The Not So Greatness of Alexander - A Story About Stolen Art

How do we handle the theft of our work? As artists, we face a constant threat of others stealing our work online? The worse cases of this are people who try to resell our intellectual property. 

I am not a believer in watermarks. I think a huge watermark over our work nullifies our attempts to promote our work online. I do believe in ID'ing our work with our logo, but a watermark that takes up the center point of an image does nothing except to detract from what we have created.

The Revenant Legendarium - The Spirit Worlds of Artist Grey Cross

What is The Revenant Legendarium?

The physical universe is vast. It stretches beyond our mortal ability to comprehend. Even with modern day telescopes we cannot fathom just how massive it truly is. We are quick to dismiss anything that does not fit into our current model of our universe.

But there is so much more. 

When we pass, where do we go? Its obvious we no longer exist in the physical world. But what then? The spiritual universe is as vast as the physical but its rules are the antithesis of the physical world. Like matter and antimatter, the two shall never cross lest we destroy ourselves.

But the spiritual universe exists. We are immortal beings that exist for a time here and a time there.

Immortality Has Arrived - The Artists Virtual Life

We are the first generation in the history of man to become immortal

The advent of the internet era has made a part of us impervious to death. What we perceive sometimes as a toy, as a method of communication, as a way to waste time when we are bored, has in its own quiet way turned us all into immortals. Its not because of the internet alone that I say this. Its because of the massive social networks promulgating the net now.

Before these came along in their present form, the internet was still a fractured place. Those using one service like AOL or a host of others, were still locked into a small part of the cyber universe. But now, organizations like Google, Yahoo and Facebook are unlocking the doors and expanding services to the point where we now have a doppelganger of our true selves living out there in cyberspace. 

Viewing Your Art Through the Buyers Eyes

Artists can be very myopic. We micromanage every piece of art we create and we fuss over every single detail incessantly. We see whats in front of us, but sometimes we miss the bigger picture.

The simple fact is that this is not how others view our work. Think about it, when you see another artists work for the first time, do you see every little detail about that work? Or rather do you take in the wholeness of the piece, seeing it as a complete structure and not as a series of small brush strokes?

Art Bloggers - Tips For Creating Content

Art bloggers make two common mistakes when they blog. These mistakes lay at opposite ends of the spectrum from each other.

At one end lays the trap of only blogging your art and nothing else. The result is that unless you can create new art daily, there are vast amounts of time where your blog sits unused while you create. No new content equals no new viewers.

The Graffiti Illusion

Street Art is a powerful tool. It allows expression in ways that no other form of art can equal. It gives an anonymous voice to the issues of the day. Graffiti can be found from the ancient stones of Hadrian's Wall to the back alley's of modern day Beijing. It exists when no other voice is allowed to speak. It states our fears, it expresses our joys. 

CLICK ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE

What is the Graffiti Illusion? 

It is the illusion that graffiti exists where it never actually did. The graffiti in these images does not really exist. It is conceived and created in the artists mind and never existed in reality. Using original photos and art, he plans and choreographs a theme for each piece and then carefully executes it into a single work of art. Any given piece may have dozens of components which were brought together to create the image.

The Spine is Strongest - Finding our Artistic Backbone

Creative people who share their views are often shunned. The Dixie Chicks come to mind as a great example of a group of singers who spoke their minds and had their careers nearly destroyed for speaking their minds on political issues.

What results is that anyone with a creative career such as musicians, movie stars, artists and performers have to think twice about whether they want to take the heat for expressing views that may go against their fans views.

The Art of Fear - The Nightmares Artists Face

I had a dream. I saw an abandoned house sitting alone in a field. The doors were open to the elements and the floor boards were cracked with gaping holes that were open to the dirt floor beneath. There were construction people with hardhats surveying the property. A large yellow tractor sat waiting outside. Several men walked through the house room by room until they came to the attic. At first view it was also empty, but one of the men noticed a small door to one side and opened it with some effort.