Chris Silverman

A tree with no leaves on its branches stands in a bright yellow and bluish space. The area is blurry, but gives the impression of a sunny day, and a vast, icy expanse. The tree stands in the middle of this. Hanging from one of its branches, on the right, is a small sign that reads "open" in large, pinkish-white block letters. Below the sign is placed a chair. The painting is signed "Chris Silverman".

#notesArt

A hunched figure wearing a coat and a hat walks under a gray night sky and a slightly hazy full moon. The figure has a gnarled cane, and might look like an elderly person out for a walk if it weren't for the fact that its entire upper body is a traffic signal, the red and yellow lights blazing. A low fog hangs over the ground. The painting is signed "Chris Silverman".

#notesArt

Ok, here you go -
#art #artpost #sketchbook

A person stands in a bright red space, holding a yellow flame. Rather than appearing brightly lit, the space feels more like a dark room lit by a fire, with shadows pressing in all around. In front of the person, mounted on a pillar like a sculpture, is a vast and weird object: part asteroid, part machine, with organic folds and striations. The parts of the object closest to the flame glow yellow, fading into red and purple. The painting is signed "Chris Silverman".

#notesArt

A bleak industrial scene: hulking brownish factories pouring yellow smoke into a dull red sky. In the foreground, a cat sits on a dark, greenish log, observing the scene. The painting is signed "Chris Silverman".

#notesArt

A strange, heavily industrial building stands against a yellow sky. The building is tall—think of two differently-sized file cabinets stacked on each other—and looks more like a machine part or piece of equipment than a dwelling. It is a drab dark gray with a brownish tinge that suggests weathered concrete. The sides have numerous odd crevices, pipes, and striations, with a red triangle that suggests a hazard symbol painted on the right side. It has a few small windows that reveal a blue interior, as well as glowing white LED-esque lights embedded in the side. On the roof are a few antennas and a radio dish. Out front is a small mailbox. The grass around the building is tinged red from the sun. The painting is signed "Chris Silverman".

#notesArt

A dark night, with a glowing green celestial body—a moon? an orb? a ball of white light surrounded by a greenish glow—in the top right. Below it, knee deep in greenish fog, is a small figure. The figure has a large shiny spherical bomb for a head. The fuse is where its face would be, and it is casually lighting the fuse as though lighting a cigarette, the rest of it dimly illuminated by both the yellow flame of the lighter and the blazing white light in the sky. Its head has a faded red stencil of a warning triangle with an exclamation point inside it, in case the risks of the situation were unclear. The painting is signed "Chris Silverman".

#notesArt

A strange, blurry landscape with the ruins of buildings. This is a dull blue-green world that looks as though it is underwater: misshapen hulks of walls and columns and the vague ghost of a road running between them. A dim light spot in the top right of the sky suggests a sun, and two huge birds circle about it all. The painting is signed "Chris Silverman".

#notesArt

An eerie green world. A tall, crumbling stone arch rises up from the ground, like the one doorway left after the rest of the house vanished. Above the archway, in the center, is a mask-shaped stone face, eyes in shadow, mouth stretched into an unpleasant smile. The mask is revealing teeth and sticking out a long pointed tongue. Sitting on the top right corner of the arch is a raven. Walking under the arch is a strange figure: arms a little longer than they ought to be, the outline of a top hat, and two glowing eyes. The figure is silhouetted, so not much in the way of details can be seen. This is an entirely green painting, signed "Chris Silverman".

#notesArt

A figure wearing an indigo-colored full-body suit. The suit is wrinkled, looks sort of rubbery, and has an iridescent greenish sheen to it. The figure, though humanoid, does not look human, with long, thin arms and long, thin fingers. The suit—or maybe the creature inside it—has two pointed horns. Where the face would be is a circular faceplate, glowing green. Sticking out of the figure's back is a metallic clock key. The background is a hot pink. The painting is signed "Chris Silverman".

#notesArt

A barren column of red rock stands against a reddish-orange sky. A few small, leafless trees have managed to find a roothold on the side. The base of the column is blurry with haze. The right side of the column is blazing yellow in the sunlight. Hovering above the flat summit of the column is a small yellow box with a question mark on it. The painting is signed "Chris Silverman".

#notesArt

A red devil with horns and a pointed tail bounds over the ground on a clear blue starry night. The devil is carrying an enormous sack with a few red and yellow patches applied to it. The devil's hooves glow reddish-yellow. A large white crescent moon hangs in the sky. The painting is signed "Chris Silverman".

#notesArt

The deep, foggy, gray woods. Thick trees loom in the background. In the foreground, a dark figure wearing a wide-brimmed hat and carrying a staff stands before a crooked signpost with two arrows. The white sun filters through the trees and fog. The painting is signed "Chris Silverman".

#notesArt

A person stands in front of a large, misshapen stone house, chipping away at it. On closer inspection, the person appears to be carving a house out of a tall pillar of rock. The sky is yellow, a blazing white sun in the middle of it, and the rock is reddish. The building has a few windows, two of which are already illuminated. The person stands on a large mound of rocky debris, hammering away. The painting is signed "Chris Silverman".

#notesArt

A clear blue sky, with a few stars visible, sometime around dusk or dawn. In the background is a blurry treeline, with a yellow-green glow about it. In the foreground is a small dark mailbox in the middle of a grassy area. Hovering in the sky above is a vast black UFO. A circular hatch is open underneath it, revealing a glowing green interior. The UFO is surrounded by an eerie glow. The painting is signed "Chris Silverman".

