A Modern Totem

A Modern Totem

I saw this striking image from boing boing of what I consider a modern totem or tiki statue. A group of Dutch artists carved a tree trunk into the shape of a full-sized stand-up arcade video game.

It’s an interesting work on a number of levels, but this medium and style of video game is slowly going away. The iconic image of this style of arcade game seems dated in the world of personal video game systems, hand held gaming and the internet. I suppose there are still arcades, but this style of game system belongs, like the Jedi Knights, to an older more civilized time. Like the 80′s.

Perhaps someday people will puzzle on the meaning of this totem and it will be as unrecognizable as the fallen Moai of Rapa Nui or Easter Island. If video killed the radio star, who killed the arcade game?

Daily Doodle for Sunday, January 25, 2009

A doodle of a sad tiki lost in the woods.

Click for a larger image.

Edited for date correction.

Doodle of the Day for January 20, 2009

My doodle of the day is back on track. This one is the first in a series of Star Wars themed doodles. I call these doodles “Star Wars Kids.” Click for a larger image.

Doodle of the Day for November 24, 2008

I try to draw everyday. Mostly I only have time for doodles and such like, but you might find them kind of fun, so here is my first doodle of the day!

Doodle of the Day for November 24, 2008.

O Devine Poesy…

Mosaic of the Muses, Roman Museum of Sabratha, Libya. by Sebastià Giralt

Make this site live for us in its many bearings, O Muse…

In the great book “The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield he details how he begins any creative venture by calling on the muses for success. He does this by reciting the opening lines from the T.E. Lawrence translation of The Odyssey; when Homer calls on the muses to speak through him and aid him in reciting the tale of the return of clever Odysseus to Ithaca. This seems like a good idea to me, especially for my first post. So here is my call on the nine muses for aid and inspiration for this blog, portfolio and podcast.

“O Divine Poesy, goddess, daughter of Zeus, sustain for me this song of the various-minded man, who, after he had plundered the innermost citadel of hallowed Troy, was made to stray grievously about the coasts of men, the sport of their customs, good and bad, while his heart, through all the seafaring, ached with an agony to redeem himself and bring his company safe home. Vain hope-for them. The fools! Their own witlessness cast them aside. To destroy for meat the oxen of the most exalted Sun, wherefore the Sun-god blotted out the day of their return. Make this tale live for us in all its many bearings, O Muse…”

- from the Odyssey, by Homer; Translated by T.E. Lawrence