15th December 2002
Steps 181-190.

10th December 2002
I went to see to the Tate Modern today to see the Barnett Newman and Eva Hesse exhibitions. I've been waiting to see a Barnett Newman show for a loooong time and he didn't disappoint - although I had a few misgivings. Namely, his signature, which quite often interfered with the purity of the painting. They weren't in all of them and some had signatures that were very subtle, but quite a few had an inscription that was very obvious and totally distracted from the presence of the painting. He didn't really need to put them in, because they all had his signature, his motif, a vertical stripe (or zip, as he called it) in them. To have his tag in the earlier biomorphic surrealist phase and also the drawings and prints of his later mature style is fine and dandy, but not in the paintings. The other gripe is that in the earlier paintings quite often the stretcher frame was visible through the paint and canvas - this is something that really bugs me. It totally spoils the visual fantasy of a painting, because one is always aware that it is merely an object made of paint, canvas and wood, rather than something else completely - a vision beyond the material objects. Many painters, including me, when they made their first canvases did not use quadrant or some sort of beveled edging and consequently the stretcher bar would be visible. This is a no-no and must not be done!! Anyway, back to BN, apart those moans it was a great show, as was the Eva Hesse exhibiton. Her development was very interesting and she created work that a male could not conceive of. Fascinating. Both artists were inspirational and I had a great time. Oh, the big BIG thing by Anish Kapoor (or Hamish MacPoor, as I call him for some unknown reason) is quite amazing too. Just because it is SO big and you think how the f**k did they put that in there? Well worth seeing.

Anyway, I've been doing stuff too and so I'm adding a few new things to the site today all at once. Firstly there is a new section, well to be more correct, an update of a page that had been "under construction" - the drawings page in the figurative section. Here, I am showing a few examples of the new work I'm doing. These are the black and white drawings that I've scanned in to the mac and coloured them in with photoshop. Take a peek. I have also updated the recent figurative page as well.

Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about the animations and have added eee, cfgyj, www and ddd for your pleasure.

I've also added some more wacky things to the funstuff area, namely "under construction" - a page that utilises the animated gif that was originally on the drawings page, and "big bang". another explosive page.

I have also been trodding along on the journey and have completed steps 161 -180. Some of these spread over a large area and will need scrolloing to the link, which is invariably at the bottom right-hand corner. I also modified most of the steps 151-160, because they included variations of one of my animations that I have now put into the animations section. All images in a journey will now only be created from animated gifs that I've collected from freebie sites.

Oh, one more thing, I've slightly changed the text and updated the "contact me" page.

17th November 2002
I've uploaded three more animations.
colourblind, ooo and bluniverse. All quite different from each other.

10th November 2002
Two more animations. A pure changing colours one - "motionemotion", and a zappy circle vid called "uuu". Also updated the animations page a bit.

7th November 2002
"whirleegig" is the name of the most recent animation - check it out! Why do I do this stuff?, (apart from the fact that it's such good fun), I don't get any money for doing it. In fact, I have to shell out for the pleasure (ISP, web hosting and electricity costs). No-one comments on them (apart from some good mates, and they are just being nice). I must be bonkers. But being bonkers - ie, this incessant need to create visual stuff - keeps me sane. Is that logical?

5th November 2002
Yet another new animation for your delectation, my dear viewer. It's another brightly coloured one and it's called "vizyulvoyidg" I seem to be moving away from monochromatic pics at present, both in the animations and in the paintings I'm doing at the studio. This are like the bitmaps (same canvas dimensions 12" x 12" - 30 x 30cms), but they are more flamboyant and have more obvious differentations of colour occuring, as well as incorporating larger buttons and beads which are also more 3D. I think I am adding a lot of surface to the actual paintings, because the work done on the computer is FLAT. Besides, they are a lot of fun to do - I'm allowing myself to border on the kitsch and am making these paintings quite gaudy and slightly tasteless.

Have a look at my hairbrush pic in the funstuff section - if you dare!!

I'm growing a beard. A beard which has got further than any other facial hair experiment I've ever had in my whole life. I'm 44 (and-a-half tomorrow) and still can't grow hair on my cheeks, so this is a goatee sort of thing. I'm still highly dubious about it but I think I'll persevere.

