Madeline von Foerster

Madeline von Foerster

Sam Weber

Sam Weber Illustration

Judith McMillan

I love the x-ray photography of Judith McMillan. It has a certain ethereal quality to it.

The X-Ray Art of Judith McMillan

Jeff Klapperich

Last night, C and I went to an art opening for an acquaintance, Jeff Klapperich, and it was lovely.

I don't know even know how to properly explain what Jeff does because his process is so detailed. Many people, at first glance, believe that his work is done digitally, but it's not. This is purely a photographic process using multiple exposures that reach into numbers that cause most professional photographers to drop their jaws a bit (or at least, the photographers that were at the opening last night). There is also no human exposure in the image. The illusion is created using a sort of layered stenciling process and a camera modification that only jeff could explain...and probably not to a photographic layman like myself. The backgrounds are pieces of art in their own right that are meticulously assembled from various objects to work with the stencils and convey the idea in the final piece.

In person, at a large scale, these pieces are just beautiful. I don't know if the full effect can be seen online in a smaller format, but I want to share them anyway. Here are a few of my personal favorites.

Sleep

The Prognosticator

The Strategist

Tiffany Bozic

Tiffany Bozic's Website

Andy Paiko Glass

This is only a small sampling of Andy Paiko's beautiful work. I'm especially taken by the bell jars and the object jars, but even more phenomenal are the functioning spinning wheel, seismograph, balances, etc.

Spine Jar

Absinthe Fountain

Balances

Spinning Wheel

Kusudama

Kusudama (Medicine Ball) is a Japanese artform involving the folding of paper to create conical objects (usually flowers) which are then stitched together to form a sphere. They originated during the Heaian period (794 - 1192) and were once filled with herbs to ward off evil spirits and disease. A detailed history of Kusudama can be found at David Lister's website, The History of Origami.

They're beautiful, and I've decided that I want to make one. I found the instructions at The peace of paper, and I've been working on the individual units. This is my progress...

The Little Girl Giant

This is beautiful...

Orpheus and Eurydice

There are certain stories that resonate with me, and I'm in a mood to indulge in obsessions.

I can't remember the first time that I heard the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, but it was sometime during my childhood, later to be repeated in High School Latin classes (of which I remember very little), but the first time that it really grabbed me was when I read Shade and Shadow by Sonya Taaffe, which is a modern retelling of the story and a brilliant one at that. It's available in her collection, Singing Innocence and Experience, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

I put together a slide show of imagery related to Orpheus and/or Eurydice which can be viewed here.

The Myth
Orpheus was the son of Calliope, muse of epic poetry. While living on Parnassus, he drew the favor of the god, Apollo, who taught him to play the Lyre while his mother taught him to write verse. With such masterful teachers, Orpheus became a great musician with the striking ability to charm animals and other objects of nature, including the trees and stones. He was also an augur, foretelling the future via the patterns of birds in flight, and a patron of both Apollo and Dionysus.

Because of his skill, his presence was necessary on the journey of the Argonauts. When they passed near the Island of Sirenum Scopuli where the sirens lured sailors to their deaths with their voices, Orpheus played and sang so beautifully that he drowned out their deadly song with his own, and the sailors passed through unscathed.

Orpheus loved Eurydice with the passion of all great lovers, but like many love stories of antiquity, their romance was doomed to an early end.

One day, Eurydice was wandering with her companions, the nymphs, and a shepherd called Aristaeus made advances towards her. She fled and ran into a nest of poisonous snakes whose bite killed her instantly and carried her to the city of ghosts. Orpheus was overtaken with grief and sang songs of such sadness that all of the nymphs and the gods were driven to tears. They urged Orpheus to travel to the Underworld to appeal to Hades, and with the power of his music, Orpheus was able to soften the heart of the god of the underworld. Hades and Persephone agreed to return Eurydice to the surface under the condition that Orpheus not look back until they reached the open air.

In his anxiety, Orpheus did look back and Eurydice vanished, leaving Orpheus alone in eternal melancholy. He forsook all gods but Apollo, shunned the love of all women, and turned to the love of young boys. This angered the Thracian Maenads of Dionysus, and one morning, while he was singing and playing his lyre in a forest clearing, they attempted to murder him by casting javelins and stones. His music was so captivating that the wood and the stones would not obey, and they fell from the air before piercing Orpheus' flesh. This sent the Maenads into a wild frenzy, and they tore him to pieces, casting the ruins of his body and his Lyre into the Hebrus river where his song continued to play until his remains reached the shore of Lesbos.

