never-ending gallery

[Geoffrey]

I love this one, Geoffrey.
I won't ask you about the details that went into its creation because I wouldn`t understand, not being an artist.
I know what I like when I see it, and I see and I like this portrait.
Keep up the good work.
Thank you,

Alan

thank you, alan. it is a well-known picture, blatantly stolen from a book issued over 40 years ago, i am embarrassed to admit. so absolutely no 'artistic' effort on my part that you would not understand. i was attracted by its simplicity, just two colours. i used only red and black felt-tips (plus pencil) on thick yellow card. so it is merely a mindless copy of what i saw. unfortunately i was born with less imagination than average, and therefore it is erroneous to suggest i possess any artistic skills. nevertheless, it is kind of you to write so warmly to me. my pictures often fail to attract any attention whatsoever, so i am more than appreciative when that is not the case. good to be in touch again, alan. wishing you a lovely day

[solongleonard]

"we are so small between the stars, so large against the sky"
(leonard cohen: 'stories of the street')
smudge.jpg

at the Cohen Events, Talented and Musically Gifted fans mostly choose the obvious songs to play. Over a few days, we would hear endlessly the Big Three, Suzanne, Hallelujah, and Jazz Police. Just occasionally we would hear Stories of The Street, Teachers, or Dress Rehearsal Rag. It is much better to be different in Life, and occasionally I am myself, meaning Me!, tempted to break a rule! Or Blink Outside the Fox, but I don't dare. My way is to go slow and steady and the possibility remains that I will one day have my own imaginary friend! Wouldn't that be Grand, or even £500.

[AlanM]

absolutely no 'artistic' effort on my part that you would not understand. i was attracted by its simplicity, just two colours. i used only red and black felt-tips (plus pencil) on thick yellow card. so it is merely a mindless copy of what i saw. unfortunately i was born with less imagination than average, and therefore it is erroneous to suggest i possess any artistic skills. nevertheless, it is kind of you to write so warmly to me. my pictures often fail to attract any attention whatsoever, so i am more than appreciative when that is not the case. good to be in touch again, alan. wishing you a lovely day

geoffrey, don't underplay your skills. if you had presented me with a yellow card, red and black felt-tips and a pencil, that`s all they would have been after any length of time. even though the colours you chose are not usually associated with human features, you have brought life and character to the portrait, in spite of it being a copy of a photograph. just because the many visitors to this thread chose not to comment, don`t think you are not appreciated. i`m sure all the visitors are not first timers, so many are returning to view your latest creation.

i eagerly look forward to your next contribution.

best wishes,

Alan

[LisaLCFan]

...absolutely no 'artistic' effort on my part ... it is merely a mindless copy of what i saw. unfortunately i was born with less imagination than average, and therefore it is erroneous to suggest i possess any artistic skills...

geoffrey, don't underplay your skills. if you had presented me with a yellow card, red and black felt-tips and a pencil, that`s all they would have been after any length of time. even though the colours you chose are not usually associated with human features, you have brought life and character to the portrait, in spite of it being a copy of a photograph...

I agree with Alan. The entire realm of "Realist Art" is based on copying what is seen, without personal embellishment, and yet, such artwork is still legitimate and requires considerable skill. And, of course, just because an artist chooses to depict (or "copy") what they see in a realistic manner, it does not negate the personal element: even most Realist painters, etc., have a "style", and their artwork is often identifiable as "theirs", even though they all aim simply to copy what they see. How they see it and how they are able to translate that vision to the canvas/paper will inevitably be influenced by their own individuality, and to various degrees (that is, some are more distinctly different than others, for any number of reasons).

Geoffrey clearly has a style -- his portraits of Leonard, et. al., are all identifiable as his work (at least, to me, I can discern a "style" in his work). Even though they are based on photos, etc, they are almost never direct copies -- in fact, many of them probably do not even qualify as "realist art" because of the unique nature of how Geoffrey creates them, using various colours, media, techniques, etc., that are, actually, quite imaginative.

Incidentally, I really liked the red and black on yellow portrait, too -- very nice!

