About this website

— MACJR'S Garden Gallery —

My name is Michael A. Crane, Jr., but I usually go by my initials, MACJR, here online. I have been online since September 1996, and I built my first website, MACJR’S Mini-Verse², on May 30, 1997. I bought my first domain, macjr.com, on June 14, 2000, but did not get its first pages upload until the next day.

This website, a subdomain of macjr.com, contains samples of my digital art, poetry, prose, and web design. This site is just for show. I am not currently selling anything here.

Currently, most of my art is free to use, but please read the "Terms of Use" page if you want to use any of the art, or any of my other works displayed at this web site.

The arts I have on display here are digital art (AKA pixel art), creative writing (such as poetry and prose), and web design. I have other themed subdomains of macjr.com, and other web sites at other domains, that display other samples of my digital art, prose, poetry, photography, genealogy and other web designs. I also have a few message boards (AKA forums). You can find links to my other sites, and forums, on the green menu bars, which are found near the top and bottoms of every page at this website.

At this website, I often use words to tell my stories, thoughts, and opinions, in creative ways that, in some cases, may give my visitors some insight into my visual, pixel, art. I cannot guarantee that all visitors will understand, or agree, with what I have to say on some of the pages scattered about here and there. You are free to just look at the pictures and ignore my writings&mdsh;except that I do require that you read the "Terms of Use" if you want to use any of my art.

Back in the fall of 1998 I started taking creative writing courses at Everett Community College with Rich Ives as my instructor. Rich is a published author and a small press publisher. I have taken his Creative Fiction Writing (1 through 3), Creative Non-Fiction Writing (1 through 3), and his Poetry Writing (1 and 2). One day, I may go back and take that final poetry class as well. The last quarter I was able to fund for writing classes was in the spring of 2007.

By the way, please don't blame Rich Ives if you do not like my creative writing works. I still consider myself a student of the written arts, not a master, even after all these years.

Although I did take one basic website creation college class back in 2000, I had already been making web pages for a few years by that time. I ended up, unofficially, helping the instructor teach that class. I had planned to take advanced courses in web design, but I ran out of college funds before that could happen, so I went back to teaching myself. It turns out that all I really needed was a few good books on HTML and CSS, and some study time, anyway.

I have never taken a course on computer graphics. I taught myself everything I know about how to make art using computers. I have been creating digital art on computers since 1992, which is when I bought my first computer, and as stated above, I have been displaying samples of my work online since I created my first website back in 1997.

Using various raster graphics programs, my digital art is created by manipulating pixels with a mouse, or a fingertip, as my paintbrush. Pixels are very small dots which usually number in the hundreds of thousands on a typical display screen. Each pixel can contain its own individual color value, and when all these individual pixels are combined with other pixels, patters and images can be made. I often work at the pixel level (via the magic of magnification, of course) when creating many of my pixel art works. I use various sized areas of pixels like blank canvas to write, draw, and paint on, and then I use my web design skills to display my art online in, hopefully, interesting and visually pleasing ways.

If you like this websites, or at least some of its content, and you would like to help keep this site ad free, please consider visiting my "Donate" page to make a PayPal donation.

Feel free to contact me if you have friendly questions or comments.

Thanks for visiting.

Michael A. Crane, Jr.
Artist/Webmaster/Writer