Contemporary Chinese painter Luo Zhongli's representative oil painting work Father made a very deep impression on many Chinese people when it won a national prize in 1981. The large-scale photorealist portrait of a weather-beaten old Chinese farmer has a strong visual effect and emotional power.However, few people pay much attention to the small ballpoint pen that pokes out from the farmer's white turban. And even fewer people know that there was no ballpoint pen in Luo's original painting.
Father is currently being exhibited at the Power Station of Art in Shanghai. At the exhibition site, Li Xu, the deputy director of the venue, told visitors the story behind the pen.After Luo finished his original version of Father, many of his friends, who were painters, teachers or professors in China's fine arts circle at the time, reminded Luo that it was better to depict the farmer he painted as representative of farmers in the new, modernized society of post-1949 China.
Therefore, after reflecting on it, Luo added a small ballpoint pen tucked behind the farmer's ear in order to show that he was a "literate (youwenhua)" farmer.Soon after that, in 1981, the painting was awarded the first prize at the second China Youth Art Exhibition, arousing a huge response from the public.
For people today, the story of the pen probably sounds a little absurd, and indeed, the pen looks rather incongruous in the otherwise highly realistic portrait of an old farmer. However, it demonstrates that in that era of China, the desire to adhere to Mao-era political correctness was still deeply ingrained in many Chinese people's minds, even in the circle of fine arts.That is probably the significance of Luo's Father appearing at the retrospective exhibition titled Portrait of the Times: 30 Years of Chinese Contemporary Art at the Power Station of Art.
The ongoing exhibition features about 117 Chinese artists and 300 works of art. The works span from the late 1970s, the era of reform and opening-up, until today and include various forms including painting,oil painting reproduction, installation, video and photography.Li is the curator of the exhibition. He told the Global Times that during the past 30 years, China's economic and cultural development, as well as Chinese people's growing self cognition and social involvement, are reflected by Chinese artists' works over these years.
"Through this retrospective exhibition on the past 30 years of Chinese contemporary art, not only can visitors have an overview of the development of Chinese contemporary art, but more importantly, it shows the huge changes that China and Chinese people have experienced in the past 30 years."In 1993, the 58-year-old Shanghai-born artist Gu Wenda launched his worldwide art project, the United Nations Project, to make a series of installation artworks using human hair and cryptic calligraphy.
The United Nations - Human Space, one of the art works from the series, is currently hanging on the top of the exhibition hall on the first floor of the Power Station of Art. It is a huge installation work consisting of various national flags made from human hair from different countries.
"The hairs could be regarded as a metaphor for the mixture of races," Li said, "and the artist gathered them together to show his idea about the internationalized evolution of human identity."Gu, who studied and worked in the US, Canada and Australia after leaving China in 1987, has achieved recognition on the global stage. The British art historian Edward Lucie-Smith called Gu "the most celebrated of a new generation of avant-garde artists who emerged from China in the very late 1980s and early 1990s."
"I always remember my first solo exhibition held in Xi'an in 1986 was shut down by the local authorities," Gu told the Global Times. The exhibition, which featured paintings of fake ideograms on a massive scale, was thought to carry subversive messages. "But now, almost 30 years later, my works can be displayed in a State-owned art museum." The Power Station of Art is the first State-owned contemporary art museum in China."When I left China in 1987, there were no private art galleries here, but now, the whole country is practically covered with art galleries," Gu said.
The works of Xiao Quan and Lu Yunmin, two well-known Chinese photographers, are also on display at the exhibition. It is not often that an art exhibition in China will include photography works.Xiao's portrait works, Our Generation, focus on the elites in contemporary China's culture and art circles, who were mostly born in the 1950s and started their careers in the 1980s. His subjects include the celebrated film director Zhang Yimou, the pioneering rock star Cui Jian and the well-known contemporary artist Zhang Xiaogang.
Xiao's photos make an interesting contrast with the portrait photos that are hanging on the opposite wall, taken by Lu. Titled Shanghainese, the photos record vivid moments in the daily lives of Shanghainese families.Before she got angry, local artist Elizabeth Berry’s watercolor and oil paintings reflected snapshots of stunning colour and pastoral beauty around the world. Vivid poppy fields in France. Pretty East Coast fishing coves. Strutting, scarlet-crowned roosters in the Carribean.
But then came the morning after the Victoria Day long weekend in May.Her regular, early morning walk on the waterfront brought her to a scene on Woodbine Beach that got her so mad, she immediately beetled back to her home on Neville Park Blvd. (a 6.5-kilometre round trip), picked up her paint gear and returned to the scene of the grime to immortalize what she saw.
It’s evocatively titled Woodbine Beach Litter, a 15-by-22-inch watercolour that took her about four hours to create on site, with a return trip the following day at which she added one of the litter’s few fans, a seagull, and waves.The garbage depicted in the painting — pizza packaging, coffee cups, pop cans, cigarette butts and more — was all real and on the scene — and repeated in various clumps throughout the beach.
It’s nothing new, but it’s getting worse, says Berry, who’s in her late 60s and walks the boardwalk every day. She sees all sorts of litter — from food-related to personal, like abandoned diapers — continually along the route, although the quotient goes up as soon as the good weather arrives and stays high until after the Labour Day weekend.
When the historic Annapolis Market House reopens in the next couple of weeks, patrons will walk underneath Jean Tyson's bright red hollyhocks and Dixie Sangster's Cubist rendition of a vase of flowers.The two women are among 16 artists who contributed artwork for banners that will hang near the ceiling of the Market House. Eight banners, each more than 8 feet long, feature works from the Annapolis Senior Center's corps of art students, one on each side.
All of the artwork features brightly colored flowers. The idea is to give a vibrant pop of color to the interior of the Market House, even when it's dark and gray outside in the winter, said Sally Wern Comport of ArtWalk, the organization that linked the senior center artists with the Market House.
Read the full products at http://artsunlight.com/!
2013年8月26日星期一
2013年8月19日星期一
Change is in the air
It's the sky. In Myanmar, it dominates the horizon and dwarfs you, whether you are passing through the green fields or on the Irrawaddy. And it's a watercolour. It can never be an oil painting. The luminescence of the light will not allow it to be. From the airplane window, Myanmar is spread out like a Kashmiri carpet, all the pastel hues, an orderly pattern of beiges and greens. The sky is big even in Yangon, a city that feels like Rangoon, but not for long.A hotel room under $100 a night in Yangon is a steal. Rents in Yangon are “more expensive than Manhattan,'' says a diplomat. In Golden Valley in Bahan township, a leafy, posh diplomatic area, even the UN has moved out. “It is all the oil money,'' says an embassy official. An expat family recently moved out when their landlord upped their rent to $10,000 a month.
“Traffic jams,'' says Rajeev Rawal, associate director at Dr Reddy's Laboratories in Myanmar, when asked what has changed in the country. “Four years ago, you never had any.” When the Rawals moved in, the junta was in control. “The army could come and check your house at midnight,'' he says. Mentioning anything political was risky.This seems firmly the past today. The chaos of democracy may not be a reality at the moment, with the junta just playing the game, but there seems to be a freshness in the air.
At red lights in Yangon, hawkers can barely hold the newspapers they are selling. There are now more than 30 of them. Most of the newspapers are in Burmese and have been launched recently. An English daily is due to start soon.New flyovers are being built. “You pass something every day thinking one day you will return to take a picture,'' says Anne Celeste, who left Paris for Myanmar, 12 years ago, after a trip to Bagan, the land of the thousand pagodas. “Then, it disappears. Yangon is changing so fast,” she says.
But, it still retains some from the old. The two worlds have not collided as yet. It is chaotic, yet peaceful. Surprising, yet predictable. There are five-star hotels. Even dance bars. But, the image of a monk in deep maroon, walking with an umbrella, oil painting reproduction. That picture, which has come to symbolise the country, the colonial stereotype, is common enough. Women and men with their face covered with a thick paste of tanakha [a cosmetic preparation] still amble along the streets that are lined with hoardings advertising face-creams. Men still wear longyis. Chai stalls dot every street corner. It looks as if time has stood still.
“It is like the India of the 1950s,'' says Anil Vishwakarma, project director of Essar, which handles several projects in Myanmar. There are malls, but they have not really become a way of life. A holiday is still a time for people to stroll down the lake, holding hands. Children play on jungle gyms. Couples armed with huge umbrellas sit with their back to the world, hiding behind the span of the brollies. But that is only half the picture. There is also the skyscraper that is coming up next to Inle Lake hotel, a condominium with a coffee shop. Another shop sells cappuccino and wine, right next to a stall of Aung San Suu Kyi merchandise.
Air traffic is busy, with Myanmar all set to be the next hot destination. The golden triangle of Bagan, Mandalay and Yangon is connected by four flights a day. As one taxi driver puts it, “Myanmar is booming.”Pansodan Gallery, hidden behind a flyover and up a dingy staircase, is reflective of this change. Piled up with old posters, pictures and paintings, the gallery is a treasure trove for those looking for something beautiful from the past or wanting to invest in bolder strokes of new artists. “This was the first window for artists,'' says Aung Soe Min, the owner. “Now, they get paid better than actors.”
Myanmar isn't simple. It is superstitious. Former dictator Gen. Ne Win shot his reflection in the mirror as an astrologer had predicted that he would be shot. International roaming may still not be available—though in Yangon in some places there was signal—yet at a simple restaurant, the waitress will take your order on a tablet.
The junta can willingly 'relinquish' power to start a democracy. The military has donned the civvies and is on the road to democracy. But, “There is not one official in the director level who is an ethnic. Chief ministers of every state are ex-military,'' says a diplomat. Myanmar has a secret police, one of the most efficient in the world. George Orwell apparently got the idea of 1984 from his stint in the country. Yet, trust is something that is handed out like candy. You can leave your bag with jewellery somewhere, even in a taxi, and will get it back.
Identities are complicated in Myanmar. Your family can have lived here for generations, yet you can be identified as Indian on your national ID. “The whole national movement was against the British,'' says Harn Yawnghwe, executive director of Euro Burma Office. “We don't want any foreigners. This feeling carried on with south Asians and even Indians, who came with the British and stayed on. These elements have not been dealt with. We need to revisit history,” he says.
Yawnghwe is back after 48 years in exile, to help cobble together a peace settlement with the armed ethnic groups. His father, Sao Shwe Thaik, the first president of Burma, died in prison. His brother was shot dead by the army in the coup by Ne Win. There are many such stories of suffering.But in Myanmar, you don't speak of suffering.
Than Win Htut, the planning editor of the Democratic Voice of Burma, too, is back, to start a television talk-show, the first of its kind in Myanmar. There is heated discussion about the format. “We interviewed this couple in which one partner was Buddhist and the other Muslim,'' he says. “I suddenly got a call from a Buddhist monk who told me I was a sympathiser.” These issues still simmer. And will determine the country's future. “My friends have told me to be careful. This whole thing may still be an act by the government. This is new for us. Earlier, we were not allowed to interview officials. Now we can,” says Htut.
The feeling that change may not be everlasting, at least when it comes to politics, comes up in conversations. Do not bring up politics on your own, is what the guide book tells you. But, in Myanmar, politics is like the rain, it is a constant companion. “The government has lied to us for years. They may be lying again,'' says Zarni Mann, a reporter at The Irrawaddy Magazine, who lived in Delhi for seven years.
Democracy may not change the fortunes of the country, but economics will. The biggest challenge for the country will be capacity building. “Money is not a problem. It is flowing into the country like the Irrawaddy,'' says an Indian diplomat. Post-1964, all the teaching in schools was done in Burmese.
Convent schools were shut and foreign teachers were asked to leave. “It is a fairly literate country. But, English is a problem, even for engineers and doctors,'' says a diplomat.
Every city has a story, the kind that defines it. In Bombay, it would be a rags-to-riches story. Delhi has its share of crazy drivers. Or the loud Punjabis who insist that you come for a meal to their house without ever specifying the date. But in Yangon, it will be probably be about generosity. It is the kind of city where you can go into a restaurant, order a soup, get it spectacularly wrong, and not get charged for it. Not because you asked. But the waiter noticed you had not touched it.
