john t. unger studio

It's only life or death. It's always only life or death

The best thing that ever happened to me was the night an angry, messed up cab driver pulled me into the back room of a 24 hour diner and held a huge handgun to my head for over ten minutes, all the while describing in intricately fetishistic detail exactly what would happen when he pulled the trigger.

Why? Because it changes you, staring down a nutjob holding a gun. After that, the small stuff just doesn't get sweated. You either break, or break through to a mandatory satori of keeping things in proportion that most people never get to walk away from. It's an ice calm I wouldn't trade for anything.

The second best thing that ever happened to me was when the dot com crash of 2000 wiped out most of the design industry at the peak of my career as a freelance print designer. I went from turning away work every week to working exactly 7 days of the next year. I lost my girl. I lost my loft. I lost part of my thumb in an accident moving out of the loft. I pretty much lost it all.

Of course, the only reason I was working in offices was to fund the art career I wanted… materials, space, tools, etc. I worked eight hours in the office and ten in the studio, sleeping when I passed out involuntarily. I decided that if my industry had tanked, I was damned if I was gonna retrain to do something else I didn't want to do. I chose to make the art be my sole means of support. I built some monumentally scaled commissions working out of borrowed shop space, with borrowed gear, sleeping on borrowed couches.

It worked. I've been making my living as an artist ever since, and these days I earn triple the income I ever did from the best corporate gigs.

The third best thing that ever happened was the day my studio building collapsed under a load of snow while I was standing on the roof shoveling. I rode that roof to the ground like a gut-shot rodeo pony. The building and some pricey tools were completely destroyed, but I was unharmed… until I spent the next three months (December, January and February) without heat, running water or a stove because the natural gas line into the house had been severed in the collapse. The gas company refused to fix the line until they could bury it in the spring. I lost a few brain cells, I'm sure, by running an unvented kerosene heater inside the house to stay alive.

How was that good? The bank came out to assess the damage, saw my work and suggested I do a $10,000 commissioned sign as the down payment on the remaining two buildings I'd been leasing with an unlikely option to buy. Getting this place had a lot to do with making the art career fly. I had affordable space to work and a place for customers to find me. I don't think the deal would have happened without the disaster… They didn't want to take a loss on the property (or hold it) and I was willing to take it on at the cost of the mortgage before the building fell.

Bottom line:

The only way you can tell the difference between disaster and opportunity is to decide to make an opportunity out of every event.

Postscript:

During the second and third disasters, my friends were pretty evenly divided in their response to my choice to make the world work on my terms.

One camp said, "Dude, you're so brave to just bail on the day job and do your own thing. You're my hero. I wish I could do that." The other camp said, "Look, don't be crazy. Just take whatever work you can get until you're on your feet, even if it's fast food or something. You're never gonna make it without some cash." Really, both camps were wrong (though I love them all dearly).

I wasn't brave. Not the least bit. I was frickin' desperate, is what I was, but not terrified. I was back to that ice calm… you learn that it just ain't over till it's over, and that giving up never got anyone out of a jam. I didn't want a life of stability if it meant I had to do digital layouts of junk mail for a living. I wanted to do what I was best at, what I loved, and get paid for that. It was worth the risk. It was the only real way I could see to better my situation.

I wasn't crazy either. By the time I figured out that the design work wasn't just in a slump, that it wasn't coming back any time soon, I had about $5 in cash and $20,000 in debt. There was no way that a subsistence level job was gonna fix that… I ran full tilt towards the art career because I knew if I did it right, and worked my ass off, I could probably make enough to get out of the hole

I had to think about it again when the building crashed. That time, I almost did pack it in. It felt like my dream was a stupid idea after all, that I had just run everything into the ground betting on a long shot. But in the rural economy here, few jobs pay well enough to escape the poverty line and there are fewer and fewer jobs available anyway every year. A job wasn't gonna save me. It would just suck all the time and energy I needed to realize my dreams, while keeping me alive enough to resent it.

I remembered other businesses I had started on a shoe string earlier in life… each of them ultimately failed the first time something major went wrong because I hadn't had enough cash to keep them going. Or had they? Had money really been the only way to get them back on track, or was it a failure of creativity and nerve? Had they really failed because when faced with a seemingly insurmountable problem, I'd believed it to be what it seemed, bought into it, walked away because I didn't feel able to do the so-called impossible? I decided that what I really couldn't afford was to waste all the time and energy I had put into building an art career that was just on the edge of being sustainable. I'd come too far this time to back down.

Having weighed the pros and cons of sticking to my guns, I decided to force a positive change out of the crisis. Within a month, I unexpectedly sold a few major pieces, paying off the last of my old debts with the money and having cash left over. From that moment, the art has sold exponentially better each year. If I'd given up at the moment, none of the great things that have happened since would have come about.

Meet me at SXSW Interactive this week

I'm on my way to SXSW Interactive tomorrow morning, driving down. I'm really looking forward to it after having such a blast last year. The best part is always meeting up with friends I don't see often enough as well as people I've formerly only known through the web.The warm Texas weather doesn't hurt either, or the great food, music, etc.

I'll be in Austin, Texas March 7-15. If you're going to be there and want to meet up, call me on my cell at 231.584.2710. Probably the best way to keep track of what I'm doing is to follow me on Twitter. I'll be staying in New Braufels with my friends, the Whipple family, but I'll be pretty available to hang out in the evenings.

