morgenrot

Hauschka - Morgenrot from Jeff Desom on Vimeo.

A film by Jeff Desom for German experimental pianist, Hauschka's song 'Morgenrot'.
The film was created through Desom animating found postcards and photographs from the U.S. Library of Congress.
Absolutely stunning and quirkily inventive.
This made Hauschka just that tiny bit more magical for me.

salty oblivion

My three favourite photographs from Sunday.
Try to praise the mutilated world.
Remember June's long days,
and wild strawberries, drops of wine, the dew.
The nettles that methodically overgrow
the abandoned homesteads of exiles.
You must praise the mutilated world.
You watched the stylish yachts and ships;
one of them had a long trip ahead of it,
while salty oblivion awaited others.
You've seen the refugees heading nowhere,
you've heard the executioners sing joyfully.
You should praise the mutilated world.
Remember the moments when we were together
in a white room and the curtain fluttered.
Return in thought to the concert where music flared.
You gathered acorns in the park in autumn
and leaves eddied over the earth's scars.
Praise the mutilated world
and the grey feather a thrush lost,
and the gentle light that strays and vanishes
and returns.

- 'Try To Praise The Mutilated World'
Adam Zagajewski

credit to my sister for the second photo.

inspiration information

Chloe Gough 'Slump'

Miss Gough is one of Duncan of Jordanstone's very own. She just graduated this year with a degree in Fine Art and Philosophy. I didn't manage to see her work at the degree show but found this on her website. It's arresting in its hopelessness but bears a sense of forced propriety, so as to not offend the observing company. And this is all without even seeing the crumpled woman's expression. Very interesting indeed.
I used to see Chloe around the printmaking department and was always interested to see what she was working away at and i'm ashamed to say that doesn't happen often for me in DOJ. Bad-mouthing my university. Shameful.
Have a look at her website. There's some pieces really worth seeing.

my brightest diamond - feeling good

man in the mirror

I never liked Michael Jackson but i bow down to his immense musical talent.
I adore his music and on hearing he had shuffled off this mortal coil, i had the same pang of sadness i had for John Martyn.
There will never be another original piece of music from these two remarkable musicians and that is truly upsetting.
There goes another of the greats eh.

and i want you to know

It will be mine.

charles lutwidge dodgson

"Tim Burton's forthcoming Alice in Wonderland looks highly promising: Lewis Carroll's alternative universe was already populated by oddballs, but photographs released this week hint that Burton will ramp up the weird factor significantly. Meanwhile, an early trailer, screened to journalists in London, shows a 17-year-old Alice (played by Australian newcomer Mia Wasikowska) returning to Wonderland a decade after her earlier adventures – and this time it's a lurid, nightmarish counterpart to Carroll's original.

Starring seven-time Burton collaborator Johnny Depp as the Hatter, the film mixes live action and CGI, borrowing storylines and characters from both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Burton's partner, Helena Bonham Carter, plays the evil Red Queen (pictured), while Anne Hathaway plays the lovely White Queen. Alan ­Rickman (the Caterpillar), Matt Lucas (Tweedledum and Tweedledee), Stephen Fry (the Cheshire Cat), and Christopher Lee (the Jabberwock) also take part.

Burton has even signed up Barbara Windsor to play the Dormouse. The film is due for release in March 2010, and will screen in 3D."

Who knows if Tim Burton will ever be able to top the Disney interpretation of Alice, but it looks like he's giving it a bloody good try.
I'm giddy. Absolutely giddy =]
I hope they do the Lobster Quadrille!

pogo - alice

appalachia

I've not been drawing a hell of a lot. Mostly 'cause i don't know what the hell to draw, so i've been filling my very first moleskine sketchbook with the usual quotes, images, absurd philosophy and illegible scribbles, to see if i can figure out what the hell my 4th year project will be.
I always wonder if other artists torture themselves this much over what their work will be or they just do it and see what happens. The latter seems like a much more forgiving process.

Anyhow, the first image is a copy of Nikola Borissov's photograph 'Isabella I'. A lovely photograph that i've wanted to copy for a while and finally got round to. It still needs some work but i've decided to leave it be. I get like that with drawings, let them alone for long enough and they just seem to finish themselves.
The second drawing is from my moleskine, the children are actually Regina Spektor as a wee girl. I'm not really a fan but she was an incredible looking kid. She reminds me of one those children you see in the World War photographs.

watching: carnivale

i thought i was free

Hong Zhang
All charcoal, bar the first image which is oil paint.
Holy crap.

alva noto and ryuichi sakamoto - trioon i

like fawns and shape-shifters

I am an avid fan of My Brightest Diamond and it's really nice to know that her voice is completely her own. It's something i look for in bands these days - the ability to sound record perfect, live. It doesn't happen often.

My Brightest Diamond - Inside A Boy from LaundroMatinee on Vimeo.

fawn

Elena Kalis
Underwater photos pretty much kill me. I think i've visited her website everyday since i found it.

empire of the sun - walking on a dream

sixteen, fifteen, fourteen

I pretty much live in awe of Gottfried Helnwein. I don't think he's a genius but he's definitely magical. The details blow my mind and the glow i covet is shown perfectly in everything he does.
Envy doesn't quite cover it.
The scale i also find fascinating. Large scale anything puts the fear of god into me and I think my tutors lie in wait for the day i draw something larger than A2.
It's wrong to steal people and force them teach you how to paint...right?

Hopefully i'll have some new stuff to put up here real soon. Post 3rd year burnout set in practically the day i finished. But i started drawing again and the ideas are actually coming quite quickly - something that rarely happens!
Now just to put them into practice and build up my terrifyingly expensive collection of books for the dreaded dissertation.
Scary.

here we go magic - tunnelvision