This is the oddest thing I have seen yet on Twitter. Some guy whose account username (not account I might hasten to add) has been hijacked for the purpose of sending around some perfunctory message about spreading messages, and the thing is going like wildfire. What does that tell you and me?
Marilyn Monroe, ever the beauty, ever the poster girl, ever the icon. People love her and they devour her. She is held in a static place and is never allowed to die. The reverence for her short but diamond-encrusted life is stellar and her true lifetime, apparently eternal. She has come to embody the values of a generation, of an age, representative of a time past that people seemingly hold dearest to their hearts. So what happens when you tear it all down?
Warhol has iconized her, and D-Face has mortalised her, whilst with my work provides for her edification and the opportunity to set her free of the shackles that have bound her to the brand that she has become today. Marilyn is my poster girl, but in a VERY different sense.
The artwork, in part influenced by Kurt Schwitters’ collages and of course the Dada movement as a whole, holds true to their primary ethos as being:
… a rejection of the prevailing standards in art through anti-art cultural works.
The works laud the inherent beauty in the detritus of modern society. Tapping the shapes and forms, the crap and the dregs of the old and discarded street adverts, torn up, stripped down and washed over. Beyond this, connections with Pop Art are equally obvious:
… challenging tradition by asserting that an artist’s use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art.
This series of 100 Marilyns, which will be finished with the 1o0th picture is made and sold connects with that on many different levels, from Warhol to Denny and on. This is by no means a destruction of the persona that is Monroe, but rather a new look and view of her and what she represents.
There are currently some 20-25 pieces available for sale for anyone who is interested in purchasing one, or more. If so then feel free to contact me via email (artist@bixentro.com) and I can send you a e-catalogue or you can find out more by visiting my web site at bixentro.com. Otherwise feel free to join me on Facebook or Twitter.
Brill, the music store and coffee shop is quite simply one of my new favourite spots in London.
Brill itself, owned by the cooly named Jeremy Brill, started life in the 90′s as Clerkenwell Music, but changed to its latest incarnation in the last couple of years, thanks to the advent of Amazon and iTunes, or rather internet shopping and downloads. You know you are entering a music mecca when you read the shop board on the street which includes the words No Woman, No Chai alongside the Brill logo.
Betwixt the CD racks are desks, usually with 1 or 2 people huddled in front of their Apple Macs or others chatting over a decent latte and home made sandwich or patisserie. On a cold winters’ day, the condensation on the window is a sure sign you are heading into the welcoming warmth.
If decent music advice is what you are looking for then Brill is definitely a good shop to stop at, with racks filled with Jazz, Reggae, Dub Ska and plenty of current indie faves. Consider it a wicked little micro-social-network for music. In addition they have music and artwork on the walls from local musicians and artists, which only adds to the spiffiness.
I personally and religiously drink their lattes but others will ask for Americanos and Espressos on the ‘Brill Run’ from the office. That being said I have zero complaints and there is ALWAYS a friendly face behind the counter when you walk through the door.
Brill comes wholeheartedly recommended and so, if you are up Clerkenwell/Islington way and want a decent coffee, head on over to Brill at 27 Exmouth Market, Clerkenwell, EC1R 4QL.
Photo by Evil Twin on Flickr
Today saw an outbreak of the Personal Branding contagion. In other words a rash of links to articles on the topic were swirling around the Twitter-verse. First 1 link and then another, and before you know it another 20 have passed you by in your tweetstream.
Many a merry blogger touts the benefits of taking control of your online space and making sure that you are on message with who you are and want to be online, but to me that’s a rather 1-dimensional view. Personal branding is more than just being ‘on message’ and being ‘in control’, it’s about wholeheartedly investing in yourself, enjoying what you do and expressing that online and off, though of course that’s always easier said than done!
To my mind it is more than a mere web site or blog, and of course it has to be yours. I perennially ask myself: “Why would I write for a company blog, when I can and should really write my own, in a free and unencumbered fashion?”
