SPEACON ZINE ESSAYS

I've written over a hundred essays about speaking, consulting, design and training, and about and high tech arts. My articles used to be published on paper in Crafts Report, Ceramics Monthly, newsletters of Artist Trust, Northwest Cyberartists and Northwest Printmakers. Now I only publish online, but I would happily write for paper-based publishers. For details and full text contact me by e-mail at ritchie@seanet.com.  - Bill Ritchie

View Summaries for the years: 2003 / 2002 / 2001 / 2000 / 1999 / 1998 / 1997 / 1996 / 1995 / 1994 / 1993 / 1992 / 1991 / 1990 / 1989-88 

New! What This Neighborhood Needs is A Great New Business:
Dreaming of a perfect studio

A street corner shop a near his home has started this artist dreaming of a perfect setup for his passion—print making with new technologies. He’s brainstorming, thinking of ways to make it an amazingly successful venture and highly appealing to investors. 607 Words. 2760 Characters. 1 Page. isp31127 What This Neighborhood Needs is A Great New Business. ©2003 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

One Stamp is Enough:
A new twist on Stamps ‘N Stories

He opens his game every day, searching for clues to the next step in the evolving invention of a video game-based learning experience. Today, after a night of playing a game called Art is Dead, he realizes one stamp (from 1993)—chosen randomly, is enough. 442 Words. 2105 Characters. 1 Page. isp31117 One Stamp is Enough. ©2003 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Emeralda Levels:
Understanding Emeralda as a video game

According to his reading in Game Creation and Careers, a design document describes a video game so the inventor of Emeralda starts by defining the levels within the Meta world of Emeralda Region. He describes 14 levels and this sets the tone for the game. 537 Words. 2658 Characters. 1 Page. isp31107 Emeralda Levels Defined. ©2003 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Beyond A Job:
A teacher’s day in retrospect

On a typical day this teacher may teach, do research, produce something and perform a service. Also he may get feedback, some of it by e-mail, the news, or just by being watchful of things that happen. This essay refers to several issues worth mentioning. 1410 Words. 6411 Characters. 3 Pages. isp31028 Beyond A Job. ©2003 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Imagining An Excellence Online Campus at Shoreline:
A Visitors’ Vision of Possibilities

His daily routine involves opening a fantasy game he created for his own entertainment, something named Emeralda Stamps ‘N Stories—mixing stamp collecting games and adventure story. As he’s starting to teach at a community college, he imagines sharing it. 914 Words. 4565 Characters. 2 Pages. isp30928 Imagining An Excellence Online Campus. ©2003 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

What Will Emeralda Players Want?
Satisfaction for explorers, socializers, achievers and killers

This teacher (and an artist) imagines what people would want in an online game that is part fun and part education. He thinks as the persons who typically play video games online: explorer, achiever, socializer and killer. He also wants something himself. 839 Words. 4034 Characters. 2 Pages. isp30908 What Will Emeralda Players Want. ©2003 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Feature Games:
Auditing Emeralda

He’s like a student getting ready for his exams. Once he was a professor, and now he’s back on campus in a new role as a learner. Yet he’s part of a unique student body of campus returnees. He’s worked out a new scheme he calls a game, featuring his life.1053 Words. 4735 Characters. 2 Pages. isp30829 Feature Games. ©2003 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

I Reflect, Therefore I am Playing:
Moves of the game inventor

The inventor of Emeralda Stamps ‘N Stories retraces his path through the Web pages of his creation, clicks on this stamp and that, and reviews the trivia games he created. At one point he views his reading thirty years ago to mine the meaning of a phrase. 940 Words. 4450 Characters. 2 Pages. isp30720 I Reflect Therefore I Am Playing. ©2003 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Deep Emeralda:
Clare Livingstamp and Loop da Loo

Another page of my journal is taken into a private art collection, and that fact inspires me to think about how Emeralda Works in surprising ways. The new owner has been working Saturdays on many of the same questions I am asking, and is testing Emeralda.1073 Words. 5124 Characters. 2 Pages. isp30620 Deep Emeralda. ©2003 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Insights to Africa:
A Quiz for the Fine Art Printmaking ITinerate Professor

He’s one of hundreds who gets an e-mail from a South African student who’s considering fine art printmaking and asks ten questions to help her make the decision. It’s an opportunity for him to test himself—like a role-play reversal of student and teacher. 2210 Words. 10442 Characters. 4 Pages. isp30610 Insights to Africa. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

How Emeralda Is Like Chess:
Planning your moves on the Islands of Domains-of-Expertise

The inventor of Emeralda is like a castaway, disenfranchised from the known art world and university communities. He’d satisfy his problem-solving impulses by playing a strategic game, like chess, but he never learned it! Emeralda play is the alternative. 1303 Words. 6319 Characters. 3 Pages. isp30531 How Emeralda Is Like Chess. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Tracing An Artist’s Way:
The Story of Lisel Salzer’s Videotape

