Over the last 60 years since it was invented, there has almost been a cult around the use of this product. Would you believe that it was created for the military during World War II?  Originally called “duck tape”, this tape was used to keep moisture out of ammunition boxes. It gained it’s name after the aquatic bird for obvious reasons. It was nearly waterproof and it resembles ‘duck canvas’. Soldiers started using it for a variety of purposes other than for ammo boxes. As we all know, there are a thousand things you can fix with duct tape. It is sturdy, strong and lasts a long time.

The name duct tape came to use after the war, when its color was also changed from army green to silver and was used to help attach and seal metal ducting in construction. Now of course, you can find it in a variety of colors since it is no longer used only for ducting.

Here is the official record of how duct tape is made. Duct tape is a strong tape that is composed of three layers. The top layer is a resilient plastic (Polyethylene). The bottom layer is a rubber based adhesive. The middle layer is a fabric mesh. Duct tape is manufactured by pressing these three layers together. I learn something new every day.

What product other than duct tape can claim fame to have being used for repairing flat tires to making women’s dresses? Police even occasionally use duct tape to restrain unruly prisoners. It would take a 100 pages to describe all the things you can do with this product. Moreover, what other product has a fan club?

Duct tape is one of those things that you learn to use at a very early age. There is nothing better for an older sister to use to perhaps control an unruly younger brother, but don’t tell her that! Kids have found it the perfect answer to broken notebooks and binders. Artists use it to make Christmas decorations and other holiday displays. Fashion is not only dresses with this tape. There are also pants, shoes and hats all made with the same material. And how about the woman that put it around her waist so that she would look better in her wedding dress?  There are festivals and contests, so if you have your own special duct tape story, you might be admitted in the Hall Of Fame.

Looking at my  Ansel Adams poster, I am reminded of my last trip to the mountains. I’m not a mountain climber, I have a serious muscular illness which prevents me from being able to properly exert my upper body strength. But still, I have always looked to the mountains with a kind of love and longing. I’ve been blown away by their magnificence since I was 13 years old. I was raised in the mid-west, hundreds of miles from the nearest mountain range and never saw them until my parents bought an Ansel Adams poster for our living room.

I was just completely overawed by the spectacular detail of the rocky crags in the  Ansel Adams poster. It was as if he didn’t just capture the image of the mountain, but somehow brought back it’s soul as well. In that Ansel Adams poster was the image of a kinship with nature, the like of which I had never seen before. It was as if the photographer knew the mountain personally and had it pose it’s most splendid pose just for him.

It is that same  Ansel Adams poster which I now look at, as I remember my trip to the rockies. Usually you say that a picture doesn’t do it justice. I don’t think that in this case, that sentiment is exactly true. The  Ansel Adams poster is completely just with it’s subject matter. It is more that it doesn’t give it completeness. It isn’t just the epic scale or fantastic beauty of the mountains, which can be captured by the  Ansel Adams poster. It is what they do to you as an observer. They surround you, they tower over you, they overwhelm you in their multitudes and dizzy you with their scale. You can feel the icy air which has been propelled in frozen currents down their sides cut into your face. You feel giddy in the thin air. Although the  Ansel Adams poster captures the beauty of mountains, it never can capture their power over you.

But maybe Ansel Adams himself could feel this power, could give himself to it and be awed by the mountain. Maybe that is where Ansel Adams posters get their impressive power, not from the familiarity which the photographer had with his subject matter, but rather his awe and humility before it. Perhaps what makes Ansel Adams posters so great is that he never attempts to capture the experience of mountains in their entirety, knowing that that would be beyond anyone.

There are many advertising jobs available in todays market economy. For many artists and writers, they are the best way to make a career in their own chosen field. Companies will pay you huge amounts of money within just a few years if you are talented and efficient and most of all, a creative thinker who can get the advertising jobs done.

For artists especially, advertising jobs are plentiful. This is because of the visual nature of modern society. With the tremendous amount of information which is constantly flowing at us, few people take the time to read over just any old message they receive. To get their attention, something has to look slick, efficient and presentable. To do that, it needs good design. Corporate logos, graphics in tv commercials, business cards, layouts of presentations and web design are just a few of the areas in which advertising jobs require talented artists to do the work. And you don’t need any special training, besides artistic training, to get the job done.

