Found on Flickr: Belize Larval Fish

From the Flickr Commons: This delightful set of fish specimen photographs from the (deep breath) Division of Fishes of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. The one pictured here is the Gramma loreto, Adult (Royal Gramma).

Not only are these fish wonderful to look at, they have excellent names as well. There's the Puddingwife Wrasse, the Puffcheek Blenny, the Threeline Basslet, and the Schoolmaster Snapper, to name a few.

Click here to visit the Smithsonian Institution on Flickr.

Related: Previously in Found on Flickr Piscatorial, a set on Flickr Blog posts in the Piscatorial category

This post is part of NaBloPoMo for July 2009.

BookMooch Journal: Thin Places

Namaste, photo by Kim Pierro. Click image to see this photo's Flickr page.

I recently contributed to the BookMooch Journal Thin Places. My entry was the word Namaste.

Namaste has a lot of different translations. My favorite is "The light within me salutes the light within you." This particular translation was used by the Reverend Tom Honey in this talk for the 2005 TED Conference. His speech, titled "How could God have allowed the Tsunami?", calls into question our Western idea of theodicy, the notion that God is in charge and everything happens according to a divine plan. He counters this view with the suggestion that every creature contains divine light as part and parcel of their existence. (Do yourself a favor, take twenty minutes, and listen to his talk. His warm, soothing voice alone is worth the time.)

Live Oak Friends Meeting House, designed by James Turrell.
Artist James Turrell has also drawn influence from this idea of internal light. Turrell's upbringing included education in Quaker spirituality. The Quaker belief system cherishes inner light as the receptacle and source for divine understanding. (How interesting that the disparate Quaker and Hindu faiths should include this same idea at their core.) On his early experience with the Quaker society, Turrell says,

My grandmother used to tell me that as you sat in Quaker silence you were to go inside to greet the light. That expression stuck with me. ...Telling a child to go inside "to greet the light" is about as much as was ever told to me. But there is an idea, first of all, of vision fully formed with the eyes closed. Of course the vision we have in a lucid dream often has greater lucidity and clarity than vision with the eyes open. The fact that we have this vision with the eyes closed is very interesting. And the idea that it's possible to actually work in a way, on the outside, to remind one of how we see on the inside, is something that became more interesting to me as an artist.

You can go here and view clips about Turrell and his work from the PBS' excellent Art:21 series.

Reference Photo and Collage Sources on Flickr

Smorgasbord by Flickr user CharlesFred. Click image to visit on Flickr.

Say it with me, illustrators: "Photo references are good. Use them." Using references is not copying, it is not cheating. Image references are tools. What's an easy way to make sure you're not trodding on another artist's toes? Search within the Creative Commons.

What is Creative Commons? The Creative Commons license is a legal way for creators to easily share their content with the public. It is not a negation of copyright. There are different kinds of licenses depending on the type of content (music, images, literature, software, and so on) and how the creator wishes to share this material. I release my work under a Creative Commons license (there's a link over in the left column of this page) because I believe that information and influence should (and do) flow freely among creators. The license does not prevent me from earning income from my art. I still own what I make. Creative Commons makes it easier for me to share it with others. You can read more about Creative Commons here.

Even with the Creative Commons license, copyright and usage is a slippery slope. When in doubt, contact the creator, ask permission, and give them credit.

The Flickr Creative Commons search is a fantastic tool for finding photo references for drawing, painting, illustration, or the medium of your choice. You need a Flickr account to use it - it's easy to sign up. Click on the word "Search" in the upper right-hand corner, then click on "Advanced Search." Enter your search terms and parameters, then scroll down to the bottom of the search form, where you will find the Creative Commons box. Click "Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content." And go. You can also browse by license.

UPDATE: Here's a tip from optimization expert Tim Ferriss. Do a Creative Commons search on Flickr, then sort the results by "Most Interesting." You'll get the best images first.

The Flickr Commons (sounds the same, but isn't) is another bountiful image resource. Here are some goodies I found there.

My collaborative sketchbook pal Karo recently posted her favorite Flickr groups for gathering collage material. They are Collage Images, Vintage Illustration, and Mid-Century Illustrated. These groups collect and display images that are old enough to be public domain, or with no known copyright restrictions. Some of the images in the Collage pool are contemporary creations whose owners have provided them for use by others. The ownership of certain original ephemera objects (which are scanned and uploaded to Flickr) are sometimes in question, but this community of artists (usually) acts responsibly in investigating and attributing the sources of these images. Here is a discussion thread on that topic.

These are just a few of the tools artists can use to build their photo reference library. (Beware, your collection will grow when you're not looking. Mine takes up a full filing cabinet.)

Related: Figurative Collage set on Flickr Great anatomical reference site Winston Smith, collage artist Lawrence Lessig, copyright reform guru

Found on Flickr: Henry's Burden by Dan May

Henry's Burden, acrylic on panel, 8 x 8" by Dan May. Click image to visit on Flickr.

This gorgeous invented portrait by Dan May will be included in the David Lynch tribute show at Alcove Arts in Atlanta. May paints curious organic forms similar to Joe Sorren's, finishing them with fine details to create a fully realized world for his imaginary characters. Check out the individual hairs on this guy's head. Acrylic is a difficult medium, and I love seeing painters who use it this well.

Click here to visit Dan May's website. Click here to visit Dan May's Flickr stream.

I Like Maira Kalman

Illustration of cafeteria cherry pie by Maira Kalman, from her New York Times column And The Pursuit of Happiness. See below for links to Kalman's column.

At Ease, Kalman's latest installment of her New York Times column.
Read Kalman's latest column here.
Order The Illustrated Elements of Style here.
Check out some more of Maira Kalman's many illustrated books.