He handles a small shipment, only five copies, of a videotape created over 17 years earlier by an artist who was in her 80s at the time she produced it. Now, she’s over 97; and her tape is still being sold and viewed. How did this happen? What is learned? 1032 Words. 4755 Characters. 2 Pages. isp30521 Tracing An Artists Way - Lisel Salzer. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

UW Artists:
An idea whose time has come

The University of Washington Medical School gave him a model for his “perfect studios” because it is a teaching hospital. Teaching, research, practice and service are performed all at once, under the same roof. UW Physicians came out this, so why not art? 1358 Words. 6580 Characters. 3 Pages. isp30401 UW Artists An Idea Whose Time Has Come. ©2003 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Emeralda:
A Teaching Tool

Taking signals from a psychology professor, the art professor writes about his idea for an entertaining and educational game. After more than ten years of playing it by himself, he’s seeing similarities between his theory and practices of other educators. 995 Words. 5203 Characters. 2 Pages. isp30322 Emeralda A Teaching Tool. ©2003 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Analyze This:
Parking at the SIM

The professor moves into his fifth of a six-part, three-year retrospective of his 40-year career, analyzing the Seattle Independent Mall and how it resembles the successes and failures of other peoples’ enterprises and concludes that losers are non-users. 706 Words. 3152 Characters. 2 Pages. isp21127 SIM Walking . ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

If I Didn't have a million dollars:
I'd start a school for art ed on-line

Art ed on-line will develop like the Ford Mustang was--in a skunk works fashion. Also it will have to be a co-op school, with its participants owning the majority shares. A veteran warrior for two worlds-one dying and one trying to be born--tries his PPC. 1148 Words. 5506 Characters. 3 Pages. isp21018 If I Did Not Have A Million Dollars-I would start a school for art ed on-line. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

What I Learned from My Dream:
From Conversation Café to Teaching Anxiety

Dreamwrighting—that’s what they could call this process of setting up one’s self to dream and then sleeping through it, mining one’s dreams for ideas, indications of the right thing to do, and positing answers to help lead one to heightened effectiveness. 1085 Words. 2 Pages. isp21008 What I Learned from My Dream. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Interviewing Printmaking Students:
What They Want

He’s met people of all ages who want to be printmakers and he wonders why. Young or old, what attracts them to printmaking—the arts or the crafts, the design, the money, or mere curiosity? On the other side of it, what attracted him, for over forty years? 994 Words. 2 Pages. isp20929 Interviewing Printmaking Students. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr. Full Text

Where I go at SPEACON:
My Morning at Dodge of Bellevue

He’s on a fantasy trip to the Island of the Domain-of-Expertise in speaking, consulting, design and training with a phantom firstmate named Jon. In reality he’s in a waiting room at a car service, but working on a book titled An Artist’s Last Love Letter. 1215 Words. 2 Pages. isp20918 Where I go on SPEACON. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

If I Worked at Northland:
Tell You What I’d Do

It’s a good thing to plan ahead, to envision, to imagine. That’s better than knowledge because then it’s already over—what you imagine can still happen. So this author imagines what he’d do if suddenly he found himself as an adjunct virtual professor. 2256 Words. 4 Pages. isp20908 If I Worked at Northland. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

The E-Goose that Laid the Golden Egg:
An Itinerate Professor’s Tale

A professor who excludes teaching in order to learn more realizes soon that there’s only one path to follow in the age of digital reproduction, and it’s that which will take him to the electronic goose that lays golden eggs. E-books pave this pathway now. 957 Words. 2 Pages. isp20829 The E-Goose that Laid the Golden Egg. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Depending On Your Devices
The Artistamp in the Age of Digital Reproduction

When a person has talent, is creative, inventive, discovers things and is a highly imaginative person, then the arts appeal to them. She can be independent. She can rely on her own devices to grow, survive and thrive. How about new device interdependency? 508 Words. 1 Page. isp20819 Depending On Your Devices. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Return of the Stamp King 
Back from the Beach with a Stamp Album

It’s time to go back to work on the season’s task—a school teacher guide to e-folios. The author has the key to art education on-line and he calls it the e-stamp. The question he has to answer is what is the one thing that fast-lane learners can remember? 924 Words. 2 Pages. isp20809 Return of the Stamp King. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

When Art’s in the Toilet, You’ve Gone Too Far:
The War Must Go On

A bad experience in the night for the Itinerate Professor is a blow alongside the head, reawakening him to the importance of continuing arts education in ways suitable to these times—the 21^st Century. Somewhere there’s a place for his invention, Emeralda. 821 Words. 2 Pages. isp20730 When Art is in the Toilet You have gone too far. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

