Art News

2009 has been quite the intense year for me thus far. I moved, I am still in the middle of starting another business and I put Carmine Magazine on the backburner. I can’t promise you that I’ve reclaimed this magazine from the backburner, but I do want to still keep it as current as possible.

We’re going to be going through a number of big changes on the site here in the coming months. I have interviews that have been in the posting queue for months and I apologize for that. I haven’t forgotten about you! Life just got in the way for a while. We’ve kicked off these changes with a new layout (pictured above) which is more graphic intesive and fits the focus of Carmine much more than past layouts. I’ve rearranged the sidebar and changed the way we display our ads.

In the coming months look forward to the About and Advertise pages to be rewritten. The future will bring less artist interviews and more actual content. You can also look forward to a page with information on our writers, more artist promotions, more art news, more articles, a few more tutorials, a new semi-regular feature I’ve been dying to put together for months, and hopefully lots of material to keep your inspired and informed.

Interested in writing an article for us? Have a tutorial you’ve been dying to write or share with the world? Feel like pimping out your collection of artwork or webstore? Drop us a line: carminemag@gmail.com We will take a look at your ideas and give you a real chance to get your work out there to our readers.

Want to pimp your art website in the form of a small ad on Carmine Magazine? Check out our advertising page and drop us a line.

Feel like pimping out Carmine Magazine on your blog? We have a banner created by Red Nails; Wrong City:

Be sure to link it back to http://www.carminemag.com !

I look forward to spending more time with this site and with you, our readers.

Jami Lee Rosa

In December of 2008 I interviewed an artist named Melody Pilotte twice. The first time I interviewed her about her artwork a collection of watercolors and sketches that are joyful, a little mystical and awesome all around. The second time I interviewed her we talked about her work with the incredibly important charity organization RAINN the Rape Abuse Incest National Network here in the United States.

The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network is the nation’s largest anti-sexual assault organization. RAINN operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1.800.656.HOPE and the National Sexual Assault Online Hotline at rainn.org, and publicizes the hotline’s free, confidential services; educates the public about sexual assault; and leads national efforts to prevent sexual assault, improve services to victims and ensure that rapists are brought to justice.

This morning I received an email from Melody requesting donations to RAINN in Tori Amos’ name:

This month, we celebrate Tori’s 46th birthday and acknowledge all she has done to support RAINN over the past 16 years.
To honor Tori’s birthday, please consider making a $46 gift to RAINN in her name.

Your donation will enable 13 victims of sexual assault to receive the support that they need and deserve – in Tori’s honor.

Please grant Tori her birthday wish and help more victims to take their first step toward recovery today.

Donate today at donate.rainn.org

Please, if you have a chance this month, or at anytime, make a donation to this incredibly important charity organization. Even if you cannot spare the asked for $46 donation, please make as much of a donation as you can.

Some statistics from RAINN’s website:

1 in 5 women -and 1 in 33 men- will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime.

College age women are4 times more likely to be sexually assaulted.

In 2007, there were 248,300 victims of sexual assault.

Every 2 minutes someone in the U.S. is sexually assaulted.

60% of sexual assaultes are not reported to the police.

Reporting has increased by 1/3 since 1993.

Approximately 73% of rape victims know their assailants.

Only 6% of rapists will ever spend a day in jail.

With statistics like these you will know someone in your lifetime that has been or will be a victim of sexual assault. Oraganizations like RAINN are helping to decrease that likelyhood and they can use every bit of help that you can give.

For other ways to support RAINN please check out these links:
Donate
Volunteer
Get Information
Search for a Local Crisis Center
National Sexual Assault Online Hotline
Check out their Official Website
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Carmine Magazine: For readers that are unfamiliar with The Create a Comic Project, how would you describe it?
The Create a Comic Project: The Create a Comic Project is a youth program that combines art and creative writing to stimulate interest in self-expression among school children. As the name implies, I rely on sequential art – comics – as the primary medium. I’ve designed the project for kids aged 8-12, though I have worked with teens on occasion.

I walk students through the facets of comic creation – page layout, word bubbles, captions, etc. – and introduce basic storytelling techniques. Students create two kids of comics: filling in empty word bubbles on existing comics and original strips with blank panel layouts. The former serves as a guide to the latter; students see how various artists compose their work and gain exposure to the myriad of art styles. Over a hundred different artists have given me permission to use their work for the project, including David Willis (Shortpacked), Erin Ptah (And Shine Heaven Now), Faith Erin Hicks (Ice, Demonology 101), and Kazu Kibuishi (Copper).

Currently, I’m working with the Collegiate YMCA of Pittsburgh and their after-school program to deliver weekly sessions. I’ve held one-shot workshops at several locations, including the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, Braddock Carnegie Library, and Human Service Center.

CM: How did this project begin and why was it started?
TCaCP: The Create a Comic Project started out in an overseas classroom. In summer 2005, I was in Taiwan teaching English. The activities in the curriculum focused on spelling and grammar – there weren’t any that explored the creative side of the language. Inspiration came from two sources: the popularity of manga among my students and Yukihime’s Penny Arcade Remix (http://goviolet.com/?page_id=633), which steered me to the idea of using webcomics.

The first comic I used was Okashina Okashi (http://www.strangecandy.net), a pastiche of many of the manga elements my students were fond of. The results were fairly spectacular: my students loved to compete in teams to see who could create the funniest – and most grammatically correct – comics. The place where I worked ended up publishing the activity so other teachers across the island could use it in their own classes.

A few months later, I returned stateside for graduate school in New Haven, CT. The public library needed volunteers and I missed teaching, so I retooled the project into a standalone creative writing and art program. That’s how the project’s been used ever since.

(J. Baird with one of his students during one one of the New Haven Library sessions.)

The copyright laws in New Zealand are in danger of drastically changing to a “Guilt Upon Accusation” format. Which means:

Over the past fifteen years Copyright law has seen drastic changes in favour of Copyright holders and against artist reuse through Fair Dealing (known as Fair Use in the United States). In 1995 you could sample 5% of text for educational reasons but by 2000 this was reduced to 3% and now, online, this right can be removed entirely with DRM (Digital Restrictions/Rights Management). In New Zealand you are not allowed to sample for the purpose of parody or satire. If you buy a CD in New Zealand you are allowed to make one single copy to your mp3 player for free but if you buy a DVD you’re not allowed the same right. You are allowed to sample and reproduce portions of text but you’re not allowed to sample audio or video or images (unsurprisingly, this law was made before home computers were popular!).
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