PERFECT
STUDIOS
ARTICLES

Perfect Studios' Articles focus on my views on practice management for sovereign individuals--people as artists, crafts people and designers. Most of these are on capturing, identifying, controlling, evaluating and disseminating valuable Human Structural Intellectual Capital, or HSIC. I like to think that creative people are teachers. Not many, if any, of these articles are destined for print publishing, but on-line only, and by request. It's all  part of my game, Emeralda, a game portal for asset management and legacy transfer.

View Summaries for the years: 2003 / 2002 / 2001 / 2000 / 1999 / 1998 / 1997 / 1996 / 1995 / 1994 / 1993 / 1992 / 1991 / 1990 / 1989-70


2003 Essays

NEW! My Heart Goes Pity-Pat:
What turns me on online

An artist between to ages—the 20th Century and the 21st—must contend with a kind of middle-life existence. Traditional arts are still with him and he loves to work in those old media but he’s lured by the illusion of a promising new art form: Video games. 794 Words. 3624 Characters. 2 Pages. ips31230 My Heart Goes Pity-Pat. ©2003 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Orientation Lecture:
My first etching

While he’s drawing the new version of the e-stamp for ArtsPort (working remotely on Perfect Studios island), he imagines himself instructing his first online printmaking class. He explains the game he designed to be for the interface of distance learning. 631 Words. 2926 Characters. 1 Page. ips31220 Orientation Lecture. ©2003 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Strokes of Genius:
Looking back at my Y2K Journal

In the summer of 2000 this artist kept a journal that was also a printed sketchbook based on the idea that time looks like a slinky toy. He wrote notes in it about his economic theory called triple entry bookkeeping. Three years later he reviews his idea. 802 Words. 3807 Characters. 2 Pages. ips31205 Strokes of Genius. ©2003 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Build That World!
What else is worth the rest of your life?

Clarity of vision inspires a command to build the virtual world he’s been dreaming about for over thirty years. He lays the foundations for a plan of action, a manifesto to assemble a group of artists, crafts people and designers and launch a development. 800 Words. 3846 Characters. 2 Pages. ips31115 Build That World. ©2003 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

How to Design an Online Drawing Class:
A balancing act for a hybrid art course

After two weeks in his beginning drawing class the art professor returns to his primary interest, which is to design an online art studio class that may exceed what a traditional drawing class can achieve. He describes how to use the hybrid online system. 1419 Words. 6778 Characters. 3 Pages. ips31006 How to Design an Online Drawing Class. ©2003 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Getting Back into the Teaching Game:
Early Education in Video Games Helps Lifelong Learning and Teaching

A veteran of the early days of using TVs and computers in fine art education observes how a current controversy around using video games as teaching reminds him of the old days in art school. He says most public education doesn’t equip people to buy this. 1192 Words. 5665 Characters. 2 Pages. ips30827 Getting Back into the Teaching Game. ©2003 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

How to Make Millions On A Video Game:
Invent A Game That’s Really Different

Anyone can make a video game today. Books tell people how to do it, and you can download ready-made shells or templates, animation programs and game engines. But inventing a new game requires a different kind of approach, and this art professor tells how. 7856 Characters. 3 Pages. ips30718 How to Make Millions with A Video Game. ©2003 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Doing What Has Never Been Done:
A pre-boomer’s view of digital games

Poets may be dependent on language and artists may be dependent on art history, but digital-based game producers depend on their own unique domains of expertise. This professor aspires to rise to a new level of art games that can unshackle his creativity. 1448 Words. 6831 Characters. 3 Pages. ips30618 Doing What Has Never Been Done. ©2003 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Taking Stamps ‘N Stories to the Museum:
Rediscovering the Video Dig

His art works are already in the museum in a city south of his hometown, but he wants to make it more accessible himself. Therefore partway done with his game, Stamps ‘N Stories, he decides to make it “museum friendly”. What a surprise he finds: His Muse! 1443 Words. 6719 Characters. 3 Pages. ips30529 Taking Stamps N Stories to the Museum. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Emergency Meeting Revisited:
The Emerging Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction

When he was still a young professor and learning the complexity of visual arts’ migration to the age of electronic reproduction, he called the Emergency Meeting of some of the best and brightest artists. Twenty-five years later, he senses a new emergency. 817 Words. 3884 Characters. 2 Pages. ips30519 Emergency Meeting Revisited. ©2003 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Professional Standards, Art Education and Information Technology:
Questions for art education needs assessment in the age of digital reproduction

Seven questions listed (without answers at the time of this iteration) which might form an outline to study the need for on-line art education. The main emphasis is that the arts, like all aspects of today’s society, have been impacted by high technology. 311 Words. 1704 Characters. 1 Page. ips30330 Professional Standards. ©2003 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

An On-line Loophole for Art:
Learning printmaking for free on-line

As he reads an article about using popular TV shows and film clips to teach college classes, the author—a printmaking teacher—visualizes using his video tapes to teach without the worries of copyright protection that other college professors contend with. 1066 Words. 5532 Characters. 2 Pages. ips30330 An On-line Loophole for Art. ©2003 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

