Have you seen this gorgeous kiddo art collage by Jan Eleni?  I spotted it in a guest mom's post on Design Mom, and think it is absolutely charming...so I'm going to make one each year for my husband!  He just had his birthday this week and I had the kiddos do some birthday paintings for him.  After my son's painting was dry, he insisted on rolling it and gift wrapping it for his dad.  My husband has it hanging in his office at work.  So I thought I'd do a collage for each year, displaying our kiddo's art.  I've taken pictures of quite a few of their pieces already, so I just need to get into photoshop and get going.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

L'edifici neorromànic de la Universitat de Barcelona, que s'alça al mig de la ciutat, amaga tresors que mereixen una detinguda visita. Els seus jardins, els seus dos claustres, l'escala d'honor, el paraninf... llocs tots ells monumentals, plens d'obres d'art. Entreu-hi un dia i ja em direu que us sembla.

El edificio neorrománico de la Universidad de Barcelona, que se levanta en medio de la ciudad, esconde tesoros que merecen una detenida visita. Sus jardines, sus dos claustros, la escalera de honor, el paraninfo... lugares todos ellos monumentales, llenos de obras de arte. Entrad un día y ya me diréis que os parece.

Great news.  I am going to steal my wife's laptop.  The solution to my problem has been right in front of my nose!!  You see my computer cannot handle my works, at least the ones planned for the next album.  Too many notes = trouble.  Her computer has a double processor and a massive hard drive.

As an answer to "Charmed Elixirs," I am going to create works which one might term as "bats in the belfry."  BATS IN A BELFRY!!!

The works will be miniature and purposely difficult.  There was a conversation at S21 called "easy to play." I wrote in the comment section "a composer doesn't choose to play hard or easy, they just do."  Well readers, it looks like I was wrong.  But why do something so innain you ask?  I'm looking at the big picture.  At this point in my creative span, I am not in a mood to create anything eloquent, but I will come back full circle at some point.

*  I'll pass on that Marc Chan informed me today he is planning on releasing his debut CD sometime this year.  Take note.

See also http://www.icpuzzles.co.uk/gormley/

http://www.andrewmccafferty.co.uk/album.php?album=1143244800atitle_Crosby%20March%202006

After a day spent in the centre of Liverpool, looking a city that had chosen to turn itself into a building site in the cause of luxury apartments, executive offices and retail experiences, it was reassuring to know that it is possible for man to enhance his natural environment as well as desecrate it.

Yesterday we finished our second week of our annual summer camp for high school students. The camp was a great success and the work was outstanding. The students participated in Interior Design, Graphic Design, Photography and Animation.

I personally worked with the graphic design students. Two of them participated in the first week and were able to build upon their knowledge. Each student did different work and some did multiple pieces. One of the girls did a poster for the new Batman movie and used Adobe Illustrator to make it all vector. She had never used this program, but learned it quickly and her design turned out great. Another girl did a digital illustration of a Cadillac. She drew the car, scanned in the image and painted it using only Adobe Photoshop. She was very unfamiliar with this program, but by the end of the camp she was very proficient using the selection and painting tools, and it showed! The other girl made a calendar with her favorite bands on it. She did 13 different designs using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign. Each design for the calendar was unique and she made solid layout and type decisions.

The teen camp experience was rewarding for everyone, especially the students. At the end of the last day they got to show their work and talk about it to everyone. I could tell they all had a great sense of accomplishment while they were showing their pieces to their family and friends, and faculty of the college. If these particular students wished to continue their knowledge in Graphic Design, I think they could all be very successful in the future.

-TACDC

Vous avez jusqu'au 27 juillet pour voir l'exposition El Greco, Velázquez au Museum of Fine Art de Boston. La manifestation se déplacera ensuite au Nasher Museum of Art à la Duke Universtity de Durham où elle sera ouverte au publique du 21 août au 9 novembre.

Durham se situe en Caroline du Nord. Du Nord mais très au sud de Boston. Donc si vous vous trompez de ville,  Durham se trouve bien sur la côte Est mais nettement plus bas. N'espérez pas y être au mieux avant minuit !

Il faut savoir que cette exposition montre une soixantaine d'œuvres dont celles du Greco et de Velázquez qui n'en représentent pas la majorité. Elle entend en fait placer ces peintures dans le contexte artistique d'une période bien particulière : celle du règne de Philippe III d'Espagne (entre 1598 et 1621).