This year I'll also be launching a new project I'm really excited about: www.emoodicon.com. I've been working long hours the last couple weeks to get the site ready for launch before SXSW. Just put the finishing touches on it today. What is it? Well, go check it out already… let me know what you think and be sure to enter one of the contests while you're there.

Gift Giving and the Geek Girl

So, I recently started dating someone and couldn't possibly be happier. Marcie totally rocks. She's gorgeous, brainy, geeky, sexy, writes great poetry and prose, and we have all these weird things in common… Like, we're both carnivores but won't eat any seafood under any circumstances, ever. I could go on and on (and probably will eventually… half my posts on Twitter are about her in some way or another) but really I just wanted to post an email she sent me while it's still actually Valentines Day.

We both kind of hate holidays, Valentines Day in particular, so we had agreed to blow it off. But then I was talking with Debra Condren a couple days ago and telling her about Marcie's writing. Debra asked if Marcie had her own domain and I said, "I don't think so." Since Debra has Godaddy on speed-dial in her browser, she immediately checked and said "OMG, her name is available as a .com, you should get her that for Valentines Day!" Well, yeah. I did and even managed to keep it a secret until today. Marcie was totally into it. One of the fun things about dating someone as geeky as I am is that it makes gift giving much more fun.

Later, Marcie was talking with her mom and sent me the following transcript of their conversation:

Mom: So, did you get anything for Valentines Day?
Marcie: OMG, yes, John bought me my own domain name!!!!
Mom: (silence)
Marcie: Website, he bought me a website name, www.marcievargas.com
Mom: Oh...You have to pay for those?
Marcie: Um...yeah
Mom: Okay. Oh, um, so how do I see it?
Marcie: Well, there's nothing on it yet...
Mom: What? What do you mean there's nothing on it?
Marcie: Well, I have to decide what I want to use it for.
Mom: (Silence)      Wouldn't you rather have chocolates?

Love it.

I also got to name an animated cartoon character after Marcie today… Not only is it the perfect name for the character, but the animation even looks a bit like her. It was one of those weird coincidences where I described my ideal woman to the illustrator, and just before I saw the finished art I got an email from someone on OKCupid who turned out to be Marcie. Nice. She's my total dream girl. Yeah, I know, that sounds cheesy, but it's a holiday today. And hey, if you based a fictional character on your ideal woman and then actually met a real person who was a total match and fell in love, well, you might say a few romantic things too, eh?

Making A Firebowl by Night

I was working late in the studio one night, just before the snow came, trying to finish up a rush order of fire bowls for the Sheraton Hotel in Honolulu… My neighbor Preston Cole stopped by and shot a bunch of pictures as the sun went down. They came out just great… I love how industrial the sparks look, ot to mention the great reflected light from the torch. I haven't had any photos of the work process, so actually, I never really knew what the cutting looks like from the other end of the torch.

You can see a finished fire bowl in the left corner, the bowl I'm cutting (of course), a blank behind me waiting it's turn and the huge drift of scrap in the lower right… pretty much the entire life cycle of a Great Bowl O Fire. Preston gave me a framed copy of this image for Christmas and it was the best gift I got this year!

You can click this photo to see it larger.

Happy New Year

So much cool stuff happened in 2007 that I'm having a had time coming up with a list of it all… Hands down it was the best year ever as an artist.

In thinking about it, I've realized that even though the art business has done really well, it's often the social element that really makes art fun for me. I love hearing back from people who are ecstatic with the art they've purchased; I like talking with people about projects and coming up with just the right thing; I dig getting to meet more of the people I've previously only communicated with online; I like the interesting opportunities that crop up as a side effect of blogging, making art, etc.

I got so busy with art, code, consulting, traveling and so on last year that I really barely got a chance to write anything for the blog… I'm going to try to make a better effort this year… I'm hoping that some of the new ideas I've been playing with the last few months will come together to make that a bit easier. More organization, more outsourcing and hiring, and a new studio that I hope to start building as soon as the snow goes (more on that soon).

In the meantime, a huge THANK YOU to everyone who made 2007 rock!

Some of the highlights for 2007 include (in no particular order):

• I sold exactly 100 firebowls in 2007, not counting the Pot-de-Feus and Braziers! That was really exciting… especially since it took two years to sell the first 50.
• I took a trip to NYC and got to meet up with a lot of cool people that I only knew through the web before: Clive Thompson, BL Ochman, Debra Condren, some of the crew at Etsy Labs. The funny thing about New York is that even though I've only visited it once before, I recognized more of the city than I do Chicago where I lived for five years. Weird.
• I spoke on my first tech panel at BlogWorld Expo with Denise Wakeman and Rich Brooks. It was great to get a chance to hang out with both of them.
• I added a bunch of new designs to the firebowl line and came up with some improvements to the way I make them.
• The firebowls also picked up some nice wholesale accounts that helped to make it a record year.
• I've got a new project going with Chris Carfi that I can't talk about yet, but the prototypes just arrived and I'm geeked! Details soon.
• I hired a shop assistant part time this year in the studio. Kurt's been doing a great job on finishing the bowls after I cut them, and the relief of turning over the grinding to someone else is huge.
• TypePad Hacks officially became for hire this year and I've worked with some really great people on some stellar blogs.
• I fell in love with Austin, TX during SXSWi. I'll be going again this year.
• Lots of new equipment in the shop this year, including: A huge air compressor, a forklift, a stick welder, new 7" grinders, and a bunch of assorted smaller gear.
• There was a lot of press this year, as documented on the press page.
• I got to do some really interesting consulting gigs, especially on the PayPal Storefront Widget.
• I found an architect to work with one designing the new house and studio building.
• I learned that I can get ten times as much done as I would have thought, and also figured out that I'd actually rather do a little less and find the time for a real social life ;-)
• There were a lot of really cool projects this year (Like 5 gas fired Great Bowls O Fire for the Sheraton on Waikiki Beach!). I haven't got pictures back yet for most of the really huge projects, but I'm totally looking forward to seeing them.

