The Hand-Made Internet

I'm tired of my work making money for the big tech companies.

I remember back in the 1990s the promise of the "internet age" and how it was going to open the entire world to all of us. A new golden age that would benefit writers and artist and filmmakers by ending  gatekeepers and democratizing distribution. Fast forward to the present and all that is mostly over. If you want your "content" to have a shot at being seen, then you must engage with Meta or Google or Spotify or whatever other massive tech company. The price you pay for using their portals is you have to play by their rules, so if the deal starts out well and fair for the platform and the creator, as it did with YouTube and many others, you can bet that fairly soon those rules will change and you will get a smaller and smaller piece of that pie until they figure out they don't need you at all because soon they'll just use A.I. to generate endless crap for people to be half distracted by. Or, they get you hooked using their "free" tools, but after a time, if you want to still use them you;ll have to subscribe (oh how I hate that business plan). And then there's always companies politics going in a direction you don't want to associate with. 

So, I've decided to focus more on a "hand-made internet" and just post my blog writings on my website Weaverwerx.com going forward. I know that I'll be removing myself from a larger eco-system and will not get as many eyeballs on my work, but I'll take quality or quantity.

I'll leave this blog active to serve as an archive, but all future postings will only be at Weaverwerx.com.

See you there!

OK HW

Why Can’t You Draw Something Beautiful?

 Someone asked me that not long ago. We were connecting through Instagram and they were looking back through my feed looking at the drawings and art I have posted and asked that question. It took me aback for a moment as I have never thought of the art that I make and share as not being beautiful. It is beautiful to me; eye of the beholder and all of that. I get what she was asking as there are certainly topics and styles of art that are universally accepted as being “beautiful”. My mind goes to the work of Maxfield Parrish or Georgia O’Keefe or pretty much anything from the Japanese Ukiyo-e Style, there is plenty to choose and agree on, but once you venture away from the easy subjects of lovers, flowers and puppies; the idea of what is beautiful gets messy. Case in point: three dead moles.

I took these photos in early July this year while on a long hike through the west Latvian countryside with my wife. So, full confession, I do have a bit of a Goth streak, love horror movies and all of that, so I was fascinated when we found the first one stretched out on the trail. It looked so peaceful, at first we though it might be sleeping or unconscious, but no, sadly the little bugger had expired. It was a treat to be able to look closely at an animal that normally is well out-of-sight, or that you might only get a fleeting glimpse of scambering for cover. The fur in particular looked more luxurious then I would expect. I took my photo and moved on, already planning on doing a drawing of it. When we came across the next one about an hour later, we both felt that something odd was going on and switched into “crime scene detective” mode (well, mostly me) combing the environment for any clues. “The body shows no evidence of foul play; no teeth marks or obvious wounds or injuries, maybe it was poisoned?” By the time we came across the third body, stretched out like he had taken a nap that he never woke up from, we got a solid case of of the “willies” (an old school term meaning a strange or unsettled feeling). My overheated imagination immediately ran off on a tale of a Satanic cult that sacrifices tiny, innocent woodland creatures, then leaves them in places where jittery hikers might find them; a calling card of evil to come! Better finish that hike before sundown! A few weeks later, we asked a nature biologist friend of ours to solve the mystery and he patiently explained that it was the time of year that the teenage moles go out into the world, kicked out of their burrow by their hard-hearted parents and must find their way. These three sadly, didn’t make the cut and died of exposure. Such is nature.

          

Here are my drawings. You can judge whether they are “beautiful” or not. They are beautiful to me because they tie together the moment on that wonderful hiking day when I took the photos with the time I spent time making the drawings. When I am drawing, I fall into every tiny detail of those tiny carcesses, or whatever my subject is, trying my best to amplify the beauty I see in a way that allows the viewer to see it through my eyes for a moment.

So, my reply to that original question, “Why can’t you draw something beautiful?” is, “But why can’t you see the beauty in my drawing?”