What it Was Was Nostalgia:
Back to the Future

The artist/scholar drafts a short story about a meeting that probably couldn’t have happened, but could make an interesting one act play. Thinking back to 20^th Century art festival that, at one time long ago, meant a lot to him, he thinks the fun is over. 897 Words. 2 Pages. isp20730 What it Was Was Nostalgia. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Tipping-in Artistamps at SPEACON
Going Away from NODO to SODO

 The tipping point to cause an epidemic of interest in EarthSafe 2022 may be in some unlikely place like South of Downtown instead of North of Downtown. The author volunteered to show a drawing technique at an art supply store—will it be the tipping point? (Continuing exercise in copy-writing over another author's work) 6730 Words. 12 Pages. isp20720 Tipping In Artistamps at SPEACON. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Uptown Multimedia Arts Center:
One of Four perspectives-the Artist

Before a meeting of like-minded people interested in a multimedia arts center for Uptown Seattle, the multimedia artist prepares his ideas in writing. He is beginning with the end in mind and a picture that does not look like a typical computer classroom. 1053 Words. 2 Pages. isp20710 Uptown Multimedia Arts Center Four Perspectives. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

How to Stroll:
An Artist Walks His Talk

Confronted with deciding to become either an artist or a teacher, the so-called artist/scholar elucidates on his games theory in art education by demonstrating proper walking-your-talking technique. He’s planning to “stomp stamps” and make millions happy. 3657 Characters. 788 Words. 2 Pages. isp20710 How to Stroll. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

What is Uptown Multimedia Arts Center?
History and theory-Part I

Invited to present his vision of a multimedia arts center to be located in and for his community, the artist/professor reviews events that brought his concept into being and explains why this resemble but does not duplicate technology centers of the past. 1360 Words. 3 Pages. isp20630 What is Uptown Multimedia Arts Center. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

My Night At Vel’s:
Creative Writing in Your Neighborhood

For seven weeks in the summer of 2002, the artist/scholar made trips to meet with writers who used a woman’s front room for writing and then reading stories to one another. He was asking, “What do you want out of the Web?” and “. . . in an arts festival?” 547 Words. 1 Pages. isp20620 My Night at Vels. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Emeralda Works II :
Two Kinds of Insanity

The tenth anniversary of the invention of his game Emeralda is coming, and he wants to celebrate it by giving away free what he thought would be his nest egg. In a world gone insane, it seems, it’s a matter of fighting fire with fire—or cooperative games. 1275 Words. 2 Pages. isp20610 Emeralda Works II. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Before I Died, I Made A Print:
An Owners Guide for Homage to Hayter

Notes on the final image on his print, Homage to Hayter as Bill Ritchie has some final thoughts on this work. He wonders what Hayter would have said, finishing—unbeknownst to him—his last print. No one knows but what they are doing now is their last deed. 

Before I Died, I Made A Print:
An Owners Guide for Homage to Hayter

Notes on the final image on his print, Homage to Hayter as Bill Ritchie has some final thoughts on this work. He wonders what Hayter would have said, finishing—unbeknownst to him—his last print. No one knows but what they are doing now is their last deed. 2902 Words. 4 Pages. isp20531 Before I Died I Made A Print. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Homage to Hayter:
Thoughts for Folio 13

As he does a print for a printmaking exchange that takes place on the Internet, the artist/scholar notes some thoughts that he will use to accompany the print as an artist’s statement. He compares printmaking to music and performance, instruments and art. 578 Words. 2 Pages. isp205011 Homage to Hayter 01. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

The Bower Bird Artist:
A blow alongside the head

His computer crashed—actually it was a virus that took it down—and the artist/scholar has to do some re-evaluation as a result. It was so like a vision he had thirty years before, and which led him to this ironic outcome. Or, is it an income? 996 Words. 2 Pages. isp20501 The Bower Bird Artist. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Revisiting Reinventing Arts Studios :
Turning over a new leaf in an old manuscript

He started the manuscript for Reinventing Arts Studios several times in the 1990s; but technology seemed to render each version obsolete before he could produce this book. Now he says it appears technology will never settle down long enough to be printed. 1182 Words. 2 Pages. isp20421 Revisiting Reinventing Arts Studios. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Thinking Globally and Acting Locally:
All talk and no action?

A seasoned speaking artist—after years of serving as an art professor and accustomed to talking, thinking and acting in communities—reflects on September 11 and what he’s done since then that is making differences. He’s seeking action on par with talking. 1055 Words. 2 Pages. isp20411 Thinking Globally and Acting Locally. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Getting and Giving Art Credits in the Age of Digital Reproduction:
Outcome and Income Considerations

Reading an article about teacher accreditation piqued this artist/scholar’s interest because it made him think of issues now twenty years old. Expert Systems were being used for industrial production parallel with concerns about the outcomes of education. 1440 Words. 3 Pages. isp20401 Getting and Giving Art Credit in the Age of Digital Reproduction. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

