New Project

So the wedding is gearing up for a wonderful year long roller coaster ride of planning and stress. Flowers, honeymoon, tux, dress, alterations, boots (yeah boots), and so much other stuff its insane. I think that there kind of is an entrance exam for marriage. And it's this part. Okay, that aside, I have a new project.

When I was younger my friend Gabe and I created comics. He and I collaborated on content and I drew them. Given my remedial skills as an illustrator, we kind of looked like the same person in the comics. And, while the storyline was kind of there, I like to think we'll have more depth this time around. We're going to attempt a comic about childhood. A sort of blend of reality and fantasy. I found that after drawing long lanky characters all my life, drawing kids is freaking hard. (As I said to both Gabe and Deanna because I thought myself clever: "They're all big heads and tiny arms. Like a T-Rex, but less cool.")

So now gabe and I are working on a story and character models. I see the comic starting out playfully, but dealing with some real issues as the story progresses. Possible things to tackle:

Is what is happening (aliens, dinosaurs, etc.) actually real?
If not, then is the other friend even real?
And probably more, lol. I have some sketches I'd like to share now.

Anon Post: 01

Anonymous will become a social movement very soon. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it yet.

Sandstone Castles

Sandstone Castles

Our sandstone castles eroded by current,
carried out by undertoe.
Sands of our time sifted, slow.
Pillars of trust, cut away.
Freestanding hopes, supported
on backs of youth, too few.
Weight unwanted, the cost too high
should the stone be let to fall.


Just a bit of prose. A generation lost, left to hold up a broken legacy.

Front Page of CNN.com: A Rant

I read CNN a lot. For all its leans and biases, it's still pretty fair from what I can see. (I suppose FOX is fair for other people, but I'm not here to talk about media bias.) I wanted to comment on something that generally made me angry. An article on the front page of CNN.COM drew out my claws in a way that made me uneasy. The article is HERE. It's a short rant with facts and generalizations talking about how much of a failure my generation already is (this before we've had a chance to try).

I'll tell you briefly why this bothers me. I was going to rail against this article (in a fashion that would only serve to prove this mans point further) but it's so plainly and unabashedly mean-spirited that I simply won't give it the luxury of going over each point. It felt like a racist manifesto.

"Speaking broadly, millennials are tech-savvy, highly educated and have incredibly high self-esteem even if they haven't done much to deserve it. (To be sure, not every millennial is college educated and exhibits all these traits; we're speaking broadly.)"

Imagine for a second that this is about a race of people. And you say:

'Speaking broadly [Blanks] are [Quality which appears positive but is turned negative later in the piece #1] [Quality #2] and [Quality which you then spin as a condescending remark]. But not all [blanks] are like that, we're speaking broadly.'

The way it's delivered is in such a way that my having an issue with it is fuel to the fire. "There's another hotheaded, self entitled [Blank] that can't take criticism."

We're the next generation, we will hold jobs and we will make decisions. Please don't talk to your fellow "Non-Milleneals" like my generation can simply be turned away (or "re-booted" for that matter). Don't talk like this problem world we've fallen into is somehow just too hard for us. Don't treat me as if I can't hear you up at the grown up table.

Insects

Just some exoskeletons and a grasshopper that was probably lost.

Official Website

I've officially created a website with a cohesive portfolio of my work. Please feel free to check it out.

http://www.danjclarkphoto.com/

I will still update this blog with the array of things I've always posted here, so feel free to check back here as well.

Vistaprint is a Terrible Company: a review

Those of us in the business of printing know what quality printing and 300dpi looks like. And I can tell you, Vistaprint ain't it.


"Vistaprint is committed to customer satisfaction. We will reprint or refund the cost of any product that fails to meet our customers quality expectations. [But the customer must jump through metaphorical flaming hoops in order to receive said refund.]"*
*Bracketed text added by editor for ethical considerations.



Design:
I decided to get cards for my newly established self, website and all. So I chose to use Vistaprint. I found that they require a significant margin for error so your design, should you choose to upload your own, has to be strangely close to the center. I was okay with that, so I proceeded. All over the site they advertise 300DPI!! GREAT QUALITY! PREMIUM PRODUCT! STATE OF THE ART! so I naturally expected that this would be the case when I uploaded a .PSD file of my design. Here's where things got weird.

Checkout:
They have various shipping options. That's fairly normal, but their cheapest option is marked "slow". I have literally never seen "slow" as an option before. It goes against anything I've ever known about online shopping. USPS Ground is like paying someone to kick your package across the United States with steel toed boots. What on *Earth* I asked myself could "slow" possibly be?

Turns out it's as I expected, it's the same kind of shipping as the next step up, except you pay less.