Read the full products at http://www.artsunlight.com/!
“Traffic jams,'' says Rajeev Rawal, associate director at Dr Reddy's Laboratories in Myanmar, when asked what has changed in the country. “Four years ago, you never had any.” When the Rawals moved in, the junta was in control. “The army could come and check your house at midnight,'' he says. Mentioning anything political was risky.This seems firmly the past today. The chaos of democracy may not be a reality at the moment, with the junta just playing the game, but there seems to be a freshness in the air.
At red lights in Yangon, hawkers can barely hold the newspapers they are selling. There are now more than 30 of them. Most of the newspapers are in Burmese and have been launched recently. An English daily is due to start soon.New flyovers are being built. “You pass something every day thinking one day you will return to take a picture,'' says Anne Celeste, who left Paris for Myanmar, 12 years ago, after a trip to Bagan, the land of the thousand pagodas. “Then, it disappears. Yangon is changing so fast,” she says.
But, it still retains some from the old. The two worlds have not collided as yet. It is chaotic, yet peaceful. Surprising, yet predictable. There are five-star hotels. Even dance bars. But, the image of a monk in deep maroon, walking with an umbrella, oil painting reproduction. That picture, which has come to symbolise the country, the colonial stereotype, is common enough. Women and men with their face covered with a thick paste of tanakha [a cosmetic preparation] still amble along the streets that are lined with hoardings advertising face-creams. Men still wear longyis. Chai stalls dot every street corner. It looks as if time has stood still.
“It is like the India of the 1950s,'' says Anil Vishwakarma, project director of Essar, which handles several projects in Myanmar. There are malls, but they have not really become a way of life. A holiday is still a time for people to stroll down the lake, holding hands. Children play on jungle gyms. Couples armed with huge umbrellas sit with their back to the world, hiding behind the span of the brollies. But that is only half the picture. There is also the skyscraper that is coming up next to Inle Lake hotel, a condominium with a coffee shop. Another shop sells cappuccino and wine, right next to a stall of Aung San Suu Kyi merchandise.
Air traffic is busy, with Myanmar all set to be the next hot destination. The golden triangle of Bagan, Mandalay and Yangon is connected by four flights a day. As one taxi driver puts it, “Myanmar is booming.”Pansodan Gallery, hidden behind a flyover and up a dingy staircase, is reflective of this change. Piled up with old posters, pictures and paintings, the gallery is a treasure trove for those looking for something beautiful from the past or wanting to invest in bolder strokes of new artists. “This was the first window for artists,'' says Aung Soe Min, the owner. “Now, they get paid better than actors.”
Myanmar isn't simple. It is superstitious. Former dictator Gen. Ne Win shot his reflection in the mirror as an astrologer had predicted that he would be shot. International roaming may still not be available—though in Yangon in some places there was signal—yet at a simple restaurant, the waitress will take your order on a tablet.
The junta can willingly 'relinquish' power to start a democracy. The military has donned the civvies and is on the road to democracy. But, “There is not one official in the director level who is an ethnic. Chief ministers of every state are ex-military,'' says a diplomat. Myanmar has a secret police, one of the most efficient in the world. George Orwell apparently got the idea of 1984 from his stint in the country. Yet, trust is something that is handed out like candy. You can leave your bag with jewellery somewhere, even in a taxi, and will get it back.
Identities are complicated in Myanmar. Your family can have lived here for generations, yet you can be identified as Indian on your national ID. “The whole national movement was against the British,'' says Harn Yawnghwe, executive director of Euro Burma Office. “We don't want any foreigners. This feeling carried on with south Asians and even Indians, who came with the British and stayed on. These elements have not been dealt with. We need to revisit history,” he says.
Yawnghwe is back after 48 years in exile, to help cobble together a peace settlement with the armed ethnic groups. His father, Sao Shwe Thaik, the first president of Burma, died in prison. His brother was shot dead by the army in the coup by Ne Win. There are many such stories of suffering.But in Myanmar, you don't speak of suffering.
Than Win Htut, the planning editor of the Democratic Voice of Burma, too, is back, to start a television talk-show, the first of its kind in Myanmar. There is heated discussion about the format. “We interviewed this couple in which one partner was Buddhist and the other Muslim,'' he says. “I suddenly got a call from a Buddhist monk who told me I was a sympathiser.” These issues still simmer. And will determine the country's future. “My friends have told me to be careful. This whole thing may still be an act by the government. This is new for us. Earlier, we were not allowed to interview officials. Now we can,” says Htut.
The feeling that change may not be everlasting, at least when it comes to politics, comes up in conversations. Do not bring up politics on your own, is what the guide book tells you. But, in Myanmar, politics is like the rain, it is a constant companion. “The government has lied to us for years. They may be lying again,'' says Zarni Mann, a reporter at The Irrawaddy Magazine, who lived in Delhi for seven years.
Democracy may not change the fortunes of the country, but economics will. The biggest challenge for the country will be capacity building. “Money is not a problem. It is flowing into the country like the Irrawaddy,'' says an Indian diplomat. Post-1964, all the teaching in schools was done in Burmese.
Convent schools were shut and foreign teachers were asked to leave. “It is a fairly literate country. But, English is a problem, even for engineers and doctors,'' says a diplomat.
Every city has a story, the kind that defines it. In Bombay, it would be a rags-to-riches story. Delhi has its share of crazy drivers. Or the loud Punjabis who insist that you come for a meal to their house without ever specifying the date. But in Yangon, it will be probably be about generosity. It is the kind of city where you can go into a restaurant, order a soup, get it spectacularly wrong, and not get charged for it. Not because you asked. But the waiter noticed you had not touched it.
Read the full products at http://www.artsunlight.com/!
2013年8月5日星期一
Picture Frames Are the Art
At a gallery in Long Island City, Queens, Diego Salazar displays his unique collection of art, which is as lovely as it is peculiar. About 250 pieces hang in his main gallery, stacked one inside the next like Russian dolls. Some are covered in cherubs or crosses, others are gilded, and a few are more than 400 years old.
They are picture frames, but nearly every one of them stands empty. The frames themselves are the art.“Sometimes I buy a painting because I fall in love with the frame,” Mr. Salazar said, gesturing to a lonely portrait banished frameless on the floor. “Then I put the picture up for auction.”
Mr. Salazar spent many decades manufacturing frames out of Brooklyn and Queens, and today he is a collector and dealer of frames that are antiques, and can easily cost tens of thousands of dollars each. But as one might imagine, the market for such treasures is limited, so happily for Mr. Salazar, he does not just own that elaborate and varied collection of frames, but also the 40,000-square-foot building in which they hang. When he bought the building, according to his tenants and his wife, the place was a dump.
Mr. Salazar has a sharp eye for things most people briskly overlook. The outlet for this skill that has brought him the most satisfaction, he says, are his antique frames, a collection of about 1,000 pieces that he describes in tones usually reserved for beautiful women. The outlet that has brought him the most money, however, has been real estate, a collection of three buildings in neighborhoods that were long disregarded.
“When he first took me to see the building he bought in Greenpoint, it looked like somebody had dropped a bomb and then left for a year,” his wife, Gladys Salazar, said. “He said, ‘Look at this wonderful place.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my God!'”Large two-bedroom apartments in that building now start at $3,650 per month.
Antique picture frames can generally cost anywhere from $8,500 to $500,000, depending on the age, rarity and quality. But even enthusiasts like Laurence Kanter, chief curator at the Yale University Art Gallery, says those with an interest in the frames themselves are an uncommon breed, and have been for centuries. Asked to put Mr. Salazar’s collection in context, Eli Wilner, a frame dealer who restores antiques and sells precise replicas from his collection of 3,500 pieces, said he could think of only one other person, a client of his in Florida, who collected frames for their own sake.“Almost always, people buy a frame because of the painting,” Mr. Wilner said.
Today, Mr. Salazar owns the rental building in Greenpoint, once a commercial laundry facility that is now packed with skylights and exposed brick walls, as well as two buildings in Long Island City. One of those, which looks a bit like an abstract Lego creation, he developed himself. The third, on 44th Avenue, houses his gallery. (Mrs. Salazar said that when they bought that building 20 years ago, they welcomed themselves to the neighborhood by making daily calls to the police to complain about a constant parade of prostitutes and their patrons.)
Even the tenants that the Salazars have chosen for their building on 44th Avenue display their tendency to look where others might not. More than 40 of the building’s 49 spaces are occupied by painters, sculptors and other artists who use the brightly lighted spaces as their oil painting reproduction.
There is Elinore Schnurr, a painter who rents a room down the hall from Mr. Salazar’s main gallery, and who has been in his buildings for the better part of 30 years. There is her next-door neighbor, Christina Zuccari, who is third generation in a family business devoted to restoring oil paintings. And just upstairs, there is Robert Jon Badia, an architect and painter who admits that Mr. Salazar’s enthusiasm for frames has rubbed off on him.
The Japanese owner of a Pierre-Auguste Renoir painting, which was stolen from his home in 2000, was surprised to discover that Sotheby’s in London sold it for more than $1,000,000 in February.The oil painting, “Madame Valtat” -- completed and signed by the famous French Impressionist in 1903 -- was taken, along with five other works from a Tokyo man’s home, in August 2000, according to investigative sources cited in a Japan Times report.The art collector -- who has not been identified -- informed Japanese police after noticing in March the piece had been sold at auction for $1.6 million.
Japanese investigators have not yet identified the thief, who also nabbed works by Russian-born French painter Marc Chagall and Japanese artist Ikuo Hirayama from the man's home.
The Renoir had not appeared on a list of lost or stolen artwork on an international database, so Sotheby’s did not catch it before it went on the block. The Japan Times reported that the owner notified police in Japan after the heist, but neither he nor the authorities contacted the stolen items database to have the works listed.The painting’s owner intends to get the piece back, but may have trouble identifying who bought it because Sotheby’s keeps client information confidential.
Sotheby’s told Japan’s Kyodo News that the seller of the Renoir had acquired it legitimately in 2000 and was able to prove rightful ownership with representations and warranties on the painting.Investigators believe the painting was probably sold to the seller shortly after it was stolen. Sotheby’s said it has been looking into the possibility the work was stolen and is communicating with the parties involved.
Read the full http://artsunlight.com/.
They are picture frames, but nearly every one of them stands empty. The frames themselves are the art.“Sometimes I buy a painting because I fall in love with the frame,” Mr. Salazar said, gesturing to a lonely portrait banished frameless on the floor. “Then I put the picture up for auction.”
Mr. Salazar spent many decades manufacturing frames out of Brooklyn and Queens, and today he is a collector and dealer of frames that are antiques, and can easily cost tens of thousands of dollars each. But as one might imagine, the market for such treasures is limited, so happily for Mr. Salazar, he does not just own that elaborate and varied collection of frames, but also the 40,000-square-foot building in which they hang. When he bought the building, according to his tenants and his wife, the place was a dump.
Mr. Salazar has a sharp eye for things most people briskly overlook. The outlet for this skill that has brought him the most satisfaction, he says, are his antique frames, a collection of about 1,000 pieces that he describes in tones usually reserved for beautiful women. The outlet that has brought him the most money, however, has been real estate, a collection of three buildings in neighborhoods that were long disregarded.
“When he first took me to see the building he bought in Greenpoint, it looked like somebody had dropped a bomb and then left for a year,” his wife, Gladys Salazar, said. “He said, ‘Look at this wonderful place.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my God!'”Large two-bedroom apartments in that building now start at $3,650 per month.
Antique picture frames can generally cost anywhere from $8,500 to $500,000, depending on the age, rarity and quality. But even enthusiasts like Laurence Kanter, chief curator at the Yale University Art Gallery, says those with an interest in the frames themselves are an uncommon breed, and have been for centuries. Asked to put Mr. Salazar’s collection in context, Eli Wilner, a frame dealer who restores antiques and sells precise replicas from his collection of 3,500 pieces, said he could think of only one other person, a client of his in Florida, who collected frames for their own sake.“Almost always, people buy a frame because of the painting,” Mr. Wilner said.
