A True Passion

Okay, let's try this again . . .

I have a passion for pictorial treasures. 

A true passion. 

I eat, sleep, breathe the ephemeral ecstasy of sublime compositions of color, shape, design, fantasy, humanity, love, wonder and terror. A single slash of color can be the trigger of contemplation. A rendering that spirals out of nothingness just seconds ago is as exciting as a newly discovered graphic treasure of the long forgotten past. A photograph that assembles millions of pixels to capture and reveal the fleeting nuance of a person, place or thing is a divine time machine, speaking across the years. A cartoon is an inky collection of strokes and swirls and slashes that communicates with humor and drama with story and anecdote, relating simple wisdom to the young and old. 

A true passion.

I am not alone with this affliction. Millions of persons from every walk and station of life are addicted to the beauty that emanates from a page or a screen. From households in the 1930s, where people clipped and saved images from the Saturday Evening Post or the Sunday funnies, to today's millions who scour the internet and click-save high and low resolution images from thousands of blogs and web-sites — images that are ever more and more places of refuge to find some personal meaning and enjoyment.

My passion takes me to a level where I like to understand the ways and means that the images were made. To understand the times in which they were made. To marvel and be delighted by the creative talent that exists today, to question where that talent is headed and anticipate new creations as they emanate from some mysterious realm of imagination and intellect.

My passion takes me to a level where I like to rearrange creativity from the past that it might illustrate new ideas and bring it to new venues. I like to design pages so that images can have new life. I like to showcase new talent and creativity so that new audiences will encourage ever more creativity from others and themselves.

I have a passion for creating my own images, from simple sketches, to full renderings to photographs that create something from nothing, one definition of magic.

And I have a passion for students and education. For using words and images to inspire new interest in old truths.

This blog no longer suits my purpose. This blog's days are numbered. This blog is mostly just casting images to the wind (blown the world over, yes), but not in a meaningful way.

I will soon be taking my passions to a new venue — a true on-line journal. Filled with words and images that flow and soar, diving into depths and spiraling to heights of passion for the world, with some of my words and images and maybe some of yours. I will seek collaboration and involvement from any who wish to share their passions and together, whether two of us, or two hundred of us, we can create an archive of beauty and meaning.

Only a handful of people have responded to my previous query of interest. I myself would think twice or thrice before committing a monetary interest in an unknown venture, no matter how modest the cost. Therefore, I will now direct my energies toward a publication with FREE internet distribution, enabled by paid advertising and sponsorship. That will be a hard financial cliff to climb, and will take time.

In order to accomplish this free-for-everyone goal, I will need numbers. I will need demographics. I will need 'lurkers' to become 'members/followers/', to be counted — so that I can convince advertisers or sponsors to become involved.

If numbers don't amount to much (and I can anticipate that will be so), then this journal will be private. One way or another though, this blog and my others will fade into oblivion, even though I still have thousands of lovely images yet to be posted. I need to channel my energies to flow with my passions and I need to know that there is potential interest for an official Pictorial Arts Journal, with free and open distribution, filled with the creative energies of writers, artists, illustrators, cartoonists, typographers, designers, and students of all these arts.

I will spend a few more posts delineating some of the potential features of the journal.

This will be a journal you will enjoy, if only you will help to make it come about with your interest.