General Interest

Printing Online - A Review of Overnight Prints, AdoramaPix, Fracture, and Moo

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Printing can be a particularly fraught experience for artists.  We care more than most about print quality, color accuracy, paper texture and weight, reflectivity, and so on.  Admittedly I haven't tried an exhaustive range of companies providing this service, but I always appreciate others' reviews so I figured I'd detail my own experiences here.

Overnight Prints

I used to order from Overnight Prints for business and greeting cards; they had decent quality products at the low end of the price range when printed well, and though their color calibration/correction was often off (thus not printed well), they would reprint if asked when a batch was unacceptable.  Their online software was quite easy to use and their item creation instructions were very clear.

However, the last time I used them they wildly oversaturated the color on about 80% of my products, and this time when I requested a reprint they told me that the pieces were within the range of acceptable variation and refused to replace or refund the pieces.  I had to eat the loss, and it was a fairly sizable order for me (though I'm sure it was a drop in the bucket for them).  Since they have always been so hit or miss in terms of quality and have now changed their customer service policy and are unwilling to reprint poor quality runs, I will not be using or recommending their services again (I also made this politely but firmly clear to the customer service representative, who did not care).

My original rating for Overnight Prints: B- (moderate-to-low erratic quality, low cost, good software, good customer service)
My revised rating for Overnight Prints due to refusal to reprint poor runs: D (moderate-to-low erratic quality, low cost, good software, poor customer service)

AdoramaPix

While I was futilely arguing with Overnight Prints about that last order, I happened to need to make a photo book for an upcoming exhibition.  I'd never made one before, and after doing extensive online research I ended up going with AdoramaPix.  They had a reputation for providing a reasonable price point, high quality pieces, and fairly accommodating online software (which was particularly a relief in the face of a couple companies that required you to download complex proprietary software).  The process of creating a photo book with AdoramaPix was quite smooth, and the end result was even nicer than I had anticipated. It looked professionally printed and bound despite the fact that it was a single book run, and the price was lower than I expected for such a high quality item.   I will note as my one negative regarding the book creation process that their FAQ and online forums on photo books are quite out of date, though, and none of their contact points for their FAQ/forums/Facebook responded to me when I asked a couple questions.

Next, a student of mine wanted to print photos onto glass.  I told her the few reviews I could find online of the company she wanted to do the latter with, Fracture, weren't so hot.  She ordered a couple samples from them just to see, and it turned out that the panning of the technique online due to high noise in the end imagery was justified.  The Fracture prints were not acceptable for exhibition.  I recommended she try AdoramaPix to test out their aluminum prints, which I thought might be similar aesthetically to what she was going for but with improved quality.  She ordered a couple samples of the aluminum prints, and they were much better than the Fracture pieces.  She then ordered a large batch, and again the quality was high.

Then AdoramaPix decided to branch their business out into printing greeting cards.  I was in the market for a new printer for these since I'd decided not to do business with Overnight Prints anymore, so I gave them a go.  Their online software for greeting cards was atrocious.  It wasn't even functional in Chrome, and in Firefox it was still a huge mess - it randomly readjusted the size, typeface, and placement of text on the card; wouldn't display the software correctly in any browser such that I had to zoom out to about 50% scale to access necessary tools that I then had to try to use properly while tiny; and some other similarly frustrating issues.  I decided to risk trying the cards out anyway since my other experiences with the company had been so positive and left a long comment in the order asking for their review and oversight since the software was so glitched out.  I also asked them to review the paper choices I'd made as inexplicably they don't have images of all their papers viewable online (and in many cases the few viewable ones they do have must be independently found in videos on YouTube as opposed to through the building process on their own website).  Dealing with all this grief paid off in a big way, though, when I received my order: these greeting cards also exceeded my expectations and knocked even well-printed items from Overnight Prints out of the water in terms of their professional, high-end appearance.  The printers had clearly read my requests as not only did the cards turn out great despite the software, but they also adjusted the paper type of one of the cards to better suit the product.