Personnellement, je n'ai rien compris au sens de cette exposition.  

Pourquoi avoir choisi cette période ? Là est le mystère. Va pour le Greco qui réside en Espagne depuis les années 1570 et y a pondu ses plus grands chefs-d'œuvre mais le choix de Velázquez , né un an après le début du règne de Philippe III d'Espagne, reste plus mystérieux. En tout cas, il est espagnol, contemporain du règne du règne de Philippe III et, malgré son jeune âge, il a eu le temps de peindre quelques natures mortes. On dira donc que c'est pour toutes ces raisons qu'il se trouve là. 

J'ai pensé à un moment que le thème de cette exposition était né de l'idée subite de réaliser une exposition sur le thème de la peinture sous le règne de Philippe III d'Espagne.  Pourquoi cette période ? Et pourquoi pas ! Pour une fois que quelqu'un a une certitude ! 

Il ne restait plus qu'à trouver deux génies de la peinture anciennes (Pourquoi deux ? Et pourquoi pas ? Pour une fois que....)  dont des œuvres seraient éventuellement disponibles pour une expo dans un musée de province américain (un conseil ne dites jamais cela de leur ville à des bostoniens !) en pleine période de forte chaleur. On avait déjà quelques pièces du Greco (difficile à trouver) et des possibilités pour Velázquez. Bon d'accord, il n'était pas né quand Philippe III est arrivé au pouvoir. Et alors ? Qui s'en rendra compte ?

D'ailleurs qui se rendra compte que les 17 autres peintres également présentés comme Rubens, Juan Sanchez Cottan, Jusepe Ribera, Francesco Ribalta, Vicente Carducho ne sont ni des Greco ni des Velázquez ?

Allez hop ! On baptise l'expo El Greco, Velázquez !

ici présente, une peinture que j'ai fait récemment. j'aime l'automne moi. et j'ai fait cette toile pour exprimer que l'automne est loin d'être une saison morne et sans éclat. ici au québec, les feuilles des arbres changent en une toute autre palette de couleurs. c'est magnifique. j'aime l'automne, et je tenais à le préciser, même si nous sommes en plein été...

I asked him if he would help me out with the Ralph page, and after some arm twisting, cajoling, and wheedling he agreed. I asked Brian to do this because his knowledge of all things Ralph Steadman by far outstrips mine.

Brian works full time and has enough on his plate without me beating his door down, begging for help. So thanks Brian, I appreciate it. And many thanks to Walt at Sylph Chapbooks for passing on his neat piece [through Brian] about Ralph signing Joe Meets The Aliens. Walt’s Site is at http://www.eliotbooks.com/

Here is Brian’s first instalment of Ralph Steadman publications…

"Joe Meet's The Alien's" started me in collecting Ralph Steadman's books, memorabilia, and art.

From the day I received this chapbook, it became one of my favourites and still is. I was so impressed with the quality and workmanship of this book, but also with the story tucked inside. This Chapbook in some odd way made me feel like it was made just for me. The structure of the book looked and felt like something very rare. Especially when these chaps are compared to the more common dust cover hardback books. From the very beginning they peaked my interest. Now I have been able to collect them all and will hopefully be able to share a bit from time to time.

Here is a little about the story of Joe Meet's The Alien's: Ralph Steadman and a friend (Joe Petro III) leave Las Vegas after gambling away their "boodle" at a casino in short time. They decide to travel through the scenic Nevada desert heading toward Area 51 in search of life from another plant. Do they find it? No telling, but what they do encounter is definitely out of the norm. The book is very funny and full of bright pictures taken during the trip which are silk-screened into the book. A good one for the any Ralph Steadman collection indeed.

This special edition number 29 of 50 chapbooks has hand-made marbled paper and is hand-bound in World cloth, signed by Ralph Steadman, Anna Steadman, and Joe Petro III.

This Sylph Chapbook #2 is hand-made by Walt Bartholomew.

Here's a little background story from the publisher, Walt at Sylph Chapbooks, the creator of these beautiful hand made books.

