Guess what!? Rebecca and I made our wedding rings. Like, carved them out of wax and melted gold into our mold. It was tons of fun. It took 7 weeks. 7 Thursday night classes at ‘the Devils Workshop‘ on Queen St West in Toronto.
We had great help from Sara, the owner, and Danielle, a local goldsmith and cute little designer. Great folk!
We filmed the whole process and put together this video:
Our ring Motif was ‘the golden spiral’:
The Golden Spiral is a line that grows out from its starting point, curving round and round at an exponential rate. Mathematically it is always a proportional ratio, no matter how small it is or how big it grows. Because of this, it provides a perfect aesthetic to model artwork after; hence the name, “the golden spiral”.
Before any artwork was done or any math was calculated however, the Golden Spiral existed organically, in nature. It can be seen, for example, in shells, seeds on sunflowers, in various types of leaves, in the formation of galaxies, and even in the human fetus. The Golden Spiral is something we live with everyday, perhaps without even noticing it.
Around 1200 AD, the mathematician Fibonacci discovered a numerical sequence that uses the logarithm phi, 1.618.
In brief, this can be visualized by graphing the Fibonacci sequence as squares. 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 etc.
Another way to view this math is as a perfect rectangle that creates itself when you subtract a square from itself.
Also called the Divine Proportion, Renaissance artists used this ratio extensively in their paintings and sculptures to achieve universally appealing balance and beauty.
Da Vinci in particular used the Golden Spiral as a framework for many paintings. The Divine (or Golden) Spiral was seen by many to open the door to a deeper understanding of beauty and spirituality in life.
Most importantly, the Golden Spiral is a symbol of forever, staying true to its beautiful form as it continues to grow and grow, indefinitely. Its perfect aesthetic, mysterious occurence, familiar significance and infinite implication makes it the perfect emblem for our wedding rings.
I figure as long as I am participating in this game of capitalism, I should post all of the press that mentions me so that you can gawk in the hype of my pseudo success. look at me!
“I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don’t let anybody tell you different.” Kurt Vonnegut
A good friend, David Peck, rented a studio space one weekend and we shot these 5 videos.
Some fast edits, a few emails and bam: here are 5 videos for his ‘creative capitalism’ business: ‘SoChange‘ – www.sochange.ca David works out of Oakville and also teaches philosophy and film and travels the world. what a guy. “David Peck is a professional public speaker, university lecturer, and social entrepreneur.”
1 SoChange It – Universal Goals for Primary Education
2 SoChange It – Infrastructure and Development
3 SoChange It- Over 1 billion people don’t have access to clean water
4 SoChange It – Little Things do Make a Big Difference
5 SoChange It – The Invisible Hand?
“SoChange believes that every person has the right to a livelihood that provides not only for basic physical needs, but also is full of cultural and spiritual dignity. However, we also realize that many are denied this entitlement by realities such as extreme poverty, human rights violations, and the prevalence of HIV/AIDS. At SoChange, we’re committed to empowering civil society to confront these issues.”
I love this passion for doing something that matters. David will truly continue to make a difference, and already has some incredible stories of change. Creative Capitalism, Business with a Purpose… call it what you want… It just feels right.
“If I was drunk, I’d probably cry.” – Kurt Vonnegut
All music by my brother at www.ryanzak.com check out his new music, it is great.
…and while you are clicking on things… click HERE and buy our new book!!!
Inspired by the great work of Epipheo studios, Storysteam and I went out and created a cool video for Brainpark. This was a really fun project. It was a challenge to illustrate purposefully-crappy, but was a good experiment in being spontaneous and going with the flow of my hand… disconnecting the brain from my movements and just trusting the direction. It a way, like the philosophy behind chinese calligraphy, except much different. Brainpark is ’social media with a purpose’- basically internal Facebook-like-platform for managing projects and people within a company. Great idea! – and voted for top 100 tech startups. Lots of scribbles scanned and cleaned up in Photoshopped, then animated in After Effects. Foley by my brother at www.ryanzak.com
(click to enlarge)
Note: here is how Epiphoe Studios explains their style of video communication: ”We create epipheos. We believe the best thing you can do for your brand, idea, or business is to educate and enlighten. When someone can see the world the way you see it, then your brand will come alive. Give someone your epiphany and they will share it with others.”
clever.
