Dreaming Series - Storm

The first of the Dreaming Series. Interesting as I am not really done with the Whimsy Series yet, but no matter... this one is done!

A bit different as some of the elements are painted in a more photo-realistic way, and the overall style is stronger - stronger brush strokes, thicker 'paint' daubs.

My daughter is the inspiration behind this one. First with dreaming, then with the calmer, billowy side and an accented storm coming. That is what being 16 seems to be all about!

The Death of Capitalism…

Is occurring much more quickly than I ever would have thought. Uninformed voter anger toward a single group (Wall Street) has been stirred up by the current administration and used as an excuse to dismantle the remaining shreds of competitive advantage and creativity in America.

Do the masses not understand that ‘safety and soundness’ is a ploy to garner support for the de facto nationalization of our financial services institutions?

Should financial institutions have compensation models that outline personal performance rewards for employees based on consideration of risk in equal measure as short-term profits? Of course. Should regulatory authorities be able to outline this objective as guidance? Absolutely. But do we believe that the government is best positioned to step into the workings of a private company and be prescriptive about how to accomplish these goals? This doesn’t feel right under a capitalistic structure.

It is a step toward the demise of capitalism when the government can decide how much an American can make in a particular field. This is a blow against talent attraction. Will the best and brightest want to be in financial services anymore?

And after banking, who’s next? The medical industry is already on the run over the threat of socialized medicine. How will this affect the talent pool of future doctors? If only a small percentage of the population has a particular talent, shouldn’t those people be compensated accordingly? Capitalism rewards scarcity, socialism rewards mediocrity.

And as we strangle the golden goose, let’s wrap ourselves in the warm blanket of isolationism while we’re at it. Punitive international tax laws may bring in a few extra dollars in tax revenue, but will destroy the appetite companies have for outsourcing, off-shoring, or conducting business internationally. It will only be a matter of time before other countries respond in kind, driving a stake through the heart of any meaningful recovery.

Smart people have lots of options and the intelligence to know when they’re not wanted. Driving talent out of critical professions and industries through arbitrary government intervention is profoundly shortsighted and tragically devoid of common sense.

Thoughts?

Whimsy Series - Sunset

Finished the Sunset painting last night and then thought about it all day before posting it. This was a lot of fun to paint. My approach was to paint by subtraction. So my colors were all done through masked layers on top of each other.

The barn was taken from an original photo of an old historical "barn" (more like a shed really), taken here in the Charlotte area. It too, was painted through subtraction.

The entire painting was intended to look brushed over to give it a lost in the energy, color and swirl, of the moment of the sunrise.

Other techniques used in this piece were textures; both as a base (marble) and as an over texture layer (concrete). Textured brushes were also used.

Let the Tea Parties Continue

Synchronized Tax Day Tea Parties were an excellent idea. While not always precisely in agreement around what they are protesting, the Tea Parties have a consistent central theme - Be afraid of BIG government - BE VERY AFRAID - and the corollary is be afraid of BIG BIG government spending (because it results in [what] BIG government).

Starting with President Bush's $168 billion economic stimulus, through the 2008 housing bailout, TARP I, TARP II, President Obama's trillion-dollar stimulus package, the auto bailout, etc. The Congressional Budget office estimates the president's budget (assuming he stays in power for 8 years) will add more than $10 trillion to the total federal debt by 2019 - approximately as much total debt as was outstanding at the beginning of 2007.

It feels like we need a revolution to unwind this mess. A total repudiation of the system, a truly blank piece of paper and a nod to Occam's Razor, would be helpful.

New Painting Posted

Just published my new painting in the ReadySetBlink Gallery, under Digital Art - called Whimsy. This painting took about 4 hours to do using Photoshop and the Wacom (I love, love, love Photoshop). It was cool to create the dark blue sky starry background and to layer on the colors as the trees took to the sky.

It's effect (at least for me) is to be ethereal and (per the name) whimsical.

Let me know what you think!

Technology: Friend or Foe

So I've spent a fair amount of time trying to get a website up and running from scratch. This has been the total learning experience. I am an html beginner (actually less than a beginner) so every step has been profound. I've learned a lot about flash, photoshop, html, xml, and now blogger... in order to get to the point where I am even close to publishing the site.

I found myself sucked into the glamour parts of the website creation - specifically the things I like to do. Page design in Photoshop is great fun. I now have three different and fully functional sites as each time I finished I felt like there was something better... a repeating theme I suppose, the grass is always greener.

This post is actually more of a test to see how well the ftp publishing process works via Blogger...

Stay tuned...