Open Source What?

The internet is an amazing entity. I've always had interests in the fine arts and not having a steady job has given me some time (in between looking for jobs) to check out some of the graphics packages that are available for free. You know what they say. TANSTAAFL. Well, the best things in life are free. Some cool software packages for 3D arts and such.

Blender: a cool 3D graphics/game creator. Open source. Free. Cool community.

gMax: another cool 3D graphics generator. There are tons of tutorials available.

Caligari: this was some software I used way back when I had an Amiga 4000. The environment is cool and pretty intuitive and it's free. I especially like the free-form modeling tools. v. 7.6 is the version I use right now.

Daz Studio: 3D Modeling software. Neat stuff. Some of it risky. Great for creating fantasy worlds.

GIMP: cool image manipulation program, sans the expensive Autodesk nametag. Neat painting tools. Fast. Also open source and free.

Thought you might like to know. The internet rocks!

Been some time...

The long days of winter doldrums are returning. My mother-in -law just flew back to Missoula. Snow has been falling since she left. She had hoped to don our snowshoes and trek through some winterscapes locally. I'm still underemployed, seeking to change careers. Oh yeah, we also had our 4th child. His name is Ian.

I've also picked up my paintbrushes again. It has been some time. I didn't realize how much I missed splashing paint and being creative. I've been looking at a lot of pastel and watercolorist websites in the hopes of entering some juried competitions. There are a lot of artists out there and they all think that a presence on the web is the next move for them to get recognized--or at least that's what I think they're thinking. Seems like we all get taken in in our quest for some magic bullet to solve all of our problems.

What is art, really? I have visited some sites and I wonder out loud why no one will honestly critique what some people pass off as art. Wussy art maybe. It's that touchy-feely PC tripe that doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings about anything. Not even, "What exactly where you trying to say with that?"

Well, here's my attempt at fame.... And remember, I'm unique just like everyone else.