I Passed My Test!
It’s Your E-Portfolio

He’s working on new kinds of portfolios for artists, crafts people and designers, thus the author takes on the role of inventor. He must test each part of his electronic portfolio to insure that it will conform to today’s new technologies’ specifications. 1481 Words. 3 Pages. isp20322 I Passed My Test. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Got A Life Changing Event, Anyone?
Thinking about Dusty Cann

The author, studying screenplay writing because Emeralda, the game he invented, is based on a background story. This led him from his fictional piece to the idea of using his story for a new kind of movie that was based on hypermedia and the Internet Web. 767 Words. 2 Pages. isp20312 Life Changing Events Anyone. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Changing Backgrounds of Art Ed On-line:
Setting Standards for E-portfolios in Art Education On-line

Drawing on the expression, “aiming at a moving target,” the author prescribes a way to approach the problem of measuring the effect of on-line art studios on students and faculty in art education. He uses the analogy of the engineering lab class to begin. 1642 Words. 3 Pages. isp20302 Changing Backgrounds of Art Ed On-line. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

How the Idea of Art Ed On-line Almost Died:
Bill H. Ritchie Jr. Recalls the UW Phase

Two pleasant surprises and one bad one—early retirement on short notice—are recalled by the artist/scholar. He has either gained fifteen years or lost them as a result of what happened to him when he was middle-aged. He has no regrets today, so he writes. 741 Words. 2 Pages. isp20220 How the Idea of Art Ed On-line Almost Died. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Revolutionizing Art Education:
EDT technology creates a new channel for Art Ed On-line

He counts up his electronic stamps like a modern-day stamp collector, comparing them to the stamps he got in his passport when he studied abroad. There’s more in an e-stamp than meets the eye and so the stamp will revolutionize getting information on art. 1260 Words. 3 Pages. isp20210 Revolutionizing Art Education. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Art Dealers and Digital Defenders:
Getting stuck in a passion for printmaking

Considering assisting art dealers calls to this writer’s mind the tacit agreements they’ve reached with living printmaking artists during his career. If art is to live on, dealers need to help fight wars against ignorance in this digital reproduction age. 2105 Words. 4 Pages. isp20131 Art Dealers and Digital Defenders. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Prints at A Distance:
Farewell paper-intensive prints

After several years’ of trying to rejoin the printmaking world by exhibiting and participating in organized art world activities, the author realizes it’s time to leave. He uses the metaphor of a late-night party, himself being among the first to go home. 686 Words. 2 Pages. isp20121 Prints at A Distance. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Between the Paragraphs – Part 8:
Fantasy dialog between two professors

Credits in college translate into money, as most economic surveys prove, with college graduates usually earning more return on their investment over the long term. The notable exceptions give this writer pause to consider if it will remain true or change. 1303 Words. 3 Pages. isp20111 Between the Paragraphs - Part 8. ©2002 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Navigating the BIG PICTURE:
Begin With the end in Mind

For the outline of a class called Your Printmaking Class: Paper to Technology, the artist/teacher/author describes a filing system that will help the course find its way to a place among fine are printmaking learned in part through on-line arts education. 991 Words. 2 Pages. isp20101 Navigating the BIG PICTURE. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

For full text, downloads, or professional writing or teaching services contact ritchie@seanet.com

2001 Essays

Journal-writing Is Old Technology:
A new, better way is DVD

Opening his DVD every day the way some people open their diary or journal every day, a pioneer in art and technology recalls his teaching days at a progressive liberal arts college where journals were a requirement, and thinks they should update the rule. 1143 Words. 3 Pages. isp11127 Journal-writing Is Old Technology. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Would You Take A Printmaking Seminar?
Or, things you didn’t learn in art school revealed

He’s dedicated to the idea of distance learning, so it’s odd that this author would be tempted by a nostalgic visit to an art studio. Several days after visiting there, he considers the space may serve as a meeting place for on-line art education venture. 1497 Words. 3 Pages. isp11118 Would You Take A Printmaking Seminar. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Incredible High School Art Class
How art ed-online works for a Wunderkind

Role-playing a childhood memory, the author compares his boyhood to his 60-year old self. A short screenplay illustrates “snaps” his idea for an on-line art-ed session. He pictures a time when art-ed has caught up with the times, using DVD as a sketchpad. 1598 Words. 3 Pages. isp11028 Incredible High School Art Class. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Better Than BINGO:
Filling in boxes with buttons

The inventor’s own words as he discovers something about playing his game, Emeralda, that even he did not expect—it’s better than playing Bingo! He’s referring to adding mini-movies to his latest DVD. He’s writing this at the same time he’s making a disc. 1170 Words. 2 Pages. isp11018 Better Than BINGO. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Secrets of A Virtual Year:
Missing links

Creating a DVD, you’re really creating pathways. The artist/scholar realizes this after using the software for nine months and sees what the programmers knew all along: He’s really creating nothing but links to links with nothing at the beginning and end. 1488 Words. 3 Pages. isp10928 Secrets of A Virtual Year. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