29th October 2002
I have created some more animations. I have changed the first one because it was very short and a bit boring, and I have added three more - one which is very colourful and takes some time to download - "ppinkk". The other ones are called "changingthing" and "skwarez" respectively.

23rd October 2002
Been busy.

I have added a new part to the Lucky Dip section which I've called animations. These are modifications of the animated gifs I created for "a journey". Most of that large and continuing digital artwork uses free animated gifs that I've downloaded from the net and then arranged in certain ways. I also made my own animated gigs for it, but these tended to by bigger in size (kbs) and also played over a longer time. They are also visually different from the freebie gifs - having much more relevance to my abstract paintings. So, I have decided to make an area where I can show them on their own, without getting lost in the sprawling, random, visual trip that is "a journey" However, they are not exactly the same as before and I have adjusted them. I have displayed them all as having the same characteristics ie; there is a central (linking) motif of exactly the same size (300 x 300 pixels). This creates a framing effect as well as a uniformity. There is no searching for the link as in some of the steps in "a journey" However, like that visual excursion these animations are best seen in progression, one after the other. Of course, how it comes to you will depend on the speed of your modem, as some of these images are more than 100k. Anyway, have a look.

I've kept the concepts page (which animations replaced), because it makes me laugh and it was there from the start when there was no content in the Lucky Dip bit, and I've put it into the fun stuff section. Talking about the fun stuff page - I have jazzed it up even more and added some more content to it. You can now see again the original frontpage animated gif again - brought back by public demand - enjoy yourself why don't you. I have also succumbed to the scourge of the internet and added some adult content to the site - see pornoqueen. You can also experience a massive explosion, which is strangely calming and mesmeric (scrolling required).

Updated the links page.

7th October 2002
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Today the website has been online for 2 years. From its humble beginnings it has matured into a site that is visited by many people everyday from all around the world. I wish to thank all those who have visited and who have seen my work and what I do. I still have many plans for the site and will carry on adding to it. There are many paintings that I've done which I will make pages for. There is also the more recent work to be added. I have been working on a series of small abstracts which are similar to the bitmaps but are less formal in structure and have more surface. There are also the new figurative pics which I want display.

1st October 2002
Did some adjustments to the This is planet Earth intro page and it's pop-up window, and also to the small, medium, large and novelty earth intro pages. I've removed all of the banner ads (except those of Art.com, which are relevant) from these pages because: they took a long time to download, I wasn't gaining any financial benefit from having them and they were also aesthetically displeasing! The pages now look much better for their absence. This affilliate stuff isn't all that it's cracked up to be.

I have also added 10 more pages to "a journey". The traveller has now taken 150 steps of this digital trip! The pages in this last section are very similar in their format and should download very quickly.

24th September 2002
Updated the stats page, which I had neglected since March 2002. The info shows that there is a general improvement in the number of visitors to the site and the amount of pages looked at. April was the most successful month with over one gig of data transfered during that month. Fewer people visited the site in the summer months of May, June and July but August saw an increase. However the trend is still up and is a considerable improvement over last year. I think that possibly my neglect of the site (updating it and promoting it) may have slowed the amount of traffic somewhat.

20th September 2002
A few minor alterations to "This is Planet Earth". The Greenpeace logo wasn't appearing and I've changed the file name of a couple of gifs because people were linking directly to them and creating havoc with my web hosting. If anyone wants to add a planet earth gif to their site, then just right click (windows) or hold down mouse button (mac) to download the image file to their harddrive. This is fine, and I positively encourage it, but I do object when someone makes a direct link (of an image) from my site to theirs. I've spent a lot of time on the site, and I think people can do the same to theirs - it's not that hard. Sermon over.

18th September 2002
Added steps 136-140 to "a journey".

17th September 2002
Added a few more steps to "a journey". Steps 121-133. The traveller has had a long rest but the trip seems to have started again. It's a way of me getting back into doing stuff to the website after my long sojourn away.

