BLOG

I know I’ve mentioned Ms. Emily’s Black Apple blog before… But it’s worth mentioning again in light of recent thoughts about what the future holds for creators in the digital age.

Inside a Black Apple elevates blogging to art form in and of itself. It’s beautifully written. It uses pictures and stories to engage readers in a warm, fuzzy world of the author’s (artist’s?) creation. It has a star! Ms. Emily – always artfully posed in vintage fashion. And there are things to buy – designed or handmade by Ms. Emily – expressly for you.

Its sum is greater than its parts.

So is the blogger an artist? A writer? A businesswoman? I’ve never asked her. My guess is that she’d self-identify as a crafter. But it doesn’t matter so much. The point is that it appears there’s room for creators to make a living online. And those with broadest skills – those who can write as well as paint or vamp or make music – those using all their talents to build domains we want to visit – will do well.

PIE PROBLEM

If I eat one more piece of pie, I’ll die!
If I can’t have one more piece of pie, I’ll die!
So since it’s all decided I must die,
I might as well have one more piece of pie.
MMMM-OOOH-MY!
Chomp-Gulp-’Bye.

- Shel Silverstein

There’s been much talk this week about the future of reading, its decline and the migration of the written word from printed books to the internet.

Fear not, dear readers! There are grains of hope for fine artists in these stories. It’s true, the internet is rapidly displacing books as the dominant receptacle for human ideas. But as it does books will blossom into handmade art objects as revered as paintings for their physical beauty.

Doubtful? Check this out… the recently renamed Maine Media Workshops just added a new program to their always relevant and evolving film and photography curriculum. Design and Book Arts. Hmm…

For all you art lovers on the East Coast… There’s a GREAT show of encaustic paintings by Gail Gregg at the Luise Ross Gallery in NYC. Check it out if you have a chance. The show runs through December 21, 2007.

My favorites from the show are made of paperboard packaging material, unfolded, laid flat and coated with encaustic. They’re still and powerful with a tribal, mask-like quality. Enchanting.

Have you been following the Radiohead story? I admit, I felt a jolt of excitement when I first heard they’d put their new album up for sale on a pay-as-you-wish system. I knew they’d make money and cheered them on.

Have they been successful? The news is mixed. It’s been a closely watched experiment. You can read a confusing but interesting story about the results on the Editors Weblog.

From what I can tell… Radiohead has made some money. But the percentage of downloaders who paid for the album versus those who downloaded it for free is very low. So the experiment’s reinforced the widening cultural norm that it’s OK to download music for free.

I know there’s been some talk lately about a new business model for musicians. That musicians should look for success by selling t-shirts and concert tickets after giving away music for free. I don’t know about you, but it’s profoundly disappointing to me to see the primary creative product – the music – be so devalued when I know how much time and care it takes to create.

Who benefits from a system in which all digitizeable content is available for free? Google? The academic establishment? I don’t know. But the arrow seems pointed away from creators.

I’m still cheering for Radiohead and wish them every success. But not without some curiosity and concern. The “content should be free” model is a hip one to espouse, but can it provide sustenance to the musicians, writers, filmmakers – all artists – who create it? The jury’s still out. I’m watching closely…

More thoughts to follow next week…

If you find honey, eat just enough – too much of it, and you will vomit.

Check this out. It’s a chunk of comb honey that tumbled out of a hive when we did our fall inspections a few weeks ago. Have you ever eaten comb honey? It’s delicious. The old timers call it “poor man’s gum.” (Nowadays – with the price of comb honey soaring over sugar it’d have to be rich man’s gum.) The term harkens back to a day when it was more common for rural folk to keep backyard beehives and honey was there for the taking.

You eat it by the spoonful. Just break off or spoon up a bite size chunk. Pop it in your mouth. And enjoy! The wax chews like gum if you eat it by itself. But it’s edible and swallows easily if eaten on cornbread or toast.

Eating comb honey inspires reverie about the ancients. It’s a sensational treat. You’ve got the flaky, crispy texture of beeswax crumpling between your teeth. Then the gel-like texture of honey oozing over your tongue. And the sweetness!!! Oh, the sweetness. I’m a sugar fan (although I try to keep things reasonable) but the sweet, delicate flavor of comb honey leaves high-test white sugar in the dust. If honey tastes this divine to me in my sugar-saturated, United States circa 2007 existence, imagine what it might have tasted like to the ancients.

Although we’re currently sold out, Andy and I do sell comb honey through our honey company, Backyard Bees, LLC. It’s the first honey crop we harvest and is ready for sale in mid to late summer. Email us in July if you’re interested. We’ll let you know what’s available and put your name on the waiting list.

I bookmarked The Art Newspaper months ago but didn’t pay any attention to it ’til this week. What took me so long?!? It’s great! A monthly newsletter laid out in newspaper format. But all the articles are about art. How cool is that?

Check out these pumpkins. Aren’t they beautiful? I love looking at the green veins in the unripe one. They make me curious about how the pumpkin was made. And the universe too.