A New Way of Seeing
June 2nd, 2009 by Julia Taylor
Like most human beings I tend to measure ideas out against my personal experience and some universal perspectives–generally gathered in my post college years. This pic goes right back to a childhood of cows, farm equipment and that rural mess of equipment (the junk heap lot). This is where my life view began.
When I was a wee one, my most poignant memories are of art classes–in the lines, out of the lines, construction paper and awkward scissors, oil paint., clay, and color circles. Then I got a camera early on and all was lost. I LOVED sketching and photography. Two years into a college Arts Major degree, life intervened and I decided during one of those infamous down economic cycles to go to a more marketable major. There was this implicit promise that one could provide for our family needs through commercial means and support our artistic desires on the sides. I did buy in and I still do. I love photography, fine arts and performing arts. I understand the talent, the discipline and the sacrifice that artists need and make to survive on the side today. I also understand the mix it takes in a community to create the economic engine that drives all the cultural economies. It it is a two way innovation economy. Fortunately, I enjoy all the dimensions of regional economy . You need a very robust metro area to sustain artists economically on the strength of their art and there are probably three market areas in this country that can provide that type of catch-net. Given our strength as a second tier market, we have remarkable resiliency including the largest and oldest performing art fund in the country. It’s quite remarkable and we can say it because we have so many regional and global companies who passed 50, 75, 100 and even 150 years of accomplishments and have always supported the arts.
Its been a great business plan but now we need to fast forward to how we grow our market for innovation and creativity. We know that exposure to creativity can throw the switch for a innovative talent to grow. How do we keep our big tent of the arts open to all those children and young people to learn a new way of seeing, how to create and bring this talent to our everyday world of work and play.
Somebody else paid the entry ticket for us. They didn’t know us. They just paid forward.
It’s time for us to pay forward for each of those 400,00 children in our region that don’t even have the experience of of creativity outside of a TV set yet. They need the chance to learn a new way of seeing.
Keep the arts giving forward and thank someone who believed in each one of us without ever meeting any one of us. Invest in your future and region’s well-being.
Pay it forward.
http://cli.gs/UPAF
Why the Lakefront for the School of Freshwater Sciences?
May 23rd, 2009 by Julia TaylorUPDATE: 5/26/09
Please email the Harbor Commissioners before Thursday evening
Tim.Hoelter@Harley-Davidson.com
and please attend the Public Hearing on May 28th at 6 PM at City Hall in Room 301-B and share your opinion.
- The Joint Finance Committee just approved the creation of the UWM School of Freshwater Sciences yesterday. Several months ago the Governor provided $240 million in capital for the new school and two other UWM projects.
- Marquette Law School announced the creation of a Water Law Curriculum this week.
- Last month Milwaukee earned the designation of a UN Global Compact City . We are one of 14 cities in the world and two in the US. We are the only one which focuses on freshwater. This means global attention, more global visitors, and as a local UN secretariat we are an UN ambassador for freshwater to the world. Everyday we now have visits from Israeli, Canadian, and Chinese consulates, researchers and business entities.
- The WIRED grant from DOL provided an investment of $500,000 for educational and curriculum resources around water for K-12 students so every child grows up with the background that can offer career choices in the world of water.
- An ambitious internship programing linking colleges and universities throughout the region with the 120 water companies was launched this spring developed and implemented by Spreenkler and funded by the companies.
These plans were all laid less than a year ago and accomplished by a volunteer group of business leaders, researchers, academics, environmentalists with a 20 hour a week staff person (who works 60 hours though-a shout out to Claus Dunkleberg) and supported by the GMC staff and members and M7.
We have a clear vision, energy and a huge opportunity if we continue on our plan. For detail, visit http://cli.gs/watercouncil
There’s a lot of buzz and a public hearing on the proposed location of the School of Freshwater Sciences at the old Pieces of Eight site. So why there? Here’s 3 simple reasons:
- This will be a Urban School that will attract top faculty and graduate students and will require urban amenities like mass transit, restaurants and all the same reasons we like the downtown.
- This is our front door to the world with the UN Designation. We need to have curb appeal to compete with Singapore, Stockholm and other global players. We have the stuff so we need to strut it!
