Recently I have been corresponding with Meir Kordevani, one the key figures responsible for the publication of the Israeli design/art publication Picnic.

For those of you unfamiliar with the magazine, a short introduction is in order.
Picnic is described by it’s publishers as follows: “…a bi-annual magazine from Tel Aviv, 100% text-free, communicating through imagery…Introduces a fresh collection of images taken from the fields of photography, fashion, illustration, graphic design, cake making, astronomy, video and more. Suggests a unique visual experience, linking logical thinking with fantasy and the sub-conscious….“.

During our correspondence I asked Meir whether Picnic had an online version to which he replied:
“Picnic has no online version, otherwise there would be no sense to print it.

I find this position hard to agree with. In fact I can think of quite a few newspapers and magazines, including design/art/fashion publications that view things slightly differently. I believe that there’s always logic in putting a publication online. Magazines are not only appreciated for their content and people don’t buy a high gloss magazine for it’s content alone. The feeling of paper, the smell, the resolution of print, the portability - all these are unique to the printed version and are unrelated to the content. Print magazines have collector value as well and serve as status symbols for the people that leave them lying about on their coffee tables.

In Picnic’s case having the magazine online would give it a much larger exposure than it curently enjoys (and it deserves the attention). Practically speaking it would also give people an opportunity to browse the product before deciding to buy it.

If the issue of safeguarding the content is a concern it could always be decided to put only Picnic’s archive online or that only part of the content could be accessible, etc.

If you have any experiences relating to the issue of publishing a design/art/fashion magazine either as print or online your comments are much appreciated.

I love war posters and love using them as part of the graphic design courses I give.

They make excellent teaching material because on the one hand they are (thankfully) divorced from our day and age and thus allow an objective discussion of their graphic qualities, but on the other hand they represent the ultimate peak of their era’s graphic endeavor, created by the best and brightest designers of their time on the type of budget that only a government can afford. They also have the added value of expanding student’s horizons slightly beyond the last ad campaign they saw on TV and exposing them to a world that, although experienced by our grandparents, is for us the realm of history books.

I truly believe that a good education and a thirst for knowledge are critical to the artistic process and I try and teach my students accordingly to the best of my ability. It’s the least I could do for them seeing how much crap they have to take from me…
: )

PS
Thanks go to Merkley??? who sent me the poster above.

Recently, at the recommendation of Ahuva Berger I bought myself a pro Flickr account. Ahuva was right, I’m enjoying the social interaction on Flickr immensely and I’m also constantly running into cool and interesting photographers and artists.

I guess I’m an ass for not realizing earlier on that I would enjoy a social network dedicated to images.

Normally I wouldn’t bother to blab about this but earlier today I bumped into someone truly extraordinary. His name is Merkley??? (question marks in the original), and his photography is exceptional, alluring, critical and intelligent. So much so that not only do I dig it entirely but I’m feeling jealous as well…

The long bizarre titles that Merkley??? bestows upon his work can only be described as Spam Art, yet Merkley??? is merely describing for us the reality he is shooting. Paradoxically because we judge Merkley???’s captions to be too absurd to be precise we cast aside the reality he creates, despite the fact that it is tangible enough to be captured on film (or memory card in this case). To add to the confusion, not all the objects in a Merkley??? photo were actually there when the shutter clicked. Merkley??? has no compunctions about using Photoshop to add objects, animals and sundry doodads into his photos after the fact.

Merkley??? is definitely not a “photographer’s photographer”. He holds nothing sacred in his process and from the little material I read from him before writing this I’m willing to venture that he actually takes pleasure in blaspheming against the traditional dogma of photography. I’d go so far as to say that blasphemy is the closest thing to a hobby that Merkley??? has.

BUT…

Despite the whimsical Redneckish vibe he exudes it is very clear that beyond the tomfoolery and clowning about Merkley??? is a serious artist, committed to his concepts and messages, and very much in tune with the culture his photographs so eloquently criticize. Merkley???’s commitment to art and dichotomous disdain for it’s trappings reminds me of Chuck Dodson and the rest of my friends from the Hot Springs art scene. I guess I feel the same way pretty often but being “A nice Jewish boy” I tend to repress it…

The widget below depicts Merkley???’s work - notice the captions. If it doesn’t appear try reloading the page.