2002 Essays

Cobbler Story:
Encyclopedia of e-folios

Cobbling a castle together for a movie compares to cobbling together bits and pieces of a lifetime career in art that fit the modern electronic communications technologies. The writer is a professor from the 20th Century planning to work in 21st C. modes. 1924 Words. 9423 Characters. 4 Pages. ips21105 Cobbler Story-Encyclopedia of e-folios. ©2003 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Public Intellectual Unbound:
Artist/Scholar goes mobile

This is an almost unheard-of expression because in times past the public intellectual depended on face-to-face meetings of the real kind and then schools cornered the market. People go to school to encounter intellectuals and has become a rare experience. 1376 Words. 6694 Characters. 3 Pages. ips21026 Public Intellectuals Unbound-The artist-scholar goes mobile. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Shoe Story:
Getting to the Big Picture Show

He wills his mind to be like Superman—to leap tall buildings with a single bound, find connections between a shoe-shopping trip, and the role of the artist in saving Earth’s human life sustainability. On top of it all, he will to be a Great World Teacher. 1498 Words. 3 Pages. ips21016 Shoe Story-Getting to the Big Picture Show. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Emeralda and Structure:
TV, Science and Cyanotype

New structural relationships that Emeralda helps create are those that change social institutions and help create more stable and sustainable relationships to the natural world. That art happens to be the apparent resource of the game is mere coincidence. 1901 Words. 4 Pages. ips21006 Emeralda and Structure-TV Science and Cyanotypes. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

An Incurable Disease, A Gift of Life:
Writing An Artist’s Last Love Letter

Thinking about artist’s slumps and suspicious lumps, this author thinks what he’d like to do if he were told he had only six months to live. What difference could he make if in 40 years he had not made a difference? On the other hand, it’s never too late. 1201 Words. 2 Pages. ips20926 An Incurable Disease A Gift of Life. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Exercising Freedom in Emeralda City:
The Practice of Emeralda

Sometimes we’re so accustomed to striving we walk right past our goal and do not see it. We may, strangely enough, mistake it for one of those obstacles we are always warned will stand in the way of our pursuit for freedom. In Emeralda, this can be fatal. 785 Words. 2 Page. ips20916 Exercising Freedom in Emeralda City. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Writing to You from Northland Ashland:
The Artist’s Last Love Letter in Pause Mode

A college with a small arts faculty may be the perfect place to roll out the Perfect Studios model—environmental as a core philosophy, located on the edge of a huge lake—what more could the Emeralda Inventor ask for? Until later, money would be one thing. 733 Words. 2 Pages. ips20906 Writing to You from Northland Ashland. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Unhappiness is the Best Beginning:
The Bad Teacher’s Dream

Before writing the next in of his Perfect Studios series he read Dr. Phil, followed the doctor’s instructions, and asked himself to find the root of his inappropriate reactions to life. His dreams reveal this truth: He leaned his ladder on the wrong wall! 1331 Words. 3 Pages. ips20827 Unhappiness is the Best Beginning. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Art Outlasts Politics Said His Tee:
Reading Tees Leaves Me In Wonderment

He’s thinking about the economy and about correcting the economics of a nation is a big task—but which will be more effective, art or politics? What corrections need to be made, and can art be effective in making those changes if politics drives the arts? 4900 Characters. 1023 Words. 1 Pages. ips20817 Art Outlasts Politics Said His Tee. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Room in the 21st Century:
Spots on Walls of the Museum Without Walls

Looking back to the 20th Century he views scores of friends—many of them who would have been successful artists but for their 19th Century roots. Those were good times, but now the gallery, the museum and the collectors’ walls are full, those venues gone. 613 Words. 2 Pages. ips20807 Room in the 21st Century. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

What Did You Learn at the Museum, Grandpa?:
A Visit to the Museum of Yesterday

This Itinerate Professor reflects on his experience at a local museum, and the people he saw there. They’re practitioners of time-worn rituals, but their rites are hollow from a perspective he’s working on that he thinks is the 21st Century Living Museum. 788 Words. 2 Pages. ips20728 What Did You Learn at the Museum Grandpa. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Proposal for 12 Free ‘Net talks::
One Artist’s Way

How do you cultivate a park? An Artist’s Way is a vision of the Living Artist’s and Poets’ Society office—a small, brightly decorated building behind a “classic corner green grocer’s” at Thomas and Queen Anne Avenue. It’s fantasy now, but it could happen. 797 Words. 2 Pages. ips20728 Living Artists and Poets Society. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Community Technology Center in Uptown Seattle:
My Modest Proposal

After a meeting with a city community technology planner the Uptown Seattle artist/scholar reports on his impressions. He used several 20th Century models at first, but decided they were of limited value. Nonetheless, they’re useful to see what not to do. 486 Words. 1 Page. ips20728 Community Technology Center in Uptown Seattle. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

On That Day His CD Burning:
Your Writer’s Life on CD/R

On the day a student tries the legendary Art Student CD Rom, will it play? Will that student get what he or she is looking for, which is the complete writings of the missing professor made from his whole lifetime of writing? He burns his CD/R and wonders. 739 Words. 2 Pages. ips20718 On That Day His CD Burning. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Why An Artist Joins the Queen Anne Chamber of Commerce:
Ten reasons

