Artdog Quote of the Week: What will we regret?

Creative work is all about the risk-taking, or it isn't about art at all.

IMAGE: Many thanks to Under 30 CEO, for this image.

Artdog Image of Interest: Creativity--It's Out There

Perplexed? Blocked? Seeking insights? Keep the faith!

IMAGE: Many thanks to the iPad Art Room.

Future Visions of Home Interiors

One of my projects in 2015 was designing a space station. Not for NASA or any other agency--I've been world-building for the sf novel I'm writing. 

And in the course of gazing into the future through the collective wisdom of the Internet and entertainment media, I've discovered some odd things about the places we apparently think we will live, in the future. 

1. They will be either blindingly white, or very dark. And either way, they'll be cold. 
It appears that in the future very few of us will live in normal lighting. If we are very wealthy or on a spaceship, our homes are likely to be all white. 

From Prometheus 2, via Flavorwire. As if it wasn't cold enough, they added a snow scene in the background!

Curves that make impractical use of space, and blinding white: from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, again via Flavorwire.

If we are poor and live on the wretched Earth, or on a different kind of spaceship, our homes will be dark and tiny. 

The dark side of the decor: Deckard's apartment from Blade Runner, via Bladezone.

Murky lighting, odd color schemes, and hard furniture: how relaxing can you get? From Star Trek: Insurrection, via the Memory-Alpha Wiki.

2. There will be inexplicable things on the walls. 
It appears we will not care about the dust collected by 3D wall textures. We also won't have paintings (as an artist, this bums me out) or photos of loved ones on display, because there won't be room for them.

More of Deckard's apartment from Blade Runner, via Bladezone. What is up with the funky wallpaper?

House Atreides Frigate from Dune, via Flavorwire. Is that a robot-face at far R?

3. Doors and other architectural features will be odd shapes.
In addition to the examples above, consider the practicality of the following:

From Battlestar Galactica, via Flavorwire: triangular doors? Really?

Another view from Prometheus, via Ben Procter. Octagonal doors and rooms: Sure. We all love living in places where the walls aren't square to each other.

4. All the seating will be uncomfortable.
Couches and chairs will have no arms, there will be no throw pillows or afghans, and there also will be no recliners, no chintz, and absolutely no lovingly-restored antiques.

Even the actors at R look uncomfortable (from 2001: A Space Odyssey, via Flavorwire).

Harsh lighting, a knee-bumper table and an oddly retro rolly-chair combine to make this one of the least comfortable-looking offices I can imagine. Plus, his back is to all the action (or potential snipers) outside that massive window. An Elysium concept, via Moviefone.

It also apparently won't matter how many hundreds of years we are from now: the Future Design Ghods have decreed that once these design principles have gone into effect, we will henceforth always have to live in cold, dark, cold bright-white, or oddly-shaped interiors, with illogical openings and uncomfortable furniture. 

Here's to the future! Happy New Year! 

IMAGES: Many thanks (as attributed above) to Flavorwire, as well as Bladezone, the Memory-Alpha Wiki, Ben Procter, and Moviefone. 

Artdog Quote of the Week: Creativity Starts . . .

If you're at a loss for words, remember:

IMAGE: Many thanks to the “Creativity” Pinterest board of “Calinspired.”

Artdog Image of Interest: Gingerbread Dino

As the holidays fade into the rearview, don't forget to have fun with it!

IMAGE: Many thanks to Single Dad Laughing's Facebook Page for this image.

Happy New Year! Artdog Bonus Quote: Confidence

Here's a thought to launch your New Year:

IMAGE: Many thanks to American Hippie’s Pinterest board, “It’s a New Day”

Bonus Artdog Quote: Stronger at the End

How did 2015 treat you? Was it a good year? A fantastic, amazing, awesome year? A bad year? The Year From Hell? Or maybe just "Meh"?

If you live long enough, you'll have some of all of the above. And no matter what kind of a year you've had this year, I hope you can agree with this thought:

Maybe you're not so sure about that, or perhaps you can accept it only by acknowledging the idea that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. But consider this:

You're still here. You've survived. Perhaps you've even thrived, but in any case, you know more now than you did last year at this time. You have a few more tools in your workshop, a few more tricks up your sleeve.

If you're ending this year on a "down" note, I'm sorry--and believe me, I've had a stretch I look back upon now, and call "los Anos de los Muertos," the "Years of the Dead," when I lost my small business, then lost another career, and six of the dearest souls in my life departed this world, one right after another. Bad years SUCK. 

The fallow field is lying in wait, growing more fertile, even when it seems barren.

But even if your creative "field" is fallow and you're not sure you'll ever make any kind of art again, remember that there's a season for everything. Like a pruned-back plant, I came out of those "Years of the Dead" with renewed vigor. It took a while, but my creative life is more rich and exciting now than it ever has been in my life. It can be that way for you, too. 

So, on this New Year's Eve I hope you are well, happy, and prospering. But even if you're not, I pray that you are wiser. Stronger. Still standing. Learning, and growing.

Tonight we hit the RESET button. Best wishes for an awesome New Year!

IMAGES: Many thanks to QuotesGram, for the quotation graphic, and to Me Ra Koh The Photo Mom for the gorgeous photo of a fallow field, and also for a wonderful essay (same URL) on the value of rest for an artist.