Journal of Erik Natzke

After unsuccessfully trying to eliminate Malware viruses and other various hacks I have opted for the fresh start approach. Exporting and Re-Importing only the base content. All of which only magnified the shame I have for leaving this journal dormant for such a long time already.

With Leo almost 3 month old I am starting to see a return to something that could be considered ‘normal’. Along with it are the hopes to update this journal a little more frequently. Wish me luck

(and in case you were wondering the current appearance of things is only temporary… I have lost all of my abilities to create something aesthetically pleasing… yet!)

13.75″ x 19.75″ (12″x17″ image area)
80lb Matte Cover. 4 Color Offset Printing.

Wrapped in a protective sleeve and shipped in a sealed tube via USPS.

$20.00 (Click to purchase)

FYI – There are also still regular prints for sale here: Flickr, Prints for Sale
(Hoping to finally get a proper commerce site live this Holiday, but till then I am still using email to complete purchase requests)

[Monday Update]
Another busy day at the post office. 28 tubes, 7 different countries … 30 minutes at USPS, priceless.

Function13 Gallery cordially invites you to the solo show of Erik Natzke. On display will be works from his recent series Colors of Nature. Natzke is an Artist, Designer and Programmer who enlists code to create tools that extend and inform his creative process.

Opening Night: Saturday September 26th 2009 at 6:30pm
Show runs through November 8th.

Function13 Gallery
156 Augusta Avenue
Toronto, Ontario

For more info visit www.function13.ca/natzke

Here is some of the work that are included in the series Colors of Nature

[UPDATE 08.19]
The winner from Friday’s #NatzkeFreePrint Twitter competition was Peter Nitsch @Peter_Nitsch from Toronto Ontario. Below is the print that he selected:

The print is of Arc from last fall.

Image size is 14″x14″ on a 19 3/4″ x 19 3/4″ page (50×50 cm)

The print was nested in craft paper, rolled, and sealed in a 4 inch diameter tube.
[/UPDATE 08.19]

Today I decided to have a little fun again with Twitter by running a simple contest to give away a Print. The following are the tweet instruction I gave;

Tweet #1 | Lazy Friday, so it’s time to have some fun with Twitter Again!

Tweet #2 | Free Print Friday. Enter by Tweeting #NatzkeFreePrint. Winner selected at 4PM CST Today.

Tweet #3 | Winner gets their choice of any Print http://bit.ly/1026bX in either a 16″x16″ or 21″x10″.

Tweet #4 | Offer valid to anywhere USPS delivers (basically anywhere on our planet). Shipping IS included. Free means Free.

Tweet #5 | Winner will be chosen at random. (see last resuts here: http://is.gd/1eLq3)

If you look at the video (shown below) from the previous contest that was ran on June 26th you’ll see that I wrote the selection code in a way that would gather all the users and then systematically eliminating them from the contest. You can imagine it like adding all the names in a hat and then removing those names one be one till only one name remained. The winner!

Ok ok ok…. So isn’t this just shameless spamming on the twitter feed?

There certainly is that danger. And this is where I really hope the sentiment of fun comes across. I have just as much aversion to PR gimmicks as the next person and this is really just my way of having a little fun on a lazy summer friday.

#NatzkeFreePrint June 26th 2009

[UPDATE 08.14 6:00pm]

Winner has been announced. Thanks to all that played!

#NatzkeFreePrint August 14th 2009

Walked down to the Lake (Superior) this morning to take a few shots of the morning sunrise and noticed I had company. Pretty quickly realized they weren’t drawn to me for my charm or striking good looks. These Geese had obviously grown accustomed to the local tourists feeding them. Typically I would frown on such behavior, but with camera in hand I decided I’d be willing to part with a few pieces of stale bread in our kitchen in return for a few good photos.

I forgot how aggressive these guys could get. Initially I noticed they were less likely to come near the shore if I were standing, so I preceded to find a nice rock near the shore and have a seat. After a little while and few pieces of bread they warmed up to me being there. Intermittently throwing out a few pieces of bread then taking a few shots. Each time placing the bread a little closer. It was around the time that I realized that both the leader of the pack was only a few inches from my lens and I was almost out bread and I better stand up and regain my dominance before he start roughing me up for more food. I distinctly got the feeling that he didn’t think the time for Quid Pro Quo was over.