For writers too, advertising jobs are the way to go. Not just writers, but anyone who has graduated school in the humanities and is trying to decide on a career. You wouldn’t even believe how many business people can’t write a decent English sentence. They completely depend on humanities types for almost any kind of communication. Memos, press releases, spin doctoring, advertising copy, special offers and many other areas of advertising jobs require your skill today. Within a few years, you could be making upwards of $100,000 every year!

There are many programs that offer training for advertising jobs, but really, the best way to go about getting one is just to apply to a company and acquire an entry level position. If your writing skills are strong and you are willing to work very long work weeks, then you will quickly advance through the ranks until you are really making the big bucks. This is simply too good an opportunity to let pass if you are like me, someone who loves the written language. Rather than going into law or management, I get to use my persuasive skills to advance the merits of my clients products on a daily basis. Life really just can’t get more fulfilling than getting paid to do what you love, especially if you are making the big bucks like advertising jobs pay.

We recently purchased, installed and began using Adobe Creative Suite at work. Although I am a diehard Quark fan, the cost of purchasing the software, was too cost prohibitive for our office. We opted for Adobe Creative Suite because it includes two of the industry standard tools for design - PhotoShop and Illustrator - and a contender for the title of number three: InDesign. So, like it or not, I have been forced to learn how to use Adobe’s layout tool and I must admit, I’ve come to like it.

At first, I balked at the differences between Quark and InDesign. Using Quark had come to be second nature for me. It’s so intuitive, I felt like it was an extension of my own body. So, it’s not surprising that making the switch to InDesign was somewhat painful for me. I can now use this tool quite adeptly, accomplishing pretty much anything I could previously do with Quark, much to Adobe’s credit.

Another bonus that is included in Adobe Creative Suite that I like is the image bank. I’ve installed it on my computer at work and it’s a great asset in my daily job. Part of my day’s work includes updating our Intranet home page with stories and imagery that relates to our region and workforce. The image bank included on the Adobe Creative Suite CDs is quite vast and a welcome resource when other image sources have become overused and exhausted.

We have recently installed Adobe Creative Suite at home. Although my husband is yet to be convinced about InDesign being a close contender to QuarkXpress, I’m quite confident that if he gives InDesign a run for it’s money, he will be pleased with the outcome and quickly become skilled in it’s use. I’ve even heard that you can have cloak InDesign to mimic Quark, if you really just can’t get the usability out of it with it’s current functionality.

In my opinion, releasing Adobe Creative Suite as a package deal was a marvelous move on the part of Adobe. They have revolutionized the tools used by designers across the industry, getting a stranglehold on the market. There will always be those who swear that Quark is better than InDesign, however, the purchase of InDesign is much more economical, especially when obtained as part of Adobe Creative Suite. The cost factor alone is likely enough to end this debate once and for all.

Many actors can proudly wear the brand of stardom.  Fewer can tote the banner of subtle sensuality, commanding grace and seamless work in every single role they play.  Anthony Quinn is one that did all of the above.  He traversed the boundaries of ethnicity, playing various roles wherein the Mexican-Irish star was a Greek, an Italian, a Filipino, a Mexican, a Native American and many other distinctly defined identities.  Never faltering or falling out of character, so convincing was he in each.

If you didn’t know he had died in June of 2001.  Anthony Quinn is at the top of all our lists of sexiest older male actors.  And not just for his undaunted masculinity and sex appeal but Quinn had a versatility, an ability to cross genres without compromise.  A gift for switching roles and registers that inevitably earned him two Best Supporting Actor Academy Awards and numerous accolades.

Think of “Viva Zapata!”, for which Quinn won his first Oscar.  He played the boozing, carousing romantic Eufemio, a foil to Marlon Brando’s Emiliano Zapata.  Consider his starring role as Paul Gauguin in “Lust for Life”, for which he won his second Oscar.  He plays the balance in the dickering, challenging, competitive friendship with fellow artist Kirk Douglas’s Van Gogh.  There was his passionate rendition of Santiago in the TV adaptation of Hemingway’s “Old Man and the Sea”, a performance many might say deserved more recognition.  And his endearing Nick Acropolis, attempting to court the uninterested Rose Muldoon, played by Maureen O’Hara.

We could revisit each of the over 160 roles the Chihuahua born (1915) Anthony Quinn played in dramas, comedies, westerns, numerous other genre films and TV series and shows.  We could appreciate the many dedicated sites that speak his praises, but better, we could also rent or buy the films and revisit and confirm how we esteemed the stunningly flexible and fine actor in memoriam.

