A Web Design Public Service Announcement

Now that you are back to the norm of black text on a white background, how are you feeling? Are you seeing ghost images of the previous text box against this white space? Is it hard to adjust? Do you feel a little dizzy? If not, you're lucky! For many of us, (often also prone to vertigo and motion sickness), the effects of reading white text on black is so troublesome, we'll simply click away no matter how interesting the content is. If I absolutely MUST read something, I might copy and paste the text into Word so I can read it, but that is only if I know I want to read it beforehand.

So - if you are one of my fellow artist peeps and you've got white on black websites, PLEASE reconsider! If it doesn't bother you, you might think I'm crazy, but I'm not alone - just search "white text black background" on Google - you'll see! The choice is yours design wise, but I'm pretty sure that you want as many visitors as possible with nothing standing in your readers' way, right? Right.

Minimalist texture landscapes

Horizon 9

Blue Sky, Golden Meadow

Both of these textured abstract landscapes were almost finished for months and months. For some reason, I felt the urge yesterday to give them that final push to "finished". I've got another painting that was waiting to be finished that came to completion today but the pictures came out sub par. Hopefully tomorrow I should have some good shots of it. Hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday weekend!

Painting as Meditation

The View That Day

Letters to Heaven

The Change

Essence of Being

New works on paper.

Bubbling Over

Bubbling Over - Acrylic on 24" x 24" box canvas

I am actually quite literally bubbling over with joy anticipating getting together with two wonderful girlfriends tomorrow for a birthday get together and gab fest! Painting will be put on hold for the festivities which will no doubt include going out to eat, consuming copious amounts of wine, and sharing all of our stories from San Diego, Boston and small town Ellington (clearly, they'll have a lot more to share than me in cow-town USA - "So my friend at the post office made the most beautiful silk flower arrangements for his friend's wedding! He showed me on his phone!" "Oh and the most adorable cardinal has been watching over a nest in that bush, isn't that great!?" true story). Anyway, even though it seems like I've already partaken in said wine, I'm actually just drunk on pure excitement. It's been much too long since I've seen these gals and I'm going to will the clocks to slow down so I can savor every moment!

Documenting "Layers of Life"

Layers of Life - Acrylic on 16" x 20" gallery wrapped canvas

Here are some shots of this painting as it evolved...

I began working on this painting this weekend and found that I was getting too tight and too literal with my "circle" theme.

Today I went in with bright colors to open up the space and get a lot more action happening.

I was really feeling the turquoise/orange/yellow combo...

And then I started to get into the feeling of lots and lots of layers in various levels of translucency...

The finished product has this wild, frenzied action all over the surface with a gradual lightening as it works towards the top. I am feeling inspired by Lee Krasner's Noon - a piece that has moved me for years - as well as the abstract qualities of the great impressionists. I still have farther to push this series but I'm really liking where I'm headed right now.

On second thought...

When facebook first came out with their download option for pictures, fueled by fellow artist friends posting their outrage by what this would mean for visual artists (aka free art downloads), I joined in the "fight" by deleting all of my images from my fan page. This protest was big time stuff, I'm surprised CNN never covered it. I mean, along with the hundreds of images I had online already that could be easily right clicked and saved online, now there was a handy dandy "download" button which made it that much easier or at least more obvious to those who didn't know the right click trick. This meant that the numbers of people (surely in the billions) maniacally saving and reprinting my right clicked photos for their own fortune would be doubled and that was obviously a huge problem. (If you can't tell that I'm speaking sarcastically already, then get with the program my friend).

Ok. Scratch that. Back to reality.

A. Are people printing out my art on their home printers really a threat to my business? No.

B. What can anyone really do with photographs of artwork that are intended to be a visual example of the much-better-in-person-real-thing art I am trying to sell? Not much. Any sound business wants super high res pictures and that's not what you're going to get on my facebook fan page or anywhere else.

C. When people download my art and print it out or save it as a screensaver are they disrespecting me as an artist? No! They are showing their appreciation for what I do and want to see my creations in their day to day. Is that an insult? Heck no! It's a great compliment!

I guess it all comes down to the big picture really. I got weird for a second about being super protective about my images and who uses them and whatnot. I found someone on twitter that had one of my paintings as their avatar and I was thinking "who are you!?" knowing it wasn't a buyer or anyone I was familiar with. But really, what does it matter? It's kind of like, in the big picture of things, shouldn't it be a compliment? That's what I've come to. If I see someone blatantly profiting from my art, that would be one thing, but for someone to see and appreciate my work all on its own and to use it as an avatar or a screensaver or to even print it out on cheap printer paper and frame it - who cares? It's spreading the word!

SO... I want to know other artists perspectives. How do you feel about people having access to your art online? How do you feel about the whole right click, download, easy peasy world of sharing images? Is it a compliment to you when someone could print and frame your image for free (save for the framing, I worked in that industry for many years and it's definitely not free!). The ultimate question is this - are you okay with people taking advantage of the free aspects of sharing your art online? Share your thoughts in the comments. Oh, and while you're at it, "like" my art page on facebook where I will be sharing my art again available for downloading and all that jazz here - https://www.facebook.com/JessicaTorrant.

As Deep as the Ocean...

As Deep as the Ocean, as High as the Sky

paint splattered flip flops ;)

This new painting is not for sale as it is a wedding gift for my friends Nicole and Matt that got married late last year. I was lucky enough to be there for the wedding and in fact in the wedding as a bride's maid - a position that made me extremely uncomfortable given that I'm entirely too emotional at weddings, let alone the wedding of a friend I've known for 20+ years (yikes!). We all had such a blast celebrating the big day and when it came for the wedding itself, well, I was a mess. It was as if my emotions being so restrained acted out in random ways - I swear I was about to lose it either sobbing or giggling like a maniac. Poor Nicole, what was she thinking? But, I kept it together enough to not hog the spot light making every guest question, "WHAT is UP with that girl?" and the after party was one to go down in history.

This painting not only represents their deep love for one another, but it also is inspired by the ocean - something that plays a major role in their Floridian lives. Matt is a boat man and a master fisherman and Nicole is now his first mate. :)