5 Reasons to Love James Jean Online
Waiting. Acrylic and Pastel on Cradled Wood Panels, 34 x 34″, 2010 by James Jean. Click image to view source.
You’ve probably seen James Jean’s work around the Internets. Maybe you love it like I do. He seems to draw and paint the other people breathe. It’s delicious, mysterious, pleasing and disturbing at once.
I’ve never seen Jean’s work in person. It occurred to me to ask myself why, other than the quality of the work itself, do I enjoy looking at it online?
Because James Jean has an excellent website.
Coco Chanel famously said that when a woman dresses shabbily, people notice her dress, but when she dresses well, people notice the woman. I looked at Jean’s drawings and paintings for several years before I noticed how well he presents it online. Here are some reasons why:
Less is more.
It’s a cliche that independent artists often combat, but Jean lets his work speak for itself. His site design is absolutely spotless. No explanations, no exclamations. Just the art, loud and clear.
Big, beautiful photos
He doesn’t make us squint to see the work. The photos aren’t fuzzy, washed-out, or imbalanced. The Reclamare scarf is a good example.
Up close and personal
If we can’t see the work in person, we can at least pretend. I wish more artists offered close-up details of their work like this.
Figure studies
Because artists never stop learning or practicing, especially when it comes to the figure.
Sketchbooks
Two of my favorites: Ottoman, Mole D-2
I’d like to thank the artist for putting all this work where we can see it. Keep it up.
Wrangling Those Blog Post Ideas
I Miss Oklahoma, ink on paper, 2009 by Sarah Atlee. Some rights reserved.
I’m learning in the Blog Triage course that ideas beget other ideas. How to keep track of them all?
Following is a cross-section of my own blog-writing process.
Ideas are slippery. Capture them.
If I get an idea for a post and I’m not at the computer, I write it down in in my Hiptser PDA. Then I say to myself, “Captured – huzzah!”
Since my Hipster is a series of to-do lists, incomplete tasks stay on top until done. Post ideas stay on top until I store them in the Blog directory on my flash drive, which I carry everywhere.
Ideas want to wander. Park them.
At the computer, I open a new file in a plain-text editor (NoteTab or TextWrangler) and type in one or two sentences describing the idea. Example: “Flat Stanley, cheap markers.”
I save the file with the date in ISO 8601 format. Example: “20120501 flat stanley cheap markers.txt”
Because computer operating systems like to sort files alphabetically by default, this date format automatically keeps files in chronological order. Handy.
In a web browser window, I open all the web pages that relate to my post in separate tabs. Oh, how I love tabbed browsing! Each url gets copied and pasted at the bottom of my plain text document. This is just to park them until I turn them into links.
Maybe this won’t turn into a post today. I move the plain text document into a subfolder on my flash drive called “unpublished.” It’s a great place to go back and browse when I’m looking for new content for my blog.
Now, to the WordPress dashboard. I create a new post, put ONLY the title in, and save it as a draft. It is very important that I do not fiddle around with any of the shiny WordPress buttons at this time.
Ideas want to be polished.
Back in NoteTab, I finish composing my post.
Using the bits of html code that I know, I put all the link URLs into place.
I run through my preflight checklist, checking all links, spelling and grammar, and taste-testing for maximum zestiness.
I copy and paste the whole text into WordPress. I save the draft again (!) and preview it to check my links again (!).
Then, and only then, do I click “Publish.”
Last step: eat some chocolate and go to bed.
Are you having trouble deciding what to write, or how to write it?
Keep your eyes peeled for Alyson Stanfield’s next Blog Triage workshop.
And We’re Back
My studio, featuring Submerge and Anonymous Niece.
How have you been? Glad to hear it.
I’ve enrolled in the Blog Triage online class taught by Alyson Stanfield and Cynthia Morris in an effort to spruce this place up. These smart ladies have started the course by asking participants to think about what goals they want their blogs to accomplish, and who they’re writing for.
In other words, why do I have this blog? What do I hope you’ll get out of it?
Interesting, interested people
I read a log of blogs. Like a ton, every day. My favorite posts on other people’s blogs are the ones where I learn something new. About anything, not just art. This is my mission here – share what I’ve learned with you.
I post about painting techniques, sketches and experimental work, artists whose work I admire, art events happening in my area, and thoughts and ideas that roll across my landscape. If I think it’s interesting, someone out there will be interested. I’ll share with you; I hope you’ll continue to share with me too.
What’s interested me lately
David Rees sharpens pencils. I just love it when people find the thing they love to do.
I’ve been grooving to the beats of Kinshasa One Two for several weeks.
A cardboard arcade made by 9-year old Caine inspires me to build what I want using what I’ve got.
Ze Frank reminds us that we can begin anywhere. Like here.
Found on Flickr: Visual Diaries
The Visual Diaries are tools I create to capture my aesthetic for a particular moment. They’re collections of my favorite Flickr images each month or so. See all of them here.
Hemphill-Co-safe-passage, by Flickr user Stateart1. Click image to view on Flickr.
This is from my October Visual Diary, The Finding Place. Hemphill County, Texas, is where my mother’s family has lived for the past several generations.
See what else I’ve found on Flickr.
I'm Nominated for an Okie Blog Award!
Carl Sandburg: Crimson, prismacolor in altered book, 2009 by Sarah Atlee. Click image to view source.
It’s a cliche, but I’m honored just to be nominated. Some of my favoite blogs are also up for awards, like Debby Kaspari’s Drawing the Motmot and OVAC’s excellent blog. Vote by February 14!
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