Until the next time, keep smiling and don’t let the idiots bring you down.

Zahdah,

OK HW

Everybody is a Star

Over the summer, July to be more precise, I participated as an exhibitor in my zine/comix show ever. It was SĀBRS Festival here in sunny Riga, Latvia, which will be another blog post (the news and topics for posts has piled up!). As part of the festival, a local vinyl fanatic and online radio personality, Micheal Holland organized a series of radio shows, hosted by tirkultūra, featuring some of the artists, and I was one of the lucky ones to get my hands on the mic. This was my third radio show collaboration with Micheal, so I’m getting more comfortable with the format, assembling a playlist and running my mouth (something I rarely have a problem with). Coming up with an idea for the show usually hinges on one song title or lyric and this time it was Sly and the Family Stone providing the spark with their beautiful tune, “Everybody is a Star”.

Tīrkultūra · Sabrs Radio 2024 With Hal Weaver - Everybody is A Star

I connected the theme of the show with zine and comix artist’s desire to be a star in their own way; to share their creative life with the world and tell their story. Many of the tunes I included carry the spirit of story-telling or aspirations of “making it big” or living a big life.

Here is the playlist; a mix of eclectic tunes, a few movie samples, run through with musings and guffaws.

 
1 – “Hello Hooray!” – Alice Cooper
>> Introduction and general jaw-jacking – Hal and Micheal
2 – Sample from the movie “Zandalee” > “Electric Chair” – Prince
3 – “Don’t No Body Move, This is Heist” – Tony Powers
>> Hal and Micheal chat
4 – Sample from the movie Mad Max – “God in an Alcove” – Bauhaus
5 – “On Broadway” – George Benson
6 – Sample from the movie “Barfly” – “Nobody” – David Baerwald
>> Random chit chat with Richard Thompson (Liminal Noise/Lost Harbors)
7 – “A World of Our Own” – Pater Noster soundtrack – Chris Bickell
8 – “Everybody is a Star” – Sly and the Family Stone
>> Richard Thompson holds forth with more thought-like things.
9 – “Isumas, mi daj” – Pēteris Leimanis (1949)
10 – “L’Estasi Dell’oro (The Ecstasy Of Gold)” – Ennio Morricone, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”
11 – “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” – Royal Fingerbowl
>> Outro and credits with Richard and Micheal.
12 – “Shining Star” – Earth, Wind and Fire

Let me know what you think. Hopefully I introduced you to some hidden treasures or dusted off some old friends.

Keep smiling,

OK HW

Tata Mask Drawing

 A did a new drawing today. It was a cool, rainy day in Riga. Motivation and ambition have been low for me lately. I have lists and lists of things to do; ideas to explore, comix stories to layout; planning for a small press festival, etc, but I haven’t done any drawing in too long. I get cranky and worried if I don’t do some drawing on a regular basis. Maybe the machine will rust, seize up and that will be it! I will only get to do so many drawings. This weird and wild creature came from the Instagram feed of @Artkhade. Of course I was attracted to this mask for it’s intensity and rawness and because it reminded me of horror movies. I love the square eye holes and broad, fierce mouth and all those lovely teeth.

The Dogon people, well one of them, hacked out this Tata mask. I always encourage anyone who enjoys this art to learn more about the original culture and history. A good place to start is the listing on the Artkhade website. Artkhade is an amazing resource for browsing “ancient arts from Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas” and learning about the market for these incredible objects. This particular Tata mask recently sold at auction for €110,500! It’s difficult for me to correlate the idea of that much money being traded for this piece of art. It really doesn’t make any sense to me. This mask has a reality and power that transcends money. The craft person who created it was motivated by spiritual purpose, but who knows. Maybe it gave some currency and power (one and the same) to the maker within their culture? Isn’t that what many artists have chased through the centuries and still pursue today?

On this rainy day, I was just trying to get my ass moving, so thank you Tata mask and the Dogon people for the inspiration.

OK HW