To make your own ‘Epipheo’ style video (my workflow anyways):
- You will start with the audio file. All animation and images will rely on the text… So write the script and think of the style of voice talent. Raspy female morning hangover (my favorite), calm grandpa matter-of-fact or enthusiastic teenage male that won’t shut up about all the apps on his i-phone (a common one lately).
- Next I used Final Cut Pro. Bring in the final voice-over and place in text placeholders on the timeline to match the images that you will need to create. ex. ‘girl face -concerned’, ‘laptop with web interface to animate’, ‘logo’, ‘zoom into screen’ etc…
- Take a list of the images needed, and start drawing. The simplicity of this style video is in the simplicity of the drawings. You need to not try. I found that the drawings came out best when I was lost in good music… The drawing that I used was always one that was literally a scribble that got on the page between thoughts. Trying to draw properly will not get the proper effect. This is a good exercise in trusting yourself, and blocking the internal critic that says you need to be perfect. Just put the pencil to the paper and see what happens. You can always make a mistake. You should make mistakes. Draw it 10 times and pick one. Stop telling yourself no.
- Next, scan in the images. Do not be too picky about what drawings are the best.
- In Photoshop, clean up the images. blacken the lines with ‘levels’. remove all white with ’select – ‘colour range’. add colour on a bottom layer to match brand. At this stage, think about what will be animated. If the arm is going to move, make this a separate layer in Photoshop. If the mouth needs to turn from a frown to a smile, have a straight line on a separate layer that can be warped. I found it easiest to save each image set as a separate PSD file.
- Export the ‘timing’ from Final Cut Pro. This will be a guide layer in After Effects.
- In After Effects, bring in the ‘timing’ video, and import saved PSD files from Photoshop with all layers separated. After Effects will import the PSD files with layers in tact.
- align the proper AE compositions over top of the proper place, referencing the timing video from FCP.
- Animate piece by piece. This style of video uses FAST animation. A transition of one scene leaving and another entering is literally 5 frames. Make movements fast and sudden. Do not over-do animating. This videos goal is to simplify a concept and bring on the ‘Epiphany’…
- Last – make a list of the foley you will need. wooshes and beeps and murmuring.. easy to find for free on the web.
- Adding a music soundtrack did not seem necessary, it actually felt like too much.
- Also, think about the audience and their attention span. Notice that Epipheo videos are SHORT and to the point. Be quick. entertain. do not loose the audience. I feel like the BrainPark script is much too long (and voiced this). I would aim for 2-3 minutes max.
After a year of painting, writing, designing and hustling… Rebecca and I have successfully self published our first book! A very exciting and rewarding journey. We learned a lot and know this is just the beginning of our book-making-lives. To get catalogued and recieve an ISBN# as self publishers, we had to start www.zakbooks.com, our publishing company. This book is being sold online atwww.cutestfacebook.com, hardcover for $15 CAD. We have a strong marketing plan and cannot wait to receive the rest of the books in June 2010 when the boat comes in. We worked with an amazing printer in Singapore, TWP, who had incredible customer service and held our hand through the whole process. Big thanks to Matt and Mike at TWP New York and Singapore.
We also got an excellent endorsement from Eric Walters, an award winning childrens author who has written 80+ books. We gave him a copy of the book when we got the advanced copied shipped. Great Guy. Thanks Eric. (Eric is the guy who started the ‘Terry Fox Run’ in all the schools… amoung other things)
“Beautifully illustrated, showing the richest of diversity that makes Canadian classes so special.” -Eric Walters
The Cutest Face is targetted toward school boards and fits directly with their goal of promoting multiculturalism in the classrooms. We have selected a great market and hope to get copies into every library.
