posted by Ian Summers on June 18th, 2009
Check our Ryszard Horowitz’s recent book.
He is one of the greats!
posted by Ian Summers on May 27th, 2009
Shortly after the previous post about William Kentridge I received a very generous offer and kind words from George Scharoun, New Media Specialist at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston where William Kentridge recently spoke. Here are three interesting videos posted with his permission. Thanks George.
posted by Ian Summers on May 27th, 2009
This post is for all of you who are interested in storytelling. These unique personal stories dreamed and drawn and erased and re-drawn for animation are amazing. Kentridge’s stories are certainly multimedia pieces. There are many other examples on You Tube. Google William Kentridge. I am very interested in hearing what you think.
History of the Main Complaint (1996)
For a synopsis of the film click here.
Weighing… And Wanting (1997)
Artist’s statement:
“I am interested in a political art, that is to say an art of ambiguity, contradiction, uncompleted gestures and uncertain ending - an art (and a politics) in which optimism is kept in check, and nihilism at bay.”
On living a lifetime in Johannesburg: “I have never been able to escape Johannesburg, and in the end, all my work is rooted in this rather desperate provincial city. I have never tried to make illustrations of apartheid, but the drawings and the films are certainly spawned by, and feed off, the brutalised society left in its wake.”
On his drawings: “The drawings don’t start with ‘a beautiful mark’. It has to be a mark of something out there in the world. It doesn’t have to be an accurate drawing, but it has to stand for an observation, not something that is abstract, like an emotion.”
Quotations from William Kentridge by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev (1998), Societé des Expositions du Palais de Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles.
posted by Ian Summers on May 6th, 2009
A discussion about consistency/inconsistency came up in one of my Think Tank Team Teleconferences about consistency in marketing. Generally creators will make sales calls when they are frightened about their telephone not ringing. Many see marketing as an onerous chore or even a necessary evil, yet the consensus was that it is a necessary activity to grow a business. Marketing demands a steady flow of attention and energy.
Fear is an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real. What is the false evidence that prevents you from being consistent in your marketing? Is it possible to be creative and consistent or is creating photographs and the marketing of photography two totally separate behaviors. On the other hand, it is vital for creators to be consistent about being inconsistent in order to bring something unique into being.
You cannot perform in a manner inconsistent with the way you see yourself.
Zig Ziglar
Ziglar’s statement is worthy of contemplation. Think about your inconsistent behaviors.
In what ways are they a reflection of how you see yourself.
Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
Oscar Wilde
Growing creatively demands making mistakes.
If you strive for consistency when you are creating, you are likely to repeat and imitate yourself.
When is inconsistency your ally?
There are those who would misteach us that to stick in a rut is consistency - and a virtue;
and that to climb out of the rut is inconsistency - and a vice.
Mark Twain
There is the cry from some successful people that if it is not broke, don’t break it.
This demands being consistent. Doing the same thing, no matter what the results may be.
Eventually this behavior will lead to redundency, repetition, and imitation.
I choose to live my life as a creator with the antithesis of that adage:
If it ain’t broke, break it!
Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life.
The only completely consistent people are dead.
Aldous Huxley
But wait a minute Professor Huxley, there are some actions that require consistency and others that require inconsistency.
Almost all successful marketers will tell you they are disciplined about their outreach.
Almost all successful creators will tell you that one of the greatest components of their work entails taking risks.
They are bring inconsistent consistently.
To learn more about how to work with me call today.
I will tell you about individual coaching and group teleconferences.
The first coaching session is free.
610-438-5707
posted by Ian Summers on April 21st, 2009
I have been a subscriber to The Daily Dose for about a month.
There is always something included to hold my interest and to help keep me current.
You may recall my Heartstorming articles about graphic novels or Zak Smith’s fully illustrated version of Gravity’s Rainbow.
The following is an excerpt from this morning’s Daily Dose.
The Daily Dose
Presented by Flavorpill
Flavorpill’s Daily Dose is a jolt of cultural inspiration, delivered fresh to your inbox every weekday morning to help jump-start your day.
Our mission is simple: to provide a quick look at what’s new in music, print, art, film, and online,
by offering worthwhile culture to explore right from your screen.
Britten & Brülightly
Painting each page of a graphic-novel noir
Hannah Berry’s debut graphic novel, Britten & Brülightly is enough
to turn any residual comic-phobes into aficionados of the medium.
It’s existentialist noir. The story of world-weary private investigator Fernández Britten
and his unconventional partner Brülightly
has the philosophical wit of Bill Watterson and the whodunit chops of Raymond Chandler.