I'm pretty excited for the new year… Lots of cool projects ramping up already, which I'm really looking forward to. But I'm also going to take a bit more time to get out and travel this year. Should be fun.

The noiser it gets, the quieter it appears

Yeah, I know, sound isn't visible (usually) so my headline's a bit off. What I mean by it is that the busier I get, the harder it is to find time to write about it.

Hugh Macleod lists a few explanations for the slow down on blogs this summer: why we're all blogging less.

A common conversation thread I'm hearing a lot among the veteran bloggers, is how we all seem to be blogging a lot less. The reasons are numerous; here's a short list of the main ones I'm picking up.

1. We got busy. For many of us, blogging created opportunities for us in the offline world, just like the early blog evangelists predicted. And as we found out the hard way, it's actually quite hard to do stuff and blog about it at the same time. As my father, a very smart and observant man once quipped, "A lot of these bloggers seem to have a lot of time on their hands". That may have been true in 2002, back when the recession was still on. It's certainly less true with a lot of people I know.

He seems to have struck a nerve. The comments on the post mostly agree that time is a scarcer resource than when we all started this stuff. Check out his follow-up post for the rest of the story (in which, blogging isn't dead, it's just getting more focused).

I can relate to the whole time issue. I've got scads of photos of new work that haven't made their way to the blog yet. Tons of news, scores of ideas, lots and lots of things that really should get mentioned here. It'll happen, but not until I get caught up on some of the work and opportunities that have come to me through the blog.

I've been through this before, actually. When I bailed on college and hit the streets back in the late 80s, determined to make it as an author, I had a simple theory of how to write. "live an interesting life, and write it down." I quickly found out that there wasn't that much time to write if you really had an interesting life… Plenty of stories to tell, but you had to choose between telling a story or living one. Back then, living the story often took preference over recording it.

Sooner or later I reckon the break-neck pace will slow. And then there'll be a lot of catching up to do.

Brute Force Redundancy and Entropic Distribution

Some tools are so useful that they become hard to keep track of… I can't tell you how many hours per year I spend looking for my tape measure, for instance. I use it in the house, in the yard, in the studio, on job sites… at any given time, it could be anywhere.

I solved that problem yesterday using a new strategy I'm calling "brute force redundancy." I went to the dollar store and bought six tape measures and plan to let entropy distribute them to the places they are most likely to be used. For now, they're all hanging from the tool hooks in the shop, but I guarantee that by the end of the week there won't be a single tape measure on that hook. There'll be one in the car, one in the mosaic room, a couple in the studio and the outdoor work area, etc.. Plus, I made sure to buy bright yellow ones instead of the dark blue I can't find because it blends into shadows. If I could get one that beeped and blinked lights, I would.

With any luck, I'll never waste more than a minute looking for my tape measure again. Yay!

Best Radio Station Ever!

I mentioned KNBT the other day as the station I was listening to while I was in Austin. Roots and Americana music like you wouldn't believe. I'd given up on radio forever, and now I feel like this must be what happens to people who are born again.

I'm listening to it right now over the web… And trying to figure out why no one makes a portable device for listening to online radio? (or do they? If anyone knows of a browser boombox, fill me in).

I'd kill to have radio this good where I live. I figure I like about 99 out of 100 songs they play, which is better odds than when I set up my own playlist in itunes! Because basically, they're playing all my faves plus a bunch of amazing stuff that I don't know. Rock on. This is the inspiration I really needed to set up my old laptop as a music server and run speaker wire out to the shop.

Seriously… go give KNBT a listen.

It makes me want to get a radio license and start broadcasting the best of the web over the traditional airwaves like a cross between NPR, pirate radio and (I hate to say it) MySpace.

In Case No One Believes Me

Very frickin' cool. And I like how they incorporated the star.

WhippleWorld: as Warm and Open as a Texas Plain

When I mentioned on the blog that I would be in Austin, John Whipple sent me an email saying:

Whippleworld is only about an hour from Austin so maybe we could drive up there and see you.

I was totally geeked!

Jimmie Whipple was the very first customer at my ArtBuzz blog and I've stayed in touch with the family ever since… They're very cool folks, which comes through clearly on their blog. The chance to get to meet them in person was really every bit as exciting as the idea of meeting any of the panelists at SXSW.

I'm bad at geography, so I'd had no idea they were that close to Austin. I wrote John back and asked if he had any suggestions for a cheap motel outside Austin (I hadn't made reservations when I bought the SXSW ticket and there was pretty much nothing available in town). He offered me the use of their little Casita trailer that sits on the site of their homebrew music fest, the Woodzie. Here's the trailer:

There's a bunch more pictures at the the Woodzie blog that give you an idea of how beautiful the location is.

