[ Detail of 88teeth’s revamped “Manoid” ] Longtime friend and fellow-DLa member ThaneC recently has updated his personal/portfolio site, eightyeightteeth.com. ThaneC’s site has been completely redesigned and reorganized, featuring easy navigation and generous presentation of core content. Every page is overflowing with creative juice — thumbnail galleries of artistic works, digital photos, and custom wallpapers are a pleasure to browse. Full-size versions of each creative piece “pop-up” upon command. ThaneC’s unpretentious wit and artistic sincerity furnish each page with insightful commentary and inside information concerning each delicious offering. Designed according to the principles of modern web design, ThaneC’s site now employs the efficiency and flexibility of HTML and CSS, rounded out with a touch of unobtrusive JavaScript to make it all sweet.

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Ditch Witch, I think I love you.. On my never-ending quest for fresh graphical chunks, many a ridiculous warning sticker have caught my eye. Upon encountering such gems, I immediately slip into stealth mode and plan for attack. Once the stage is set and the time is prime, I move in for the kill — another ripe chunk cold plucked from the vine. Of course, only the nonsensical, pointless, redundant or otherwise ridiculous labels are snatched from existence — anything even legitimately informative requires a more compassionate approach..

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“Perhaps it’s time for a bizarre diversion…” — Wild Bill recommends these bizarre Flash websites for your personal entertainment, education, and enjoyment:

monoface For a few delightful moments of splendid online fun, prance on over to the hilariously interactive Flash interface currently on display at monoface. Once there, click the "shuffle face" link a few times to get the general idea, and then graduate to plastic surgeon by clicking on the various facial components themselves. Each click mixes androgynous Flash flesh further and further into bizarro land, where smooth blending manifests disturbed visions of hermaphroditic unrest..

heiwa-alpha.co.jp Flexing some incredible Flash muscle, the good citizens over at heiwa-alpha (update 12/2008: site seems to be down..) have produced a Flash site of monolithic proportions. The sheer magnificence of the animated imagery and truly remarkable attention to detail make this surrealistic visual feast one of Wild Bill’s personal favorites. Indeed, for a delightful romp through the collective mind of some truly gifted Flash engineers, crank up the broadband, dust off the Japanese translator, and drop in for a wonderfully bizarre Flash diversion..

We are continually on the prowl for fresh chunks — whether it’s business or pleasure, day or night, scanning the immediate environment for tasty visual gems is a constant delight. Perhaps you find yourself lulling over tacky magazines at the dentist’s office, when suddenly — out of the corner of your eye — you notice it: a small triangular decal attached to the side of the waiting-room television warning people about something with an absolutely ridiculous icon to reinforce its message. Unlike the typical media fodder enslaving the likes of "People" and "Time", the TV warning chunk shows true character — slightly worn and abstract with a sense of authenticity and timelessness. Casually, you rise from your waiting seat and meander over to the TV, as if you may be thinking about changing the channel or something. As your eyes intently examine the coveted nugget, you realize that it is definitely a "must-have" to add to your collection. A quick scan around the room to verify that nobody (surprise) is paying attention, and it’s time to strike! With a single, fluid motion, you silently reach around the side of the TV and peel off the delicious morsel…

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“Generative artifacts, graffiti archaeology, and interactive chaos, anyone?” — Wild Bill recommends these highly addictive, interactive websites for your personal entertainment, enjoyment, and enrichment:

Gallery of Computation

This site peeled my hat back. I am completely enamoured and will most likely spend vast amounts of time exploring the endless creative potential opened up through this remarkable online experience. The Gallery of Computation takes computer-generated graphical artifacts and algorithmic image processing to a distant universe. Infinite thanks to Jared Tarbell for sharing his inspiring world with us.

