I know this isn’t really art news, but I wanted to make sure this was prominent enough to get noticed. And I’m tired of seeing the same post on the main page all the time.

In case you didn’t know, I have a number of sites and blogs I maintain, each with different purposes. Lately I’ve been so busy building the business that I haven’t had time to update this site much, but I have been posting other items all over the place. Here’s a list of where to find me:

iMakeArt – A more general purpose site about me and my conceptual art

A7is – My portfolio site for more commercial works

Ottawa Video Production (and more) Blog – The official Hotcakes blog where I talk about business related announcements and articles

In addition to those sites, there’s also the Hotcakes twitter account @HotcakesOttawa that gets updated several times a day and the Hotcakes Facebook Fan page for major announcements.

So there you have it. Now you can follow me everywhere I digitally go.

A7

I have finally gotten around to importing the footage of the crime scene shoot (formerly known as the accident scene). I am completely blown away by the beautiful lighting, and the superb acting by everyone involved. Shannon and Alfredo’s scene is especially convincing, and both performed with conviction.
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The second shooting weekend for To The Rescue’s new music video being produced by Hotcakes New Media can now officially be considered a successful shoot. It was, however, a rocky shoot. Want to know why? Keep reading.
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If you are a fan of rock/alt music, this is going to be one hell of a great summer for music. With major album releases by a number of amazing bands, including Billy Talent, Paramore, My Chemical Romance, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Dave Mathiews Band, Against Me!, Alexisonfire, Green Day, and my personal fave, Moneen, you can be guaranteed to have the next few months filled with fantastic new songs.

My annual “year in review” music post in January 2010 will be filled with fantastic music (and will actually be written properly this year). But before that happens, you should have time to enjoy the music now! So here’s a little breakdown on some stuff you should be listening to.
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After a long wait, and large amount of planning, Hotcakes New Media’s first weekend of shooting was finally started this past weekend. Dave and I just wrapped the “bar scene” and all the live band footage. Keep reading to see more pictures and find out how it went.
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http://www.A7is.com

I’ve set up a new domain and website for posting all my artwork. I needed a centralized place that had a visual impact and an image based navigation system, yet also allowed me to post the artwork’s concept and details. And most importantly, I wanted all that to be RSS trackable, and have comments to boot. The new site is up and running, and I encourage you to view my portfolio at the link above.

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I’ve created a new category on the site in order to post about Interaction Design (IxD) and other general design (DES) topics. Posts in this section will cover my personal ideas around creative thinking, user experience, accessibility, brainstorming/bodystorming, prototyping, and all other elements of design.
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One of the things I’ve always struggled with in my mind is the bridge between the commercial viability of art and staying true to a work’s core ideas. Often, a work needs to be watered down or simplified for the sake of appealing to the masses. If an artist stays true to his or her vision of a work, it’s usually at the cost of commercial success. But what happens if an idea is easily adaptable to be used in a commercial way? Should the artist forego the commercial idea in order to preserve integrity, or should the artist pursue it at the risk of diluting the original artwork upon which it was built?
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In case you are one of the unlucky few who didn’t get to see me in Ottawa, or you are one of my far-away-friends, I thought I’d share a bit of news on my contract with Artez and how that’s going.

I’m not sure if I mentioned this before, but my 1 month contract was yet again extended for another 3 months, until the end of April. Originally, I was asked to continue working a dual-role as IT admin (to help with generic IT requests like installing software and setting up servers) and E2 Support (supporting Artez’s main application called E2RM). Although I made it clear on a number of occasions that I did not want to continue doing IT and Support, I decided to continue the 3 month extension to help chip away at more debt, in the hopes that they would transition me into another role. Well, they unofficially transitioned me into another role.

I recently attended some quick training sessions on customizing the E2RM application with custom designs and templates for some of Artez’s bigger clients. As it turns out, a couple of days later both of their current designers decided to go on vacation for several weeks at the same time, leaving people scrambling to get some design work done in a hurry. That’s where I came in to save the day.

For the past week I’ve been working with an Australian charity to design a fancy template, graphics, and plug-ins for their custom designed site. The bad news is they had insanely tight deadlines, and working with Australia means I’m always one day late (they are a day ahead of us!). Due to the time difference, I’ve been working really weird hours. I even pulled a 16 hour day this week. Yikes! That would explain why I’m a little brain-dead this week. The good news is I haven’t felt this comfortable in a job in… well… ever. I really enjoy what I am doing, and I am having a blast creating great looking designs and tools for major sites. It’s very rewarding and everyone seems to love my work (despite it being only a fraction of what I can do… just wait until they give me more to work with…).

I wrapped up the main site design today, and just found out that they are so pleased that they’ve asked me to work on their main portal landing page as well, which will include a clickable map of Australia to select the charity events across the country. I’m booked until the end of next week with more design work, and I’m hoping it continues indefinitely!

So… while it may not be officially official yet, it looks like I’ll be doing web design and coding from now on. If I continue to impress them with my design, I’m sure I’ll have another contract extension, or better yet a permanent position, at the end of April. Wish me luck!

P.S. In case you didn’t read between the lines, doing design work affords me the option to work from home, which means I can work from Ottawa. And yes, we have contacted people about homes and mortgages already. More on that as we get further info in a few days.

A7