The Casita was a totally cosy little place to stay… And actually, there was something just perfect about spending the days at SXSW immersed in tech and and noise and business, then coming home to a quiet little place in the woods. If I'd been staying in Austin, I'm sure I'd have had a blast and partied harder, slept less, and well, generally run myself into the ground. It's a funny thing, because I don't really care for the isolation and quiet in the woods where I actually live, but while staying at the Casita I pretty much came home, turned on KNBT and relaxed for the night.

My first night there, John and Jimmie and I got a chance to hang out and drink some of the 90 beers that Tony Racky had given me for the road when I dropped off the last panel of the Baseball Triptych for LakeView Baseball Club (story to come). We had a great time talking and later in the week went out for all-you-can-eat BBQ and a great open mic in a nearby bar. John sang some of his songs (And yes, John, I was serious… I really want a recording of the one about dustdevil love) which were beautiful.

It's way cool when you get to meet people that you've known from afar in person and they're even cooler than you had imagined. I sent out a gift when I got home that should come in handy on Woodzie Weekend.

I'm really looking forward to another visit!

A little bit of color in a world like a blank page

We finally got rid of all our snow, and then, suddenly, it's back with a vengeance. I want spring, now!

But at least the bottle tree in the yard looks pretty. It's the only color in the whole neighborhood today.

Mya Meets Scott McCloud

Scott McCloud is a total freakin' genius, but he's also a nice guy. If you already know he's a genius, you can skip to the part of this post below the Amazon links and find out how I know he's also good folks.

When I saw that Scott McCloud had a new book out and was on tour promoting it, I immediately started writing a post about it (then Firefox crashed and other things happened, etc. and I didn't go back to it). I knew that I'd find an excuse to write about it sooner or later. It turns out that last night's lecture in Maine is the happy occasion.

The first thing I did when my daughter Mya told me she was interested in writing and drawing comics was get her a copy of Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics. It's also the first book I recommend to anyone who has a need to communicate clearly with other people, whether they're in the arts, business or any other field.

Understanding Comics is a comic book that explains how comics work, but it's more than that… it's a clear, concise look at how to tell stories, how to get ideas across and how information is processed. I'm going to stop raving now and just refer you to Amazon if you haven't read it yet. Regardless of whether you're interested in comics per se, I guarantee you'll find the book entertaining, thought provoking, educational, and eventually, well, indispensable.

Okay, a little more raving, I can't quite help it. Understanding Comics is the best book I've ever read on maing art of any kind. Now I'll stop.

 

 

So, anyway, last night Mya got to go see Scott lecture at the Maine College of Art. To be honest, I'm a wee bit jealous, even though I suggested it when I first noticed that he was going to be in her area. I'll get my chance to see him when the tour reaches Michigan. Mya enjoyed the lecture and she found the presentation by his daughters Winter and Sky interesting. We didn't get a chance to talk at great length last night, but hopefully Mya will leave a comment here with her own description of the event. It's better first-hand.

The cool thing happened after… Mya had taken along six pages of her most recent work in comics, and during the signing Scott took the time to read and critique it. She was so psyched that she called me the minute she got back. Hearing her that excited and inspired really made my day. I deeply appreciate Scott taking the time to reach out to a younger fan, especially because of what she said next:

"You were right Dad, famous people really are just people… they're not hard to talk to if you have something to talk about."

Over the summer I'd encouraged Mya to reach out to people she found interesting and interact with them as peers— after all, all of my friends really dig her. She's heard stories from me about some of the writers, bloggers, geniuses, artists and so forth I've met online and developed friendships with, but she wasn't comfortable with the idea of just approaching people she didn't know. She's 17 and a little shy sometimes.

Thing is, like myself, Mya lives in a pretty isolated rural environment where she often finds it difficult to find people who share her interests. She's lucky to have some great teachers at her school and a couple friends that she can talk to, but overall, there's not a lot of people she can have really deep talks with. So after meeting Scott and getting to talk with someone who's been a total hero of hers, that whole idea of reaching out seemed a lot more doable. It could have gone the other way, of course… if he'd been the kind of artist who doesn't do well with fans, she might have walked away totally crushed. But I think their interaction may inspire her to start making an effort to get to know some of the other people she reads and to become more interested in participating on blogs. I hope so, because I think it will make her life a lot richer in many of the same ways it's improved mine.

That's what makes the blogosphere so special… it makes it possible to connect with people in ways that really weren't as easy before. Before blogs, it really wouldn't have occurred to me to just call up an author who had written a book that paralleled what I was working on. And if I had, they might not have appreciated it much. What's changed with blogs is that the interaction between author and audience has become part of the process… There are ways that this benefits the author, and ways that it benefits the reader, but the key benefit is that I think it gives up-and-coming artists more ways to learn, grow and move forward. And that really benefits everyone.

Part of what I enjoy most about being an artist is that interaction with the audience and with other artists… I love teaching, presenting, and sharing what I know. I dig encouraging kids and adults to think creatively and to try things that might have seemed beyond their reach. I love hearing stories about other people who do the same.

Thanks Scott!

Below is the first page of the comic Mya shared with Scott. I'm still waiting to get my hands on the next five (going on six) pages. I can't wait until she starts doing all of her work in Illustrator and posting it to a blog! I'm pretty curious to see where the story is going after starting with the lyrics to Strange Fruit.

 

Nice work, Rachel!

Rachel Thomas sent me the following email a while back:

I'm an art student at William Jewell College in K.C., MO and I really admire your work. I've been attempting a bottle cap sculpture for my sculpture class. If you don't mind me asking, I was wondering how you attach your bottle caps to the plywood. Do you use just nails or some sort of superglue as well?

