This is an all-time personal favorite.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Chicago Underground Duo- Boca Negra
I've been a fan of the Chicago Underground Duo at least since their seminal album Synesthesia from 2000...This newest album, Boca Negra took me by surprise because this is their first release since 2002 or so... What I loved about it is how comfortable the band was in spanning the genres of jazz, experimental electronic, indie rock and 70's progressive rock without missing a beat.Here is a great review by Chris May from www.allaboutjazz.com
If you're not familiar with the group, this is a stripped down You Tube clip of the duo with just trumpet and drums... No electronics or vibraphones.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
New work in Houston
A recent exhibition of the work of Simeen Farhat and myself at the Anya Tish gallery in Houston. Here are some of my images from the show.
Balloon Form: Spiral #2 (Side View) 2009
Ink, Lexan, Steel Pins
Balloon Form: Spiral #2 (Detail) 2009
Ink, Lexan, Steel Pins
Black Arrows: Circular Column 2009
Ink, Lexan, Steel Pins
Red Arrows: Two Clusters (Detail) 2009
Ink, Lexan, Steel Pins
Amber Bars: Sloping Structure 2009
Ink, Lexan, Steel Pins
Blue Rectangles: Waveform #4 2009
Ink, Lexan, Steel Pins
Hand Carved Fluid Dynamics
Reuben Margolin, a Bay Area visionary and longtime maker, creates totally singular techno-kinetic wave sculptures. Using everything from wood to cardboard to found and salvaged objects, Reubens artwork is diverse, with sculptures ranging from tiny to looming, motorized to hand-cranked. Focusing on natural elements like a discrete water droplet or a powerful ocean eddy, his work is elegant and hypnotic.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
The Art of Ernst Haeckel
The layout of insect collections has always interested me, or really the layout of any kind of collection in which the objects are slightly different, but still bear resemblances. The zoological drawings of Ernst Haeckel have always fascinated me in that respect... They were scientific in their intent, yet they still showed a style of drawing that ended up looking like a stylized caricature of the organism itself.
One obvious reason for the caricatured look of his specimens is simply that it was the illustrational style of the day. I talked in my post on the Grammar of Ornament about the fact that a 19th century scientific illustration looks very different from a 20th century illustration even if they are portraying the very same subject. But for 19th century zoological illustrators, one very practical reason for this is that these drawings were made before the age of easy photographic reproduction, not to mention underwater photography, so many of the organisms were probably drawn either directly from a microscope or from a dead specimen and imagined in their natural state...
Wikipedia has kindly provided beautiful large color photos from his book Kunstformen der Natur (Artforms of nature) (1904)
One obvious reason for the caricatured look of his specimens is simply that it was the illustrational style of the day. I talked in my post on the Grammar of Ornament about the fact that a 19th century scientific illustration looks very different from a 20th century illustration even if they are portraying the very same subject. But for 19th century zoological illustrators, one very practical reason for this is that these drawings were made before the age of easy photographic reproduction, not to mention underwater photography, so many of the organisms were probably drawn either directly from a microscope or from a dead specimen and imagined in their natural state...
Wikipedia has kindly provided beautiful large color photos from his book Kunstformen der Natur (Artforms of nature) (1904)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)