TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

The Painting on the right is called 'Sunrise' by artist Freddie Linsky. It's an acrylic on canvas and wouldn't look out of place in any modern art gallery. Yet the artist is only two years old. Freddie's mother, a lecturer at the Hampstead School of Art and a freelance art critic, began posting Freddie's artwork online to collector, Charles Saatchi's online gallery , passing the work off as that of a more accomplished artist. Making up plausible descriptions such as this for 'Sunrise'... "A bold use of colour. Inspired by the 'plein air' habit of painting by Monet, drawing on the natural world that surrounds us all." You can read more about Freddie and see images of him at work in an article that appeared on the Daily Mail web site titled, Toddler fools the art world into buying his tomato ketchup paintings . Whilst Freddie's Mum admits it was all just for a bit of a laugh, things began to get serious when Freddie's work sta...

Dinostory is an exhibition of sand sculptures, featuring dinosaurs, that my partner and I went along to view at Port Adelaide, South Australia. Unfortunately, the week before we'd experienced some very heavy, rainy weather, so many of the sculptures had been extremely damaged (very visible in my photo) whilst others had stood up to the elements slightly better. I do hope that the creators of this exhibition, Sand Sculpting Australia , will attempt to make some repairs because at AU$9.50 for Adults, with eight severely damaged sculptures (one was almost unrecognizable), we did feel a little cheated. Whilst I understand that the weather can't be controlled it does seem like there was no plan to protect the sculptures should such weather occur. At the very least, a reduced entry fee would have been appropriate. That aside, what remained of the sculptures, all extremely large I might add, were quite impressive and highly detailed. Dinostory is clearly targeted at children and is in...

National Treasure: Book of Secrets is a fairly easy to watch, fun movie. Like all treasure hunt movies the ending is largely predictable but what makes them engaging and fun is the journey following the trail. Watching just how everything comes together. As per usual with my movie posts, this article is my thoughts on the film. If you're looking for a story outline try visiting the official web site or maybe read this review by Jason P. Vargo of DVDTown.com . I haven't seen the first film in this series but I knew that because this was an entirely new adventure for these characters I wouldn't be at much of a disadvantage. There are some obvious references to the first film and maybe even some subtle ones that I missed but I don't think any were critical to my understanding of the plot. Nicolas Cage plays treasure hunter, Ben Gates, a largely forgettable character in the movie world. Much like Robert Langdon (played by Tom Hanks) in The Da Vinci Code . A movie that b...

Although I haven't written for Helium.com in a while I've always been impressed by the way written articles are judged by other writers in a system that it hard to 'game' and seems reasonably fair. Generally the best articles are the ones rich in information and have good writing structure as opposed to ones that are viewed most often. I've long thought that Helium's judging system and business model would be great for online video and I'm sure I even suggested that to the site's creators at some point in the past. Whilst I obviously have no idea if my suggestion planted a seed I'm pleased to find out that Helium have launched a sister site, OurStage.com , targeted squarely at original music and online video creators. Finally there is a place where online video creators like me can post videos and have them judged by other original video creators with the chance of earning monthly cash prizes as well as some pretty nice non cash prizes too. The only...

One of the best parts of being an independent artist is when someone comes out of nowhere and unexpectedly pays you a very nice compliment. Canvas and Pen is an artist and writers inspirational web site with the admirable goal of motivating artists and writers to succeed through inspirational articles and recommendations to quality websites. I must admit I was unaware of the site until I was emailed by Les Anderson, from the Canvas and Pen, to let me know that my site had been added to their Recommended Galleries page because they believe my art, creativity and web site to be an example of someone who is succeeding. Very flattering and much appreciated. Whether I would consider myself to be successful quite yet is another thing but I will say I have gained some ground and I am certainly doing better with my art than I was around this time last year. That aside, thanks to Canvas and Pen for the compliment of being a recommended site. If you happen to need a bit of inspiration or motiv...

Many months ago - maybe even more than a year ago - my partner's son asked if I could help install a new car stereo system into his first car. I've never installed a car stereo system before but, like most things, I can usually work it out so I said I'd give it a go. Unfortunately, before I got started, he took it upon himself to pull out the old system without making any notes about what wire connected where. This pretty much set back my ability to work things out quite drastically. I did give it a really good try but found the instructions on the new system difficult to follow (due to them being a poor translation into English from either China or Japan). Plus the wires on the new system didn't seem to match anything that was left in the car after pulling out the old system. Teenage boys, being like they are, things have to be done now. I was being overly cautious because the stereo was new and expensive. I didn't want to accidentally short something out. In the ...