Month: May 2018

Carole Hetzel

Basketry by Carole Hetzel

Carole Hetzel has always been fascinated with the process of shape and the challenge of expressing texture. When she started adding metal to her hand-dyed woven reed baskets their simple forms and rich color took on a new dimension.

Hetzel received her BA degree from Trenton College (NJ). She studied basketry at John C. Campbell Folk School (NC) and metalsmithing at the Armory Art Center (FL). Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Design (GA), Atlanta Museum of Art and Design (GA) and Florida State University Museum of the Arts.

The Blue Shaman

Photographer Unknown, (The Blue Shaman), Photography and Computer Graphics

“A person does not reach the pinnacle of self-realization without relentlessly exploring the parameters of the self, exhausting their psychic energy coming to know oneself. Without society to rebel against and to sail away from, there would be no advances in civilization; there would be no need for healers and mystics, priests and artist, or shaman and writers. It is our curiosity and refusal to be satisfied with the status quo that compels us to challenge ourselves to learn and continue to grow. We only establish inner peace of mind with acceptance of the world, with the recognition of our connection to the entirety of the universe, and understanding that chaos and change are inevitable.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

Reblogged with thanks to https://gemeosvbfotografia.tumblr.com

Joe A. MacGown

Joe A. MacGown, “Biogenesis”, 2016, Colored Ink and Pen on Wood, 12 x 12 Inches

Joe MacGown is an an artist who was born in Maine, where his interest in insects and art began. At the age of ten, MacGown and his family moved to Mississippi where he continued his study of insects and drawing. After a short time at the Memphis College of Art, MacGowen was employed in 1988 at the Mississippi State Entomological Museum as a scientific illustrator and assistant curator.

In his current position at the Entomological Museum, MacGowen curates the Culicidae, Formicidae, and scarab collection as well as collects specimens for the collection, with hundreds of thousands personally pinned and labeled insects. He has conducted numerous surveys in threatened habitats of arthropod species. MacGown is in charge of all scientific drawings for researchers in the museum and assists with the identification of insects being studied. His entomological drawings are published in numerous books and papers.

The Wayfarer

Photographer Unknown, (The Wayfarer)

“No man is brave that has never walked a hundred miles. If you want to know the truth of who you are, walk until not a person knows your name. Travel is the great leveler, the great teacher, bitter as medicine, crueler than mirror-glass. A long stretch of road will teach you more about yourself than a hundred years of quiet introspection.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man’s Fear

 

Reblogged with thanks to http://lokosdesnudos.tumblr.com

Hee Chan Kim

Sculptures by Hee Chan Kim, Wood Strips, Bamboo and Copper Wire

Heechan Kim was born in 1982 in Seoul, Korea, and received a BFA in Metal Craft from Seoul National University in 2006. Soon after, he immigrated to the United States to continue studying art. His interest in materials led him to study wood to broaden his horizons. He got an MFA in furniture design and wood working from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2010. By eliminating the limitations of making functional objects, Kim is continuing his art practice in sculpture in Brooklyn, NY.

Calendar: May 11

Year: Day to Day Men: 11th of May

Communicating with Nature

May 11, 1969 is the birthdate of the British comedy troupe, Monty Python.

John Cleese was writing for TV personality David Frost and actor/comedian Marty Feldman, when he recruited Graham Chapman as a writing partner and “sounding board”.  BBC had offered the pair a show of their own in early May of 1969.  John Cleese reached out to former “How to Irritate People” writing partner Michael Palin, to join the team.  Palin invited his own writing partner Terry Jones and colleague Eric Idle over from rival ITV.  Eric Idle in turn wanted American-born Terry Gilliam for his animations.

The Pythons considered several names for their new program, including “Owl Stretching Time”, “The Toad Elevating Moment”, “Vaseline Review” and “A Horse, a Spoon and a Bucket”. “Flying Circus” had come up as well.  The Flying Circus name stuck when BBC revealed that they had already printed flyers with this name and were not interested in printing any revisions.

The show was a collaborative process, beginning with the first broadcast on October 5, 1969. With no writers of their own, the six would divide into groups and write their own material.  Whether any given sketch would make it into the program, was always a democratic process.

Different Python factions were responsible for different elements of the team’s humor. The work of the Oxford educated Terry Jones and Michael Palin was more visual, and a little more off the wall. The Spanish Inquisition arriving in a suburban apartment is a prime example.  The Cambridge educated John Cleese and Graham Chapman were more confrontational – “This is abuse. I came here for an argument”. Any skit that got utterly involved with words was the work of Eric Idle, such as the ‘Man who Spoke in Anagrams’.  Terry Gilliam was the personality behind all the peculiar animation.

The Pythons shared a dislike for “capping” bits with punchlines, and experimented with ending sketches by cutting abruptly to another scene, or breaking the rules altogether by addressing the camera directly. Terry Gilliam’s animations were a favorite technique to use: a 16 ton weight would drop from the sky and end the skit.

The Flying Circus broke new ground with techniques like the “cold open”. With no titles, credits, or opening theme, Michael Palin would crawl across the tundra a la Robinson Crusoe, looking into the camera and saying “It’s…  And off the skits went. The cold open sometimes lasted until the middle of the show. Occasionally, the Pythons fooled viewers by rolling closing credits halfway through, usually continuing the gag by fading to the BBC logo while John Cleese parodied the tones of a BBC announcer. On one occasion the closing credits ran directly after the opening titles.

Edward Melcarth

Edward Melcarth, “Excavation”, Unknown Date, Oil on Canvas, Forbes Collection, New York

Edward Melcarth, born Edward Epstein in Kentucky, went to Harvard University and studied art in London and Paris. Melcarth joined the Merchant Marine in the 1930s and spent time in the Middle East. He then lived in New York for many years with Thomas Painter, a gay man who corresponded for decades with sex researcher Alfred Kinsey. During the period between 1949 and 1950, they also had another roommate: Lexington artist Henry Faulkner.

Melcarth’s works resembles both those of Renaissance masters and 20th-century figurative painters like Thomas Hart Benton. Many pieces feature muscular young men in scenes that mix mythology, religion, sexuality, labor struggles and drug use. His paintings often have unusual compositions and perspectives.

Time magazine named Melcarth in 1950 as one of the young artists in America to watch. He won a major award from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1951: his work is in the Smithsonian American Art Museum. His murals are the centerpiece of one of New York’s hotels, the Pierre on Fifth Avenue across from Central Park. After he died of cancer while living in Venice in 1973, Melcarth was largely forgotten until a revival of interest began worldwide in recent years.

Jules Verne and Michel Verne: “In Life Every Act is the Resultant of a Hundred Thoughts”

Photographers Unknown, Ten Black and Whites for the Evening

“Your story is not a picture of life; it lacks the elements of truth. And why? Simply because you run straight on to the end; because you do not analyze. Your heroes do this thing or that from this or that motive, which you assign without ever a thought of dissecting their mental and moral natures. Our feelings, you must remember, are far more complex than all that. In real life every act is the resultant of a hundred thoughts that come and go, and these
you must study, each by itself, if you would create a living
character.”

―Jules Verne and Michel Verne, In the Year 2889, Short Story, “The Forum”, February 1889

Note: First published in France’s “The Forum” under the name of Jules Verne, the short story is now recognized to be, chiefly if not entirely, the work of Jules’ son Michel Verne. The series was later published in its entirely in 1890.