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Here are some photos from one of our book signings in Chapters! exciting (click to enlarge)
Here’s to many sales and many more books! (*holds glass of foamy beer in the air)
The emotion reaction that art creates is stronger than reactions to simply logical or rational philosophical arguments. YES!
Watch this video and then we can chat more.
These thoughts begin from ‘Radiohead and Philosophy’, a book of essays edited by Brandon W. Forbes and George A. Reisch. The Essay that spoke to my soul was ‘All the Argument We Need‘ by John Sylvia. As an artist living to make art that matters, this is gold.
Now the above video…
We all think that child labour is wrong. We can be convinced by an argument discussing the negative impact on children or the imbalance of wealth or our ignorance as consumers. These arguments are convincing, but… Do you FEEL anything? Maybe.
John Sylvia discusses Aristotle, and his ‘Conception of Rhetoric’. Aristotle divided a good argument into three categories.:
1. Google – “define: Ethos” – perceived character of the speaker, credibility.
2. Google – “define: Pathos” – property of anything which touches the feelings or excites emotions and passions.
3. Google – “define: Logos” – argument from reason and logic.
Sylvia argues western philosophies disadvantage is that “the way of reason (logos) is important and necessary; however, emphasis was placed so heavily on that method alone that the ethos and pathos were almost entirely excluded”
The article concludes to state that the strongest arguments are formed when we include logic, establish credibility of the speaker AND include emotion. (hint: video art)
I strongly believe that art, especially video art, plays a major role in effective communication. Effective communication that not only informs the viewer, but elicits an emotional response that will lead to action.
even if you already accept that, for example, child labour is wrong, this video still was a hard reminder and wake-up call. “It brought forth the reality and the nature of the problems…in a way that no cognitive argument could.
“Stories and Images also have the power to engage the emotional commitment of their hearers to the content represented. That is, they engage us not simply intellectually, but also affectively as the same time. They can thus communicate information or values or norms of behavior while engaging a commitment to them.” – Egan K.
…A wonderful confirmation that we are on the right path! Keep creating.
Here are some current projects and things I am creating with other artists. Wax casting a wedding ring, coffee table art, resin experiments and raw pigments. Artists love other artists:
This post will cover content taken from her blog, mixed in with my thoughts. Innerpreneurship is the practice of starting a new business in response to identified opportunities, personal growth needs and a desire to create social change. (wikipedia)
Basically, an innerpreneur is someone who starts a business to improve the world and themselves. This word felt good to learn. I am sure many of you can relate.
Answer these questions to see if you can finally find a label for your worldview:
- I have this huge need to achieve something
- I feel like I see the world differently than most people
- I like being independent
- I refuse to conform and like the word ‘counter-cultural’
- I love not knowing what is going to happen in my live, and am excited at the possibilites
- I take risks
- I am obsessed with new opportunities, relationships and learning
- I strongly believe that you should do what you love to do. there is no other option
- I just need to create things
- I want to make the world a better place, to make things different. I am attracted to people and companies that improve the world.
- I value both work focused times and times of reflection, adventure and travel.
- I like the idea of a business that supports PROFIT, PURPOSE and PEOPLE.
- I am not ‘left brained’, or ‘right brained’ – rather, I can both. Why not?
- I really want to start a business for personal fulfillment. As a way to express myself I do not want the business to consume my whole life though.
- I want meaningful relationships, and value wisdom and deep conversation. This is where I grow.
Isn’t that nice?
Tara writes in her blog: “I have always been hesitant to label myself, to put myself in a box of any sort but I couldn’t help but smile and take a deep breath of relief when I read the profile. It is always nice to belong somewhere.”
onward.
“The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift of life is yours; it is an amazing journey; and you alone are responsible for the quality of it.” – Bob Moawad
It has been fun working on some great projects over the past while. I like to post work to keep an archive for myself, and share and inspire other artists. I love feedback and questions about my stuff, or seeing what you are doing.