Joe Meet's The Alien's: [From Walt]

"When the colors for the book design were decided upon I was worried that Ralph might sign the pages in his usual red, which is nice of course, but clearly a color that didn't fit. I thought green would be good for an "Aliens" book, but I had never seen anything signed in green by Ralph before. My thought was, 'He loves red, so he must hate green?' I mailed green pens to him - worried that I was telling him, a famous artist, what to do. Luckily he complied without any complaint (at least to me).

]]> http://gnadj.wordpress.com/2008/07/18/snagfilms-category-widget/ Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:31:14 +0000 gnad http://gnadj.wordpress.com/2008/07/18/snagfilms-category-widget/ AOL dude Ted Leonsis just launched SnagFilms.com, a site that showcases online lotsa documentaries, and gives you a way to support the causes the docs promote.  Cool alternative to Hulu once you've watched all the Exo Squad episodes.

-gnad

I, for one, hope they never discover who he really is for sure.  I prefer to keep the mystique of it all.  I also can't imagine the fines he would face if they ever discovered who he really is.

I think it's more important to take a lot at what this man has been able to do.  It's FREAKIN' BANANAS!!!  There has never been a graffiti artist that has "gotten up" in the kind of places Banksy has over and over again without ever being discovered.  The man is a GOD.  There isn't another person in the history of the world that his done what he has done.  Banksy is also a conscious artist.  He's not just doing "throw ups."  He paints thought provoking messages that raise questions about ourselves, society, politics, art, and much more.  He's a REVOLUTIONARY.

I could go on forever.  There will be a movie and a documentary about this man in our life-time.  No doubt about it.

For now, lets pay homage to the greatest ever!

***Banksy’s largest piece ever!***

Banksy strikes again in LA?

Banksy strikes in LA again!

Damien Hirst & Banksy painting goes for $1.8 million

George Michael wants Banksy to graffiti his house for 2 million

Well, I have no idea if he really is an old Rocker. My partner Kev Moore, who is a Rocker, but not old, thinks he is. I much more thought that he is a Harley Davidson rider, because they all looked like him in Germany. But we are in Spain, and that one was English. And anyway: he could be both!

Except that he did not smoke, but his bird did... and how! Exactly like I was expecting him to do, the cigarettes drooping from the lips, without any fingers to hold them...

And he arrived at the cafe walking. Not cool, really, for a Harley Davidson rider...

Well, we are back in town and today, for the first time in many months, I sat again in a cafe and made some caricatures from the people there. I am sure they think:

"Oh sh..., she is back!"

and they don't even know what they look like in my drawings! But sometimes I start laughing in front of my drawings, and Kevin too, so I guess they must be suspicious... I wonder what will happen if they find my drawings some day on the net and recognize themselves...

ATTENTION PLEASE!

I speak and read French, German, English, Spanish, and understand some others too...

so please don't hesitate to leave a comment or to contact me in your own language!

]]> http://intersectingsets.wordpress.com/?p=146 Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:27:31 +0000 Ellie Clewlow http://intersectingsets.wordpress.com/?p=146 Think sinuous female forms and sumptuous fabrics. Think Klimt. Then think again - yes, the portraits of women were stunning, but there were also a series of beautiful square landscapes and a series of quite shockingly explicit drawings of female nudes. This exhibition really gave a good sense of Klimt's broader range. 

Klimt may be the headline act, but think of this as more of a festival, where you go for the all round experience. Yes, you get Klimt's greatest hits...well, some of them...but this is really just part of a broader whole. I came away with a much greater understanding of Klimt's place in the Viennese Secession of late 19th and early 20th Vienna; the relationship of that movement to the British Arts and Crafts movement and to later developments in art deco; and a series of further names to look out for, such as the architect, Josef Hoffmann.

A few minor criticisms of the curatorship - some of the lighting was very intrusive, with spots and trip lighting reflecting harshly on the glazing of the landscapes, and it was unfortunate that the Beethoven frieze had to be separated out on a separate floor to the main exhibition.

I managed to fit in two visits - one just after the gallery opened when I had the absolute luxury of having the gallery almost to myself...once I had explained to the staff how to swipe my member's card, and reassured them that I really didn't need to join the early morning crowd in a crush to see the Beethoven frieze for the second time!

next >>

In the meantime, I discovered a wonderful website of golden age illustrators, and here are a few favorites:

Virginia Frances Sterrett - Old French Fairy Tales

Sulamith Wulfing - The Little Mermaid

Arthur Rackham - A Midsummer Night's Dream - I bought a copy of this Shakespeare play when I was around eight just because it had these illustrations and I was blown away.

