Monday, January 30, 2017

Feels Good Man: Getting Ready for the Meme Wars

It looks like the last election was settled, in part, by people who learned to create memes, little cartoons and photos designed to make a telling, irreverent political point. I thought I'd give it a shot and see if I could create some GIFs and install them here. What do you think? I think they are catching but a too busy and distracting for my tastes.

As you may know, I'm an unabashed fan of Patrick McGoohan and of his iconic The Prisoner television series. I remember watching the first episode with my father and my brothers on our black and white television set when I was about 11 years old back on June 1, 1968.




As a baby boomer, I'm still fond of McGoohan's classic line: "I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered!" This GIF is made up of four separate photos which appear at the slowest pace I could establish.

Below, here is a quick clip from one of my Augustine 25 logo videos. I made this using the free tools at Animoto. This GIF is a simple film clip that is repeated endlessly.


Here's a completely a political series based on the still life painting I did over the course of 2016. As much as I was distracted by the presidential election, I'm glad I still set aside time to get better at painting vases. 



If you would like to make your own GIFs for free, please check out the website I used to create these examples at https://makeagif.com/

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

4 comments:

Dick '56 said...

John,

While you and I agree on very little, I do agree with you that you are really getting painting down! The latest vase series is excellent.

And I say that as a student of Faison/Stoddard/Pierson with whom you were probably not rubbing shoulders daily.

John C. Drew, Ph.D. said...

Thank you. I'm proud to be a Sunday painter. I looked up all three names. I only got good information on Stoddard. If I could paint like her I would be extremely happy. Have you read Hawthorne on Painting? I think that book impacted my life as much as Road to Serfdom.

Dick '56 said...

John ,

Faison/Stoddard/Pierson were the Art History department 50s/60s/70's. These three. dubbed 'The Trinity' inspired so many students to major in Art History, that the 'Williams Art Mafia' was the result!

John C. Drew, Ph.D. said...

That makes more sense. I read each other their biographies. What an impressive group of men: Navy veterans, scholars, mentors, outstanding teachers. It must have been a wonderful time to be a student at Williams College with these three leading the way.

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