What Do We Do Now?
Teaching after what happened

In the aftermath of 9-11, the artist/scholar feels certain that uncertainty is the one thing that we share with millions of others. He believes education is one of the keys to ending violence, but wonders—with his agenda in mind before 9-11—is it tenable? 594 Words. 2 Pages. isp10918 What Do We Do Now. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Staying Current in the Electronic Flow:
Educators beware—even your fears may be obsolete

Despite that he is not in a university today, this artist/scholar is asked to teach in roundabout ways and to share in research projects via the Web. With better organization, he may soon be part of a practicing, global university of ITinerate Professors. 786 Words. 2 Pages. isp10730 Staying Current in the Electronic Flow. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Bringing My TV Out of the Closet:
Amazing Museum of Art at Home

Through the glass of a boob tube, the author experiences 2 worlds—the art world on a suicide mission, and Nature trying to stay alive. One trivialized our human creativity, the other called for more human creativity to solve the Earth’s ecological crises. 2310 Words. 4 Pages. isp10620 Bringing My TV Out of the Closet. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

What Are You Looking At?
My finished DVD

A forecast to help plan the uncertain course ahead for making his DVD, this essay is by the man who’s creating a publication suitable to his task and to the times in which he is laboring. Human Structural Interoperable Capital is the name he’s given “IT”. 581 Words. 2 Pages. isp10521 What Are You Looking At My DVD. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Learning eBook Arts:
A five-hundred year task

Making a DVD is supposed to be as easy as 1-2-3 says the users manual that came with the author’s latest piece of computer instrument and software. It isn’t easy, and the results aren’t great. Nor were the first tries that Mark Twain made on a typewriter. 1734 Words. 3 Pages. isp10511 Learning eBook Arts. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Children’s Digital Workshop—Puget Style:
Preparation for the Twenty-something generation

He is applying for Arts Director of a new learning center focusing on the environment. Wondering what he can offer that is unique and do-able, this artist/writer suggests a new kind of workshop. His vision is based on new resources he sees on the horizon. 1332 Words. 3 Pages. isp10421 Children's Digital Workshop Puget Style. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Cybernetics, Brains, IT and Art:
Transmogrification of an Artist

Expansion of information technology (IT) in engineering and telecommunication hit the art world and changed art, craft and design. Inevitably, IT changed artists too as this story shows as one artist tells audiences about his experience and relationships. 1351 Words. 3 Page. isp10411 Cybernetics Brains IT and Art. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Comfort Zone for Reinvented Professors:
Your Seconds Count on A DVD

A hundred-years’ habit is hard to break, but it can be done if you start from the ground up. Maybe it would better to say, from the underground up. “Start at the root,” this author suggests, and tells a story to make his point, based on century-old facts. 745 Words. 2 Pages. isp10401 Comfort Zone for Reinvented Professors. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

The Next Big Thing in Public Speaking:
Making the Buttons to Push

On a hill on the Isle of the Domain of Expertise in Public Speaking, the author forecasts the Next Big Thing—DVD design. It will be to teaching what videotape was twenty years ago and what the Internet is today. He demonstrates making the buttons to push. 1249 Words. 3 Pages. isp10322 Next Big Thing in Public Speaking. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Preparing Students to Die Broke:
Toward A Better Art Education

The head of his class, a professor addresses the retirement myth that holds back arts’ students from the future they deserve—usefulness for the second half of their lives. He reads a best-selling “how to” book for examples and adapts it to arts education.. 1141 Words. 3 Pages. isp10312 Preparing Students to Die Broke. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Tricks of the Art Trade:
Dusty Meets Trixie

Authoring a DVD involves more than meets the eye, but what meets the eye on this author’s DVD is important because the task requires that this artist’s own 40-year retrospective must be visually rich—or, punning, Ritchie. He makes a character named Dusty. 1339 Words. 5872 Characters. 3 Pages. isp10220 Tricks of the Art Trade. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Imagining My Retrospective:
Waiting for the day

He’s been ahead of the times for so long he’s like a castaway on a deserted island. Days of sun warm him, the air fresh, and he’s free to imagine his art show and how it will be when he has his 40^th retrospective. A career gone awry, away or an awakening? 5878 Characters. 1289 Words. 2 Pages. isp10210 Imagining My Retrospective. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

There is a Moment in Printmaking:
Basis of a New Experience and Relationship in the Age of Digital Information and Telecommunications Technologies

In the process of reviewing, digitizing, noting and uploading of his forty-years’ building of collections of art, the author experiences moments of surprise. Art works are not products as much as they are moments in the life of the arts’ maker and viewer.1779 Words. 7970 Characters. 3 Pages. isp10131 There is a Moment in Printmaking. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

