The Internet is for ██████████

Hi, loyal readers. I have to tell you something -- I'm a little worried.

I'm worried about the Internet.

Yes, I'm worried about this marvelous kingdom, this world where lolcats and keyboard cats and nyan cats reign supreme. You see, there's this bill called SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act. It gives an enormous amount of control to major content providers, who would be able to have sites shut down without due process to determine if the Fair Use Act applies. It could institutionalize censorship and introduce security flaws to the World Wide Web. The original bill even mucks about in the DNS, requiring ISPs to redirect traffic from sites that are deemed piracy havens. It's been watered down a bit since then, but that's cold comfort. What's worse, really, is the example we'd be setting to the rest of the world -- that it's okay to censor the Internet based on business interests or political interests. China anyone? Iran? That's what we'd be reinforcing with this bill. We need a free Web.

SOPA must die so the Internet can live.

█████ ████ ████ for the ██████████,
and I ████'t █████ out ███████ I ████'t a █████████.

████ ████ ████ for the █████ █████████,
and I ████'t █████ out ███████ I ████'t a █████ ████████.

████ ████ ████ for the ████,
and I ████'t █████ out ███████ I ████'t a Jew.

████ ████ ████ for me
and █████ was no one ████ to █████ out for me.

Jacqueline Hurlbert and Erin Ruiz at the Basement

This statue, "Lighthearted" by Jacqueline Hurlbert, was a lot of fun to sketch, its limbs splayed out every which way and the great expression on its snout as it stares at its winged heart.


I'm sure I've said many times on this blog how much I love Erin Ruiz's work. In this sketch of her picture "Wolves in the Bed," I tried to capture the way she used red for outlines and highlights (and for the eyes of the wolves) to lend a sense of danger to the picture. I ran out of room before I could sketch the fourth wolf, which is tearing into a pillow.

Rick Walter at Visual Arts Collective

Last weekend I went to see Red Light Variety Show at Visual Arts Collective. It was pretty cool -- think Cirque du Soleil with pasties. While I was there, I sketched this piece by Rick Walter. Didn't see a title for the piece, but I thought it was interesting. Aw, it looks so forlorn for a horrifying bat-winged disembodied head thing.

Melissa Graves and Jerri Lisk

Apparently, I was into aspens last First Thursday. This is Elk Meadow by Melissa Graves at the Basement Gallery. These trees were actually very yellow, but you know, blue background ... pastels ... yellow and blue make green ... and I have limited patience with trying to fix these sketches sometimes.


This is Growth Chart by Jerri Lisk. I probably ought to have drawn one of hers for this blog before now, since they are quite nice, but I tend not to go to the Lisk Gallery very often because it's always the same stuff.

Joseph Cowman at the Basement Gallery

My apologies that this didn't reproduce very well on the scanner. I was really impressed by this untitled piece by Joseph Cowman I saw at the Basement Gallery on First Thursday, though. I really liked all the tension from all the wires and hooks pulling the figure every which way.

Isaac Grambo at Visual Arts Collective

This was one of a couple of silhouette-style pieces Isaac Grambo had at the Visual Arts Collective when I went there a week ago. Love the red tie.

New kids on the block: Black Linen and Green Chutes

A couple new arts organizations have recently started up in Boise. One is Black Linen Productions, a theater company making its debut production, Closer (a Patrick Marburg black comedy about sexual politics and partner-swapping) in the Linen Building at 1402 Grove St. They're only staging it for three nights, and the last night is tomorrow at 7, so if you want to check it out, that's your last chance.

The second is Green Chutes artist co-op and gallery in the Collister Shopping Center at State Street and Collister. I went to the grand opening last Friday and did a couple sketches:



Green Couple, by Sheila K. Carney.


Dancer in Red, by L. Collins.

Green Chutes is a fantastic space. There are several corrugated shipping containers throughout the building with pictures hung inside. The art there is very eclectic. I was impressed by Carney's use of bold shape and color, and the dramatic pose and silhouette work in Collins' piece, along with some of the photography by Jim Boudan (? I can't quite make out the spelling) and Matthieu Duquette.