I turned 28 yesterday, and it was a fun day. Thanks to everyone who was thinking of me. There was an unusually beautiful sunset, too, and I was lucky enough to have my timelapse camera pointed in the right direction. This is the view I get to enjoy every day outside my office window:

Back in March I told you about an art show I am having on January 7th in Hastings, Nebraska. I meant to write about it more regularly and document the process, but that didn’t work out. Maybe I can make up for it as I cram for the show which is rapidly approaching.

Partly because I am a designer, and partly because I need to start promoting the show in the next few weeks, today I worked on the posters and postcards. The theme of my show is: “Portraits of Christ: recent work by Adrian Hanft, III.” The posters are printed on old prints of Christian paintings. My friend Tony was kind enough to give me a stack of over 200 of these prints that were most likely used for Sunday school lessons. About 100 of them contained a picture of Jesus, and I have been appropriating some of these images in my work. It seemed natural to use these prints as the posters.

The size of the posters are going to be 8.5 x 15. I printed a white frame around the face of Jesus in the poster and printed the show info at the bottom. Each poster is individually numbered and signed. I am planning on having 50 posters and 50 postcards. The fun thing about the posters is that aside from some doubles, they are all going to be different. You can see the first four of them above, and you can click on them for a larger version. If I don’t know you and you are interested in receiving a postcard or a poster, contact me and I will see what I can do.

Have you ever had this conversation before?

Them: I have a square block here that I need you to work on.

You: Sure, what are we doing with it?

Them: Remember that thing we did for those other guys?

You: You mean the round hole?

Them: Yeah, we would like to do that again, but with a square block.

You: But a square block doesn’t fit in a round hole.

Them: Well, they are paying us to put a square block in a round hole, so I really think that is what we should give them.

You: I really think a square hole might be a better solution. Can we at least try it?

Them: I don’t think they can afford a custom solution, and besides, that isn’t what they are asking for.

You: I just don’t think it is a good idea to give them a round hole when what they really need is a square hole.

Them: I wish you could be more like Whatshisname. Whatshisname never complains about putting square blocks in round holes.

You: Are you saying I am not a team player because I don’t think we should give them a round hole?

Them: Well, Whatshisname never complains about his work, and he always seems to make square blocks fit in round holes just the way the client wants.

You: Well, I can give it a try, I guess.

Them: Great. I am going to have Whatshisname work on you with this. I am sure he can give you some pointers on square blocks and round holes. I really feel good about this conversation.

There was a crime scene outside of church this morning. The evidence of the crime was unmistakable. The two victims had obviously been killed and then dragged accross the ground. They must have put up a good fight because the skid marks were all over the place. As I walked past the gruesome scene, I was looking at the other people entering church to see if their faces showed any of the sadness that I was feeling. Nobody seemed to notice. It was as if nothing had happened. I sat down in the pew and hoped that the pastor would explain the events that led to the deaths of two innocent victims.

To my surprise, as the pastor described the event he seemed to take pleasure in describing the process. Apparently the crime had been well planned, and when the time came, over a dozen volunteers worked together to finish the job in a single afternoon. But why? The pastor must not have thought it was important to share with us the reasons.

The victims were two large trees that stood ouside the entrance to our church. I can only guess, but they must have needed to be romoved because they were growing in the center of the sidewalk and causing it to crack. Now I don’t consider myself a conservationist or a “tree hugger,” but it really was sad to enter church and pass two giant stumps where the trees used to be. With the trees gone it was the first time I had really took a look at the building. It looked plain and lifeless. Dead.

After the pastor talked about the trees, he talked about a giant cross that had been added to the other side of the church. It covered the side of the building that faces the road, and the pastor apologized to the people who erected it for having not noticed it at first. I hadn’t noticed it either even though I passed it as I entered the parking lot. I was struck by how obvious the missing trees were and how invisible the brand new cross was. I took a visual survey of the front of our church and counted 12 crosses - all of them might as well have been invisible.

I couldn’t have come up with a better analogy for my disappointment with my church and some of the churches I have attended in the past. These churches put so much emphasis on symbols and tradition that they miss the violence and sin in there midst. Often they destroy the few signs of life to make room for more empty and hollow objects. It happens again and again because nobody seems to know their is a problem. They congregation enters the building and sit in the pew oblivious to the violence happening right outside there doors. I know this is an extremely pessimistic view of the church and I apologize.

On a more positive note, today’s service ended by having all the veterans coming to the front and saying what branch of the military they served in and when. It was really touching to see and here these people who served our country so faithfully. Thank you to all veterans from the bottom of my heart.

Got the following letter today. As obvious as the advice in the letter is, It makes me feel good to know the police are doing this. What a great PR opportunity!

Dear Resident,

In an effort to reduce crime and assist you from becoming a victim of crime, the Evans Police Department has instituted a theft target program. If one of our officers identifies a possible easy target for theft, he/she will report it to my office. We then contact you by this letter, hopefully bringing the target to attention.

On 11-04-06 at 11:45 PM Officer Povsha of the Evans Police observed the garage door of your residence was open.

Our suggestion for reducing your chance of becoming a victim of crime is the following:

Make sure the residence/garage is locked and secure.

Please accept this letter strictly as a service from the Evans Police Department. It is our goal to make the community crime free.

If you have any questions or would like further information about our other Crime Prevention Programs, please contact us at 339-2441.

Sincerely,
Lee Carrillo
Interim Chief of Police

I counted today and I have been bouncing back and forth between building 8 websites at the moment. Some are for work, some are for friends, and some are for personal projects. The crazy thing is that there is ponentially another 2-5 sites in the que if things go well. As you can imagine, that means it has been pretty much non stop web design from sun up to sun down for a couple months now. I think “burnout” isn’t the right word, but the fact that I am writing about web design instead of doing web design should tell you I need a break. It is actually very exciting and I am thrilled to be able to fill out the web design section of my portfolio.

It seems like I become a better web designer with each website that I build. I am not trying to be arrogant, but there is so much that you need to know to build a website, that it is a never ending learning experience. My sites are now 100% CSS driven. Sometimes I sneak some Flash into my sites and my actionscript skills are improving. At work I have been building sites for RV dealers that use an inventory program called Listman. Probably the biggest challenge and improvement in my skills has come from getting my feet wet with PHP by using Wordpress. Wordpress continues to earn my affection to the point that I will probably choose it over Movable Type for any future project that requires a robust content management engine. First of all, it’s free, and second there are so many plugins available that you can pretty much do anything you imagine with it.

I wish I could give you a link to every site I am working on, but some aren’t ready. Here are a couple links, though, just so I don’t leave you hanging:

BetA Design Group - This link will take you to BADG where I describe BetA in more detail. It is a private community site, so I can’t send you directly to the site. If you are a designer, I encourage you to join while membership is still open.

Running 4 Recovery - This is a site Bennett and I are building for his brother. I think it is a pretty good idea, and hope it takes off.

Forrest Marine RV Center - This is a site I built at work that should launch this week. Don’t look at the logo, it’s not my fault.

That’s about all I got. If you are looking for a web designer, don’t hesitate to ask me just because I am swamped right now. I am a pretty good multi-tasker and I enjoy web design so much that it really doesn’t feel like work. Well, most of the time. Ok, I got to get back to work.