A brilliant start

Day One in London was your average run-of-mill fabulous fun adventure. I toured Heathrow terminals 3 and 4 in the morning while waiting for Robin. After Robin arrived we welcomed Scarlett and JohnD from their flight, then took the Express train to Paddington Station, just a couple of blocks from our hotel.
After checking in to our hotel we took a great walk all the way thru Hyde Park, on our way to The London Eye where we had reservations to take a Pimm's Flight, a private Pod with a guide serving Pimms. Loved it.
Next we took the tube back to Paddington Station and had dinner at The Gyngleboy pub, one of the few pubs in London that doesn't have a TV and that wasn't crowded with football fans watching the world cup. A gyngleboy is a leather flask, decorated with bells.
A great first day. But we're just getting warmed up. More to come.

Leaving New Jersey

Hello from Newark NJ, gate 108. I seem to be having some issues with emailing straight to the blog site. I'm going thru the blogger.com web site using my iPhone for this test blog. On the jetway in Houston I had to check my larger carry-on bag because they ran out of room before I even got off the jetway. I'm not sure how that happens when you're allowed one carry-on per person, but hopefully it'll be at Heathrow when I get there.

Monsters on the Plaza

As part of the mounting evidence that some people don't have enough to do, the Third Annual Monster Battle took place on the Plaza in Santa Fe today.

When your city slogan is "The City Different" it's going to encourage the local monsters to come out in broad daylight.

I hoped a flash mob dance of Thriller would break out, but I guess that's one of the differences between monsters and zombies — monsters have never been known to be great dancers.

Click the image below to see a web gallery of the Plaza event.

More jtCanvas art

I just finished a portrait of Robin Williams, a brilliant writer/designer/scholar currently doing Shakespearean research at Brunel University in West London. Often mistaken for Kiki de Montparnasse or Louise Brooks, rumor has it she's recently used the name Ms Lili Rainbow.

I think it would look nice as a colossal canvas in the Louvre.

jtCanvas again

A couple of digital prints arrive for framing. 

The Bourbon Street accordian player is printed on archival quality paper. The Santa Fe flamenco dancer is printed on canvas.

Both images started as low-resolution, single-frame video captures.

Pumpkin, of YouTube fame (see the May 17 article), observes from a chair.

jtCanvas

jtCanvas is one of my recent projects, a growing collection of original digital paintings output to canvas. I'm working on a series of Southwestern, Shakespearean, and contemporary images. And just about anything else that doesn't fall into those categories.

One of the digital painting techniques I've been exploring involves starting with a single frame capture from video footage, then enlarging and manipulating the low-resolution image into a large image printed on canvas.

While in Granada, Nicaragua, with a pal JohnG, I shot a hasty few seconds of video of a papaya vendor walking down the street of the barrio (singing doo wah diddy diddy dum diddy doo... oops, wrong blog). I cropped in close on the subject, enlarged the size and resolution of the image, then sent the image through multiple painting sessions in Corel Painter software, and also through multiple modifications in Photoshop. The final canvas is 40 x 30 inches.

Cropped version of original video frame.

Final canvas

Design Awards for The Shakespeare Papers

The Shakespeare Papers (our bimonthly edition of Shakespearean tidbits, insights, and design) have recently been recognized for design excellence by two different design competitions: The Davey Awards and The 2nd Annual AIGA New Mexico Showdown (AIGA is a national professional designers organization).

You'll find more information about The Shakespeare Papers (and how to subscribe) at www.TheShakespearePapers.com.

The Davey Awards (International juried design competition)

AIGA New Mexico (regional juried design competition). Both volumes I (2008) and II (2009) were recognized for design excellence. 

Samples of The Shakespeare Papers. Six issues per year, each issue is a unique design approach.