Gary L. Coleman is a retired studio musician with a formidable catalog of recorded performances. (He adds the “L” to distinguish himself from the actor with a similar name.) His family members are all successful artists in their own right as well, and he hoped to help showcase the whole family’s work in this website. He also hoped to exhibit and offer for sale the poetry and music of his deceased son.
The graphical tone of the site is drawn from Gary’s scores and computer works; a javascript rollover interface is provided to let viewers see the son’s poems but not print them, and mp3 files are currently streamed to prevent downloading. (A Flash jukebox is forthcoming)
Poems by his older daughter Cole are included, as well as photography and ambient music from younger daughter Lisa – well known for her film scores as part of the dynamic duo “Wendy and Lisa” and for her tenure with the artist who was then known as Prince. The hope was to provide a view into the lesser known facets of the family’s creativity as well.
Structurally, the site is a mix of i-frames and css pages, navigated with javascript pop-up menus. A blog was also setup to enable family members to write their thoughts to the site.
