Archive for the ‘Art’ Category

Liquid Sculpture

Friday, December 30th, 2005

Martin screenshotWaugh loves drops and splashes, and he has dedicated his site to displaying their elegance through the wonders of high-speed photography. With a small amount of specialized equipment, in just a few thousandths of a second, Martin captures still images of magnificent drips, splatters, and liquids. The galleries here showcase the variety of his “liquid sculptures,” whether they be plain water, milk and cream, or something a little more risqué. If you look closely, you might even spot the photographer himself, and you’ll probably wonder how on earth did the world get in there? Some say that to find beauty, you’ve got to look in all the right places, but why not just start with your morning coffee?

World Art Treasures

Saturday, December 24th, 2005

World Art Treasures : “What is essential in my approach consists of not “letting the others profit,” as is too often thought, but to PROFIT ALONG WITH OTHERS from the dual experience of my studies and travel, sharing the emotions of my discoveries and encounters, to maintain faith in this miracle that is life. ” –
J-E Berger

Ancient Maya Mural Unveiled

Wednesday, December 21st, 2005


U.S. archaeologists have discovered the “Sistine Chapel” of the Maya civilization — a finely painted, well preserved mural depicting the Maya creation myth and the crowning of a king.

Unearthed inside a ruined pyramid in the Guatemalan jungle near the ancient Maya city of San Bartolo, the 100 B.C painting is the oldest intact mural ever found in Meso-America.

The 30- by three-foot painting stood on the western wall of a room attached to the pyramid, said archaeologist William Saturno, of the University of New Hampshire and the Harvard Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

Saturno made ” the discovery of a lifetime” in 2001 by chance. To seek refuge from the tropical heat, he ducked into a looters’ trench cut into a jungle-covered pyramid.

As he shone his flashlight on the walls, he was astonished.

Continue reading …

Mona Lisa ‘happy’, computer finds

Friday, December 16th, 2005

A computer has been used to decipher the enigmatic smile of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, concluding that she was mainly happy.

The painting was analysed by a University of Amsterdam computer using “emotion recognition” software.

It concluded that the subject was 83% happy, 9% disgusted, 6% fearful and 2% angry, journal New Scientist was told.

Nature pics of the Week

Tuesday, November 8th, 2005

http://www.extremeinstability.com/stormpics/d13.jpg

Chasing natural tempests.

Photographer of the Week

Tuesday, November 8th, 2005

[Flash site] Some absolutely stunning shots.

Barnacle Press

Monday, October 31st, 2005


Dip into this collection of vintage comic strips and plunge into Adventure! Comedy! Politics! Sport! Each entry shares several cartoons — “many of them as twisted and un-PC as Mickey with a shotgun” — and a brief rundown of the comic in question. Looking for more reasons to read on?

  1. A suicidal Mickey Mouse — “One of our most beloved icons at his most desperate.”
  2. Inside Woody Allen — Starved for Annie Hall? Revisit this strip from the 1970s and ’80s.
  3. Jerry on the Job — “A big-head, tiny-body ’super-deformed’ styled preteen lad. Good stuff.”
  4. You Know Me, Al — Ring Lardner’s 1920s tale of rookie White Sox pitcher Jack Keefe.
  5. Cartoon Course — “That’s right, kids! You don’t have to just sit back and read the comics, you could be making your own. You, too, can earn big cartoonist money!”

Museums Set to Sell Art, and Some Experts Cringe

Thursday, October 27th, 2005

Museums Set to Sell Art, and Some Experts Cringe

By CAROL VOGEL
Published: October 26, 2005 in The New Work Times

Undaunted by the tempest over the New York Public Library’s sale of a prized painting, arts institutions across the country are cleaning out their closets for auctions starting next week, stirring fresh unease among art historians and curators.

Artworks going on the block include paintings by Picasso, Modigliani and Chagall, and rare photographs by masters like Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston. In December, the public library is moving ahead with the sale of two portraits of George Washington, by Gilbert Stuart, and 16 other paintings.

Continue reading …

JohnAugust.com

Sunday, September 4th, 2005

​​​​If you’re writing a screenplay (and let’s face it, who isn’t?), get thee to this blog. Subtitled “a ton of useful information about screenwriting,” the site shares, well, a ton of useful information about screenwriting. John August, whose credits include “Big Fish,” “Go,” and “Charlie’s Angels,” walks us through the trials and tribulations of wielding the pen in Hollywood. Along the way, he addresses such topics as…

Even if you don’t indulge in fantasies of writing your own screenplay but just love movies (and let’s face it, who doesn’t?), you’ll enjoy this glimpse into the inner workings of La-La Land.