As a child, I often dreamt of becoming a film maker. I know, I know, many people have the same dream. Individuals like Steven Spielberg actually go out and buy a movie camera, so that they can start making that dream a reality. This is a wise choice. I heard he even took it as far as hanging out on movie sets, uninvited. Man, that guy was born to be a director. Just look at where he is today. Is there any director bigger? I doubt it! It’s funny where an idea or dream can take you. For those who are completely determined, it can be all the way to the top. Maybe you want to make movies when you grow up.

These days there are plenty of wanna be directors and movie producers out there. Many of them are taking advantage of a simple movie camera and the Internet. This is a great idea. Make a short film or full length picture. It takes less funding than many expect. Just picture things on a small scale. Kevin Smith is the paradigm in this regard. He maxed out his credit cards to make a “cult classic” film called “Clerks.” Hey, we all love this flick. No one cares if the actors are were his buddies or that the film was shot in black and white with a low grade movie camera. It’s the finishing piece that matters. It’s hilarious! Now he makes bigger budget films, because he now has some clout. This is a typical process in Hollywood. You slowly climb to the top.

A perfect example of an idea and a cheap movie camera is “The Blair Witch Project.” Was this film great? Well, not in my opinion. I thought it was infinite shots of the dark ground and people screaming.  It’s the simplicity and concept that drew audiences in. These guys didn’t need an expensive movie camera or big celebrities. As a matter of fact, I think they used a hand held. Anyway, they built the Blair Witch legend up so much on the Internet that everyone started believing it was a true story. Therefore everyone went to see it and it brought in a fortune. That’s pretty sweet since it cost practically nothing to make. Hey, maybe you’ve got an idea and a movie camera. Well, what are you waiting for?

Stained glass gifts make excellent presents for all occasions. One of the greatest things about stained glass gifts is that each one is a unique work of art. Although some are cast and others are handmade, the dying is a deeply individual project undergone by a specific artist to make a unique creation for you to give to a friend or lover. Stained glass jewelry, in my opinion, is especially elegant. It has an exquisite delicateness to it, the tiny bits of stained glass glowing in luminous designs which are fascinating to inspect.

Another of my favorites, and probably the most classic of all stained glass gifts, is the sun catcher. This is a pane of colored glass designed to be hung in a window. When the sun shines through it, it creates different colors corresponding to whatever image it depicts, and shines a beautiful projection of it into the room. What makes sun catchers such great stained glass gifts is that they become part of your daily life. Any time the sun is out and shining, you can see its rays reflected in the luminous, multicolored hues of the sun catcher, adding a touch of brilliance to the whole room.

If sun catchers are a type of stained glass gifts which you really appreciate, you might consider purchasing a kit instead of a finished one. Although sun catchers make great stained glass gifts, kits also do for their own reasons. First of all, a great thing about a kit is that you get to customize it making the decisions about exactly what colors it has. Besides, you have the satisfaction of knowing that you made it, even if not completely. Finally, many people really just like to have a project to do with their hands, and sun catcher kits are a stained glass gift which allow them to do just that.

If you like stained glass gifts, you might also like blown glass. Unlike stained glass, blown glass comes in a variety of different organic forms, such as vases, lamps and many other things. And there are as many varieties of blown glass as there are stained glass gifts. Perhaps more. Blown glass has even more uniqueness than stained glass, because very often there is not one central design to it, but on the contrary, each piece is the individual vision of the artist who made it. There is only one in the world.

They say that one can tell a person’s status by the watch she wears. One of the most prestigious manufacturers of sophisticated timepieces is the company, Girard Perregaux. They are also one of the most enduring in the field, originally trading from 1791 with the G-P name coming later.

The watchmaker and goldsmith, Jean-Francois Bautte made his first watches as a young man in Geneva. His carefully crafted inventions were revolutionary in design and he was commissioned by courts across Europe. The name of Girard Perregaux came about in 1854 when the watchmaker Constant Girard and Marie Perregaux were married. They took the company forward and became well known for their luxury watches, all very attractive and with the latest mechanisms.  The most famous product was the ‘Tourbillon Under Three Gold Bridges’, a watch that took the industry by storm in 1889 and received a gold medal at an important exhibition in Paris. It was another personal triumph for Constant Girard, having already introduced the idea of wearing a watch on the wrist eight years earlier.

