Tag Archives: Art

on the Flexibility of Myth (and Gossip) (Ingrid Rowland)

‘Myths, in the very old days, were as endlessly flexible as gossip, and gossip is how, in essence, they began: gossip about the gods and heroes, beings as universally famous as celebrities, but gifted, unlike most celebrities, with a true, … Continue reading

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from "The Test of Time" (William Gass)

"Groups squabble about literature because they have other than literary uses for the literary. The schools, which are busy finding ways to get the answers to the Test of Time smuggled to their chosen favoritism as coaches slip answers to … Continue reading

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Albrecht Dürer: Melencolia I

yep…

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on Art and the Sun-Like Eyes of Man (Heinrich Blücher)

[photo by Aube Insanite] “The eyes of man are sun-like, because art comes and makes them more sun-like. Art is so mighty because it changes our perception of the world. It is almost as mighty as philosophy and not nearly … Continue reading

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Why I Go Into Hiding

Discussions that contain words like these are a good example of why I find it hard (if not impossible) to remain engaged in most discussion communities: “Such discussions (about what’s a visual poem, what’s not) are like pinhead-angel discussions to … Continue reading

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Pat the Baker – Toast Images

Something you don’t see every day: portraits of literary icons made of toast. Pictured are Yeats, Wilde, and Beckett.

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Tanuki Prints

  Tanuki, or “Raccoon Dogs” are neither raccoon nor dog. Their distinguishing characteristic, in case you didn’ tpay much attention to the print above, are their extremely large scrota (yep) which are obviously used in inventive ways. One of many … Continue reading

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Ork Posters

Ork Posters makes great—for want of another term—text-map posters of cities, such as this representation of Seattle: and most recently The Heart:

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Kusho (Shinichi Maruyama)

This is just beautiful… sumi-e in the air… [Kusho by Shinichi Maruyama]

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A Story Behind Rodin’s “Gates of Hell”

Really interesting piece on Rodin’s sculpture The Gates of Hell — and the story behind the multiple versions. via Iconolith

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on Fear of Ourselves (Marilynne Robinson)

People are frightened of themselves. It’s like Freud saying that the best thing is to have no sensation at all, as if we’re supposed to live painlessly and unconsciously in the world. I have a much different view. The ancients … Continue reading

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Thinking About Cezanne

Cezanne’s art fascinates me because of its duality, both rooted in the Impressionist/Post-Impressionist tradition and straining toward what would become Cubism and a whole new kind of art. Not to mention that, by all accounts, Cezanne was a temperamental and … Continue reading

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Garfield Minus Garfield

Remove Garfield from the picture (literally) and you turn a bland comic into one that is strange, delusional, desperate, lonely, and often hilarious. Kudos to Jon Davis, creator of Garfield, for being cool with the idea and saying so. [subconscious … Continue reading

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Modofly Notebooks

The fine folks at MODOFLY make incredible, customized Moleskines. A few samples of at least 50 designs, one of which I’m not showing here despite its Simian nature:   [linktribution: iconolith]

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Ball Point Pen Portraiture

I am speechless in my awe at these photographic-style portraits done entirely with ballpoint pen by Juan Francisco Casas. More examples in the article and at his site, but this gives an idea of the scale and detail:

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Treister and Brodsky

A few pieces of art that caught my eye by Suzanne Treister and Rosalind Brodsky, rumored to be the same person… From Treister’s Nato Classification series: And from Brodsky’s Delusional Time-Traveling Watercolours:

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What is Art?

Let the commoners tell you, while I shall eat cake…

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The I/O Brush

Why has the I/O Brush never made it to market? The video demo is pretty amazing.

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Paper Cutting

Considering how tedious and difficult I once found it to cut out a block letter stencil, the intricacy of paper cutting art continues to blow my mind. Beatrice Coron has some wonderful items on display as well as an incredible … Continue reading

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Circular Life

At first I saw this little work of flash photography digital art and thought “that’s interesting.” Then I read the tips and played some more and discovered it is damn cool, tight, phat, neato keeno, hot, gnarly, whatever…

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