Graffiti Archaeology

Here is another fascinating website at which one could spend countless hours surfing and learning. As avid graffiti enthusiasts, we were immediately hooked on this remarkably interactive presentation of society’s most unappreciated art form. Chronologically organized, Graffiti Archaeology is an insightful online documentation revealing localized patterns of urban expression within various graffiti subcultures. As the site says, "Graffiti Archaeology is a project devoted to the study of graffiti-covered walls as they change over time. The core of the project is a time-lapse collage, made of photos of graffiti taken at the same location by many different photographers over a span of several years. Most of the photos are from San Francisco, over a timespan from the late 1990’s to the present."

Splatter

Splatter is a fun interactive Flash application enabling users to splatter virtually vectorized viscous globs of sloppy, splattering lines. Or something. The program follows the user’s cursor coordinates around the screen, leaving a continuous flow of digital "paint", which flows at a rate determined by that of the cursor. Splatter is extreme fun for the common surfer, and perhaps esoterically useful for graphic designers and web developers. Also check out the offline version of Splatter, available for download here.

CanvasPaint

Finally, check out this online emulation of Microsoft’s ubiquitous Paint program. Firefox 2 and Opera 9 users enjoy the option of saving created images to a local hard drive. Other users may create images but not save them. Besides demonstrating some elite programming skills, CanvasPaint is also a very handy tool to have available online. Indeed, online apps such as this are rapidly changing the landscape of software development and deployment. As described by the CanvasPaint site: "[Canvas is] a near pixel-perfect copy of Microsoft Paint in HTML, CSS and JavaScript, using the <canvas> tag as specified by WHATWG and supported by Safari 1.3, Firefox 1.5 and Opera 9."

ertdfgcvb.ch Check out the intriguing Shockwave site at ertdfgcvb.ch.

Aside from an occasional gang squirt, Moses Lake, Washington has no graffiti art scene of which to speak. Yes, there are many vast, open walls available for inspired artists to develop into colorful statements of creative expression. However, city officials and general public opinion frown on graffiti art as worthless, wicked vandalism. Granted, the city does offer several commissioned murals, mainly scenic visions of the ordinary rural variety. Unfortunately, those of us craving authentic expressions of genuine creativity must travel elsewhere to enjoy such diverse cultural fruit.

Imported graffiti art, picked fresh daily Or so we thought. Recently we discovered a daily supply of local, fresh graffiti. A short drive out Moses Lake's Wheeler Road reveals a west-coast freight-car loading station. And, as any connoisseur of aerosol art is aware, graffiti artists love to paint on freight cars. Sure enough, a quick drive into the loading area manifests a colorful line of beautifully decorated railcars. To see such dynamic and intense expressions of deliberation and purpose is like opening the window of youth and shooting up a truckload of rainbows. “..an unexpected pleasure — we are honored by your presence..”

Better still, the railcars are there on business, meaning they are constantly showing up, getting loaded, and taking off, thereby making room for the next set of traveling canvases. Every day, there is a fresh selection of imported west-coast graffiti art ripe for the pickinz. And pick I do — at least three times a week, every week, I drive out to the station early in the morning to examine, admire, and capture the daily gallery. For several weeks now, my collection of high-resolution digital photographs of west-coast graffiti has been growing.

Soon, the collection will be available at perishable.biz, which will feature artwork, digital photos, video chunks, audio turdz, and now, imported graffiti art. Why two Perishable websites? While perishablepress.com focuses on written material, code, and other text, perishable.biz presents creativity as expressed via aural, visual, and digital media. "You gotta keep 'em separated."

Indeed, this segregation of Perishable content enables us to consolidate an online resource (perishablepress.com) for news and information concerning everything associated with all of our creative endeavors. Further, an informational repository such as perishablepress.com enables us to focus entirely on artistic and other creative content at our other sites, such as perishable.biz, deadletterart.com, and artspacemagazine.com.