Both Last.fm and Stink Digital, for whom I have worked over the last 3, almost 4 years now, have operated blogs, but conditions are always preset on what you can and can’t write, and although I understand the reasoning, I disagree with the unwarranted restrictions.
To me, they simply place a hurdle in front of your potential, which ultimately are for the company’s own benefit. When, in this day and age, your personal time is at a premium, it makes little sense to spend it writing ‘on message’ for your employer when you can unwind, vent, and out pour, as you see fit on your own blog, and ultimately do it with the benefit of promoting yourself.
Above and beyond ‘online’ and the networks you have built, it’s always good to move that personal brand into the real world. Twitter, Facebook et al, all provide you with ways to connect to people, and I don’t mean simply to hawk your wares, but as many a social media maven will tell you, it’s a way to flaunt your personality and build links of real substance, online and off.
By way of example, prior to Christmas, a nice Christmas card with personal message rocked up on my desk at work. It was completely unexpected, and a nice surprise from a Twitter-friend. How did she know my address? Well I suppose it’s not too hard to connect the dots, but more importantly, it leaves a lasting and positive impression and one that only raises her profile in my eyes, much to her credit.
Another great example, and perhaps a decent example for bridging the offline and online worlds. A while back, having completed work on a couple of projects for one of the clients at Stink Digital, said client sent us a box of gorgeous cup cakes, with a cutesy thank you note. Needless to say: “what did we do?” We snapped a pic, and posted it, with a glowing response, on the Stink Digital blog. Kudos to them for garnering positive public feedback!
These two examples show that it is not hard to build a brand around yourself, and to make a personal investment in yourself. It’s your life and if you don’t look out for yourself who will? Keeping up-to-date is like trying to hit a moving target, but it is always good to keep updating the world, because you are always more prepared when you need it to draw on that brand you have invested so much time and energy in already. More importantly, if you don’t invest that time in building a profile, then ‘others’ will do it for you and who knows what ‘they’ will present you as.
Of course, ultimately, everything you do comes back to personal identity, branding and effectively promotion in the form of how you present yourself to the outside world. From the way you dress to the way you talk and think, and how that appears in photos or written form. You should always use the online sphere to reinforce the offline perception of you. It therefore makes sense to stop and think somewhat about each and every step you take, but at the same time you need to also ‘just be yourself’, and whatever you do, just remember, it is always an investment in yourself.
In her post Soup Metrics, Tara Hunt discusses the propensity of those in your various social and business networks online that would be inclined to bring you soup if you were single, ill and unable to fend for yourself.
Notwithstanding the basic fact that some might be on another continent, she reasons that it is those same people who would bring you soup when ill are likely to be career changing, and whom, though they may not know you intimately would stand your ground, fight your corner and bend over backwards for you.
In a world of social media streams and feeds that see you inundated with complete guff on a second-by-second and day-by-day basis its easy to looks sight of real connections and to feel completely overwhelmed, even more so when you look at the unread items in your RSS inbox and it totals 7376!
Tara Hunt’s Soup Metric really brings all the hype around social media back down to earth, and highlights the oft-mentioned fact that people and businesses with any form of social media presence should generate communications of substance and real connections with colleagues, counterparts, unknowns, clients and whomever else you end up tweeting to, status updating to, or just plain ol’ communicating with.
Sure there will always be those who use a new medium as a market stall, shouting loud and hawking their wares but amongst the drowning shout of their yells, you will find meaningful contacts and it is only with the effort, time and energy that you will foster stronger and decent strands to your network. As the old saying goes, you can count your best friends on one hand, and though with social networking you ‘might’ need 10 extra hands, how many would actually bring you soup? And of course, above and beyond that, how many would you take soup to?
Thanks to Tara for the insightful post, and for those of you interested in Tara Hunt’s work and ideas about the power of social networks, you should check out her book The Whuffie Factor: Using The Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business.
Web-head & art collector, living in East London and huffing on the fumes of the planet since '78. Here are my thoughts.