I recently reordered some cards, and it appears that they're working on the greeting card software as it was less broken than before - I could use it in Chrome this time - but it does still have some fairly major issues in terms of image and text placement, image rotation, and text size.  I just keep leaving them notes in the order section asking for their review, since that seems to have functioned well so far.

I have now expanded into ordering aluminum and paper photo prints from them as well as the occasional framed print (the framed print software also suffers from weird problems; their online software/site issues are really their Achilles' heel).

I did have to request a redo on a framed print I ordered as there was a scratch/dark hair-like mark on the photo paper (not an actual hair though - it was part of the paper itself).  They requested photo documentation of the problem but then sent me a whole new framed print at no charge.  That means that so far, their customer service is great too, and when I got the new framed print I was happy with the quality.

My rating for AdoramaPix: A (great quality, moderate-to-low cost, poor software/online support, good customer service)

Moo

 I recently had to print off a new batch of business cards, and I needed to move on from Overnight Prints due to their lowered standards.  Honestly, I've been so impressed by AdoramaPix thus far that if they did business cards, too, I would have gone with them.  AdoramaPix currently doesn't offer business cards as an option, however, so I went with Moo.  They have a reputation as being one of the best companies for artists, and I liked that they let me use multiple backs with a consistent front.  Their cards are quite pricey - they cost a little over 35 cents per card at the current size of order I'm making.  For comparison, Overnight Prints charged me around 10 cents per card.  I may end up trying out more printers to see if I can find a more affordable printer, but in the meantime, the cards from Moo are beautiful and I've been asked several times about them by people who have admired their quality (and design, but that's my own!). 

My rating for Moo: A- (great quality, high cost, good software, customer service thus far unnecessary)

Parrot Intelligence

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I'm now more than halfway through Carl Safina's Beyond Words (I discussed my interest in the book previously in this post) and the experiences and information he relates are very powerful messages about animal intelligence.  A much shorter but no less potent read is one of this week's The New York Times Magazine articles entitled "What Does a Parrot Know About PTSD?"

I've long believed that many people, either consciously or subconsciously, choose to deny the breadth and depth of animal intelligence out of guilt about their own practices and values.  Eating meat, supporting factory farming, purchasing leather/ivory/horn/bone products, damaging the environment, keeping pets in traumatic conditions as per the article (and judging animals solely as property in the eyes of the law) - these types of decisions are easier to explain away when the victims aren't sentient.

Sempervivums & Sedums

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Sempervivums and sedums can be quite cold tolerant.  Both my sempervivum collection and my Sedum dasyphyllum 'Major' are spending almost every day outdoors.  The sempervivum winter coloration is especially compelling; the Sedum dasyphyllum 'Major' is a more attractive plant in its fresh juvenile form but it has an oddly compelling noodle-like appearance as it ages and winterizes.

Domestic Terrorists Currently Occupying Unprotected Wildlife Sanctuary in Oregon

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From the Audubon Society of Portland:

The occupation of Malheur by armed, out of state militia groups puts one of America’s most important wildlife refuges at risk. It violates the most basic principles of the Public Trust Doctrine and holds hostage public lands and public resources to serve the very narrow political agenda of the occupiers. The occupiers have used the flimsiest of pretexts to justify their actions—the conviction of two local ranchers in a case involving arson and poaching on public lands. Notably, neither the local community or the individuals convicted have requested or endorsed the occupation or the assistance of militia groups.

Apparently a set of keys was found outside by the "militia" thus letting them inside the small, unprotected bird sanctuary.  This ingenious hostile takeover is made even more impressive since while they are claiming to have 150 occupiers, journalists on scene are reporting only 6-15.

The real problem is that these terrorists' repeated claims to federal land are damaging the environment.  From the Center for Biological Diversity on the 2014 Cliven Bundy illegal grazing debacle in Nevada:

"The Gold Butte area south of Mesquite is officially designated as critical habitat for the tortoise – an area essential for its long term survival. But the BLM continues to allow grazing by trespass cattle.
... 
Despite having no legal right to do so, cattle from Bundy's ranch have continued to graze throughout the Gold Butte area, competing with tortoises for food, hindering the ability of plants to recover from extensive wildfires, trampling rare plants, damaging ancient American Indian cultural sites and threatening the safety of recreationists."

