Requesting recognition

I’ve always been know for being something of an “Angry Young Man”,
which is a polite way of saying I’m somewhat of a stubborn arrogant fool.

I’ve never asked people to like me, nor have I sought recognition for my art,
which is a polite way of saying I’m too proud to realize how stupid I am.

About a month back I swallowed my pride and submitted a request to join Hertzliya’s Artist Association.
This was the first time I’d requested any form of recognition from an official artist group.

Earlier today I was notified that I’ve been accepted.

As a side note it seems I’m not only the newest member but also the youngest…

Am I growing up?

At the tender age of 35, nearly four years after I began my artistic journey, it finally dawned on me that “No man is an island“.
I feel that for me this is an important step towards artistic maturity.

I’ve admitted to myself that as much as I enjoy creating the raw material I use in my imagery, I greatly prefer the editing and photo manipulation part of my process. I’ve realized I enjoy the dialog and the artistic collaboration with photographers and artists, who’s images I incorporate into my prints, that my process requires. Above all I’ve internalized that the ability to collaborate is important for me as a person and as an artist.

My artist statement

I do art ’cause it makes me happy!
Everything else is a bonus…
I’m a Digital Pop artist and proud of it.

The subjects that interest and inspire me are:

• Middle Eastern politics
• Judaism,religion and mysticism
• Female beauty and erotica
• Technology, consumerism, urbanity, and their relation to nature

Looking forward

As of today I gladly admit that I’m on the lookout for new people and new images to work with so if you’ve got images you’d like to suggest for me to use in my prints, or projects you’d like to collaborate on please drop me a line. If have artist/photographer friends who you think might be interested please share this with them.

Thank you : )
Mike
Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | MySpace | Picasa | Delicious

: )

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On Monday evening I went to the Jerusalem Tweetup. It was great meeting members of my Jerusalem gang I hadn’t seen in a while. The photos below were taken at the event by Jessica Korman who was kind enough to free me of my camera.

They feature some of my favorite people in Jerusalem and on Twitter: @David Abitbol (AKA Jewlicious), @ahoova, @YaelBeeri, @Joel (AKA religion_state), @hananc, @CharlieKalech, @Elisha Kuchar and @Nathan Zeldes

As always, if you’ve enjoyed reading I’d appreciate it if you’d link back & share this with your friends.

: )
Mike
Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | MySpace | Picasa | Delicious

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Foreword - “It’s a Web of friendship”

One of the things I love most about the Web is how it has enabled all of us to connect and foster friendships with people we’ve never met.
People living in our apartment block, and people halfway round the globe.
People we wouldn’t grace with a glance on the street, and people we’ve admired from afar our entire life. People.

Susan Olmetti - artist and friend

I can’t recall how Susan and I met and frankly it doesn’t matter. I do remember the huge murals she created that were the reason for my initial fascination with her. Anyone with the energy to paint on such a colossal scale has my respect. Susan’s Biblical inspiration, vibrant colors and fundamental “Joie de vivre” are all things I relate to personally so our naturally a friendship developed.

Susan

About a week ago Susan emailed me and asked me to help her with the online publicity for her upcoming show. I’ve long thought it would be interesting to do an interview her here on my blog and this seemed like a great opportunity. I hope you enjoy it…

An interview with Susan

M:

“So Susan what was your inspiration for the ‘The Jonah Series?’”

Susan:

“My inspiration is my determination to overcome all adversity through my creation and live a happy and healthy existence by letting go of negativity. My new series is very chaotic in flow. I see it as an explosion of color.”

M:

“Sounds like we share that much in common. - I’ve long said that:
‘I do art because it makes me happy. Everything else is a bonus…’”

Susan:

“I’ve adapted over time.
I’ve developed a ‘You can’t hurt what you can’t touch (my heart)’ attitude, although I always struggled with maintaining this protective barrier in interactions with people close to me.

God forgave Jonah. From my perspective, it takes a lot to forgive people.
I have a personal secret with Jonah. I finds myself everyday uttering the words, ‘Not today,Jonah’ whenever I feel myself being pulled under by others around me. I find I’d prefer to say goodbye and let go because they people don’t change.”

Jonah

M:

“Which is your favorite piece in your coming exhibition and why?”