I Call Myself A Noun:
The Undiscovered Screenplay for Bon Voyage II

To qualify for the entry-level of instructor, the author writes a fictional illustration for his world class curriculum that would, if adopted by a true, 21^st Century university, allow him to teach, research and practice within the constraints of freedom. 1130 Words. 5348 Characters. 2 Pages. isp10121 I Call Myself A Noun. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Microsoft Art Committee Misses Again:
A Case of Golden Handcuffs

The author put his foot in it when he told a vice president at Microsoft (after he gave the artist a private tour of the collection in 1988), “You rank Freshman status—congratulations!” Thirteen years later, something still is holding the brainchild back. 1471 Words. 6888 Characters. 3 Pages. isp10111 I Microsoft Art Committee Misses Again. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Ink Cans That Never Run Out:
A Printmaker’s Heaven’s Gates

He taught in college that the only way to make original fine art prints was to create, invent, discover and imagine in the medium of origination. Now he’s moving toward a seemingly endless supply of new ideas by laboring between tradition and technology in his reinvented arts studios. 1438 Words. 3 Pages. isp10101 Ink Cans that That Never Run Out. ©2001 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

 For full text, complete list and writing services send e-mail to ritchie@seanet.com

It used to be hard:
Overheard at Kinko’s

A fantasy story—while it’s plausible—it has not yet happened, set in the year 2003. That is the year the author, an artist and printmakers, completes his 40-year one man retrospective. He uses this story to paint a picture of a vision of where he’s going. 810 Words. 2 Pages. isp01227 It used to be hard. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr. Full text

A Thousand Pictures Are Worth One Word on the Web:
High flyer grounded

With ninety-seven days left in his real art gallery on the ground, this artist assesses the time it has taken him to upload 153 works of art to his virtual art gallery in “the skies”. The uploading of art is the most important work of his lifetime’s work. 679 Words. 3005 Characters. 1 Page. isp01208 A Thousand Pictures Are Worth One Word. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Art, Law and Sausages:
Looking the other way

What you learn about how art museums are run, how the courts work, and what sausage is made of can ruin an otherwise enjoyable art trip, social justice or breakfast. A stay at the Munch Museum did not ruin a love of art—nor does it ruin a love of museums. 821 Words. 3703 Characters. 2 Pages. isp01110 Art, Law and Sausages. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Lesson Plan for the Web:
My first art patron starts her day

How do you teach the ‘Net? Net literacy, some people call it, is to be “literate in the ways of Web sites.” Others call it “computer literacy,” an over-arching name that includes the Web, and also the various productivity software that content owners use.1071 Words. 4720 Characters. 2 Pages. ISP00803 Lesson Plan for the Web. ©2000 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr’

Class of 60 Learns the Internet:
The first signs of new and better ways for old Boomers

Writing from the perspective of a 1960 High School graduate, the author—who is invited to teach others from his class how to use the Internet—begins with “the end in mind.” He considers one do-it-yourself book as the key to help navigate the info-highway.1424 Words. 6488 Characters. 3 Pages. ISP00729 Class of 60 Learns the Internet. ©2000 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr

Eyes Closed, Picture A University:
Now Close the University

A prescient art professor’s vision of old university art schools sets the stage for the way a new one may look and feel. He sets up scenes that focus on art materials and information suppliers where art and business will commingle successfully on the Web. 2007 Words. 9827 Characters. 4 Pages. ISP00726 Eyes Closed Picture A University. ©2000 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

What I am good at:
Older Laborer Declaration of Independence

A political speech by the Green Party’s nominee for President, Ralph Nader, sets this artist/teacher on a thinking spree. After being alerted to it by a friend, he replied, “What now?” back; and then he wrote the following essay and sent it to his friend. 2556 Words. 11953 Characters. 4 Pages. ISP00711 What I Am Good At. ©2000 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

The New McClain’s Catalog:
Look and Feel for the Year 2001

The Chief Creative Officer of McClain’s Printmaking Supplies and Services proposes the ways that the future paper version of the annual catalog will look and feel. He lists three additions to the existing version, the Y2K one created by the current owner. 1060 Words. 5426 Characters. 2 Pages. ISP00705 The New McClain's Catalog. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Recognizing ITinerate Professors:
Highest-paid Teachers’ Secrets Revealed

One way to recognize an ITinerate Professor is by seeing how he demonstrates creative genius. This copy-written article samples discussion in the echelons of applied information and telecommunications arts in industrial grade artists’ domain of expertise. 2214 Words. 11500 Characters. 4 Pages. ISP00620 Recognizing ITinerate Professors. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Night Money:
Strangers in the Library

A training session at SPEACON has the ITinerate Professor teaching a phantom, imaginary class how to make the connection between art supplies and Night Money, the theme of his myartpatron.com business plan. He uses a narrative account of his own working. 1275 Words. 5844 Characters. 3 Pages. ISP00602 Night Money Strangers In the Library. ©2000 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

