don't have much time to redo it although I've had plenty of chances.
Life is just so bizarre. I'm going to take my phone out, and try to record more of it.
Tuesday, October 19, 2021
Book Covers
A book cover can and should be a work of good pop art, put out into the world, published enjoyed by people. While you read a book, whether it takes you a day or a week, you have it out in your life, on the chair or bed, for everyone to see. It should grab their eyes and make an impression. I work on that. Some of mine are clearly better than others.
I am about to go through all my book covers and redo the ones I can. When I do, I will put my best pop art on them. In a general sense my goal is to use the best of pop art so that, of my thirty times two or so of covers, all are my best work. There are a few complications.
In general, since almost all my books are 6 X 9, all my covers are about that size. The biggest complication is that choosing to put the art on there without the title, subtitle, and author's name (because after all you can put that on the spine), is, I think, taking a chance. I have done that but have not been happy with the appearance. One author asked me why I left my own name off of Pile of Leaves: Stories of a Rake since I was the rake in question, and I had to admit, it was really for pop design reasons but not anything I'd really thought through carefully. I have one book, Comin' 'Round to Lovin' It, which even at this moment has no words on its title, although probably it should, and it even has a cool subtitle (23 short stories out of 99 billion served) which gives people a little chuckle. I have now swung around the other way to decide that books should have all three, title, subtitle, and author, on the cover, if at all possible, with whatever you put on the spine as a kind of bonus, which helps it when it's in its shelf, tucked away, not being read.
The question, then, to me, is, should the design lead your eyes to the words? Or should it whack you in the face and make you read the words separately? Does it help if the words are last (bottom right if possible) - or is it better if you get the words, or some of them, before you even look at the picture? Are smaller fonts more annoying in terms of interfering with the impression of the art, because you can't read them without effort? My questions here have more to do with strategy. I have a lot of covers to redo, and my last question is this: Do I need an overall brand/look to tie all thirty of them together? Or is it ok to have outlliers that really don't look like the rest?
I am about to go through all my book covers and redo the ones I can. When I do, I will put my best pop art on them. In a general sense my goal is to use the best of pop art so that, of my thirty times two or so of covers, all are my best work. There are a few complications.
In general, since almost all my books are 6 X 9, all my covers are about that size. The biggest complication is that choosing to put the art on there without the title, subtitle, and author's name (because after all you can put that on the spine), is, I think, taking a chance. I have done that but have not been happy with the appearance. One author asked me why I left my own name off of Pile of Leaves: Stories of a Rake since I was the rake in question, and I had to admit, it was really for pop design reasons but not anything I'd really thought through carefully. I have one book, Comin' 'Round to Lovin' It, which even at this moment has no words on its title, although probably it should, and it even has a cool subtitle (23 short stories out of 99 billion served) which gives people a little chuckle. I have now swung around the other way to decide that books should have all three, title, subtitle, and author, on the cover, if at all possible, with whatever you put on the spine as a kind of bonus, which helps it when it's in its shelf, tucked away, not being read.
The question, then, to me, is, should the design lead your eyes to the words? Or should it whack you in the face and make you read the words separately? Does it help if the words are last (bottom right if possible) - or is it better if you get the words, or some of them, before you even look at the picture? Are smaller fonts more annoying in terms of interfering with the impression of the art, because you can't read them without effort? My questions here have more to do with strategy. I have a lot of covers to redo, and my last question is this: Do I need an overall brand/look to tie all thirty of them together? Or is it ok to have outlliers that really don't look like the rest?
Saturday, September 18, 2021
Sunday, June 27, 2021
Saturday, May 15, 2021
Twitter era
I kind of feel like I'm in a new era with pop art. I've been doing pop art for a long time, mostly for fun, having trouble keeping up the blogs like the gallerie. So I have a kind of sloppy appearance (not happy with that blog) but am at least creating and producing.
But now it's the twitter era, and I've stepped up my game. I need lots of good pop art to dump on Twitter even though it's kind of an infinite hole. I've got my groove with the writer's community and, though they don't see everything I put there, at least I have plenty of it.
And, I've kept it coming. Come visit @ramblintom - it's me.