4th September 2002
Blimey!
It's been about 5 weeks since I've written something or done anything to the site. The longest period of inactivity since the site was put online. Many reasons for this - most too boring to go into. The main reason I guess is that I have been a bit glum lately - DEPRESSED is another word for it. Usual money worries, what's my life all about?, desperate for a shag, need a holiday, unreasonable work conditions, etc, etc, etc. This have all conspired to make me feel pissed off - AND I didn't get any contacts in the end from Freshart. It appears to have been a total waste of time and a not inconsiderable sum of money. Also, I always feel lethargic in summer in the city. Not that the weather has been great - in fact it's been the gloomiest since '88 - but the pollution is bad. London traffic is now at a virtual standstill (less than 3 miles an hour!) and the cars and lorries and taxis belch out their foul fumes.

Still, I'm feeling quite good at the moment, and I have been working on some figurative work which I am very pleased with. These are drawings that I've scanned into my mac and coloured them in with Photoshop. This is another reason why I've done little on the site of late - my computer time has been taken up creating these pics. They are all individuals similar to JOIDROP. I have also been going to the studio a bit more recently. I have just done a couple of small paintings similar to the bitmaps, but not as organized and with more sculptural surfaces.

Now that the evenings are drawing in and the weather starts getting cooler, I'll be more able to get more stuff done. I might even finish This is planet Earth!

28th July 2002
Hello. How are you?

I'm feeling slightly unhinged at the present - especially today, but all of this last week has been stressful - I just haven't had any time to relax since Freshart finished. Straight back to doing the other work I have to do to pay the rent and also the rent on the studio (which I'm falling behind with and I'm getting nasty letters from Acme about my arrears) Not to mention all the other essential stuff one has to buy to exist - like teabags. I spent a lot of money on Freshart (well my credit card did), and have seen, as yet, no return from my outlay. I still have an offer on Orangeology, but I sold nothing at the show, unlike the Paterson twins, who both more than recuperated their costs. ENVY. I don't know what went wrong - maybe I showed the wrong work. Lots of people (especially other artists) thought it looked good, but the public just didn't buy. What do I have to do to get noticed or sell my work? Still, I get to keep all of my babies - I am my favourite fan.

Mustn't grumble, especially when I heard that some artists in Bow, East London had their studios broken into and lots of power tools were nicked, but worse than that, a good friend of mine had all his bronze sculptures taken as well. Many years of work have gone and they will probably be just melted down. Some people are just total scumbags. To have one's work stolen, lost or destroyed is the worst thing that can happen to an artist. The loss of identity and one's livelyhood too. I couldn't imagine it. It's my worst nightmare! My friend is absolutely devestated, but those swines will just think it was a good days work.

Anyway, that's what I've been up to recently.

Now that I'm not working towards a goal (Freshart), I'll have more time to work on the site.

I just wanna thank you all for visiting my webspace and seeing what this human being is about.

J

16th July 2002
Again a long period of inactivity - doing stuff to the website that is. This is because I have been working towards Freshart which opens in two days time. My painting "Orangeology" is on the Freshart website as the example of my work. Since going up, I have had two serious offers for this painting - which is fantastic!

The next few days, putting up the show and then having people view the work and talking to me about it, I am looking forward to with mounting excitment, and not a little trepidation. I'll be showing the recent abstracts plus the bitmaps. I have designed some publicity - a folding brochure, business card - and also a postcard through Freshart. I bought a printer (an Epson stylus photo 810) so that I can display images of the work. I will have three folders with examples of the abstract paintings, the bitmaps and also one which contains recent figurative drawings from my sketchbooks.

I have now made http://www.ahumanbeing.com into a web-forwarding portal to this site. Later on, I will add content to this domain.

I have also removed the adverts from the home page so that it loads more quickly, and to make it look less cluttered (and more refined). I have not earned a single penny from any of these affiliate links, so there is no point having them. I will keep them up for a bit longer on "This is Planet Earth", and the ones that are the links pages, to see if it gets any better. If they are still not bringing in any revenue, I will chop them!

SUMMER IS HERE - FINALLY!!!

