Pixiq

Remember all the hoopla when Google + debuted? It was oh-so-cool to be amongst the beta users and the hip-invited. Well, it's here now and invitations abound, circles are being created and uploading your images is really only user-friendly with Picasa, although the upload resizes your images for you. But Groan;-(( it is yet another platform for the seemingly endless necessities of the online life. Well, I don’t know about you, but I am not interested in the every-mili-second followings on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Reddit, Stumbleupon and now Google + is just adding to the mix. My friend, and Pixiq contributor, John Neel, read my post and immediately phoned me with his "harry caray" sage advice, practically announcing that I had commited social media suicide. Oh bother. Sure, I get it,  I do have a Google + account (feel free to add me to one of your circles- Oh Mandala Save Me)- BUT It’s just another thing to keep up with and distract me from making real art. (Sure, I love my applications like Sketch Mee, Adobe PS, Instagram, Instabooth, TTV, and then some. The immediacy is great and later I can take the artwork into more sophisticated programs like Studio Artist, Artmatic and Painter.) And I do love my Google Mail/ Calendar (how did I ever live before it? oh right, there was Daytimer)- and I love, love my IPhone Apps. But the Boomerang generation (formerly known as Generation X) and my generation (formerly known as Beat Generation or Baby Boomer Generation) are all hankering for a return to normality and yes, dare I BREATHE IT: analog. Take my cool, 20 year-old son, Paolo, an avid musician and artist. He collects vinyls. Why? The sound is better, incredible actually. Well what are digital photographers collecting? Space on ICloud? And to what end?

So sure, I know that the All-Mighty God, Media, markets Digital to the Masses but I still prefer good old fashioned, art. To bridge that gap, I wrote Digital Image Transfer: Creating Art with Your Photography. I hope it makes you less App-athetic and redirects you to what stirred you towards image-making in the first place. As always, ever art.