[Geoffrey]

thank you, lisa, michael and alan - you leave me quite overwhelmed with emotion. so much so, that i think it will be best to wait until tomorrow before answering. not everything i do reaches an acceptable standard, of course - but perhaps that is the same for anyone trying to create something. wasn't it dali who said something about mistakes should be embraced, never corrected? here is a practice sheet from a while ago, just to show that not everything works. i'll get back to you

[Geoffrey]

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/22/ente ... index.html
amazing how a worthless scrap of paper can metamorphose into a valuable investment.
anyone want to buy a couple of mine? my pockets are full of them

dear alan. i would like to ask you something, and hope you will not take a fence. why do you use the french accent grave (`) instead of an apostrophe (') or (’)? is it just an idiosyncrasy, or is there something amiss with your keyboard? if it's any comfort you're not the only one who does it, it's actually quite charming - i really have noticed this phenomenon elsewhere.

[LisaLCFan]

...dear alan... why do you use the french accent grave (`) instead of an apostrophe (') or (’)? is it just an idiosyncrasy, or is there something amiss with your keyboard? if it's any comfort you're not the only one who does it, it's actually quite charming - i really have noticed this phenomenon elsewhere...

I cannot speak for Alan (nor for anyone else), but I have found that an unintentional slip of the fingers can change my keyboard language setting (although which keys I accidentally hit to cause this phenomenon, I do not know), resulting in the apostrophe key producing an accent grave instead of an apostrophe. Perhaps it is a common occurrence (it does happen to me fairly regularly). I can easily rectify this by clicking on the keyboard language -- on my computer, it appears on the taskbar -- and restore it to my preferred "ENG (English Canada)".

[LisaLCFan]

...amazing how a worthless scrap of paper can metamorphose into a valuable investment...

Well, it is clearly not "worthless" to everybody -- obviously some people place value on these things. I can actually understand why some people may wish to have something such as a piece of paper touched and written upon by someone they greatly admire, love, etc.: in some small way, it gives a person a direct connection to the life of the one they admire/love, which can be thrilling, comforting, and/or meaningful to them in some way or another.

Of course, not everyone who purchases such things may have an emotional connection: perhaps some may see it as nothing more than a financial investment. However, not personally knowing the people who buy them, I cannot judge their intentions nor their motivations beyond mere hypothesising, and really, why another person values something is their business, not mine.

I suppose my point is that people value various different things for their own various reasons, which seems to be a simple fact verified by considerable evidence. Therefore, just because you or I or anyone else may not value the same things does not make any of those things "worthless": that is such a negative and potentially hurtful word -- I would not want somebody to tell me that something I value and love is "worthless"...

[Geoffrey]

I cannot speak for Alan (nor for anyone else), but I have found that an unintentional slip of the fingers can change my keyboard language setting (although which keys I accidentally hit to cause this phenomenon, I do not know), resulting in the apostrophe key producing an accent grave instead of an apostrophe. Perhaps it is a common occurrence (it does happen to me fairly regularly). I can easily rectify this by clicking on the keyboard language -- on my computer, it appears on the taskbar -- and restore it to my preferred "ENG (English Canada)".

yes, that certainly would explain what is happening; thank you. my keyboard language is set at ENG (ENGlish United Kingdom) by default, but as i write a lot of norwegian it is more practical to have it permanently set at NOB (NOrwegian Bokmål). in norway they sell only norwegian keyboards (as you may know, there are three extra letters in our alphabet), and i never need to use the english language preference. i have never unintentionally changed the setting on my computer, but on my mobile phone it happens. there's not a lot of room on a mobile phone to make a decent-sized keyboard for a real man who doesn't have dainty little effeminate fingers, and that's why i keep hitting the wrong button.

languages.jpg (76.03 KiB) Viewed 702 times

you make some good points in your follow-up message about the dylan memorabilia. i have to run, but wanted to say that were i a rich man i would not hesitate to bid at an auction for one of his little notes. i really meant that at the time it was written, before he was famous(?) it had no, or very little, value.
------------------------------------------------------------
"Once I'm out on the road, I tend to get into it. We have a nice bunch of musicians and we travel well together.
I thought of calling them Leonard Cohen and the Adults"

[AlanM]

dear alan. i would like to ask you something, and hope you will not take a fence. why do you use the french accent grave (`) instead of an apostrophe (') or (’)? is it just an idiosyncrasy, or is there something amiss with your keyboard? if it's any comfort you're not the only one who does it, it's actually quite charming - i really have noticed this phenomenon elsewhere.

Hi Geoffrey,
I rarely take a fence, or even the gate, so the critters are safe and won`t wander on the road.
It may be a quirk of a qwerty keyboard along with the many languages and fonts that computers allow these days.