- The new Reserach Vessel needs a place to dock and be accessible to the students. This will not be a permanent docking for it but accessibility is important and the connection to Discovery World is a key link and leverage for the community, students and the global visitors.
Parameters of the design
- Providing public access to the waterfront (similar to the lake walk along Discovery World’s southern facade).
- Providing public plazas and/or green space around the new building.
- Providing public access to the waterfront (similar to the lake walk along Discovery World’s southern facade).
- Providing public plazas and/or green space around the new building.
- Placing the parking underground.
- Providing for a publicly accessible rooftop.
- Avoiding interference with the Art Museum’s Kiley Garden.
- Utilizing “green” building materials and efficient building systems.
- Installing public amenities along the walkways and plaza(s) (benches, lighting).
The maximum height of the facility would be two stories, with a maximum footprint of approximately 25,000 square feet. Amenities within the building would include publicly accessible restrooms and exhibition space. The goal is to design an attractive facility that will animate this area, encourage pedestrian activity and provide recreational linkage between Discovery World and the Art Museum.
The Business Journal just published its weekly survey on whether the School of Freshwater Sciences should be at the Pieces of Eight site. 61% said yes. 36% said no and the rest were undecided.
If you would like support this location, this is a good time to let the Harbor Commissioners know before the public hearing on May 28th.
Email the Harbor Commissioners: Harbor Commissioners
| ALD. BAUMAN | ||||||
| Tina Chang | ||||||
| Timothy Hoelter | ||||||
| Claude Krawczyk | ||||||
| Kristine F. Martinsek | ||||||
| Craig Mastantuono | ||||||
| Ron San Felippo |
Attend the Public Hearing on May 28th at 6 PM at City Hall in Room 301-B and share your opinion.
I always say that the love of public debate is a professional sport in MKE town. It’s a part of our genome and quite frankly, I cherish the level of engagement and passion that goes into these debates. I also think there are a lot of voices in the debate that never make the team because people don’t know the key times to show up and lend your voice to the debate. Well this is one of those key games of the season. The playoffs will come over the next two months.
Social Media 1.01 according to JHTaylor
May 10th, 2009 by Julia TaylorA very quick discovery walk through of social media for everyone who looks at this phenomenon with amazement and blurry vision!
MySpace.com This is the space of teens, music and hormones. There are great sites with garage band music and playlists, photography and lots of little hourly and minutely connections. Sometime in the future, someone will figure out how to nuke myspace accounts upon request similar to yet to be developed less painful approaches to tattoo removal. It’s worthwhile joining just to know what your kids are up to.
Facebook.com The original college student only site is now owned by the Boomers. The largest group of new facebookers are 45 and over. Facebook created the verb of friending. Think about going to your local Cheers bar or coffee shop. You see people you know and catch up and they introduce you to their friends. You find people you knew in high school. Its is a virtual alumni party and calendar for birthdays, events and causes. It is a contained universe in some ways since you must agree to who is your friend. More arts groups, causes, non-profits, bars and other commercial sites are showing up and the lists of friends can be of great value in forwarding information and asking for support for events and efforts.
Twitter.com Tweeting is actually micro-blogging in 140 characters or less. It is the haiku of blogs. Twitter is going into a bar or coffee shop out of town full of friendly strangers. You find people you know, people you would like to know and others that pass by in a river of tweets. Twitter’s real power is the ability to connect people on issues, ideas and causes real-time. People use hashmarks to denote a trend, issue or idea like #GMCMKE or #Brewers and using a search function you can quickly find those who are also interested. Direct Messages or DMs keep messages private. Locally, twitter delivered people, calls and information on key issues like transit, water and public art. Authenticity counts so there needs to be personality behind the tweeter. Blasting out urls or headlines doesn’t work well. Anyone can follow you and so everything you tweet out there is visible to friend and foe.
Twitter is truly a river of conversation and I like to narrow the channel using apps like Tweetdeck where I can use columns to follow groups of key people, issues and topics. It sorts it all out. You can use apps that can connect all your sites–so one message on Facebook or twitter shows up on the other and tracks messages from both.
