rickyleepotts…an opinionated realist

A good friend of mine actually started the inspiration for this. My friend Dave Yaden is a piano player from L.A. and has played piano with all sorts of musicians in his time. So when I had the idea of doing a musical piece, and being it was only my third piece I had created, I figured start with something I was already inspired by.

I had a black and white photo, or was it sepia tone, of piano keys from eye level looking down the piano. And if anyone out there knows Dave Yaden you know why this photo relates to him. This image was a tattered and torn kind of image and reminds me of when I was at King’s Island when I was little and you could dress up in the old western style clothing and have your photo taken. This is exactly where that image comes from.

I took that image and wanted to create a very close duplicate of the piano keys themselves. So i did just that. I began to add some color and when I was finished I loved the result but it looked too much like what I had started with. So I took the same image I had just created and flipped it around and make some adjustments to the colors on the second image. I repeated that process twice more and what you see in front of you is a piece aptly titled ‘Piano Keys’. Dave does not know this piece was inspired by him and if he ever finds out I hope the first thing he does is call me to yell at me for not telling him sooner. But this, being a very young piece in my collection, made me unsure if it was worth anything. This piece actually has had quite the reception from the general public.

This piece was featured in Indy.com Magazine as well as Pulse Magazine and on the cover of the Brazil Times. It was also a featured piece in Oranje 2008 and Gallery 7 Presents “I Like It. What is It?”. The piece is actually so fond to me that it is hanging in my apartment as we speak.

This was the second piece that I created when I began my trek as an artist back in February of 2008. I had an idea after creating ‘Digital Drip’ to begin seeking my abstract vision of common place objects.

Let’s take a baseball for example. When you look at a baseball you can take it one of two directions. You can look at that and have memories of your childhood of when you and your father used to play catch, or when you used to dress up in your high socks and cleats and play some outfield little league. Or you can look at it and say, “Yeah, that’s a baseball, so?” Which one are you?

I am the one that goes further than that. (Maybe thats the artist in me?) I look at it and I see the scratches in the leather. I see the dirt that has set in over years of bats and gloves and brick dust being rolled around on it. I see the stitching. The way the red loops in and out and has an endless and near seamless motion to it. That is where my art begins. I begin at the base of a concept and take it to a whole new level. You will see that some of my work is obvious. It looks like the title and the story behind it. But you will also look at my work and say, “What the hell is that? That is not a picket fence.” That is my entire intention when I create my art.

When you are sitting a a picnic table for lunch on a hot summer day what is on your mind? Did I pack the napkins? I hope the ice is not melted. Did I grab the extra bottle of ketchup? Where is the bug spray?

Well if you are one of the bug spray people what about those bugs? What about that lonely fly that all he wants is a taste of your summer feast? So the bug comes flying down to get a taste of your corn cake and you shoe him off. He comes back, of course. He is not finished. He wants some of that chicken. At this point you are agitated and start to talk under your breath about how you wish the big spray was actually working.

The fly comes back for one more taste of that pumpkin pie. This time you just swing your arms, knock over your bottle of Coors Lite, and continue your rampage over this innocent hungry fly. So the fly, happy and full by the point, leave to go on his merry way. He is flying around and thinking about how great that chicken was. How the pumpkin pie was a little dry but could have been made a touch better with some whipped cream. When all of a sudden his life is taken from him in the blink of an eye.

The innocent fly has met his ultimate maker, the windshield of any number of vehicles driving too fast on the road in the first place. The effects of this splatter can be seen here in my piece titled ‘Windshield Smash’.

Before the “I just washed my windows” driver throws on the wipers to bury the memory of this fly in his quite recent past you see the vast amounts of color that comes from that flies life. To the picnic party it was an annoyance and a waste of space, time, and bug spray. To the driver it is just another trip to the car wash. But to the bug, his family, friends, and enemies he had a life full of color. He had children, he had a wife who is at home making dinner as we speak. And all of what he experienced in his short life as a fly has been taken. But in this piece I have captured what I feel is the true meaning in that fly, or any other bug on your windshield, life.