I replied with some quick, basic advice about the sort of nails I use for my bottle cap mosaics, but I think she had finished the piece before I got back to her. Rachel used hot glue and Super Glue for her mermaid.

I asked if she would send me a photo of her finished piece and here it is. Pretty cool! I especially like the way she did the tail fin… the multiple colors work really well.

If you haven't seen my bottle cap mermaids that inspired Rachel you can check them out at the new portfolio blog here and here. Or go to the bottle cap mosaic index to see all the work I've done with caps.

Technorati Tags: art, bottle cap, bottlecap, crown cap, folkart, mermaid, mosaic, outsider art

Kids Make Cool Art

My friend Maggie brought her two boys over to see the studio yesterday. I had promised them that they could try their hand at cutting out a steel drawing using the plasma cutter. I think they did a great job!

I spent some time before their visit explaining over the phone to Jacob  what kind of drawings work best for this and asked him to help his little brother with his drawing. I also showed the boys some of the drawings in steel that my daughter Mya did when she was here this summer. Jacob had brought a pretty workable realistic drawing of a dog, but in the process of transfering it to the steel, he came up with what you see below. I think the "cartoony" version is actually a lot mor fun in some ways. While Jacob worked on his drawing, I helped Simon turn his stick figure fairy into something that could be cut out from steel.

The basic trick is to remember that you're cutting out shapes, not lines… and also, that if you want to draw lines inside the shape, you have to leave a bit of steel uncut so that the piece doesn't fall out. The best example of this is the eye or nose on Jacob's dog. If the lines that make the shape of the eye go all the way around, then the inside of the eye is cut free of the piece and falls out. Another example is the sun in Simon's sculpture. In his drawing, it was just a circle hanging in space. So we added the pointy sun rays and made sure that a couple of them touched the Empire State Building. Problem solved!

Jacob is eight and Simon is five. Jacob did almost all the cutting on his sculpture after a little practice on some scrap steel. Simon was a bit more spooked by the sparks, so he let me cut his sculpture out for him while he held onto my cutting hand. It was pretty cute.

There's something pretty remarkable about the way kids' sculptures turn out. There's a real charm to the work that I could never emulate in a million years now. I just love the way they look as sculpture and the way that giving kids a chance to do something this permanent gets them excited about art.

 

 

click thumbnails to view larger image.

Technorati Tags: art, kids, children, sculpture

Trip to San Francisco

My girlfriend's nickname is π… it started with a college nickname she told me about (Pie) and because I'm a geek, I decided that π was an even better nickname. Besides, it sort of resembles the abstracted JTU that I use to sign all my art, which makes it all very cute. We're cute together. There it is.

So anyway, shortly after π and I started dating, she invited me out to SF for a week to celebrate her birthday and meet her three siblings. Actually, what she did was buy me a ticket and call up and say "I want you to do something for my birthday even though I know it's one of your phobias." I only have two— flying and eating any kind of seafood. Since she's vegetarian, I was reasonably sure we were flying somewhere, which was good. Eating fish is so abjectly terrifying to me that you'd have to fully sedate me and use a feeding tube, which rather lacks romance if you ask me. I also used to have a bit of a phobia about SF based on a couple bad visits there in my 20s, but this recent trip had me wishing I could move there. So it's just planes and fish now.

So we flew out west and it was fine. The plane got there and back safely and I like her family. We had fun climbing in the mountains behind her brother's place. At one point I was climbing a rock face and apparently came within two inches of a huge owl… sadly, I didn't see it until after it had flown, but according to π it was staring right at me.

While I was out there, I got a chance to meet a few people I've previously only known online.

I had lunch with Michael Sippey and Harold Check of TypePad, described in brief at TypePad Hacks. The food was great, it was cool to see the loft where Six Apart makes it's magic, and I got some cool swag into the bargain. It was particularly cool to get a chance to talk with Michael at length about where TypePad is heading this year, etc. Most of what we discussed is OTR for the present, but I can say it was a great chat and that Michael is every bit as brilliant in person as I suspected he'd be.

The next day, I hung out with Christopher Carfi of The Social Customer Manifesto. Chris and I go way back online and after meeting in person I can only say that if I lived anywhere near the Bay Area, I'd happily go broke buying him beers. We started out in a bar by the ferry dock, took a bit of a hike, checked out a Day of the Dead exhibit and wound up at the Mars Bar. We talked about so much stuff that my fingers'd bleed listing it all. I've considered Chris a good friend for quite a while now, even without having actually "met" him. Now I've moved him up to the indispensible people list… I'm hoping to do more traveling this coming year and with any luck we'll cross paths more.

While we were at Mars there was kind of a screw-up in our order. Kelly, our server handled it in this deeply intelligent way that I immediately knew Chris was gonna blog. It was funny, 'cause it was one of those moments where he and I just looked at each other and knew what each other were thinking. Check out his post on it for the full story.

The ultimate take-away for me from the trip was finding that the remote friends I've chosen in the blogosphere really are the people I'd hang out with in "real life" given the opportunity. I think the opportunity is in the making…

A Public Service Announcement From Sen. Stevens

We now interrupt your online art viewing experience to bring you a special message from Senator Ted Stevens… your regular online programing may return after we clear the pipes. Or not.