You can also stay up through phone apps. The iPhone particularly makes it easy to track all of the social media venues.
Friends ask me why people would be interested in daily events in someone’s life on twitter and I think it helps to open the door on who we are and our personality. People also want to know what is going on and what we think about issues and ideas so I think tweeting can say more about who we are and why we think and do what we do.
I may be tweeting about an issue like transit or water or the UN Global Cities Compact and the next tweet will be my daily grumble about getting on the treadmill. People tweet back and Retweet –the ultimate help and compliment. This sends my message onto their followers. The multiplier effect of RT (retweeting) is the power and strength of Twitter–it is how the word is spread.
I’ve met an amazing group of people on twitter. Getting together is called a “tweet-up” and I’ve had a chance to tweetup over coffee with folks I’ve met on twitter. New friends and new energy for a better Milwaukee–what could be better.
Why We Want to Learn about Water on the Water
May 8th, 2009 by Julia Taylor
Lake Michigan in April
April 8th, 2009 by Julia TaylorToday it felt like spring. It was marvelous to drive down the lakefront and see the clouds skidding over the water sparkling under this spring sun. So I had to pull over by the yacht club and take this picture. The fishing boats were being winched into into the water and men in utility vans were watching the water with coffee cups on the dashboard.
Ghost Ranch HDR Photos from Santa Fe
April 7th, 2009 by Julia TaylorLast October a group of friends visited Georgia O’Keefe’s inspiration ground at Ghost Ranch several miles from her home. The beauty of the cliffs and the sky were amazing. I finally got around to working with the images and I love the landscape all over again.
#HDR Lake Michigan Below Zero
April 7th, 2009 by Julia Taylor
Shot by the Pier at the Yacht Club in January 2009 with an iPhone and created an HDR shot with Photoshop and Photomatix
HDR Photos
April 3rd, 2009 by Julia TaylorThis is a bit different than the public art debate with the Common Council and Janet Zwieg’s commision–but then again art is an individual matter sometimes.
Photography is my current passion artistically. I grew up drawing portraits at county fairs for $25 a portrait and sketches for display advertising for the daily and weekly papers. Two years of art classes at Ball State University was wonderful but I was lousy at design so decided to protect my GPA and scholarship and went for an English/Philosophy degree with an Art minor. Nevertheless, I paid my rent often with stained glass commissions from my own little second bedroom studio called “The Vitreous Works.”
Creativity is what provides the perspective in difficult issues–otherwise life is black and white and confined to boxes that we can’t get out of easily. Enough philosophy–I’ve had a lot of fun recently with both iPhone photo apps and HDR (high dynamic range) photography with a Canon Rebel XTi digital camera. So here are a few shots and a little creative breather in the life of art and social controversy!
My backyard
My Front Porch
Side View
Sunday Fireplace
Fifty cents for the Mona Lisa
April 3rd, 2009 by Julia TaylorEarly this week, Jonathon Winkle, an artist and President of the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center, asked me a very thoughtful question. He noted that we talk a great deal about the importance of our cultural assets in corporate talent attraction but we never ask if we have created both the opportunities and public attitude to attract and retain artists. As a performing artist, he noted the reduction in concerts and other events which allow artists to support themselves financially. But what concerned Jonathon more was a general public attitude that we don’t even think about or actively discuss the environment here for artists.
His point was brought home again with the brewing flap over Janet Zweig’s proposed public art installation on Wisconsin Ave. I think public weigh in is important on public art but comments like “I wouldn’t give 50 cents for the Mona Lisa” by our elected leadership just creates the image again of an unsophisticated city that does not value art or artists. I don’t think represents Milwaukee or its art community fairly at all.
I’m a great optimist in the community’s ability to correct its course quickly when needed. It is time for some public input on both the decision to delay payment of the commission and effectively kill the project and send the funding to another community (sound familiar) and how to create more awareness and better process for public input. Let’s not send out the message that Milwaukee is down on art and artists.
You can help change the course of this debate by calling your alderperson–
Thanks to Dave Reid for the information.
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/twoaday
Urban Milwaukee http://urbanmilwaukee.com
UWM Downtown! http://www.uwmdowntown.org
The Public Works Committee would put a stop to an effort to improve Milwaukee’s pedestrian environment. If you believe we should support public art in Milwaukee please contact our elected officials today.
