Q: What happens if he starts to regress?

A: Parents should understand that regression in children’s behavior, whether in potty training or playing the piano, is totally normal. In people, behavior swings back and fourth until it’s learned, and then the variations occur less and less. The key is repeated practice. When a child is learning something new, he can do it perfectly one day and then can’t do it the next. This is frustrating for parents- they feel they’re being manipulated by the child. But they should remember that it’s normal.

After I read this, I thought as adults we should take our life lessons back to the basics at times. I think often times as adults, we complicate things too much. Maybe it would help us if we tried looking at things from the eyes of a toddler. They are just trying to learn life’s lessons without being jaded by things in the world that don’t effect them yet, such as outside pressures, expectations, etc..

Every once in a while I think it’s good to take a step back and put things in perspective, whether you choose to do it through the eyes of a two year old or some other avenue is up to you, but all of us, “adults” here at {e} got something out of an article that was intended to teach some of the basics of life, TRY AND TRY AGAIN!

Staying in the limelight is no small task, but this accomplished gallery owner and artist has managed to capture and retain Charleston’s interest.

Starting out with a degree from Rhode Island School of Design, Robert Lange found himself succumbing to the allure of the South. Shortly after graduation from the prestigious art school, he opened his gallery here in Charleston. It didn’t take long for the city to take notice.

Lange’s powerful and bold images are in constant demand. Patrons flocked to the Robert Lange Studio to take in his last exhibit, “The Joy of Painting,” which was praised by local art critics. Using photorealism, he is able to precisely capture the emotions and power of each subject, resulting in a piece that appears to be a replica of the original photographic source. His choice of rich and dark color palettes add intensity to his pieces, drawing the viewer in.

Although Lange is considerably young at 27 years old, he has been featured in a variety of magazines from New American Paintings to American Art Collector. His popular gallery, located on East Bay Street, now features his new works as well as a host of other talent.

Postcard worthy is a collection of postcards or postcard worthy photos we have stumbled upon. See more

Six Revisions is a note worthy weblog that covers both design and developmental content. It’s useful articles and tutorials provide insight to the programs used by modern web professionals and introduce the new tools used to create outstanding designs.

Tracking down fantastic pieces at a reasonable price was once a rarity reserved for those who scoured flea markets and frequented unknown exhibits. However, with a little bit of resourcefulness, you too can hang something that completes your space and makes a statement.

From down the street to up the Coast, we’ve found pieces in every medium and style for every sized wallet.

Scope Out a Cityscape: Freelance illustrator Clare Scully is no stranger to mixing mediums to get the perfect result. Collaborating her skills of drawing, painting and photography, Clare creates an urban piece sure to evoke emotions. Price: $89 and up

Embrace your Inner Child: Jonathon Miller, a talented illustrator and children’s author here in Charleston, creates fantastic depictions of local settings as well as custom portraits of your favorite pets- all from construction paper! Price: $50

Frame a Fairytale: John Bobbish is gaining momentum with his enchanting, colorful illustrations. His delightful collections include everything from mermaids to harlequins. Price: $40

Bracing for an Impact: Ben Gelnett is an up and coming graphic designer who has an eye for color. His bold pieces will bring life to any space. Price: $28 and up

Fantastic Fauna: Adela Holmes makes nature pop with her expressive photography. Although originally from Poland, she now uses Georgia as source of inspiration. Price: $90

Holding out for Handmade: German based illustrator, Stephanie Levy, hand-crafts all of her collages, incorporating a variety of materials like origami paper and ink with hand-painted acrylic highlights. Price: $45 and up

Feel Free to Flourish: Tiffani Taylor colorfully blends nature and gold leafing, creating charming paintings that will brighten any room. Price: $110 and up

Take a Walk on the Wild Side: SCAD professor Dale Clifford makes good use of his spare time. He creates his woodcut art using interesting shapes and patterns for a rustic feel. Price: $175 and up

Reflect over Rover: Got a thing for dogs? Well have we got the artist for you. Jay Schmetzart specializes in masterworks of mutts, from pugs to poodles. Price: $115

Dress to Impress: Sam Norgard’s love of floral and dress design combines to create adorable, flirty Giclée prints. Price: $120

ARE YOU AN ARTIST LOOKING TO SPREAD THE WORD

It’s simple. Just pop us an e-mail with images of your work along with the story of how you got creative (You know, the scoop on where you’re from and where you are now, what inspires you, and your work) to chalkboard@ehousestudio.com. Oh, and please title the e-mail “Postcard Worthy Call for Entries”. That’s it. See, we told you it was simple.