If you would like not to be interrupted when trying to view online content of your choosing, please visit savetheinternet.com and get involved in the fight to preserve Net Neutrality. Of course, on the other hand, if we don't get involved there will probably be way more funny videos like this one. But we'll probably have to go back to ordering them by mail from paper catalogs…

I've always Wanted A Bottle Tree

Bottle trees are a tradition I've always liked, and I've long meant to make one. There's a great site here that explains the history behind them, with a bunch of photos of traditional and newer versions.

Way back on Memorial Day weekend I decided it would be just the thing to add a little color to the yard. Not so much as something I would sell, but more to add color so people would you know, notice, that there was an art studio by the side of the highway. Most of my art is invisible to people driving past at 70 mph because the rust finish just blends into the yard and trees… I like making brightly colored sculptures but the rust finish seems to sell better, so I don't have that much colorful work in the yard these days. Apparently many people prefer sculpture that blends into their garden rather than distracting from the flowers? I would have guessed that people who plant flowers like bright colors, but perhaps I would have been wrong. Actually, I don't get it. If you do, leave me a comment and explain it to me. Seriously.

The bottle tree has been catching people's eye, anyway, and I think more people are stopping since I put it up. I'll probably do a bunch more of them and cover the whole front of the studio lot with them if I can get my hands on some cheap steel this summer (the price of steel has doubled about three times in the last couple years). The one I made below is an inverted radio antenna tower that someone just dropped off recently. I think it came out pretty nice. Click the thumbnails to see larger pics.

         

Tags: folkart, funky, garden, outsider art, recycled, roadside art, sculpture, yard

I am So Geeked!

My other blog, TypePad Hacks was featured on TypePad Featured Blogs today! That means it was also on the front page of TypePad. Wow, is that cool or what?
They had some really nice things to say:

You might think that Six Apart, as a company, would be embarrassed by Unger's focus on explaining tricks to extend TypePad's functionality, or chagrined that he polls his readers about what features we should implement next, but the truth is: We're thrilled. Not only is TypePad Hacks a tremendous benefit to all TypePad customers, especially those who want to ask unique questions or try to "push the envelope," but it's also incredibly useful for us to look over Unger's shoulder and absorb the feedback his readers are giving. And we can assure you, we are most certainly looking. Finally, we think it's an amazing testament to blogging and to TypePad that Unger thought the best solution for his effort was to start a blog and to use TypePad. We couldn't agree more. While no formal relationship exists between TypePad Hacks and TypePad, we have talked with Unger and consider him a wonderful asset to the community.

Heck, I'm all glowing now (blush).

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, blogs, SixApart, typepad, typepadhacks

When Everything Happens at Once

Back when writing was my primary gig, I had a theory… I figured the best way to come up with compelling material was to live an interesting life and write it all down.

The problem with that theory was that if life gets really interesting, there's barely time to take notes let alone actually write. Lately, I've been sort of reliving/relearning that lesson. There's so much going on that I'm having trouble keeping up with it on the blogs, let alone juggling all the active projects.

Would someone please start marketing sleep in a supplement form that I can take with my coffee? I don't seem to be able to fit it into my normal diet lately…

Work, Work, Work and, um, Work

I still have snow on the ground here and it's driving me nuts, since I do a lot of my work outdoors. So, the last two days were sort of fun… I've been cutting firebowls, and giggling as I threw the red hot scrap bits into the snow and heard it hiss it's way just a little closer to the ground.

The yard is starting to show through finally, and it looks like a thunderstorm is rolling in, so maybe by tomorrow the evil snow will at last be vanquished. Then I can finally start getting serious about making some new sculpture for galleries.

The order for the Great Bowl O Fire came through for the theme park in Myrtle Beach, and I'll be shipping it out by Monday. I hope I can get some photos from them when they get it installed. This'll be the first one rigged to burn gas, so I'm excited about that.

TypePad Hacks is still going strong and taking a good deal of me energy— I had a great conversation last night with Michael Sippey, the GM at TypePad. We talked about the new Widgets, my ideas for TypePad Stores, what TypePad is working on now, how TypePad Hacks will relate with their own outreach to users and a lot of things that are "coming soon."  I'll post further details over at TypePad Hacks in the following days. But I think it's safe to say that a lot of good is going to come from my efforts over there.

Oh, and it looks like my daughter Mya will be here for two months again this summer, which is great news. Aside from enjoying her company, it looks like having an extra hand in the shop is gonna be mandatory this year!

The Power of Blogs

   

 

I just came up with a line I really like in an email to a friend:

My life continues to be a huge drama on the world stage with a small, ratty and low budget set.

In other words, a lot of exciting things are happening and yet, I never leave the house. Well, not much anyway.

I've been getting quite a lot of press and sales and commission inquiries this winter, from pretty much all over the country. Right now I'm working on drawings for 10-12 sculptures to adorn the courtyard of a 17 story Chelsea highrise in NYC. I'm waiting to hear back from an architect in Topeka, Kansas about three Great Bowls O Fire that he'd like to fit out with gas flames and install on stone pillars in a new restaurant. I just got off the phone with a client who bought a Great Bowl earlier this winter and now wants to surround his pool with some of my torches. Rock on.

I've done three interviews for magazines and websites this week. The Sprint Ambassador Program is sending me a free cell phone with six months of free service. School children write emails from overseas asking about my art for school reports they're doing. HGTV contacted me a while back about possibly featuring my work on their show, Offbeat America (it doesn't look like it will happen this time, but it's still pretty cool to be asked). I've also met a lot of incredibly cool people this year that I consider to be good friends despite never having seen them in person.

