JMS Labs

Parnassius Autocrator (1995)

May 17, 2007 By Bradley Weber

There was no plan for this piece. I made a frame, stretched some canvas and started gelling on pieces from a discard copy of J. D. Salinger’s RAISE THE ROOF BEAM HIGH, CARPENTERS. When it became clear that was going nowhere, on went some paint.

It almost stopped with the lightbulb, but something was missing. Why would all eyes in this painting be staring at lightbulb? (And what is it with me and monsters, anyway? Sheesh.)

Bruce mentioned a trick he learned at college: if a painting is giving you trouble, look at it in a mirror. Seeing the work in a different way might make the problem clear.

And damnit if that didn’t work.
[Read more…] about Parnassius Autocrator (1995)

Bathroom Ads Go Digital

May 10, 2007 By Bradley Weber

A couple of weeks ago the wife, then kid, and I went to Chicago’s very own John G. Shedd Aquarium. If you haven’t been there in a while, you owe yourself a trip. If you’re an out-of-town reader and you come to the Windy City, an afternoon at the Shedd needs to be on your itinerary.

While there, if you find it necessary to heed nature’s call, you’ll find these in the bathrooms: The Digital Washroom Advertising System by Impressionaire.

“ImpressionAire places digitally-equipped warm air hand dryers in high profile, high traffic public washrooms. Your ad message is displayed every 30 seconds around the clock on a high-tech flat panel computer screen.

The viewer looks at your ad while drying hands in a venue that is free of traditional advertising.

Target male or female washrooms, change your message overnight and reinforce your total media campaign with this unique new advertising venue.”

I have to admit, it’s a clever and well-executed idea. But, while curiosity makes me wonder about advertising costs and administration, I can’t help but be annoyed that I’m forced to endure commercials in the bathroom. Is there no escape?

Has anybody run into these hand dryers elsewhere — in the US or the world?

Still Life With Monster, VII

May 10, 2007 By Bradley Weber

Making Me Look Good

May 10, 2007 By Bradley Weber

Thanks to my pal Bruce Bachelder for framing the third-to-latest Still Life With Monster painting. (see the full-size original here, then go check out Bruce’s gallery over at the Fine Arts Guild site.)

I gave the framed piece to our friend Holly who liked it so much she hung it in her Hall Of Art.

Thanks for putting Monster in with such august company, Holly.

Casey At The Bat (book review)

May 3, 2007 By Bradley Weber

CASEY AT THE BAT, Earnest Thayer’s minor epic poem about baseball, gets a wholly fresh and nostalgia-free update by artist Joe Morse. Morse abandons the handlebar moustaches and turn-of-the-century trappings of previous editions. Instead, he brings the 1888 poem into the modern inner city.

To do that, the book’s design sets-up a slick transition from the Victorian Era to current time by placing over the first page a sheet of vellum watermarked with an old-timey logo for the Mudville Nine. The vellum overlays a heavily graffitied brick wall above which floats a word balloon filled with the poem’s title.