What happens is, there are a lot of writer's lifts. Everyone piles on with their book promos, me included. I get in one or two of them a day. I try to vary my presentation thus need a lot of pop art. It's actually fun. It doesn't work, in the sense of getting people to read my books. But it's fun cranking them out and putting them up there.
Someday I'll make an exhibit...
But now it's the twitter era, and I've stepped up my game. I need lots of good pop art to dump on Twitter even though it's kind of an infinite hole. I've got my groove with the writer's community and, though they don't see everything I put there, at least I have plenty of it.
And, I've kept it coming. Come visit @ramblintom - it's me.
What happens is, there are a lot of writer's lifts. Everyone piles on with their book promos, me included. I get in one or two of them a day. I try to vary my presentation thus need a lot of pop art. It's actually fun. It doesn't work, in the sense of getting people to read my books. But it's fun cranking them out and putting them up there.
Someday I'll make an exhibit...
Sunday, November 15, 2020
Saturday, November 14, 2020
Pop book
This page deals with my identity as a pop artist. I have been a pop artist for a long time, as you can see from the xerox-art pop productions in the post below this, but I am coming to a point where I'm beginning to think about that identity and wonder if I should do anything about it.
The present phase has lasted about a year, and could be described as Kandiskian impressionism. I have been taking pictures of mountain roads, and altering them in an impressionistic way, and I've been doing this mostly for the purpose of promoting Cloud Quakers. To see some of these Kandiskian impressionistic photos, go here and you'll get a kind of gallery of Quaker promotional pop.
But it's the big picture I've been mulling over. There was a posterization phase which was quite extensive (it's called cartoon on my present photo-altering program) and there have been other phases. In a time when I am changing computers, getting out of this one and putting things in another one, and in my wife's dropbox, it is time to do an overview.
And that brings up the possibility of a pop book. It is said that I should use Lulu for this, but I'm not sure if this would be best. I am also mulling over what shape it should be, or whether I even should do it.
Just to tell a quick story: My father was an excellent photogrpaher. He went through phases where he tried to sell iit, I've been told, but when I pushed him on the issue he was very ambivalent. I'll make you a book, I told him before he died. You should have a book of photography. Actually I still feel this way: he should have a book. Someone should document his incredible career in putting reality into beautiful design. ANd now, I seem to have inherited his life work - not so much a box of slides, but just an image, in my head, of his design ability and how it should be played out in book form. It's in my head; all the work is yet to be done. But I haven't done it. Why? Because of his ambivalence. It might be that he really didn't want fame or even a reputation as a photographer. And, as I satand on that cusp, I'm working on the same questions. Is it worth the work for something I'm ambivalent about getting in the first place?
I see now that on the #popart hashtag, Andy Warhol is back. Somebody is putting three or four posts a day on there, Marilyn, everything he does. They are reminding us, basically, that Warhol is still selling like cupcakes so to speak, and you can still buy as much as you want. Warhol in fact is the belwether (sp?) of the entire art world, I've heard, because he was so prolific and because his work fetches consistently good prices every time it becomes available. OK so I'm not a Warhol yet. But the only other person on that hashtag is Rauschenberg (actively promoting himself) and the market is wide open. I could do it; I could put my own pop up there. All that remains is fro me to do the work.
The present phase has lasted about a year, and could be described as Kandiskian impressionism. I have been taking pictures of mountain roads, and altering them in an impressionistic way, and I've been doing this mostly for the purpose of promoting Cloud Quakers. To see some of these Kandiskian impressionistic photos, go here and you'll get a kind of gallery of Quaker promotional pop.
But it's the big picture I've been mulling over. There was a posterization phase which was quite extensive (it's called cartoon on my present photo-altering program) and there have been other phases. In a time when I am changing computers, getting out of this one and putting things in another one, and in my wife's dropbox, it is time to do an overview.
And that brings up the possibility of a pop book. It is said that I should use Lulu for this, but I'm not sure if this would be best. I am also mulling over what shape it should be, or whether I even should do it.