The company does not like to buy in materials like other companies do and they make most of the mechanisms contained within the timepieces themselves. The reputation for elegant design and pinpoint accuracy at Girard Perregaux continues today. Not content to rest on their laurels, the designers lead the way on product development, catering for the needs of the ultra busy, modern lifestyle. A new watch was placed on the market in 2001 that displayed the time from different locations around the world. It is ideal for the globetrotter or businessperson in contact with clients in other countries.

There are different collections within the company’s range, targeting different customers. The watch with general interest for both men and women is found in the Tonneau Collection and all the products in this Gerard Perregaux line are aesthetically pleasing. The Sport Classique is a range for a more casual lifestyle, suited to wearing during leisure activities at the weekends. Collection Lady, as the name suggests, is a more feminine option with watch faces of a delicate blue shade.

In addition to timepieces, the company also produces high quality pens and a choice of prescription glasses and sunglasses. Other watch manufacturers may be more famous but the customers of Girard Perregaux like being part of such an old tradition and the company pointed the way where others merely followed.

With all the advances in digital technology, aesthetics have not changed very much. Sure, some people are fascinated by the most advanced high-tech designs. They love abstraction, and anything geometrical and out of this world really does it for them. For most of us, however, we would rather have background photos. Most people would rather see scenic views of things that they can actually go to in this world. We long for the great outdoors, for far off places and different times. Background photography does this for us. It helps us to imagine that we are somewhere better when times get hard.

I am a photographer, so I use background pictures a lot. Of course I use scenic backdrops all the time in my photography. Some people think that this is a little bit cheesy, and I understand where they’re coming from. No one will really believe that you are in a Victorian mansion just because your background photos look like it. The right background photo, however, really can set the tone for the picture. If you are willing to use something that is not too over the top, it will come across as believable. Even if people know that the background photos are just that, it doesn’t matter. They can still get into the image of the picture as a whole.

It is not just my work that uses background photos. They are a big part of my life as well. Just because I work with photographic equipment all day, it does not mean that I don’t want to see it at night. On the contrary, my walls are covered with background photos. I even use background photography as desktop wallpaper. I don’t know what it is, but the more images that you have, the better things look. It is almost as if your room becomes a portal to any place you could imagine. There are background photos of all the great sites lining my walls. I can almost imagine that I could step in to any one of them at any given point.

A lot of art snobs look down on background photos, but for me it is all about creating an ambiance. If you can create an image that is beautiful and add it to your living space, it will make your day to day life happier. After all, isn’t that what art is all about?

Anime is an art form that originated in Japan and South Korea and has gained popularity world wide over the past twenty years. The first Anime video was introduced to the Western hemisphere during the 1980’s and this led to a great demand for this kind of feature.  The series cartoons did not arrive until the birth of television stations such as The Cartoon network. Before such stations, Anime video fans were restricted to feature animated films. Akera and Ghosts in the Shell helped to pave the way for Anime video fans of today.

We can easily recall the Hanna Barbara cartoons that continually used a looping background. This inevitably led to the room that goes on forever while Fred Flintstone was running through the living room. This technique significantly saved background drawings and allowed the cartoons to be turned out quickly.

In an anime video, the animators did not seem to take shortcuts with their backgrounds. Instead they took shortcuts with their characters. An interesting animation technique that is readily found in an Anime video is the reusing of a small character movement in several sequences. The animator will use the same reaction animation for different scenes in the Anime video. This is a typical time saver for the animator.  The animators would take the character in an action pose and merely slide it across the screen using action lines to show movement. Using this technique as a shortcut forced the animator to include great detail with the action scene. Without a lot of detail, the viewer would notice the tactic and the scene would lose the overall effect.

Character posing in an Anime video is very important. Many art students will use Anime posing as reference because it is extremely dynamic. The best reference for a practicing artist is to watch an Anime video or two. This will direct them as to dynamic posing.  Another way the animators of an Anime video utilizes a shortcut is to actually merge characters. If the scene’s deadline is approaching and the animator is behind schedule it is not unusual to take a desired pose from another character and change it into the character in the scene.

These little shortcuts are part of reason for the massive number of Anime video out there today. The animation can be produced in record time. The next time you watch an Anime video, look out for the little shortcuts here and there. Sometimes they are as interesting to watch as the storyline.