Today, Mr. Salazar owns the rental building in Greenpoint, once a commercial laundry facility that is now packed with skylights and exposed brick walls, as well as two buildings in Long Island City. One of those, which looks a bit like an abstract Lego creation, he developed himself. The third, on 44th Avenue, houses his gallery. (Mrs. Salazar said that when they bought that building 20 years ago, they welcomed themselves to the neighborhood by making daily calls to the police to complain about a constant parade of prostitutes and their patrons.)
Even the tenants that the Salazars have chosen for their building on 44th Avenue display their tendency to look where others might not. More than 40 of the building’s 49 spaces are occupied by painters, sculptors and other artists who use the brightly lighted spaces as their oil painting reproduction.
There is Elinore Schnurr, a painter who rents a room down the hall from Mr. Salazar’s main gallery, and who has been in his buildings for the better part of 30 years. There is her next-door neighbor, Christina Zuccari, who is third generation in a family business devoted to restoring oil paintings. And just upstairs, there is Robert Jon Badia, an architect and painter who admits that Mr. Salazar’s enthusiasm for frames has rubbed off on him.
The Japanese owner of a Pierre-Auguste Renoir painting, which was stolen from his home in 2000, was surprised to discover that Sotheby’s in London sold it for more than $1,000,000 in February.The oil painting, “Madame Valtat” -- completed and signed by the famous French Impressionist in 1903 -- was taken, along with five other works from a Tokyo man’s home, in August 2000, according to investigative sources cited in a Japan Times report.The art collector -- who has not been identified -- informed Japanese police after noticing in March the piece had been sold at auction for $1.6 million.
Japanese investigators have not yet identified the thief, who also nabbed works by Russian-born French painter Marc Chagall and Japanese artist Ikuo Hirayama from the man's home.
The Renoir had not appeared on a list of lost or stolen artwork on an international database, so Sotheby’s did not catch it before it went on the block. The Japan Times reported that the owner notified police in Japan after the heist, but neither he nor the authorities contacted the stolen items database to have the works listed.The painting’s owner intends to get the piece back, but may have trouble identifying who bought it because Sotheby’s keeps client information confidential.
Sotheby’s told Japan’s Kyodo News that the seller of the Renoir had acquired it legitimately in 2000 and was able to prove rightful ownership with representations and warranties on the painting.Investigators believe the painting was probably sold to the seller shortly after it was stolen. Sotheby’s said it has been looking into the possibility the work was stolen and is communicating with the parties involved.
Read the full http://artsunlight.com/.
2013年7月31日星期三
Mission Hill artist Marilyn Jan Casey
Mission Hill artist Marilyn Jan Casey came close to losing the use of her right hand, but that wouldn’t have stopped her from drawing and painting. The 57-year-old artist said she would’ve learned to draw and paint with her teeth if she had to.After being shot in the back at 34 by a former boyfriend, Casey has been forced to spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair due to a spinal cord injury.
But the disability didn’t stop Casey from earning a degree at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2008 and it didn’t stop her from working to have her art displayed in multiple solo exhibitions in Boston.“I valued life more after I got hurt because I could’ve been gone,” Casey said. “I was grateful for God saving my life so I decided to share my gift that he gave me.”
Casey’s most recent exhibit is on display at the Parker Hill Library in Mission Hill, where a crowd gathered last month for her artist’s reception.Casey was able to display her work through her membership in the Mission Hill Artists Collective (MHAC). MHAC focuses on providing opportunities for artists to display their work in the community.
The exhibit, Modern Spiritual Expressions: Past Present Future, will run until Sept. 2 and features 24 colorful paintings and oil painting reproduction, white and gray drawings inspired by Casey’s family and black history.“I don’t think we have enough [artwork covering black history]. When I was going to college, they would send me to the museum, but I never [saw] black art, so I decided to do black art,” Casey said.
Casey described her work as “filled with love,” and said she hoped the crowd could feel that love as they viewed her work at the Parker Hill Library.Eleven pieces, including one divided into two images showing two females as children and then adults, hang in the front desk area. These images represent the theme of past, present and future and tell individual stories, Casey said.
The 13 drawings in the adult room take viewers through a history lesson from pre-slavery to post-slavery.The story starts with two images of members of an African tribe and ends with a painting of Casey’s family, including her parents, twin brothers and twin sister.MHAC member Luanne Witkowski liked the idea of having paintings and drawings that tell stories hang in a space filled with books.“It’s perfect,” Witkowski said.
For Cecilia Mendez, director of Massart’s Center for Art and Community Partnerships (CACP), Casey’s use of color to offset tense moments in black history was impressive.Some of Casey’s images seem lighthearted, like the one that depicts three giggling girls at a sleepover. Others present heavy topics, like the image of three women picking cotton.The image of the women picking cotton is one of Casey’s favorites. It’s on display in her bedroom and is usually the first thing she sees in the morning.“Every morning I look at it and it brightens my day,” Casey said. “It gets me motivated and wanting to do more art.”
The exhibit covers more than a decade of work from Casey, who said she was satisfied with the turnout at the reception and excited to have another opportunity to share her work with the public.MHAC partnered with number of community organizations to execute the exhibition, including the CACP, which curated the exhibit.
Within a pastime often seen as a mode of escape, McIver found a route to her truest self. Similarly in her artwork, the North Carolina-based painter depicts the overlap of disguise and authenticity through her autobiographical depictions.
Whether depicting her own naked torso, her intimate circles or public figures like Bill T. Jones, McIver brings inner turmoil and light to the surface with her signature, densely packed flesh. McIver's paintings are so grounded in truth they're nearly confessional, yet her subjects' tangible emotions appear almost mask-like when translated onto skin.
Well, I had always wanted to have breast surgery because my breasts have always been really large. Around a year and a half ago I finally did it and it was liberating. They removed six pounds from my chest -- three from each breast and it was wonderful. It was great to paint about that experience, very liberating, and there are so many women that struggle with really large breasts.
I've been a long time admirer of Cindy Sherman's work. When she dressed up like a clown that was especially appealing to me because I wanted to be a clown when I was younger, like in Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey. But I just didn't get accepted into clown college. I think what she has done in terms of women's issues -- in terms of breaking down boundaries for women -- is quite fabulous.
I was part of a clown club in my high school, which was a predominately white high school, and to participate you had to be in white face. So my sister and I had to put on white face even though, of course, we were black. I did parades and birthday parties and then when I went to undergraduate I continued on my own doing clown things.
It was liberating to dress up in white face and to escape being black and poor and living on welfare. People either love clowns or they hate them, and the people who hate clowns stay away from them. So I received a lot of positive feedback!
Read the full products at http://artsunlight.com/.
But the disability didn’t stop Casey from earning a degree at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2008 and it didn’t stop her from working to have her art displayed in multiple solo exhibitions in Boston.“I valued life more after I got hurt because I could’ve been gone,” Casey said. “I was grateful for God saving my life so I decided to share my gift that he gave me.”
Casey’s most recent exhibit is on display at the Parker Hill Library in Mission Hill, where a crowd gathered last month for her artist’s reception.Casey was able to display her work through her membership in the Mission Hill Artists Collective (MHAC). MHAC focuses on providing opportunities for artists to display their work in the community.
The exhibit, Modern Spiritual Expressions: Past Present Future, will run until Sept. 2 and features 24 colorful paintings and oil painting reproduction, white and gray drawings inspired by Casey’s family and black history.“I don’t think we have enough [artwork covering black history]. When I was going to college, they would send me to the museum, but I never [saw] black art, so I decided to do black art,” Casey said.
Casey described her work as “filled with love,” and said she hoped the crowd could feel that love as they viewed her work at the Parker Hill Library.Eleven pieces, including one divided into two images showing two females as children and then adults, hang in the front desk area. These images represent the theme of past, present and future and tell individual stories, Casey said.
The 13 drawings in the adult room take viewers through a history lesson from pre-slavery to post-slavery.The story starts with two images of members of an African tribe and ends with a painting of Casey’s family, including her parents, twin brothers and twin sister.MHAC member Luanne Witkowski liked the idea of having paintings and drawings that tell stories hang in a space filled with books.“It’s perfect,” Witkowski said.
For Cecilia Mendez, director of Massart’s Center for Art and Community Partnerships (CACP), Casey’s use of color to offset tense moments in black history was impressive.Some of Casey’s images seem lighthearted, like the one that depicts three giggling girls at a sleepover. Others present heavy topics, like the image of three women picking cotton.The image of the women picking cotton is one of Casey’s favorites. It’s on display in her bedroom and is usually the first thing she sees in the morning.“Every morning I look at it and it brightens my day,” Casey said. “It gets me motivated and wanting to do more art.”
The exhibit covers more than a decade of work from Casey, who said she was satisfied with the turnout at the reception and excited to have another opportunity to share her work with the public.MHAC partnered with number of community organizations to execute the exhibition, including the CACP, which curated the exhibit.
Within a pastime often seen as a mode of escape, McIver found a route to her truest self. Similarly in her artwork, the North Carolina-based painter depicts the overlap of disguise and authenticity through her autobiographical depictions.
Whether depicting her own naked torso, her intimate circles or public figures like Bill T. Jones, McIver brings inner turmoil and light to the surface with her signature, densely packed flesh. McIver's paintings are so grounded in truth they're nearly confessional, yet her subjects' tangible emotions appear almost mask-like when translated onto skin.
Well, I had always wanted to have breast surgery because my breasts have always been really large. Around a year and a half ago I finally did it and it was liberating. They removed six pounds from my chest -- three from each breast and it was wonderful. It was great to paint about that experience, very liberating, and there are so many women that struggle with really large breasts.
I've been a long time admirer of Cindy Sherman's work. When she dressed up like a clown that was especially appealing to me because I wanted to be a clown when I was younger, like in Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey. But I just didn't get accepted into clown college. I think what she has done in terms of women's issues -- in terms of breaking down boundaries for women -- is quite fabulous.
I was part of a clown club in my high school, which was a predominately white high school, and to participate you had to be in white face. So my sister and I had to put on white face even though, of course, we were black. I did parades and birthday parties and then when I went to undergraduate I continued on my own doing clown things.
It was liberating to dress up in white face and to escape being black and poor and living on welfare. People either love clowns or they hate them, and the people who hate clowns stay away from them. So I received a lot of positive feedback!
Read the full products at http://artsunlight.com/.
2013年7月22日星期一
Voi painter with a Midas touch
A few years ago when Andrew Omenda Were a.k.a Madolla was asked by a traffic police officer to travel with him to Malindi to go and make paintings for the officer’s bar in Malindi, little did he know that a window of vast opportunity was about to open for him.The painter says he made very impressive artwork of different wildlife species on the walls of the bar, which aroused the interest of tourists who visited the pub.
“Tourists liked my paintings of wildlife which they said were lifelike and quite attractive. From there my artwork opened more opportunities in Malindi and I had to stay longer than I had initially planned,” says the painter.He says after completing the artwork at the pub some tourists asked him to make oil paintings for them largely on wildlife and landscapes.
“I was very lucky because at that time another Italian investor by the name Angelo who loved my artwork very much gave me free art materials, including oil paints, solvents and canvas,” recalls Madolla exuberantly. “I set out to make canvas paintings of different wildlife species especially the big five — lion, leopard, rhino, buffalo, and elephant. In total I made 25 canvas paintings.”
Hopper was born in Nyack, New York to a strict Baptist family. He is said to have developed a talent in drawing at the age of five, as well as a love of French and Russian culture. Encouraged by his parents, the young artist explored the media of pen-and-ink, charcoal, watercolor and oil, depicting scenes of nature as well as creating his own humorous political cartoons. Around the age of 18, he moved from his conservative home on the Hudson River to study at the New York Institute of Art Design, where he began working with live models and painting in the style of Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas.
In 1905, Hopper began working for an advertising agency to earn money, designing magazine covers despite his dislike for illustrations. It was during this time that he was able to travel to Europe to study artists like Rembrandt and the Impressionists. Briefly inspired by the soft palettes of the French painters, Hopper eventually settled into the dark color scheme he would become known for, painting urban scenes of street crowds and cafes through his signature shadowy lens. After returning from abroad, Hopper reluctantly continued to work in illustrations, and it wasn't until 1913 that he was able to sell his first painting, "Sailing," at the Armory Show in New York.
