Dune Art

    Uber-kewl "Dune" art by Jeff Doten.

Lego Art

    This sums up why I got crappy grades in art class in junior high.

RIP Hieronymus Bosch

    Happy Death Day to this dude.  (d. 08/09/1516)  His artwork (see below), plus the fact that we have no record of where and when he was born, is arguably the most compelling evidence we have that time-travel is a reality.

Art Appreciation Saturday

    Finally, a piece of art that lifts me up!

Happy Birthday, Salvador Dali

    Salvador Dali is without a doubt my favorite artist of all time.  He was born on May 11, 1904.

Flowchart Saturday

Best Sand Sculpture Ever

    I've seen pics of a lot of great sand sculptures over the years.  But this may be the best one ever.

Still Life With Absinthe

    RIP, Vincent van Gogh.  (d. 29 July 1890)

Thursday Thursday Next Art

   One of the way-kewl drawings that I encountered while reading the book, "The Woman Who Died A Lot".  The subject matter is a preannounced Smiting by The Almighty Himself on the town of Swindon.

    Jasper Fforde commissioned this artwork, natch, and it's done by a talented artist named Phillip Blackman.  Google him - or google "Smote Solutions" - to see more of his fantastic sketches.

Surreal Friday

    A great piece of Surrealism that a friend posted on FaceBook.  I don't know who the artist is, but this is frickin' awesome!

The Arts

    Our brains are divided into two lobes - one that takes care of the analytical things in life; one that sees to the creative things in life.

    It is important to use and exercise both halves.  Most of us have careers that utilize the analytical lobe.  We calculate, manufacture, diagnose, drive a vehicle, sell something, etc.

    All well and good. It pays the bills.

    But the creative half of the brain needs activity as well.  So :
        Play The music
        Write the books.
        Shoot the films.
        Paint the Art.  And last but not least...
        Blog the blogs.

RIP - Flight 370

    The painting above is by a Uighur artist named Memetjan Abdullah.  He took part of a cultural exchange program recently, between China and Malaysia, titled "Chinese Dream : Red and Green Painting".

    When the show was over, Memetjan had the misfortune to board Flight 370 for the long trip back home to Beijing.  The flight that is still missing, but which pretty much certainly crashed into the South Indian Ocean.

    All too often, we think of airplane crash victims - especially foreign ones - as a group of nameless, faceless, featureless people for whom Kismet rolled an extremely unlucky Lot.

    But they're not an amorphous glump of humanity.  They were fathers, mothers, and in one case, a 5-year-old child.  They had loved ones who will grieve and die a little each day for the rest of their lives.  They had hopes, and they had dreams.  And for one Chinese/Uighur painter, a extremely promising artistic career  

Surreal Friday - Leo Kenney

    I learned of Leo Kenney from reading Tom Robbins' book "Wild Ducks Flying Backward".  Robbins does his usual fine job of detailing Kenney's style.  But there's no substitute for going over to Google Images and looking at the actual art.

RIP - Frank Frazetta

Frank Frazetta

b. : 09 February 1928

d. : 10 May 2010

. He was a prolific comic book and sci-fi artist of unbelievable talent. His hey-day was the 1960's, and even now, when you see one of his works, you know who painted it. He did three album covers for Molly Hatchet, and implanted an image of what Conan the Barbarian looked like into every fantasy reader's mind until Ah-Nuld came along in the movie series. . Personally, I think he was the reincarnation of Gustave Doré, a 19th-Century artist/engraver whose works undoubtedly influenced Frazetta. You can tell a Doré picture when you see it too. I'll have to find a couple by him and post them in a couple days.

Chalk Art

Cool Art Friday

This painting is by Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) and goes by two titles : Les Bergers d'Arcadie and Et In Arcadia Ego. It may look like a normal old boring classical painting to you, but it figures in a whole bunch of religious conspiracy theories. You can read about them here. . Interesting stuff, but I'm a bit skeptical, and I am by nature a conspiracy nut. Latin anagrams?! C"mon now.