David Hess discovered his passion for drawing at a fairly young age and has feverishly embraced that talent ever since. As the son of an artist, Hess was exposed to his father’s realistic depictions of the battle scenes he’d witnessed first hand during World War II. Perhaps it was these graphic illustrations of gruesome battle scenes which later influenced Hess’s powerfully dark images for which he is now famous.

Having studied at the Cleveland Institute of Art, the learning facility where his father taught, Hess had acquired the basic drawing skills necessary to build his creative career. Hess began his profession in a number of mediums, one of them being promotional music posters for the infamous Euclid Tavern. He is quick to admit that music has always been a source of inspiration for his pieces. While at Euclid, he was able to harness each band’s unique character in their promotional posters. As friend Dennis King explains, “Derek’s work is unique in the poster art world; the lines he draws are expressive and sensitive, the colors are not bright or bold. The way he manipulates the space within the poster is striking.”

His raw talent caught the attention of Marty Geramita, who quickly persuaded Hess to harness his unique creative ability and aggressively transition into a full time poster artist. With his help, Hess’s career flourished. Today, his works are permanently featured in both the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Louvre. He’s recently done work for MTV, Fall Out Boy, and Lewis Black.

Although he has moved on from poster making, Hess’s drive for success has not wavered. He and his dog, Josie, are still based out of Cleveland. He stays busy working on a range of pen and ink and fine silk-screen pieces as well as designing apparel for his clothing line. His work can be purchased on his website and exhibits touring around the country.

Postcard worthy is a collection of postcards or postcard worthy photos we have stumbled upon. See more

In a recent post on the Moms Get Organized blog, author Stacey Crew interviews {e} house’s Chris Quinn on the topic of being both a mother and a successful business owner. In the MomMinute, Chris discusses {e}’s relocation from Colorado to Charleston, as well as her multiple experiences and talents in the design field. Stacey was previously featured here on {e} Chalkboard, where she divulged the secrets and rewards of getting organized. Both women are shining examples of how to balance careers and families.

Q: What is your background?

A: I am a first generation American and grew up in the Mohave desert in California. I think this was the start of inspiration for my photography in the sense that I am first, proud to be an American and second, that there is no mystery in the desert. I love things that are Americana and I try to make my images simple in a way that they are not mysterious. They are what they are.

Q: How did you get into art/ photography?

A: I am self taught and in fact I primarily use the same camera that I started with over 10 years ago. I was inspired to teach myself how to take great pictures and use my camera after I went through some major life changes and was looking for a new lifestyle.

Q: Why Charleston?

A: I ended up in Charleston for family, (I am raising my daughter here.) It has ended up being a great place for me in regards to finding inspiration for my photography. I love what the South has to offer.

Q: Where do you get your inspiration?

A: The land, the dirt, the people….I like to observe what people do and how they live, in the real world. I am also drawn to all things vintage. I guess this is where I ended up with one of my main concepts of “Vintage Americana.” I find great sources for this in old signs, typography, cars, and the country.

Q: Who are your influences?

A: Margaret Burke White and Danny Lion. I am also a huge fan of strong American literature. I am a book collector and love to read about how the “soil of America was created.”

As you can tell, Diana is a huge fan of America, which we thought was only appropriate to feature her the week of July 4th. Diana’s photos and products (keep an eye out for new products coming soon,) are available at:

• The Charleston Farmer’s Market every Saturday
• Indigo (Downtown)
• Moon Drops (West Ashley)
• Mellow Mood (Mount Pleasant)
• Got the Goods (Polly’s Island)

Postcard worthy is a collection of postcards or postcard worthy photos we have stumbled upon. See more

HOW DOES SPRITING HELP?
Sprite images takes the many images of a navigation and pushes them all into one larger image. Although the larger image may be significantly bigger than the individual buttons, you can usually save some size from all of the images added together. More importantly however, is the fact that the server only has to load one image to view your site navigation. This can greatly minimize server connections and can take seconds off of your load time. This technology has saved companies like apple and yahoo thousands of dollars a month on server requests.