Hopper turned to etching urban scenes of Paris and New York while living in Greenwich Village. In 1923, he met his future wife, Josephine Nivison, the woman who would serve as his manager, oil painting reproduction, and lifelong partner. From there, his career began to rise, showing newly created oil paintings and prints throughout New York.
After a brief period of inactivity during the late 1940s, Hopper continued to create works throughout the next two decades, focusing on quintessential American themes like gas stations, motels, railroads and restaurants. Hopper lived through a series of artistic movements in the United States, but his style remained consistent, incorporating saturated colors and heightened contrasts to create dark, cinematic moods straight out of film noir. It shouldn't be a surprise, then, that Alfred Hitchcock and Sam Mendes frequently cited him as an influence.
On May 15th, 1967, Hopper passed away in his studio near Washington Square in New York City, shortly followed by his devoted wife ten months later. His body of work was donated to the Whitney Museum of American Art, with some famous pieces finding permanent homes in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, The Des Moines Art Center, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Works by Picasso, Monet, Matisse, Gauguin and Lucian Freud were stolen from Rotterdam's Kunsthal gallery in 2012. Three Romanian suspects were arrested in January, but the paintings have not been found. Instead, one of the suspect’s mothers told the police that she had burned the stolen works in a wood-burning stove in an attempt to free her son from prosecution due to lack of evidence.
These works, which include Waterloo Bridge, London, painted by Monet in 1901, are now among hundreds of valuable missing paintings. Once a painting has been stolen, it can stay underground or undiscovered for years or even decades, making the crime even harder to solve, as leads become less tangible and ownership is passed down through generations.
While she won't name many of her clients, Ray does reveal that DJ Bruno Brookes and chef Marco Pierre White rank among them. She was once commissioned to do a copy of Van Gogh's Vase with Gladioli for Dame Edna Everage. Gladioli-accessorising miserabilist Morrissey would probably like a copy of that, too, but he's out of luck: Ray doesn't do duplicates, as a matter of principle.
But isn't this forgery? Isn't Ray's whole oeuvre that of a cynical charlatan? "I'm not a forger," she says, arguing that she's different from, say, the notorious cockney forger Tom Keating, who avoided jail even after admitting to painting 2,000 fakes of old masters. On the back of each copy, Ray signs her name. Real forgers don't do that. That said, she tells me some of her clients have passed off her copies as the real thing, if not to make money then to show off to dinner guests. One household name (whose identity I can't reveal) loves to boast about his Claude Monet – when it's really his Susie Ray. But isn't Ray facilitating such grubby behaviour? "A lot of famous people pass off my copies as original," she says. "That's up to them."
You could have been a lot richer, I add, had you followed Keating's path. "In jail more likely," she retorts. "Tom Keating wasn't a very good forger. The only reason he got away with it is that he was copying in an era when the reproductions weren't very good. People didn't know how unlike the originals his versions were. I don't have that luxury."
I've spent two hours trying to replicate Manet's Asparagus, the simplest impressionist masterpiece Ray could find for me to copy. The original, in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, is a cute art-world joke: in 1880, Manet sold collector Charles Ephrussi A Bunch of Asparagus for 800 francs. Ephrussi sent him 1,000 francs, so Manet painted this extra stalk and sent it off with a note: "There was one missing from your bunch."
My shambles contrasts sharply with the technical mastery of the canvas hanging on the wall behind me: Ray's copy of a painting from Monet's series Cabane des douaniers, effet d'après-midi. "The title sounds better in French," she says. "Customs shack in the afternoon doesn't have quite the same ring." I wonder how much a Monet copy would shift for, but this customs shack's not for sale.
I'm working from three coloured prints Ray has sourced, each one tonally very different from the other, with one cropping out the asparagus altogether. Ray has done a rough sketch and helps me mix some paints. I've never painted in oils before and am on a steep learning curve, but what I'm mostly acquiring is a profound appreciation of Manet. Just look at the illusion of solidity he creates at one end of the spear with just two brushstrokes. Damn him. My version is hopeless. It's starting to look like a seagull.
Click on their website www.artsunlight.com.
“Tourists liked my paintings of wildlife which they said were lifelike and quite attractive. From there my artwork opened more opportunities in Malindi and I had to stay longer than I had initially planned,” says the painter.He says after completing the artwork at the pub some tourists asked him to make oil paintings for them largely on wildlife and landscapes.
“I was very lucky because at that time another Italian investor by the name Angelo who loved my artwork very much gave me free art materials, including oil paints, solvents and canvas,” recalls Madolla exuberantly. “I set out to make canvas paintings of different wildlife species especially the big five — lion, leopard, rhino, buffalo, and elephant. In total I made 25 canvas paintings.”
Hopper was born in Nyack, New York to a strict Baptist family. He is said to have developed a talent in drawing at the age of five, as well as a love of French and Russian culture. Encouraged by his parents, the young artist explored the media of pen-and-ink, charcoal, watercolor and oil, depicting scenes of nature as well as creating his own humorous political cartoons. Around the age of 18, he moved from his conservative home on the Hudson River to study at the New York Institute of Art Design, where he began working with live models and painting in the style of Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas.
In 1905, Hopper began working for an advertising agency to earn money, designing magazine covers despite his dislike for illustrations. It was during this time that he was able to travel to Europe to study artists like Rembrandt and the Impressionists. Briefly inspired by the soft palettes of the French painters, Hopper eventually settled into the dark color scheme he would become known for, painting urban scenes of street crowds and cafes through his signature shadowy lens. After returning from abroad, Hopper reluctantly continued to work in illustrations, and it wasn't until 1913 that he was able to sell his first painting, "Sailing," at the Armory Show in New York.
Hopper turned to etching urban scenes of Paris and New York while living in Greenwich Village. In 1923, he met his future wife, Josephine Nivison, the woman who would serve as his manager, oil painting reproduction, and lifelong partner. From there, his career began to rise, showing newly created oil paintings and prints throughout New York.
After a brief period of inactivity during the late 1940s, Hopper continued to create works throughout the next two decades, focusing on quintessential American themes like gas stations, motels, railroads and restaurants. Hopper lived through a series of artistic movements in the United States, but his style remained consistent, incorporating saturated colors and heightened contrasts to create dark, cinematic moods straight out of film noir. It shouldn't be a surprise, then, that Alfred Hitchcock and Sam Mendes frequently cited him as an influence.
On May 15th, 1967, Hopper passed away in his studio near Washington Square in New York City, shortly followed by his devoted wife ten months later. His body of work was donated to the Whitney Museum of American Art, with some famous pieces finding permanent homes in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, The Des Moines Art Center, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Works by Picasso, Monet, Matisse, Gauguin and Lucian Freud were stolen from Rotterdam's Kunsthal gallery in 2012. Three Romanian suspects were arrested in January, but the paintings have not been found. Instead, one of the suspect’s mothers told the police that she had burned the stolen works in a wood-burning stove in an attempt to free her son from prosecution due to lack of evidence.
These works, which include Waterloo Bridge, London, painted by Monet in 1901, are now among hundreds of valuable missing paintings. Once a painting has been stolen, it can stay underground or undiscovered for years or even decades, making the crime even harder to solve, as leads become less tangible and ownership is passed down through generations.
While she won't name many of her clients, Ray does reveal that DJ Bruno Brookes and chef Marco Pierre White rank among them. She was once commissioned to do a copy of Van Gogh's Vase with Gladioli for Dame Edna Everage. Gladioli-accessorising miserabilist Morrissey would probably like a copy of that, too, but he's out of luck: Ray doesn't do duplicates, as a matter of principle.
But isn't this forgery? Isn't Ray's whole oeuvre that of a cynical charlatan? "I'm not a forger," she says, arguing that she's different from, say, the notorious cockney forger Tom Keating, who avoided jail even after admitting to painting 2,000 fakes of old masters. On the back of each copy, Ray signs her name. Real forgers don't do that. That said, she tells me some of her clients have passed off her copies as the real thing, if not to make money then to show off to dinner guests. One household name (whose identity I can't reveal) loves to boast about his Claude Monet – when it's really his Susie Ray. But isn't Ray facilitating such grubby behaviour? "A lot of famous people pass off my copies as original," she says. "That's up to them."
You could have been a lot richer, I add, had you followed Keating's path. "In jail more likely," she retorts. "Tom Keating wasn't a very good forger. The only reason he got away with it is that he was copying in an era when the reproductions weren't very good. People didn't know how unlike the originals his versions were. I don't have that luxury."
I've spent two hours trying to replicate Manet's Asparagus, the simplest impressionist masterpiece Ray could find for me to copy. The original, in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, is a cute art-world joke: in 1880, Manet sold collector Charles Ephrussi A Bunch of Asparagus for 800 francs. Ephrussi sent him 1,000 francs, so Manet painted this extra stalk and sent it off with a note: "There was one missing from your bunch."
My shambles contrasts sharply with the technical mastery of the canvas hanging on the wall behind me: Ray's copy of a painting from Monet's series Cabane des douaniers, effet d'après-midi. "The title sounds better in French," she says. "Customs shack in the afternoon doesn't have quite the same ring." I wonder how much a Monet copy would shift for, but this customs shack's not for sale.
I'm working from three coloured prints Ray has sourced, each one tonally very different from the other, with one cropping out the asparagus altogether. Ray has done a rough sketch and helps me mix some paints. I've never painted in oils before and am on a steep learning curve, but what I'm mostly acquiring is a profound appreciation of Manet. Just look at the illusion of solidity he creates at one end of the spear with just two brushstrokes. Damn him. My version is hopeless. It's starting to look like a seagull.
Click on their website www.artsunlight.com.
2013年6月18日星期二
ABI Research crowns NXP as top NFC IC vendor
ABI Research has awarded NXP Semiconductors, STMicroelectronics, and Inside Secure as the top vendors of NFC ICs. The results were based on ABI Research's Competitive Assessment where companies are scored in eight criteria under the categories of Implementation and Innovation across both NFC modems/controllers and secure elements.
NXP ranked first overall and topped the Implementation category. It was the most successful vendor in 2012 and scored multiple design wins with a broad cross-section of OEMs and product categories, according to ABI Research. NXP was also one of three equal scoring companies coming in joint second for Innovation because of its work highlighting new use cases for NFC across its broad portfolio.
Inside Secure ranked second for Innovation and third for Implementation because it was the first vendor to announce a major OEM contract (with RIM using a SE from Infineon), its input into new standards, and its efforts to develop NFC in new device categories. It continues to develop new form-factors, features and is working with partners to better embed NFC technology into new devices.
STMicroelectronics found some traction in the eSE space and was the leading SWP SIM card IC vendor. This combined with its growing success in new device wins contributed to it achieving the second highest Implementation score.
ABI also noted that Broadcom topped the Innovation category with its strong feature set, market positioning, breadth of applications, and targeted and innovative approach, which has resulted in recent CLF design wins in smartphones and tablets. Sony has been one of the most active companies in showcasing NFC's capabilities across a range of products and devices because of its knowledge of contactless with FeliCa. As a direct result, Sony has gathered strong partner relationships and technical knowledge. Infineon, on the other hand, achieved third position within the Implementation criteria. The company does not offer a CLF but it has utilized its strengths in security to develop new standards and features to enable the NFC market take off.
Practice director John Devlin commented: "With the NFC market in the early stages of accelerating growth it is important to balance commercial success to date with technical innovation, design features, strategic positioning, and demonstration of new use cases. It is these factors that will have the largest impact on long-term success."
Edward Snowden, a low-level employee of Booz Allen Hamilton who blew the whistle on the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), unexpectedly exposed a powerful and seamless segment of the military-industrial complex – the world of contractors that consumes some 70 percent of this country’s 52-billion-dollar intelligence budget.
Some commentators have pounced on Snowden’s disclosures to denounce the role of private contractors in the world of government and national security, arguing such spheres are best left to public servants. But their criticism misses the point.