A MYSTERY BEYOND COMPREHENSION

They were everywhere. Their droppings. Between the medicine bottles in the pharmacy. Under the cushions in the furniture store. Between the twenties in the bank vault. Amongst the odd and ends of the Dollar Store. Like laces between cashews. They were everywhere in the plaza except the restaurant. They, being the mice. That the Ohara brothers had seeded in the plaza months before.

The owner of the Canadiana Restaurant, Luigi Manco, could not explain it. Now Luigi looked like a butcher. Handlebar moustache. That he kept well oiled. Like the horns of some jungular beast. A water buffalo?

“And I don’t know why I should feel bad about it,” Luigi said to the pest control brothers, Sean and Pat Ohara. Now the restaurateur’s mind was elsewhere. An agglomeration of thoughts. His gaze fixed on some evasive horizon. His chin up. Proud. He curled his moustache in his fingers. A habit. That he was totally unaware of. Like eating sushi. Perhaps not totally. But only on the very ledge of his consciousness. For now his resolve was not to have his restaurant tarnished by the rumors of pestilence.

The Ohara brothers smiled. Though they were confused. Pat wondered. Why had the mice avoided the restaurant? It was a reserve of culinary rations. Pat grinned. You gotta love a mystery. Ah, the Oharas’ reputation was built upon their ability to sleuth out such conundrums. For it was…

“… In these paradoxes, that the truth lies,” Sean Ohara continued his brother’s thoughts out loud. In his light Japanese accent. An accent he had gone to Japan to cultivate. For he and his brother were third generation Canadians. He looked at his brother Pat who nodded in agreement.

“We must ask the question.” Pat raised one of his fingers. “Why?”

Luigi waved his hands in the air, then his head and then his hair in a current at variance. He was angry.

“Don’t give me this Asian mystical shit!” he cried in his light Italian accent. Luigi was a fourth generation Canadian who had picked up his Italian accent while on summer holidays in Rochester, New York. “The mice don’t like my food. I don’t give a shit! I don’t want their patronage. They aren’t paying customers. You should be out pestering the owners of the other stores where the mice find their sustenance.”

Luigi, hands on his hips, glared at the two pest control officers in their bright orange suits. That resembled the inmate uniforms in American prisons. Which is what they were. Second hand uniforms. Death row inmates. Patrick had picked them up on the net. At a very reasonable rate. Oh, they were a little soiled. But one had to make allowances.

“We have already spoken to the other owners,” Patrick said, quietly, almost inaudibly, so confident was he in his position as an exterminator.

Sean began to look around the kitchen as his brother spoke. He moved some pots that hung from the ceiling. They clashed.

“Don’t touch those!” Luigi barked. Luigi didn’t appreciate anyone playing his pots. Who was not an artist. A cook. Or a summer student.

“Mr. Manco,” Patrick continued. “Mr. G. has given us full powers to investigate the source of this outbreak of rodents in the plaza. We have the papers if you insist upon seeing them. He told us not to leave any rock unturned. And this,” he said tapping on the pot with his fingernails, “is a rock unturned.”

“Well, I don’t like you poking around my restaurant,” Mr. Manco continued, his eyes moving back and forth between the two brothers. “Instead of asking why I don’t have rodents, you might go and ask why the other stores have mice. What are they doing to attract those little buggers?”

“I don’t think there is any cause for that!” Sean looked up from his view of the open door of an oven.

“Cause for what,” Mr. Manco stepped over to where Sean was kneeling and closed the oven door.

“Cursing the mice,” Sean explained, rising to his feet.

“We are all God’s creations,” Patrick added.

Luigi looked from one brother to the other, than slapped his head, muttering something Italian under his breath. Something that rimed with hole. Revealing his love of opera.

“We will be putting traps around your restaurant.” Sean smiled. Nodded toward his brother.

“Traps! Why do you need traps? I’m not the one with the mice.”

“Perhaps,” Pat said stroking his chin, responding on cue, “there is something else in your restaurant killing the poor mice.”

“The poor mice?” Mr. Manco cried. “Whose side are you on?”

