In a world torn by political, ethnic and religious conflict, only art has the power to unify, inspire, elevate, and heal. Our institutions make claims on our attitudes and loyalty; it is intrinsic in their nature to direct our energies towards fulfilling their collective goals. They are self-perpetuating. By limiting our perspective, they often divide us from each other. At the extreme, they may even split us from our deepest and most authentic selves. Though serving in many cases, a positive purpose, institutions are agenda-driven. Thus they may steer us away from self-knowledge and personal responsibility when emphasis on image, hierarchy, dogma or power, overrides more constructive human concerns.

Art, on the other hand, both the making and the viewing of it, encourages us to view the world in new ways, as well as to look into ourselves. A world without art would be intellectually and spiritually barren. Imagination makes all things possible, and art is the most profound outgrowth of the human imagination that is not subservient to external purposes (though of course, there are exceptions). Therefore, even in its all its confusing flux and diversity, art is perhaps the “purest” phenomenon among human endeavors.

On a personal level, the richness and mystery of life have intrigued me since I was a child living in rural Pennsylvania. I reveled in the sensuous beauty of forests and rolling hills. Read the rest of this entry »

In case you haven’t heard, America is on the cusp of a new economic era, this in spite of the previous Administration’s ridiculous-in-retrospect reassurances that “the fundamentals of the economy are sound.” The painful truth is that economy is in the toilet and the Mother of All Flushes is in the process of playing out. America has been living on borrowed money for too many decades, and in recent years when borrowed money simply wasn’t enough, incomprehensibly insatiable Wall Street plutocrats (with assistance from our trusted politicians) legislated themselves ditties like an increase in margin buying for investment banks from 12-1 to 40-1 (each $1 you put up gets you $40 in chips), sold millions of mortgages to people who couldn’t possibly afford them, used many of those worthless mortgages as collateral for speculative shenanigans, and invented arcane unregulated “derivatives” like Credit Default Swaps to trump themselves up even more mountains of imaginary money. Well, we’re in the process of discovering that imaginary money can’t pay bills, and now that the blush is off the flimflam, we’re lapsing into a shocked state of realization that all we’re worth a lot less than we thought we were.

How does this sad news shake out in artland? On the buy side, less money and tougher credit means that discretionary capital (and the ability to access capital in general) is shrinking. Read the rest of this entry »

If you are interested in movie making tips, there is a good chance that you have a lot of drive and ambition to make your production the best out there. However, when you are getting started, you’ll find that there are a lot of things that you can keep in mind, and if you are at a point where you are thinking about getting started, there are some facts that you should remember. For many people who don\’t have a lot of backing or might be doing this in an amateur fashion, make sure that you think things through!

1.Watch lots of movies.
No matter what your chosen genre is, make sure that you watch plenty of it. Even if you are planning something totally new, take a look at similar examples of what you are trying to do. As many people will tell you, you need to know the rules before you can break them, so have a thorough understanding of the medium that you will be working on.

2.Think about your movie budget Read the rest of this entry »

Cartoons are best illustrated in rough sketch format using your best “free hand” style you can generate.

The funniest cartoons are those created on a spontaneous basis and illustrated as fast as possible. This way you put a better emphasis on what you feel you want to convey in your image.

Cartooning is in bred and is intuitive. Cartoonists are born….not created. So many times it’s been chosen as a “career choice” by those who feel they can compete with those being published.
In all honesty and in no uncertain terms can cartooning be taken lightly. It takes years of practice, hours upon hours of devotion and time spent sketching, using various types of pens and ink pens and cartridge pens to find the right tool in order for the “artist” to express himself.

Many cartoonists never find the right tool, the pen they are most comfortable with. Some cartooning professionals will try brushes like a camel hair brush….good for making bolder lines. Other artists use “crowquill” pens or the type of pen tip that is required to dip into an inkwell or bottle of ink. Some cartoon artists use markers or pens which embellish in indelible (non erasable) ink. Read the rest of this entry »