kurtguard

[kurtguard]

My fav is the "scary" one. #practicemakesperfect

[kurtguard]

Think we're getting there. 2017 is gonna be great.

[kurtguard]

...New Equipment. Smooth test drive so far.

[kurtguard]

New #tools mean more #work!

[kurtguard]

It's shedding season. As Sweet Maggie gets rid of her now useless undercoat so should we shed old negative habits. Shed away, friends!

She’s so furry! … And also that’s my dog over there.

[kurtguard]

She's so furry! ... And also that's my dog over there.

[kurtguard]

... Been a while

Yeah. Last entry was so long ago that I'm too ashamed to find the exact date. Better late than never. Let's try this again. Hello, Tumblr I am looking forward to hanging out more.

[kurtguard]

Eatin’ Healthy-ish!

Hello post-o-sphere, Sorry I haven’t written anything in a while. I’ve been working really hard and haven’t had the time. That’s a lie. Hey there, ol’ blog, ol’ buddy, ol’ pal. I know I’ve been delinquent with posting new stuff. I’ve been busy with other things like...

Lies.

I’ve been lazy. Truth is, I’ve been lazy about putting my feelings on “paper.” Well I’m human so that’s that. Just gonna try again.  It’s like that sometimes, you know? We mess up and feel like crap and then continue not doing what we’re supposed to do so that the crap chute can get longer and we can keep riding it like a slow, loathsome, disgusting waterslide. I encourage you, my half-dozen fans, to not lengthen the ride. When you mess up forgive yourself and try again. Don’t feed yourself with negativity. It’s not good for you. 

Speaking of feeding yourself: SEGUE!

I’ve recently been on a “weight-loss journey of self discovery.” Smile for me. Clap for me. I neeeed the attention! 

Don’t, though.

I’ve been making better choices about my eating and exercise habits. It’s been difficult to switch away from foods that I’ve gotten used to but I find it refreshing to be able to return to healthier food choices that I had long forgotten so there is hope there. Exercise is tough too. I love the post-workout feeling, it’s the getting-there part that really sucks, especially with no workout buddies around. It’s rough. 

They say that nothing good comes easy and I believe that. I balance it by realizing that I deserve good things so by extension I am already equipped do the not-so-easy tasks to achieve those good things. All I gotta do is dig deep and first, find, then use that equipment. So I’m learning to forgive myself for messing up in the past and to forgive myself when I mess up now. Sometimes I have to forgive myself several times a day and frankly Self can be a really ungrateful bastard. But along with forgiveness there must be repentance, that means returning to the high place (”RE” as in to do again | “PENT” from where we get penthouse | and also, etymology’s fun) or going back to doing the right thing. That’s where progress lives. 

So let’s recap: 

1. If you’ve been lazy, don’t lie to the internet about it.

2. Eat better and exercise more so that you can increase your likelihood of existing on earth in the future.

3. Forgive yourself when you mess up.

4. Most importantly return to doing the hard things that will benefit you later. And try not to quit again.

5. If you quit again repeat steps 3 and 4 until you’re a better person.

[kurtguard]

Artistish #2(a) - DESIGN - Elements of Design

The stored honey of the human soul... I guess it can be if you really value honey. I guess it also can be if you severely hate honey but are required to store it. My love/hate relationship with art skews my opinion sometimes but what never changes is my respect for the importance of art as a crucial part of being a human being. 

The Things That Make Up The Things We Call Art.

For this next lesson I am going to assume that, for many of you reading this, your experience with art has been somewhat limited to finger painting in pre-school followed by a brief stint with a high school art teacher who was really cool, really crazy or both and finally a museum visit or two where you saw paint splotches on a canvas for sale for an ungodly amount of money resulting in an overall thought pattern that resembles: “Art, huh? I guess I just don’t get it.” That is all totally fine because there is a lot to “get.” The first thing that I had to learn was that before one can understand why a can of human excrement can sell for approx. $144,725 USD (£97,250 in 2008. I’m serious, look it up,) one must first understand the formal qualities of art and design which help to level the playing field. These elements are like the building blocks of any composition*.

ELEMENTS OF DESIGN

There are 5 Elements of Design (and sometimes 7) and they are: LINE, SHAPE, TEXTURE, COLOR, VALUE and also SIZE and DIRECTION. I will explain these and my reasons for throwing shade at the last two.

LINE - Can be defined as linear marks made by a drawing tool (i.e. pen marks or brush marks) as well as the edge that is created where two shapes meet like the horizon line where the sea and sky meet.

SHAPE - A self-contained area in a composition. Shapes can be geometric or organic as well as positive or negative. More on this later.