The United States needs to step up on federal land management so this type of terroristic action doesn't become seen as a viable option.  These armed sovereignists want to become martyrs or messiahs, but what they really need is to be imprisoned and fined.

Artfunkel Game Developer Using My Imagery

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This is neat - a developer in the very, very early stages of creating an art collection game called Artfunkel asked me if he'd be able to use my artwork.  I checked the game out, and it's educational and attributed, so I said sure!  Here are a few of his initial Prindaville card tests.  I'll update as the game build progresses.

More Plant Blooms

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I love watching my plants flower - it's both a pretty spectacle and also typically a sign they're being well cared for.  So far this month I've got a Neoregelia 'Golden Chalice,' Rhipsalis mesembryanthemoides, Mammillaria plumosa, and Gasteria liliputana in flower!

If you recall, my Rhipsalis pilocarpa was in bloom a few weeks ago and its flowering somewhat coincided with my Rhipsalis mesembryanthemoides flowering - so I cross-pollinated (and also self-pollinated) and have some seed pods growing!  I'll be interested to see if anything ends up germinating.

Climate Science in the Public Eye

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I was sick recently, so I had the time to watch the television series Newsroom.  One clip really stuck with me:

Now given that this is from a fictional television series, viewers could be forgiven for thinking it an exaggeration.  But the facts check out, though sadly a few are outdated and have increased negatively in the meantime.

What really interests me apart from the immediate content is that the whole reason it's funny (admittedly in a macabre sense) is because most scientists are a little less depressingly stark about our situation.  Why is that?

It turns out that a recent paper "Duality in Climate Science" published in Nature Geoscience takes scientists and the media to task for underselling our ecological position due to fear of politically and professionally calamitous ramifications.  The paper summary reads:

Delivery of palatable 2 °C mitigation scenarios depends on speculative negative emissions or changing the past. Scientists must make their assumptions transparent and defensible, however politically uncomfortable the conclusions.  

What that's saying is that unless we can time travel backwards or develop technology in the future that we don't know exists yet, we're screwed.  Here's another not-at-all-comforting review of this and other papers saying in part, "The latest installment of depressing news is the delightful prediction that dozens of American cities are at risk of drowning before the century is out, turning places like New Orleans and Miami into the lost kingdom of Atlantis."

Blooming Cacti

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I've had a few cacti blooming lately - my Rhipsalis pilocarpa, Schlumbergera truncata, and one of my two Gymnocalycium friedrichii.  Here are some images of the beauty!  Unfortunately I don't have a good photo of the Gymno because its bloom was infested with aphids - in spraying it with neem oil, the aphids have died but the bloom is also not doing so hot.   I'll get a photo to share at some point, though!

 Interesting things to note about the below two plants: the R. pilocarpa flowers apparently have little scent but what there is smells like a musty basement; the S. truncata is a very difficult plant for me to grow and this is the first time I've gotten one to flower; the S. truncata was purchased on sale without flowers and I did not know it had two different bloom colors.

Carl Safina’s Beyond Words Is on My Reading List

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I've recently placed an interlibrary loan request for Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel by Dr. Carl Safina based on both the Jezebel interview and the New York Times review; I've always felt that while there may well be alien life in outer space, there's certainly alien life here.

Golden OPEN Acrylics

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I am not a fan of using normal acrylic paint in a fine art context.  Obviously other artists use them well, but I find they dry way too fast and permanently for my liking and additives like retardant and unlocking sprays don't do enough to mitigate that.  I've always loved watercolor paints, and also am quite fond of oils, so I used to think I just wouldn't work with acrylics and that'd be that.  

Then I started doing short-term artist residencies.

While some of my residencies had subject matter perfectly suited to watercolor, others had subjects that seemed to call for a more heavy-bodied paint... but the timeline of the residencies meant that oil paints wouldn't dry prior to transportation.  I happened to have been gifted a full boxed Modern Colors set of Golden OPEN Acrylics at the 2010 College Art Association (CAA) Conference from a very nice representative, and so while on residency in 2014 when faced with one of these subjects that wanted a more substantial paint, I tried the OPEN Acrylics out.  It was a revelation.  These acrylics feel like what I always wanted the medium to be: they dry much more slowly than normal acrylics but much faster than oils, and yet still have the ease of normal acrylics, too - they can be thinned and cleaned up with water.

