NFTs and Motion Art

With the advent of the NFT market, and the fact that so many NFTs utilize motion, Motion Art has moved to the forefront of the art world. There are many ways that Motion Art is being presented, everything ranging from small, compact acrylic devices to enormous museum screens. The Motion Art that I am offering is often realized in the form of compact acrylic devices for the home, office and non-institutional spaces. If you are interested in showing in larger formats, please contact me. Find my NFTs on Rarible.com under my user name, AlanMcKee.

Most of my Motion Art pieces are related to the natural universe, but the one above titled, "MARA SPEAKS" hearkens back to my childhood which was often spent plotting Superman and Batman comics with my father,  Golden Age Comic Book Writer, Alvin Schwartz. Plotting with my father or Bill Finger, a close friend, was one of my favorite things to do. So, I guess it was inevitable I would take a shot at doing my own comic with a very different kind of Superhero: THE ELDER. If you'd like to see more, let me know. 

Spring and Fall

This is a meditative piece that was inspired by a poem by the great 19th century Oxford poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins. I have "borrowed" my title from that poem as well. Below is the full text of the poem. I enjoy this piece most when I turn up the sound of rain hitting the leaves.

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Spring and Fall 

to a young child

Márgarét, áre you gríeving

Over Goldengrove unleaving?

Leáves like the things of man, you

With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?

Ah! ás the heart grows older

It will come to such sights colder

By and by, nor spare a sigh

Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;

And yet you wíll weep and know why.

Now no matter, child, the name:

Sórrow’s spríngs áre the same.

Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed

What heart heard of, ghost guessed:

It ís the blight man was born for,

It is Margaret you mourn for.

The Tatagathagharba or Womb of Suchness

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According to certain Buddhist groups, the Womb of Suchness is the creative source of all things in the universe. Kind of ambitious for an image but I enjoyed making it. I hope you enjoy watching it in motion and still.

Pilgrim Planets
 

This work was inspired by an author who was a close friend of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis. Like Tolkein, Lewis was a great Oxford scholar. His work was focused on the medieval period. Like Tolkien, he was a great writer of science fiction fantasy. His space trilogy published in the nineteen-thirties has been a classic for nearly a century. My Motion Art work was inspired by the first novel of that trilogy entitled, Out of the Silent Planet. The premise of the book was that the planets of our solar system were actually gods with special gifts and characteristics. Only Earth was a silent planet because it had been taken over a destructive force. The trilogy is the history of how humanity has been affected by this darkness and how, eventually, the darkness is defeated.

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I wanted to create a colourful, positive image, however, so I imagined what the solar system would be like if some of the planets left their fixed orbits and became pilgrims in the universe, in search of ways to improve the lives of all sentient beings.  The music is original but owes much of it's character to baroque trumpet concertos by Vivaldi and others.

The Collision of Iapetus

The name Iapetus comes from the Greek god (or Titan) Iapetus, who is a son of Uranus and Gaia, a brother to Kronus and the father of Atlas and Prometheus. As the father of Prometheus, the ancient Greeks regarded Iapetus as the father of the human race. Astronomically, Iapetus is the third-largest natural satellite of Saturn and the eleventh-largest in the Solar System. Discoveries by the Cassini mission in 2007 revealed several unusual features, such as a massive equatorial ridge running three-quarters of the way around the moon and a distinctive colour pattern. Astronomers believe that the equatorial ridge was formed when Iapetus passed too close to one of Saturn's rings and collided with it. 

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There was something about this moon and its unique story that drew me into creating a work of Motion Art that captured the mystery and irregularities of Iapetus. Of course, it would also have to be a work that was interesting and enjoyable to look at. At first glance, the work has a definite Art Deco style, but when you watch it in motion, I think you'll see how the astronomical back story morphed into a work of Motion Art.  It is most effective when watched in FULL SCREEN MODE which can be accessed by rolling over the image above.

Radiance

21st Century Firebird
 

This Motion Art work was inspired by the Firebird myth which appears repeatedly in Slavic folk/fairy tales. I thought it would be interesting to update the mythic image to the 21st Century. That is also the reason for the original music I wrote that attempts to recall some of the composers of the region like Smetana,  a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style that became closely identified with his country's aspirations to independent statehood. He has been regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music. This is not to say that my little musical snippet is in the same category as the music of this world class composer.