C. C. President Willie L. Hines, Jr. - 15th District Alderman - whines@milwaukee.gov
Alderman Ashanti Hamilton - 1st District Alderman - ahamil@milwaukee.gov
Alderman Joe Davis - 2nd District Alderman - jldavis@milwaukee.gov
Alderman Nik Kovac - 3rd District Alderman - nkovac@milwaukee.gov
Alderman Robert J. Bauman - 4th District Alderman - rjbauma@milwaukee.gov
Alderman James A. Bohl, Jr. - 5th District Alderman - jbohl@milwaukee.gov
Alderwoman Milele A. Coggs - 6th District Alderman - mcoggs@milwaukee.gov
Alderman Willie C. Wade - 7th District Alderman - wwade@milwaukee.gov
Alderman Robert G. Donovan - 8th District Alderman - rdonov@milwaukee.gov
Alderman Robert W. Puente - 9th District Alderman - rpuent@milwaukee.gov
Alderman Michael J. Murphy - 10th District Alderman - mmurph@milwaukee.gov
Alderman Joe Dudzik -11th District Alderman - jdudzi@milwaukee.gov
Alderman James N. Witkowiak - 12th District Alderman - jwitko@milwaukee.gov
Alderman Terry L. Witkowski - 13th District Alderman - twitko@milwaukee.gov
Alderman Tony Zielinski -14th District Alderman - tzieli@milwaukee.gov
Leprechauns and Lizards in Palm Springs
March 19th, 2009 by Julia TaylorSt. Paddy’s Day in Palm Springs seems to mainly occur in Mexican restaurants. Somehow it fits the culture here.
Irish Eyes and Chips and Salsa
I talked a good friend of ours, Susan Freid, into the investment of an iTouch and spent some time loading up apps–lots of fun. She is looking for a good name for her iTouch so if you have any ideas–pass them on. Something interesting like Xavier.
Susan after buying the iTouch!
We visited twice with Jude and Nora Werra and Chris and Storm Eiser. Nice to catch up and enjoy the sun. Lunch was at Cheeky’s again. Tara should provide a Milwaukee discount!
A few Cheeky people!
Christine Rodriguez and her friend Jose Grijalva came to visit yesterday. We drove around old Palm Springs and found Elvis’s Honeymoon house and several Richard Neutra homes. What I didn’t know I could make up and probably be as correct as the tour buses that run down the street all the time. Then we went to the Aqua Caliente Reservation and hiked a bit through the Palm Canyons with a stream running through desert. We listened to Jose’s CDs of poetry and music and it was an idyllic day. When I get home I’ll do a blip of Jose’s song about Milwaukee–the water, the Calatrava and the people. “Lago, Dama, Gaviota y Fiesta”.
Christine and Jose
This morning, there was a lizard under the frig–probably the equivalent of a mouse in the kitchen in Milwaukee. He is now resting a bit confused on the patio outside. He was a bit of a nipper too!
Something is blooming and the air is really fragrant. We have a little cloud cover so it is great to write by the pool though it is getting quite warm already.
I’ve been playing with more iPhone Photo apps and while camerabag is still my favorite for effects–love that Lolo lens–try out Molopix and Redden. Molo does a tiling effect of camera shots and you can shoot rapid fire or slow.
Here’s Mr. Lizard from a few angles. Also Reddin takes makes everything except the color red monochromatic in an iPhone pic for a very fun effect.
4 shots of our kitchen lizard
I’ve been following the Bucks here through Twitter and @Bucksdotcom http://cli.gs/UPjDGY . I saw Charlie V get 4000 followers in a day following his little mid-game tweet but then his coach was ticked off at him. I thought it was a great fan connector myself. But Scott Skiles knows what he is doing and if Twittering during a game is distracting, then we will wait for post game tweets.
Tomorrow we pack up and head to LA for dinner with friends and family. We’ll stop by Christine’s place on the way and then fly out Saturday midday. It’s been a great, great easy going vacation.
See you back in MKE soon–hopefully, with spring in the air.