#notesArt

The interior of a church or cathedral: a hallway, tall arches, and tall windows with arched tops glowing white in a darkened area. The light from the windows reflects dully off the shiny floor. The walls and floor are the dull grayish-pink of stone in shadow. Dimly visible through the windows are the shapes of what looks like a crowd gathered outside. Inside, mostly silhouetted in the glare of the window and peering back, is a large, slightly hunched figure with horns. The painting is signed "Chris Silverman".

#notesArt

Thanks! Yeah, I like to do more than first meets the eye when I can, since that's the kind of art I've always found most interesting.

A person dances on a giant gray mound of garbage, the sort of thing you'd see in a landfill: a colorless mountain of unidentifiable objects. The person is holding a trumpet. The sky is pink on the horizon and blue above. Two birds circle in the sky. The painting is signed "Chris Silverman".

#notesArt

A dim hallway; something one would find in the basement of a huge building at night. A complex network of enormous dull-colored pipes stretches from one side of the scene to the other. Suspended below the pipes is a long white-green fluorescent light casting a pallid glare over everything. Below the light is a brown bulletin board with scraps of various pastel-colored papers attached to it. To the right of the board is a door with a glowing red "Exit" sign above it. The hallway itself has a colorless, possibly burgundy carpet—the kind of soulless decor one finds in underconsidered public spaces. Snaking along the floor, halfway out of the frame, is a creature. The only visible part of the creature is a long greenish tail with patches of symmetrically patterned red and blue dots that look bioluminescent. The painting is signed "Chris Silverman".

#notesArt

A bizarre, dark-colored chunk of something hangs in a dismal drab-green and orange vacuum. The something looks like a large fragment of a building or infrastructure; maybe several fragments combined. It has numerous pipes and beams sticking off it at odd angles. Part of it is a large boxy chunk that contains a glowing yellow-green arched window. A figure wearing a suit and tie stands in the window, looking out. Attached to the left side of the box is a tall smokestack. A dish antenna is on top of the box. The painting is signed "Chris Silverman".

#notesArt

A small, strange figure wearing a metallic suit and giant mask stands against a reddish sky. The mask is a dull reddish-brass color, square, and made from several ragged chunks of metal welded together. It has two round holes for eyes and a smaller hole where the mouth would be. Each hole is very precisely machined, with a bezel around it. Sticking out of the right side of the mask is a small smoking chimney that looks like a snorkel tube. The figure's suit is also a tarnished brassy gold. Its arms are oddly long and thin, suggesting either a robot or an insect. A dull orange sun hangs in the sky. The painting is signed "Chris Silverman".

#notesArt

Thanks, Peter!

It was! Notes is one of the most underestimated art tools out there, I think.

A person drives a bizarre contraption that looks like it is one bump in the road away from collapsing into a pile of rusty parts. The vehicle has four wheels like a car, but the front is slightly smaller than the rear. It is taller than it is long, with an open cockpit like a tractor and a heavy, L-shaped body. It looks like something between a farm machine and a zamboni. The body is a dull rust-covered greenish brown, complex with beams, pipes, and patches. A red warning triangle is painted at the top; a yellow and black hazard strip is along one fender. It has a smokestack-like tailpipe, a glowing white light mounted on a pipe, and a headlight. The sky is a greenish-yellow; the ground is dark and shows evenly mowed grass. The painting is signed "Chris Silverman".

#notesArt

You know, that's why I find this strip so haunting. It's uncanny-valley weird—in a way that I can't tell is self-aware or not—but rendered in this coldly proficient commercial-illustrator style. The contrast is jarring.

Ironically a more gonzo art style would probably make this far less unsettling.

It's a pity this wasn't the first strip because I rather like the idea of the Buster character actually being some ghastly tulpa that Biffo conjured up from the maelstrom of his profound alienation and deeply anomic tendencies

A dim forest: evening-blue background, tall purple trees looming out of the fog. In the foreground is a ground of dark grass and the trunk of a huge tree. Hovering at the base of the tree is a glowing yellow orb, a trail of light behind it. The light it casts turns the trunk a yellowish-red. In the background are a few other, dimmer orbs. The painting is signed "Chris Silverman".

#notesArt

(Yesterday's late one, thanks to not having power last night)

A clear blue evening. At the edge of a cliff, a bizarre rocky structure extends into the air. It best resembles some weird crystalline outgrowth; a tower made of cubical boulders that have been fused together. Sitting on the top boulder is a person, dimly illuminated by a glowing yellow lantern. The painting is signed "Chris Silverman".

#notesArt

Yeah, honestly, I guess that's a point. Someone gets upset about social media posts from an engineer whose name appears on your software, and all of a sudden you've got a PR problem.

A screenshot of a classic Mac dialog box being edited in ResEdit. The text reads "Installer 3.4. The hottest installation technology anywhere! Bobby Carp, Kevin Aitken, et al.".

A screenshot of a classic Mac dialog box being edited in ResEdit. The text reads "Quality. The best testing ever! Guaranteed by: Rob "lunatic" Moore and thousands of wily Beta testers.".

A screenshot of a classic Mac dialog box being edited in ResEdit. The text reads "Friends. Thanks for your ideas, support, and patience: Phac Le Tuan, Ron Lichty, Bruce Jones, Rich Kubota, Wayne Correia, Owen Rubin, Chris Derossi Cindy Frost, and Francis Stanbach.".

I miss when software contained stuff like this.

(LaserWriter Pro installer app)

#rsrcSpelunking #retrocomputing