12th June 2002
Long time - no write, or done anything to the site. Have been very busy of late. Got a new job - "proper work", which involves me getting up at the crack of dawn and working damn hard. This means that I am completely knackered the rest of the time (what's left of it). Consequentely, I haven't done anything to the site. I had been updating and changing it a lot before (see previous entries), but I just haven't felt enthused the last few weeks.

Another reason why I haven't updated the website is that I have been accepted to show at Freshart, the Art Fair in London. This is VERY GOOD NEWS, and I was really shocked and delighted at being chosen to exhibit. I have not applied to any group show, competition or open show for years, simply because I was continually being rejected and I was fed up with it, because it knocks one's confidence (and takes a bite out of the wallet). I applied to Freshart (click to see the website), because Neil Paterson, my friend and fellow artist was going to do it. His twin brother, Ian, was accepted last year and sold some work and has made some important contacts. Last year was the first year of Fresh Art, and this year is bigger and better. About 100 individual artists will have individual spaces to show their work - over 1000 applied! - and I'm one of them (Neil and Ian are showing too). Thousands of people are expected to attend and there will be write-ups in the press etc. It's all very exciting and very daunting as well. Anyway, I have been directing my attentions towards working on how and what I am going to exhibit, because this could be an important kick-start for my career as an artist, rather than part-time dabbler. This means that my involvement with the website may be somewhat limited in the forseeable future. I will probably do little work on the this is planet earth size cataloguing sections until after the show - ie towards the end of July. I also seem to have come to a halt (the traveller is just having a rest) on a journey. I will think about what is going to happen to this project later.

If you are in London between 19th -21st July 2002 then please come along and check it out.
FRESH ART
Business Design Centre.
52, Upper Street,
Islington,
London. N! OQH
United Kingdom.

30th April 2002
A bit more work on the front page, because one of the affiliates (recordedbooks.com) stopped using Linkshare's services, so I've had to bit a different banner up. It's a shame, because I liked their banners and logos. I don't think I've made a penny from any of these affiliates, but they jazz up some of the pages and give you, my dear reader, more of a choice as to where to go.

28th April 2002
Updated the home/index/intro page, because I had got bored with the way it was looking. I got rid of the big animated gif that had been up there since the beginning, because it was too large, and it said exactly what was said on the rest of the page. I've also made it less wordy. The rollover buttons to the sections of the site can now be seen straight away, without having to scroll. Hopefully the page can now be seen in it's totality on a 17" monitor. I have also added some small ad links - gosh!

Did some updating on the subject entry pages, because the links to this page "What's new" were not working after I removed a space from the url.

27th April 2002
This affiliate thing is coming along apace, and I have added quite a lot of external commercial links to the site. Most of these I have been accepted for, however some of the affiliate links I have made live are pending approval. One of these was for Dell computers, I thought I'd give it a go and I put it next to the Microsoft logo on my links page. Of course I'm not affiliated to Microsoft (or Apple for that matter), I just wanted to show that it was an interesting link. Anyway, I duly got an email from Tradedoubler (an affiliate programme group), telling me that my application for affiliate status had not been accepted. No worries, I thought, I'll take the link out. So I check out the links page and find out that the link has already been removed from my site! Somebody associated with Dell has gone onto my web hosted site and tinkered with it. I don't have a firewall, so I guess it was easy. I feel a bit violated in a way. I'm shocked, but not the least bit surprised. Business is business and if Dell don't want my business, then I certainly don't want theirs. If I ever buy a PC, it will not be a Dell.

Today I worked some more on the links page and adjusted the pop-up windows so they now work properly! I also spruced up the add-your own-link page.

26th April 2002
Time moves on and so have I. I have now uploaded the first lot of catalogued animated gifs of Planet Earth. I have described about 50 of the gifs so far into 4 sections. These are small, medium, large and novelty. I have also adjusted the intro page and the pop-up window, which explain in greater detail the changes I have made. I have also added links to commercial sites to these pages in the hope that I can get some income from them. Now that "this is Planet Earth" introduces more traffic into my site than the official front entry page, it makes sense to make it financially viable. The visitor who comes to my site that way is probably not at all interested in my art, but would not be surprised to see links to other non-art sites. Most of the animated gif sites I have trawled to make this collection all had affiliate links to other sites. Besides, with amount of work I have put into it, I would like to get some renumeration for all my efforts!