Bathsheba Grossman: a geometric sculptor

Saturday, August 27th, 2005

Check out an artist exploring the region between art and mathematics.

Fakes, Frauds, and Fake Fakers

Wednesday, June 29th, 2005

Some counterfeiters try to enter the “soul and mind of the artist.” Some delight in the chemistry of baking paint and creating wormholes. Some start with real pictures and then “restore” them until they look as if they’re by a different artist. From ancient vases to conceptual art—if someone made it, someone else has tried to bamboozle the world with a copy

Continue reading …

Brazilian doctors uncover ‘Michelangelo code’

Sunday, June 26th, 2005

Move over Da Vinci Code.

Two Brazilian doctors and amateur art lovers believe they have uncovered a secret lesson on human anatomy hidden by Renaissance artist Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling.

Completed nearly 500 years ago, the brightly colored frescoes painted on the
Vatican’s famous sanctuary are considered some of the world’s greatest works of art. They depict Biblical scenes such as the “Creation of Adam” in which God reaches out to touch Adam’s finger.

Continue reading …

A new twist on an old myth

Friday, June 24th, 2005

Watch and hear Sita singing the blues, by Nina Paley in Sitayana.

Photoshop 911

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2005

Photoshop 911 is the reader response division of Photoshop Tips & Tricks. These blog will answer all your questions and give you plenty of new tricks and hints.

Manish Rami – Haiku

Tuesday, June 21st, 2005

A haiku is a short Japanese poem. It usually consists of three lines, often with 5, 7 and 5 syllables in each line (though I never follow the 5, 7, and 5 rule and write in free form.) A haiku is very attentive to time (of the year) and place. The time part is often depicted with a seasonal reference called “kigo” e.g. deep autumn, sudden summer shower, images of rice seedlings, plum blossoms, spring and summer migrant birds, their chirps and warbles etc. – often a haiku will violate this rule. There is also an implicit Buddhist reflection on nature. It demands accurate and original images – mostly from common life. The two most famous poets (in my opinion) are Matsuo Basho, and Kobayashi Issa.

Some seasonal haiku in North Dakota by Manish Rami

Snow settles.
On the boughs, on the bushes…
On my boots!

This first snow…
Sweet frosting
On a huge cake!

Frozen dewdrop ornaments
On Pine needles -
Merry Christmas

This Christmas -
I fought my cold
With Fudges, Chocolates, and Biscotti.

Horizontal snow
Framed in my window.
The heater shivers!

Sitting on the bough…
Some snow
Awaits a gust

Few snowflakes
With the aid of a gust
Seek flight again!

Spring snow on bough
Asks dried leaves…
“When do you fall!”

Oh how wide is this sidewalk!
The snow
Has all melted.

Gently falling leaves.
In my yard…
A pile in a flash

Blossoms gone, leaves too…
This tall thin denuded tree
Oh how beautiful!

Peek-a-boo!
Says a bud
To the Spring.

Raindrops on eaves…
Sliding and taking turns
To jump to earth.

Lapping lake waters…
Tranquility
Enhanced!

Drawn!

Monday, May 16th, 2005

screenshot​​​​For those who enjoy spending time in just two dimensions, this one’s a must. A collaborative blog “devoted to illustration, art, cartoooning, and drawing,” Drawn! functions as a sort of Picks for visual artists. Each post describes one or more sites, and
is archived in such categories as comics, film and TV, animation, and design. (Some days as many as five sites are listed. Click on post title to see the drawing.) Among this cornucopia of links you’ll find Calvin & Hobbes, Spiderman,The Office’s Ricky Gervais (as a teddy bear!), Norman Rockwell, Walt Disney’s Oswald the Rabbit (the precursor to Mickey Mouse), and an isometric pixel art tutorial. But keep browsing; whether you’re interested in the highbrow, lowbrow, or no brow, you’re bound to find something you like.

Meddling with Media to Make Art

Thursday, May 12th, 2005

Guggenheim lecture on John Baldessari in his own words:
“People shaking hands, you know: congratulating each other, what have you in a standard shot. I really always found them objectionable and then I realized that these were people making decisions about my life while I was in my studio so there was a kind of uneasiness on my part and one day after carrying these photographs around I had some circular price stickers and I put them on their faces. And I really felt that leveled the playing field somehow.”

