28 May 2013

Mysterious Vivian Maier


Most prolific street photographer, feminist, socialist, recluse, staunchly individual, fiercely independent. What was so noteworthy in one of the interviews: Vivian being so adamant about her privacy always locked the doors of her room in whatever household she worked. But once she forgot to lock it - and you know: they did enter it. Obviously she knew what she was defending, the forgivable side was - it were the kids who entered. Or at least that's what I hope. Apparently, what they found were the signs of her relentless passion for reading, learning and photographing - newspapers, magazines, cameras, film rolls.
A true pearl among us.



I am so happy I have found this info, I cannot wait to post it...

24 May 2013

Victorian kitchen garden


http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hyo5FoL4I6s/UZuHXiW2Y7I/AAAAAAAAjAM/RrvTZhxI92I/s1600/Rhododendron-Image-GraphicsFairy.jpgThis comes from an 1880's Agricultural Magazine and generously shared by the indispensable Graphics Fairy LLC.

I am intending to use this Victorian treasure as a nicely toned wall-hanging, printed on canvas. Even a relatively low-resolution file can produce a substantial size canvas, with undeniably great decorative appeal.

Something similar and very chic I had just seen in a perfect gray blog, the graphic comes from Sweden and is absolutely serene.


The Victorian botanical engravings are irresistible.
They also remind me of one of my all-time favourite television productions.
It is the Victorian Kitchen Garden BBC series on old-time gardening restoration project - restoring an old estate garden along with the period-correct tools, techniques and varieties.
The series and its off-shoots deserve a whole separate post...
Image of Swedish Wall Decor, Blue Geranium (Linen)
This is a definitely beautiful arrangement and a successful
graphic concept.

Botianical Clip Art ButterflyHere is just one more image from the great Graphics Fairy that links the Victoria Garden theme with my one-butterfly collection 

Actually here is the link to the marvelous BBC Victorian Kitchen Garden series - instant therapy!
 

22 May 2013

Secrets of the vault...

Today I had a privilege of a sneak preview and an informal iPhone photo session at the Library and a vault of the Canadian War Museum.
Simply speaking: marvelous stuff.
See for yourself, the colour and relief of those books is absolutely superb.










Back at the Studio I had a pleasure of observing this absolutely humongous puddle of rain water covering most of the parking at the back of the building.

Birds loved it - drinking and bathing...

Beauty


I tend to err on the side of passion...
But agree that it is extremely well argued...

21 May 2013

Morpho ventor - body language

Thank you for this gift.
Somebody flew to Aruba to take some well-deserved rest.
The same body brought me a framed exquisite body of a morpho ventor butterfly.
I did collect (dead) forest bugs, in my early teens, but although butterfly collections are now trendy, I did not wish for a collection of dead insect bodies.

However, I got one. One beautiful butterfly, framed, with glass on both sides. It accounts to an amazing body this once was. Now it is a preserved piece of most unbelievable architecture, proof of amazing function, strength and relative durability, and - superbly beautiful visual display.
At night, with a bit of illumination coming from the street the thin translucent wings catch light.

In graphic production terminology we would call it edge-lighting effect.
I am now mesmerized by this butterfly.
The treasure atop of the fireplace mantel, frozen in time...

Microscopic images of butterfly scales (Wiki):

SEM image of a Peacock wing, slant view 2.JPG SEM image of a Peacock wing, slant view 3.JPGSEM image of a Peacock wing, slant view 4.JPG

19 May 2013

Rats - omens or entertainment

The last time I had seen rats was more than two decades ago, at the Museum of Nature.
Intelligently looking, slick, brown coated animals were shown at some Critters exhibition as part of the "scary" lore, just next door from snakes, spiders and bats...

This week alone, I had seen two rats, in different locations of the Centertown, looking somewhat like those below (smaller, paler).
An omen?
Brown Rats, John James Audubon, 1852

An image and even a mention of rats was ominous for ages, once bringing a plague with them, other times bad prospects.

Among the accounts of crisis, news of corruption in public services procurement, negligence or fraud in spending allowances claims at the Senate, people loosing jobs and homes,  properties being squeezed out of old and disabled, rich who can afford lawyers getting away with just about anything...
If this is ominous, I wonder what other bad news can seeing two rats in a week bring?
Well, the news are already bad - for the rats that is - as they were did not live long...

Throughout the day the doctor was conscious that the slightly dazed feeling that came over him whenever he thought about the plague was growing more pronounced. Finally he realized that he was afraid! On two occasions he entered crowded cafes. Like Cottard he felt a need for friendly contacts, human warmth. A stupid instinct, Rieux told himself; still, it served to remind him that he’d promised to visit the traveling salesman. (1.8.46)
 Albert Camus, The Plague
God, I love Albert Camus, especially his essays,
I am you man if you wish to discuss any...
 