I have also added more links to my main links page and to the links I like page. I am trying to resist putting commercial links to the art pages (certainly picture banners), but I might put the odd text link here and there.

I have now also sorted out the pop-up window problem that Netscape surfers had with "a journey". They can now go on the trip the was previously denied to them, due to my (and, it has to be said) Netscape's dodgy coding. Likewise, I have adjusted the pop-up windows in links i like, so that the original page does not have to reload every time, which should make things a lot better.

I am also upgrading my hosting so that it is on a faster server. I expect to do this shortly.

11th April 2002
Added a few links to the main links page. This are affiliate sites, so if a visitor clicks on that link and then signs on or buys something from that site, then I will get some dosh - I'll believe it when I see a cheque!

This sites are:
Allposters.com
Art.com
ebay.co.uk
misterart.com

4th April 2002
Updated the stats page which shows that there was 80,270 successful requests (18,831 successful requests for pages) in the month of March. I'm flabbergasted!!!

3rd April 2002
Haven't done much lately. Still working on this is planet earth. Updated the links page.

18th March 2002
Well, it's a few days later and I'm feeling more cheerful, thankyou very much. The improving weather helps. Spring IS on it's way.

I noticed that the poll was not functioning as it should, because I hadn't updated the image file names on Bravenet's site, so they were not loading, so I've fixed that. Apologies to those who experienced in faulty mode. Have a go - it's harmless.

14th March 2002
Have been depressed. And yesterday was an awful day. I won't bore you with the details, but it was one of those memorable-for-all-the-wrong-reasons days. The kind of day that sums up all the shit in a person's life. Everything coming to a nasty realisation sort of day. A nadir.

Much of this "woe is me" attitude is to do with money (or lack of it). I've got to start selling some paintings over the net. So I am trying to find ways of getting a secure system up , so people can buy online. Originally, this site was about just showing the work as a kind of online portfolio, but now I wanna SELL SELL SELL!! However, if anyone sees anything they want to buy right now , please let me know. justin@ahumanbeing.co.uk

Updated the pop-up window for earth intro which says that I have now acquired 162 animated gifs of Planet Earth. I will put them all up when I have finished cataloguing them.

I have had to change the preferences of the add-your-own-link page, because some scum porno merchant keeps adding teen sex sites to it, and I can't block the numerical url, because it keeps changing. So if you want to add your site, I have been forced to approve it first, before it goes online. Porn has its place - most of the web, it seems - I just don't want it in my space!

Anyway, I'll try to cheer up!

28th February 2002
Updated the home page, because I thought it needed jazzing up, and because I am feeling better after a horrible 2 day bug. Nasty!

Spring is coming!

24th February 2002
I've changed the url(s) in Lucky Dip because they had spaces in them
(/Lucky%20Dip/Lucky%20Dip.html)
because i did not realise when i set up the folder and some file names that that was a no no. It is no good for UNIX machines which will not recognise all of the the url address, because of the %20 space. This meant that I might not be getting as much traffic as I could be getting. Scientists and universites etc use unix, and I know from some emails I've been getting that they had found me only through a home mac or pc, but they really thought that this is planet earth is worth seeing - but it would also be a good idea to catalogue it. Which I am working on! I get much of my traffic coming in at the intro page of planet earth, so I thought that now would be a good time to get rid of the spaces in Lucky Dip, which I worked out how to do site wide in dreamweaver - all those links! This means of course that because the url of the intro page has changed, search engines which had the old address would still be forwarding people there - so I have kept that as a temporary pre intro page (until the search engine wizards update the new intro page - the one without the spaces). Does that make sense - does anyone, but me, care?
I do this all for YOU!!

18th February 2002
Okay, I've taken the message to heart (see previous entry), and started work on organising, describing and cataloguing the animated gifs in "this is planet earth". I have put a little pop-up window on the intro page indicating my intention. Look back in a couple of weeks and it should be finished.