Magic Feathers by James W. Reid

Friday, April 29th, 2005

This lavishly illustrated large-format art book by James Reid - is the first major publication in the world devoted entirely to this magnificent ancient art form. It focuses on the aesthetic beauty of the feather textiles and three-dimensional objects, unparalleled in their artistry and sophistication, that were created for the elite of the ancient Andean world between approximately 500 BC and 1550 AD.

Son of a British Army Officer and UN diplomat, and of an American mother, James Reid was educated at England’s 600 year old Winchester College, at Princeton (BA), the Ecole de Sciences Politiques ( Paris), Stanford (MA), and with doctoral studies at the University of Buenos Aires.

The author, internationally recognised as one of the leading authors and scholars on the textile art of ancient America, focuses on:
- The characteristics and chronology of the major featherwork-producing cultures of ancient Peru, and the geographical features of the area.
- Technical facets of feather textile production, including: sources of the feathers; different types of feather objects; creation and construction; dating and cultural attribution.
- The religious, political, social, psychological, economic and communication roles of the feather textiles in ancient Peruvian life.
- Design concepts and the meaning and importance of the motifs and shapes employed.
- The parallels to be drawn between ancient Peruvian feather textiles and Modern Art.

He is the author of eleven major books, which contain introductions by HRH Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, Mario Vargas Llosa and such internationally renowned archaeologists as Federico Kauffmann-Doig. He has presented his books personally, in official ceremonies, to the Presidents of Brazil and Peru.

In addition to numerous other publications( scholarly articles and museum catalogues, et al.,), he has been guest lecturer at US universities ( Princeton, Yale, Syracuse), and such institutions as the Americas’ Society, New York; the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto; the Israel Museum, Jerusalem , and numerous South American institutions. He was recently invited by Germain Viatte, Directeur du Musee du quai Branly – French President Chirac’s huge new museum, ten years in construction( due to open in 2006) – to lecture in Paris, and to author a 100 page catalogue.

A linguist in seven languages, Colonel Reid is an elected member of New York’s prestigious Explorers Club as the result of his expeditions to, and accounts of remote areas of the world. An artist who studied in Paris, he has exhibited his paintings internationally – primarily in France, the US and South America.

An excellent Feather book though not so feather-weight (11 pounds)

Dancer’s Journal, A

Wednesday, April 27th, 2005

From your seat in the front row, you can enjoy a performance of “Appalachian Spring,” choreographed by Martha Graham, the founder of modern dance. But this Flash site offers more than a front-row seat — it gives you a backstage pass to the preparation required to mount a modern dance production. This interactive exhibit chronicles the pre-performance world of dancers in the Martha Graham Dance Company, the oldest modern dance company in the world. Open the locker of Jordy Kandinsky, the company’s “newest member,” and you’ve got access to her journals, filled with annotated programs, notes, memos, and background material. But most impressive of all, you can watch and listen as members of the company, including Martha Graham herself, perform. Take your seat; the orchestra is about to warm up.

Art In Cities

Tuesday, April 26th, 2005

Never mind what’s hanging on the walls of the Prado or Met. How about that sticker on a lamppost in Stockholm, wall mural in Cape Town, or luminescent graffiti in San Francisco? For a real dose of global artistic zeitgeist, the funky designs adorning public and private property on metropolitan streets could be as illuminating as a visit to the MOMA. At least, that’s the theory behind the Galerie De Meerse’s — Hoofddorp’s (Amsterdam) “Art in…” series, an annual project exploring subcultural artistic _expression. From Tehran to Jerusalem, Sao Paulo to Lima, New York City to Salt Lake City, attempts to keep artistic malcontents coloring within the lines loses out to the world-as-canvas ethic. So check it out; for some, art in Paris doesn’t just mean the Louvre anymore.

Bathtub Art Museum

Monday, April 25th, 2005


You won’t find bathtubs festooned with Mona Lisas or poker playing dogs on this site –just a tubful of pictures of the bathroom fixture, most printed on postcards. If cats in a clawfoot, a toad in a tub, a babe in the bath, and a shopper soaking aren’t enough to wash away your cares, take a look at the dumb laws about bathtubs. (If you live in Arizona, don’t let your donkey sleep in your tub. You could end up in the slammer.) This site is just bubbling over with helpful tub tidbits, handmade postcards, and personal reminiscences of bathtub races. And if you’re wondering why tubs, Curator Carye Bye comes
clean
about her obsession with pictures of bathtubs.