UpNorth Navigation

The operating system of UpNorth is as simple as possible. All forward navigation I've programmed as click, or tap on images and text "buttons". All the return navigation is done by you using your own "return to previous page" browser memory.

Navigating the gallery menu is done by mouse with the horizontal scroll bar. A horizontal sweep will accomplish the same result on a touch screen.

Each scale modeled thumbnail image in the gallery menu is linked to a larger image which contains extra information about the painting represented. For the larger panels I have provided further zooms down into details.

UpNorth Series

It is possible to write too much about the abstract qualities of a painting such as; representation, symbol, meaning, and sign. The concrete aspects of paintings; composition, colour harmonics, preservation techniques, chemistry, physics; can be addressed with language. My thoughts about the intellectual abstractions of the paintings are as valuable as yours.... barrysmylie@rogers.com

UpNorth Blog

I have been making wordy bold blog entries while working on the series. The paintings took up most of my time and much of my sub language, below literary thinking. Something misty gaseous floated up and into the core-text-you-all, blog-sphere which obscures the painterly point in unreliable keyed out insights:

UpNorth Apology

I am sorry, I cannot write an artist's statement.

Some say:

If I wanted to write about it, I'd have written a book.

I say:

I'm not a poet nor am I a novelist or a philosopher. I don't want to write. I cannot key press what it is I have done with a brush. I'd rather not talk about it. Paintings speak a universal language of their own. If you are a child not yet reading or an adult on the other side of the planet talking another tongue; you may use your eyes and that portion of your mind. You will get the picture.

I am not a raconteur nor am I an inspirational speaker. I am not an entertainer or an entrepreneur. From both sides I fear stages and distrust podiums. I do not promote a product. I know nothing of advertising. I am not a spiritual leader nor am I an example for children to follow.

I possess the talent for the tool handling skills of manual labour.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artist:

"No muse was (is?) identified with the visual arts of painting and sculpture. In ancient Greece (and the late modern conceptual era) sculptors and painters were (are) held in low regard, somewhere between freemen and slaves, their work was (and is) regarded as mere manual labour."

I am content with it.