Gif Art

I'm back remixing and trying to re-arrange the world into something that makes more sense. Yet, the dust still gathers, the dust still settles. Such is the lot of the poor artist.

If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern. - William Blake

I went down into the rabbit hole today. Sometimes it is good, good to just close the door and plunge into something. Whatever. Could be just your own thoughts. Could be dreams of glory or dreams of violence. Could be just you and a flickering TV. Whatever. Follow it. Don’t follow your dreams, follow what keeps you alive.

So, I sat down and got dirty making some Gif art.

For those who might not know, I somehow became a kind of semi-authority on the world of graphic interchange format. It’s not a pretty beast, it’s a lazy one and full of a lot of fat. But when you fall in love, all that don’t matter.

One of my failures in life, one that I failed in with all my love was Gif Lingua. Seems another lifetime ago but it was only a few years back. My wife still hasn’t got over the money I burned. Oh well, easy come, easy go.

Anyway, I learned much and became a kind of walking dictionary for the file extension .gif. My hope was to create a kind of ideographic language using just gifs. But alas, art is never finished, merely abandoned.

However, today, I got right into creating some art with gifs. So I thought I’d share some. Maybe something will strike you, caress you, knife you, wife you, life you …

And that’s what art is all about. rearranging our senses and coming out the other end clean, as children and seeing the world afresh, anew. Our drains get clogged so fast - especially in this day and age of hucksters, liars, con-artists, dream weavers, marketeers …

I’ll eventually post the whole series, now about 30 titles in and will work deep into this night so long as the red wine holds out. I really espouse the 37 Signals philosophy - get your ideas, your art out there and then work, move on from there.

Enjoy the gif magic. A little commentary on the world today, yesterday and forever.

Credits

• Ladder To The Moon. Georgia O’Keefe.
  Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci
  Salvador Dali, Raphaelesque Head Bursting
  Edward Hopper, Night Hawks
  The Creation of Adam, Leonardo da Vinci
  The Scream, Edvard Munch
  Earth Rise, Apollo 8
  Fountain, Marcel Duchamps
  Woman with Book and Self-Portrait, Pablo Picasso
  The Water Lily Pond, Claude Monet
  Self-Portrait, Vincent Van Gogh
  Girl With The Pearl Earring, Johannes Vermeer