It is no longer possible to determine the difference between the two: employees of the NSA – along with agencies like the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) – and the employees of companies such as Booz Allen have integrated to the extent that they slip from one role in industry to another in government, cross-promoting each other and self-dealing in ways that make the fabled revolving door redundant, if not completely disorienting.
Snowden, a systems administrator at the NSA’s Threat Operations Center in Hawaii, had worked for the CIA and Dell before joining Booz Allen. But his rather obscure role pales in comparison to those of oil painting reproduction.
To best understand this tale, one must first turn to R. James Woolsey, a former director of CIA, who appeared before the US House of Representatives in the summer of 2004 to promote the idea of integrating US domestic and foreign spying efforts to track “terrorists”.
One month later, he appeared on MSNBC television, where he spoke of the urgent need to create a new US intelligence czar to help expand the post-9/11 national surveillance apparatus.
On neither occasion did Woolsey mention that he was employed as senior vice president for global strategic security at Booz Allen, a job he held from 2002 to 2008.
“The source of information about vulnerabilities of and potential attacks on the homeland will not be dominated by foreign intelligence, as was the case in the Cold War. The terrorists understood us well, and so they lived and planned where we did not spy (inside the US),” said Woolsey in prepared remarks before the US House Select Committee on Homeland Security on Jun. 24, 2004.
In a prescient suggestion of what Snowden would later reveal, Woolsey went on to discuss expanding surveillance to cover domestic, as well as foreign sources.
“One source will be our vulnerability assessments, based on our own judgments about weak links in our society’s networks that can be exploited by terrorists,” he said. “A second source will be domestic intelligence. How to deal with such information is an extraordinarily difficult issue in our free society.”
NXP ranked first overall and topped the Implementation category. It was the most successful vendor in 2012 and scored multiple design wins with a broad cross-section of OEMs and product categories, according to ABI Research. NXP was also one of three equal scoring companies coming in joint second for Innovation because of its work highlighting new use cases for NFC across its broad portfolio.
Inside Secure ranked second for Innovation and third for Implementation because it was the first vendor to announce a major OEM contract (with RIM using a SE from Infineon), its input into new standards, and its efforts to develop NFC in new device categories. It continues to develop new form-factors, features and is working with partners to better embed NFC technology into new devices.
STMicroelectronics found some traction in the eSE space and was the leading SWP SIM card IC vendor. This combined with its growing success in new device wins contributed to it achieving the second highest Implementation score.
ABI also noted that Broadcom topped the Innovation category with its strong feature set, market positioning, breadth of applications, and targeted and innovative approach, which has resulted in recent CLF design wins in smartphones and tablets. Sony has been one of the most active companies in showcasing NFC's capabilities across a range of products and devices because of its knowledge of contactless with FeliCa. As a direct result, Sony has gathered strong partner relationships and technical knowledge. Infineon, on the other hand, achieved third position within the Implementation criteria. The company does not offer a CLF but it has utilized its strengths in security to develop new standards and features to enable the NFC market take off.
Practice director John Devlin commented: "With the NFC market in the early stages of accelerating growth it is important to balance commercial success to date with technical innovation, design features, strategic positioning, and demonstration of new use cases. It is these factors that will have the largest impact on long-term success."
Edward Snowden, a low-level employee of Booz Allen Hamilton who blew the whistle on the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), unexpectedly exposed a powerful and seamless segment of the military-industrial complex – the world of contractors that consumes some 70 percent of this country’s 52-billion-dollar intelligence budget.
Some commentators have pounced on Snowden’s disclosures to denounce the role of private contractors in the world of government and national security, arguing such spheres are best left to public servants. But their criticism misses the point.
It is no longer possible to determine the difference between the two: employees of the NSA – along with agencies like the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) – and the employees of companies such as Booz Allen have integrated to the extent that they slip from one role in industry to another in government, cross-promoting each other and self-dealing in ways that make the fabled revolving door redundant, if not completely disorienting.
Snowden, a systems administrator at the NSA’s Threat Operations Center in Hawaii, had worked for the CIA and Dell before joining Booz Allen. But his rather obscure role pales in comparison to those of oil painting reproduction.
To best understand this tale, one must first turn to R. James Woolsey, a former director of CIA, who appeared before the US House of Representatives in the summer of 2004 to promote the idea of integrating US domestic and foreign spying efforts to track “terrorists”.
One month later, he appeared on MSNBC television, where he spoke of the urgent need to create a new US intelligence czar to help expand the post-9/11 national surveillance apparatus.
On neither occasion did Woolsey mention that he was employed as senior vice president for global strategic security at Booz Allen, a job he held from 2002 to 2008.
“The source of information about vulnerabilities of and potential attacks on the homeland will not be dominated by foreign intelligence, as was the case in the Cold War. The terrorists understood us well, and so they lived and planned where we did not spy (inside the US),” said Woolsey in prepared remarks before the US House Select Committee on Homeland Security on Jun. 24, 2004.
In a prescient suggestion of what Snowden would later reveal, Woolsey went on to discuss expanding surveillance to cover domestic, as well as foreign sources.
“One source will be our vulnerability assessments, based on our own judgments about weak links in our society’s networks that can be exploited by terrorists,” he said. “A second source will be domestic intelligence. How to deal with such information is an extraordinarily difficult issue in our free society.”
2013年5月28日星期二
In Search of the Elusive Zero-Percent Interest Rate Credit Card
Take down the information on the back of each card you have and then visit your issuers' websites. See what deals they're advertising to new members and then start dialing.
Ask reps if they'll extend to you -- a loyal customer -- the same 0 percent offers they're making available to those who aren't yet paying a monthly bill. You might be surprised by the results.
Earlier this year, my wife's work computer was suffering serious issues. I knew we'd have to spend upward of $2,500 for a newer Mac to replace her machine, which neither of us was eager to do. A quick call to an account rep at Barclays got us a 0 percent deal to purchase new equipment that night. We'll pay off the loan months before interest kicks in.
If your knives aren't quite cutting it these days, perhaps you’re thinking of getting the Edge of Glory infomercial sharpener. It claims to make your knives like new.
To check it out, a Consumer Reports tester rounded up pairs of knives: one expensive, one inexpensive, and one serrated, and then he dulled one of each pair. Then the tester used the Edge of Glory to re-sharpen the dulled knives. He then sliced and diced all kinds of food, including oranges, dried sausage, tomatoes, and oil painting reproduction.
He also checked this clai—that Edge of Glory is so precise, it can turn a plastic credit card into a precision-cutting instrument. Though that wouldn’t be recommended for the average chef, the tester was able to cut up a tomato with it.
But depending on how you slice it, Edge of Glory isn’t so glorious. It left rough edges on the knives. And though it did sharpen the inexpensive and expensive knives, it did a better job on the inexpensive one.
The Edge of Glory actually sharpened the cheaper knives better than the more expensive ones, because cheaper knives are made of softer metal, which sharpens more easily. Bottom line: Skip the Edge of Glory unless you want to wow your guests by using a credit card to slice a tomato!
Consumer Reports says a little bit of TLC can keep your more expensive knives in good condition. Always hand wash and dry them right away. And store good knives in a wooden block—never loose in a drawer, where blades can get nicked. Also use a sharpening steel frequently. If the knives do become dull, then it’s time to consider taking them to a professional.
Do you go over your credit-card statement at the end of every month, checking whether you made every single purchase on it? If the answer is no, you’re not alone. According to the Israeli startup Billguard, 90 percent of people never even look at their credit-card statements. At best, they go over the large purchases they made. But all those little impulse buys, the dollars and cents of daily life? They hardly give it a second thought.
As a result, consumers fall victim to fraud. Billguard’s officials say that the average user loses $300 per year from unwanted charges that they don’t know about.
To protect you plastic-wielding shoppers, Billguard developed a platform that allows people to keep track of their bank accounts and credit cards via a website or application. They can look at a list of recent charges and even receive automatic updates any time a suspicious charge shows up.
Billguard says that the most commonly-spotted frauds are credit-card fraud, monthly subscription fees and terms of service that change once a person has signed up for a service. Company officials believe Billguard’s platform has saved users $50 million, in tens of millions of bank and credit-card accounts, in the year since its launch.
When account owners are “stung,” they mostly fall victim to common kinds of fraud. To combat this, Billguard uses crowd-sourcing. When its system spots a suspicious charge, it alerts the account owner. All customers who find a hidden or fraudulent charge on their account report it to the service, which immediately finds and alerts all other users who have the same charge.
Among Billguard’s customers are banks and credit-card companies who use the service for their customers. Raphael Ouzan, co-founder and CTO of Billguard, says that the company gives banks a threefold value: better protection, better end-user experience and a cost savings in the number of customers who contact them to clarify charges. The service is provided for free to the end-users while the banks and the credit-card companies pay for each customer. Billguard also collects a fee from merchants who owe customers their money back.
At Google’s I/O conference earlier this month, it was announced that Billguard’s technology would be integrated into Google Wallet, Google’s virtual moneybag for in-store and online shopping, and that it will also be integrated into the new version of Gmail. Billguard’s platform will serve as an additional layer of protection for users who make online payments by spotting irregularities and “gray” charges. Google’s goal is to make it easier for users to adopt Google Wallet and use it safely. Besides the prestige in working with Google in the security field, Billguard’s larger user base will enable it to improve the quality of its service.
Billguard was established in 2010 by Yaron Samid, the CEO who manages its work in New York, and Raphael Ouzan, who manages its development work in Israel. So far, the company has raised $13 million from a series of prominent investors from Silicon Valley including Bessemer Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors, the Founders Fund of Peter Thiel and Sean Parker, and Israeli angel Yaron Galai.
Ask reps if they'll extend to you -- a loyal customer -- the same 0 percent offers they're making available to those who aren't yet paying a monthly bill. You might be surprised by the results.
Earlier this year, my wife's work computer was suffering serious issues. I knew we'd have to spend upward of $2,500 for a newer Mac to replace her machine, which neither of us was eager to do. A quick call to an account rep at Barclays got us a 0 percent deal to purchase new equipment that night. We'll pay off the loan months before interest kicks in.
If your knives aren't quite cutting it these days, perhaps you’re thinking of getting the Edge of Glory infomercial sharpener. It claims to make your knives like new.
To check it out, a Consumer Reports tester rounded up pairs of knives: one expensive, one inexpensive, and one serrated, and then he dulled one of each pair. Then the tester used the Edge of Glory to re-sharpen the dulled knives. He then sliced and diced all kinds of food, including oranges, dried sausage, tomatoes, and oil painting reproduction.
He also checked this clai—that Edge of Glory is so precise, it can turn a plastic credit card into a precision-cutting instrument. Though that wouldn’t be recommended for the average chef, the tester was able to cut up a tomato with it.
But depending on how you slice it, Edge of Glory isn’t so glorious. It left rough edges on the knives. And though it did sharpen the inexpensive and expensive knives, it did a better job on the inexpensive one.
The Edge of Glory actually sharpened the cheaper knives better than the more expensive ones, because cheaper knives are made of softer metal, which sharpens more easily. Bottom line: Skip the Edge of Glory unless you want to wow your guests by using a credit card to slice a tomato!
Consumer Reports says a little bit of TLC can keep your more expensive knives in good condition. Always hand wash and dry them right away. And store good knives in a wooden block—never loose in a drawer, where blades can get nicked. Also use a sharpening steel frequently. If the knives do become dull, then it’s time to consider taking them to a professional.
Do you go over your credit-card statement at the end of every month, checking whether you made every single purchase on it? If the answer is no, you’re not alone. According to the Israeli startup Billguard, 90 percent of people never even look at their credit-card statements. At best, they go over the large purchases they made. But all those little impulse buys, the dollars and cents of daily life? They hardly give it a second thought.
As a result, consumers fall victim to fraud. Billguard’s officials say that the average user loses $300 per year from unwanted charges that they don’t know about.
To protect you plastic-wielding shoppers, Billguard developed a platform that allows people to keep track of their bank accounts and credit cards via a website or application. They can look at a list of recent charges and even receive automatic updates any time a suspicious charge shows up.
