There are many things on my mind about David Bowie’s passing yesterday. I am struck by the loss and the suddenness of it. Mr. Bowie knew it was coming and wanted to be private about it. Perhaps that is what makes, I should write made, him so special.

One of my favorite songs is “Heroes”. Whenever a dear friend of mine asks for a favor, he asks, “Will you be a hero…” followed by the request. Those interactions are resonating in my head today even more. My goal is to be a Hero just for one day. I hope you will join me in the effort.

“We can be heroes
We can be heroes
We can be heroes
Just for one day
We can be heroes”
-David Bowie & Brian Eno

Below is a piece I commissioned Mike McKone to draw at C2E2 in 2015. I am not very glad I did. Thank you Bill for convincing me; you are Henchman #1.

David Bowie as the Joker

I have started purchasing more and more custom art. The artists vary from graphic novel artists to colorists to cartoon animators to musicians. As my friend Bill knows,when asked what I want for the piece I say “Artist’s choice.” I have said it to him so many times to him I think he is getting sick of it. The question he should be asking is “Why artist’s choice?” So Bill and my other loyal readers, here is why I do artist’s choice.

All too often musicians are asked for the same song over and over. The comedy request of Freebird has become irritating to some musicians I know. So irritating that more than one musician has created a different song called Freebird to counteract that trend. When an artist is preparing a setlist for their first time in a venue or an event, I do not want to change their plans. It is important to let the artists represent themselves. This point is important to me. If someone has an hour to play a set of music that is representative of their work and will help in getting invited back I do not want to mess it up for them

When requesting illustrations, I figure that some artists have drawn the same thing over and over again and again. How many times can one draw the same character before it becomes rote and no longer a creative art? Worse yet, it becomes unenjoyable for the artist. As a result when I commission a piece of art, I try to talk with the artist and explain what I like and that it should be artist choice. As a result I have ended up with some cool art, such as a sketch of David Bowie as the Joker from Mike McCone.

Even when taking part in Patreon and Kickstarter funding where the premium for the patron is custom art. I still select Artist’s Choice. I will provide guidance of what my interests and likes are, however it is still artist’s choice.

Yes, Bill – Artist’s Choice. Always.

Give it a try you will most likely be pleasantly surprised.

As I was taking pictures this weekend I thought about how I want people to be able to use my content and thoughts. Part of this was sparked also by my recent appearance on AVNation’s AVWeek Podcast Episode 189: I Know Who To Call. Tim brought up some topics that I have both experience with and opinions about, so I shared them with everyone. I was pleasantly surprised when I was also quoted heavily in an article on Commercial Integrator as well. So it got me to thinking, what are the rights I want to reserve or share? I am currently listening to Cory Doctorow’s book Information Doesn’t Want to Be Free: Laws for the Internet Age (hardcopy). This link is to the self-published audiobook read by Wil Wheaton. One of the things I am learning from these thoughts is the question of how much do I want to share my created content.

I have already created some content obviously you are reading some now, I have have images available at photos.bradfordbenn.com that can be used. I have until now been keeping a tight leash on the images with watermarks and right click protection. I plan on keeping some protection in place, not quite sure how much yet or how it will be set up. However I want to share the information and experiences with more people. Yes, I would like to earn some money along the way, however at the moment that is not the key goal for me. I want to create things and put them out in the open for people to enjoy. I just want to know when things I create are being used.

So having said that you can see the description of the usage rights I have created at the page https://bradfordbenn.com/creative-commons/. The idea is that if you are using my content for personal use, you may do that with attribution. If you want to use my content for commercial use, there is still licensing issues to be discussed. I encourage you to consider how you want your content handled, keeping in mind that many of the tools we are open source and are being shared as well.