“Creating generative artwork like that of Joshua Davis or Erik Natzke isn’t as complex as it may at first seems, as the wave of artists that have embraced the tool Processing to achieve mind-boggling and award-winning results has proved.”

When the latest edition of Computer Arts (165) arrived last week Tobey pointed out to me that she had seen me briefly mentioned in the intro to an article title “The pros of Processing”. Not having much time to do more than skim the article since we were in the midst of packing for a trip, I smiled and thanked her for pointing it out since it’s always an honor to be mentioned.

Jump ahead to this morning when I had the chance to read the magazine at greater length. Thinking a little more about the words that were written this last time around made me pause for second. What exactly is the author trying to infer? Is what I do not at all that complex? Are they trying to say that Processing is “Natzke” made easy? Who the H E double L is this “Joshua Davis” character and why in the world is he being mentioned before me??

Hopefully my sarcasm is coming through — especially in those last few questions that I posed. Given a chance to try to dissect all the possible inferences to a simple article intro I quickly reminded myself of one very important thing. That is; if people are willing to write about you, you must be doing something right. So I should stay true to my initial reaction of being honored to have been mentioned at all in the first place. It’s more likely a tip-of-the-hat than a back-of-the-hand remark anyways. I should just be glad that they managed to spell my name right, which even a struggle for even my best-est of friends to remember that Erik isn’t spelled with a ‘c’.

See Glenn Marshall’s write up for more images

Growing up with an Apple IIe at a young age I had a healthy exposure to BASIC and I even took a class on PASCAL for a couple weeks while in college but in the absence of immediate visual feedback I was far less drawn to the world of Math and Computer Science. It wasn’t until I was studying Communication Design (at Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design) that I realized the potential extending my visual language in more immersive ways with the inclusion of code. With the aid of a few lines of code the ability to create an endless experience where the interaction becomes as much of a communication device as the visual themselves.

This following video is a bit of a peek into some of the code that got me back on my way to using Math and Computer Science in my daily life.

For those interested in playing around, here is the code:
(Apologies for it not being formated in a nice WordPress Code plugin)

var Ball:Sprite = new Sprite();

Ball.graphics.beginFill(0×333333, 1);
Ball.graphics.drawCircle(0, 0, 30);
Ball.graphics.endFill();
addChild(Ball);

var div:Number = .2;

var ax:Number = 0;
var ay:Number = 0;

function loop ()
{
Ball.x -= ax = (ax + (Ball.x – mouseX) * div) * .9;
Ball.y -= ay = (ay + (Ball.y – mouseY) * div) * .9;
}

setInterval(loop, 1000/30);

Just returned from 3 weeks in California. I miss it already.

I love the Midwest and I love our home, but I forgot how much I missed the California sun and the fact that it never rains in the summer (which still astonishes me).

Just before leaving I bought a Nikon D90. I already had the D300, which is quite similar, except the D90 is able to shoot video at a decent HD quality (1280×720 at 24fps. Limited to about 10 minutes). Having invested in a number of lenses over the years, I was ecstatic to have the ability to capture video with them now.

The following video is a snapshot into the initial process I undergo to capture color and image reference for the current series, Colors of Nature, that I am working on.

Attached to the D90 is a standard 50mm lens with an extension tube (27.5mm) to achieve the shallow depth of field. This process aids in both the abstraction of the image as well as provide smooth transitions/blending of color.

Music Credit: Jonsi & Alex, Stokkseyri (Riceboy Sleeps)

Earlier this year Adobe launched the Adobe Artists site promoting artist, including myself, who are using the latest version of CS4. The piece being showcased is a collaboration between myself and Genevieve Gauckler where she provided me with a massively layered photoshop document of a character she created that I was then enlisted with the task of making it come to life.

Since the newest version of Flash now had the ability to put objects into 3-dimensional space, I decided to ‘kick the tires’ a little and see if it could handle the 100 plus layers I was given (something that would have been next to impossible in previous versions of Flash using polymesh textures). I was pleasantly surprised that it managed to hold up quite well.

Check out the results as well as the other talented
artists being showcased here: Adobe Artists