Just to tell a quick story: My father was an excellent photogrpaher. He went through phases where he tried to sell iit, I've been told, but when I pushed him on the issue he was very ambivalent. I'll make you a book, I told him before he died. You should have a book of photography. Actually I still feel this way: he should have a book. Someone should document his incredible career in putting reality into beautiful design. ANd now, I seem to have inherited his life work - not so much a box of slides, but just an image, in my head, of his design ability and how it should be played out in book form. It's in my head; all the work is yet to be done. But I haven't done it. Why? Because of his ambivalence. It might be that he really didn't want fame or even a reputation as a photographer. And, as I satand on that cusp, I'm working on the same questions. Is it worth the work for something I'm ambivalent about getting in the first place?
I see now that on the #popart hashtag, Andy Warhol is back. Somebody is putting three or four posts a day on there, Marilyn, everything he does. They are reminding us, basically, that Warhol is still selling like cupcakes so to speak, and you can still buy as much as you want. Warhol in fact is the belwether (sp?) of the entire art world, I've heard, because he was so prolific and because his work fetches consistently good prices every time it becomes available. OK so I'm not a Warhol yet. But the only other person on that hashtag is Rauschenberg (actively promoting himself) and the market is wide open. I could do it; I could put my own pop up there. All that remains is fro me to do the work.
Wednesday, October 28, 2020
postcards from the edge
In the 1990's I was in a funk and was making these postcards from a xerox machine in my office. The people where I worked were uncomfortable with taking money for my personal use of the company xerox machine but they were ok with it if I made a fair trade, and brought in supplies that they didn't have to use, in return for about ten cents a copy to set them up. Their machine was not sensitive enough to show the tape as in the scanner I use now, you can see the tape and of course that is unfortunate. So I have a box of old postcards that look slightly better than these images, but that I have not used fully, have not sent anywhere.
1994-1997 were the years that my marriage fell apart. My wife for inexplicable reasons became violent and had to get out; ultimately I split it up. I couldn't bring my children up in a war zone. But her unhappiness was probably both of our faults or at least something I didn't know how to do anything about. Nowadays I look back at that time and say, no wonder I had an edge when I got to work.
Before Illinois (1994), I had lived in Kansas, and that's where I'd started xerox art. It's actually a whole phase of my pop art production. Nowadays, I'm into Kandiskied impressionism, but then, this was it: black and white, xeroxed, intended for the snail mails.
1994-1997 were the years that my marriage fell apart. My wife for inexplicable reasons became violent and had to get out; ultimately I split it up. I couldn't bring my children up in a war zone. But her unhappiness was probably both of our faults or at least something I didn't know how to do anything about. Nowadays I look back at that time and say, no wonder I had an edge when I got to work.
Before Illinois (1994), I had lived in Kansas, and that's where I'd started xerox art. It's actually a whole phase of my pop art production. Nowadays, I'm into Kandiskied impressionism, but then, this was it: black and white, xeroxed, intended for the snail mails.
Thursday, July 2, 2020
Quaker pop
Most of the pop I do these days is for the Quakers. In fact I will show it to you. Go to the Cloud Quakers site, click on photos, and there you have it, my production for the last month or so. It's kind of my role in Quakerdom. I'm the Andy Warhol of Quakerism.
For a while I took just any old picture, and made it into pop. It was fun, because there are so many pictures out there. Some people asked me if they could have them, though, and I didn't know what to say. Finally I said no, I can use these pictures, since I'm not making money off of them, and since I've doctored them, but I can't give them away, because they aren't mine. Now I do pop only (or almost only) on my own photos. And I keep them coming.
The problem is, I'm locked down, and the lockdown isn't going away. In fact we are feeling more trapped. For a while we let our kids run around town, relating to other kids, doing their thing, but they have no concept. To them, the idea of a mask or social distancing is kind of a joke, imposed on them by grownups with their twisted fears. But anyway here I am, I have a phone, I take pictures of the country, and the road into town, and I make pop out of them.
Not that I expect anyone to notice.
Now my pop art site, which I tell you about a lot, is rolling right along. I put stuff on it whenever I can. Lately I was flirting with another demonstration exhibit, as you can see, but I backed off. There wasn't enough of it. Going back to the Quakers, you can see I've drifted there too.
