The artist Ron Mueck creates photorealistic sculptures depicting scenes of everyday life. Not having scene this show, which is currently at the National Gallery of Scotland, it is hard to get a sense of of how they really come off but it is obvious that they are incredibly detailed and painstakingly created.

The most interesting element to me is the fact that they rarely seem to be done at actual size. Just as photorealistic paintings seem to lose their interest (for me) as soon as the "gimmick" wears off these wouldn't be as interesting if it weren't for their jarring size. Hopefully these make it to the Bay Area eventually.

I just started my new job this week so it has taken me a while to update the site. So far the switch to the new group (same company) has gone pretty smooth. I am optomistic.

Last weekend we went to Berkely's Greek Theatre and saw Ben Harper. I saw him years ago when he opened for Pearl Jam and was less known. He was impressive then but this show was amazing. Since he basically provided the theme music to our wedding it was really cool to see him live so soon after. Damian Marley opened so the reggae vibe was in full effect.

I found a video of Slayer performing one of their new songs on the Henry Rollins show. Also videos of Ben Harper and some other cool acts. I didnt even know Rollins had a show. Man, I wish I still got IFC. Click on the Video tab and browse to the Henry Rollins Show and then Musical Performances.

Lastly, I just ordered the new Shepard Fairey retrospective. I own a couple of his prints but this is the first book of his I have bought. This looks to be a pretty comprehensive collection of his work from the last 17 years so if you are gonna buy a book this is the one. I saw his show a couple of months ago at White Walls in SF. Very impressive. I wish I had enough dispossible income to by one of his original pieces. I guess I will just have to stick to the mass produced ones for now.

I came across the Visual Complexity site the other day while browsing del.icio.us. The site is basically a place to discuss and showcase the visualization of complex networks which I don't propose to know much about but think are really cool. I have been trying to develope some semi abstract art projects that incorporate type for myself lately and some of these come really close to what I have been striving to achieve. I am hoping to write some code in Flash that can generate some random vector artwork similar to what these visual networks portray as a starting point for my own art projects...that may be beyond me right now though.

Here ares some of my favorites visualizations from the site: Flight Density, RhNav, Typologies and Capacities, and Flickr tags although there are lots of other very cool ones.