Billguard says that the most commonly-spotted frauds are credit-card fraud, monthly subscription fees and terms of service that change once a person has signed up for a service. Company officials believe Billguard’s platform has saved users $50 million, in tens of millions of bank and credit-card accounts, in the year since its launch.
When account owners are “stung,” they mostly fall victim to common kinds of fraud. To combat this, Billguard uses crowd-sourcing. When its system spots a suspicious charge, it alerts the account owner. All customers who find a hidden or fraudulent charge on their account report it to the service, which immediately finds and alerts all other users who have the same charge.
Among Billguard’s customers are banks and credit-card companies who use the service for their customers. Raphael Ouzan, co-founder and CTO of Billguard, says that the company gives banks a threefold value: better protection, better end-user experience and a cost savings in the number of customers who contact them to clarify charges. The service is provided for free to the end-users while the banks and the credit-card companies pay for each customer. Billguard also collects a fee from merchants who owe customers their money back.
At Google’s I/O conference earlier this month, it was announced that Billguard’s technology would be integrated into Google Wallet, Google’s virtual moneybag for in-store and online shopping, and that it will also be integrated into the new version of Gmail. Billguard’s platform will serve as an additional layer of protection for users who make online payments by spotting irregularities and “gray” charges. Google’s goal is to make it easier for users to adopt Google Wallet and use it safely. Besides the prestige in working with Google in the security field, Billguard’s larger user base will enable it to improve the quality of its service.
Billguard was established in 2010 by Yaron Samid, the CEO who manages its work in New York, and Raphael Ouzan, who manages its development work in Israel. So far, the company has raised $13 million from a series of prominent investors from Silicon Valley including Bessemer Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors, the Founders Fund of Peter Thiel and Sean Parker, and Israeli angel Yaron Galai.
2013年5月20日星期一
Year of the small(er) business
Despite budget uncertainties, this year’s ITEC seems likely to gather most of the usual military, government and academic players. What may be more surprising is the presence from the military training and simulation industry as large businesses hold off or scale back on conferences, opening the door for smaller companies at the show.
“The large companies are retrenching in some ways, and picking their shows. This is a matter of course — they are being very selective. In many cases, they’re cutting shows out of their portfolio for the next year or two until they get more certainty at home,” said retired Rear Adm. James Robb, head of the National Training and Simulation Association, which puts on the conference along with Clarion Events.
Two major players in the industry that will not be attending are Cubic and Raytheon, who pulled out of the show but have shown considerable presence in the past.
“The big companies come in and they have great quality, great capabilities, but in some ways, those big-ticket items become less affordable in this environment,” Robb said.
Flat or shrinking budgets across much of Europe and the U.S. mean governments and militaries are reducing live training hours, cutting funding to training and maintenance, and seeking cheaper alternatives for training and oil painting reproduction when possible.
ITEC organizers have been reaching out to smaller companies that have not previously attended, hoping to counter the loss of big companies that can pull out of conferences to save money and weather the budget storm. It’s also a way to reflect the changing demands and priorities of purchasers. Smaller solutions may appeal to government and military representatives from smaller countries that have smaller budgets and are seeking smaller transactions, Robb said.
“They probably can’t afford the giant new simulator, but they’re looking for software, or are looking for things with low price points,” he said. “We have to represent that new demographic.”
Attendees at both ITEC in Rome and at the upcoming I/ITSEC in Orlando, Fla., can expect to see a push on smaller companies, though large companies are likely to return or increase their presence once the budgets are more stable.
A patent filed by Apple seems to suggest that the company is working on a type of invertible ear tip for its headphones that is part of a plan designed to improve the user's comfort.
The patent seems to suggest that a user could be given various accessories with their Apple headphones that they can chose to use to produce a pair of headphones that they find most comfortable.
The patent, available to read here, mentions suggests that: "To improve a user's comfort, a headset or headphone may include one or more elements operative to provide a pleasant interface between the audio components of the headset (e.g., the ear piece) and the user's ears."
The patent mentions various types of earpieces, including over-the-ear and in-the-ear earpiece. All these earpieces are designed to "provide a compliant fit against the user’s ear".
"To provide a comfortable fit for the user, the ear piece may include a compliant outer portion operative to adjust to the shape of the user’s ear, thus providing a firm and secure fit that remains comfortable. For example, the compliant outer portion may include a tubular structure coupled to the ear piece and forming a flexible structure surrounding the ear piece," according to the patent.
"The ear piece may be operative to be placed in the user's ear. To improve the fit of the ear piece within the user's ear, the ear piece may be substantially surrounded by a compliant element. The compliant element may include a curved portion extending away from the ear piece such that the curved portion is placed in contact with the user's ear when the ear piece is inserted. In some embodiments, the compliant element may be larger than the user's ear such that the compliant element may elastically deform, creating an interference fit between the user's ear and the ear piece," writes Apple.
Apple has already launched it's EarPod headphones, which the company claimed were designed for a better more comfortable fit, and the patent could have been filed in relation to these headphones. However, the reference to in-ear and over-ear solutions may suggest that Apple has more designs up its sleeve.
“The large companies are retrenching in some ways, and picking their shows. This is a matter of course — they are being very selective. In many cases, they’re cutting shows out of their portfolio for the next year or two until they get more certainty at home,” said retired Rear Adm. James Robb, head of the National Training and Simulation Association, which puts on the conference along with Clarion Events.
Two major players in the industry that will not be attending are Cubic and Raytheon, who pulled out of the show but have shown considerable presence in the past.
“The big companies come in and they have great quality, great capabilities, but in some ways, those big-ticket items become less affordable in this environment,” Robb said.
Flat or shrinking budgets across much of Europe and the U.S. mean governments and militaries are reducing live training hours, cutting funding to training and maintenance, and seeking cheaper alternatives for training and oil painting reproduction when possible.
ITEC organizers have been reaching out to smaller companies that have not previously attended, hoping to counter the loss of big companies that can pull out of conferences to save money and weather the budget storm. It’s also a way to reflect the changing demands and priorities of purchasers. Smaller solutions may appeal to government and military representatives from smaller countries that have smaller budgets and are seeking smaller transactions, Robb said.
“They probably can’t afford the giant new simulator, but they’re looking for software, or are looking for things with low price points,” he said. “We have to represent that new demographic.”
Attendees at both ITEC in Rome and at the upcoming I/ITSEC in Orlando, Fla., can expect to see a push on smaller companies, though large companies are likely to return or increase their presence once the budgets are more stable.
A patent filed by Apple seems to suggest that the company is working on a type of invertible ear tip for its headphones that is part of a plan designed to improve the user's comfort.
The patent seems to suggest that a user could be given various accessories with their Apple headphones that they can chose to use to produce a pair of headphones that they find most comfortable.
The patent, available to read here, mentions suggests that: "To improve a user's comfort, a headset or headphone may include one or more elements operative to provide a pleasant interface between the audio components of the headset (e.g., the ear piece) and the user's ears."
The patent mentions various types of earpieces, including over-the-ear and in-the-ear earpiece. All these earpieces are designed to "provide a compliant fit against the user’s ear".
"To provide a comfortable fit for the user, the ear piece may include a compliant outer portion operative to adjust to the shape of the user’s ear, thus providing a firm and secure fit that remains comfortable. For example, the compliant outer portion may include a tubular structure coupled to the ear piece and forming a flexible structure surrounding the ear piece," according to the patent.
"The ear piece may be operative to be placed in the user's ear. To improve the fit of the ear piece within the user's ear, the ear piece may be substantially surrounded by a compliant element. The compliant element may include a curved portion extending away from the ear piece such that the curved portion is placed in contact with the user's ear when the ear piece is inserted. In some embodiments, the compliant element may be larger than the user's ear such that the compliant element may elastically deform, creating an interference fit between the user's ear and the ear piece," writes Apple.
Apple has already launched it's EarPod headphones, which the company claimed were designed for a better more comfortable fit, and the patent could have been filed in relation to these headphones. However, the reference to in-ear and over-ear solutions may suggest that Apple has more designs up its sleeve.
2012年4月25日星期三
Whiteley painting to take flight
THE veteran art dealer Denis Savill has thrown down the gauntlet to his auction house rivals by going to market with a giant Brett Whiteley not seen in public for decades, which could attract one of the highest prices for Australian art this year.
Savill is selling Seagull , 1988, originally owned by the ad man John Singleton, for $1.6 million, along with several other major Australian works that have never been seen at auction.
Australia's art market is a long way from the halcyon days of 2010 when Sidney Nolan's First-Class Marksman sold for $5.4 million. But the Whiteley may pip Deutscher & Hackett's May 2 auction of Arthur Streeton's 1888 Settler's Camp, estimated to sell for as much as $1.5 million.
A week later, Sotheby's Australia hopes to get as much as $1.2 million for Frederick McCubbin's 1886 Whisperings in Wattle Boughs.
One of the highlights of last year's auction market was Whiteley's Washing the Salt Off 1 with its curvaceous, big-bottomed Bondi bathers, which went under the hammer at Menzies Art Brands for $1.55 million.
This year, Whiteley's name has attracted a different kind of publicity with a Sydney banker taking a Melbourne art dealer to court over a $2.5 million sale of an alleged fake Whiteley, one of three alleged fake Whiteleys circulating in the market.
Will the fakes make it harder to sell Seagull?
''I unconditionally think it has helped because if someone will pay $2.5 million for a bit of junk, this is a real painting twice the size, for $1.6 million,'' Savill said.
''I am not telling you it is the greatest Whiteley; I am telling you it is a real Whiteley.''
Seagull, with its brilliant blue sky, aquamarine sea and Whiteley's signature curves, stands nearly two metres high. Owned by Singleton, it was next bought for about $280,000 by a wealthy West Australian family who are selling after enjoying it in their Perth home for 24 years.
''It is slightly mad and slightly spiritual and very evocative of Whiteley's sense of space,'' Savill said.
Savill is selling Seagull , 1988, originally owned by the ad man John Singleton, for $1.6 million, along with several other major Australian works that have never been seen at auction.
Australia's art market is a long way from the halcyon days of 2010 when Sidney Nolan's First-Class Marksman sold for $5.4 million. But the Whiteley may pip Deutscher & Hackett's May 2 auction of Arthur Streeton's 1888 Settler's Camp, estimated to sell for as much as $1.5 million.
A week later, Sotheby's Australia hopes to get as much as $1.2 million for Frederick McCubbin's 1886 Whisperings in Wattle Boughs.
One of the highlights of last year's auction market was Whiteley's Washing the Salt Off 1 with its curvaceous, big-bottomed Bondi bathers, which went under the hammer at Menzies Art Brands for $1.55 million.
This year, Whiteley's name has attracted a different kind of publicity with a Sydney banker taking a Melbourne art dealer to court over a $2.5 million sale of an alleged fake Whiteley, one of three alleged fake Whiteleys circulating in the market.
Will the fakes make it harder to sell Seagull?
''I unconditionally think it has helped because if someone will pay $2.5 million for a bit of junk, this is a real painting twice the size, for $1.6 million,'' Savill said.
''I am not telling you it is the greatest Whiteley; I am telling you it is a real Whiteley.''
Seagull, with its brilliant blue sky, aquamarine sea and Whiteley's signature curves, stands nearly two metres high. Owned by Singleton, it was next bought for about $280,000 by a wealthy West Australian family who are selling after enjoying it in their Perth home for 24 years.
''It is slightly mad and slightly spiritual and very evocative of Whiteley's sense of space,'' Savill said.
2012年4月15日星期日
College football recruiting is a season that never ends
As the popularity of college football has soared over the last dozen years, feeding the legions of loyal fans new and innovative information about their teams has spawned a beast today whose thirst almost seems unquenchable.
What started in the 1990s with magazines and 1-900 call-in numbers has become a powerful, expansive, fast-paced and still-growing outlet to follow the molding and shaping of the more than 100 NCAA Division I programs nationwide.
Major college football recruiting is riding a popularity wave the likes of which has never been seen.
Served up a perfect medium when the Internet became a thread of daily life, the demand for major college football recruiting information has steadily increased on almost a yearly basis for the last decade.