So, in pop, I have several problems. One, I have to keep cranking out Quaker pop, but don't quite know what to do (I would like to keep them original too). Two, I don't really like the "skin" of my pop blog; it's not displaying up to my standards. And, it has the only link there is to this one, but it's hidden. So it keeps people away from stuff I say about pop.
The only reason I mention it is, I'm looking hard at my blogs these days. Might do some blog marketing.
For a while I took just any old picture, and made it into pop. It was fun, because there are so many pictures out there. Some people asked me if they could have them, though, and I didn't know what to say. Finally I said no, I can use these pictures, since I'm not making money off of them, and since I've doctored them, but I can't give them away, because they aren't mine. Now I do pop only (or almost only) on my own photos. And I keep them coming.
The problem is, I'm locked down, and the lockdown isn't going away. In fact we are feeling more trapped. For a while we let our kids run around town, relating to other kids, doing their thing, but they have no concept. To them, the idea of a mask or social distancing is kind of a joke, imposed on them by grownups with their twisted fears. But anyway here I am, I have a phone, I take pictures of the country, and the road into town, and I make pop out of them.
Not that I expect anyone to notice.
Now my pop art site, which I tell you about a lot, is rolling right along. I put stuff on it whenever I can. Lately I was flirting with another demonstration exhibit, as you can see, but I backed off. There wasn't enough of it. Going back to the Quakers, you can see I've drifted there too.
So, in pop, I have several problems. One, I have to keep cranking out Quaker pop, but don't quite know what to do (I would like to keep them original too). Two, I don't really like the "skin" of my pop blog; it's not displaying up to my standards. And, it has the only link there is to this one, but it's hidden. So it keeps people away from stuff I say about pop.
The only reason I mention it is, I'm looking hard at my blogs these days. Might do some blog marketing.
Wednesday, June 3, 2020
The death of Christo
The Atlantic. (2020, June 1). Photos: The Works of Christo https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2020/06/photos-works-of-christo/612484/.
OK I'll admit it. I haven't been posting much here. I am a pop artist. I have a fairly active rate of production, but I don't put it all on my pop site because I don't really like how the blog presents it. I put a lot more on Facebook, or on Twitter.
This site is about my awareness of being a pop artist. In that regard, a guy like Christo is my hero. I'm not crazy about everything he does. But he went for the big potato, and he got it. The world is aware of him. He did art on a grand scale.
It was kind of sad, how it all ended. He had a great building in SoHo. Everyone stopped going out. As a place to be trapped, there was probably no better place, for him. But he reminded me of all my friends in New York. They live in the cosmopolitan center of the world, with fabulous interesting people everywhere, and they can't go out, can't talk to people.
I'm out in the country in a place where it hadn't rained for three months until just briefly yesterday. Now everything smells great and there's this cool air as the grasses breathe and everything comes alive. This by the way is normal, as far as I can tell; it's not extreme drought, it's just the dry season. We have one more month of dry season. The "monsoon" starts in July.
I've got a fascination with an old collection of Barbie dolls that are painted up, tattoes, messy. Their hair has never been combed. I want to line them up with an eight ball and with an old Campbell's soup-can cup.
That's a report; that's what I'm up to. I'll keep you posted.
OK I'll admit it. I haven't been posting much here. I am a pop artist. I have a fairly active rate of production, but I don't put it all on my pop site because I don't really like how the blog presents it. I put a lot more on Facebook, or on Twitter.
This site is about my awareness of being a pop artist. In that regard, a guy like Christo is my hero. I'm not crazy about everything he does. But he went for the big potato, and he got it. The world is aware of him. He did art on a grand scale.
It was kind of sad, how it all ended. He had a great building in SoHo. Everyone stopped going out. As a place to be trapped, there was probably no better place, for him. But he reminded me of all my friends in New York. They live in the cosmopolitan center of the world, with fabulous interesting people everywhere, and they can't go out, can't talk to people.
I'm out in the country in a place where it hadn't rained for three months until just briefly yesterday. Now everything smells great and there's this cool air as the grasses breathe and everything comes alive. This by the way is normal, as far as I can tell; it's not extreme drought, it's just the dry season. We have one more month of dry season. The "monsoon" starts in July.
