The NBA - Then & Now

I Just finished watching the Lakers crumble and give up a lead in the fourth quarter and lose to the Thunder. It was and is always so frustrating to watch teams play with such arrogance and pride and with a great lack of heart and humility. The Lakers are a good team with the tools to do well in the playoffs this year. Unfortunately, they are likely to lose this round because of a lack of fire, heart, discipline and overall character. It's understandable that it's a rough transition year with a new coach and a shortened season. But, the bottom line in this situation is that the other team is more hungry than we are.

Aside from the Lakers' poor performance and frustrating lacks, for the past few years and even more, it's been a bitter sweet thing to even watch the NBA games. While I enjoy the game very much and always look forward to a good competitive match between strong teams and coaches, the whole spirit of the game and the league has been very off-putting. If it's not the pride and arrogance, selfishness and immaturity of our incredibly self-obsessed, egotistical, chest pounding, tantrum throwing, cliché repeating, disrespectful, cursing young basketball gods that gets to me and forces me to switch the channel out of complete disgust…if it's not them, it's the distracting, conceited, unfunny, annoying commentators that drive me nuts! Oh how I miss Chick and Stu!

So, when the playoffs come around now, I'm excited and dreading it at the same time. I want my kids to watch and enjoy a sport I love and that can be a great tool for teaching them and helping them learn valuable lessons as they engage in athletics themselves. But, I'm not eager to continue bringing these super proud, humility-feigning, brats into our living room all the time and have my kids emulate them.

Allowing kids to come to the NBA out of high school is one of the worst things the league ever did. It's a large part of the problem and the reason why we have a league full of kids instead of men playing the game. Athletic talent is great and of course money making is going to be the main goal in the end. But, what a terrible sacrifice we've made in terms of the character of the game and its players.

After the game tonight and after having most of the first round of the playoffs running in the background while I work at my studio, I needed a break. At times like these, I really appreciate YouTube. I was particularly frustrated with the lack of creativity and determination in post play in the league. There are good post players, but nothing near what I grew up with. So, after talking with my son and pointing out lacking elements in the Lakers' performance and then discussing overall offense and defense strategies that are being used by many teams today and strategies that I remember being used by other teams and players when I watched the league growing up, only a couple decades ago, we went to YouTube and I was able to find and share these videos on Hakeem Olajuwon and James Worthy. These guys were not only great guys with way more character in them than you find in most of the players on the court today. But, they were also awesome at scoring with their backs to the basket. They weren't limited to this type of scoring. But, man they sure did it great! Our younger post players in the league today could definitely stand to watch and learn from footage of their playing style like this.

One more point…

You'll notice in these videos of older players that after a powerful dunk or an and-one play, instead of staring arrogantly out into the crowd like a Greek god, pounding on their chests, or screaming at the top of their lungs demanding yet more attention from their worshipping audience, these hall-of-fame, super-talented MEN of character simply gave a spirited high-five and headed back up the court to continue working diligently to serve the team and do their best on the next play. In fact, you'll see them with sincere smiles on their faces and with a sincere spirit of love for the game and respect for their peers, even while they compete hard and passionately to be victorious and rise to big challenges.

I'm okay with my kids emulating these guys.

- Want

Pushing the Envelope

Pushing the Envelope

Western Culture

Too true.

-Want

New Print: "IB Corn Cobb" 080211

This piece was a collaboration - Want & Padoop of VisualSyntaxOutput.com.

Designing with Padoop helps me to loosen my hand, keep my marks sincere, gestural and fluid. She loves doing the circle exercise on just about every canvas as you can see. It reminds me that we can all really use a good circle exercise now and again. Recently, Padoop has been experimenting with Crayola Crayons after spending a heck of a time trying to work on her shapes with cheaper sticks made with way too much wax and very little pigment.

Just another day in the studio!

- Want

8X10 Prints are available for purchase. For more information email Want@VisualSyntaxOutput.com or Padoop@VisualSyntaxOutput.com.

Blaine Fontana - Amalgamate

AMALGAMATE:The Fine Art, Design, & Exploration of Blaine Fontana (A Brief Flip Through) from Blaine Fontana on Vimeo.

Last Saturday, Padoop & I made the trek out to Long Beach to catch Blaine at {Open} where he was in town signing his new book "Amalgamate." As always Blaine and Eugene were very cool. We hung out a bit, picked up the book, got it signed and had to head out pretty quickly. The book is fantastic! It's filled with Blaine's recent work – filled with challenges and inspiration! As I told Blaine, his passion and drive are evident in his work and the fact that he doesn't choose to just ride the wave, but rather continues to challenge and push himself by tackling new projects and mark making from new angles is always refreshing.

Thanks for the book and for continuing to inspire so many other artists!

-Want

Snack Art

A favorite at snack time! Avocado on whole wheat with cherry tomatoes :)

A few words on having proactive people involved…

I spent the morning yesterday in a breakfast weekend meeting with a new client and potential business partner. It was a good and productive time, discussing ideas, approaches and making the most of current opportunities. A couple things were said during the discussion that stuck in my head and that I wanted to write about.

As we talked about ideas we had for a creative space, a whole list of "side projects" began and we both kept proposing ways of attacking them. At one point, she said something to the affect of "I'm not a professional, and I don't know all about this aspect of things, but WHO CARES!? I'll give it a try, do my best and see how things come out."

"EXACTLY!" I said. "I wish more people had that mindset!"

As the meeting went on, I kept thinking about how it is so important, when you have a creative vision on a given project and are trying to move forward with it, that you have people around who have a "let's give it a go" attitude, rather than a passive and lazy one. I recently wrote about how when I was an art student I had a roommate who was always ready to jump up and head out the door with our cameras to find a spot in the city to shoot pictures. This was a great blessing, something that really fed my creative drive, and helped me keep my momentum on projects. Having that person around who is willing to GO on a project and do their best to find good, creative solutions, try things out, and make adjustments as they go, makes ALL THE DIFFERENCE! Many an idea has been executed & grown because of people like this. And many an idea has been killed or abandoned by people who DON'T ACT on their creative vision because they aren't a "professional" in a given area or haven't taken "a class" on how to do something.

There are so many possible outcomes when one sits down at the creative drawing board to attack a project and bring an idea to fruition. Still, many of those possibilities will only be found when the people involved are adventurous, willing to explore new territory, and willing to learn through the process. So, when you find yourself sitting next to someone who has passion and a proactive attitude, make the most of it, encourage it, emulate it, and watch it grow!

- Want