Brad Blackman

So, I followed Michael Hyatt’s advice and ran Website Grader on bradblackman.com. I can always do better, and this pointed out some things that I have yet to implement on this humble site.

I got a grade of 41. This is really embarrassing. When I look at the details I see that there’s a lot of room for improvement. I don’t have enough metadata, and until 5 minutes ago, I wasn’t even on Technorati, and there’s a lot I can do as far as getting it out in front of people in social media. I think the bottom line is this: I need to add more content to the site overall. I do plan on rolling out a brand-new redesign of the site sometime in the near future, but as I mentioned earlier, I’ve been getting things ready for an addition to our little family.

Here’s the breakdown:

• Website Grade: 41
• Google Page Rank: 2
• Google Indexed Pages: 84
• Traffic Rank: 10,050,724
• Blog Rank: Not Ranked
• Inbound Links: 50
• del.icio.us Bookmarks: 2

I finally just added my site to Technorati. Here is my Technorati Profile if you care to see it. Here’s to making my site and blog better! I know I’ve lagged behind lately. That’s what happens when you’re getting ready for the arrival of a baby. Other things get put on the back burner.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, but I’m posting live from BarCamp Nashville 2008, which is being hosted at the Sommet Center. A little while ago I learned that I had won a Griffin iTrip. Sweet! So my household now has an iTrip and a RoadTrip for all our musical commuting. Fun stuff.

It’s been great running into people like Dave Delaney, Morgan Levy and Christy Frink of Nashvillest, Lizzie Keiper, Mitch Canter, among other really cool people.

I’m currently sitting in a session on Brand Management by Pinky Gonzales and earlier attended a session on web typography. I’d say the best session I’ve been to so far has been the one presented by Josh Goggans, about Digital Loss Leaders who use free stuff to promote their brand.

BarCamp Nashville 2008 has been an interesting mix of marketing, design, web development, and networking. And lots and lots of twittering. Good stuff all around.

If you’ve been following me on Twitter or Facebook (or any of the other sites i update with the ping.fm Google gadget), you know that I’ve been having trouble with a Jerry’s Artarama gift card.

November 2007, my grandmother purchased a gift card from Jerry’s Artarama, a wholesale art supply company that my late grandfather used for years. If you need something, you can probably find it there in bulk. Jerry’s carries all sorts of great art supplies. They also have a newish retail store here in Nashville. My grandmother gave me the $50 gift card for my birthday last December.

Fast forward to July 2008, when I was buying supplies for the Painting for Short Mountain Bible Camp. Well, I went to Jerry’s in Antioch, realized I had forgotten my card, bought something else with the little cash I had bought. Boo. So I put off using it a few more weeks. I even ordered a turp jar and came and picked it up a few weeks later. They were so nice and helpful.

I went to the Jerry’s Artarama website to do a little shopping. That’s when I discovered my card didn’t work. So I called the 800 number, left a message. I never got a call back. About a week later, I tried again. Still no returned call. So I tried their contact page on their website. Didn’t get a response. Now I’m getting really frustrated. Tried the contact form on their site again, and they FINALLY wrote me back.

That’s when it really started going downhill, since they couldn’t find my card number anywhere, nor could they find record of my grandmother having made that purchase even though the purchase was made less than a year ago. After about 15 to 20 e-mail exchanges with Jerry’s corporate customer service representative and no progress, I was getting really frustrated and enlisted the help of the Better Business Bureau, e-mailing them last Thursday night.

So I did some digging: Friday after work, I went to my grandmother’s house, where she had dug up her VISA statement from where she made the purchase. As it turns out, she actually purchased the card from the Antioch (Nashville) store, although it was over the phone. We all thought she had called the main 800 number, but evidently not. Apparently that makes a difference: the individual stores are on different systems from corporate. Yeah, that confuses me, too.

First thing Monday morning, I got a phone call from Steven at Jerry’s Artarama headquarters in North Carolina. Steven was extremely helpful, giving me the name and number of the person to talk to at the Nashville location. When I called the Nashville Jerry’s store, the manager had already left for the day (apparently Monday is usually her day off) so I spoke with Allen Merritt, who was EXTREMELY helpful. I gotta give props to Allen for making it right: he mailed me a brand-new card for the full value of the card I received last December. I don’t think anybody’s really sure what happened to the old card; it was probably incorrectly activated (or never activated at all).

Today (Wednesday) I recieved the new card in the mail, with a gracious hand-written letter of apology. I checked the card balance on the website, and sure enough, it is good!

So here’s the bottom line: Jerry’s made it right. It took too long, and I think corporate really should’ve been aware of the purchase made at the franchise store, but they made it right in the end. I’m just sorry that it had to happen the way it did, and I get the feeling that there’s a huge disconnect between the stores and corporate. The two or three times I’ve been to the retail store the people have been helpful and treated me nicely. On the other hand, the e-mail experience with corporate was horrible.

Although I am pleased with how this turned out since they’ve rectified the situation, I have to admit that I’m a little wary going forward with Jerry’s Artarama because of all this. Again, the process took way too long. I’ll still be buying supplies from Plaza, but I’ll be going to Jerry’s when I can make it to that side of town and when I need to order stuff online. (One place you won’t find me going is Michaels, since they seem to have abandoned those of us who like to stretch our own canvases, but that’s a whole ‘nother discussion.)

In the early part of July, I did a live painting for a number of children (and a few adults) at Short Mountain Bible Camp, which is just above Woodbury, Tennessee.

