Came across this on ebay, and thought it worth sharing.
I'm still not quite clear on what it actually is though :/
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Friday 22 March 2013
Patrick Dougherty
Whist doing some research for a uni project last semester, I stumbled upon the artist Patrick Dougherty, and then a few months later was lucky enough to see one of his exhibits in Melbourne (I thought it was pretty cool timing, since I had just found about him not long before :)
When I saw the sculpture of his in Federation Square (pictures above - also, they're not my photos, so apologies to whoever I stole it from on google! ) it really struck me how there seemed to be two different worlds inhabiting the same space: on the one hand, cars, trams, and people rushing by in the city, and on the other hand, this serene little forest hut offering an inviting little sanctuary from the city. And to be able to create a piece of art that does this, and place it right in the middle of the city itself; well, that is both a great achievement and a valuable contribution by my reckoning.
Anyway, here are some more of his images from the internet, and here a link to his website, http://www.stickwork.net/
Enjoy!
Come into the forest! Come walk with the trees!
The one in the middle almost looks like it has a face :)
Thursday 21 March 2013
The Sublime Tourist
Just listening to a lecture for Gothic Literature, apparently in the 18th and early 19th centuries there was a trend of going to places like Switzerland in pursuit of 'the sublime' - that transportative feeling that accompanies great scenes of nature and wonder. This ^^ picture was from the lecture, but here are some more I found online..
Caspar David Frierich ^^
There are heaps more, but if I stay in front of it any longer I'll never leave the computer screen and my face will probably melt :/
Fleet Foxes - The Shrine/An Argument
If you havn't already, I recommend you watch Fleet Foxes' video for 'The Shrine/An Argument'.
It is a really beautiful song, and the animation video clip is like something out of a long-lost world. Here is the link on youtube, and below are some screen shots.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yAxIdkF2Qo
It makes me wish I made my own animations. But alas - apart from one video made in a year eight computer class where a hot air balloon falls to the ocean floor and all the passengers get eaten by a giant fish - my experience is very limited on this front...
It is a really beautiful song, and the animation video clip is like something out of a long-lost world. Here is the link on youtube, and below are some screen shots.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yAxIdkF2Qo
It makes me wish I made my own animations. But alas - apart from one video made in a year eight computer class where a hot air balloon falls to the ocean floor and all the passengers get eaten by a giant fish - my experience is very limited on this front...
Wizards Lanterns & Gondalas
Some of the pictures hanging on my wall :)
The first one was a present from my nonna - we were on holiday and she caught me staring at it on the wall of an antique store - and the second one is a page from Gilbert Williams' illustration book 'Illuminations'. I found the frame about a year after I bought the illustrations and knew it was perfect for this particular wizard.
The Hand-Painted Little Prince
Found this beautiful little hand-painted shirt at a market with my sister :)
Wednesday 20 March 2013
Another quote
From 'Lady Chatterly's Lover' by D.H. Lawrence
Also, I forgot to take a photo of him, but yesterday whilst riding my motorcycle back from a job interview, a little grass hopper was hanging on to the mirror all the way home. I kept checking on him to make sure he was still there, and he made it all the way home with me :) Made my day!
Tuesday 19 March 2013
New Zine: The Secret Self :)
Hooray! Today I finished a zine that was sitting around wanting attention, weeping pitiably in the corner for ages. It goes by the melancholic name of...
Here are some of the pages from it. Some of them - like the double moon - were not used in the finished copy, but I thought I'd post them up here so that they can make some Internet friends, rather than wallow away in loneliness in my zine box. (*Zines can be so dramatic sometimes*)
Hmmm...they don't have nearly the same effect in the Internet-Land as they do on paper. This probably has much to do with the fact that they are out of order and as well...
At the moment I am working on another one, 'tis the namesake of this blog. Here is the (unfinished :/ ) front cover and one of the first pages:
I definitely want to get better at sketching and drawing. Does anybody have any good advice/websites/videos for cross-hatching? I really would like to learn how to cross-hatch properly, and how to draw shadows!! Something I always struggle with :/
So, any advice would be appreciated!
Also - completely unrelated - but how sweet is this avocado!! It has a heart! :)
So, any advice would be appreciated!
Also - completely unrelated - but how sweet is this avocado!! It has a heart! :)
Monday 18 March 2013
Moomins
Whenever I feel sad, the Moomins always cheer me up.
When I was younger, I had the biggest crush on Snufkin.
...Who am I kidding? I still have a crush on Snufkin. He is beautiful :)
When I was younger, I had the biggest crush on Snufkin.
...Who am I kidding? I still have a crush on Snufkin. He is beautiful :)
Sunday 17 March 2013
Bartleby
One of my favourite short stories is Bartleby the Scrivener, a Story of Wall Street by Herman Melville.
PDF link to the text - if you find yourself sitting staring vacantly at the passing cars, this is the story for you:
http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/melville/bartleby-scrivener.pdf
Tuesday 12 March 2013
Waldir (Pronounced 'Well-dear')
This is Waldir.
He greets visitors at the door and takes their hats and coats.
He greets visitors at the door and takes their hats and coats.
DINOSAURS :D
It's only been two of the planned six months, but I'm moving back home the day after tomorrow. Since time is crashing hurriedly down on everyone and that 10am flight on Sunday is rearing its ugly head, my sister and her partner took me to the National Dinosaur Museum - knowing perhaps better than anyone how much of a little kid I still am at heart; and of course, that dinosaurs are particularly dear to all children.
