Stick Scuptures explained a bit

This is just really cool.  Patrick Dougherty goes into how he works.  And in the process makes me really want to play with sticks.  Hmmmmmm......

Saturday Morning Links

The following are amazing and kinda random.  Because my 'bookmark' list is getting cumbersome, let me show you some groovy things I read this week:


http://io9.com/5987086/meet-the-scientific-accident-that-could-change-the-world
Seriously - you can make graphene with a dvd player.


http://thetextileblog.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/kowhaiwhai-maori-rafter-patterns.html
A post on Maori Rafter Patterns plus a ton of links on Maori design.  Very cool.

http://www.thejealouscurator.com/blog/2013/03/29/im-jealous-of-yuki-kitazumi/
Introducing Yuki Kitazumi.  (well, at least introducing her to me)


http://fontfeed.com/archives/my-type-of-music_april-1st-2013/
This is hilarious yet engrossing.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/leifpeng/8581162908/
A kickass illustration of balloons by Mitchell Hooks- beautiful!  See full multi-part post at Today's Inspiration  http://todaysinspiration.blogspot.com/2013/03/good-bye-mitchell-hooks-1923-2013.html

http://caravaggista.tumblr.com/post/46969889465/medieval-fall-of-lucifer-and-rebel-angels
Smite smite smite...

http://eschergirls.tumblr.com/
Ridiculosity of lady-armor in comics.


http://www.etsy.com/listing/119300300/unique-organic-black-pendant-with-chain
Ugh.  I really want this.  Only bigger.  And on my wall.


http://melissahuang.com/2013/03/30/women-in-art-alma-thomas/
Dude.  I'm in D.C.  I need to check this artist out.

Charles Fréger Wilder Mann

Yesterday afternoon I decided to help out my gentleman friend with a school assignment - a collage.*  I had a few old New York Times inserts and catalogs in the house but not really any magazines, so we went to pick out a magazine or two at the drugstore.  The selection was pretty dismal and depressing, and I was in the middle of commenting on the pointlessness of most magazines when flipping through the April 2013 edition of National Geographic when I came across something kind of amazing.

A selection of photos from Charles Fréger's photo series Wilder Mann.  Beautiful photos of traditional European ritual mask and costumes being worn in nature.  They are creepy and unearthly and fantastic. The Kukeri (a New Year's costume from Bulgaria) are especially awesome, looking like a cross between Chewbacca, a Moai, and Cousin It.  I've never seen masks like them!  There are a few pictures of them, here's my favorite, which begs the question of what you call a gathering of Kukeri - a conglomeration? a conclave?  What would you call this scene if you came across it?


I'll be watching to see if any shows of this make it across the Atlantic and ordering the book in the meantime.  If you are into masks and ritual you've got to head over to this guy's site to check this stuff out.  So many photographs of mask can feel kind of dead - not these bad boys.

Go see it here: http://www.charlesfreger.com/index.php 








*I am not allowed to collage for the same reason that I'm not allowed to decoupage - because that way lies evil and the hoarding of a million scraps of paper that might come in useful someday.  But working on someone else's project is totally fine.

Abstract versus Flowers - a painting progresses....

So, this happened....  started this painting last year -
but somehow it was all a bit... small.  Felt contrived.

 So I thought I'd start playing around with it - see if I could turn it into something else.

 

A light wash of white happened to it, and then more circles....

 

...which turned into flowers....

....which has turned into this.  Still not there yet but I think it's getting closer.  I really really still hate painting flowers but man they are great at forcing me to move past my affinity for uncomplicated geometry (i.e. circles and squares.  not that I still don't love circles and squares!).  It's all very uncomfortable right now but at least I feel that there's some movement going on here -- the struggle, and the bit that kicks my ass is keeping that through the next stages.  We shall see how it goes....

All of this is done in acrylic as usual - it lends itself well to my occasional need to utterly redo and paint over early layers at a moment's notice. Hearkening back to my earlier post about layering and on the recommendation of the ever lovely Ms. V.  I thought I'd show some of that happening here.