Artists who join their local Chamber of Commerce are more successful than those who won’t, claims this writer, as he sends his first membership check. He lists the reasons he thinks this will help him reach his long term goal of a re-invented arts studio. (Includes business profile) 1268 Words. 2 Pages. ips20708 Why An Artist Joins the Chamber of Commerce. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Seattle—City of Artists Parks:
Emeralda City’s Virtual, Verdant Virtuous Plan

Three principles—chaining, fishing and sustaining—channel this artist/scholar’s journey among local and global efforts toward reforestation of planet Earth. It’s his vast plan to join the Union of Concerned Scientists in their call to humanity to act now. 944 Words. 2 Pages. ips20708 Seattle City of Artists Parks. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

It’s Friday So This Must Be Perfect Studios:
Intertwine two worlds

Avoiding the pitfalls of an old world when dramaturge and solipsist are indistinguishable, today’s writer must not only think globally and act locally, but also build the pathway to travel. A local art festival is the scene behind which real play unfolds. 1010 Words. 2 Pages. ips20628 Its Friday So It Must Be Perfect Studios. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Interview with an Auction Expert:
Happy Tale of A Defrocked Professor Leading Somewhere

In a flash of inspiration, the hopeful public intellectual sees way to finance the un-financed—by fanciful means of interviewing an anonymous auction expert and then planning an auction to raise the monies for a resident public intellectual in a fishbowl. 1615 Words. 3 Pages. ips20618 Interview with An Auction Expert. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Seven Steps to A Highly Successful ____________:
From Henriette, Marco to Me

His search for the Perfect Studios ends in seven days—seventeen years from the day he walked off the old campus for good. That was the age of mechanical reproduction come to its end, and a new experience opened up he calls the age of digital reproduction. 2094 Words. 4 Pages. ips20608 Seven Steps to A Highly Effective--. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

The City Dump Museum of Art:
Transferring your legacy at the landfill

Taking his cue from the widow of a dead dentist, the author describes how he plans to avoid his worst nightmare: Seeing his legacy lost upon his death because his widow was unprepared to handle it. He thinks a game is the only answer for artist’s dilemma. 497 Words. 1 Page. ips20519 The City Dump Museum of Art. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Art Educators Must Embrace New Technology: :
A New Paradigm for Distance Learning from Reinvented Arts Studios

This essay is based on an interview in The Chronicle of Higher Education. It said for their own future and that of their students (and their former students) art education leaders must embrace new technologies with an old-fashioned entrepreneurial spirit. 1654 Words. 3 Pages. ips20509 Art Educators Must Embrace the New Technologies. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Teacher-What’s Wrong with My E-stamp?
Projections on a failed stamp issue

To pass on-line art education tests and thereby get credit for work, the student and the teacher must put each e-stamp in their e-folio of stamps through the build video test—for making a DVD. The author gives an accounting as his test proceeds, and more. 842 Words. 2 Pages. ips20429 Teacher What's Wrong with My E-stamp. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

A Case of Recursivity:
The Canon in D and other stories

Several Hollywood movies paint a background for this artist/writer’s plan for a game he invented called his Emeralda. He thinks electronic games are winners if they have a background screen play. But the academic side of him can’t be quelled as he writes. 1469 Words. 3 Pages. ips20419 A Case of Recursivity. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

One-minute Screenwriting:
Your Claim to 15-minute Fame

How long can we expect to be famous today or tomorrow if we are artists or writers? It’s more like a practical joke that the world, seen through rose-colored glasses, is playing. We let our imaginations run wild, but we must dream, anyway, and keep faith. 876 Words. 2 Pages. ips20409 One Minute Screenwriting. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Emeralda Works But What Do You Do?
What software testing means to me

Stopping partway between two tests he is running on a DVD-burning program, the author takes the opportunity to use this as an example to explain the purpose of the name he uses as his company. He introduces the routine of testing and burning DVDs for PCs. eralda Works. 916 Words. 2 Pages. ips20330 Emeralda Works by What Do You Do. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Links and Education Communities:
H. G. Wells’ World Brain is now possible

Concurrent with his work on Emeralda, an on-line interactive cooperative game he invented, this author works in digital media and writes about his works in progress. H. G. Wells’ 1938 book coincides with the evolution of links among teachers and students. 446 Words. 1 Page. ips20320 Links and Education Communities. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Why PDAs Are Required for Emeralda Play:
Making Your E-Stamp with Your Proximate

The e-stamp is a basic part of Emeralda, according to its inventor. He is a stamp artist in the age of digital reproduction. He wagers that the 240X320 viewing screens of most PDAs today are suited for matching the pairs of stamps and stories in Emeralda. 615 Words. 2 Page. ips20310 Why PDAs Are Required for Emeralda Play. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

How Emeralda Works
For On-line Art Ed

Emeralda Works is the business name that the inventor gave his on-line testing bureau. To get started, he needed a testing bench and a benchmark. His goal is to be a great teacher for the world’s printmaking societies, and his test is part of his success. 1107 Words. 2 Pages. ips20228 How Emeralda Works for On-line Art Ed. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