TEXTURE - The surface quality or a shape; The roughness, smoothness, bumpiness, fluffiness etc. of a shape. Texture can be tactile as in “Ooo, that feels like sandpaper,” or visual as in “Hey this feels like dried paint but it looked like it was rough like sandpaper... And also I should not have touched the painting and I’m sorry.”

COLOR - The color of an element... Either you can see color or you can’t. Not sure what else there is to say here besides this can also be referred to as the hue.

VALUE - The lightness or darkness of an element. Keep in mind that this applies to color as well and is not limited to shades of gray. Some colors have a darker value than others like blue will generally have a darker value than yellow. One of the clearer ways to think of it is to imagine making a black and white copy of the composition and consider which colors would be darker or lighter than others. This is also referred to as tone.

The other two are at the bottom of my list because they seem to border into being art principles rather than just simply art elements. I think of them to be like the letter “y,” a consonant who conveniently becomes a vowel without having to ask permission.

SIZE - The relationship of space occupied by an object in comparison to one or several others in a composition. Size is always relative, never absolute.

DIRECTION - The path, from its origin point, in which a line is going. Can be described as vertical, diagonal, horizontal, oblique etc.

*Yeah, I didn't mention before but a composition is any collection of artistic elements and applied art principles that can be considered as one unit and is not limited to the visual arts. Keep in mind, however, that each art form would have it’s own set of unique elements and would not be limited to the ones above. Composition can also refer specifically to the formal qualities of a visual artwork where intent and meaning are stripped form the piece in question.

In summary these things make up the visuals that we see and criticize and/or admire on a daily basis. From paintings, photos, drawings and sculpture to selfies, food-porn, kittens and photoshop fails are all made up of these elements.

HOMEWORK - Before the next lesson you are to look at 5 paintings, photos, drawings or pieces of sculpture and identify at least the first 5 Elements of Design in each one.

Our next lesson will cover the Principles of Design and will include more pictures. Whaaat?! 

[kurtguard]

Artist-ish #1 - Yeah, This is Still an Artist's Blog...

A great deal of my blog entries have something to do with how I feel or the internal struggles that I go through in my daily life. It's not because I'm such a complainer (Well.. Maybe I am a big complainer,) it's because I intended to use this place as a sacred space. My own little corner of the internet where I could pour myself out every now and then and maybe revisit in a decade to see how far I have progressed. But this is the internet and there is nothing sacred here and I'm cool with that. I also have a desire to help other artists that may come after me. I got a great deal of help along the way and I've always thought it fair to pay it forward. So here goes.

Lesson #1 - Love What You Do or Don't Do It.

I've gotten back into graphic design. I find it both daunting and rewarding but I like it way more than when I don't like it. Here is my Graphic Design pros and cons list:

PROS

Design is a form of communication that transcends language.

Design is art with stricter rules that sort of level the artistic playing field.

A good design is a challenge. It asks you to communicate one or a few specific messages while limiting the number of elements that you can use.

Design can earn you actual money that you can use to create life-sustaining dinners each night.

Some clients are specific and very helpful. These clients usually pay well and on time.

CONS

Graphic design is the UBER taxi of the art world. Any greasy jerk can start clicking around in Photoshop and suddenly they are a graphic designer. Competition is fierce.

The people who want something designed don't necessarily know what good design is and will buy the greasy jerk's stuff over yours because it's cheaper.

Clients can really suck sometimes.

Clients can REALLY, seriously suck sometimes.

Without clients there is no money. You have to find a way to deal with them effectively.

So this is a good place to throw in a tidbit about myself. I haven't finished school yet. More specifically, I have not yet earned my degree in art yet. But not having my degree doesn't make me less qualified. I have years of professional experience and I take a great deal of pride in my work. Some would say that I am one of those greasy jerks who make things more competitive for them but I disagree on the merit of intent. I never decided to pursue the arts as a means to be rich. I chose this because I absolutely love it and I would do this even if I didn't think it could earn me a living. 

That is the reason why you should do something. You should do it because you love it. Yeah, yeah, you've heard this stuff before, right? It's the kind of message that is easier to hear from a super rich guy who invented pizza or something else you may like (Can you tell that I like pizza?) The rhetoric is grounded in truth. When you do something that you love the bad days are better than the best day ever at the crappy job... And I know crappy jobs, trust me.

In summary: Don't be a greasy jerk. Do what you have to so that you can live while you work on doing what you love for a living. If that love happens to be art and design then I'll help ya' where I can. 

Come back next time for Lesson #2 where I talk about the things that comprise things.

[kurtguard]

Shut Up, Tummy!

Tummy: *Grumble*

Me: ...