LiTha-Paint Quality web-based vector drawing in effect. Check out LiTha-Paint, a promising new online vector drawing tool. The software is currently in alpha, yet is already full-featured and easy to use. LiTha-Paint steps beyond the paltry selection of Flash/VML/SVG online drawing tools, providing versatility and universality via HTML and JavaScript. Perhaps all this Web 2.0 business is worthwhile after all..

Update: Unfortunately, LiTha-Paint crashed due to lack of funds (welcome to the club). However, this particular post has now served its purpose by providing insight (via the comments section) into the wonderful world of mikons.com, a very inspiring online vector graphic site that enables users to create visual symbols and share them with a growing network of other vector artists. In their own words:

Welcome to Mikons.com, a new form of self-expression that connects people through visual symbols (personal tags). Our mission is to give you a fun and easy way to create these symbols that tell your story, let you decide how you want to share them, and use them to connect with people anywhere in the world.

Update [ January 10th, 2007 ]: Well, apparently LiTha-Paint is back in action and looking better than ever. Apparently, they found a way to make it happen — good for them! With any luck, this will be the last time I have to edit this post ;)

The Dead Letter Art website is temporarily back online. This is the once infamous, vomit-green version of the website we’re talking about here. One of the first serious attempts at website design, the green DLa site offers slice-based rollover action, table-based markup, and seriously grotesque aesthetics. However hideous the site, its content showcases some of the finest highlights from the Dead Letter Art experience.

Nonetheless, the site is back online for a hopefully brief three-week tour. This may indeed be your last chance to relive some of that ol’ vomit-green magic. So come on, feel the love…

I have been drawing and sketching for over thirty years. The process of setting up for art, developing ideas, and letting the pens flow, really gets my juices flowing. Once that flow hits, and the music fades, hours disappear, manifesting imagination. This process is so familiar as to happen automatically, as a natural consequence of internal inspiration, artistic creativity, and the desire to express the subjective experience of my subconscious mind.

Another important aspect of exercising a creative lifestyle involves the observation and study of the natural world. Drawing from nature, or the practice of representational translationalism, serves this purpose well, as the concentration and discipline required to objectively witness and record visual experiences heightens the degree to which awareness and observation feed visual understanding. It is this comprehension of the visual world that enables the artist to effectively manipulate artistic elements to successfully convey the intended expression of creativity.

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Dead Letter Art represents the creative exploits of several Northwest chillers. Their collective history is rich and reaches back almost two decades. For several years during the turn of the millennium, the DLa artists collaborated and published over twenty issues of their infamous zine, Dead Letter Art. Somehow, time has once again brought great distance between the members of DLa, and only time will tell if Dead Letter Art will truly rest in peace.

Nonetheless, it is interesting to ponder the current happenings related to those once involved with DLa. So, in the interest of future business, here are some current DLa statistics:

• DLa Status: Unconscious
• DLa Issue: Halloween Issue, 2005
• DLa Website: Last update: November 6th, 2004
• DLa Project: Website redesign (Spring 2006)

DLa Member News:

88teeth

Alive & well — presumably enjoying life in Portland, filling sketchbooks, pimping photos, and relaxing. Click here to examine his website.

Perishable

Regaining focus through faith in Christ. Also working on various projects, mostly online (for now).

Nimbus

Rumored to be slaving his life away as a maintenance technician. Most likely dabbling in the creative realm, snapping photos, drawing pictures, and painting rocks.

BHBW

Last seen pwning the small town of Moses Lake, WA — Driving taxi and appearing in court. Chances of seeing some new BHBW art in your lifetime: slim to none.

Osseus

News from the West — whispers of a nameless fear… well okay, maybe not — but his new website is super stylin’ — check it out.

Sui Lan

Last seen over a year ago online at her Y Design graphic design website (ynakamuradesign.com), which unfortunately is no longer available.

Kalacakra

Freshly exhumed, the originally hellish Hard Rock Zombie plays himself in the short film, Snow Day, Bloody Snow Day, which may be previewed here.

Please send any changes, corrections, or news to Perishable via our contact page.