How Emeralda Works
For On-line Art Ed

Emeralda Works is the business name that the inventor gave his on-line testing bureau. To get started, he needed a testing bench and a benchmark. His goal is to be a great teacher for the world’s printmaking societies, and his test is part of his success. 1107 Words. 2 Pages. ips20228 How Emeralda Works for On-line Art Ed. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

My Secret Theory of Art Ed Online Revealed
Opening My Perfect Studios

People don’t want to be told how to make art. They want information about art making. This is the basis for a revolutionary approach to art education on-line an artist/professor invented. He wants to share it with a for-profit higher education enterprise. 1371 Words. 3 Pages. ips20218 My Secret Theory of Art Ed Online Revealed. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Stranger In My Perfect Studio
Words like beggars to understanding

A philosopher wrote in book the words, “The interplay of noise creates the conditions for emerging complexity, which is the pulse of life.” An artist in the age of digital reproduction responds with a description of how this is the feeling of strangeness. 565 Words. 2 Pages. ips20208 Stranger In My Perfect Studio. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

A New Idea for TIAA:
Asset Management and Legacy Transfer

The huge retirement fund to which most institutions of higher education subscribe has an opportunity to provide a valuable new service to professors. It is a trust fund for intellectual capital which has long been under the governance of old technologies. 1706 Words. 3 Pages. ips20118 A New Idea for TIAA. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Writing Between the Paragraphs – Part 5
Fantasy dialog between two professors

Distance learning is a new phenomenon of the late-20th Century, but usually excludes arts—the kind of hands-on art and face-to-face encounters we’re used to. Having cast away old assumptions, however, one man thinks art ed at a distance, on-line, is here. 1404 Words. 3 Pages. ips20108 Between the Paragraphs - Part 5. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

(For personal, custom service and downloading full text, send email to: ritchie@seanet.com)

2001 Essays

Sunday, December 30—It Must Be Perfect Studios:
A Day with an ITinerant Professor

Subject: A waking tourist checks his passport and tourist itinerary to get oriented. A routine daytime activity for an ITinerate Professor of art in the 21st Century, this story helps explain some short courses in paper and technology that the professor envisions. 924 Words. 2 Pages. ips1230 Sunday-It Must Be Perfect Studios. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Losing Intaglio Classes and Winning Them Back:
Future practices applied today

As an advocate of future practicum, an Itinerant Professor writes about how news of closure of intaglio printmaking classes is both bad and good, depending on the attitudes in universities. Their dwindling resources make opportunities for change, he says. 1234 Words. 3 Pages. ips11125 Losing Intaglio Classes and Winning Them Back. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Sharing Moments:
Foundations of Art Ed On-line

The designer of an art education on-line curriculum compares shares in the stockholder sense to shares in arts enterprises. A new view of economics is needed to enable the artist/teachers in the age of digital reproduction, and sharing moments is the key. 1641 Words. 3 Pages. ips11115 Sharing Moments Foundations of Art Ed Online. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Test Drive for the DVD Maker:
Not just another Bozo on the bus

He took a test drive over a weekend to see if, with his DVD-making skills, he could produce a disc that’s practical and beat his record time. Its utility value would take a longer period, but getting it from his raw idea to his e-store was his first goal. 1126 Words. 3 Pages. ips11105 Test Drive for the DVD Maker. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Reinventing the Art Collector:
New art instruments for times of uncertainty

E-mail about the first color Chinese prints made for art appreciation help an art and technology theorist see changes in art collecting. Information and telecommunications technology restores relationships in artists, collectors and art education domains. 1453 Words. 3 Pages. ips11026 Reinventing the Art Collector. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Keeping Your Passport Up-to-Date:
A cyber traveler’s cautionary tale

His passport is not a book like object that fits in his pocket with stamps in it showing where he’s been. The author created a digital passport going with his game, Emeralda. His essay is about being “passport ready,” conceived for folks who love freedom. 1073 Words. 2 Pages. ips11016 Keeping Your Passport Up to Date. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Case of the Missing Professor:
Paths you can audit, paths you can trust

Voices in his head, you could say, but the academic’s expression is inner dialog. A motivational speaker would say “inspired self-talk”. This artist/writer uses it to start his essay about Digital Versatile Discs (DVD) and how he is using DVD to make art. 1414 Words. 4 Pages. ips10926 Case of the Missing Professor. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Analyze This :
Not your usual book

A book falls from the top shelf as the author is clearing out his cell’s library—a relic but not ancient. Reading it stars him on a memory path, but not nostalgia. Concurrent events mean he’s coming back to where he began and seeing it for the first time. 3074 Words. 5 Pages. ips10728 Analyze This Not Your Usual Book. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Sneaky Professors Playing Games:
Why eggheads like to invent their own rules

World-saving plans sometimes take strange forms. You can have your government sponsored ones backed up by military might. Or, you may choose religious strategies. This writer selects mind games that intellectuals can play—and keep hidden in their closets. 2731 Words. 5 Pages. ips10718 Sneaky Professors Playing Games. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Knock Knock Who’s There?:
Your First Art Ed On-line Student

Another day, another test. At Emeralda Works the inventor of Emeralda gets to test his machine under all kinds of conditions. The real region he lives in offers surprises almost daily. Today it’s a chance encounter with a news item and a graduate student. 861 Words. 2 Pages. ips10628 Knock Knock Whos There first Art Ed Online. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Reverse Engineering Myself:
What makes an on-line art educator different?