1) GETTING STARTED IN PHOTOSHOP
I have started by designing my navigation in photoshop, slicing up my images and then combining my slices. Each button looks like this:

2) WHIP-UP SOME HTML
After collecting all of my images I dive into writing some simple html for the navigation. Here is what it looks like.

<div class="nav_container">
 
<ul id="navMenu">
 
	<li><a class="navAbout" title="About" href="#"></a></li>
 
 
	<li><a class="navServices_a" title="Services" href="#"></a></li>
 
 
	<li><a class="navPortfolio" title="Portfolio" href="#"></a></li>
 
 
	<li><a class="navBlog" title="Blog" href="#"></a></li>
 
 
	<li><a class="navContact" title="Contact" href="#"></a></li>
 
</ul>
 
</div>

Putting your navigation in a ul list helps organize your navigation and makes it much easier to change and edit through css. Each button has been given a class which is easily defined and easy to edit in the css file. To set a button to active you simply add _a to the class name. Have a look at my services button as an example. Now lets take a look at the meat of the navigation… the css.

3) STIR A LITTLE CSS INTO THE MIX
Each button has a style for it’s 3 different states. Here is what the about button looks like:

a.navAbout, a.navAbout_a {
	display:block;
	float:left;
	width:148px;
	height:58px;
	background: url(”../images/about_button.jpg”);
}
 
a.navAbout:hover {
	background: url(”../images/about_button.jpg”) 0 116px;
}
 
a.navAbout_a {
	background: url(”../images/about_button.jpg”) 0 58px;
}

The first navAbout defines what the button will look like. This defines the width and height of the button and the background image.
The hover state uses the same width and height, but shifts the x and y coordinates of the background image to reveal the rollover state of that sprite. The same goes for the active state of the image.
The css is a little more complex, but still fairly easy to follow. Have a look and good luck. Feel free to use this navigation anywhere you like, and if you think of it post a comment or shoot us an email letting us know.

SOMETHING IS UP WITH THE iPhone
Although spriting images is a great way to go and works really well, there is an issue that we notice that we can’t seem to get rid of. On the iPhone the active state seems to be 1 pixel off. We even noticed this on Apple’s own website. So if anyone out there has a fix for this, please share it in a comment below.

ONE STEP FURTHER
This tutorial uses seperate sprited images for each button of the navigation. You can also accomplish the same effect by going a step further and combining all of the button sprites.

FROM THE ARTIST

Well, where do I start?  I am originally from Solomon’s Island, MD where my family moved from when I was about 8 to a small South Western Virginia city called Roanoke.  We later moved to the country side outside of Roanoke called Franklin County.  I guess I would consider Roanoke to be my “hometown” as it is where I did most of my “growing up”.

As a child I was always pretty creative and took a lot of creative writing and drama classes in college.  After college the “real” life set in and I had to find a “real” job which made my artistic side take a back seat for a while.  I traveled a bit with a Software Consulting Sales position and also traveled for fun during my vacation times.  I stumbled upon Charleston, SC.  I love it!  What a romantic, beautiful and cozy place.  The outskirts of the city take me back to a simpler time in my life, the small fishing town of Solomon’s.

Since that visit it was a hidden fantasy of mine to move to Charleston.  I later married my husband then had a son who is now 2 years old.  My husband and I decided to visit Charleston so I could show him how wonderful this place is and hopefully have him fall in love as much as I did.  Well, he did and 7 months later, we moved to Charleston, SC.  It seemed that immediately upon residing here, my creative nature began to work overtime.  I was so inspired by the beauty of the city, the beaches, and the people.  So, I decided to pick up my point and shoot camera and noticed that I had a pretty good eye.  This prompted me to spend a little money on a nice camera and pursue a new found passion of photography.  Though I am still on a long journey to becoming a professional, I feel that had we not moved to such an art and cultural full place, this passionate and artistic side of me would still be dormant.

Postcard worthy is a collection of postcards or postcard worthy photos we have stumbled upon. See more