I recently received an email asking if it’s okay to use my image Lotus as a tattoo.

What an honor! Of course I was flattered and delighted, and happy to give my blessing.

The above image shows the tattoo, alongside the original sketch.

This is the first time that anyone* has used one of my designs as a tattoo, and I’m tickled pink!

Lotus 2

Full size image

My latest graphic design. Digitally modified sketch.

See also Lotus — same sketch, different modifications.

Poop Sign now available!

Need a Poop Sign? Can’t live without one? Buy one today!

poopsign.com

Poop Sign is the brainchild of artist Chris Yates: Link.

I recently created a new summertime banner for the blog:

I’m very pleased with the results … hot and hazy like a Minnesota summer day.

I concocted the image from two different photographs, both by John Symchych. Used by permission — thanks, John!

JES Photography @ Flickr: Link.

MMY

Kim Matthews (2008)

Abaca, waxed cord, reed, graphite, wire, unryu and iron oxide.

Kim Matthews creates amazing sculptures, exploring biomorphic forms and the relationship between sculpture and environment.

Normandale Community College (Bloomington, Minnesota) is currently featuring a solo exhibition of her work.

Through July 31, 2008.
Reception June 19, 2008, 6 to 8 pm.
Phone NCC @ 952-487-8399.

kim matthews art.com

Baltimore Oriole Eating Seed (May 2008)

Copyright 2008 by John Symchych. Used by permission.

Among his many other talents, my friend and collaborator John Symchych is an excellent photographer, and I’m pleased to share his work here. He writes:

Here’s a picture of a Baltimore Oriole eating seed from our bird feeder. They normally eat insects and fruit (can be attracted with grape jelly), and are not know to eat seed. I will be going out to The Wild Bird store today to purchase some more already shelled seed to help them out. We are seeing other species that are also feeding on seed as well.”

It’s a hungry year for songbirds: late spring snowstorms, delayed plant growth, not enough food for the early migrators. Minnesota DNR has received reports of dead or dying swallows, bluebirds, and other birds from around the state. Some years this happens: the DNR expect the bird populations to recover.
Link to article @ MPR.

For more of John’s photos, see JES Photography @ Flickr: Link.

Wilderbeest 3

Full size image

My latest graphic design. I started with a photograph of wilderbeest –

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Wilderbeest.jpg

– and then inflicted various transformations on the image.

I’m reminded of a song:

An old cowpoke went riding out
One dark and windy day,
Upon a ridge he rested as
He went along his way,
When all at once a mighty herd
Of red eyed cows he saw,
A-plowin’ through the ragged skies
And up a cloudy draw.

Yippee-yi-ya, yippee-yi-yo,
Ghost herd in the sky.

Their brands were still on fire and
Their hooves were made of steel,
Their horns were black and shiny and
Their hot breath he could feel,
A bolt of fear shot through him as
He looked up in the sky,
For he saw the riders comin’ hard
And he heard their mournful cry:

Yippee-yi-ya, yippee-yi-yo,
Ghost riders in the sky ….

- Ghost Riders in the Sky: Link

Album: Space Car Driver
Release Date: May 09, 2008
Genre: Alternative
Copyright 2008 Space Car Driver

Space Car Driver recently released their first album.

I attended their CD Release show [May 9, 2008]. Excellent show — solid grooves, interesting arrangements, wide range of dynamics, good chemistry between the musicians.

• Home page: spacecardriver.com
• Space Car Driver @ iTunes - (download iTunes)
• Space Car Driver @ MySpace
• Space Car Driver @ Minniwiki: “Dancy, improvisational jam-rock”
• MP3’s available by request

Special Bonus Download — I got permission from bassist Adam Lutz to sponsor an MP3 download here at karljones.com:

• Minus Ten by Space Car Driver

Enjoy!

Mothership 9

My newest graphic design.

Full size image

Scattering 2 - Full size image

My latest graphic design.

Something new, an experiment.

Most of my other designs start with either photographs or scanned sketches.

I created Scattering using digital tools exclusively, out of a desire to try something different. It’s a study in radial fills and their transformation.

My latest wallpaper design — it started life as a photograph of coral, and mutated into …

Space Coral 3

Full sized image: Link.

Small Is beautiful.

Wired.com recently published some beautiful nanophotography — finalists in the Materials Research Society’s semi-annual collection of images as art:

… This image shows the magnetic domains of a thin iron film sitting atop a crystal made from magnesium and gallium arsenate. Souliman el Moussaoui, a researcher at the ELETTRA Synchrotron Light Laboratory in Italy, used X-ray magnetic circular dichroism with photoelectron-emission microscopy to create the striking picture …. el Moussaoui shot the sample with two oppositely polarized beams of powerful X-rays — and then subtracted the data points in one file from the other.

- Aaron Rowe @ Wired.com: 04.25.08: Link.

Via Slashdot: Link.

ELETTRA

ELETTRA Synchrotron Light Laboratory is a national synchrotron laboratory located in Basovizza on the outskirts of Trieste, Italy.

The facility, available for use by the Italian and international scientific communities, houses several ultrabright light sources, which use the sychrotron and free electron laser (FEL) sources to produce light ranging from ultraviolet to X-rays.

The centre also houses the European Storage Ring FEL Project (EUFELE).

• ELETTRA Synchrotron Light Laboratory website
• Lightsources.org: ELETTRA Synchrotron Light Laboratory

- Wikipedia: Link.

These short Photoshop tutorials are funny and sad and vulgar and informative, all at the same time.

Try to pay attention as the desperate Donnie Hoyle explains Photoshop and why we suck at it:

• One
• Two
• Three
• Four
• Five
• Six
• Seven
• Eight
• Nine
• Ten

- Photoshop @ Wikipedia: Link.

Tower of Babel: The multilingual, multicultural online journal and community of arts and ideas.

Babel seeks multilingual and multicultural writers, editors, bloggers and translators proficient in using web tools to continue building in over 250 languages what has been recognized since 2001 by the United Nations as one of the most import social and human sciences online periodicals.

There are over 250 subdomains of towerofbabel.com ready to be configured by those who are interested in taking the language-oriented subdomains and helping to build the tower ….

Design your language’s tower however you wish but continue what has already been pioneered as an attempt to build a tower aiming for the highest egalitarian, altruistic, philanthropic and humanitarian structures.

Tower of Babel: Link.

Babel English Blog: Link.

My housemate Terri posted this ridiculously cute video of her cat Gelly: