Swing away Merrill. Merrill... swing away.
08/26/2010 01:57 pm
In a move that I will inevitably regret, I have added a comments system to my images. Yep, now you can tell me exactly what you think of my work.
Please be kind. I welcome constructive criticism. In fact, I generally prefer that over gushy comments. However, outright meanness will not be accepted. All comments must be approved by me before they will appear on the site. If I feel that your comment is rude, profane, or otherwise mean, it will not be approved.
Tell me what you think, just be polite about it. If I don't get to your comment and approve it immediately, don't get all bent out of shape. I might actually be busy with something and will get to the comments as soon as I can.
If you want to ask me a question about purchasing a piece, or other questions that do not directly pertain to an image, then please use my contact form instead.
Ok. I'm ready. Swing away Merrill. Merrill... swing away.
~Mattie
Even non-Flash Friendlier!
08/25/2010 01:09 pm
Woot! Yay, me! I have modified the BrainMaps script (that I'm using to mimic Zoomify on the iPhone and iPad) to respond to gestures. Touch and drag an image on iPhone/iPad to scroll across an image. Pinch/unpinch to zoom in and out.
So, here's a toast to *finally* being iPhone and iPad friendly!
Ok. I'm done patting myself on the back.
~Mattie
Non-Flash Friendly!
08/23/2010 02:48 pm
I'm happy to announce that as of today, this site is officially iPhone/iTouch/iPad friendly. Well, more friendly than it was.
Until now, the gallery collections required that you have the Flash plugin to view the images in each collection. I have been searching for a non-flash solution. What I have found is not perfect, but comes very close. It will allow browsers that do not have the Flash plugin to view the images, as long as the browser is allowing javascript.
Since my pieces generally range between 50 to 200 megapixels, I cannot display them outright. To date, I know of no solution that does not require javascript and/or Flash.
This javascript solution is not perfect. There are some minor bugs that need to be worked out, and it currently requires a second click to get to the non-flash page for each image.
I am open to ideas/suggestions for alternative solutions. If you know of one, please let me know!!
ascension of man, part 6
I have also loaded up the next in my ascension of man series. This one contains the phrases "I LOVE YOU" and "I HATE YOU" in a number of languages.
I kept the composition a little more simple on this piece. I also am leaving the piece a bit vague. I don't want to skew your impression of the painting, or plant any seeds that might affect the way you view the piece. I want you to come up with your own interpretation of what it means and what the figures are doing.
I would love to hear your comments and interpretations - just hop on over to the image on my Flickr account and leave me a comment.
Till next time...
~Mattie
Food Additives
08/18/2010 02:14 pm
I eat really well. Compared to most people in this country - heck, in the world - I have a pretty enviable diet. My intake of processed foods is lower than the average. Most of my meats are grilled. I usually eat almost an equal amount of veggies to meat.
Even so, when I began research for my next piece in the ascension of man series, I had no idea how bad things are.
First, it's worth noting that my research is not scientific. I do not have any real connections to the food industry. I just know how to research things online. I also know enough to realize that not everything I read online can be trusted. So, I search through *tons* of websites. I look for indicators to give me an idea of how trustworthy a site really is - always knowing that there is a chance that a site is completely wrong.
With that in mind, I spent a much larger amount of time researching for this piece than I normally do. What I found was disturbing on a level I could not have anticipated.
People, you are in danger. Your *children* are in danger. There are some seriously frightening chemicals that are being legally added to our foods and food containers/packaging. There are items that are so disgusting as to make me wonder what kind of F'ed up person would ever think to add them to food!
I'm not going to go into too much detail. If you want to know more, you should do yourself, and your family, a favor and do some research yourself. I can say that I will NEVER again eat any raspberry flavored candy - or anything else raspberry flavored, other than fresh, unadulterated, raspberries.
This is scary stuff, and it's happening with our tacit approval.
~M
And it continues...
08/15/2010 11:09 am
My ascension of man series, that is. Yesterday, I published part 4. What did I tackle for the topic this time? Pharmaceuticals. This image contains the names of 4,329 drugs that we put in, or on, our bodies.
This piece took around 6+ hours to complete - from the initial research for the medications, to pairing it down by removing duplicates and as many company names as I could, to the final brush stroke. Add another hour, or so, for the exporting and uploading of the files for the web.
I'm extremely happy with the progress of this series & may well continue to produce more. It all depends on when/if I come up with another topic that feels right. I'm also happy with the initial reception these pieces (this one in particular) has been getting over on Flickr.
What should I go and do next? Hmm....
~Mattie
Just keep swimming...
08/06/2010 04:47 pm
Hey, gang!
I've taken off this week due to the realization that I'm a year closer to death! Ha! I never take time off for me, so I thought that it would be a good birthday present to myself.
It does not mean that I've been idle, though. I have completed two more paintings - ok, one was done and loaded a little while back, but I have not posted about it.
the ascension of man, part 2
Second in my ascension of man set. This piece uses a little more than 1800 words, collected from about 31 days (the end of June 2010 through the end of July 2010) of Twitter trends and Google Trends/Hot Topics. I wrote my own algorithm to sort and count the words, remove common words (at, the, of, etc) and lay them out. The relative size of each word is directly related to how often the word was used in both Google and Twitter trends.
the ascension of man, part 3
I wanted to focus on belief - from organized religions to cults. While working on this piece, my thoughts were on the similarities and disparities of all beliefs, as well as the duplicity/hypocrisy of beliefs, or to be more accurate, the duplicity and hypocrisy of the believers.
That's all for now. How you're staying cool in this August heat!
~Mattie
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