I had this idea when I created this blog to discuss my artwork with people that were interested enough to read about it on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis. I want to explain my reasoning behind each piece that I create. I want to tell you where I started. Where I began with my concept. And what my abstract vision is when you see the work.

Now, this could be good or bad depending on how you look at this. If you are an avid fan of my work and come to my shows on a monthly basis and follow everything that I do with my art, then maybe this is a bad idea for you. Because the fans of my work (or at least the ones that support me in my gallery receptions) need to see my work in the raw and create their own ideals as to where my motivation came from. I want everyone to look at my work and see something completely opposite of what I saw, then be forced to ask me what it is, what it means, and why I created it.

But if you are just seeing my work for the first time, or if you want a better understanding as you read through the more than 100 pieces that I will eventually have descriptions for in this blog, then sit back and loose yourself in a wonderland of story telling. Grab a glass of wine and read as you feel yourself sitting next to the computer as I create each click and select each color. I really look forward to your comments and I hope that this proves to be a success for everyone involved and everyone who appreciates my work.

So I am a web designer. I finally landed my first full time graphic design position. I have been here for about two months now (as of November 29th, 2008) and I could honestly not be happier.

I handle a lot of facets of the day to day web design process. I work with two other designers, Ryan Cook and Dan Secrest, and they are extremely talented and very knowledgeable about HTML, CSS, and SEO. It is an absolute pleasure working next to these two guys on a daily basis and I have so much to learn from them both.

I have been working with clients from all over the country. I just finished a logo and site design for an LPGA teaching pro named Alicia Dibos. I finished last week a site for GW Richardson. I am working on two golf course sites this week and will be finishing up a restaurant in Nebraska, and a site for a BBQ place down south. (Smell that smoke Braden, smell that smoke.)

I have never worked at a firm that I have been able to have so much creative freedom while at the same time held to a very high level of design standards. This was a big jump for me going from serving tables a few nights a week to working the whole 9-5 Monday-Friday thing. Coupling that with Indyconcerts.com, serving on the weekends still at Pikk’s Tavern, and running Open Book Design LLC I am an extremely busy individual.

I am still in school, to boot, and I am just as involved in the music industry as I have ever been. Adding the fact that I am still doing a ton of work in the artist community and trying to be the best male bachelor on the market just makes my time for sleep quite impossible.

But I just wanted you to know where my professional career as a designer has begun. I love everyone in the office, I am allowed as much creative freedom as I can handle, and I have made some great friends there. If this is what the workforce is supposed to be like I couldn’t be happier.

So there has been a lot of talk going lately with the big 3 auto makers and how they are basically out of money. The “smart” answer to our government is that we bail them out. Mr. Obama likes this idea because the more big business firms that the government can own the more socialistic we become. But that is a story for another time.

Ford has asked for 50 billion. The man said no. (The man will be what the government is referred to from here on out.) Then the other two come in and say, “Hey, if they get 50 billion, we want 50 billion too.” The man said no.

Then, a few days after they were told no there was a huge press conference where the big three got together and guaranteed another great depression if this bailout was not passed. They must save and spend every penny the proper way and can not afford to loose another dime.

This became obvious this weekend when GM has dropped their largest asset in advertising and a ended a 9 year contract. Tiger Woods, who has driven nothing but a Buick for 10 years, has ended his ties with GM and will do two things. One, Tiger can drive another car for a change. And two, GM can save millions upon millions from having to pay Tiger for his name to be tied to them. Is that good marketing? Good advertising? Smart on GM’s part? I am not sure.

Tiger Woods made over 100 million last year in endorsements. That does not include his tournament earnings, his appearance fees, and all the other benefits of being Tiger Woods.

