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What does it mean to say something is Urban Art? Well, wikipedia says the following:

Urban art sometimes known as graffiti is a style of art that relates to cities and city life often done by artists who live in or have a passion for city life. The term urban means "from the city". Sometimes Urban art is called "street art". The style of this art is mostly cartoon based, and sometimes realistic. The art is sometimes viewed as vandalism and destruction of property.

I think that Urban art can be much more than graffiti -- it can be art that captures city life in a photorealistic way and does not have to be painted on the actual buildings or sidewalks - but rather can be images of buildings, storefronts, billboards, and even of people captured in the moment on streets, in front of stores and even riding the public transportations.

Here is an example of some amazing city art from Lisbon, Portugal - this art happens to be on buildings but is it graffiti, or Urban art or both? (click on the image to see more)

You can watch the creation of this here:

and here is some urban art from Boston, MA (click on the image to see more)

Urban art can be exciting, edgy, sexy and not have to be grafiti. If you have any thoughts or ideas on this I'd love to hear them.

Stumbleupon is a website that you can use to discover new and interesting websites. Artists and Photographers and others interested in art can use it discover cool and interesting art that people have suggested and liked. You might find some interesting urban art or some beautiful seaside or coastal art. You will see some giclee prints. The categories are broad but you can tune your results by clicking the like it button when you see something you like.

It works like this -- you go to www.stumbleupon.com and register.

Registration is free. After registering you are asked to describe your interests. You can choose from many categories and select as many as you like.

If you want to focus exclusively on art and photography - limit your selection accordingly. If you don't mind mixing art and music, select some music that you like - I always include Jazz in my selections.

Below is a video showing the whole process.

Using Stumbleupon video

If you are an artist and someone suggests one of your images on your site as a Stumbleupon link, you will likely see an increase in visits to your site.

It's easy to spend a lot of time just "stumbling" around -- so try this when you have some free time to spare.

If you are using Photoshop to create, edit, prepare and print your artwork, you have probably grappled with the problem of be sure that the colors you print are just like the colors you see on your screen. It's important to match the paper you are using to your printer and to get photoshop to cooperate in the process.

So here here some tips for doings this.

First for whatever paper you are using, go to the website of the manufacturer and see if they have profiles -- most of them will.

I use Museo Silver Rag paper so I go to this website http://www.museofineart.com/profiles.aspx

I click on Museo Silver Rag

Then download the profile.

Once you have downloaded the profile, just click on it and it will be installed in the proper folder.

Then you have to get your printer and photoshop to agree on who is in control

To use the profile

• you should be sure that your image has an embedded profile of its own. Next, set up your Proof Setup in Photoshop.
• Go to View/Proof setup/Custom. 
• Set your profile to Epson Museo, do not check the Preserve ColorNumbers, set the intent to Perceptual with No black-point compensation. 
• Save your new proof setup as Museo™.
• Now, when you go to Print with Preview, select Show More Options under the image. Make sure the drop-down listshows Color Management, then, 
• set your Source Space to Proof. This should now show Museo, if not, select Museofrom the Drop-down options. Finally, be sure that the print space options match your proof settings, the intent should be Relative. 
• for Museo Silver Rag: Select Advanced in the bottom right of the Epson printer driver. 
• Now set the image quality atphoto-1440dpi. Under Color Management Select ICM, then select No Color Adjustment, be sure your paper selection(media type) is set to Premium Luster. 

For any artist or musician who has participated in a street fair, one of the thorny problems is accepting credit cards. You can bring a standard swiping device, or process it on paper or not acceptr them at all. Moreover, if you are just getting going, you have to sign up and pay a startup fee to get going.

But a company called Square (www.squareup.com) has introduced a gizmo and a method for using your cellphone to accept payments. The process is: go to their site, sign up (free) and they will send you a gizmo to plug into your phone. Once you are setup you can begin accepting credit card payments right away. 

I tested mine today while riding the train. I was able to charge a credit card thru my phone while riding the commuter rail from Lincoln to Boston. They take a percentage of the deal 

Square's card processing fees are:

2.75% + 15¢ for swiped transactions

3.5% + 15¢ for keyed-in transactions

There are no activation, gateway, monthly, early termination, or hidden fees.

No limits on transaction size.

Check out this video which shows the gizmo in action...

The art show on October 17th was a great success. Here are some of the pieces we showed.