The closer the possibility of doing anything artistic on the Internet World Wide Web, the more important it seems that rethinking arts becomes. Most, if not all, that we expect of artists and teachers is inappropriate to information technology of the Web. 2588 Words. 5 Pages. ips10618 Reengineering Myself An Art Educator. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Puzzlement:
Selling the Pieces of Multimedia Art History

The editor of the DVD, Living Prints Zine says that it be the “weekly reader” and main reference work for a free on-line art course in media arts appreciation. The pieces are sold like pieces of a thousand-piece puzzle, using the global on-line bookstore. 488 Words. 1 Page. ips10608 Puzzlement Sellng the Pieces of Multimedia Art Histo. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Don’t Retire a whiner:
1O steps to take now

The world’s best art teachers do not show the whole picture of artists’ lifetime work to their students. Among art education colleagues aging is a personal, secret issue. This writer—who strives to be a great teacher in the arts—offers some timely advice. 1606 Words. 3 Pages. ips10519 Do Not Retire A Whiner 10 Steps to Take. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Taking It With You:
Printmaker’s Pearlie Gates

Despite that they say You can’t take it with you (when you die), and Life is a journey no one gets out of alive, an artist who is using the mediums of printmaking and digital systems can pack his or her art with the end in mind. Life can outlive artists’. 918 Words. 2 Pages. ips10509 Taking It With You to Printmakers Heavenly Gates. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Do IT Right by the Kids:
Renewable wood and new media arts

 Enthused by encountering a PTA leader who is finding artists-in-residence for K-6 school kids, the author considers what he would do if he were given the task. He envisions a pull-marketing Web site to start thus making an Information Technology platform. 510 Words. 1 Pages. ips10419 Do IT right by the Kids. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Artist’s Happy Widow:
She’s Happiest Who’s Light on Her Feet

Dusty, one of the author’s avatar guides on the ferry taking Emeralda players to the Islands of Domains of Expertise, records his introductions. This is a technical sheet he used to improve his audio/video clip recording methods he needs for making a DVD. 2035 Words. 4 Pages. ips10320 Artists Happy Widow. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Thanks for Your Prescience:
A Case of Mistaken Advice

 The artist/author plans to see a private college for the teaching, research and practice of arts of the 21st Century, so he considers how posters—to him the epitome of exciting graphic arts—used to be published. He thinks about new ways of seeing posters. 1650 Words. 3 Pages. ips10310 Thanks for Your Prescience. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Dream Equity:
MOE Versus OPE

What are dreams for, anyway, if not to be one’s private, self-sustaining critical analyses devices? Dreams are more than odd and uncontrollable phenomena to the Emeralda Defender. Dreams can suggest the right things to do in making investments in oneself. 2262 Words. 5 Pages. ips10228 Dream Equity. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Another Look at Partnering:
Looking to Develop Artists’ Trust in Technology?
Discover A Strategic Partner

The artist/author thinks: Partnering--hearing there is a job opening at Artist Trust for development associate. It as not a job, but an opportunity to open a gate leading toward co-operating in the Next Big Thing in artistic livelihood for Washingtonians. (Copy written article may be incomplete). 2433 Words. 5 Pages. ips10218 Another Look at Partnering. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

A Prisoner’s Dilemma and New Twist on an Old Story:
Walking A Life-long Journey in Your Students’ Shoes

Awakening from a dream, the ITinerate Professor applies a new standard for evaluation of the online, interactive, cooperative game he invented and finds it is not a game to play after all, but a curriculum design for art teachers who want to teach online. 2709 Words. 5 Pages. ips10208 A Prisoner's Dilemma and New Twist on an Old Story. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Nightmare Prevention
My Worst Fears Overcome

As a young professor, he saw what happens to old professors’ work. His living nightmare was confirmed by Dr. Osler’s recommendation: Old professor should be gassed. He invented ways to stop his this nightmare, conserving as that was his lifelong striving. 1023 Words. 2 Pages. ips10129 Nightmare Prevention for Old Professors. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Power of Limits
In Digital Fine Arts and Crafts There’s Barely Enough Room to Turn Around

The artist/scholar thinks of himself as a moral philosopher. He encounters another author, a bona fide philosopher and scholar, calling himself an artist. In the daily routine of writing on a computer and solving little technical problems is a difference. 1240 Words. 2 Pages. ips10119 Power of Limits in Digital Fine Arts. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

(For personal information, downloads of full text and custom service, send e-mail to  ritchie@seanet.com)

2000 Essays

Artist Trust Dental Service Cooperative Auction:
A Joint Venture in the Art of Life Science

Close to the end of the art auction era a new kind of auction experience is opening up, thanks to the Internet and World Wide Web. And who should initiate it, this new kind of art auction, but an artist. He puts his own works on the line—on-line, that is. 1038 Words. 2 Pages. ips01225 Artist Trust Dental Services Co Op On Line Auction. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.  

You Are on My List:
A Message to Certain People on Our Seasonal Greeting Card Mailing List

The artist sends a message to selected people whose names are on his and his wife’s joint Seasonal Greeting Card mailing lists—a practice they started in 1999 under the false names of Trixie and Dusty. His reason for a special message is his new Web site.  1054 Words. 2 Pages. ips01215 You Are on My List. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

If You’re So Smart, How Come You’re Not Ritchie?
I am!

