Art Monday: White Trilobite

An older painting I had once intended to be an illustration for a book about a trilobite travelling to our time, and eventually to Mars. Also available as a print in my shop.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.

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Science-Artists Feed grows to 100

A few months ago, I started the Science-Artists Feed after a conversation with Bora Zivkovic.  It's also carried on scienceblogging.com. Visual art, illustration and imagery can have a profound impact on our understanding of science: both the scientific concepts themselves, and how scientific knowledge impacts our lives.

It's now swelled to 100 different artists' and site feeds!  Each week I'm summing up some links of things I found interesting in my Scumble series of posts. If anyone wondered whether or not this is an art movement unto itself -as I discussed with Mike Haubrich and sciartist Lynn Fellman in a recent podcast- the size and variety of this list should demonstrate it is.

Recently, I included a handful of the artists I love from deviantArt as well, including Nobu Tamura, Jacqueline Dillard, Jon Lomberg and the Bioscience group.

Here's the list in its entirety below the jump:

Trilobite Boy makes a Top Ten

Cool!

Trilobite Boy and Gargoyles made it into the Top 10 in a recent SF Group contest on RedBubble, where my art prints & calendar are made. I actually appear to have initially been part of a 3-way tie in the competition. 

©  Glendon Mellow 2010

The competition is still relatively new, from what I can see - there were very few votes for each piece.  I'll have to pay more attention to these in the future. Thanks to those RedBubblers who voted!

You can see a whole buncha "making of" posts about the image here.  It's also in my latest calendar on sale now.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
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How not to deal with uncited images.

So as I enter gracefully into blogging-middle-age (like a swan, I know) one of the pitfalls of discourse for me is how to address an uncited image on another science blog. 

I'm a bit passionate about the issue. (See here, here, here, here, and here.) Most science bloggers cite their sources and papers, yet many lift images wholly from Google without a thought.  

Last night, while looking at a relatively new blog, I saw some artwork I recognized as probably being by Nobu Tamura. It was. A quick Google search for the species, and on Wikipedia, the first link, revealed that Mr. Tamura has granted the image of Cynognathus open under Creative Commons, free to be used and posted -and even modified!- provided he is given credit.

Image © Nobu Tamura.  From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cynognathus_BW.jpg">Wikipedia. (See?  That was easy.)

I commented on the blog. I said something like, "The Cynognathus is by Nobu Tamura, and should be credited.  All the cool kids are citing images."  I can't tell you exactly what I said, because my comment has been removed.

The blog in question also has a bit of tweaking to do, apparently:  my comment appeared as black text on a black background, with only links to Tamura and one of my own posts about citing images appearing as orange hyperlinks. So I thought, hey, these guys are on Twitter: I'll say something there.

I said: "Hi, @bloginquestion . Could you plz cite images properly? & my comment appears as black text on black b/g." With a link to the post. 
Then it gets weird.  They sent me 3 direct messages saying it was inappropriate for me to comment on their blog if I had a problem, inappropriate to tweet about it (should have direct messaged) and that it IS cited on the post and they're sorry I didn't see it.

Only...it wasn't cited. The only citation was "Photos from google.ca images". Umm, yeah, that's not even close to credit where credit is due. I have the screen capture to prove it.

Nobu Tamura's artwork is cited now, but none of the maps are.

I couldn't direct message them via Twitter (they are not following me), so I sent a couple of more public messages. Then, I realized they've now blocked me on Twitter!

I sent an email to one of the blog hosts after looking it his address on their Facebook page. It's their prerogative to block me; perhaps I could have somehow handled this with more tact than a blog comment and public tweet.  There's been a bunch of words of support from many science bloggers on Twitter and Facebook about this to me, and thanks.

Being a science-blog killjoy or meter-maid is of little interest to me, roving around handing out tickets. "You parked that image here without a credit. You're fined a minor public shaming".  At the same time, when I see the art of someone I admire being used to enhance a post without a shred of proper credit, I feel I should say something.

Private emails do little to raise consciousness about the issue - the comment is not just there for the blogger and commenter, but for all the subsequent readers.