Apostrophe.png (9.98 KiB) Viewed 692 times

I use this key as in most, if not all, fonts it shows as the correct shape and doesn't become an accent over a letter.
Many people use the 'single quotation mark' as an apostrophe.

Quotation marks.png (7.88 KiB) Viewed 692 times

When I learned to write many years ago, quotation marks were described as 6 and 9, or 66 and 99, with an apostrophe and a comma having the 9 shape. With some fonts the apostrophe and single quotation marks do not resemble a 9, being a dash.
However, as my nephew with an Irish surname commencing with O` pointed out to me, that just as O and 0 (letter and numeral) are not interchangeable, especially in official documents, neither are apostrophe (`) and single quotation mark ('). Computers can be very picky and I have tended to follow his lead on this matter.
His comment was "most people don`t even know where the apostrophe is on a keyboard" as he was complaining about a problem about his bank finding his information.

In your question above, I see you have both a (') and a (’). How do you get the (’) on your keyboard? I can`t find it on mine.

Your offer to sell your artwork reminds me of the story that Picasso would never draw a map to guide a friend somewhere as it would be too valuable.

Best wishes,

Alan

[LisaLCFan]

...How do you get the (’) on your keyboard? I can`t find it on mine...

I can do that: ’

I use my number pad: press and hold "Alt", and then type "0146" on the number pad, and violà, you get ’.

It does look better than the straight single quote, and much better than your alternative, which, to me, is an accent, not an apostrophe. Is it really the "official" apostrophe? It does share a key with a tilde, which is an accent, so I am skeptical of that claim.

Incidentally, if you don’t have a number pad, you’ll have to find another way to get the curly apostrophe -- I’m sure there must be other means to type it, since not every keyboard has a number pad. (I’m getting a lot of practice with this proper apostrophe, but it does take a tiny bit more time than using '.)

[solongleonard]

dylan.jpg
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/22/ente ... index.html
amazing how a worthless scrap of paper can metamorphose into a valuable investment.
anyone want to buy a couple of mine? my pockets are full of them
wren.jpg
dear alan. i would like to ask you something, and hope you will not take a fence. why do you use the french accent grave (`) instead of an apostrophe (') or (’)? is it just an idiosyncrasy, or is there something amiss with your keyboard? if it's any comfort you're not the only one who does it, it's actually quite charming - i really have noticed this phenomenon elsewhere.
my name.jpg

Rick Wakeman, the famous actor, taught him.

[Geoffrey]

How do you get the (’) on your keyboard? I can`t find it on mine.

well, it can be done by following lisa's instructions, or by configuring the options in microsoft word and doing a 'copy and paste' job. however, i am a person, like jarkko, who likes to evolve with the times. he and i have little interest in the old '9' version. in norwegian language the apostrophe is superfluous anyway, so that takes care of that.
https://youtu.be/G0iTXU8bSpk

[AlanM]

That's all too difficult.
I have modified my keyboard in Word, but it doesn`',t insert an apostrophe here.
Even cut and paste from Word puts in all the other options except the apostrophe.
Spacing Modifier Letters – Modifier Letter Apostrophe
̓ Combining Diacritical Marks – Combining Greek Koronis
̓ Combining Diacritical Marks – Combining Comma Above
̕ Combining Diacritical Marks – Combining Comma Above Right
҆ Cyrillic – Combining Cyrillic Psili Pneumatic
’ General Punctuation – Right Single Quotation Mark
՚ Armenian – Armenian Apostrophe
᾽ Greek Extended – Greek Koronis
I"ll try to do better in future!

Please note, Solong, that Rick Wakeman, is unsure about the use of apostrophes:
Rock 'n' Roll Prophet becomes ROCK N' ROLL PROPHET and then Rock N Roll Prophet.
Maybe they all eventually fell off his keyboard, along with several musical notes as he acted his way to The Centre of the Earth.

Alan

[LisaLCFan]

That's all too difficult...

I assume that you are being sarcastic, since what Geoffrey and I suggested was actually extremely simple, while what you described was a ridiculously convoluted process that makes things far more complex than needs be.

However, I admit that I have not yet figured out your sense of humour (if it is a sense of humour?), and thus I often have absolutely no idea what you're going on about. But, of course, don't let that stop you!