Fitness Tips To Help You See Impressive Results

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend! It was a hot one. I enjoyed a fair bit of outdoors time but it was a bit too sticky to stay out the entire time. I'm always amazed by how quickly these long weekends zip by. The sun was nice but the heat and humidity were oppressive. Heat moves us all, quite literally. I was out Friday enjoying the fresh air with the masses but when it began to rain I bolted into the Subway--along with about half the city.

The works of Ian Francis exude a level of heat almost equivalent to a muggy New York summer. The paints seem to melt on the canvas in a splattering of warm hues that intermingle with the deconstructed scenes in a complex fashion. The layered and broken qualities of his works speak of the digital age while his method is clearly more classical. His abstract backgrounds and expressive figures seem to live in a world of constant searing heat.

Sweat and heat aside, the biggest change that comes with the warmer weather is undoubtedly our clothes. The warm weather allows for much more interesting forms of self expression. New York City is fairly diverse fashion-wise on a cold day but when garments no longer have to keep their wearer warm city dwellers begin exploring the vast landscape of fashion. Krystalrae does just this with a bright collection of styles and a fabulous site. The heavy reliance on pattern reflects the product itself while the centerpiece model that changes as you scroll reminds me of those paper dolls of youth.

While the weekend was a true scorcher, I'm thankful that things weren't as bad as they are in this week's video by Jacob Streilein. While a beautiful and poignant piece of animation, let us pray global warming never gets so bad. And it if it does, make sure you have a wrench handy.

The Sketching Mechanism is a series of weekly posts, published on Mondays, containing the artistic musings of Mobile Designer/Developer Ben Chirlin during our Monday morning meeting at the NY Creative Bunker as well as his inspiring artistic finds of the week.

This past weekend would seem have to finally announced that Spring is most definitely here. Yet like all good things, it comes at a cost: a rainy Monday. Now don't get me wrong, I love the rain.  But when you're trying to get out of bed to get to work the last thing you want to see is a gray sky and hear the pitter-patter of droplets the size of peas outside your window. On the other hand, there's nothing quite like running through the rain at night and dancing away in its cleansing glory, even in a city like New York where the rain is not quite so clean. Moreover there are whole dances and songs devoted to the power of rain. Rain is an inspiring life-giving force.

My least favorite thing about rain is all the umbrellas even though I occasionally use one myself. Those pointy tips at eye level height (for the six foot tall guy I am) are outright scary, especially in the crowded streets of the city in weather that makes everyone look at their feet. My favorite thing is the texture of rain, from the puddles in the street to the rivulets running down a window. Gregory Thielker captures the surreal world as witnessed through rain soaked car windows in a series of oils that gives this writer pause.

These works take me back to that strange and magnificent land of the road trip while searching for fun things to do in Omaha. We spend so much time in the car, alone or together, it can often feel claustrophobic. However, in the rain a car feels like the best place in the world to be: safe, warm and dry while still managing to get where you need to go. Thielker's paintings capture this space with incredible detail while using the distortion of the water on glass to evoke nuances of abstraction and surrealism.

Raindrops fall into a puddle, making ripples in the water much like how this week's site behaves upon opening the page. Vlog.it is a HTML5 animation extravaganza featuring the video choices of one Marco Rosella. This piece is full of animations up to its eyeballs and is great showcase of what is possible in the post-Flash era. The sheer amount of animation can cause less-than-fluid transitions and usability but the overall result is as progressive as it is stunning.

And lastly who do we have to thank for this life essence that magically falls upon us from the sky? Watering our yards? Filling our drains? Delaying traffic? The clouds, white and gray, puffy and thick, Cummulus and Nimbus.

The Sketching Mechanism is a series of weekly posts, published on Mondays, containing the artistic musings of Mobile Designer/Developer Ben Chirlin during our Monday morning meeting at the NY Creative Bunker as well as his inspiring artistic finds of the week.