Joke:
Certificates

In General Systems Theory, the joke is played when the perfection of the system itself, and not its utility, becomes its purpose. Without the power of limits, expressed as finishing (as the result of starting), a purpose tremor leads us to impoverishment. 1880 Words. 8910 Characters. 4 Pages. ISP00527. ©2000 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr

Theory of Gravity:
The Drawing Power of MyArtPatron.com

An Emeralda Game moment number works like an International Standard Book Number. Writer’s books must have ISBN numbers in order to be found by book search engines on the Web. Artists, crafts persons or designers do not need to write a book--just a moment. 1402 Words. 6433 Characters. 3 Pages. ISP00513 Theory of Gravity. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Let’s Pretend:
The Success of ArtsPatron.com

Planning to win a position in a startup publishing company, this is a fantasy article. It’s a make-believe story as if being written by one of the judges of a business plan contest and follows his 1999 article titled Biz plan competition ripe with ideas. 940 Words. 4461 Characters. 2 Pages. ISP00509 Lets Pretend The Success of ArtsPatron. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Why Now?
Buying and Selling McClain’s

When focus was invented—as part of the development of the lens that the archeologists found—what was coupled with it was a system of constraints that human kind was only vaguely aware of before. This artist/philosopher makes some connections to art ideas. 1280 Words. 6186 Characters. 3 Pages. ISP00505 Why Now Buying and Selling McClains. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Dating Game:
Mistaken Identities

Thomas Jefferson, one writer says, is America’s greatest case of a mistaken identity. He is also America’s first reinvented individual, finding himself at a gathering he thought was a high technology seminar but finds it’s a place girls come to meet guys. 371 Words. 1806 Characters. 1 Page. ISP00415 Dating Game Mistaken Identity. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

What is Art Worth?
Glimpse of the Man Behind The Computer Black Book

Basing his Next Big Step toward the reality of the restored SS United States on a chance event, the Emeralda Inventor holds an arcane business card that came to him by way of an art auction house that is so Twentieth Century, he cannot believe it is true. 535 Words. 2448 Characters. 2 Pages. ISP00412 What is Art Worth. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

A New Engine for the SSUS:
Smokeless in Seattle

Writing for the EarthSafe 2022 Journal of the Americas, the author envisions the design for the new, smokeless engine for The Big U, the SS United States. He credits the re-discovery of the Gates Principles, and describes clarified plans for the articles. 480 Words. 2228 Characters. 1 Pages. ISP00407 A New Engine for the SSUS. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Three Solutions to Three Problems:
Washington Arts and the Internet

A three-tiered solution is ready for problems people have with Art Ed on the Web. The problems are distilled from comments collected in Washington’s statewide information sweep. Solutions are summed up in three words: Simplicity, Entertainment, and Depth. 603 Words. 2937 Characters. 2 Pages. ISP00320 Three Solutions to Three Problems. ©2000 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr

Fishing lessons:
Flying around Washington State

A Living Prints Circus is in the mind of the Emeralda inventor as he imagines traveling over the ten domains of Washington, a tourist in his own country. His mission is to teach people how to surf-fish the Web and catch the breeze in their own arts sales. 859 Words. 3831 Characters. 2 Pages. ISP00317 Fishing Lessons Flying Around Washington. ©2000 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

If I live to be a Hundred:
Art by Government

Under a title that he created with the intention of making contemporary artists more curious, the author teases them into thinking about their future. He forecasts the full impact of the communications age will be felt virtually from grassroot to the top. 932 Words. 5877 Characters. 3 Pages. ISP00309 If I live to be A Hundred. ©2000 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr

Mentor-teacher for hire:
My method revealed

An ITinerate Professor describes how a conference-crash scene in which he was the key player got him the title to a profession in which he aspires to excel—the mentor-teacher. He compares it to a scene in the movie, Titanic, and sets a rule in his method. 1149 Words. 5276 Characters. 2 Pages. isp00224 Mentor Teacher for Hire. ©2000 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

State of the HSICICA:
Stocks to study

After an investment club called TRPI (Teaching Research and Production Investments) this writer created a better version called Human Structural Intellectual Capital Investment Clubs of the Americas (HSICICA). Today he states his progress and his dilemma. 1425 Words. 7311 Characters. 3 Pages. isp00212 State of the HSICICA. ©2000 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

Art of Selling Art2:
Background

A professor and creator of the world’s first online course about selling art explains the background of the course. Starting with a science fiction approach, he describes new techniques and a history of universities; he then begins again where he started. 1199 Words. 5805 Characters. 2 Pages. isp00211 Art of Selling Art On-line. ©2000 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr

ABC’s of Art Ed Online:
Demonstrating the Power of ActiveIndexing.com

A global view of art education may be as simple as the ABC’s in today’s networked arts, crafts and design worlds. The Inventor of the game, Emeralda, explains, using proceedings from Washington state’s art commission proceedings for a strategic statement. 887 Words. 4240 Characters. 28 Pages. ISP00121. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Demonstrating Emeralda Play:
Stalking the Proprietary Search Engine of Emeralda Works