Berry strikes a pitch-perfect tone. When Britten is hired by Charlotte Moughton, the beautiful fiancée of an apparent suicide victim
, the detective is thrust into a comically sinister world of murder and revenge.
Set in a perpetually rain-soaked quasi-London, the dark and often grotesque characters are stylized to fit the story’s coy-yet-macabre tone.
The artwork was painstakingly painted. Berry, a graduate of Brighton University’s illustration program,
spent more than two years hand-painting each panel of the story.
Read a recent interview with Berry, check out The Oregonian’s review with sample illustrations, and buy the book.
– Chelsea Bauch
If you want cultural events, head over to Flavorpill.
For an up-to-the-minute culture fix, check out Flavorwire.
posted by Ian Summers on March 6th, 2009
Including three paintings by Ian Summers
Death Confused
42″ X 36″
Mixed Media on Tar Paper
Copyright 2009 Ian Summers
Gallery Aferro
73 Market St Newark NJ 07102
www.aferro.org
Curated by Evonne M. Davis
March 21 - May 16, 2009
Opening Reception March 21, 7-10 PM
Tabula Rasa (’ täbyoŏlə ˈräsə; ˈräzə) refers to an absence of preconceived ideas or predetermined goals; a clean slate. The phrase carries baggage from belief systems in which the human mind at birth is viewed as having no innate ideas. Denying what is obvious is praticed as a gesture of resistance by some of the artists, most or all of whom are affected, however indirectly, by the notions derived from existentialism and the nothingness of existence, ennui. Inspired curatorially by the concept of residual information that persists after erasure, the exhibition is one of several to date by Evonne M. Davis concerning the nature of knowing, learning and unlearning.
ORIGIN Latin, literally ’scraped tablet,’ denoting a tablet with the writing erased.
Artists: Dave Beck, Katrina Bello, Michael Davies, Brian DeLevie, Gary Duehr, Maria Emilov, Jonathan Franco, Brian Gustafon, Erik Hanson, Emily Henretta, Casey Lynch, Carol Petino, Kara Rooney, Ryan Schroeder, Joshua Schwebel, Travis LeRoy Southworth, Ian Summers, Alexis West
Please Visit http://iansummersartwork.com
posted by Ian Summers on February 23rd, 2009
Free webinar
Focused Forum:
An Experimental Webinar with Ian Summers
Date: Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Time: 3:00 PM PST / 6:00 PM EST
Duration: 1 hour
Host: Ian Summers
Register here
Are you in for something different?
There were lots of questions at the conclusion of each of Ian’s liveBook’s webinars and the format made it challenging for live Q & A. So… we decided to try something new, where most of the webinar hour will be about your questions. Here is how it will work. Ian will announce a topic a couple of weeks prior to the webinar. You are encouraged to send him (iansummers@heartstorming.com) your questions around that topic no later than three days prior to the presentation date. Ian will open each webinar with a ten-minute presentation. He will focus on a selection of your submitted questions for the rest of the meeting and will take additional questions and observations via the webinar’s chat tool. That’s why we call it a Focused Forum.
Focused Forum Topic This Month:
Networking: A Powerful Tool in This Economy
The more people who know about you, your talents and your abilities, the more easily you will attract the opportunities, assignments, resources, people, ideas, money and results that you really want!
Be a Resource: Put the people in your network in touch with each other. The value you offer to the other person is the network you bring to the relationship. This creates a much strong positive impression.
Host your own Network: Start your own group. I have a client in Phoenix who hosts salons for creators from a variety of fields and backgrounds every month. There are seats for only 12 people who clamor to register because it is so valuable and lots of fun. It also provides an opportunity for each person to network.
Rep Darwin Bahm was the master of this kind of networking. He would invite art directors to join him for dinner and a basketball game. It was a great way to meet the people Bahm represented along with a few other art directors. Why not break bread?
Ian Summers’ liveBooks Webinar Archives
Missed the first three seminars? Go to the liveBooks Webinar archive to find my past multi-media presentations. You can watch and listen at your leisure.
posted by Ian Summers on February 23rd, 2009
This link was referred by Mark Gilmore. Thanks. Mark. Thanks TED.
Elizabeth Gilbert faced down a premidlife crisis by doing what we all secretly dream of – running off for a year. Her travels through Italy, India and Indonesia resulted in the mega-bestselling and deeply beloved memoir Eat, Pray, Love, about her process of finding herself by leaving home.
She’s a longtime magazine writer – covering music and politics for Spin and GQ – as well as a novelist and short-story writer. Her books include the story collection Pilgrims, the novel Stern Men (about lobster fishermen in Maine) and a biography of the woodsman Eustace Conway, called The Last American Man. Her work has been the basis for one movie so far (Coyote Ugly, based on her own memoir, in this magazine article, of working at the famously raunchy bar), and now it looks as if Eat, Pray, Love is on the same track, with the part of Gilbert reportedly to be played by Julia Roberts. Not bad for a year off.
