The Prince's Tale

A stunning animation


The Prince's Tale - Animation by *RandomMumble on deviantART

Art from the Future?

"25 Abandoned Yugoslavia Monuments that look like they're from the Future"

Stunning monuments. It would be great to get a description of their actual size. Or to have a person standing beside one of them for a reference. Quite a few of them remind me of Beksinski paintings...

The "alien"istic qualities that they all contain. Telling a story of a tragic ending for a mighty society past its prime. They are absolutely gorgeous pieces...

I really like a few of them: "Tjentište", "Makljen", "Kadinjača", and the one above, "Podgarić".

Biggest Drawing in the World

It's fantastic, the world as your canvas.


Obviously, it's not exactly as drawn, because the world is round. The actual image would be a lot more shakier and distorted.


But, it does create the idea of what would we see if we all traced our steps. Literally or in other senses - it'll be really cool, because it'll be like us, quite unique and fascinating.

(And, the guy must be pretty well off, or at least had a lot of sponsors to pull this off)

Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes

'Twas on a lofty vase's side,
Where China's gayest art had dy'd
The azure flow'rs that blow;
Demurest of the tabby kind,
The pensive Selima, reclin'd,
Gazed on the lake below.

Her conscious tail her joy declar'd;
The fair round face, the snowy beard,
The velvet of her paws,
Her coat, that with the tortoise vies,
Her ears of jet, and emerald eyes,
She saw: and purr'd applause.

Still had she gaz'd; but 'midst the tide
Two angel forms were seen to glide,
The Genii of the stream;
Their scaly armour's Tyrian hue
Thro' richest purple to the view
Betray'd a golden gleam.

The hapless Nymph with wonder saw:
A whisker first and then a claw,
With many an ardent wish,
She stretch'd in vain to reach the prize.
What female heart can gold despise?
What cat's averse to fish?

Presumptuous Maid! with looks intent
Again she stretch'd, again she bent,
Nor knew the gulf between.
(Malignant Fate sat by, and smil'd)
The slipp'ry verge her feet beguil'd,
She tumbled headlong in.

Eight times emerging from the flood
She mew'd to ev'ry wat'ry god,
Some speedy aid to send.
No Dolphin came, no Nereid stirr'd;
Nor cruel Tom, nor Susan heard.
A Fav'rite has no friend!

From hence, ye Beauties, undeceiv'd,
Know, one false step is ne'er retriev'd,
And be with caution bold.
Not all that tempts your wand'ring eyes
And heedless hearts is lawful prize,
Nor all, that glisters, gold.

~Thomas Gray

This Hollow World

Johnny Hollow


Finally! After several years of creating this dark art, Johnny Hollow came out with their first music video! =D

Melting Men

by Nele Azevedo

One Brazilian artist, thousands of icy men, countless people touched.

What started off as a 'critical reading of monument in contemporary cities'
turned into
activists' message on climate change.

This is what great contemporary art does, it makes you think, and often, there may be so many interpretations to it, from this very simple (almost.. pointalistic/minimalistic [musically speaking]) concept. I mean, I even have my own interpretation of it, that's completely different from her's and the climate change people's. The beauty of it is that it's so elegant, people can have their own interpretations of it, based on their believes, interests, passions.

Just brilliant.

Visual Orgasms

*NWS*

THE WALTZ from Chad Michael Ward on Vimeo.



Subliminal from Damir Doma on Vimeo.

Nights of May

A little something for the summer solstice

Nights of May from Joe Sargent on Vimeo.

Created by, James Stephens, Mark Ranson and Joseph Sargent
Music by Tim Johnson

* * *
BD: J.C.F Bach, Jean-Paul Sartre, Aleksandr Tvardovsky

Go Skateboarding Day
Canada's National Aboriginal Day
World Music Day
World Humanist Day
Summer Solstice 2010

Painting

With some free time on my hands, I drafted a painting, about a week ago. Here's a watercolour sketch of it (ignore the anatomical inaccuracies, this version's mainly to plan out colour scheme)

And a charcoal sketch on the actual canvas.