Bill writes about himself, stopping between facing his fear of his drawers (paper drawers, that is) and getting on with one of his database building projects. He imagined an article that recounts how he grew wealthy after reading into Stephen Pollan’s book. 1450 Words. 3 Pages. ips01128 If You Art So Smart. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

The Gates Prize:
The World's Best Kept Secret Award

The history of the Gates Prize is explained by one of the recipients of the prize. The focus is on the reason the prize is virtually unknown. Gates, while he lived, knew that such a perfect situation, and such a prize, was a hundred or more years distant. 714 Words. 2 Pages. ips01124 The Gates Prize History. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Birth of Trixie:
His Story of A Computer Program

Ritchie, working on Emeralda, describes how he came upon the idea of one of the many iterations of his game. He says the game is for “the gifts of life” and sees himself as being on a pathway (or locus) of beauty. He puts it in the form of computer games. 949 Words. 2 Pages. ips01112 Birth of Trixie. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Simple Man, Simple Dreams:
The Printmaker’s Last Love Letter

The printmaker who designed “TRYX” explains the events that led up to the invention of the product. Deaths of an art professor and a dentist triggered his imagination and jump-started his plan to develop a remedy for an old economic dilemma families face. 1366 Words. 3 Pages. ips01023 Simple Man Simple Dreams. ©2000 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

Big Flash!
New lease and free Web sites

A magic Genie-like figure visits the author as he was polishing a picture frame and revealed the secret he was searching for—a key to his family fortune, a collection of art. It is an idea that could only come to someone with art both in hand and on-line. 520 Words. 1Page. ips01013 Big Flash. ©2000 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

Asset Management for Artists in the Age of Electronic Communication:
Love Letters in Silica

Appraising art after Y2K is a new kind of game for artists, crafts people and designers with obligations to families and communities. The implicit chivalry of creative, inventive, discovering and imaginative people did not die when computers took command. 1178 Words. 3 Pages. ips00924 Artists' Asset Management. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

In Retro:
What is it all about?

An artist who put on his own 40-year retrospective explains himself, as he thinks about a three-year exhibit that he began in the year 2000. He compares it to artists who come forward to explain their way, and to an Olympian taskmaster coach he saw on TV. ics: 1006 Words. 4749 Characters. 2 Pages. ips00918 In Retro What Is It All About. ©2000 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

Why Buy Emeralda?
Valuation of an unborn blockbuster game

The creative, inventive, discovering and imaginative artist of a past era, spent playing teaching, research and production roles, must pause and consider the commercial value—in every sense of the word value—of non-competitive games for the gifts of life. 2278 Words.  4 Pages. ips00910 Why Buy Emeralda Valuation of An Unborn Blockbuster. ©2000 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

Charter of accounting in the age of electronic communications:
Designer accounting and artists’ markets

An e-gallery, or e-store, is the artist’s gateway to the age of electronic reproduction. In the same way the printing press enabled the visually and aurally empowered creative person’s participation in community economies, the Internet empowers artists.  1376 Words. 3 Pages. ips00826 Charter of Accounting in the Age of Electronic Communications. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Unfinished Garage Saga Demonstration:
Mr. Ritchie Goes to California

This author/writer falls in with business-minded people and then is expected to show them his business plan—but he has none. The next year, he heard a lecture by a Real Networks founder say that a serious business today is not planned. Things change fast. 527 Words. 2 Pages. ips00806 Unfinished Garage Saga. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Windows on my Studio:
An artist’s buying spree

He is thinking of the best of all studios he can imagine, and in a vision he sees a series of examples and decides which one to choose. In the end, he decides he will have them all—as only he can! In a way, that’s exactly what he has! His Perfect Studios. 1915 Words. 3 Pages. ips00803 Windows on My Studio An Artists Buying Spree. ©2000 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr. 

My Retrospective:
The Real Thing

The rejection card was short and to the point, saying to me, “We are a dying business so we do not need you.” It was from a magazine editor who—like the card she sent me—was on the way to the recycling bin. The author turns his attention to better things. 1799 Words. 3 Pages. ips00710 My Retrospective The Real Thing. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

I Dream of Genie:
Wisdom in A Bottle

Asset Management and Legacy Transfer are key elements of Emeralda. The businesses in Emeralda Works test ways to communicate to customers the values of these two facets. The goals of Emeralda’s players are to develop knowledge and skill through practices. 874 Words. 2 Pages. ips00701 I Dream of Genie Wisdom in A Bottle. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Raising capital for your enterprise:
Your tangibles

Most people are consumers, not producers. If you are a consumer, you need to learn how producers raise capital to pay out money for their productions. Consumers have a habit of using money from their salary, but producers are not in that habit. 1237 Words. 2 Pages. ips00630 Raising Capital for Your Enterprise. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Lost Treasure:
Discovering My Art Collection

 The founder of the company, myartpatron.com, encounters a database he created in 1993 and he since had not reviewed: A documentary list of his art collection, valued at the time at $33,000. He says how unforgettable this experience was-one he almost lost. 1133 Words. 2 Pages. ips00627 Lost Treasure Discovering My Art Collection. ©2000 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr

