Month: May 2016

Major General JFC Fuller

The Portal Paintings by

Top Image: “The Portal of the First Order- Building of the Pyramid”, 1909

Bottom Image: “The Portal of the Second Order- Knowledge and Conversation”

Major-General John Frederick Charles Fuller was a British Army officer, military historian, and strategist, notable as an early theorist of modern armoured warfare, including categorizing principles of warfare. With 45 books and many articles,, he was a highly prolific author whose ideas reached army officers and the interested public. He explored the business of fighting, in terms of the relationship between warfare and social, political, and economic factors in the civilian sector.

Fuller had an occultist side that oddly mixed with his military side. He was an early disciple of English poet and magician Aleister Crowley, and was very familiar with his and other forms of magick and mysticism. During this period of his life, he wrote “The Treasure House of Images”, edited early sections of Crowley’s magical autobiography “The Temple of Solomon the King” and produced highly regarded paintings dealing with A∴A∴ teachings: these paintings have been used in recent years as the covers of the journal’s revival, “The Equinox, Volume IV”.

Double-Headed Serpent

Mosaic of a Double-headed Serpent, c. 15th-16th century, Cedrela Wood, Turquoise, Pine Resin, Oyster Shell, Hematite, and Copal, 20.5 x 43.3 x 6.5 cm, Mexico © Trustees of the British Museum

Serpent imagery occurs throughout the religious iconography of Mesoamerica. The serpent played a very important role in Aztec religion. The word for serpent in Nahuatl, the language spoken by the Aztecs, is coatl and is associated with several gods such as Quetzalcoatl (Feathered Serpent), Xiuhcoatl (Fire Serpent), Mixcoatl (Cloud Serpent) or Coatlicue (She of the Serpent Skirt), the mother of the Aztec god Huitzilopochtli. The habit of snakes to shed their skin each year probably led to them being used to convey ideas concerning renewal and transformation. Likewise the ability of many species to move freely between water, earth and the forest canopy helped underline their symbolic role as intermediaries between the different layers of the cosmos (underworld, earth and sky).

The Salina Turda Salt Mine

The Salina Turda Salt Mine, Romania

Salina Turda was a massive salt mine in Turda, Romania. covering an area of 45 square kilometers. Its origins date back to the 17th century and it was a working mine up until 1932. After its closing in 1932 the salt mine was forgotten until the second World War, when it was reopened and used as an antiaircraft shelter. Up to the year 1992 when the salt mine was opened to the public as a touristic site, the first 500 metres of the Franz Joseph conveyance gallery had been used for quite a long time as a warehouse for cheese storage.

The Turda Salt Mine is today a History Museum of Salt Exploitation. The excellent condition of the mining compartments and the equipment used for salt transportation , as well as the care with which the mine was prepared for tourism, have turned it into a place of mingled history and legend. The ever higher number of tourists coming here from most various parts of the world to visit the mine are a confirmation of its historical and touristic value. The Salina Turda Mine features a museum, event space, walking tours and random activities like pool, table tennis and even boat rides.

The interior maintains a steady 11-12 degrees celsius and 80 percent humidity, completely devoid of any allergens and an almost absence of any bacteria, making the unique micro-climate a destination for those suffering from allergic respiratory diseases.

Photography by Ana Maria Catalina and Cristian Bortes

Reblogged from http://twistedsifter.com

Sebastian Del Grosso

Sebastian Del Grosso, Photographic Sketches

A skilful artist has brought his selfies to life – by sketching himself into the picture to make the photographs look like paintings. Sebastien Del Grosso, 33, from Paris, first came up with the idea when he wanted to update his Facebook profile picture and has since developed a quirky collection of images.

After taking a self-portrait, the digital artist started to sketch himself into the picture. But rather than completely transforming his pictures into a complete sketch, the artist only partially adapted the original pictures, creating an interesting composite effect. This is then used to make the photographs appear in part like black and white paintings.

“The drawings are done with a simple pencil on a sheet of paper. The pencil strokes are fast and nervous, and so give the impression of a construction. Then, my “dodge and burn” effect is used a lot in the final rendering. It is in fact a multitude of brush strokes, black or white, which serve to highlight, or rather mitigate some facial features, and clothing. This treatment is intended to look like a little more like a painting than a photo. Then the drawing is scanned, cleaned and added to the picture with Photoshop tools.” -Sebastian Del Grosso

My thanks for finding this artist to a great blog http://art4gays.tumblr.com

Walter Sickert

Walter Sickert, “Bathers at Dieppe”, 1902, Oil on Canvas, 131 x 104 cm, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, England

Walter Richard Sickert was a British painter and printmaker who was a member of the Camden Town Group of Post-Impressionists in London. His work influenced the British styles of the avant-garde art in the mid to late 1900s. A cosmopolitan eccentric, Sickert favored ordinary people and urban scenes as the subjects of his work. He is considered an promintent figure in the transition into Modernism.

In the beginning, Sickert painted in Whistler’s style of rapid, wet-in-wet execution with very fluid paint. He later adopted a more deliberate process of painting pictures in multiple stages. Sickert preferred to paint from drawings, photographs, or popular prints by Victorian illustrators rather than from nature. After transferring the desgn to the canvas by a grid, he made a rapid underpainting using two colors, which dried before applying the final colors.

One of the two paintings Sickert presented in April of 1888 at the New English Art Club, a group of French-indluence realist artists, was “Katie Lawrence at Gatti’s”, a portrait of the well known music hall singer of that era. The rendering was denounced as ugly and vulgar, the subject matter too tawdy for art, as female performers were viewed as morally destitute. This painting was the beginning of Sickert’s recurring interest in sexually provocative themes for some of his work.

Grizzly Bear, “Two Weeks”

Grizzly Bear, “Two Weeks”, from the Veckatimest Album, Live on MTVuk

Grizzly Bear, a Brooklyn, New York rock band,  began as a moniker for songwriter Ed Droste’s music in the early 2000s. Regarding the band’s origins as a solo project, Droste noted, “It was just like doing a little home project, and I thought “oh, this is fun, I’m just going to call this stuff Grizzly Bear. […] Our name was actually just a nickname for an old boyfriend of mine.”

Veckatimest was released in May 2009 and was named “after a tiny, uninhabited island on Cape Cod that the band visited and was inspired by, particularly liking its Native American name.” Upon release the album reached No. 8 on the US Billboard 200 chart, and met with widespread critical acclaim.

Compared to Yellow House, the band’s 2009 release, Veckatimest is more of an accessible pop record with traditional and electronic instruments mixed with the use of vocal harmonies . Veckatimest made many Top Album lists for 2009 (#1 Wall Street Journal, No. 6 Pitchfork, No. 6 New York Times, No. 8 Time).

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)