"Recruiting databases built in the late 1990s on the Internet created a product that was easily accessible and cheap, bringing an interesting product to a much broader base."
Cheap, accessible and providing new information ... what more could a modern-day passionate college football fan want?
The vehicle was the Internet. And like the famous line from the movie "Field of Dreams" asserted, "If you build it, they will come."
After the collision between the recruiting of Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) players and the web, the aftershocks of the initial explosion are still being felt today.
The consumer is driving the market. And serious college football fans are purchasing Smartphone apps, clicking for online subscriptions and trolling a variety of websites for inside information at a rate some might find alarming.
"In my opinion, the key is to give fans what they want," said JC Shurburtt, the national recruiting director for 247Sports, the new kid on the block. "I think we make a mistake industrywide. We are too ego-driven by breaking news or scooping the other guy.
"While it’s always important to compete, and if you aren’t competitive you will fail quickly doing this stuff, it’s paramount in today’s climate to focus on your readers and fans."
And whether it’s alarming or not, the demand for unique and fresh information clearly exists.
"I think the key is the same as any market: Deliver a consistent, well-respected, timely and interesting product," Kennedy said. "And keep getting better. More features, more interaction, etc."
It all started in the early stages of the 2000s with Scout and Rivals — a pair of outlets already dabbling in the business of major college football recruiting before the Internet boom.
Once this duo went virtual, the sky has been the limit. More outlets have emerged, more content is available, more writers have jobs, more information is available on a daily basis from recruits courtesy of social media ... more, more, more.
"I think there is a ceiling to it, but I’m just not sure where it is. I compare recruiting to two of my other early hobbies," Kennedy said. "When I was in high school watching the NFL draft in 1988, I was one of the crazy ones who taped it and watched it over and over. Now it’s a four-day event.
"In the early ‘90s, a few of us would comb boxscores from newspapers to calculate our fantasy football teams. Now everyone and his grandmother has a team. When I first started covering recruiting, I had to explain to my close friends what I did for a living because they didn’t understand. Now their wives ask me where a kid might be leaning."
What started in the 1990s with magazines and 1-900 call-in numbers has become a powerful, expansive, fast-paced and still-growing outlet to follow the molding and shaping of the more than 100 NCAA Division I programs nationwide.
Major college football recruiting is riding a popularity wave the likes of which has never been seen.
Served up a perfect medium when the Internet became a thread of daily life, the demand for major college football recruiting information has steadily increased on almost a yearly basis for the last decade.
"Recruiting databases built in the late 1990s on the Internet created a product that was easily accessible and cheap, bringing an interesting product to a much broader base."
Cheap, accessible and providing new information ... what more could a modern-day passionate college football fan want?
The vehicle was the Internet. And like the famous line from the movie "Field of Dreams" asserted, "If you build it, they will come."
After the collision between the recruiting of Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) players and the web, the aftershocks of the initial explosion are still being felt today.
The consumer is driving the market. And serious college football fans are purchasing Smartphone apps, clicking for online subscriptions and trolling a variety of websites for inside information at a rate some might find alarming.
"In my opinion, the key is to give fans what they want," said JC Shurburtt, the national recruiting director for 247Sports, the new kid on the block. "I think we make a mistake industrywide. We are too ego-driven by breaking news or scooping the other guy.
"While it’s always important to compete, and if you aren’t competitive you will fail quickly doing this stuff, it’s paramount in today’s climate to focus on your readers and fans."
And whether it’s alarming or not, the demand for unique and fresh information clearly exists.
"I think the key is the same as any market: Deliver a consistent, well-respected, timely and interesting product," Kennedy said. "And keep getting better. More features, more interaction, etc."
It all started in the early stages of the 2000s with Scout and Rivals — a pair of outlets already dabbling in the business of major college football recruiting before the Internet boom.
Once this duo went virtual, the sky has been the limit. More outlets have emerged, more content is available, more writers have jobs, more information is available on a daily basis from recruits courtesy of social media ... more, more, more.
"I think there is a ceiling to it, but I’m just not sure where it is. I compare recruiting to two of my other early hobbies," Kennedy said. "When I was in high school watching the NFL draft in 1988, I was one of the crazy ones who taped it and watched it over and over. Now it’s a four-day event.
"In the early ‘90s, a few of us would comb boxscores from newspapers to calculate our fantasy football teams. Now everyone and his grandmother has a team. When I first started covering recruiting, I had to explain to my close friends what I did for a living because they didn’t understand. Now their wives ask me where a kid might be leaning."
2012年2月21日星期二
Inaugural Palm Springs Fine Art Fair exceeds first-year expectations
The inaugural Palm Springs Fine Art Fair exceeded all first-year expectations, with a total Presidents Day Weekend attendance of 9,500 visitors and sales reaching into the millions of dollars during the February 16-19 event at the Palm Springs Convention Center. Beginning with an opening night gala that drew in art collectors and connoisseurs from across the United States-bolstered by a massive presence from the Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego art scenes, and the generous support and unprecedented turnout from the local art community-to benefit the Palm Springs Art Museum, more than 1,500 attendees toasted the more than 2,000 significant works of post-war and contemporary art on exhibit and sale at the fair. Attendance was steady throughout the three day event-which was founded by the Hamptons Expo Group -and resulted in a first-year fair that boasts the attendance and sales results of an established veteran.
Reaction to the first-year event was understandably positive, with attendees and participants already anticipating an even more spectacular future:
Steven Biller, Editor-in-Chief at PalmSprings Life magazine, summed up the event's impact: "I thought the fair was a transformational event for Palm Springs. It demonstrated the power and sophistication of this market's art community. And it drew people from L.A., Orange County, San Diego, Phoenix/Scottsdale, and the Pacific Northwest. What better place than sunny Palm Springs in the dead of winter to come see art and decompress from the real world? The quality of the some work was world-class, and it was exciting to see red dots on works by blue-chip artists like Andrew Wyeth; L.A. artists like Peter Alexander; established and mid-career artists like Enrique Chagoya and William Betts; and Chicano artists, including Ricardo Ruiz, from the collection of Cheech Marin."
Like Biller, exhibitor Emmett Potter was impressedwith the level of work on display: "You'd have to go to LACMA to see art of this quality."
Kathleen Crain, Associate Director of Scott White Contemporary Art, said,"We have been very pleased with the PalmSprings Fine Art Fair. From the caliber of galleries who participated to the knowledgeable collectors visiting our booth, we feel the fair is off to a great start. We look forward to seeing the fair gain even more attention in the years to come."
Lorna York, owner of the Madison Gallery, counted the fair a success: "This was a fabulous fair for us. There was a lot of synergy here: great dealers, great artwork and a great body of collectors. I brought four artists to the fair and all four have sold, so yes, I'm very happy to have been a participant."
Sales at the fair were steady throughout the weekend, reaching into the millions of dollars. An early partial list of works sold includes blue chip alongside venerable mid-career and emerging artists: Slim Aarons, Lita Albuquerque, Peter Alexander, William Betts,
Stanley Boxer, William Theophilus Brown, Steve Burtch, Enrique Chagoya, Judy Chicago, Michael Childers, Lori Cozen-Geller, Ron Davis, Walter de Maria, Matt Devine, Richard Diebenkorn, Carol Donjuan, Robert Dunahay, Eric Fischl, Eric Forstmann, Sam Francis, Michael Glier and Jenny Holzer, Luis Gutierrez, Grace Hartigan, Scot Heywood, David Hockney, Tom Holland, Robert Irwin, Paul Jenkins, Craig Kauffman, Mary-Austin Klein, Jason Kowalski, Mayme Kratz, Jaehyo Lee, Joanne Lefrak, Roy Lichtenstein, Kim MacConnel, Carrie Marill, Richard Misrach, Henry Moore, Rodrigo Moya, Neil Nagy, Siegried Neuenhausen, George Platt Lynes, Ricardo Ruiz, Ed Ruscha, Stephen Salmieri, Steven Schaub, Alexis Smith, Doug and Mike Starn, Andrew Taylor, Wayne Thiebaud, Jeremy Thomas, James Turrell, James Verbicky, Robert Walker, Andy Warhol, James Weeks, Joel-Peter Wikin, Andrew Wyeth, and Scott Yeskel.
In addition to a weekend-long lecture series led by Steven Biller and art critic/curator Peter Frank, alongside a non-stop schedule of VIP parties hosted by fair Sponsors and Culture Partners, the Palm Springs Fine Art Fair was highlighted by a number of featured exhibitions and awards, including:
Judy Chicago: This legendary artist was honored on opening night with a Lifetime Achievement Award, for her pioneering work. The fair entrance featured Judy Chicago, Material Girl, a retrospective exhibition of her 50 year career, curated and produced by David Richard Contemporary.
Cheech Marin: The nation's foremost Chicano arts advocate received the Arts Patron of the Year Award for his continued support of Chicano art and artists. He also exhibited work, hosted a book signing and VIP party during the run of the fair.
The Big Picture, Paintings from Southern California, 1960 -1980: Art critic Peter Frankcurated an historic Pacific Standard Time-sanctioned exhibition of work culled from participating galleries at the fair.
Palm Springs Fine Art Fair Owner Rick Friedman sums up the reasons for the event's first year success: "We see this as a cultural highpoint of the season. We've now established that there is an art savvy and vibrant buying base up into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Taking place during Palm Springs' annual Modernism Week, the Palm Springs Fine Art Fair rounds out a must-attend West Coast winter resort weekend for fine art and design."
Reaction to the first-year event was understandably positive, with attendees and participants already anticipating an even more spectacular future:
Steven Biller, Editor-in-Chief at PalmSprings Life magazine, summed up the event's impact: "I thought the fair was a transformational event for Palm Springs. It demonstrated the power and sophistication of this market's art community. And it drew people from L.A., Orange County, San Diego, Phoenix/Scottsdale, and the Pacific Northwest. What better place than sunny Palm Springs in the dead of winter to come see art and decompress from the real world? The quality of the some work was world-class, and it was exciting to see red dots on works by blue-chip artists like Andrew Wyeth; L.A. artists like Peter Alexander; established and mid-career artists like Enrique Chagoya and William Betts; and Chicano artists, including Ricardo Ruiz, from the collection of Cheech Marin."
Like Biller, exhibitor Emmett Potter was impressedwith the level of work on display: "You'd have to go to LACMA to see art of this quality."
Kathleen Crain, Associate Director of Scott White Contemporary Art, said,"We have been very pleased with the PalmSprings Fine Art Fair. From the caliber of galleries who participated to the knowledgeable collectors visiting our booth, we feel the fair is off to a great start. We look forward to seeing the fair gain even more attention in the years to come."
Lorna York, owner of the Madison Gallery, counted the fair a success: "This was a fabulous fair for us. There was a lot of synergy here: great dealers, great artwork and a great body of collectors. I brought four artists to the fair and all four have sold, so yes, I'm very happy to have been a participant."
Sales at the fair were steady throughout the weekend, reaching into the millions of dollars. An early partial list of works sold includes blue chip alongside venerable mid-career and emerging artists: Slim Aarons, Lita Albuquerque, Peter Alexander, William Betts,
Stanley Boxer, William Theophilus Brown, Steve Burtch, Enrique Chagoya, Judy Chicago, Michael Childers, Lori Cozen-Geller, Ron Davis, Walter de Maria, Matt Devine, Richard Diebenkorn, Carol Donjuan, Robert Dunahay, Eric Fischl, Eric Forstmann, Sam Francis, Michael Glier and Jenny Holzer, Luis Gutierrez, Grace Hartigan, Scot Heywood, David Hockney, Tom Holland, Robert Irwin, Paul Jenkins, Craig Kauffman, Mary-Austin Klein, Jason Kowalski, Mayme Kratz, Jaehyo Lee, Joanne Lefrak, Roy Lichtenstein, Kim MacConnel, Carrie Marill, Richard Misrach, Henry Moore, Rodrigo Moya, Neil Nagy, Siegried Neuenhausen, George Platt Lynes, Ricardo Ruiz, Ed Ruscha, Stephen Salmieri, Steven Schaub, Alexis Smith, Doug and Mike Starn, Andrew Taylor, Wayne Thiebaud, Jeremy Thomas, James Turrell, James Verbicky, Robert Walker, Andy Warhol, James Weeks, Joel-Peter Wikin, Andrew Wyeth, and Scott Yeskel.
