Mary Neumuth Mito, Murky Water 60 x 88.

Transmutation of the Mundane

When I came upon the images which I’m about to share with you, I was a bit slack-jawed, standing there in the book store. They were of dead leaves, pond-bottoms, sticks in snow, the edges of lakes, and other such humble subjects. Those of you who are at all familiar with my photographs will know that these are just the subjects I’m drawn to myself. Turning through the pages of the book, a catalog from an exhibit, I was agape because these photos were so very in line with my own; Creepily so. After taking a moment to read some of the accompanying text I was handily slapped around and had any egoistic notions of similarity dispelled- they were not photographs. They were paintings.

09.25. filed under: art. personal. 4


Etude pour Cottos

The Hundred-Handed Giants, Hecatoncheires to the Greeks, and later Centimani to the Romans, were the first beings born through procreation. Their father was Uranus, the Sky and their mother Gaia, the Earth. They were three in number, named Briareus, Cottus, and Gyges, and each was a gargantuan having fifty heads and a hundred arms. They were of vast proportions, stronger and more fierce than anything before them. In a manner befitting the species whose world they governed these first procreative births lead directly to marital conflict, conspiratorial plotting, attempted patricide, successful castration, all out war, and ultimately the downfall of the Titans and the rise of Zeus. “Out with the old and in with the new.” The more blood and guts and rumbling thunder the better, ay?

09.20. filed under: art. belief. history. 1


An Illustration for Kafka’s Ein Hungerkünstler (The Hunger Artist) by Andrzej Ploski, circa 1983, which struck my fancy. You can see the full series, as well as Ploski’s illustrations for many of Kafka’s short works here. Note that the stories appear in their Polish translation. If you don’t read Polish but would like to read the corresponding stories as well I can recommend The Kafka Project

09.11. filed under: art. fiction. 4


Diableries

Their history, method of creation, and purpose are largely a matter of speculation. They originate from some time in the 19th century and are French. They were created by only a handful (perhaps 2 or 3) artists. It seems they were photographed from small clay dioramas, none of which have survived. They were presented as opaque stereo-photographs and transparent rear-projection tissues, some hand colored (as above) some a rich sepia. The mystery surrounding their origins was likely intentional in that there content, humorous and bawdy and dealing almost exclusively with satan, hell, and the dead, would likely be seen as heretical. The present thinking is that they were produced as social satire on the regime of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte who, as Napoleon III, was Emperor of France from 1852 to 1870. The relative anonymity of the creators and mystery of their origins would serve as protection against imprisonment and other dungeon-related unpleasantness. See below for a few scant examples and links to more complete resources.

09.05. filed under: art. history. 5


There is Yet Another Hell

Mention historical Japanese painting to a westerner and certain images involuntarily leap to mind- Hokusai’s great wave, an idyllic nature scene, an elegant Geisha, a sparrow perched on an inky branch… even Tales of the Genji or an explicit bit of Shunga perhaps. I imagine one thing which does not readily spring to mind is H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks, with its demons and leaping flames and pestilence and writhing souls. After all, that’s our thing! Isn’t it?

08.26. filed under: art. belief. history. 9


Zengraving

Came across this hypnotic video of master hand engraver Steve Lindsay completing an engraving from start to finish. It’s pretty amazing. As a designer (with the prerequisite appreciation of typography) watching someone carve perfect, beautiful letter forms from metal, and so handily, is both humbling and fun. As a (lapsed) painter I can certainly appreciate the brute hand-skill involved. Beyond that there is a definite Zen quality inherent, I’d say, to any work which denies the luxury of an eraser or undo button. Pour yourself a glass of something (the vid is accompanied by an urbane soundtrack of classical and jazz) and enjoy.

For more videos, images, and information on hand engraving see the following:
Engraving School.com, Lindsay Engraving.com, and Master Engraver.com.

08.25. filed under: art. design. people.


Beautiful Specimens

Wikipedia tells us: “A microscope slide was originally a ‘slider’ made of ivory or bone, containing specimens held between disks of transparent mica. These were popular in Victorian England until the Royal Microscopical Society introduced the standardized microscope slide in the form of a thin sheet of glass used to hold objects for examination under a microscope.”

I’d like to add the following: Antique microscope slides, looked at from a strictly aesthetic standpoint (egged on by a design obsessed brain obviously) are some of the most elegant and perfectly beautiful human artifacts on planet earth. You can quote me on that. See below for irrefutable

scientific

aesthetic evidence.

08.19. filed under: art. design. science. 8


Nature Vs. Art

Æsthetic Friend: “Yes, This room is rather nice, All but the window, with these large blank panes of plate glass! I should like to see some sort of pattern on them—Little squares or lozenges or arabesques…”

Philistine: “Well, but those lovely cherry blossoms, and the lake, and the distant mountains, and the beautiful sunsets, and the purple clouds—isn’t that pattern enough?”

(Taken from Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 102. June 4, 1892. which, along with many other volumes, can be found on Gutenberg, listed for your ease here.)

08.19. filed under: art. history. play. 2


The work of master goldsmith Giovanni Corvaja is a fascinating mixture of the ancient and the cutting edge. His pieces are strikingly modern in form, clean geometries encasing staggering complexities, but the techniques employed to create these works are in fact the re-imagining of 3000 year old Etruscan methods (filigree and granulation) largely forgotten until very recently. 

 

 

08.19. filed under: art. people. 2


Quote, “Rockets, canoes, bagpipes, fish, good old chaps with patches on their elbows and jokes about Derrida: Glen Baxter’s world is always instantly recognizable. Blunt, innocent-looking lines tether its extravagant surrealism to the page like guy ropes, the economy of those pen strokes undermined by the accompanying text, blocked out in hand-written capitals, which sheds often surprising light on the dummy-blank expressions of the characters.” from an old Guardian article called King of the surreal. Anyone whose work contains multiple Giacometti jokes, or indeed a constant stream of art gags, gets the nod in my book. So let me ask you, are you, like myself, an admirer of this Glen Baxter by any chance? Well, you are about to become one.

Links: Glen’s homepage, Thorogood, Modernism Inc, The Tate, Flowers East, Int. Herald Tribune piece, and a short audio interview.

12.13. filed under: art. comedy. people. 3


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