The theme of the week was “The Master Key,” which left me a bit of room for interpretation. I didn’t know of a key verse for the theme. I came to the passage in John 11 where Jesus tells Mary and Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” I kept going, to John 14:6, where Jesus tells his disciples, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

If that doesn’t sound like a key, I don’t know what does. A key is something that opens doors, gets us places. And Jesus is that key to the Father.

I had been stumped about this for some time, how to present this visually. I have to thank my wife for suggesting what I wound up doing: a hand holding a key.

Everyone sang as I built up this painting, which took 20-30 minutes to complete. It was amazing, and it’s always such an honor and a blessing to share this God-given talent in such a way that builds other people up.

Read the rest of this entry »

This Friday night, I am participating in the Untitled Artists Group Summer Show 2008: MULTIPLE ORIGAMI!

MULTIPLE ORIGAMI is a free, one night only art exhibit and is open to the public. It will be held at the University of Phoenix, near the airport.

Please join me and over 80 other participating artists people Friday, June 13 in viewing and appreciating local talent.

I encourage you to invite to your friends and I hope to see you at the show!

UNTITLED SUMMER SHOW 2008

“MULTIPLE ORIGAMI” Friday, June 13th, 2008 6-10pm

FREE / ONE NIGHT ONLY! Open to the public!

LOCATION

University of Phoenix Nashville Campus 616 Marriott Drive Nashville, TN 37214

GETTING THERE

The building is very easy to see from I-40. Look for Marriott Drive off of Elm Hill Pike. An easy option to get there is to take the Elm Hill Pike exit from Briley Parkway, go east and turn right on Marriott Drive. The building will be on the right.

MAPS

MAP LINKS

Google Map Mapquest Map

PARKING

There is plenty of free parking in a large lot next to the building.

ABOUT UNTITLED

UNTITLED Nashville has introduced new artists to the community since 1991, is comprised of several hundred artists, and has left an indelible stamp on the burgeoning Nashville art scene. UNTITLED members include staff and exhibiting artists from Zeitgeist, Dangenart, Plowhaus, Twist Gallery, and (fov) gallery. UNTITLED members also include art faculty, students, and graduates from Watkins College of Art and Design, Belmont University, Vanderbilt University, Savannah College of Art and Design, Florida Atlantic University, Lipscomb University, TSU, Fisk University, MTSU and many other fine institutions.

UNTITLED is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting artists, reaching new art audiences, and offering alternative visual arts experiences in the Nashville community. The group’s meetings and shows provide opportunities for artists to connect, collaborate and learn from each other. All artists at all levels and in all media are invited to attend weekly meetings every Wednesday at 7:30, and to participate in quarterly exhibitions as well as the group’s annual glow-in-the-dark fundraiser “The Glow Show.” The deadline for artists to register for MULTIPLE ORIGAMI is June 8th. New artists are encouraged to show. For more information about MULTIPLE ORIGAMI or the Untitled Artists’ Group and its programs to support and promote the visual arts, please visit their website, or email info@untitlednashville.org.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, on Thursday, April 17, 2008 I did a live painting before an audience of about 500 people (including elementary students and their parents), for a fund-raiser dinner for Shayne Elementary in Nashville. It was interesting, because the kids got to see me do a giant painting that resembled their logo/mascot. As I painted, pianist Dr. James Stevens, Chairman of the Music Deptartment and choir director at the Freewill Baptist College on West End Avenue in Nashville, played some lovely tunes. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, I’ve finally finished the painting “Sewer I.” It’s actually been complete for a few weeks now; I just got around to signing it tonight. I also needed to photograph it for the upcoming Untitled show. Nothing like a deadline to get you moving, right?

As you can see from the last time I posted this, I developed it a bit more, scumbling in a few highlights here and there. The most notable change is the ladder leading up from the concrete platform, which really rounds out the piece and adds to the drama. I like how the ladder obviously leads up and out of this dirty sewer, but how far up is it? And what exactly is up there, and do you really want to go there, or go in that big black hole?

This piece was fun to work on, and I got to stretch my glazing muscles a little bit. I also got to try disciplining myself to not blend everything like crazy like I normally do, and try to retain some of the stronger patches of color. It’s hard to do, though.

Oh, and you may have noticed I’ve named this “Sewer I.” Yep, I have another one or two pieces I want to do along this theme. Watch for it.

In just a few minutes I’m heading to Shayne “Star” Elementary, where I will be doing a large live painting for a fund-raising dinner for the school. By “live” I mean that I’ll be doing it while people are doing dinner. It’s going to be very similar to the devotional paintings I do from time to time, which are somewhat similar in nature (but not style) to my friend Mike Lewis’ Jesus Paintings.

Hopefully I’ll get some photos to post here later.

A few weeks ago I recieved the latest Veer catalog, “Solid Gold.” which brilliantly utilized Veer’s own stock photos and typefaces by means of faux vintage album covers, complete with the patina that appears due to the record inside the sleeve. It’s funny how different musical genres have distinct graphic styles associated with them. You can tell just from the album art just what type of music it is. I entertained myself by looking at the various covers and guessing what sort of music each album might be.

Then, Veer’s The Skinny announced the microsite that accompanied this catalog:

It started with our creative team making up ridiculous album covers, which turned into a catalog. Now you can go backstage at the Solid Gold tour where we’ve indulged these eclectic artists’ every whim. You can also win an actual gig poster pack, designed by Patent Pending and Heads of State. Just put together a lightbox of what you’d have in your backstage rider.

The microsite cleverly uses even more stock imagery to show what these faux music acts would have in their back rooms.

The entire project must’ve been a dream to work on, with the entire Veer stock library at the creative team’s disposal.

I’ve always liked Veer’s promotions. Their merch is pretty sweet, too.