Category: TheBroth

Am I really the only person who doesn't like the fact that seven of the last ten mosaics in the gallery were made by using the "upload image to define tile colors ..." with the "position tiles to form this image" option checked?

I know people disagree about how important effort is in creating 'art' - after all, Jackson Pollock is considered a great artist by many and he created his work by dancing around and spilling paint - but I think that uploading an image, having thebroth arrange the tiles for you, and then moving less than half the tiles yourself before putting it up in the gallery is a bit of a cheat.

I'd noticed these before but I wasn't sure whether or not to say anything because ZaphodB had made one (moving only 9 tiles) so it seemed like the practice was endorsed by one of the major players. However, seeing as mosaics are rare enough these days, seeing so many of them being made just by using this feature is a bit disheartening.

*shrugs* Maybe I'm overreacting or, as my subject title suggests, being an elitist snob but I wanted to say my piece. Who knows? Maybe I'm not the only one who feels this way.

ETA: Since miss asked for examples, I'll give a few to show what I mean.

Here's the one by ZaphodB:

Here's the most recent one:

Here's just a random one:

Hi all and welcome to this here blog. I'm pondering one of the big questions so this may become rather long-winded.

Let me set the scene.

Whenever I'm not working on a project, I usually leave my rooms open to everyone. There's two reasons for this: 1) sometimes the input adds something to the finished product that would never be there otherwise, and 2) it's a good way to interact with people before deciding whether or not I want them on my friendlist.

However, after tonight, I'm considering changing my practice. To make a long story short and to not name any names, someone came into one of my rooms and, while not obviously trying to wreck things, managed to mess up quite a few things anyway.

I tried to be nice to start because, hey, we all make mistakes. I knew a split second before they made the stroke that broke the camel's back that I ought to kick them out because they weren't "listening" but I didn't. I didn't end up kicking them out until after that stroke and after attempt to get their attention.

What makes it worse, of course, was that it was a friend's project they screwed up rather than one of mine. For my drawings, I usually don't care. I'm not invested in them. But it wasn't something of mine that was messed up - it was my friend's. Now, it didn't take long to fix but that's not really the point.

The point is that, as the owner of the room, it's my responsibility to gauge a situation and decide what counts as vandalism and what counts as an honest mistake and what counts as a not malicious person who just doesn't understand the rules. As I'm sure you know from your own experiences, it's not an easy decision to make sometimes - there's a difference between someone drawing male parts on whatever animal you happen to be drawing and embellishing a picture in an ultimately destructive way. "Ultimately" is the operative word in that sentence.

Anyway, what this basically comes down to is that I have another decision to make. Do I keep my open door policy in place and just be preemptive in my kicking practices or do I leave all my rooms friends only? I don't like conflict and I don't want my friends to worry about their work being messed up but I can think of numerous occasions where having an open door let very interesting people in.

For those of you who bothered to read all of that (and who may be willing to offer some thoughts on the subject), I've got another poem from that old poetry book.

Ahem.

"I'd rather have fingers than toes.
I'd rather have eyes than a nose.
As for my hair, I'm glad it's still there -
I'll be awfully sad when it goes."

Greetings to anyone who actually reads this - prepare yourself for a roller coaster ride of pure, unadulterated excitement.

Or not.

I'm pretty new here (visiting for about four days) and I've noticed something as I've been tripping the light fantastic in the gallery: people seem to rate their own stuff. It's a fairly consistent phenomena: just about everyone seems to do it.

This strikes me as odd. Maybe I'm just a crazy person (which is entirely possible) but it seems a bit ... dishonest to rate your own work. Like, of course, you're going to say it's good - you posted it up in the gallery in the first place! Obviously, you must think the art has some redeeming value or else you wouldn't have bothered posting it.

Of course, I was the girl who, when I ran for offices in school elections, wouldn't vote for myself either. I wouldn't vote for the other candidate, obviously because I wanted to win, but I wouldn't vote for me - I'd sit the election out and wait for everything to be tallied.

I don't blame anyone for rating their own work - people can do whatever the heck they please - but it just seems strange to me. I'm not going to be rating any of my own work here; I figure the very fact I decided to send the picture to the gallery should say what I think about it.

Anyway, that's all I've got to say on the subject and it occurs to me that this little post is getting a bit longer than I'd thought it'd be.

So, I leave you with a quote that's gotten me through many a hard time in my life: "Come on in, the water's fine. I'll give you 'til the count of nine. If you're not in by then, I guess I'll have to count to ten."