So far, I've washed it with an underlayer. Until I searched the house and found out that most of my paints have dried out (after having them for 5+ years), and that I do not seem to have a white.. -____-, and obviously, as seen on the draft, white is pretty important. So now, the painting is on hiatus until I can go out and get more paint. Which won't be for a while.

Anyway, I will be periodically posting the progress of this painting.

The medium's probably going to be in acrylic. (I need to get turpentine, for oil)

There's really no message/anything interesting/informative behind this post, just felt like sharing some art.

* * *

BD: Hồ Chí Minh, Malcolm X, Pol Pot

World Hepatitis Day

You

My first animation!
Done for IB SL art class 2009.

It originally started off as a film/stop animation, but the dried leaves/photographs failed on me. So I decided to draw the frames out instead. And as I have been told, that is called animation.

The frames are mostly hand drawn, some are merely moving red drops on the leaf, you can tell the difference. This contains 8 frames per second (the fastest I can get windows movie maker to go, and I couldn't find another animation program), and a total of.... however many seconds is in the video. So yes, a couple hundred of frames.

Most of the work took about a week, the rest are just fiddling through a few months. The idea, came up with and finalized on a bus ride home.

Music is improvised on my poorly tuned piano (which is actually beneficial for this piece), and recorded w/ my mp3 (thus the crappy quality, which also works w/ the film). So some of it doesn't EXACTLY match the animation, but it's close enough.

The leaf, is basically representative of the human mind. Yeah.. you guys can figure out the rest by yourself.

You


This is like the... 'bloopers' section I guess.

The original leaf, unfortunately the idea didn't work too well. Got a cool effect in the photograph though.

The leaf breaking; I think this is my favourite/proudist part of the film.

This film was a LOT of work, but in the end, I really enjoyed it, and I like how it turned out. And for the first one, not too bad.

So recently (well, more like the past year or so), I've been wanting to do short films - either actual short films, or stop motion/animation (but with actual people and objects, instead of puppets). The only problem is - no idea what to do the film on. Can't think of a good plot/story line =____=.

But soon, I shall start brainstorming and working on it! =)

* * *
BD: Sigmund Freud, Victor Grignard
International No Diet Day,

Smoke and Mirrors

A set of art/fashion photographs that I found through one of my favourite blogs, Haute Macabre

Photography: Solve Sundsbo

Model: Dree Hemingway

*Warning, contains NWS images*

* * *

BD: Jerry Seinfield

DD: Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein, Alfred Hitchcock, Albert Hofmann

International Dance Day

Ads

An interesting short film:

LOGORAMA
2010 Oscar Best Animated Short

Part I


Part II


Though, when you think about it, it is quite sad that we would recognize most of these references implanted in the film. According to UCSUSA, the average American is exposed to around 3000 advertising messages a day, and that corporations around the world spend over $620 billion a year on advertising. Again, this is according to one study, I wouldn't be surprised if the real values exceed that number.

Also, according to this one podcast that I listened to, NASA's annual budget, is < than the money tobacco companies spend on advertising...

It's just something to think about. I mean, for most, the immediate reaction would be; Materialism! Evil! Die! But then again, it's pretty much a way of life already. It might be 'bad', but we're so accustomed to it I don't think we would be able to live without it (these generations anyway, who knows what may happen in the future). Yes, they do manipulate people, play on our instincts, our desires, and obviously there many arguments against this materialistic world that we live in. But does it necessarily have to be a bad thing? I'm just trying to think of some arguments for materialism. In the argument of materialism verses spirituality - unless we all go and live like monks for the rest of our lives, I believe that there are only a few in the people around us, that would achieve great spirituality. There was a time, when there weren't as many 'evil' corporations, and most people were poor, and thus still suffered regardless of extreme materialism - look at the 3rd world today. I'm not saying that companies are what enables us (in MDCs) to live in relative comfort, but to have a world where everyone's happy, sans corruption, sans corporations, and total spirituality? I think it's safe to say that the dream of an utopia died out decades ago. In reality, to have what we have now, things would have to be sacrificed. And for a lot of us in the western societies, it might just have to be some spirituality and personal and mental freedom. Yes, all this materialism only gives us a momentary high, but in this fast paced world, do we really care?