Delivery:
Upon opening the box I was elated. I could begin carrying my little cards around and show people how I'm going to be successful, the little cards would prove it. But alas, the text wasn't readable, colors bled into one another, and it was generally a disgrace to printing. So I put them back in the box and figured I would contact customer service.

Customer Service (Ha ha):
So I contact Customer service through their email system, and tell them that the cards aren't readable and the printing is terrible.
I get a response something to the effect of "We're not responsible for layout, design or typos. Here's a 25% off offer for reprints."
I pause, I re-read my initial email. No I never mentioned layout, design or spelling.
I respond and restate my issue, quality.
The response, almost the same as the first time, except this time no 25% off. How sad.
I respond again and ask to have my matter sent to a supervisor.
They assure me that it has been sent.
Days go by.
I send a reminder email that i am awaiting contact.
Another day goes by.
I send another email.
Another day goes by.

The Call:
As email has failed I begin a campaign of phone calls. But I'm defeated at first by an automated system which directs me to the email system. I pause and Google how to get a live person at Vistaprint. The best way to get a live person at Vistaprint? LIE. Yes, lie to the automated system and pretend you want to place an order. That's the only way I found to get a live person.

This person, reads off a script once I tell them I want a supervisor. I wait on hold. Another person answers and I explain the situation to him. He tells me the same thing I've been told numerous times. I tell him that I have personally printed with matte paper at 300dpi and that what I received was not "quality". He tells me that a refund will be issued (except not for shipping) and that I will receive a confirmation email.

No confirmation email as of yet. No refund as of yet.

Remnants.

What always seems interesting to me is what cultures leave behind. As I'm rarely around cultures other than American I have explored these types of remnants most closely. I recently stopped at what appeared to be a vacant lot. I stopped and pushed aside dense sagebrush and other desert plants to explore deeper. I discovered the remnants of a house. It seems someone deemed that whatever home had been here so unworthy of existence it was demolished and left to become an overgrown lot. It was beautiful in a sad kind of way. The foundations were left, loose roofing tiles splintered and half buried. And in the back there lies a swimming pool, filled with desert earth instead of chlorinated water.

Front Yard

Foundations

Foundations

Pool

Pool

Outside

Outside
A Mural Print by Daniel James Clark

Through my artistic development, my work has drawn from a common theme: the blending of reality and fantasy. I’ve made the association between childhood fantasies, and the adult need for wonder, excitement, and adventure. My thesis is that as we age, our thirst for the magical, the fantastic, and the “otherworld” just out of sight does not diminish. As adults we still need to believe that anything is possible. I feel that the way we can satisfy this need is through exploration: going “outside”. Whether exploring takes us just outside our comfort zone, or thrusts us into something wholly immersive does not matter, so long as we are outside.

“Outside” examines that conclusion by drawing the character, and thereby the viewer to peer outside through the window into a universe of possibility. Printed as a 40x26 inch piece, “Outside” is intended to place the viewer in front of a scene they can immerse themselves in more effectively than a smaller print would allow.

imagine

imagine

Inspired by a loss of personal freedom, which is largely self imposed, “imagine” aims to explore the possibilities we lose as we grow older. I started this project with research into what it is children posess that we as adults have lost. The answer seems to be the ability to immerse oneself in imaginative play. Current research has found that this ability tends to decrease with age, and that the current methods used to teach todays youth may be depriving children of “unstructured playtime”.

What I aim to explore in this series is the part of this situation which recieves less attention: evidence that adults lose the ability to play imaginatively with age. A growing culture of people have begun to push back this trend and play imaginatively as adults. Flashmobs, urban exploration, historical reenactments, and numerous other groups and subcultures seek to extract adventure and fun from the otehrwise standard routines of life. The webcomic XKCD has embraced this sort of sentimental exploration of the ‘inner child’. The comic depicts characters who merge fantasy with reality frequently, and I have found the ideas to accurately voice the growing discord I feel with reality as it presents itself to me. Comic 137 entitled “Dreams” examines the limitations we impose upon ourselves as we age:

“The infinite possibilities each day holds should stagger the mind…” an unnamed stick figure says. “We live trapped in loops, reliving a few days over and over, and we envision only a handful of paths laid out before us. We see the same things every day, we respond the same way, we think the same thoughts, each day a slight variation on the last, every moment smoothly following the gentle curves of societal norms. We act like if we just get through today, tomorrow our dreams will come back to us.
“And no, I don't have all the answers… But I do know one thing: the solution doesn't involve watering down my every little idea and creative impulse for the sake of some day easing my fit into a mold… It doesn't involve constantly holding back for fear of shaking things up.
“This is very important, so I want to say it as clearly as I can:
“FUCK. THAT. SHIT.”

xkcd comic #150 "Grownups"

The Floor is Lava

Secret Agent

Super Hero