I’ve used every major type of computer since the Commodore 64 was state of the art. I cut my teeth on the C-64, then used Apple IIe’s at school, and came home to a Packard Bell running Windows 3.1 and DOS. I’ve used Windows, Mac OS, and Linux since I was a teenager. I’ve owned [...]
I almost thought I’d get bored working on selective colouring in images and photo-manipulations. Nope. At least not yet. I love watching the colour pop to life from the black and white image and how things fill in as I make the additions and subtractions. I still really enjoy the process and the finished work. [...]
I recently, well, if you can call the last few months “recently” re-discovered my love of Celtic music. Not that I ever fell out of love with it, I just didn’t listen to it as much as I used to. See, back in Yakima, there was the show that played on the local NPR station [...]
Long ago and far away, in the city they call Yakima, I saw a video mix tape at a friend’s house. At the time, I hadn’t a clue that it was called that nor did I know there were more of them. My friends and I just thought it to be a really novel, cool [...]
EDIT: Oops! It posted a saved version and not the latest version! Here’s the full illustration and you can see more of my crap in my gallery! For the last few months we’ve had family staying at the house and occupying a guest room we had set up just for such a thing. That’s fine, [...]
May 15th, 2013 
Daniel Messer I’ve used every major type of computer since the Commodore 64 was state of the art. I cut my teeth on the C-64, then used Apple IIe’s at school, and came home to a Packard Bell running Windows 3.1 and DOS. I’ve used Windows, Mac OS, and Linux since I was a teenager. I’ve owned several computers — laptops, desktops, and the odd server. Thing is they’ve all had one thing in common.
They were all Windows or Linux machines. I’ve never owned a Mac.
May 5th, 2013 Daniel Messer I almost thought I’d get bored working on selective colouring in images and photo-manipulations.
Nope. At least not yet. I love watching the colour pop to life from the black and white image and how things fill in as I make the additions and subtractions. I still really enjoy the process and the finished work. So long as that’s the case, I’ll keep making these things.
This time around I have two new images and, coincidentally, they have to do with socks. You can have green socks or yellow socks. Hell, you can have both, I don’t care! Having a studio again means I can actually work on these things and I have a space to make things happen! In the last couple of weeks, I’ve found myself involved in more creative projects that I have in the last few months. It’s delightful, I tell ya.
Anyway, enjoy. There are always more to look at in the gallery.
May 4th, 2013 Daniel Messer I recently, well, if you can call the last few months “recently” re-discovered my love of Celtic music. Not that I ever fell out of love with it, I just didn’t listen to it as much as I used to. See, back in Yakima, there was the show that played on the local NPR station on Saturday mornings. I’ve not a clue what it was called but I really didn’t care because they played new and classic Irish music from The Dubliners to The Corrs. I listened to it every Saturday that I could.
Meanwhile, I fear Irish music got a little over-saturated in my life and the lives of others with Riverdance and all of its derivatives. Don’t get me wrong, I like Riverdance, but then there was Lord of the Dance and Feet of Flames and so on. Then, more recently than that we’ve had the Celtic Woman series that seems almost desperate in their attempts to emulate Enya and Loreena McKennitt. The Celtic Woman shows gave rise to what might be the first Irish folk boy-band, The High Kings. Now, I don’t mind The High Kings at all, but they’re… I don’t know, they almost seem too clean and sober for me. Look, I came into Celtic music by way of the pub singers. Luke Kelly, Ronnie Drew, the Chieftains, the Dubliners, Paddy Reilly, and Patsy Watchorn — All of these groups sang in pubs and still do. Even The Pogues are well known for their pub sets. They’re the hard working men and women of Irish folk, not some sopranos and good lookin’ guys thrown together for a show that they’ll charge you $75 for the shitty seats.
April 21st, 2013 Daniel Messer Long ago and far away, in the city they call Yakima, I saw a video mix tape at a friend’s house. At the time, I hadn’t a clue that it was called that nor did I know there were more of them. My friends and I just thought it to be a really novel, cool piece of remix culture (I didn’t know what that was at the time either.). It was fascinating. Clips included bad cartoons from Hanna-Barbera, lousy horror movie footage, some early 80s porn, action films with no plot, and so on. All of it was mixed together along with some music and occasionally other backing sound effects. I probably watched that thing at least 30 times. There was no cohesiveness to it, but I think my brain resolved something out of it anyway. It was clearly a product of its time, but whether it was a celebration of the time or a mocking, I still don’t know.
Then time passed and I completely forgot about it.
April 20th, 2013 Daniel Messer EDIT: Oops! It posted a saved version and not the latest version! Here’s the full illustration and you can see more of my crap in my gallery!
For the last few months we’ve had family staying at the house and occupying a guest room we had set up just for such a thing. That’s fine, but the thing is, this house really isn’t built for more than four people and sometimes the noise and the activity got to me. It made it hard to do things that I really enjoy doing just simply because I can only drown out so much. That’s not a problem, and I was happy to have them here and visiting, but it’s also lovely that they’ve since moved into their own houses and we can visit. It gives all of us a reason to go out now.
Anyway, the upside to that is that I took over the guest room and, for the first time in a few years now, I have my own studio space! I’m going to write up a blog post on that later on, but for now it’s fantastic having my own space to create things. After I got it set up, I’ve been more creative (and creatively minded) in the last week than I have been in the last few months. Setting things up took some time as I acquired a Mac Mini for music and art composition and then had to get that set up for my needs and wants. That done, however, I sat down to do something I wasn’t able to do for a long time.
Digital illustration.