First, this video will be played at the ‘WES’ Conference in Florida. It is meant to show the great year that AT&T and BlackBerry had together in 2009, and get developers excited about the possibilities for 2010. I used Photoshop, Maya, Particle Illusion and After Effects. Thanks VMG for another fun project. (check out this up and coming company)
Second, was a job for Canadian Tire though my friends at StoryStream in Liberty Village, Toronto. This project included some logo removal from HD footage. It was especially tricky taking the Nike logo from the back of a shoe with all the dust flying in front. I ended up painting each frame. There were 2 places on the glove that needed to be removed, and the Under Armor logo on the side and bottom of the shoe.
Last for now is a job created for Cineplex, via Cloud Ad Agents. It was a 1 minute piece where I created a set of 3D chairs and inserted them into provided illustrations to a voice track and piece of audio. I used Maya for the 3d, textures and illustrations were prepared in Photoshop, and final edits in FCP and AfterEffects. I love getting new clients and having my list grow ad working with new people. It is like collecting stamps. There are so many well run studios out there. It is an honour to work or these big brands. Thanks for trusting my creativity.
Below are my notes from a talk at Durham College’s School of Art and Design on the alternatives to ‘getting a real job’.
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Thanks for having me here.
I am going to try and confuse you about the path that you think you are on at this school. – Or give you hope. Feel free to interrupt anytime if you have a question about something I will show you. A – INTRO: FREEDOM VS. SECURITY
This school system is designed to create employees.
You go to school to get a job.
I want to talk about other options.
I want to talk about taking skills that you learn at school and in your own free time, and using them to be self employed.
There are a few questions to ask yourself to see if being self-employed is for you:
1. Do I need job security? - Am I happy having security?
2. With security, will my skills be tested and will I move forward fast enough?
3. OR: Do I value Freedom more?
Took an inventory today of most of the ‘works in progress’ in our studio.
Some of the pieces are Rebeccas, some are mine. All fairly big pieces. Was helpful to take inventory and thought I would share. Can’t wait to get a bigger studio space. Big thanks to David Rusbatch on the other side of the world for asking what I have been painting. See his work: http://www.davidrusbatch.com/
I had Ryan over to babysit the cats while Rebecca and I celebrated New Years and her Birthday in old Havana City.
Ryan filmed and posted a video ‘CRIBS’ tour of some of the art in our house. This is only a small bit of our art. We need more walls. Here is the poorly lit video now! :
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I have a house full of art. One day it should hang on a wall. Below is a diagram of pieces YOU can buy! (If Rebecca will let me) All the art is here: art.davezak.com
I can always do custom pieces. Pass on my name if you have rich friends with big blank walls. Do I sound desperate? What’s the quote I am thinking of..?
Here it is: ”I wish people with taste had money, and people with money had taste!” ~google search
Don’t we all?
Rebecca and I were both born with very bad eyes. Rebecca can only see out of one eye because of cataracts at birth and glaucoma. I have poor vision that is off the charts (-16). For some reason we both have careers totally dependent on our visual skills. This seems strange.
We hung out with the ‘Brock University Cognitive and Affective Neuropsychology Lab’ staff and got some insight into the common behaviors of humans pursuing something that is atypical about them. The study looked at Brain Electrocortical Functioning During Vision Processing. The idea was to record brain activity while looking at visual information to see what the earliest brain responces are… and compare these results to people with ‘normal’ vision. This would show how the brain adapts if you had disrupted visual input as a child.
The most fascinating discussions were around the regularity of people pursuing their weaknesses. It is not unusual for people hard of hearing to love music, for people confused with numbers to tackle math, and as in our case, people with bad eyes to enter art.