Almost all of this has come about because of the time I've put in writing blogs. The only drawback has been that at times, the response becomes so overwhelming that I don't take the time to post about it here. I'm working on that. And if things keep going the way they're going, maybe this will be the year that my "small, ratty and low budget set" gets a significant facelift and becomes the theater of my dreams.

Tags: johntunger, art, globalmicrobrand, blog, marketing, branding, blogging, business, design,

Conversation With Hugh MacLeod

 

I just got off the phone (well, Skype) with Hugh MacLeod. This morning he posted his Skype
handle to his blog and is taking calls. I had only just added his handle to my contact list when the laptop rang and there he was. Cool. (actually, I was gonna finish my coffee first to make sure my brain was firing, but it was fine. He's an easy guy to talk to.)

For those of you who don't know what the hell I'm talking about, Skype lets you make free phone calls from your computer. You should go get it right now (yes, really, there'll be a test later). Hugh is an artist (he might deny that) and marketing genious who's been at the front lines of blogging and web 2.0 since before the hype. He's also one of the people that has managed to make blogging a viable business model in ways that are more interesting and useful than the paid advertising model. What initially brought him an audience are his amazingly true and funny cartoons on the back of business cards, a series of incisive posts on how to be creative and his concept of the global microbrand.

So, was it good for me? Hell yeah, hope it was also good for Hugh. The skype call was cool because it made it easier to talk about some of the "off the record" stuff that I've long wondered. Sometimes voice can be a lot more human than typing… in fact, probably most of the time. There's no editing. So now I know a few "secrets," which is fun. And I had an opportunity to talk about some of the ideas we share without having to lay it all out online, which can be a good thing. Besides, he said nice things about what I've accomplished and hell, it's always nice to hear praise from someone whose work you admire.

I love being able to put a voice to someone whose work I've been following for so long, and who I feel like I've come to know pretty well over the last couple years through comments and emails. Hugh was pretty much the guy who inspired me to take blogging seriously as a way to increase the market for my art and design and it has seriously paid off. The global microbrand concept has worked well for me. Although I haven't yet quite reached the level of fame and fortune that his projects have, I'm making a living doing what I want and I'm able to make that happen from pretty much the dead center of nowhere…

 

Traditionally, artists need NYC or LA if they're gonna make it, and most of them don't make it. I mean, hey, the market is a lot larger in a major city, but compared to the entire world? And I seem to be able to reach the world just fine from here. So yeah, I feel like it's been a good ride and I think it's only gonna get better.

 

 

I love that one. It really doesn't describe most of my experiences in the blogosphere, but it does crack me up. Hugh is one of the glaring exceptions to the cartoon… Opinionated? Rough? Scathing? Sure. But he does actually give a shit about people. He's always been approachable, which I think has been one of the keys to success for bloggers who make it. And yeah, although we don't always agree, I think on the whole we see the worl in a pretty similar fashion. Anyway, I guess the point here is that if you have something to say, or are doing something interesting, most of the big names will take the time to check it out. And those who don't? Don't let it get you down… just refer to the above cartoon.

 

 

So here's the deal. If you've been reading this blog (or my other blogs) and you feel like you have something to discuss, or hell, even if you just wanna shoot the shit about any of the topics I cover, etc. go download Skype and give me a buzz. Add johntunger to your contact list and click the button. I haven't yet activate the voicemail feature, so if you don't get through the first time you can always reach me by email or regular phone too. I've made a lot of good friends in the last couple years through blogging, and really, it's always cool to know more about who your readers are. If people tell me what they like best, or don't like as much, etc., it makes it much easier to improve the blog.

I'm always interested in hearing what people have to say and finding ways to make my work better for them. A lot of my best work has been custom stuff that I did based on the input of clients… I see it as a collaboration, and I enjoy the process of adapting other peoples idea to my own vision. It's a cool challenge that seems to help everyone feel more involved and engaged (including me). Rock on.

Technorati Tags: gapingvoid, hugh, macleod, hughmacleod, skype, conversation, cluetrain, marketing, blogging, blog, business, humor, blogs, creativity, advertising, art, cartoon, branding, globalmicrobrand, microbrand

Chicago Trip

I'm heading to CHI for the next ten days or so tomorrow. For once, this is more of a vacation trip than a business one, so I might actually get a chance to hang out a bit. If you want to find me while I'm in town, drop me an email.

It's Always Nice When People Like Your Work

I got a really nice (unsolicited) review the other day on Rick Visser's Artrift blog…

Although I was initially struck by John T. Unger's 'American Guernica idea', I soon found myself altogether captivated by the quality, depth and general aspect of his work.  There is an unmistakable verve and energy in all that he does.  It was not surprising to learn that he came to visual art through poetry.  Anyone who thinks Unger should stand in the anteroom rather than the main hall would probably have thought the same of Matisse when he brought out his scissors. More:

I've only scratched the surface of his archives, but there's a lot of great writing there. If you're looking for a good blog to read about art and artists, I would definitely pay him a visit!

The Studio Blog's Top 20 Posts

I spent some time today going through the archives to compile a list of links to what I consider my best posts since I started blogging. Some of these have been heavily read and/or linked to, others kind of just slipped in under the radar. If you're new to the blog, or just want to skip to the juciest bits, this list might come in handy.

