Recently in art Category

Hey, who wants to go to Ft Worth with me? October 19? We can go to this awesome thing at the Modern Art Museum - "Modern til Midnight". It features the hyperrealist sculptures of Ron Mueck, and abstract paintings of four post-WWII artists who really expanded the world of abstract art. Also, St Vincent is playing a show there! Right at the museum. I saw her open for Arcade Fire in May, and she's something else. There was a birdcage onstage for her performance, and I'm pretty sure that's where the chirping noises were coming from for one of her songs. It was delightful. If that's not enough of a draw, current indie dear Peter and the Wolf (and his "junk orchestra") will be opening.

Cooooome on! Texas, guys! Art! Music! Wonderfulness!

Photo courtesy of Haddhar on flickr.

This music video from Bat For Lashes is deliciously creepy. Reminds me a bit of that part in the movie version of To Kill a Mockingbird when Scout and her brother are walking out at night and you think someone unseen is watching them....I think it's when Scout's in the ham costume, or she's playing with a tire or something. Anyway, it's the same feeling of watching someone young and carefree all alone on a deserted street, just knowing something's going to jump out at them...or is it? Ha, maybe it's because the girl's riding her bike and wearing a sparkly sweatshirt like a 6-year-old.

The timing and transitions work really well in this little vid. The beginning is entrancing almost to the point of boredom - but it gets spine-tingly awesome less than a heartbeat later. If David Lynch had to direct a photoshoot for Teen Vogue, it might go something like this.

(There is a car accident scene at the end of this video...Just a warning in case you are sensitive to that kind of stuff. It's a dark blue car and it's flipped over. You don't see it happen, but you see the car.)

Short film by Miranda July, shot in one day after completion of Me and You and Everyone We Know. It's based off a short story MJ wrote. I love how she plays with tension in artificial moments created by real ones, and vice versa:
- "My girlfriend might like one."
- "...Well, take three!"
It's pessimism embraced in a dapper, whimsical way. I feel sooo uncomfortable watching her films, but I also want to giggle like mad. Terribly brilliant woman. She's coming out with a collection of short stories later this month, No One Belongs Here More Than You. I'll be grabbing that one off the shelf on the 15th!

Check out this submission to Radar Film Festival from Will Perrens and Jenny Cobden, and try not to smile. (Not possible!) So many things to love here! The cardboard set, the cut-out props, the actors' expressions...the silliness! These guys must've worked their butts off pulling this thing together (and apart). Great song choice too.

Thanks to Gabriel for showing me this a few months ago.

Edit: Oops, both the filmmakers' sites are down. Here's a lesser-quality youtube version.

I'm missing Montreal a lot these days. It's been snowing here, big fluffy flakes all day long. I don't remember seeing snow like this since I was a kid. Ohh the days of snow forts and backyard sledding. After I turned 13, winters started trying to bypass Rochester but only doing a half-assed job. The result was really bitterly cold days with no snow, just ugly greyness and 3 PM sunsets. When it did decide to snow, it would be on days where the ground was not cold enough for the snow to stay frozen, and we'd end up with slushy mud everywhere! Yuck! I grew to hate winter, though something inside me knew this was against my nature. I love cold weather; it means cuddling, layered clothing, and hot chocolate!

So I visited Montreal one time during a blizzard, and fell completely in love. Winter was pretty again! The city seemed perfectly accessorized by snow-covered sidewalks. I knew I had to go back.

And when I did go back, I found that all seasons in Montreal are beautiful, but winter was my favourite. We caught snowflakes on our tongues at midnight during the first snowfall. Skated down sidewalks coated in ice, spinning and laughing and falling backwards into snowbanks. We made ourselves into angels in the snow outside a park. It wasn't all peachy keen, of course. Frozen fingers became second nature to me, and I still whined about the arctic temperatures if I was outside longer than ten minutes. Which was every single day. Still, something about a world covered in snow makes life a little more magical.

Around Christmastime, I did a websearch for cool alarm clocks. I was staying up 'til 3 AM every night talking to the love of my life, so getting up for class at 9 AM tended to...not happen sometimes, and my mom suggested buying me a new alarm clock for Christmas. In my search, I came across the Industorious Clock , which is not an alarm clock at all. It's a clock application that syncs to your computer's clock and displays the date and time down to the last second, all using animation of a hand drawing and erasing each number.

Why? Why would anyone do this? Ha, besides being plain cool, this thing really has no function. But I visited the creator Yugo Nakamura's website and found a whole bunch of interactive digital art projects coded using motion logic. Nakamura uses simple shapes that move in beautifully hypnotic ways, but in these compositions, you are also part of the creation process. By interacting with the images onscreen, you affect the neverending construction of the piece. The cleverest part is that it's all based on algorithms of kinetic energy. The project is not all up to you, but is not possible without you, the artist, and the laws of physics. I could spend hours playing with this stuff! Try 1, 3, and 6 on for size.

Secret Wall Tattoos is an "anarchy art" project bringing interesting hidden paintings to hotel rooms, public restrooms, and hallways near you. The object is to find a neatly-hung painting in a public place and leave a secret painting the same dimensions as the frame, right on the wall behind it. It's not clear to me if this is one person doing all the artwork, or a small group of artists, but you can see on the myspace page that many others are being inspired to follow suit. Fun stuff!

I would just like to point out that if you do a web search for "vermicelli" on Google Images, you will encounter this image. And if you click on the thumbnail provided by Google Images, you will be taken to this archive of artist Chris Goodwin's work. Bestiality, bondage, and donkeys abound. BIZARRE. (NSFW, probably!)