***

Birthdays: Guiseppe Torelli, Henry Fielding, Vladimir Lenin, J. Robert Oppenheimer
Deaths: Ansel Adams, Richard Nixon
Date: Earth Day

*Note: personally I'm not a follower/fan of this materialistic society, but I'm not a major critic of it either (I think that I've got a good grasp of who I am, other people can do what ever they want, I really don't care) This is merely an exercise, for the lack of a better word, to see some points from the other side.

Marchesa

A woman's fashion label that I stumbled upon over a year ago.
http://www.marchesa.com/


Only a few years in, and their designs have already become a stable on the red carpet. Personally, I like their brand, it's soft, feminine, fairytale-like at times, soft - safe colours, and just... very inspirational overall. Plus, they have two ladies as their directors =).

Unfortunately though, their dresses are something that we'll never be able to afford. (High end label, haute couture, you're looking in the something thousand range per dress. Not that we would ever have an occasion to wear it...)
 
And, for their spring 2010 collection, Asian influences! Origami! ^_______^
While not the most conventional, it is an art, wearable art almost. I think that's what I like the most about their designs, they are not just clothes anymore, but an absolute form of art.

*Edit: something that I realized I haven't done in a LONG while... opps.

  Today's birthdays: Septimius Severus and James Parkinson.

Proust was a Neuroscientist

Book review time!

Proust was a Neuroscientist
by Jonah Lehrer

Using a handful of writers, artist, chef, and musician, Lehrer links the world of neuroscience and psychology, with the world of arts. I thought it was a rather interesting read, with new links and random information for the common reader.

Each chapter is dedicated to a specific artist, and the connections they have made to the scientific world. It typically starts off with a brief introduction and biography about the artist, some of the works they have accomplished. Then, ties between neuroscience and the specific works they have created, how they felt about it. What I liked the most, is that within each chapter, Lehrer also brought in other artists, philosophers, scientists, etc, to back up, or counter the argument. So we get to learn philosophies from a much wider range of people.

Though, to fully enjoy the book, I think one should have some specialty/common knowledge in the arts. For example, one chapter featured a musician - Stravinsky. And when Lehrer made notes between music, and how our brains work, I enjoyed it with greater depth, than some of the chapters on novelists, because I did manage to understand the terminology, and was able to relate to the experiences, and thus understand the links better. Same thing goes for the artist chapter, in which, I understood the experiences.

However, that is not to discourage readers who do not consider artistic inclinations their forte. The language used in the book, is clear enough, that it is suitable for everyone. I just think that artists, writers and musicians would take more out of it, because it does involve their art. For example, I liked and understood the chapters on novelists, but I do not remember as much from those, than from the music and art ones. (After all, memory is linked with the emotions that we feel at the time of its creation)

Overall, I think it's a book worth reading =)

I is deathly sick.
And has been sick for the past week...

Short post today, and so amusement will come from this brochure of the exhibition:
VANITÉS, at the Musée Maillol in Paris.

It seems really interesting, will do some type of a follow up post later, as I feel like joining the exhibition at the moment.

http://www.museemaillol.com/
http://www.museemaillol.com/pdf/annonce_vanites.pdf

Also coming up sometime this week, my birthday (which is tomorrow), review on Jazz Night last Thursday, and more music.

Okay, yeah, I'm procrastinating......

So I made a mouse ^____^

The model is the Joisel rat, and the instructions can be found online.

Birthdays of today: Carl Czerny (my student's been playing a lot of his songs... =.=), Hurbert de Givenchy and Alan Rickman <3.

Deaths: Malcolm X, Tim Horton.

And it is International Mother Language Day.