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I recently got involved with 4 of the craziest guys I have ever met…let me rephrase that, 4 of the crazativest guys I have ever met! That’s it a new term for these guys (crazy + creative = crazative), they are truly in a category of their own. Jeff hein, Justin Taylor, Sean Diediker and Benjamin McPherson, 4 amazing and accomplished fine artists. They recently “broke ground” (or should I say “fixed up an old classic building”) and plan to open their new Academy of art “Bridge Academy of Art” to be exact AUG 1. I’m posting this here because I will be doing a few things on and off line for the 4 mad men of art, I’ll try and keep up with the goings on of these guys in future blog posts.

This is the building exterior they started with for the academy:

Slowly breathing life into this, 100 year old majestic 3 story brick structure:

Complete with official Hare Krishna temple doors, made and imported from India these doors adorned a lovely Krishna temple for the past “who knows how many” years, and were an absolute find for the foursome when the temple decided they needed new doors.

Hers is a better shot of the doors as we dropped them off at a carpenters shop to be refinished and have a little life of their own breathed back in.

They are going to look magnificent when they are all fixed up!

Check back soon to find out how my fight to the near death with a floor sander turned out!

Ben Stier

Dean Rotbart called me up a few months back and asked if I would design an identity for collateral and other materials for the don Quixote Fest 2008, since it is hosted by a non-profit organization (The Wizards Academy) It would be considered a “donation” on my part. After several renditions of the logo this is what I came up with:

A depiction of Don Quixote riding his trusty steed, lance pointed towards the sky, head held high. In his left hand he holds a book. In the high-resolution version you can actually see the text in the book, i’ll give 100 points to the first person to comment on what Quixote is reading.

Ben Stier

Something I get asked allot is “hey, are you going to eat that?”…something else I get asked allot is “Hey, how do I get the word out about my blog?”.

The answer is simple, but with an explanation: Pure unadulterated shameless self promotion, but with a twist.

You might be ultra-mega prolific in your blog writing, mastering the tools provided by Wordpress you arm each blogpost with keyword’s and strategically bolded callouts. Along with photo’s posted on Flikr, and a “hey whats up” to all your fabulous followers on Twitter. You probably already have a Facebook account that you also mention you have a new blogpost, along with writing on all your friends wall’s, linking back to your new post letting them know how intelligently you just posted on how to make the ultimate PB&J masterpiece. Oh, lets not forget reading all of your friends blogs, and commenting on them telling them that “this blogpost on how to make the ultimate chocolate milk would go great with my new post!”. By this time I’m pretty sure you have opened a FeedBurner account and have enabled “feed tracking” as well as let Technorati know you just updated your site, lets also not forget the press release you did telling the world how awesome your new blog is.

So in truth and without taking over 1,000 words to explain how to promote your blog you need to be part of the community every-which-way-you-can. Be honest, be endearing, be daring and be yourself.

Ben Stier