Following his passion for networking with creative, inventive, discovering and imaginative individuals in Washington state, the Emeralda Inventor demonstrates how a proprietary search engine may help them achieve a goal. He creates an index  as an example. 12366 Words. 66669 Characters. 34 Pages. ISP00115. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Beyond the Art of Selling Art:
Equivocation and George’s Art

“What good is Emeralda if you doesn’t get you and keep you integrity?” the Inventor asks himself. Proceeding with this year’s project (the writing of the stories for Emeralda Works), he revisits an old essay called The Story of George’s Art for an answer. 1190 Words. 5700 Characters. 2 Pages. ISP00104. ©2000 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

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Treasure the SS United States:
Western Versus Eastern Strategy

In reading the latest newsletter from the SS United States Foundation, the author compares his vision with the style of the Eastern efforts with a Western way. He concludes that William Gibbs, who designed the Big U, would appreciate the Western way more. 999 Words. 3 Pages. iSP991227. Copyright 1999 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr. (Full text)

Before going to a forum of his peers to tell about his game, Emeralda, the Inventor prepares himself with hot spots of his proposal: The saving of the Earth, the naming of the players, and the structural communication system. It's a fantasy, but possible. 3171 Words. 4 Pages. SP990724 ©1999 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

Strangers and mentors:
Entering Emeralda's Dentalisco

A tale of two people meeting in a fantasy city called Dentalisco--where dentists reign. One is a mentor, the other a mentee. The latter becomes an apprentice user, taking her first steps into a world of cybernetics where Leagues of Emeralda Masters reign. 1405 Words. 2 Pages. SP990530 ©1999 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

Property values:
What's in it for them?

Emeralda is the description of property values that derive from the third column in triple-entry bookkeeping. The systemic failure of educational institutions branches from the roots of failing to manage description. The author's tape archive illustrates. 1594 Words. 2 Pages. SP990529 ©1999 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

Copying reality:
Greenfields work--or they don't

An appendix of a business book provides a creative artist with ideas to create a strategic partnership with an arts museum without getting eaten up in the procedures. He calls it Greenfields, from the terms in the business-men's language that mystify him. 1654 Words. 2 Pages. SP990528 ©1999 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

Between two worlds:
A rock and a hard place?

The inventor of Emeralda walks a path between two worlds--sometimes narrow, sometimes wide, sometimes on a precipice. Art's world and the world of healthcare, he says, were divorced from one another hundreds of years ago. New technologies can rejoin them. 259 Words. 1 Page. SP990526 ©1999 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

My MOGO User's Group:
First time for everything

The facilitator for MOGO User's Group in Seattle writes about the group's first meeting. He writes that first times for things take place in a pro-active person's mind and is followed by the real things. Concepts precede reality, like an arts performance. 1281 Words. 6065 Characters. 2 Page. SP990525 My MOGO Users Group. ©1999 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Playing corporation:
Co-operation is just a letter away

You can learn how to better manage economic circumstances by comparing some condominium corporations to a cooperative approach to living and practicing your art and craft of dentistry. I call it "Playing corporation," like the idea for "Teaching Company". 350 Words. 1843 Characters. 1 Page. SP990330 Playing Corporation. ©1999 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Accrediting the DAMIS:
Rules of a New Game

You might as well describe the shapes of clouds as to describe the job description of the Dental Assistant Manager of Information Services writes this artist/philosopher about the practices of writing job descriptions in the age of digital communications. 648 Words. 3172 Characters. 2 Page. SP990329 Accrediting the DAMIS. ©1999 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Take Risk, for Example:
Seriously, folks

“Take risks!” We've heard it a hundred times, how it's necessary to take a leap into the unknown if you want to get ahead, or even to just keep up. But isn't this a contradiction to the cases against competition? ponders this reader of Alfie Kohn’s works. 785 Words. 3644 Characters. 2 Page. SP990328 Take Risk for Example. ©1999 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Business pla ns past:
Artifacts of the competition

This dreamer closed his eyes saying, "I wish I could teach art on line." This dream came true; he has "taught art" on-line, and it is time to move on to another dream: "I wish I could now earn money for my skills and be a useful member of the human race." 713 Words. 3112 Characters. 2 Pages. SP990327 Business Plans Past. ©1999 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

Day of Reckoning:
The AUDAMIS Surveys the Jungle

He experiments in the dental field with the idea that dentists could use some help in the area of digital communications. He joins his dentist friend at a conference and focuses on the topic of Practice Management, reminding him of teaching in art school. 413 Words. 2112 Characters. 1 Page. SP990326 Day of Reckoning. ©2003 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.

You can too teach art on-line:
An old newcomer writes the rules

Professing to teach art on-line, the author writes between on-line sessions. He works symmetrically around a creative, inventive, discovering and imaginative world—an imaginary world based on human structural intellectual capital having its own economics.