Tummy: Hey.

Me: ...

Tummy: Me want pizza.

Me: Hush.

Tummy: *Grumble*

Me: We ate less than 4 hours ago and it's almost bedtime so be quiet.

Tummy: *Gassy Squeal*

Me: We're not getting pizza.

Tummy: But me want pizza.

Me: We've been doing well, We've already lost like 7 pounds and pretty soon I won't have to suck you in whenever I want to wear those sexy pants.

Tummy: Me not care about pants. Me want piz...

Me: No. you're not going to ruin this for me. I've been doing a good job with...

Tummy: Do not cut me off when me telling you what me want. You understand this?

Me: Look, you're not the boss of me. I decide how this goes down and we're not getting piz...

Tummy: Me... Want... Pizza!

Me: There's not even a pizza place open this late out here! What am I saying? It's out of the questi...

Tummy: Me want gas station pizza.

Me: Now that's disgusting. What kind of slob to you think I am? We've already lost like 7 pounds and spring times is coming. Soon it'll be summer and...

Tummy: Listen to me. Me not care about 7 pounds. Me only care about what me want. Right now me want you to give up on you dreams. Me want you to realize that you will not lose me. Me will always be right here making muffin top on you sexy pants.

Me: ...

Tummy: You fat and undisciplined. Me decide what you want. Me only one who love you body the way it is.

Me: ...

Tummy: *Grumble*

Me: Which gas station...?

[kurtguard]

You Scared?

There's really nothing to be afraid of. Is there?

2015 is rife with opportunity. As cliché as that may sound it is true. Every year brings with it a cornucopia of fresh ideas to be pondered and pursued, fresh people to meet, and fresh chances to do things that have never been done before (Never been done by you before.) A great deal of times these things just kind of whiz by us and we placate ourselves with the common good reasons why those new things couldn't be experienced this time. We tell ourselves that we were way too busy or that we had way too little money or, my favorite, we would NEVER do anything like THAT anyway so what would have been the point to try?

Well I think we were scared. I think YOU were scared. I think that

I

was

too

scared...

Too scared, I tell ya. Legitimately frightened of things that could happen or may have happened to someone else. Now to put things in perspective there are reasons to be cautious. The beautiful thing about the human brain is that we don't have to have experienced something directly in order to learn the lesson from having done it. We can learn the proverbial "hard way" by hearing Suzie's I-Burnt-My-Hand-on-the-Stove story and empathizing with her. We can imagine the pain of a burnt hand and decide not to burn our hands either.

But here's the kicker:

Does this warrant a legitimate fear of the stove? Should we never touch a stove again? I'll answer: NO! Madness. Stoves are great! They make things hot and delicious. I bet Suzie is using the stove right now, making some Swiss hot chocolate and watching 'dem steam trails rise out of her tiny hot chocolate pot letting her know that Netflix night is about to be awesome.

I digress.

Fear is powerful. I think that fear and faith are polar opposites. You can be so afraid of something happening that it actually happens. You can fear your own horrors into existence. On the flip side of that dank coin is the faith part. We've heard countless stories of people facing incredible odds who succeeded because they believed the could. Yes, lots of hard work and perseverance in there too but belief that they could get there kept them going.

Don't be scared. There's too much to see and do in this lifetime and more access to it than ever before. Take a shot. After getting over the fear of doing something scary it becomes, well, not so bad after all. It may not be easy but how would you know if you don't do it? 

Cypher Raige once said "Do not misunderstand me. Danger is very real but fear is a choice." And he was able to say it in a film that was terrifyingly horrid. Seriously, it's scary how bad this movie was.

There's really nothing to be afraid of. Except After Earth by M. Night Shayamalan and nothing else.

[kurtguard]

Snow in Atlanta?! Oh no!

[kurtguard]

....Cold Enough for You?

Atlanta has some relatively unpredictable weather. For example we just came out of a week of 60°F weather to face a solid week of below-freezing, gusty nonsense. It doesn't seem to matter how long I've lived here I'll never get used to how strange the winters can be. People can be a lot like the weather. Unseasonably warm and then unpredictably cold in a short space of time. It's jarring sometimes. It's uncomfortable most times. It can be discouraging, infuriating. But you have to deal with people, you have to work with them and share roads with them and, at some point, live with them. The truth is neither the weather nor the whims of humans change the facts of life. You still have to live it. And you have to live it yourself. Only you are answerable for your own actions. Neither freezing rain nor a middle finger can force you to behave one way or another. You may not be able to control or predict everything but you have a great deal of input in how you conduct yourself no matter how cold it gets. Bundle up!

[kurtguard]

How ya feelin'?