What should I have done differently?  How do I raise the issue without throwing science bloggers under a bus? Do I remove them from my personal Facebook friends?  It feels weird that they're blocking me on one media (Twitter) yet they can see all my stuff.

Oh, and do make sure you go through Nobu Tamura's deviantArt gallery.  This man is a paleo-illustrating machine. 

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.  Except that one up there of the cynognathus.
That's © by Nobu Tamura.  See?  Again. Easy.

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Science-Art Scumble #5

Scumble:

"A painting technique in which semi-opaque or thin opaque colors are loosely brushed over an underpainted area so that patches of the color beneath show through." 

From The Artist's Handbook, by Ray Smith.  

A weekly digest to highlight some of the posts I found most interesting, most provocative, or otherwise caught my eye from the Science Artists Feed. Sit back, have a coffee and enjoy.


Click here for earlier scumbles.  Lots of fish & ocean life this week.
And let me know if you enjoy the Scumbles in the comments below! - - - -

Fun fish in Black and White, Changewind's Ink.

Mineo's Ray, Ichthyography.

Fleam Find, Curious Art Lab.

On Atheists Talk radio with Lynn Fellman, The Flying Trilobite.  Me, talking about science art on the radio with Lynn Fellman and Mike Haubrich.

Sandra Yagi, Street Anatomy.

Sciart quote of the day, Bioephemera.

Red-Green Color Blindness Test Lines, An Eye for Science.

ABC, Street Anatomy.

Ocean Invasion #9: Lionfish 1, Springbok 0, Laughing Mantis Studios.

Picturing Sounds: How to paint a Led Zeppelin song, CultureLab.

Walcott's Quarry #124: Post-Apocalyptic, eTrilobite.

Derek Nobbs Is My New Favourite Artist, Deep Sea News.

Aeroplasmic Curds, A Distant Ugly Mountain.

Paleoart Competition, Art Evolved.

Biocurious? Interview with Joseph Jackson about DIY Biotech, Ars Biologica.

Elasmosaur Watercolor, Coherent Lighthouse.

Alexis Rockman, lines and colors.  Unreal landscapes filled with prehistoric creatures.

Sea Dragon Shirts! , A Curious Bestiary.  This is by one of my very favourite artists who I wish I could buy a coffee and hang out and sketch with.

Deeper into Dinosaurgami, Love in the Time of the Chasmosaurs.

Piracy in the age of DIYbio, DIYBio.


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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.

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Baby update

Time for a baby update.

I announced a few months ago that my wife and I are expecting a baby, our first.  Everything is healthy and fine.  The official due date is December 21st, but we're wondering if it may be earlier: our spectacular obstetrician thinks it's likely. The again, 1st babies are often late they say, so who knows.

I haven't blogged or produced much art last week while I did some temporary part-time work, and made sure things are ready for the baby.  I'm ridiculously excited to meet the little guy. 

Family and friend support has been wonderful and fun - we can clothe him until he's 18 if he likes onesies.  Our Nephew (age 9), is excited, and recently hunted for coupons for baby items in a flyer, of his own volition. We even received a gift from a blogger, the inimitable Scicurious!  Thanks for the keen hand-made blanket, Sci! 

Applying a cherry blossom wall sticker. Michelle told me we were expecting high Park, when the blossoms were in bloom and redwing blackbirds and butterflies were all around. Yeah: she's awesome. 

Southern Ontario Butterfly mobile. 

Mirrored swallows on the wall.
The blanket from Sci is on the crib, and the Jack Skellington was a gift from friend and blogger Chris Zenga. 

So, in addition to attempting to make an illustration career for myself, I'll be finding a new work/life balance.  Up until October, I was working the full-time management job, and making art and blogging in the wee hours of the mornings and evenings, and it drove my wife nuts;I was incapable of relaxing. We discussed this move to full-time freelancing, knowing we're expecting the little guy; it's been educational in figuring out what I want to do next, and a number of tentative offers have come in.  Next, I'll likely return to some full- or part-time work while balancing family, illustration and blogging and work.

Sleep is for the weak.


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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.

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