Most of these post are ideas which could benefit from discussion and collaboration: If you agree, disagree or feel you have something to add please leave your thoughts in the comments at the end of the post! Thanks, and enjoy!

Open Source Public Art

American Guernica: A Call for Guerilla Public Art
An invitation to participate in an open-source Street art project by putting up large-scale reproductions of Picasso's Guernica as an anti-war protest.

Links and discussion about American Guernica: Visual Resistance, Social Design Notes, descartavel, collision detection, New Art, Spy's Spice, Eyeteeth, Eyebeam Reblog, MemeStreams, FlightDynamics.

Open Source Public Art: A Proposed Model
A design brief for an online center for the creation of public art. I would especially like feedback, participation and collaboration on this idea.

The Vista Project
Vistas is a series of identical sculptures designed for installion in a site-specific context in multiple locations. Designed as a pilot project for Open Source Public Art.

Rough Concept Sketch For Cheboygan Arts Park Project
A fence design based on the idea of advent calendars, featuring Mondrian like grids of doors which, when opened, would reveal steel silhouettes. What I love about the design is the interplay between privacy and discovery… The face of the fence blocks the view of what's behind it, but the invitation to open the doors and look within them opens another world of imagination.

Collaboration, Business + Marketing for Artists

Sharing Makes Sense (And Dollars) For Artists
Why collaboration among artists is a more viable economic strategy than competition.

A Few Ideas I Salted Over At Marketing Begins At Home
Thoughts on why blogs, and especially comments, are such a valuable promotion tool.

Collaborative Art Purchases: Why Not?
Artists often collaborate on making work. Now, I'm entertaining the idea of collectors collaborating to purchase work together that they might not be able to afford individually…

Resources on portfolio development for artists
The best online "how to" resources regarding what should go into each piece of an artist's promotional package.

Art of Business, Business of Art: A Start
If you want to make a living in the arts, not only do you have to be good at business, you have to be really good at it. If I've learned anything over the last year, it's that if you want to make it in the arts your business model has to be as creative as your product.

Bring The Noise
You can be all gonzo, all the time. And if it doesn't get you killed, it might just get you a pretty decent life.

Do I drink all that Beer myself? Heck no, I hire professionals!
Everybody has a ghost story — even people who don't believe in ghosts. And everyone has some kind of story about how art or creativity made a difference.

Neil's Collaborative Woodworking Shop, In his own words
I asked my friend Neil Verplank to write up a description of the collaborative work environment which has evolved in his shared shop space.

Collaborative Economics, Take One
The more people work together to create a scene that enriches their ability to produce (through collaboration, criticism, education, whatever) and to thrive (monetarily and otherwise) the better off everyone is.

Creative Process

T+S+R=W The necessary equation
If you're going to work in the arts, there are three things you must have—Time, Space & Resources (Resources meaning materials and tools, or the money to get them).

What Isn't It?
Creative misinterpretation as a design strategy

Shiny, Happy Puppy
A little story about naming a reproduction mosaic, language and culture.

Sculpture, Shadows and Designing for Light
I've put a lot of time and thought into creating linework sculptures that anticipate movement— dancers that broadcast the movement they are about to make, etc. This is the first piece I've done in large flat planes that has the same feel.

An Interesting Conversation on "Attention Deficit Trait" at collision detection
Learning how to use a broader focus as a tool, without allowing ourselves to become overwhelmed. Though the condition may in fact be biological, the ability to make it work for us rather than against is very definitely a learned (and learnable) skill.

Other Ideas

RIP HST—The Great Gonzo Doctor is Gone
My obit for Hunter S. Thompson. People said some nice things about it.

Chicago: Copyrighting Public Space
My response to an article in the Chicago Reader about copyright issues surrounding Millennium Park. The Reader published this post in the letters column of the following week's issue and did a follow-up article on the scandal.

Quick Links to Art + Projects

Most popular work: The Great Bowl O Fire, Bottle Cap Art, New Bottle Cap Fish, Garden Torches, Kinetic Sculpture, Mosaics for sale, Commissioned Mosaics, Furniture.

Crazy Busy in a Good Way

I've had little opportunity to post to the studio blog this last month because there's been so much going on. A number of projects have been getting just obscene amounts of media attention, which has eaten up quite a bit of time and attention. Much of this has been due to a new product launch which I'm keeping separate from the artwork for now, but the American Guernica Project and the mosaics have also had their share of the limelight. Mind you, I am so not complaining… it's all been very fun and exciting, not to mention deeply satisfying.

I expect that sooner or later the buzz will lessen or a big project will pull me back into the studio… but for the moment, there will probably be fairly light posting here and on ArtBuzz.

Behold the Evil Snow!

I went away for about a week to Chicago and when I got home, there was a foot of snow in my drive. Ick!

In the summer I really kind of like doing most of my sculpture and ironwork outside, but working with steel in cold weather is less fun. That's why I'm so glad that the electrician finished rewiring the shop today. More power! Since I've acquired a bunch of new tools lately, this was kind of necessary, but now I can throw a couple space heaters out there too, without blowing the fuse. I think this winter's going to be a lot better than last.

BTW, if you know of anyone selling a used 220V air compressor, drop me a line.

New Categories

I'm adding two new categories today: Notes to self and quotes. I've got little scraps of paper all over the house (and always have) covered in words that came to mind, or nice phrases found in conversation, quotes from books, movies and