I've always been somewhat uncomfortable with the term "artist" when applied to me, and I'm not quite sure why. I suspect it's because, without a computer, I can't draw worth a damn. I'm scared of paint, I've never been able to sculpt anything that looks like anything other than a pile of clay, and years of pushing around this bar-of-soap-like mouse has destroyed my ability to operate a pencil. Even my handwriting has gone down hill. So I'm not really what I would consider an artist. But give me some bezier curves and a transparency mask, and I think I do all right.

Below are some examples of the few art forms I'm comfortable with: logos , digital photographic manipulation , and animation .

I drew this image of a griffin years ago, before I ever did any real professional design, and I've used it for both a personal emblem and the logo for my freelance design services. It's basic lines are used again for the griffin on this web site.

This logo, which I designed for the Traveltime Products division of Lawson Mardon, is based on an antique post card illustration.

CyberSIGN, one of Etheria's clients, is a start-up company manufacturing digital signature recognition equipment for use in e-commerce applications. Someday, they hope, people will have a little pad attached to their computer which they sign as if receiving a package from UPS. The back-end will then check the signature against a database and approve the online transaction. Kind of scary, actually.

With a name like Etheria, and a product as, well, etherial as web design, we had a bit of a time coming up with a logo. Eventually we settled on the "E", this rather Startrek/Klingon looking thing. I decided to color it with soft pastels so it wouldn't scare the other logos.

Despite making no bones about hating the Etheria logo, the good folks at Synergy hired us to design a new corporate ID along with their web site. They liked the metaphor of the yin-yang symbol, but wanted more motion and a subtle "S". I came up with this. They're happy. But still, our logo can kick their logo's ass.

I love Photoshop. I love the fact that, with a scanner and some time, I can create relatively realistic looking images that never actually took place. As a journalistic-type, I understand there's some ethical concerns here, but I only use my powers for good. Like making photos from other people's dreams, or putting fictional characters into presidential debates. Although not nearly as creepy, I also use Photoshop for montages and photographic illustrations. Here's examples of both.

Ridicholas Exaggeronte, a parody of a particular columnist and cyper-pundit from the back-page of the front-line of the digital revolution, is a regular feature of Tweak. Each column is illustrated with a digitally altered portrait of the cyber-sage, which I create using Photoshop and random bits of images I find laying around. The original photo was a black and white piece of stock photography, which I colorized . Then, when Mr. Exaggeronte announced his intention to run for President in 1996, I dressed him like George Washington and put him on the cover of a national magazine. For a column on gadetry of the future, he became Ridicholas of Borg -- part MIT professor part Star Trek bad guy. When he attacked Prince Charles for his high-tech phobia, I painted him into a portrait of King Ridicholas III . He became a Jedi warrior , during the frenzy surrounding the Star Wars Trilogy re-release, and most recently, he went to work for Netscape .

This photo montage was created for OnLive! Technologies to illustrate the business communication applications of their on-line conferencing and meeting products. They never actually used it, but oh well, I like it.

I've made lots and lots of GIF-89 animations for clients, but most of them are either rather boring or can be seen on the sites in Screen . But these are some that are a little out of the ordinary.

These two sequences were mock-ups for a splash screen for the MarcomMatch web site, illustrating the company's motto "Power in Contacts" in different ways. Since these are just mock-ups, nothing has been done to reduce the file size, so beware.

When Etheria was running an ad campaign promoting our site re-design services, this animation sequence led people into our web site.

Given 1: Cats always land on their feet.
Given 2: Toast always lands buttered-side down.
Question 1: What would happen if a piece of toast was tied buttered-side up on the back of a cat, and whole package was tossed out a window?
Question 2: What would happen if you asked Question 1 to a Photoshop junky with too much time on his hands?