After some Googling, it was very easy to find this commonality throughout history: “Many of the most famous artists working in France late in the 19th century suffered serious eye diseases. There are reports of Monet, Cassatt, Degas, and Pissarro that shed light on important artists and their methods of dealing with adversity.” Also, “…what I find particularly amazing is the recurring theme throughout history of artists who continue to produce masterpieces while suffering from low vision.”
When we were young, we paid Ryan a dollar to walk across the road in the Elephant mask while a car was stopped at a stop sign. He carried a basket of potatoes. Right in front of the car he had to trip, spill the potatoes, and pick them all up while the car waited… if he wanted his dollar. The elephant is a symbol of the potential for the human imagination.
Hear more music here. If you ever need music for commercial or film use, contact ryan.
Here is the video:
heres another one of Ryans songs:
A great Biggy Remix:
Don’t Sweat it
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2010 is off to a sprint.
I am currently reading:
‘Heat‘ by George Monbiot. Monbiot looks at Global Warming, and says ‘if it is true, this is what we will need to do realistically. He suggests 90% decrease in emissions …minimum. Put a spot light on realistic solutions to our extreme fears. This book was a gift from THE David Peck at sochange.
‘the Wayfinders‘ by Wade Davis – a 2009 Massey Lecture series on some amazing nearly extinct cultures. I never cared about this stuff but he has some good arguments about why we may be wrong. Thanks Ken.
‘Galapagos‘ by Kurt Vonnegut – Vonnegut is my favorite author. ‘dark humour’ – He has a way of making a harsh, raw truth through narrative. You don’t realize until the book is closed that he had a deep message and hacked into your brain from the back end. Read all of his stuff!
‘Guns, Germs and Steel‘ by Jared Diamond – all about the history of white men taking over the world. We suck. (thanks for the recommendation Lauren – cultural psychologist…)
On a happier note! between commercials for Knorr and Walmart, Sprott Investment videos and finishing publishing a second book, I put some footage from New Years in Havana to a great new song by Moment (my brother wwww.ryanzak.com) the video seems to match the audio perfectly.
On New Years Rebecca and I were walking down old Havana. We passed their concrete copy of the white house and danced our way into this small house. Best new years with strangers ever. Roberto is an artist and forced us to take 2 pieces of art he made in 1984 when Cuba sent him to Russia to become an engineer. Life is a crazy game.
We are here on Earth to fart around. Don’t let anybody tell you any different … Kurt Vonnegut
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Dug this video up from the youtube vault. Boy, would I do 100 things differently. Live and learn. “N.I.F.T.Y – Heavy Laden”
“Heavy Laden is an experiment in urban design, combining a palette of inks, tea stains and sky with 3d, film and motion graphics. Scripture Union Canada, N.I.F.T.Y. and, Director Dave Zak have teamed up to bring a positive message to the urban youth by embracing urban culture.”
I had the exciting opportunity to work on videos featuring Olympians from the Canadian hockey teams for Nike Canada. It was a little goal of mine to work for Nike when I started working in advertising.
Short intro/outro animations in AfterEfects with edits in FCP for Jarome Iginla, Jennifer Boterill, Gillian Apps and Jayna Hefford. Nothing to technically difficult as far as work goes.. but still.. I got Nike!
Here is the Jarome Video:
Below are two projects I worked on simultaneously for two financial institutes, Bank of America, and Sprott Asset Management.
Both projects required greenscreen footage with final outputs for the web. Below are some screenshots from the projects!
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1) Sprott, created a series of information videos and a host site at MarketOutperformance.com. These video had simple motion graphics in the background and covered topics from ‘why you should buy gold’, to ‘how to make a bunch of money in the stock market now.’ Also creating three 30second spots for television. Some neat stuff. Posting soon!
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2) Bank of America ‘Facts about Fees’ – This project was very simlar. ‘Janet’ explains topics ranging from ‘how to budget as a student’ to ‘what your bank fees pay for’. There were about 40 new green screen video additions to this site. Here is the brilliant Flash coder who put it all together.