Susan:

“Well Mike they all are the same to me. I look at my art like they are my children and I do my best to love each and every one of them. They’re all different yet the same.”

M:

“Where did you meet Rachel Cohen-Lunning and Merrille Lichenstien-Cohen and how did the joint exhibition come about?”

Susan:

“Rachel and Merrille are sisters and they both lived in the Chelsea Hotel at one time. Rachel still lives there and Merrille moved right around the corner. I’ve known them for a decade and we all admire each others work and have wanted to do a joint exhibition for a long time. We’ve been working closely for a year now on this one.”

M:

“How did your relationship with the Tappan Z Gallery begin?”

Susan:

“I stumbled across his Gallery online. I contacted the gallery director and told him a bit about myself, my art, my long term goals. We clicked right away and I’ve been simply going with the flow.”

M:

“Well I wish you all the best of luck it’s been great chatting to you and I hope you send me pictures form the opening : )”

Well, that’s all for this morning…
As always, if you’ve enjoyed reading I’d appreciate it if you’d link back and share this with your friends.

Also if you’re an artist and would like to feature in an interview on my blog, or if you’re familiar with an artist whom you think might be interested, be sure to give me a holler. I’m always on the lookout for cool people to talk to… : )

Mike
Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | MySpace | Picasa | Delicious

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Digital art should be available for digital mediums

I’ve decided to make some of my prints available as desktop backgrounds because I feel that since my art work is Digital, it should be available on digital platforms.

Downloads, Resolutions & Platforms

All the images in the Flickr album embedded below are optimized for usage as desktop backgrounds and I add new images to the collection regularly. The images are optimized for use with Full HD, 1680×1050 wide-screens, and 1280×960 regular aspect desktops. To download a desktop click the image, follow the link to my Flickr account, click the “All sizes” button above the image, and download the largest size image available.

I’d appreciate it you would link back to this post and share it with others so they can enjoy these desktops too.

I’m accepting requests…

This is a new thing for me and I’d love to get your feedback. I hope you browse through some of the other images on my site as well. The best ways to contact me are via my email - mikedarnell [at] gmail [dot] com or my twitter account @pop_art, alternatively you can leave your requests as a comment on this post.

: )
Mike
Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | MySpace | Picasa | Delicious

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WARNING!!! - This might be a rant…

Many a time I’ll meet a friend and they’ll say something like:

“Yo dude I see you showing up on my Facebook stream incessantly. You’re a real online freak aren’t ya?.“

To which I usually mumble somewhat apologetically:

“Sorry man, you know Facebook let’s you hide my updates right?”

Confessions of an online freak

I guess I’m growing tired of apologizing so I’ve decided to share some of the reasons for my intense relationship with the Web and hopefully next time someone approaches me about it I’ll have the sense to tell them to read this post.

How active am I?

Frankly I’ve stopped keeping track of the amount of my online profiles when I crossed the 120 mark.

Although I do keep frequent tabs on a select few (Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | MySpace | Picasa | Delicious) I don’t maintain most of them often, or at all, so it stands to reason that I should puzzle as to why I bother?

Why am I online?

I think that in all truth the answer is composed to varying degrees of all the following reasons:

• I like interacting with people. Online communities afford an excellent opportunity to do so on a truly global scale.
• I’m quite the show-off and probably a bit of a closet exhibitionist. Maintaining multiple online profiles is an easy, safe and non-obnoxious way to manifest this.
• I genuinely love the Web. I believe it to be by far the most significant development I’ve experienced so far in my lifetime and feel fortunate to be able to spend so much time interacting with it.
• It’s turned out to be a good livelihood for me. As I gradually made the transition over the years from industrial designer to web designer to online marketer I not only increased my income but my job satisfaction as wel. I think that to a certain extent working as a designer it irked me that I had to “whore out” my creativity and submit it to final judgement by my clients. Today I’m free to create what I want, when I want, and the consequences are entirely mine to suffer or enjoy.
• It’s good SEO. My site is currently highly ranked on search results for many of the key terms relevant to me.

Please feel free to link / share / embed / post / comment / criticize / tweet / digg etc… 

Mike
Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | MySpace | Picasa | Delicious

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