I've got a fascination with an old collection of Barbie dolls that are painted up, tattoes, messy. Their hair has never been combed. I want to line them up with an eight ball and with an old Campbell's soup-can cup.
That's a report; that's what I'm up to. I'll keep you posted.
Monday, December 28, 2015
imageshack disaster II
I like to look at it this way: I am not a wealthy artist, I'm more like a street artist. I prefer not to write on other people's buildings, but I write on websites wherever I can find them, and I take my pictures, store them as I can, and use them with my writing. Over time, I've become better at posterizing, or sharpening, or altering photos, but mostly I do it for effect and don't really consider myself a professional.
Ah but one of the problems associated with my style, pop art as a hobby, is that a site like imageshack can offer you indefinite free storage of photos, and then simply retract the offer. Who can blame them? I wouldn't offer anyone free storage of photos indefinitely, and have trouble even with the junk my kids store on my computer. But I also have to admit, I enjoyed having all those photos out where I could see them anytime I wanted.
I have a curious relationship with flickr: some of my best photos are there, but they stopped after a hundred or so, and I didn't want to compound the dependence with false or manufactured e-mails (I actually have a few anyway) - so my flickr site, I've left as it is. But I had three imageshack sites, and spent the holidays taking back the photos. Putting them in a dropbox. As a yuppie, and a professional at that, I do have a dropbox. Actually it's my wife's. But it doesn't seem to mind all these photos.
I'm beginning to adopt Andy Warhol's philosophy, or at least two of them. First, I am what I appear to be, I'm not hiding anything or giving you a subtle, hidden message. Second, everything I've got, it's out where you can see it. It's right in front of you. I plan to be out there, everywhere, recognizable. That's my modus operandi.
But, it's come down to a number of blogger ports; I don't do static webpages very easily anymore. The SIU personal webpage server blithely made it so you had to use dreamweaver to use it, as all webpages had to be encrypted, so I'm no longer able to change or update my pages there. Same with TTU, although I have a slightly better chance of taking lessons, learning dreamweaver, and getting back on my feet here. That's a long-range plan, though. for the moment, I have a number of blogger sites, and people seem to visit them regularly, but online click-through web traffic doesn't seem to be a lucrative trade. I keep up my pr campaign; I do the best I can. But what I need are bold images, and billboards on the major streets of major cities. That campaign, I guess, will be next.
Ah but one of the problems associated with my style, pop art as a hobby, is that a site like imageshack can offer you indefinite free storage of photos, and then simply retract the offer. Who can blame them? I wouldn't offer anyone free storage of photos indefinitely, and have trouble even with the junk my kids store on my computer. But I also have to admit, I enjoyed having all those photos out where I could see them anytime I wanted.
I have a curious relationship with flickr: some of my best photos are there, but they stopped after a hundred or so, and I didn't want to compound the dependence with false or manufactured e-mails (I actually have a few anyway) - so my flickr site, I've left as it is. But I had three imageshack sites, and spent the holidays taking back the photos. Putting them in a dropbox. As a yuppie, and a professional at that, I do have a dropbox. Actually it's my wife's. But it doesn't seem to mind all these photos.
I'm beginning to adopt Andy Warhol's philosophy, or at least two of them. First, I am what I appear to be, I'm not hiding anything or giving you a subtle, hidden message. Second, everything I've got, it's out where you can see it. It's right in front of you. I plan to be out there, everywhere, recognizable. That's my modus operandi.
But, it's come down to a number of blogger ports; I don't do static webpages very easily anymore. The SIU personal webpage server blithely made it so you had to use dreamweaver to use it, as all webpages had to be encrypted, so I'm no longer able to change or update my pages there. Same with TTU, although I have a slightly better chance of taking lessons, learning dreamweaver, and getting back on my feet here. That's a long-range plan, though. for the moment, I have a number of blogger sites, and people seem to visit them regularly, but online click-through web traffic doesn't seem to be a lucrative trade. I keep up my pr campaign; I do the best I can. But what I need are bold images, and billboards on the major streets of major cities. That campaign, I guess, will be next.
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