“The side of the underdog,” Sean responded, his voice rising in indignation. “The side of justice. The side of those who cannot stand up for themselves. Where there’s darkness, we stand for light. Where there is fear, we make love.”

“The traps won’t get in your way, Mr. Manco,” Patrick added. “They are small pieces of sticky cardboard. About five or six inches long. Most unobtrusive. Your customers will hardly notice them. Unless they step on them. And then they’re a bugger to get off. Might as well go buy new shoes.”

“This is crazy,” Mr. Manco cried. “I don’t have mice. I don’t need traps. This is a lot of to do over nothing.”

Sean and Patrick both turned on Mr. Manco. They spoke in alternate lines.

“You are trying to tell us our business?”

“Do we come in here and tell you how to cook?”

“No sir. We have put traps all over the plaza.”

And then spoke together in a refrain.

“When the mice discover the danger, where will they go? When they discover that their very existence is in peril, where will they go? They will come here. We will drive them out of the rest of the plaza into the restaurant. And then…”

And then the Ohara brothers stamped on the floor with their feet.

Mr. Manco threw up his hands in defeat and walked off. The two Ohara brothers giggled. For as Mr. Manco walked off, he had attached himself to one of the traps, now stuck to the bottom of his shoe.

“That was good, Sean.”

“Can you imagine what he’ll say when he discovers the trap on his shoe?”

“Blow a gasket.”

Tears ran down Patrick’s face. Laughing. Sean put his arm around his brother’s shoulder.

“I have seen the future,” Patrick said. “And it is filled with mouse traps. Our mouse traps.”

“I hope so, dear brother,” Sean responded. “But I can’t help wondering why there are no mice in the restaurant.”

“The Golden Cat?” Patrick asked.

Sean shook his head. “I think not. The Golden Cat has free reign through the whole plaza. And yet the mice thrive everywhere, but… No, dear brother, it is a mystery beyond comprehension.”

Sean turned and looked out the window for dramatic effect. Except that since they were in the kitchen, there was no window.

Being that this is the year of the Olympic Games, sneaker companies have been working hard night and day making Olympic packs.  Well I think we have the winner.  Here we present to you are the Olympic Pack designed by Nike.  With this pack Nike used the very popular Nike Air Max 1.  The shoes come in two colorways, one with a gold upper, white midsole and a speckle sole, the other has a silver upper, white midsole and speckle sole as well.  What makes these joints unique is that the whole upper are perforated.  Info on a drop not available as of yet.

Just click to enlarge the image.

The Power of Ideas

There is more influence to be had on the mind than on the vote. As the forms opinions may take are infinite, yet the avenues for their expression are highly finite. The power of ideas dominates the quandary and few ways ideas can be manifested in reality. The poet is therefore more powerful than the politician. And, in the long-term, music more than muscle. This is the essence of the power of ideas.

Just look at Bob Dylan.

And so, to work. Listen to Einaudi's 'Primavera' for proof.

Gotta appreciate how the internet allows these kinds of documentaries and other history to resurface.

via Raw art.

Other related posts:

Artists Spotlight - Don Pendleton & Little Giants trailer

Deathbowl to Downtown - NYC skateboard history

David Choe documentary - “Dirty Hands: The Art & Crimes of David Choe”

“Bomb It” video premier and premier party in LA

God Went Surfing With The Devil - Surf inspired documentary covering Arab-Palestinian-Israeli situation

“Piece of Mind” graffiti video trailer

Style Wars (free download)

Scratch (the movie) (free download)

Manda Bala (Send A Bullet) - Brazilian documentary

All City - Hip Hop documentary (DOPE)

Beat Diggin’ Documentary

Jam Master Jay documentary - “2 TURNTABLES AND A MICROPHONE”

Self-taught artist, Dale Mathis, has come up with this great looking Executive Desk. It not only appears to be a fully-functional work space but it also features cogs and gears under its transparent surface, some of which actually move. Mathis, who was once a bouncer for a Las Vegas strip club, creates amazing looking pieces, which often contain clock-work and other steampunk-y looking machinery. However, the $20,000 price tag on this particular item may put it out of reach for most home-office decor. See a video of the desk parts in motion below.

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.635366&w=425&h=350&fv=m%3D1367153%26type%3Dvideo%26a%3D0]