Worked on 5 recipies using Knorr products with good old VMG. Played with Final Cut Pro, Photoshop and After Effects. The Motion Tracking of ingredients turned out well. Adding a shadow really put the 3d elements in real space. Again, 2010 has been a wild year so far. Will be posting some Sprott/RBC clips via storysteam soon, urging you to BUY GOLD NOW! Here is one of the 5 Knorr and Walmart videos:
(See att 5 videos at www.knorratwalmart.ca)
On another note, I painted today! Here is the mockup. It is about 5′ high by 4′ wide. Used wall plaster, ink, oil sticks, epoxy resin and pigment. There is nothing like getting lost in painting to some good music.
I had the chance to work on a Jeep add with Organic. It was an intensive weekend-job in Photoshop and AfterEffects. Jeep purchased the chance to have a video play for 15 seconds when a user visited foxsports.com… Fun, fast job.
The Audio Documentary on Homelessness in Toronto (track 1 above) was created by Ryan Zak, Jessie Curell, and Brian Cauley. The musical soundtrack was also created by Ryan Zak.
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Select Tracks from “Music To Paint To” (2008) and “Shorts” (2007)
If you want some music for your video work, or just good music… My brother has some awesome stuff. He uses his Mac, life of musical training, and reason. We have been working on www.ryanzak.com - a big update coming soon. His music is in most of the videos I make and lots of other peoples work.
You should read his one short story called ‘the fall’ I will post it at the bottom of this post, after the obligatory screenshot!
There once was a town where in the autumn the leaves did not fall to the ground gradually, one by one, but where the leaves fell all at once, with a terrible, ground-shaking whoosh. Every year it happened on the same day at exactly the same time: October 17th at 5:53pm. Continue reading »
note: Thanks to friends and strangers who have emailed me pictures of McDonalds garbage please do more! contact@davezak.com
It has been about 2 years of collecting now.. McGarbage!
There are two rules: 1) you can only take 1 photo of each piece of garbage you find. 2) you MUST pick it up.
Picking up the garbage really made this project feel important. Important in a small ‘make art and make a point’ kind of way.
So far I have 190 pictures of mcdonalds garbage (Dec 2009). I started to make the first photomosaics (below). Still need lots more, especially Mcdonalds garbage on brown (beaches, earth, sands). If you see some Mcdonalds garbage, take a picture, pick up the garbage, and send me the photo please
We own www.mcgarbage.com to post results when the time is right.
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I finally got around to organizing and posting the 9 pieces created for the mcgarbage series. There are over 100 different photos of mcdonalds garbage in my database. When there is enough variation, I want to make some photomosaics.. Ronald, a map of the world, a big mac etc… and than sell posters on www.mcgarbage.com(please take a snap of some garbage next time you are out and send it my way!)
See the bottom of art.davezak.com to view bigger images of the 9 pieces. These were created on wood panels using collage, painting, resin and string gel. fun!
Two new fun jobs for Alberto EUROPEAN ‘Climate Control’ and The Dodge RAM 2500-3500 Pickup! Just what the world needs.
Worked with my two favorite Toronto Agencies: The wonderful people at ORGANIC and my buddies at VMG Cinematic (VIral Media Group). See links below. They are both well positioned in the growing markets of interactive media and online video production.
Alberto EUROPEAN ‘Climate Control’ – these ads will load on the weathernetwork, depending on the realtime weather of the day. If it is snowy, than you get the Snow ad, windy = windy ad etc.
Dodge RAM 2500-3500 – this ad was a great idea. The Dodge RAM leaves the ad unit and pulls down the thick ad itself. Clever.
This was a great project. I worked on it with the guys at VMGCinematic (VIRAL MEDIA GROUP) in Toronto. The phone was the BlackBerry Boll 9700 – high-end trackpad gizmo. They gave me brand guidelines, and let me play. Used lots of pink. Also had a wicked 3d modeler out of Arkansas named Zach Cheattam (Zak and Zack!). Good team, good times, good project. We have just started a second one too for an upcoming BlackBerry announcement in early 2010! can’t wait. Gonna use yellow Watch below:
Here is a new one for the WES developers conference: Love working with so much colour and to a good audio track.