Gilbert also owns and runs the import shop Two Buttons in Frenchtown, New Jersey.
posted by Ian Summers on February 21st, 2009
This stimulator helps people remember their past. It frees up a plethora of forgotten emotions. It is also useful in giving direction to your actors or models. Give them what you know about your character and ask them to go back and create the characters past using this method. Or use it yourself while creating characters for lifestyle images. Begin at the age of five and continue into your teens. Start by saying, “I’m five years old, and I…” filling in the blanks from that age until you run dry and cannot remember anything else. Then move on to the next age. Stay in the present tense: “I am telling a joke” not “I told a joke.” The following is an edited transcript from my own exercise:
I am five years old and I am sitting on the front porch. I am surrounded by comicbooks, coloring books and crayons. I am lost in a fantasy world. It is Sunday and I am waiting for the relatives to arrive. I hope they bring me presents. I am filled with anticipation…
I am five years old and I am in kindergarten. My teacher’s name is Miss Ada. She is fat. She likes to hug me. I love her. She asks me to tell her a joke. I tell her the one about what do you get when you goose a ghost. She makes me tell it to the other teachers. I make them laugh. I feel good. I am five years old and my Great-Grand Father dies. The firemen carry him out of the house. I am scared. I don’t want him to go. He is gray. I am scared. I want him to stay alive..
I am five years old and I hear doors slamming. I want to disappear… I am five years old and we are expecting another baby. I am confused… I am five years old and I can hear my Grandmother’s footsteps upstairs. I wonder what she is doing. She’s getting ready to make me breakfast. I am angry. She won’t let me have a dog. I am sad…
I am five years old and am waiting for the wooden station wagon to pick me up. I go to Camp Bell. I don’t like it there. They want me to play games. I want to read. I feel left out… I am five years old and my Grandmother takes me to see Bambi. I am scared. I am crying. A news reel comes on and it’s about the war. I have bad dreams about it…
I am six years old and I am waiting for Mommy to come home from the hospital. I have a new brother. I am a man now. I don’t want to be. I have to be extra good. I have to help around the house. Dust the woodwork. I am lonely… I am six years old and the war is over. There are sirens and everyone is drunk. My baby brother is crying. I am outside. I am riding on my tricycle. It is red and has a chain. I am going very fast. I fall off and skin my knees. I am crying. I can’t get anyone to notice. I am invisible…
I am six years old and want to be an artist when I grow up. I love to draw comic books. I can read big books too. I am the best reader in my class. Mrs. Nichols lets me read to the class. I am important… I am six years old and I have dog. He has floppy ears. His name is Puddy. I love him… I am six years old and they take Puddy away. I don’t know why. They lie to me. I am sad. I am crying….
posted by Ian Summers on February 18th, 2009
David Schmidt is a longtime Heartstormer from AZ. I presented a two day group creativity workshop that turned out to include only men. It must be ten years ago. The group has continued to meet in some form or another over the years. He sent me the following email which touches me deeply. I pass this along in the spirit of give-away. Thanks David.
Hey Ian-
Good to hear from you. I am thinking of buying a pony and a blanket. Blue on one side and pink on the other and heading down to the local parks on Saturday afternoons. The pony will double as a lawnmower. I still have not not figured out the “road apples” issue!
Just kidding of course. I have been learning to reinvent myself just like every one else. Using the web a lot and being a little more forgiving with rights and usage. Not stupid but cautious.
I am not sure why I am passing this along but I have young kids now and I have started to think a little more about the future. I did a men’s group with Doug Crouch, Rick Gayle and a few more participants from our original workshop way back when. Anyway, one of our exercises was to write our own obit. We never did finish it off but I did start think about what others would say about me at my funeral. “He took really pretty pictures” was not going to cut it for me and that bullshit that so many photographers use about capturing somebody’s soul makes me gag.
Of all the strange things that has kept me going is I started a “Pennies For Peace” program in my kids school. It is based on the book “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson.
Go to http://www.penniesforpeace.org/
Anyway it has gotten me more excited about the world than photography has in quite a while. Just thought I would pass that info along in case anyone else on your list has been struggling. Funny thing is, it has gotten me more excited about photography again as well.
Feel free to pass this along if you think it will help.
Asalaam-o-Alaikum (Peace be with you)
David Schmidt
What are you feeling right now? You have all heard of this exercise, but have you ever done it? What would it say in your obit? How will you make a difference? Post your response now while it is fresh in your mind as a comment.