An Artist’s Legacy Lost:
A Patron Misunderstood

An aging artist views the difference between the fuzzy outlines of his foresight as a young artist’s and the clarity of hindsight. He made a mural in the 1960s which now rots in his father’s back yard, its intellectual capital value greater than tangible. 569 Words. 1 Pages. ips00604 An Artists Legacy Lost A Patron Misunderstood. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Going Insane:
A Vision of Sharing with Classmates

Imagining himself as among the few who understand the work of art in the age of digital communication technologies, the author compares the feeling with that of insane peoples’. He pictures people from his college art classmates and imagines the reaction. 1289 Words. 3 Pages. ips00523 Going Insane A Vision of Sharing. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

The Artist’s Last Love Letter:
Classmate Remembered, Approximately

In Pokemon, game-players capture strange creatures in an imaginary, prefabricated electronic matrix. In the game, Proximates, a similar activity proceeds, but players capture moments and then compare them with their mates’ moments and their own creations. 5526 Words. 25588 Characters. 34 Pages. ips00511 Artists Last Love Letter Classmates Remembered. ©2000 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr

Why No One Ever Heard of the Gates Prize:
Secrets Revealed

The invention of Emeralda, the games for the gifts of life, led to creation, invention, discovering and imagination reward to be known as a Gates Prize. It is a prize comparable, but unlike, the Pulitzer, Nobel and MacArthur prizes, but measurably unique. 638 Words. 2 Pages. ips00427 Why No One Ever Heard of the Gates Prize. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

If I had $500 Million:
An art professor’s modest proposal for a craft of arts

He’s a retired art professor from the university of Washington, and he dreams of bringing the SS United States—the Big U—to a shipyard west of his Seattle home. He’ll need $500 million to do it, and he thinks of a way by going online and making the money. 1222 Words. 2 Pages. ips00419 If I had 500 Million An Art Professor's Modest Propo. ©2000 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr

New Art Game Rules:
Getting a Legacy Up in Your Domain

He’s rewriting some of the rules of Emeralda, seeing what works with one of today’s online file storage schemes called driveway.com. He draws on a huge library of his art, dating back to the early 1960s, and then comes up with some new rules he can share. 630 Words. 2 Pages. ips00405 New Art Game Rules Getting a Legacy Up in Your Domain. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Library Stories:
Touching the artist’s soul in the new machine

His new art is in a library in Skokie, Illinois. It is a first. The print was born in line with a vision and exhibited on line for other people. Reflecting on his story and libraries, the artist identifies his legacy and soul with one of the new machines. 1062 Words. 5 Pages. ips00404 Library Stories Touching the Artists Soul in the New. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

The Emeralda Inventor’s Last Love Letter:
To his loving family

In 1992, events occurred that changed this author’s life. One was an article, The Last Love Letter, about financial plights facing survivors after the death of a loved one--one who was a provider of their livelihood. The lessons are reviewed in this essay. 8661 Words. 13 Pages. ips00319 Emeralda Inventors Last Love Letter. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

My Best Art:
“My Father’s Farm”

The artist realizes his new interpretation for one of his artworks and provides a candid commentary on why he thinks, in light of the day, year and decades’ events, that this his best art work. The work is titled My Father’s Farm, an etching made in 1972. 1205 Words. 2 Pages. ips00318 My Best Art My Fathers Farm. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction:
Why I sold my shares in eCollege.com

Concurrent convergence of two streams often reveals a third and then a fourth awareness. Writers, painters, printmakers, sculptors, crafts people and designers are in for a high-flying ride, a bright new and hopeful future, thanks to digital reproduction. 1115 Words. 5326 Characters. 2 Pages. ips00317 Works of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction. ©2000 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr

Arts Uniform Resource E-commerce Locator:
Artist-friendly Technology

An appeal to public and private sectors to join with in the creation of an online standard for artists, crafts people and designer resources on the Net. It is a statewide Community Art School and Museum where, at any time, one can contact creative people. 1614 Words. 3 Pages. ips00309 Arts Uniform Resource E-commerce Locator. ©2000 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr

Class Reunion:
The Over the Hill Gang Revisited

Just before going over a mountain to revisit his alma mater, a retired college professor reviews his goals and then he asks himself if--as the expression goes--he has gone “over the hill.” He invited a classmate, too, then he composed a joke and an essay.  1176 Words. 2 Pages. ips00308 Class Reunion Over the Hill. ©2000 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr

Perfect Solution to an Imperfect Problem
Washington State’s Bright Future for Arts Ed

The author followed the proceedings of his state (Washington) arts commission as they rallied citizens groups and artists for a review and structuring of new policy to set before the governor. Partway through, he wrote this essay based on his observation.1051 Words. 5101 Characters. 2 Pages. ips00305 Perfect Solution to an Imperfect Problem. ©2000 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

As A Tub Runs Over
Art Ed Online Proprietary Search Engine

Envisioning an online art education channel for Washington, an ITinerate Professor looks at a voluminous, ordered database growing on a public Web site at the start of Y2K. Then he suggests how to use this example of human structural intellectual capital. 2799 Words. 13031 Characters. 5 Pages. ips00216 Vision of Art Education Proprietary Search Engine. ©2000 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