There, the inhabitants buried his head and built a shrine in his honor. The remaining pieces of his body were gathered by the muses and buried at Libethra where the nightengales sing. His lyre was placed by the gods among the stars, and he was able to spend the rest of eternity with Eurydice in the city of ghosts.

Biology Meets Technology

I'm a bit surprised to see that it's been nearly a month since my last post. Someone needs to be a bit more diligent when it comes to updating...

Two artist links today:

The first link is to Insect Lab, the homepage of Mike Libby, an artist who takes entomology specimens and merges them with parts from antique watches and electronics. I must admit that these tend to creep me out a little bit, but that's mostly due to a strong case of insectophobia. The concept is an interesting one.

The other link is to Jessica Joslin who does amazing work with animal bones, metal sculpture, and other bits of leather, beads, glass, etc.

I'm smitten.

A couple of design resources

I was reading a friend's livejournal, and someone replied with a fabulous resource for free fonts.
dafont.com

Also, I frequently use a royalty free (with some restrictions) stock photography site for collaging.
stock.xchng


Does anyone else have any design resources that they recommend?

Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison

Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison create some of the most beautiful and haunting photography that I've ever seen. It's surreal, and at the same time, it perfectly exhibits the struggle between man, technology, and nature.


Sometimes the images immediately evoke a sense of sadness for the loss that human expansion and ambition have brought to the Earth while at other times, the ParkeHarrison's rely upon the absurdity of technology to get their message across.

There are also some interesting steampunk elements to their work, so if you're interested in that genre, definitely take a look at some the ParkeHarrisons' additional images. There's a full exhibition online entitled The Architect's Brother.



Master's of Photography also hosts a ParkeHarrison portfolio containing 23 images.

Henry Fuseli

Why am I here to relate the destruction of the best hope and the purest creature on earth? She was there, lifeless and inanimate, thrown across the bed, her head hanging down and her pale and distorted features half covered by her hair. Everywhere I turn I see the same figure--her bloodless arms and relaxed form flung by the murderer on its bridal bier. Could I behold this and live? Alas! Life is obstinate and clings closest where it is most hated. For a moment only did I lose recollection; I fell senseless on the ground. - Victor Frankenstein after the murder of Elizabeth by the creature.

As I was perusing litgothic, I came across some information regarding the inspiration for Mary Shelley's description of Elizabeth's death. Apparently, it was based on a painting called The Nightmare (of which there are two versions) by an English artist called Henry Fuseli.

You can see both versions of the painting in a larger scale at the Art Renewal Center along with a myriad of other works. I'm particularly fond of the one entitled Silence.

Art from Nature

Kirk Rademaker creates brilliant machines out of sand. They have a definite steampunk aesthetic, and the attention to detail is amazing. It's somewhat sad that these pieces aren't made to last, but that's also a part of their beauty.

I actually came across quite a few other fantastic sand artists, and I may give them a post all to themselves when I have a moment.

Robert Smithson was an American land artist and a pioneer of the land art movement.

Spiral Jetty, which resides at the Great Salt Lake in Utah, is his most famous work. It's 1500 feet long and composed of rocks, earth, salt, and red algae. I think it's absolutely beautiful, and interestingly, it's not always visible because of the fluctuation in the water level.

Walter De Maria, another land artist, created the Lightning Field in the high desert of New Mexico. It consists of 400 stainless steel poles spaced approximately 220 feet apart.

Todd Gibson of From the Floor posted an interesting piece about his experience at the Lightning field. Contrary to what I believed, the lightning doesn't actually strike very frequently, but Gibson gives a good idea of what an experience at the lightning field is actually like. It's intriguing.

Urban Exploration

I'm completely fascinated by abandoned buildings, especially the ones that have been partially reclaimed by their natural surroundings. I can't recall when this fascination began, but it was firmly cemented years ago during a visit to a historic steel mill where the plant and animal life have developed an interesting harmony with the skeletons of industry. I found it both haunting and inspiring.

At the time, I was unaware of some of the brilliant, urban exploration artists that are out there documenting these places that most of us will never see. Slowly, but surely, I'm seeking them out on the web, so that I can live vicariously through their work. Here are a couple of links that I like.

Rana X - Sexy, derelict buildings with the occasional beautiful girl.
Mello Photography - Check out the power plant shots. Nice.
Sleepy City - Dsankt takes beautiful, mad photographs.
Infiltration - An urbex webzine with a lot of great links to urban explorers all over the world. This is probably the best resource that I've found.
Abandoned Places - The LJ community where I discovered Rana X and Bill Mello. Definitely worth checking frequently, as there are a lot of talented artists that post on a daily basis.