A good friend of mine from the US who is not Jewish wished me
“A Happy Yom Kippur” a few days back.

Happy is not what Yom Kippur is all about.

It’s the ultimate Jewish guilt fest.

A day of atonement.

Jewish holiday theology can be summed up basically like this:
“They tried to kill us, God clobbered them, let’s eat”

Yom Kippur just doesn’t fit the mold.
IT’S A FAST for Chrissakes!!!

Not that I observed it, but Yom Kippur is a weird day in Israel since everything is required by law to shut down.
Including traffic.
You could walk down any freeway in Israel on Yom Kippur as if it were a promenade.

I told you - Weird…

I’ll be sending the above portrait of Keith, commissioned from me through the good efforts of Chuck, to my printer hopefully on Sunday. We still have one more week of holidays (Sukkot - “The Feast of Booths” - don’t ask… : ), so I’m not sure whether he’ll be working Sunday. After Sukkot everything usually settles down and the country resumes to the best of its ability whatever work cycle it can muster.

Apropos the sobriety of Yom Kippur and the soul searching it involves:
I’m kinda pleased that my fee for the work on this portrait is giving me an opportunity to make a donation to Chuck’s drive to raise money for a Children’s ward in Arkansas. It makes the portrait a gift that keeps on giving…

The way I see it Israel, and Jews around the world, owe a huge debt of gratitude to the good Christian souls from the “Bible Belt” that are so generously donating their hard earned wages for Israel’s well being. I feel that donating to a Children’s ward in Arkansas is my way of at least showing the smallest bit of gratitude.

Jews are encouraged to give charity always and this holds doubly true of the days leading up to the Day of Atonement. In the book of Proverbs there are two instances of the sentence “Charity redeems from death” Proverbs, 10 & 11

This is poorly translated into the English in the Revised Standard Version as: “righteousness delivers from death” which means something entirely different…

Anyway, what does this teach us?
Why does the sentence appear twice in the same book?
The book of Proverbs is ascribed to King Solomon, of whom the bible testifies that he was the wisest of men:

“…For he was wiser than all other men, wiser than Ethan the Ez’rahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all the nations round about.He also uttered three thousand proverbs; and his songs were a thousand and five. He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall; he spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish..” Kings 1, 5

Why would “The wisest of men” scribe the same sentence twice?

Over the centuries Jewish sages have philosophized that by scribing the sentence twice Solomon alluded to the dual nature of charity’s redemption. On the recipient’s side the meaning is quite obvious. For the needy charity may often be the difference between life and death, be it through starvation, exposure or just plain disregard. On the giver’s side, besides granting “browny-points” with the powers-that-be, the charity reinforces the soul against spiritual death.

On a personal level I have always felt that giving charity gave me a felling of well being and joy. I’m not sure if it was simply because I felt good about giving, or because it helped alleviate the guilt I feel for my sins, but the end result was always the same…

All the best,
Mike
: )

It’s been a while since I posted anything new on the site.
Coming back from the US was harder than I anticipated. When traveling it is blissfully easy to forget the drudgery of normal life.

I do have excuses though:
A week after I got back I underwent eye surgery to correct the double vision I had been suffering from for the past 6 years. It was a great success and I no longer see the world twice. Good riddance.

Two weeks after the operation I made my big break with Jerusalem and for the 1st time ever moved to an address that is not on Hapalmach st. I now live in a beautiful flat in a little old house in the center of Herzeliya, 15 minutes north of Tel Aviv. The really good news is that I have a lovely backyard to enjoy.

At Work I’ve been playing mostly catch-up since I got back.

What else is new?

Recently there has been a lot of talk about the Iranian Nuclear bomb and it got me thinking that I find both Iranian women and Atom bombs to be really sexy…
I know, I’m sick, but all this yammering got me wondering if Ahmadinejad’s daughter is hot.

So far I have created three new prints since I returned:

A Sexy PariSight
Is a reflection of my emotional reaction to the blatant consumerism of the culture I encountered.At times it all felt Dollar-bill shallow…

Land of the Fee
Relates to the incredible amount of signage one encounters in the US. It’s the Land of the Free but everywhere all you see are signs saying “DON’T!”.

The model is Kat - a friendly girl, photographer, and self proclaimed “Band Ornament”.Her boyfriends’ band played at the farewell party that Chuck Dodson organized for me before I left the Gallery @404B.