In addition to a weekend-long lecture series led by Steven Biller and art critic/curator Peter Frank, alongside a non-stop schedule of VIP parties hosted by fair Sponsors and Culture Partners, the Palm Springs Fine Art Fair was highlighted by a number of featured exhibitions and awards, including:
Judy Chicago: This legendary artist was honored on opening night with a Lifetime Achievement Award, for her pioneering work. The fair entrance featured Judy Chicago, Material Girl, a retrospective exhibition of her 50 year career, curated and produced by David Richard Contemporary.
Cheech Marin: The nation's foremost Chicano arts advocate received the Arts Patron of the Year Award for his continued support of Chicano art and artists. He also exhibited work, hosted a book signing and VIP party during the run of the fair.
The Big Picture, Paintings from Southern California, 1960 -1980: Art critic Peter Frankcurated an historic Pacific Standard Time-sanctioned exhibition of work culled from participating galleries at the fair.
Palm Springs Fine Art Fair Owner Rick Friedman sums up the reasons for the event's first year success: "We see this as a cultural highpoint of the season. We've now established that there is an art savvy and vibrant buying base up into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Taking place during Palm Springs' annual Modernism Week, the Palm Springs Fine Art Fair rounds out a must-attend West Coast winter resort weekend for fine art and design."
2011年12月1日星期四
Fisher makes exhibiting an art
Perez Road has an eclectic mix of stores offering a variety of services and products from pet grooming and bumper repairs to bathroom fixtures and custom-made gun holsters.
The diversity of the businesses is one of the characteristics that attracted art gallery owner Colin Fisher to the area five years ago.
“I chose this location because it is off the beaten path,” Fisher said. “You think you're going to come here and get an oil change or some tile for your kitchen and you run into an art gallery.”
Walking through Fisher's gallery is akin to visiting a friend's house rather than entering a business.
Comfy couches and chairs, vases filled with flowers, and curios displaying trinkets are placed throughout the gallery amongst the artworks, creating a relaxed environment.
“Colin's gallery isn't like other galleries where they have so much stuff you can't focus on anything,” said artist Christopher Shoemaker, whose work is featured at the gallery. “There's an overall sense of tranquility. It's surreal.”
The homey atmosphere even includes a resident friendly feline, Gilligan, who welcomes guests and roams the gallery.
Fisher deals in unique artworks he finds visually interesting.
The more whimsical the piece, the more attracted Fisher is to it.
Art enthusiasts won't see western or landscape scenes, or plein air work in his gallery. Instead, a large sculpture of a gorilla made out of metals waits on a pedestal for a new owner.
Many of the artists featured in the gallery are also residents of the Coachella Valley and High Desert.
Shoemaker, who lives in Morongo Valley, got his big break through Fisher's gallery.
Shoemaker originally worked for Fisher helping with the construction build-out of the gallery.
Working in the gallery helped him learn about different artists and their methods as well as giving him a boost of energy to try his own hand at art, Shoemaker said.
“One day all of a sudden he says ‘What do you think of this?' and it was a painting he did,” Fisher said. “I started displaying his paintings and they have been selling like crazy.”
Putting on an art show is an enormous amount of work, Fisher said.
The gallery's current show, “Two Man Art Exhibition,” featuring paintings by Shoemaker and sculptures by Santa Barbara artist Scott Donadio, took Fisher and five employees three weeks to set up.
“We repainted the entire gallery, and changed up the furniture,” Fisher said. “It's crazy. It seems so easy to put together but it takes hours and hours to complete.”
In addition to artworks, the gallery has a menagerie of antique furniture, lighting fixtures and mirrors, as well as Asian and African artifacts for sale.
As a member of the newly formed Perez Road Business Partners, Fisher looks forward to collaborating with other businesses to attract more customers to the area.
“The automobile market right down the street has their own association so we figured if they had a group, the businesses on Perez Road should have one too,” Fisher said. “The group helps strengthen our chances of getting things done in the city.”
Fisher first became interested in art when he bought his first piece of artwork at age of 16. As life progressed, he began to accumulate more pieces.
“I left the advertising business and decided to start selling my things,” Fisher said.
Selling the items at auction didn't appeal to Fisher because it felt more like he was just unloading the items rather than selling them to people who had a genuine interest in the artworks.
Fisher wanted to be able to sell the items in an interesting environment where he could display the items himself — hence the beginning of the gallery.
He originally tried opening in Florida but quickly found the area was not what he was looking for, and he relocated to the Coachella Valley.
Fisher is happy with his little niche in its odd location. He said he wouldn't get the same reaction from shoppers if his gallery was on El Paseo or Palm Canyon Drive.
“You have to love this work or you're doing something wrong,” Fisher said. “I really enjoy that people seek us out.”
The diversity of the businesses is one of the characteristics that attracted art gallery owner Colin Fisher to the area five years ago.
“I chose this location because it is off the beaten path,” Fisher said. “You think you're going to come here and get an oil change or some tile for your kitchen and you run into an art gallery.”
Walking through Fisher's gallery is akin to visiting a friend's house rather than entering a business.
Comfy couches and chairs, vases filled with flowers, and curios displaying trinkets are placed throughout the gallery amongst the artworks, creating a relaxed environment.
“Colin's gallery isn't like other galleries where they have so much stuff you can't focus on anything,” said artist Christopher Shoemaker, whose work is featured at the gallery. “There's an overall sense of tranquility. It's surreal.”
The homey atmosphere even includes a resident friendly feline, Gilligan, who welcomes guests and roams the gallery.
Fisher deals in unique artworks he finds visually interesting.
The more whimsical the piece, the more attracted Fisher is to it.
Art enthusiasts won't see western or landscape scenes, or plein air work in his gallery. Instead, a large sculpture of a gorilla made out of metals waits on a pedestal for a new owner.
Many of the artists featured in the gallery are also residents of the Coachella Valley and High Desert.
Shoemaker, who lives in Morongo Valley, got his big break through Fisher's gallery.
Shoemaker originally worked for Fisher helping with the construction build-out of the gallery.
Working in the gallery helped him learn about different artists and their methods as well as giving him a boost of energy to try his own hand at art, Shoemaker said.
“One day all of a sudden he says ‘What do you think of this?' and it was a painting he did,” Fisher said. “I started displaying his paintings and they have been selling like crazy.”
Putting on an art show is an enormous amount of work, Fisher said.
The gallery's current show, “Two Man Art Exhibition,” featuring paintings by Shoemaker and sculptures by Santa Barbara artist Scott Donadio, took Fisher and five employees three weeks to set up.
“We repainted the entire gallery, and changed up the furniture,” Fisher said. “It's crazy. It seems so easy to put together but it takes hours and hours to complete.”
In addition to artworks, the gallery has a menagerie of antique furniture, lighting fixtures and mirrors, as well as Asian and African artifacts for sale.
As a member of the newly formed Perez Road Business Partners, Fisher looks forward to collaborating with other businesses to attract more customers to the area.
“The automobile market right down the street has their own association so we figured if they had a group, the businesses on Perez Road should have one too,” Fisher said. “The group helps strengthen our chances of getting things done in the city.”
Fisher first became interested in art when he bought his first piece of artwork at age of 16. As life progressed, he began to accumulate more pieces.
“I left the advertising business and decided to start selling my things,” Fisher said.
Selling the items at auction didn't appeal to Fisher because it felt more like he was just unloading the items rather than selling them to people who had a genuine interest in the artworks.
Fisher wanted to be able to sell the items in an interesting environment where he could display the items himself — hence the beginning of the gallery.
He originally tried opening in Florida but quickly found the area was not what he was looking for, and he relocated to the Coachella Valley.
Fisher is happy with his little niche in its odd location. He said he wouldn't get the same reaction from shoppers if his gallery was on El Paseo or Palm Canyon Drive.
“You have to love this work or you're doing something wrong,” Fisher said. “I really enjoy that people seek us out.”
2011年3月27日星期日
Gardening, antiques provide inspiration for artist
What type of art do you create?
I paint in oils in the classical realist tradition.
Describe your work:
I am primarily a still life painter, although I enjoy painting landscapes and portraits as well. My favorite subject matter to paint is a beautiful flower arrangement or flowers in a natural garden setting.
When did you start making your art?
I have been painting full-time for the past 10 years, but I have always loved to paint and draw. I studied art in college but ended up working in the health care field in our family business for 15 years before returning to art. Once all of my children were in school full-time, I was able to devote more time to my painting. To refine my skills, I have attended many workshops all over the country studying with some of the best classic artists of today. My mother, Barbara Beauchamp, also an artist has given me continual encouragement and support in my pursuit as a professional artist.
What inspires you?
My own colorful garden or a great "find" in an antique shop will often be the inspiration for a new painting. My studio is filled with many interesting brass, copper and blue and white porcelain containers, old rugs and linens that often find their way into my paintings. My love of gardening and antiques all come together in many of my still life works.
What are the challenges of creating your art?
Being a mother of three girls, it is always a challenge to find the time to paint uninterrupted. Family always comes first.
Do you make a living through your art?
Yes, I am a full-time professional artist.
Do you have a job outside of your art?
Yes, raising three children. In the past, I worked full-time in home health care, but I left the field about 10 years ago and now pursue art full time.
Who is your favorite artist?
I have so many favorite artists it is hard to name just one. Richard Schmid and David Leffel are some of the present day masters that I most admire and I also love the work of the old Dutch Masters such as Rembrandt and Vermeer.
Where in the community can your work be seen?
My work is on display at the Art Institute & Gallery in Salisbury as part of the spring show. I also am currently represented by Bishop's Stock in Snow Hill and will be participating in the annual Paint Snow Hill plein air event April 15-17. The "wet paint" sale will be held on April 17 at the old fire house. I am also a participating artist in the Spring Flowers show though Peninsula-Gallery in Lewes April 2-27, and my work will be on display in Maryland at the Oxford Community Center May 27-29 for the 27th annual Oxford Fine Arts Fair.
I paint in oils in the classical realist tradition.
Describe your work:
I am primarily a still life painter, although I enjoy painting landscapes and portraits as well. My favorite subject matter to paint is a beautiful flower arrangement or flowers in a natural garden setting.
When did you start making your art?
I have been painting full-time for the past 10 years, but I have always loved to paint and draw. I studied art in college but ended up working in the health care field in our family business for 15 years before returning to art. Once all of my children were in school full-time, I was able to devote more time to my painting. To refine my skills, I have attended many workshops all over the country studying with some of the best classic artists of today. My mother, Barbara Beauchamp, also an artist has given me continual encouragement and support in my pursuit as a professional artist.
What inspires you?
My own colorful garden or a great "find" in an antique shop will often be the inspiration for a new painting. My studio is filled with many interesting brass, copper and blue and white porcelain containers, old rugs and linens that often find their way into my paintings. My love of gardening and antiques all come together in many of my still life works.
What are the challenges of creating your art?
Being a mother of three girls, it is always a challenge to find the time to paint uninterrupted. Family always comes first.
Do you make a living through your art?
Yes, I am a full-time professional artist.
Do you have a job outside of your art?
Yes, raising three children. In the past, I worked full-time in home health care, but I left the field about 10 years ago and now pursue art full time.
Who is your favorite artist?
I have so many favorite artists it is hard to name just one. Richard Schmid and David Leffel are some of the present day masters that I most admire and I also love the work of the old Dutch Masters such as Rembrandt and Vermeer.
Where in the community can your work be seen?
My work is on display at the Art Institute & Gallery in Salisbury as part of the spring show. I also am currently represented by Bishop's Stock in Snow Hill and will be participating in the annual Paint Snow Hill plein air event April 15-17. The "wet paint" sale will be held on April 17 at the old fire house. I am also a participating artist in the Spring Flowers show though Peninsula-Gallery in Lewes April 2-27, and my work will be on display in Maryland at the Oxford Community Center May 27-29 for the 27th annual Oxford Fine Arts Fair.
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