The Mystic Otto Rapp

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Should artists let large profitable companies use their art online for free?

There is not much to add to the letter below by Craig Frazier, Member of the Society of Illustrators - I urge everyone to read about this topic. I remember discussions in other forums about artists being expected to work for free and be "grateful " for the exposure they get. One such discussion had taken place on deviantArt News way back in August 2007 - it seems that issue is never going to go away. Now Google has asked Artists to work for free also.

As reported recently in the New York Times, Google has invited prominent illustrators to contribute work to be featured as options for Google’s customers to use as skins on Google’s new Web browser, Google Chrome, in exchange for the “opportunity to have their work shown to millions” (in other words, Google would not pay for the artwork). ......More..........

June 16, 2009

Dear Google,

Thanks for your reply to my email—which I will take as an invitation to further engage in the debate. As the NY Times article and several postings on Drawger.com have indicated—this is a very important issue to the creative community—in this case designers and illustrators. ......More..........

Owen, Wickersham & Erickson - Legalities 32

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Select Paintings from the Visionary Art Network

A few months ago, I started a Private Network of Visionary Artists on the Ning Platform with a handful of friends. Since then, the Membership has steadily grown and includes some of the very best Visionary Artists in the Universe. Many of these artists had been friends for decades, others are new to the fold. Below is a selection of PAINTINGS from the hundreds of works submitted so far.

Members of Visionary Art sign in here

Inquiries: artofthemystic@gmail.com

List of exhibiting Members from the Visionary Art Network:

Miguel Tio - Jon Beinart - Martin-Georg Oscity - Pavel Surma - Christian Flora - Bernard Dumaine - Janelle McKain - Amanda Sage - Piotr Zygmunt - Sonja Tines - Otto Rapp - Agim Meta - Santiago Ribeiro - Dean Fleming - Peter Hutter - Jay Paul von Koffler - Pedro Prata - Shala Rosa - Joe A. MacGown - Ben Tolman - Philip Rubinov Jacobson - Barbara Wiewiórska - Tassos Kouris - Oleg Korolev - Steve Smith - Zoltan Ducsai - Chris Edler - Brajanne - Raul Casillas - Adam Pinson - Aleksander Rymarowicz - Janne Kearney - Gerald Butalewicz - Jeff Stewart - Paula Rosa - Danny Malboeuf - Andrzej Masianis - IT Hammar - Gautam Nair - Frank Nitkiewicz - R.L.Frisby - Felix Klee - Gromyko Padilla Semper - Laurie Lipton - Joseph Larkin - Ton Haring - Franz Landl - Pedro De Kastro - Manfred Marburger - Silvia Pecha - Dennis Konstantin Gerigk - Leo Plaw - Herman Smorenburg - Erik Heyninck - Edward Walton Wilcox - Gil Perry - Tim Zart - Ludgero Paulo Rôlo - Nad Wolinska - Peter Sibrin - Breck Outland
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Previous Posts about Visionary Art:

Select Drawings, Visionary Art Showcase, Visionary Art Press Release

For more information about the Private Visionary Art Network, please visit my webpage VISIONARY ART SHOWCASE

M.F. Husain - Controversial Indian Artist

Maqbool Fida Husain is one of India's most famous contemporary painters although he lives in Dubai. He is afraid to go home because he has provoked the ire of Hindu Nationalists for painting goddesses, sometimes in the nude.

read more..... and check out all the related New York Times articles.

There is a website dedicated to censoring this artist: MF Hussain Campaign - I had quite some heated discussions with the network creator (and censor) of the ArtLab network, concerning this issue, after a blog of mine featuring a slide show of select works by Visionary Artists was deleted on that network (most likely because of the latest inclusion of Miguel Tio's work) - now that I read the content of the Husain Campaign link above, I am beginning to understand that artistic freedom is not universal, and Husain's plight does touch us. Pictured below is one of the offending paintings:

On further research I found this essay about Hindu Fundamentalism, revealing the political background to this story.
It should be noted that, while the hounding of Husain continues, the Indian Surpreme Court Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul had exonerated him. The reasonings of the Indian Surpreme Court Judge are quoted in this blog by E=mc^2: MF Husain Nudes Judgement - July 3rd, 2008.

Love, Peace and Happyness, a rare commodity in the world today?

Fantastic Realism and Surrealism, an Excursion into Bogomil's Universe

Bogomil's Universe is an excursion into the realms of the "Inner Universe" - a parallel universe that exists in the mind, and glimpses thereof are presented here. I am increasingly reluctant to speak of my work as strictly and exclusively surrealistic. While Surrealism provided the initial spark, and some of the methods of Surrealism are employed, I do not suppress the influence of the rational and selective focus. Thus, particularly in later works, there is to be found a conscious juxtapositioning of the complementary forces of inspiration and reason.
I do not concern myself with the elimination of the rational, the exclusivity of the irrational and the absurd, but presentation of the conscious and subconscious world as an inseparable whole. I draw my inspirations from the layered labyrinthic underground which represents the "other side" of life, which is an "inner" imaginative-inspirational counterpart to the "outer" world, expressed with the help of logic-alogic associations, analogisations and symbolism.
My interest in Religion and Mythology is particularly expressed in my drawings. Technically, they are counterpoint to the Bogomil Cyclus paintings, relying almost entirely on the action of the sharpened pencil point on virginal paper, as opposed to textured surfaces as inspirational departure points in my paintings. In both instances however, the outcome is not pre-determined. The act of painting or drawing is a memorable trip into the uncharted realms of the "Inner Universe", the results of which are presented to you here after the fact.