Inspiration

My friend Lauren Kerstein is an expert in the field of working with children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders. She recently told me about an idea she had to create a website dedicated to featuring books on Autism.

Based upon her deep experience with the subject matter, Lauren put together a categorized list of useful books on Autism. I was glad to help her out from a technical perspective, and last week we launched the Autism Asperger Books website.

Lauren also just became an author at Autism Asperger Publishing Company, as her first book called My Sensory Book is pending publication. She describes the book as follows:

My Sensory Book is a workbook designed to assist children with understanding their sensory systems better and the impact sensory input may have on their emotions. This text is set up for adults to use with children and older children to use on their own. It may be helpful for use at home, in school and in the community.

It is insipring to see how people like Lauren can make such a difference and help other people in their line of work.

A few years ago, my longtime friend Kevin Peskin began using his creative and artistic talents toward producing unique works of art. His paintings are best described by Kevin himself:

These surreal landscapes give the viewer the freedom to let the mind wander to a place unknown. The complexity of light, color and texture creates a visual experience that allows the imagination to run free. My paintings are a journey of the heart, mind and moods with the appearance of unfamiliar reality and solitude...

Kevin has artwork for sale and produces commissioned pieces as well. Enjoy taking a look at his website, The Artwork of Kevin Peskin.

At the recent Flashforward conference, Hillman Curtis showcased his filmmaking talents by presenting several of his films, all of which are available on the Film & Video page of his website.

The Milton Glaser documentary offers an amazing glimpse of the work and perspectives of this legendary designer. There's too much to take in with just one viewing -- I had to watch it several times (including one time just listening to the audio and not looking at the screen). This quote was on display near one of the desks in his studio: "Love is the extremely difficult realization that something other than oneself is real." - Iris Murdoch

The Pentagram documentary amazingly captures the essence of this design firm, which is a collection of independent and equal partners. In the film each partner is given the same time on screen, yet the audio of each partner talking overlaps between visual segments, brilliantly capturing the interconnectedness of these independent partners.

The Movement Study with NYC dancers is a film that I'm finding hard to describe with words, other than it's a wonderful display of artistry.

The MTIV Teaser is a short for the book called MTIV: Process, Inspiration and Practice for the New Media Designer by Hillman Curtis. A pleasant surprise in the video was the reference to the last line of the E.E. Cummings poem called "somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond".

Samorost2 is a game built in Flash that showcases an impressive array of sounds and visuals. The game storyline is quite inventive, and it engages you to think creatively in order to proceed from level to level. It's not surprising that it won an award at the Flashforward conference in Austin. Brilliant!

The concept of PostSecret is brilliant -- invite people to creatively depict a secret of theirs on a 4x6 postcard and anonymously submit it via mail, all in the name of an "ongoing community art project." Seeing a sampling of the postcards on the PostSecret Blog really struck a chord in me -- it's amazing to see such raw human emotion represented so creatively and how providing people with this outlet elicits such a resonant response. (A compilation of these postcards is also available in a book).