Sunday, May 12, 2013

Moms the Word

This is late on the date, but I'm not going to wait a year to post this sweet drawing by Picasso, back when he drew recognizable people. 

Happy Mother's Day to all you great moms and Mr. moms.

Pablo Picasso — Mother and Child

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Dragon-Fly

This pose is a tiny bit like arcadian artist Larry MacDougall might do, but Larry's rendering would be 40 jillion times better.

Nicole-August Laurens — Dragon-Fly — 1889

Friday, May 10, 2013

Les Graces Enseignant

Okay children, now pay attention to your teachers . . . 

Frorent — The Graces Teaching — 1883

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Belated Lament

A (slightly) belated lament for the passing of Ray Harryhausen, seen here stop-motion animating Mighty Joe Young in 1949.


Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Diamond's Are Forever

The other night, we watched a new DVD of an old Bond flick, Diamonds are Forever. We could hardly get through it — it being slow-paced, boring and poorly acted. Oh we loved Sean Connery alright, but we've been spoiled by modern action movie-making that is superbly timed and paced. I guess it was Lucas and Spielberg that set the bar for action. As a kid I was enthralled with the Connery Bond movies, but now it's the Daniel Craig Bond movies that I enjoy (though Connery will always be THE 'Bond, James Bond' for me).

Diamonds are Forever — poster

Yummy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALL YOU TAURUS PEOPLE!

For what it's worth, here is a shot of a portion of my deep sea fish birthday cake. We'd already eaten part of the tales and fins, because they were a little wobbly. Even working day and night shifts at two jobs, my daughter still wanted to make this cake for me—and it tastes even better than it looks! And my wife made a lovely real fish dinner, even though I'm not a Pisces.

I'm a lucky lucky guy to have a wife and daughter like I do.

A yummy birthday!

Monday, May 6, 2013

'Appendectomy' . . . Right

What the heck. I'm gonna post this pic every year on this date . . .

Her "supposed" appendectomy . . .

UPDATE:

I'm sorry folks, I guess I should have done this on April Fool's Day, except then it wouldn't have made any sense at all, at least to me.

I received a nice email from a person who was concerned about the 'facts', as he uses MM's appendectomy as part of his medical lectures. This is part of the note I sent back to him:


I'm sorry for any confusion. It was a stupid conceit on my part. 

Several years ago I posted this picture with a tongue in cheek reference that "MM and I were in a hospital on the same day. She was getting her appendix removed, and I was being born. Coincidence? You decide", kind of thing. Cuz, well, that WAS the day I was born.

My blog takes flights of fancy here and there, and with this post I was hoping to amuse people who were in the know. 

Sorry for the Delineated conceit. In fact, I'm going to use the very words above as a disclaimer on the post.


Corresponding from Another Dimension

Ah, 1972. I was in the Army, but had lots of down time, hanging out with my hippy friends, some of them in the Army too. It's not just long hair that makes a hippy. It's an attitude, and so many of my Army buddies were drafted (forced) into the armed forces and there was just as much dope and stuff in the military as out. 

For short breaks, the underground comics were our readings of choice, and several of us artsy types tried our hand at drawing the underground style. Dave Sheridan and Fred Schrier were our idols for that kind of work. Crumb was good, but seemed a bit brown shoe for our efforts to emulate. Shelton was good too, but didn't seem stoned enough, maybe he seemed too vaudevillian and slapstick. 

Whereas Sheridan and Schrier seemed like they were corresponding from another dimension. Here, Sheridan has drawn some phunny money that was used for promotional handouts, and in a pinch could be used to roll your own smokes, this one surviving somehow.


 Above and below, Dave Sheridan's front and back of the phunny money.

Friday, May 3, 2013

Unique Personalities

I love these sorts of photo portraits, and by that, I guess I mean of unique personalities confidently showing their eccentricities and connecting through the camera lens to us folks in the far future.

photo by d'Ora of the artist Tsuguharu Foujita — 1928

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Spirit of the Garden

We've had some more snow hereabouts, but gardening is on our minds (with some of our earlier planting gone to frozen hell). 

This is a painting called The Spirit of the Garden, which doesn't look very green and seems a bit off-topic to its title, but can maybe still raise our spirits a bit.

Robert Lewis Reid — The Spirit of the Garden

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

O - M - G

Iron Man 3

I am SO there. Have you seen the clip of falling out of the airplane?! Sequels are supposed to get worse, by tradition — Marvel movies just get better and better. The effects are superlative! Robert Downey Jr! I don't know if he's my favorite actor, but he's my favorite media personality! Go see this movie! 

Pepper Potts! Yay!!!

'Nuff said!

Robert Downey Jr. — Iron Man 3

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Just About Right

Sometimes the work of Annie French seems too fussy, too detailed for my taste. This image seems just about right for her style.

Annie French — early xxth century

Saturday, April 27, 2013

The Look

No matter whether in the movies, photographs or illustrations—Carole Lombard had The Look. In this case of course, Zoe Mozert helped add to the charm.

Zoe Mozert — Romantic Movie Stories — 1936


Friday, April 26, 2013

O-O-O-Ophelia

Another contemporary of Mucha (among hundreds of others, of course) was Joseph Kirkpatrick. While he is one of those not particularly associated with the Art Nouveau, his work was romantic and lyrical as was the case of so many other artists of the time. Perhaps because that was what the art academies and exhibitions were fond of, artists gravitated to similar subjects and manners — Hamlet's Ophelia being a favorite fantasy.
  
Joseph Kirkpatrick — Ophelia — 1896

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Exquisite Flow

A contemporary of Mucha was John White Alexander who also infused an exquisite flow into his paintings though he was not truly an artist of the Art Nouveau, but rather was distinguished as a portrait painter, illustrator and Symbolist painter. The image below is seen here and there, but this is the warmest reproduction I've seen, which I think gives strength to the mysterious light source.

John White Alexander — Isabella & the Pot of Basil — 1897

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

New Year

I love finding Mucha artwork that I haven't seen before, let alone a thousand times as we've seen most of his work. This is a mezzotint print from the old days.

Alphonse Mucha — New Year — circa 1898

Remember, if we treat it right, every day is the start of a new year!

Monday, April 22, 2013

Never Came to Be

Tim Hildebrandt created some fascinating concept art for a Wizard of Oz theme park in Kansas that never came to be. 

Bring in some cliffs and maybe, um, real tornadoes?

 Tim Hildebrandt — Wizard of Oz 
Theme Park Concept Painting— 1992

 Tim Hildebrandt — Wizard of Oz 
Theme Park Concept Painting — 1992


Our friend Larry left an excellent comment that pretty as these paintings are, most people would need more action and excitement than is shown here. Good point! So consider this:

Amongst a dozen other experiences, MAYbe Dorothy's house in that first pic would really come twisting and turning through the air to land on one of them wicked witches. MAYbe the other wicked witch would pop up here and there in green smoke and threaten visitors and then chuck firebombs at them. MAYbe the tin man would always be dancing his little heart out (chuckle). MAYbe the apple trees would be their mean nasty selfs and whop you with fruit. MAYbe you could lay down in a field of opiate poppies and have amazing personal adventures. MAYbe you could experience palace intrigue at the emerald city (that appears to be frozen white). MAYbe them flying monkey buggers would make everyone pee in their pants while hot air balloon rides let you escape to the parking lot!