My previous dislike of acrylics was so strong that it took a while for this new world order to sink in, but there's really no denying it now - OPEN Acrylics are one of my favorite mediums.   

This is not a sponsored post.

Octopodes

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I learned about the existence of the word "octopodes" yesterday and had to go on a research spree.  Here is what I've gathered: octopuses, octopi, and octopodes are all acceptable pluralizations of octopus.

  • Octopuses is the English pluralization.
  • Octopi stems from a popular misconception that octopus was originally a Latin word - it's actually Greek - and used to be considered grammatically incorrect but has since been used enough to become a viable option.
  • Octopodes comes from the original ancient Greek pluralization.

I have also just learned that despite the accuracy of the above statements, my spell check firmly denies the existence of both octopi and octopodes (and, in fact, pluralizations).  Nevertheless, I'm going to be testing out octopodes as my preferred pluralization for a while.  It has a nice sound. 

Halloween Makeup: Double Features

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A video demonstrating how to do a "double vision" makeup went viral a few weeks ago, and I agreed that it'd be a good look for Halloween!  Here's my version:

This took about an hour and a half to do, but I could've used another fifteen minutes to touch it up - I had to go to work* though, so this was the finished product!  The only items I had to buy for this project were the false lashes and lash glue; for the rest of the makeup I just made do with what I already had even if it wasn't absolutely ideal.

*I'm publishing this post on Halloween proper, but I actually dressed up yesterday (Friday, October 30th) to celebrate Halloween with my fellow professors and students at USM.

Employment Options in the Arts

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I have a number of students ask me what careers they can pursue in the arts.  This list is by no means exhaustive and includes some careers best served by dual majors, but here are some of the possible employers/roles in no particular order:

  • technical/medical illustration with the military, medical publishing, engineering firms
  • commercial illustration
  • graphic design/web design/user interface design
  • game development
  • animation
  • 3D animation
  • running CAD systems
  • film
  • concept artist
  • product design
  • advertising/marketing
  • printmaking studios
  • photography studios
  • ceramics studios
  • jewelry studios
  • metalsmithing
  • furniture restoration/design
  • textile studios
  • personal studio practice
  • portrait artist
  • caricature artist
  • art festival circuit
  • Etsy/Amazon Handmade/online vendor
  • tattoo parlors
  • sign companies
  • galleries/museums
  • art theory/writing
  • scene design
  • interior design
  • faux-finishing/mural work in collaboration with interior designers
  • staging store window displays
  • cake decorator
  • special effects/makeup artist
  • art teaching positions at K-12 private schools (public typically requires additional certification beyond a BA in art)
  • community arts center/camp/craft instructors
  • teaching adults at those "Painting and Pinot" type night/weekend classes
  • private art lessons

With graduate school, additional options open up like art therapy, higher education, and more.

Discouraging News on the Conservation Front

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The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Zoological Society of London (ZSL) just released a new report detailing a 49% decline "in the size of marine populations between 1970 and 2012."

This follows their 2014 report which states in part that over the past 40 years:

Populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish have declined by an average of 52%.  Freshwater species populations have suffered a 76% decline, an average loss almost double that of land and marine species."

Autumnal Porch Guest Lorraine the Spotted Orbweaver

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Meet Lorraine! 

Lorraine is an adult female Neoscona crucifera spider who has made a number of webs on my front porch this fall.  I had noticed her presence a few times in the evenings as she hunted around the outside of my living room window, but we really made each other's acquaintance when she tested out a new web location a few days ago strung up between a potted plant and my front storm door; after I damaged it going out of my door in the morning and then again a second time coming back in later that evening, she took stock of her options and has since restrung her web off my porch railing and my hanging sweet potato vine.  I'm interested to see if I'll be able to spot Lorraine's egg sac if/when she lays it since I'm looking forward to trying to witness her offspring hatch next spring.