But this just solidifies to anyone that feels the auto makers are making this up. They are not. This is real. And if Tiger is dropped after 9 years and with the backing he has with that firm, the next step very well might be bankruptcy.

I hate to say it but GM dropping Tiger is good for most everyone involved. I mean, how many people really went out and bought a car because Tiger drove one? Not me and I am maybe the biggest Tiger fan on the planet. Good work GM. Save those dollars and put them toward something worth your efforts. Put it toward something like, oh, I don’t know; alternate supplies of energy. Focus the money that you would spend on the bailout to make a car that can get 400 miles a gallon.

So last weekend I had the chance to meet a couple of incredible people. I was serving at Pikk’s Tavern and I met a man named Andrew. We talked for a couple of hours, hit it off perfectly, and decided to get together again later that week for some dinner and drinks after work. So later that week we went to meet for some sushi at Kona Grill in Carmel.

On the way to Kona I was on the phone with a local promoter and I look out the widow on the right while at a stop light. I nearly dropped the phone when I saw what I saw. As you will see in the image above there is a work truck pictured. On the side of that work truck there is a logo for the company that owns this work truck.

This is the first time that I have seen my work, my logo that I developed and created for a client, on something other than a business card. I have only told a few people and it really is not that big of a deal, but I just think it was neat that I did not expect to ever see that logo again outside of my portfolio. But it goes to show how important my job as a designer really is.

So I am a huge fan of music if you did not already know. And it is rare for an artist to shock me. I mean, don’t get me wrong there are a ton of artists that make incredible records but it is hard to go so far beyond my expectations like Britney Spears has done. And the ironic thing about that is that two artists have done that this month. Nickelback is the first. Their new album, Dark Horse, blew me out of the water when I first heard it. Their single hit the radio a month or so ago and I knew that if it was any precursor to how their album would turn out it would be a great winter for them. And I was right, the album is maybe the best thing that they will ever record.

But when Britney Spears, not a year ago, shaved her head, dropped her baby, and divorced K-Fed I knew her career had hit a brick wall. She came out shortly after he bald days with a pretty decent album that had some dance moves and solid lyrics but her voice was just not the pig tail days. But Britney wanted to do one more album this year. So she set out to record and release an album titled Circus.

This album, for lack of a better word, is maybe one of the best albums of the year, perhaps the decade. Her voice is spotless. The beats are near the quality of what Timbaland produces, and the mixture of the dance moves and the Not Yet a Woman moans are incredible.

This album is sixteen tracks of pure genius and I am so happy for her. She tried to make a subtle comeback when she hit the TV stations as a featured guest becomes long time star on How I Met Your Mother but fell short. When I heard that this album was coming out I figured it would be another attempt at over night re-stardom but I was pleasantly surprised. If you have not heard this album, please, go buy it. Go download it. Just go hear this because you will not be upset.

Back in February I was sitting in front of my computer hanging out with a few friends just listening to music and just hanging out. I was sitting in front of my computer and while surfing the web (who says that anymore?) I came across a really cool banner on the top of a random web page. I looked at the colors in that banner and became immediately excited.

I took a copy of those colors into Macromedia Freehand (for your information Chris I have moved onto Adobe Illustrator) and began creating those colors to fill an entire page with those tones. I go to select all the boxes and re-size them to fill the entire space when I realized I had the wrong selection tool. This accidental creation looked nothing like what I had in mind. As I go to close the program to try this again Jason Cornman jumps up and goes, “Hey, what is that? I like that.” I took a step back and got the approval from some others in the room. Everyone loved the new result.

So the next day I went back and looked at the completed piece and thought that perhaps I was on to something. So I took a black and white photo of some piano keys and drew out my abstract vision of what I felt those keys looked like. I then added some insane colors and created a pretty interesting look. I played around with it for a bit and created what is now called ‘Piano Keys‘ (so aptly named, huh?) This was the beginning of my life as an artist. This is of course outside of the graphic design and web work that I do full time.