Another crazy-fun year! Added BlackBerry, AT&T, Bank of America, Alberto and more. What a fun bunch of work. It is so exciting to look back and see all that has happened. Where will you be in a year from now? “If I told you.. you wouldn’t believe it!”
Anyways, Here is the reel on youtube! please comment and share your reels:
We have probably produced about 20 green themed videos over the past year and a half. our latest is a video for Steamwhistle Brewery, a beer company who takes being environmentally responsible very seriously. (tons more videos below)
Here’s another fun green video. (two big markets.. online video, and the green movement)
~ “As gogoeco.com looks deeper into GEOTHERMAL energy, we start to uncover some of the huge possibilities that can be applied to all areas of the world. Dave and Rebecca experience first hand just how the geothermal energy process is utilized in Iceland. It turns out that almost all of the energy of the whole island comes from geothermal plants. That is amazing, only if we can find other areas in the world to take advantage of this natural resource.” – cool.
I had a book launch at the Westin Place in Toronto! Included: piano player, small pieces of chicken on skewers, name tags, speeches, wine… I even signed a book! strange.
I had the honour of working with these great people: Making the Book
It took about a year and a half, but we finally compiled a bunch of stories about microfinance clients into an 80 page promotional book. I worked with Opportunity International, art directing, designing and organizing all the content. Some of the photos I took in Congo, Zambia and South Africa. It was very rewarding to be able to use creativity for something good.
I did not intend to comment on other videos on my portfolio site, BUT… This video on “Is Social Media a Fad?” is worth watching. We are on the right track! Who will be the leaders in this emerging medium?
Not hard to get good shots in Africa. Took this trip with Chris Wiersma to make some videos for Hands at Work and gather content for the facelessbook.com concept. There’s just no chance. You see, deep down, ifwe really accepted thatAfricanswere equal to us, we would all do more to put the fire out. ~Bono OUCH
with www.artresin.com, I have found that I get most of my traffic, and sales through YouTube videos. If you provide useful, free information, ending with a link to your sales page, you get happy customers who BUY.
Here are some of these videos I use to sell Epoxy Resin to artists around North America:
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ArtResin.com – Thick, Glossy, Clear Coat on your Paintings (Epoxy Resin)
LESSON: Finish the Edges of your Resin Paintings (clear coat)
This is the biggest painting I have ever resined. Looks beautiful (if I can say so about my own work). Epoxy resin is a pour-on, high gloss, hard finish that beautifies and protects your artwork. It is not that hard to do, increases the value of your art and looks great! – I sell the stuff at www.artresin.com Again, my epoxy resined art is at art.davezak.com – Send me a note!
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I put on a small show at York University. Rebecca (www.lifeinpaint.com) let me film her giving an insider tour of this epoxy-resin-only art show in Toronto. Epoxy Resin is a thick glossy clear coat you can pour over artwork. I am trying to create a product and sell Epoxy Resin at www.artresin.com – music by ‘Moment’: www.ryanzak.com. All of my work is covered in this stuff (and lots of my clothes, tables, carpets and cats…)
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About a year ago, my mom and me stole a tree stump from a pile in front of a church. It was my moms idea. This video is about covering the stolen goods in a thick clear coat of Epoxy Resin so that it can last forever! www.ArtResin.com Again, all of my art is covered in Epoxy Resin.