I have noticed that the pop-up windows for "a journey" don't work in Netscape. Don't know why, but I'll try to rectify it.

15th February 2002
I received a message in my guestbook yesterday from an "anonymous surfer", who called me a "dumbfuck" and "stupid", for making a webpage that is 4mb in size - this is planet earth. "This is planet earth" is an artpiece containing about 100 animated gifs of rotating images of our planet, probably the largest collection in the world. I have collected these animations from surfing gif libraries on the web and presented them all together as an artwork. He, or she, objected to the fact that I had not divided them up into small sections so that they could be downloaded in a short time. The whole point about "this is planet earth" is the fact that it is a singularity - a universe of planet earths. I have indicated this point in the intro page to t.i.p.e. - explaining that it is about art, indicating the size and that it will take quite a long time to download. Anyway, I was upset that someone could be just plain nasty like that, and incensed that they were so cowardly that they didn't leave an email address so that I could respond. I deleted the entry.

However, on reflection, maybe that disrespectful person does have a point. Originally, I hadn't conceived t.i.p.e. as anything but another art project - a visual statement. But, it has become something else as well - a resource that people have searched for and want to use for their own purposes. They do not really care about whether it is about art or not. They just wanna look at a selection of gifs so that they can choose some for whatever their project/website is. I know that many people enter my website at the intro page by looking at the stats from by web hosting company. They come because they have looked on a search engine for "animated gifs of planet earth", and have found my site. I can understand if some people might be annoyed if they find that they need to download a just one 4mb page to see all the gifs, rather than several pages of a small number of animations, but there's no need to be fuckin' rude!! I got an email a couple of weeks ago from a scientist for also thought that it would be a good idea to divide the page into, er, pages, for ease of use. His suggestions were constructive and he was pleasant too. I wrote back to him.

Anyway, the probable outcome is that I will probably create separate pages that have smaller numbers animations (maybe ten) on each page. If it means that visitors then go on to see the rest of the site, then that is a good thing!.

Rant over.

3rd February 2002
Wet and windy and warm and wainy. So this is how British winters will be in the 21st century, apparently. Lots of flooding to be expected.

Anyway,
I had a really good session in the new studio last wednesday. I hadn't been there much recently, prefering to be at home and work on the site - this journey, for instance. I'm doing some figurative pictures using oil pastels on wallpaper. There is not much space at the new studio to work big and on canvas. With these small works on paper, I can get them out quicker. When I have worked on a few, I'll photo them and put them on-line. They look a bit like joidrop, but not as precise maybe.

However,
the morning after the really good sesh at the studio, I awoke to a letter stating that my rent is going up 1/3rd. BOLLOCKS!!! I'm really pissed off!

I have also added a pic to the black & white photography section called facing the void, don't ask me what it's about, I don't know, but it is nearly 200k in size.

23rd January 2002
I have just returned from THE GAMBIA in West Africa, having had one of the best holidays of my life! It's a fantastic place, and the people are very friendly and special. There is a lot of poverty, but the people seem genuinely happy. You do get hassled a lot by "bumsters" - young men offering their services as guides to tourists, but they are only trying to earn a crust. Anyway, I picked up a couple of wooden masks, and a fantastic sculpture which came from Mali. The weather was perfect, and it was not very pleasant coming back to the cold, wet, grey weather of blighty.

I took my camera and 5 rolls of slide film, but ended up taking about 15 shots, none of them very good, I think. The camera just seemed to be a barrier to really appreciating the country, so I didn't bother with it. I did do a few drawings though, which I may put up one day.

When I came back home I checked my email, and found that I had 3,800!!. Some bastard has been seriously spamming me, and from then on I was getting 800 a day! I have sorted the problem out now, but it is a really objectionable thing to experience.

I have uploaded steps 111-120 for your perusal and, hopefully, enjoyment. I worked on these before I went away.

2nd January 2002
HAPPY NEW YEAR
I was down in Dorset for the holiday with my best friends and I had a lovely time. When I was there, I looked at my site on a PC using MS Explorer 5.5. I found out that the way I had designed the pop-up windows in a journey did not work properly, so I have modified them. I hope it's better now.