The sky was overcast - one of those days where the rain can't make up its mind and so it pitters and patters here and there, not staying for long but promising to be back soon. Despite the cold it brough with it, there was a beautiful, quiet feeling in the air; as if the afternoon was slumbering peacefully and you were walking softly over its dreams.
After nearly taking the wrong turn (still learning to drive) we got out of the car and approached the entrance, watched on either side by giant dinosaur figres. Like Grand Sentinels they guarded the entrance, poking out of bushes and stepping out of garden beds (Remember the sphinx in the Never Ending Story? I didn't have to answer any riddles but that's how it felt). We passed their quiet gazes - doing our best not to make any loud noises or sudden movements - and walked into the Dinosaur Museum through a large set of teeth.
Once inside we were greeted by a quietly enthusiastic young man in a blue shirt. He struck me as a college student - I liked to think he was a dinosaur enthusiast and this was his weekend job. I decided that he must be studying geology and paleontology - or something similiar - and his dorm-room was necessarily a crowded treasure-trove of collected items: driftwood, fossils, rare gemstones, and shark teeth... Naturally.
As we walked up the stairs to the upper levels a robotic pterodactyl greeted us with a roar above our heads. It seemed a perfect introduction to the exhibits and I walked on, eager to see the rest of the museum.
When we reached the top my heart sank for a moment: The first case was under construction, the pieces scattered haphazardly out of order on the bottom of the cabinet. I tried vainly to match the descriptions of cavemen still hanging on the wall with the collection of skulls lying in a confused pile at the bottom of the cabinet. Hoping that there was more instore, I walked on...
I had only to make it to the next cabinet and the transformation was complete: I was once again a little kid in a world far too large for me. Fossilised bones almost half my size with a sign inviting the daring to test their strength and pick them up, cabinets full of skulls and strange flying creatures - their bones frail and thin, frozen in time with their wings half extended. Shark teeth in rows from smallest to largest...And in the middle of the room? More robotic dinosaurs :) I walked on through the plastic forest.
S & B meandered a few cabinets ahead of me, everyone moving at their own pace through this enchanting new world; a treasure trove of oddities and imagination. The hallways were quiet except for a spontaneous growl here and there as someone walked past a motion sensor disguised amongst the plastic foliage (when I say disguised, I mean snuggling up to a plastic rock, trying to look like a distant relation. The white contraptions were not hiding well amongst the ferns. But even this couldn’t spoil the effect, for in these places it’s best to do what a child would do: imagine the modern contraptions to be probes of some kind – sent back to the Dinosaur Age by a fancy gentleman with a Time-Machine)
By the time we left (our dog had jumped the fence and we had to rescue the neighbours) I still hadn’t seen enough. If anything, the dinosaurs reminded me of how much is out there, of how different life is when you look at it from another perspective. I hope that when I get back home I will remember this…Maybe it will get me back here one day.
The sky was overcast - one of those days where the rain can't make up its mind and so it pitters and patters here and there, not staying for long but promising to be back soon. Despite the cold it brough with it, there was a beautiful, quiet feeling in the air; as if the afternoon was slumbering peacefully and you were walking softly over its dreams.
After nearly taking the wrong turn (still learning to drive) we got out of the car and approached the entrance, watched on either side by giant dinosaur figres. Like Grand Sentinels they guarded the entrance, poking out of bushes and stepping out of garden beds (Remember the sphinx in the Never Ending Story? I didn't have to answer any riddles but that's how it felt). We passed their quiet gazes - doing our best not to make any loud noises or sudden movements - and walked into the Dinosaur Museum through a large set of teeth.
A friend near the entrance. *Also doubles as a chair
'...Ima leave the forest to eat the people in the cities...'
He stamped all of our hands with a little blue dinosaur stamp, even though there were no other people in the museum at this point. (This impressed me - it's good to see people enjoying their jobs)
...This one was friendly, I patted him on the nose...
As we walked up the stairs to the upper levels a robotic pterodactyl greeted us with a roar above our heads. It seemed a perfect introduction to the exhibits and I walked on, eager to see the rest of the museum.
When we reached the top my heart sank for a moment: The first case was under construction, the pieces scattered haphazardly out of order on the bottom of the cabinet. I tried vainly to match the descriptions of cavemen still hanging on the wall with the collection of skulls lying in a confused pile at the bottom of the cabinet. Hoping that there was more instore, I walked on...
...Oh! For a dinosaur like this: He would make an excellent hat-stand!
I had only to make it to the next cabinet and the transformation was complete: I was once again a little kid in a world far too large for me. Fossilised bones almost half my size with a sign inviting the daring to test their strength and pick them up, cabinets full of skulls and strange flying creatures - their bones frail and thin, frozen in time with their wings half extended. Shark teeth in rows from smallest to largest...And in the middle of the room? More robotic dinosaurs :) I walked on through the plastic forest.
...Where are you going Little Bird?
S & B meandered a few cabinets ahead of me, everyone moving at their own pace through this enchanting new world; a treasure trove of oddities and imagination. The hallways were quiet except for a spontaneous growl here and there as someone walked past a motion sensor disguised amongst the plastic foliage (when I say disguised, I mean snuggling up to a plastic rock, trying to look like a distant relation. The white contraptions were not hiding well amongst the ferns. But even this couldn’t spoil the effect, for in these places it’s best to do what a child would do: imagine the modern contraptions to be probes of some kind – sent back to the Dinosaur Age by a fancy gentleman with a Time-Machine)
By the time we left (our dog had jumped the fence and we had to rescue the neighbours) I still hadn’t seen enough. If anything, the dinosaurs reminded me of how much is out there, of how different life is when you look at it from another perspective. I hope that when I get back home I will remember this…Maybe it will get me back here one day.
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