One of my best friends asked me "...So what's been going on with you lately?" That seems like a casual conversation starter, doesn't it? Nothing out or sorts. One could reply with a neutral statement that could then segue into a more interesting dialogue or, usually among buddies, a non-threatening negative response that evokes the common platitudes. Coming from this particular friend, though, this question had some more serious undertones to it. He genuinely wanted to know what was going on in my life of late and there was a noticeable air of concern in his voice. Part of why this was worthy of documenting was that he wasn't the only one to have asked me this. My parents, colleagues, and close friends all seemed to eerily string these same words together in this same order and within a short space of time from each other.

I knew something was going wrong a while back. Probably about 2 years ago, right around my 30th nameday (Game of Thrones much?) Officially leaving my 20s behind made me reflect on them in the least constructive of ways. I was sad and it wasn't pretty. I was able to slowly move past it and be content with the age section on my Facebook profile but the sadness lingered in small amounts and would grow in times of negativity and confusion both of which the next year would bring in copious amounts. 

I began to notice that how I felt would begin to affect my performance at work. It wouldn't be so bad that I would need to see the higher-ups but it was enough for me to notice and become concerned. Where normally I would love talking to strangers to try to brighten up their days I no longer wanted to say anything to anyone that I didn't know. I eventually tried to fight these feelings by seeking emotional validation from people. It was fleeting and ended up having the same effect as if I had decided to self-medicate with heroine.

It's at the point now where I no longer want to go outside because I don't want anybody to see me and I shudder if I notice a camera pointed in my direction. Where normally I would call friends and family several times per week now I send most calls to voice mail and hardly every call anyone back. "...So what's been going on with you lately?" came from people who knew a different Kurt from the one that they were looking at and my only genuine response was "I just don't feel well."

Feelings are powerful. Sometimes they lie and trick you into believing things that aren't real and sometimes they are fierce and push you into making great decisions that would merely have been "OK" had they not been executed with such fervor. Regardless of which end of the feelings spectrum that one is on at any given time the fact is that one's feelings directly affect the world around them. If you're feeling great then your day will look great despite all the trash thrown at you. If you're feeling like crap then the whole world and all it's beauty begin to also look like crap.

Feel good about things... all things, even the bad things. Feel good on purpose. It is very difficult sometimes but slim chances of success do not an impossibility make. Feeling good about yourself will usually make people feel good about you.

[kurtguard]

Do Ya Love Me?

Life really is good. Isn't it? Well life is what you make it. I had a slice of the good life this past weekend. You know, Valentine's Day and such. *wink, wink* 

Anyone who knows me well enough knows that I hate Valentine's Day. I have a bitterness for it that may not be justified but is rooted in some real issues and so v-day is usually not an awesome time for me. What's worse; I attended a wedding on Saturday. Yeah, a wedding on Valentine's Day. Who does that? Who goes to a wedding on... No, wait! You know what?! Who gets MARRIED on Valentine's Day!?

So with all that going on this could have been a genuinely rotten weekend... But it wasn't. My sister-in-law was the bride and she's always been nice to me. The bride was lovely, the ceremony was beautiful and the food was on point. I also looked very handsome in my cardigan and sexy striped pink tie. There was belly dancing, Stevie Wonder music, and even alcohol-spiked groom's cake. What more could you reasonably ask for? More belly dancing? Yes I agree.

I was faced with a choice this weekend: I could either be all sour-patch-kids about life or I could embrace the opportunities in front of me to have some good experiences with some great people. I chose the latter. I imagine that this is what happens every day. I'm going to be offered a choice every day to have a good day or a bad one. From experience I can tell that on some days that choice will be easier to make than on other days. I'm going to try to keep choosing to have good experiences so that when life asks me: "Do ya love me, Kurt?" I can say in my least sarcastic voice: Yes. Yes I do.

Love life and love yourself.

[kurtguard]

Ruff Week.

I'm really glad that I made it to Friday. A great deal of nothing happened this week but that's because I did a great deal of nothing. You only get what you give, folks. The weekend must be better than the week so I will make sure that it is.

A large part of what makes being an artist difficult is, frankly, the laziness. Creative minds tend to drift. Discipline is what makes progress possible. Creativity and Discipline together make mind-blowing things happen. If you're thinking of becoming an artist as a career then make sure to remember that. If you're not an artist but rather an incredibly disciplined salaryman/salarywoman then I commend you and you're welcome for the belly laugh at my expense.

Despite my whining I still have the heart to continue. And so I press. When the new, pretty stuff drops I'll post on my website. Till then my older stuff is up there and its still hot. Check me out. Keep pressing. Stay motivated.

http://www.kurtguard.com