I was surfing today and came across the website of Leonardo Solaas. I have to say that I am quite impressed at how he uses interesting techniques of visualizing data to create artistic images. One of his nifty projects, Dreamlines, allows users to enter search terms and then the application uses Google’s image search. Pixels become data values which are then compiled to form a constantly changing and shifting image. I used the search term “surrealmuse” to create the images here in the post.

Another project, Migrations, takes two completely different sources and smashes their data together. The first source consists of random fragments of The Quixote, the second comes from randomly selected words from the world news of the day according to the BBC. The words from both sources tangle with one another to form an interesting visual set. Salaas says that “…letters migrate between them to show the simple fact that, in spite of all their distances, they are made of the same stuff. The foundations of our culture, the accounts of the world we live in: all is language.”

His site has quite a bit more fun applications and is definitely worth a visit.

[Leonardo Salaas]

The online Art Gallery has been updated with hover graphics embedded directly on the same servers for quicker page load times. No more transfers to flickr! Yea!

In addition, the Gallery has been broken up into five different collections. The first and most comprehensive gallery features 20 of my soft pastel Portrait paintings. My entire portrait painting collection does include more pieces so I’ll be expanding this gallery soon.

The second gallery features 12 selections from my original Pastel Journal. These were always created on the spur of the moment without any pre-planning. Starting first with the images ,and then, the words.

The third gallery features some of my Abstract paintings. Ranging from tribute pieces created in honor of Paul Klee and Jackson Pollack to studies in pointism and cubism. The Abstract Gallery also features some of my own takes on musical studies, mantra art, abstract flowers, and the prozac generation.

The Project Gallery includes eight projects ranging from explorations using mosaics to pressed flowers…even hundreds wine cork thanks to my Uncle Paul. The Project Gallery also features my impressive collection of homemade Magnetic Poetry that includes over 650 words and only took one Sunday afternoon to create.

And to give you a taste of what my surroundings look like when creating, here’s six shots of my Studio including Cleo, our little artist cat.

Here is the finished piece of artwork I created at the Art after Dark event at the Tampa Museum of Art. It’s part of my recent series in exploring abstract designs. Since I’m working with larger works of art now, it’s taking longer to scan them in. I’ve actually got a stack of new work awaiting to be scanned and finally framed.

So far this weekend’s been pretty amazing. We checked out the 2012 show on Friday night. Brian got a ton of great footage that he’ll be going through soon to upload another YouTube video. Then today we had a little party at our place with some new and old friends.
Next Friday, we’ll be going to Permission to Spreak Freely @ International Bazaar in Centro Ybor. It is a venue for all artists and musicians to perform or show pieces of their creative abilities whether it’s through spoken word, visual creations, dance…you name it. It’s a great way to get exposure, make new friends, or just be entertained. So come check it out if you’re in the area.