(For downloads of full text, personal and customized services send e-mail to: ritchie@seanet.com)

1999 Articles

Islands of Temporary Knowledge:
Bridges in cyberspace

To identify, capture, control, and evaluate soft, creative and often intrinsic (or tacit) knowledge, the old mechanical ways do not work. To build an equity account that will serve its owners now and in the future, I am building a great lake of knowledge. 1454 Words. 2 Pages. PS990717 ©1999 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

Pain of death:
A gut-wrenching wake up call

When the computer screen lighted but The Three Sisters' peaks had vanished, it stirred in the author's stomach like pangs of death, a sick feeling one gets sometimes when fear or panic attacks. Images of the wake of a departed artist/colleague awaken him. 1364 Words. 2 Pages. PS990716 ©1999 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

Another risk, another dollar:
Emeralda for Dummies Risk Workbook

Waiting for the telephone to ring can become an economically disastrous habit if you are in the business of inventing a game for the gifts of life. The inventor of Emeralda pursues the principle of concurrent marketing, sales, and development concurrency. 947 Words. 1 Page. PS990715 ©1999 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

Of Silver Bullets, Triage and Emeralda:
Life without disease and the pursuit of Perfect Health in Living to 120

"Invest in labor," said an academic economist, not knowing of what he spoke. "Blow your brains out," said a corporate guru, her meaning of a silver-bullet solution to unsustainable longevity. The artist sees a different path and invents a game to show it. 1682 Words. 2 Pages. PS990714 ©1999 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

Stacking the odds:
Old age is not for dummies

The Bible, a clipping from AARP Nation and a review of books on the economic future of health care are the bases for this essay about using new tools to approach ancient dilemmas. The author plans to live a long life and he uses the natural gifts of life. 2085 Words. 3 Pages. PS990713 ©1999 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

Crash!
How Living to 100 is like a bumper-bender

The writer's 100-year life plan and things that go bump on the road meet again, resulting in a bent bumper plus a thousand-dollar expense. The path of one who chooses cars instead of computers is bound to be more costly in the long run than Emeralda play. 1680 Words. 2 Pages. PS990712 ©1999 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

On A Golden Horizon:
Paralysis by analysis

An academic view of healthcare education at institutions of higher learning discovers an irony of outsider's attempt to understand why analysis is out of fashion in the US. The author likes an inside-out approach using new technology for dental education. 607 Words. 2818 2 Pages. PS990518 ©1999 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

Getting there from here:
Worth and paper

Getting there from here is the purpose of the author's presentations to people in health sciences and the arts. Introducing the MFA certificate, he means Multi Faceted Auxiliary, explaining the background of a new approach to art and technology education. 612 Words. 1 Page. PS990517 ©1999 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

Old Wood and Good Fruit:
Grafting and planting new orchards

A farm boy at heart, the author looks ahead on his 4th day at Perfect Studios and envisions a new orchard as ten trees standing alongside his old ones. The new one is for the next fifty years; the old one stands for the last. EarthSafe 2029 is the reason. 1578 Words. 2 Pages. PS990516 ©1999 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

Labor vision:
Laboring for yourself

Emeralda--a game for the gifts of life--is a blend of chess and solitaire. Board games and card games help people understand how to invest in themselves using new information and telecommunications technologies. Cooperation is a keyword that changes them. 1110 Words. 4906 Characters. 3 Pages. PS990515 ©1999 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

The Importance of Trees:
Logon and alogon dialog

Learning the 20 Century computer memory management systems required that one follow a logical tree structure. Avoiding logic had its advantages, however, as one could conceal one's soul from the prying eyes of fools. "You can not speak it" is a good rule. 486 Words. 1 Page. PS990514 ©1999 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

Networks, computers and you:
Getting there, being there, staying there

A Dentalisco builder plans to speak to a Dental Assistant organization about information technology and the development of new employment opportunities in dental practices. He says there is are crises and opportunities, and it's like swimming not sinking. 942 Words. 2 Pages. PS990513 ©1999 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

Disaster sale!
The quiet way to Ritchie's Hours

He gambled, invested in labor, as in Human Structural Intellectual Capital. He put over four months in ways to make himself known among other potential investors whom he felt most likely will succeed in Emeralda play. Win/win games pay, but at what costs? 321 Words. 1 Page. PS990315 ©1999 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

Welcome to my world:
Emeralda Inventor's Real Fantasy

The inventor of the game, Emeralda, describes how his world looks from his perspective as he enters other peoples' worlds. Three peaks in the Emeralda Region are derived from mountains he grew up with, but in another way as seen through the art of prints. 514 Words. 1 Page. PS990314 ©1999 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

Multi-level marketing and Score sheets:
Gates to economic engineering in the arts

On-line communications opens new kinds of economic engineering principles, like investing in securities, legacy transfer and asset management. It loops us back to the artist's day to day participation in his or her communities of practice and art selling. 1405 Words. 2 Pages. PS990115 ©1999 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

Reinventing the Four Freedoms:
Soap bubbles and economics of cooperation

What is the connection between soap bubbles and the national economy? This