Michael Ingold thinks:

Web design is not for the faint of heart.

2009-11-23T09:50:00.000-08:00

So It has been quite a while since my last post, and for any of you that read this you may or may not know that my wife and I welcomed our first child back in April. Needless to say, priorities change.

Well now that we're seasoned veterans in the field of parenting, I thought I should at least attempt to get back to making art and doing the sorts of things that go along with that, such as self promotion. My newest venture has been to construct myself a website using Adobe Dreamweaver and Flash, which I assure you has been no small undertaking.

Years ago, in a previous life some might say, I actually worked as a web designer at two different venues. In my first job as a web designer my boss decided that we needed a Flash Developer and that for some reason that person would be me. In the end he gave me about three weeks to do nothing but teach myself Flash for eight hours a day, five days a week, and I got pretty good at it. That was, however, about six years ago. In web-tech-time six years may as well be six decades. The Flash MX of old only resembles the Flash CS4 of today in the way that a child might resemble their step-grandfather... My second job as a web designer was really not a design job so much as it was a job where I used terrible pre-existing graphics to create terrible new things. I learned how to code html pretty well in that job, but coding html is not like riding a bike. You cant just pick it back up after years of not having ridden.

My current motivation to create a new website, admittedly, was somewhat artificially created. I was sort of recommended by a friend to another friend as a person who knows (knew) web stuff pretty well. This resulted in me getting a gig teaching a two day web design workshop to the Grand Valley State University Art & Design Dept. Senior Seminar class. Needless to say I needed to brush up on my web skillz, and the best way to do that seemed to be to make myself a new website. And so, to make a long story long, the fruits of my labor can be seen here:

michaelingold.com

It is by no means a masterpiece, but I'm quite happy with the way it turned out. It is a work in progress, and I'll be adding more content over the next few weeks, but the majority of the work is done, and that is a relief

Daily Inspiration

2009-04-26T22:18:00.000-07:00

I saw this image while clicking through digg.com and thought, "thats a pretty cool typeface." I did not realize some person in amsterdam had the terrifyingly amazing idea that they should make this out of pennies in the middle of a public square. Unfortunately, in an effort to stop the general public from trying to "steal the artwork" the local authorities decided to shovel all of the pennies into garbage bags and hold them at the police station for the artist to claim.

Yes, some times things that stupid really happen.

click the image for a ton more photos and video including the install and the demise.

ArtPrize

2009-04-25T12:36:00.000-07:00

Like so many of the people I interact with on a regular basis, I was absolutely thrilled with the announcement of the ArtPrize competition earlier this week. If, as Devos Jr. Jr. promises, this does in fact become an annual event, the ArtPrize competition has the potential to make Grand Rapids a venue for some of the biggest names in the art field. Not just artists, but collectors and curators as well. This is a big deal for the small but thriving art community in GR. We now have to potential to become visible on a national and possibly international level.

Now, as optimistic as the above sounds, I am not naive enough to think that West Michigan has already secured it's place as the next London or New York. I really don't see that happening. Admittedly, I have my doubts about the idea of the general public making the ultimate decisions about which ten artists represent the best of the best. We live in a profoundly conservative area. An area that is known for having more churches per square mile that any other in the midwest. An area that was outspokenly against the placement of the now iconic Alexander Calder sculpture in downtown GR. As wonderful as it is to see Rick Devos spearheading the organization of the largest (read $$$) art competition on the world, let us not forget that his mother also recently spearheaded a campaign involving the arts. Yes, thats right, Betsy Devos spearheaded a campaign to ban nude models in life drawing classes at the local universities. Let us hope that the apple has indeed fallen far from the tree.

While I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment that the arts should be as publicly visible as possible, I am doubtful that the general public has the necessary command of art criticism to make the ArtPrize competition anything more than a study in the marketability of not-so-postmodern art. I am confident that we will see some amazing things on display come October, but I am not confident that those amazing things will get the notice they deserve.

I truly hope that Grand Rapids can prove me wrong on this one.

MFA Show

2009-04-23T18:39:00.000-07:00

Here are a few shots from my MFA show, which will be up in the Kendall's Gallery 104 through the end of this week (the 25th of april).

Daily Inspiration

2009-04-23T18:28:00.000-07:00

Michigan folk trio Breath Owl Breath make what appears to be really good music. I went to college with the lead singer, Micah. He was a really nice guy. I hope stuff works out for them.

Breathe Owl Breathe - Boat from Weston Currie on Vimeo.