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For fun (and for marketing ArtResin) I colaged, painted and resined the Mona Lisa to its exact scale. It is posted at art.davezak.com or seen in this video on building wooden canvases:
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I have tons of people emailing and calling me with questions about resin. In this video, Rebecca finishes 4 pieces of art, each in a different media, with ArtResin: 1-Acrylics 2-Paper Collage 3-Oils 4-Plaster. (www.ArtResin.com) The next video we will resin a tree stump for outside by the hot-tub! Thanks to my little brother for always sending great music my way to use in videos. Check him out at www.ryanzak.com
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This summer I participated in a young entrepreneurs program. If you are under 29, and live in Ontario, you can get a $3000 grant from ‘Summer Company’, and a $15,000 loan from the CYBF (Canadian Young Business Foundation).
These programs helped me learn about private labeling, importing, selling online, book keeping, using google adwords and tons more invaluable information. While in this program I developed a brand of Epoxy Resin for Art application. You can see it being used at art.davezak.com and for sale at www.ArtResin.com! small steps!
Here is the resin video with the most hits on youtube so far:
Continuing our ‘art tips‘ marketing idea, Rebecca from www.lifeinpaint.com shares some practices she has picked up from her life as an artist. This video was shot at ‘Art in the Heart’ in Bracebridge ON. We made enough money to build a new railing on our deck success! (this video is about all the non-monetary benefits of doing shows)
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We’ve been trying to push www.lifeinpaint.com by making short how-to-be-an-artist-and-make-money videos. The most recent video is about doing custom murals. Lovely Rebecca shares some practices she has picked up from her life as an artist.
www.facelessbook.com
This domain has some power. The last Analytics report was 14 000 unique visitors from 85 countries! Now we are well over 90 countries… but waiting on our next smartest move because of trademark infringement scares.
MISSION – filmed with CSW of Westside Kings. Life changing trip. One of many.
I love the idea of non-rational strategies, I think this quote from someone my brother knows makes perfect sense for how we can approach facelessbook:
“I had a dream with you in it last night. it was really funny. i just got back from hamilton, i had a spiked coffee at tapestry instead of a beer so i’m alert and felt like relaying the dream to you.
so, we were part of this important meeting about refugees and immigration and everyone was proposing these really complicated ideas with power point slides, graphs and statistics that they are presenting to a panel. the room is very tense as everyone has put a lot of time and effort into their proposals and are trying to outshine their peers. we are last to go up and do our presentation. you’ve made a home video showing about 30 seconds of footage from a kindergarten classroom. then i go up to share my part of the project and all i present to the group is one men’s dress shoe covered in black gummies. i turn to you, mortified, and you say “we really misinterpreted the project”. we both turn and leave immediately, but make sure to take the gummy-covered shoe to snack on.
I can’t quite put my finger on it, but i’m sure there’s some kind of profound symbolism here.”
Also, browse some of the images below and see the rest of the videos. I would love to hear your thoughts for this powerful domain name.
Here are some of the videos I made after a trip to Congo, Zambi and SA:
this has all long changed, but here is some initial strategy:
Categories of Charity: Relief of Poverty
Advancement of education (not in an overt way) – public awareness
Purposes that benefit the community
Charitable Purpose (can elaborate if needed): To Engage people who are interested in the issues of the *faceless in an open community of conversation and creativity.
*faceless: those whose faces are often hidden due to their place and plight on this earth.
Charitable Activities: Facelessbook is the vehicle for global collaboration. We will achieve our charitable purpose by:
Sharing and experiencing stories of the faceless
Justify the power of creativity via published research
Exploring what collaborative creativity can do for the faceless by contributing and browsing through open source community projects.
How does Facelessbook benefit the public? - We ‘become each others missing piece’…
- We use creativity for a purpose…
- We are a connecting point, empowering collaboration…
- We help answer the question: “what can I do?”…
So, after watching the film ‘Heima’ by ‘Sigur Ros’, Bex and I decided to book flights to Iceland. You should go. We came back inspired and ready to work hard on all our creative projects.
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(click to enlarge)
Rebecca and I were both born with very bad eyes. Rebecca can only see out of one eye because of cataracts at birth and glaucoma. I have poor vision that is off the charts (-16). For some reason we both have careers totally dependent on our visual skills. This seems strange.
