From the iPod to the iPhone, now Apple released the iPad that never failed to gain the interest of techie buffs! However, this is one costly investment that a person can enter to, that is if he failed to scan through the details of what this product is all about. Basically, the iPad is a kind of mobile PC which is considered as revolutionary because it does not resemble the work and look of a laptop or a digital assistant alone. The manufacturer points out that this is unique particularly because of its tablet frame. Furthermore, this is not a notebook because it is bigger by an inch and it is not available with a keypad. The input technology of the device is its multi-touch display interface but if you are after a fuss-free typing ability then you can always dock it into a keyboard.

This gadget is designed for information consumption through internet browsing. This too is a gaming device which is very good news for people who wish to get rid of their everyday stress through gaming. Moreover, professionals can even avail of this light to carry gadget in case they have the need to create paperwork. Small at it is, none can deny its power because the thousands of apps it is available with will allow the device to perform at a speed and phase one will wish it to do. By now that you are somewhat informed of what this gadget can do so you can decide to purchase it or not. Always make it a point to become an informed buyer.

My three year old knows how to turn on our laptop computer, start up Firefox and enter the word Noggin into the browser. She finds her favorite internet website and she is off to the races running her fingers on the pad searching her favorite computer games of interest. Now we do monitor her and we limit the time she is allowed on the computer, but here is proof that any three year old can operate a computer. She is in preschool. She gets lots of play time – physical activity at school and at home. Sure some TV. These days she is into Tom and Jerry cartoons. Great stuff. And she is read to every evening with original spur of the moment, off the cuffs story telling thrown in for good measure. When she is unplugged she entertains herself or with her sister finding creative ways to rearranged the furniture into forts, cars, boats, or whatever her young mind dreams up. She paints and draws, plays dress up with endless combination of wardrobe changes. No family member’s clothing is safe. So what’s the big deal with a little computer time.

Have you noticed the variety of apps out in the marketplace?  Yes there are thousands of them and growing each and every day all with their unique graphic look. So is the iPhone app art worthy of  a mention? I think so. Before the app explosion there were the few classic iconic graphics so highly recognizable such as Apple’s iTunes or search engine browsers like Safari, Firefox and I.E. Now with so many apps to choice from unless one has overwhelming popularity, these new graphic apps won’t find the immediate recognition those previously mention have. Not to worry. There will be a time when the public sees an array of application graphics out from cellphones and computers.  I wonder how long it will be before some artist mounts a show appropriating these graphics into his artwork. It’s coming. From a personal standpoint, I like to see the apps stacked resembling pixels and made into portraits. Chuck Close are you listening?

To all those budding photography students across the land you should take special note of the recent loss of a giant in the world of photography. Irving Penn first known as a fashion photographer and later evolved into a commercial art photographer has died at the age of 92. Before computers came along that would change how we saw photographs, photographers like Penn only had their creative eye and their intuition to transform beauty on a two dimensional level.

His works became iconic no matter if he shot portraits of celebrities to fashion models. From everyday tradesmen like a milkman to the tribesmen of Africa, to the culture of beauty products. For over forty years he was the man that shot the simple, clean graphic visuals to the Clinique cosmetic line. And in the world of commercial advertising that would seem like an historic record for any photographer to retain such a client. The same can be said of his collaboration with Vogue Magazine. Obviously, Vogue showed fashion through Penn eyes through decades.

Penn understood the world of commerce and art. He photographed a series of discarded cigarette butts that were once exhibited in the New York’s Museum of Modern Art. He leaves this world a perfectionist unbridled by modern technology.

Sometimes one never gets a chance to see beauty until its too late. Sometimes that beauty comes in the form of a photograph by someone not at all familiar to many of us. But upon discovery of such photographs by a photographer whose works once graced the covers of fashion magazines is not unusual.

Many photographers’ careers mark a specific time past that no longer gets media attention. Yet these accomplished photographers from their day are now seeing the fruits of their labor come full circle. They are being rewarded with a publication of their work in beautiful designed art books or are having their work prominently exhibited on gallery walls.

One such fashion photographer is Lillian Bassman who was an important figure in the world of fashion since the 40’s. Ms. Bassman who is now 92 was frequently published in Harper’s Bazaar. Her unique editorial style in the early 1960’s showed beautiful women indifferent to mens attention when often shot in the same frame. Women came off as powerful, dominant creatures willingly taking over the visual to a viewer’s concerning eye.

She also worked extensively in the advertising field photographing lingerie where she depicted elegant models looking comfortable in an undergarment as they would have if they were wearing the latest couture designer dress.

Pop artist Andy Warhol who coined the phrased “fifteen minutes of fame” was a larger than life public figure. He began his journey into the arts as a commercial illustrator before he became one of the leading artist to introduce to the world an art movement called “pop art”. Andy was not only an accomplished painter, but he also was a distinguished filmmaker making avant-garde underground films shot mostly in his studio called The Factory.

Pop Art challenged traditional art by taking popular cultural icons and mass producing them in mix media formats – two-dimensional on canvas and paper as well as third dimensional sculptures. Through silkscreen, artists appropriated American culture from everyday products to comic books. In his earliest of shows Andy displayed his famous Campbell’s Soup Cans. Pop artists  like Claes Oldenburg took familiar icons and made over-the-top public sculptures. Roy Lichenstein transformed snippets from comic books and popular advertising slogans and made that his art. Jasper Johns Americana icons were flags, maps and targets that led the art community away from Abstract Expressionism toward Pop Art and Minimalism.

Today Pop Art can be seen in reproductions from children’s pajamas to t-shirts in low-cost department stores worldwide. So the movement lives but it’s not quite the same as when these American giants ruled the art world.