A Tall Drink of Noodles.

Title: “Untitled (Ágætis Byrjun)”

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Dimensions: 16 x 20 x 2 inches
Year: 2005
Notes: (signature on back)

[Title] “Untitled (Carry On)”

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Dimensions: 16 x 20 x 2 inches
Year: 2005
Notes: (signature on back)

[Title] “Untitled (Destroy Everything You Touch)”

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Dimensions: 16 x 20 x 2 inches
Year: 2005
Notes: (signature on back)

Photogene: (Developed by: Omar Shoor)
Price: $2.99
Website: http://i-photogene.com
(Most Recent Update Release: June 4th, 2009)
Rating: ***** [5 out of 5]

This is the first of many, many reviews I am going to publish regarding the iPhone apps that I have used recently. I am not an employee of either Apple, nor do I have any business relationships with any companies or individuals that I will be reviewing. I am doing this because I have opinions and thoughts that I feel can add to the dialogue of overall knowledge. I have not been paid or given gifts or incentives to write about a certain company. I have not been contacted by any companies to write any “SEO” or “SEM” bullshit for link building. Ok enough legal mumbo jumbo…

Onto the review…

Photogene is an amazing little iPhone photo editing app that truly goes above and beyond what you may think about editing on an iPhone. I first heard about this app a few weeks ago and read the description on iTunes and decided to take a chance. What a great decision I made, I must say. lol. This app has a large variety to filters and options that give the user a tool chest like no other out there for the iPhone. The UI (User Interface) is amazingly simple and quite straight forward to use. It really allows the user to make beautiful photos dazzlingly even better. It’s hard to believe but I haven’t stopped using this program for over a week now. I mostly have been taking photos of my dog, Captain Hazel Murphy. (Of which I will use as examples of the possibilities of this incredible app.

Before:

After:

As you can see I cropped the photo slightly to make it more of a vertical composition. I also tweaked the levels with color, contrast, saturation, exposure, etc. I even gave it a nice border to finish it off. To me the finished product has an Alphonse Mucha quality to it. (Art Nouveau-esque) with the flat green backgrounds and almost stain-glass like quality.

So the possibilities are truly endless with the “Photogene” app for the iPhone.

I highly recommend any photography buff or part time photo snapper to download this app immediately. It’s well worth the $2.99.

The Good: Easy UI (User Interface), quality resolution, great options
The Bad: Sometimes can crash, response time sometimes can be slow, color palate is limited, effects options could be expanded to include (night vision, thermal vision, and an option to change the thermal vision to include other colors besides RED + BLUE

Recent Upgrade: The most recent upgrades (which happened on June 4th, 2009), include:

1. An “apple-esque” reflection on the bottom of the photo.
2. More control of the borders. (Types of borders, color, thickness, shape, etc.)

Thanks for reading my review.

Feedback is always welcome.
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So it’s safe to say that I like to think quite a bit about a lot of things.

Art is one of my passions.

I love looking at art as well as making interesting works.

Art is such a uniquely human attribute.
Art is one of those aspects of existence, that truly separates us from other living creatures.
Art is that thing that defines our perception of everything and places that aesthetic within the confines of reality and helps us makes sense of “life”.

Basically, to quote Ad Reinhardt,

Art is Art and everything else is everything else.

I actually would go one step beyond that and say, Art is everything.

In a technical sense every thought and thing whether tangible or intangible is art. Question is…is it good Art or bad Art?

That is what makes; a good artist good and a bad artist bad.

If we are able to breakdown the concept of good and bad to preference…we are able to delineate what is good or bad by analyzing the analyzer (or viewer).

By looking at the analyzer instead of the finite object or thought, we get a broader context of where the analyzer is coming from and thus gaining perspective as to the true meaning of good and bad.

Wow, that was a lot of psychological blah, blah, blah…when can we see some Art?

heh…

This is a piece from one of my favorite artists: Felix Gonzalez-Torres

Untitled (portrait of Ross in LA), 1991
Felix Gonzalez-Torres
175 lbs Fruit Flasher Candy, size variable

Viewers are invited to take a peice of candy from the pile, which represents the artist’s own dwindling white blood cell or T-cell count. As the pile dwindles to oblivion…so does Felix. His fixation on the impermanence of time and how love transcends time and space via Art. The artist died in 1996 from complications of AIDS.

Incredible work. Thank you Felix for making our lives richer and filled with delicious candies and love. Your work is a testament to all human kind.