So my career as an artist began in February of this year. In the past 9 months I have had 7 gallery shows and have been featured on the cover of the Brazil Times, as a featured artist in Indy.com Magazine, Pulse Magazine, and the cover artist for the 2008 Indianapolis Arts Council Gallery Guide. I just finished up with my second consecutive month at Gallery 7 at the Pike Performing Arts Center. I had an overwhelming result and could not have asked for a better experience.

As a featured artist at Gallery 7 I went a little outside the box and tried to set a new precedent as an artist in the gallery space. I donated, on each of my two receptions, a piece of work to the gallery itself. These pieces will be featured as permanent pieced in their collection. I hope that this does a few things. One, I hope it shows the gallery how much I appreciate the efforts and time they provided me. Two, that it shows future artists some inspiration on doing just the same and helping create a permanent collection at the gallery. And three that it allows for me to come back to the place that I consider a big stepping stone in my career as an artist in the future.

As my year as an artist comes to a close I have nothing but thanks to give to all those along the way that helped. The list is truly endless and from my mother being the founding member of my fan club to Danielle for her bleeding hands when helping install my most recent show to all of my audience for their kind words and their consideration in my work. I am truly blessed to have found this niche market and I hope that my self coined style of ‘digital painting’ becomes something you might one day have on your wall.

If you have not been to Indyconcerts.com then you need to stop reading and go there right this moment. This is a current online magazine that I am writing for and consider myself a silent partner in. You can find anything from music news, upcoming concerts, album reviews, artist interviews, and all the current music scene in the Indianapolis area. I am a full time staff writer and have been getting my feet wet in the interview processes.

I just recently finished an interview with Dave Yaden. Dave is a piano player from L.A. and has played with guys like Josh Kelley, Keaton Simons, Curtis People, and the list really does just go on from there. Dave has been a good friend of mine for quite some time and it was nice to sit down and talk with him for a couple of hours for this interview. I also had the chance to review his most recent album titled ‘Dave Yaden‘ and speak on how his music speaks to me on a personal level. Indyconcerts.com has given me a recent outlet for my writing that I have been missing for quite some time.

Not too long ago I was a full time staff writer for InTake Magazine. I actually assisted in starting the Blog Squad that was a weekly posting of opinions and current news in how it related to the Indianapolis area. When I first began that, however, I was able to write on any topic that I wanted. But through editor change after editor change I was slowly forced to write on topics that I was given and then had to have them reviewed and edited by someone higher up at the paper. It got to the point that by the time it hit the press I was not even having the same voice that I started with.

So having not been published for quite some time I am not able to reconnect with my audience and my writing. Being such an advocate in the music industry, not just here in the city of Indianapolis, but all over the country, I am glad to be writing about music. And there was no place better to begin than with my core group of friends in the industry.

So I began with Curtis Peoples and Dave Yaden. I will be in the next few weeks moving on to guys like South Jordan, Todd Beauchamp, Isaac Johnson, Todd Carey, Ernie Halter, and many many more. I try to package each interview with a CD review as well to give them as much exposure as I can.

But Indyconcerts.com is more than just reviews and interviews. It is a hub to find everything there is to do in the Indianapolis area when it comes to live music. At any given time you can log on and see upcoming shows at every venue in the city. And with upcoming collaborations with the Indianapolis Songwriter’s Cafe and Birdy’s Bar & Grille you will be seeing more featured concerts, band banners, etc. on the site itself. We want to expand your mind to more than just editorial stuff. We want you to come to Indyconcerts.com and have an experience.

So go check out Indyconcerts.com today and let me know what you think. I just started this blog this afternoon and plan to be writing in it every day as not only a way to tell you stuff that is going on in my life as a web designer, but also as an artist, a music promoter and talent buyer, a graphic designer, a friend, and an individual. This will hopefully, assuming all comes out right when I type and I can force myself to do this every day, will become an almost obsession for you as you try to get a hint of who I am.