 Other than pestilence, how about some fun with rats:


16 May 2013

Rush, patterns

I enjoy the patterns of clothes I wear these days.
Lots of running - definitely doing "onwards", but is is "upwards"?




14 May 2013

The Found Library at the age of Cornucopia

This is my little Found Library. I will take a prominent place in my home library.
Well, big word, to some extent - a random but much loved book collection.


Spineless treasures, as found,
on the Studio's window sill.
See the light glowing on the
edges of he pages?
I found those books put out as paper recycling, just passing on my way to my Studio. Blocks of nicely typeset books with no covers - naked dames, stripped of their modesty. Baudelaire on top of Milton, Stendhal, then Blake, Secret Agent by J.Conrad, Vanity Fair, a couple more. Basically - heavy metal, the stuff I should have read, but didn't, leaving it for "when I grow up"...
Some are from those small pocket-size editions from the 20ies. I had bought some from those oldies before to study the typography, the ornate spines, the art-deco frontispieces.
I was almost as thrilled as if I had found a baby in a trash bin. I carried my precious load to studio and sorted it. I felt heroic. I saved a treasure from the peril. This will make a difference in someone's life.
Maybe.


I sense envy among my Shabby chic
fellow bloggers over such organic
make-over
Today recovered The Mirror
of Art, Classical Studies
...














I have decided to take care of those books and read them - not necessarily The Lady Montagu's letters from a to zeee, but I will surely read the whole The Mirror of Art, the critical essays by the bad boy Baudelaire, minus the 30 pages the books is missing!
They are now modestly clad in hand-made simple covers, with ad-hoc laid cover graphics and acetate dust jackets that give them irresistibly chic sheen...


I love my symbolic find - the Found Library is entering my home.

Until now, we mostly thought that only the Nazis were destroying books. I WOULD PICK THEM UP BEFORE THE COVERS WERE RIPPED!!!

Still, they could have been put on the street, but should not have been damaged.


Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

30 tons of Books Set to be Burned

Pains my heart to see this, but that is a lot of books to have to deal with.  Hopefully the news article inspires a few people to divide and take on the mass of books she’s dealing with.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/literacy/raiseareader/book+collection+burned+Saskatoon/6801225/story.html
AdChoices
Here is another one:
Arlington, Texas

Library books tossed in Arlington dumpster


by GARY REAVES / WFAA

wfaa.com

Posted on April 16, 2010 at 6:24 PM

ARLINGTON - In a dumpster off Division Street in Arlington,
a pile of books were found dumped.


And so on, and so on....

11 May 2013

More Colour Therapy?

Oh yeah, the light is bleak and it rains and it rains.
So more Colour   anyone?
Here is To Your Health!

This is Todd Sanders from Austin .
This goodnes comes from one of my favs: The Jealour Curator blog.

6 May 2013

Nostalgia unbound

The strong feeling of nostalgia has passed - like all thoughts and feelings, but it will arise again and again. Silvestro Lega, is one painter who always triggers the specifically flavoured sensation:









 

The women he paints are so perfectly dissociated, there is this overwhelming solitude in the air...


Here is someone's "reenactment" of the scene:
<---
Someone has taken pretty assertive stance - below is a superbly captivating interpretation of another painting by the same artist.


Quadri vivendi, the original version:  
Wiki
 

The same scene reenacted, with the scene from the painting inserted as a graphic banner.




I don't know who the artist/photographer is but it is cool fun.


The reenactments come from a super interesting Italian blog: http://artepignato.blogspot.ca/2010/09/quadri-viventi-di-silvestro-lega.html

4 May 2013

Nostalgia - the Looking Out

Recently, again I have been experiencing "bouts" of nostalgia.
A state that has been quintessentially attributed to the mind of an immigrant - the longing for the homeland, the longing for "things lost", things of the past, all this.
In any event, it is a "noble aroma" that evokes strong feelings so prevailing in the art of certain periods. Notably the mid- and second part of the 19th century.
The Late Romanticism, in Northern Europe, the Baltic region, but also strongly in Italy and France.
You know what I mean?
Here is a bit of the sweet aroma, the stillness of Nostalgia - looking out the window, trying to break through the stale and the claustrophobic.
The LONGING for the Safe and the Familiar:

Constant Moyaux
I've added the promised captions!

For a number of days I am forced
to fight less to save the world.
For a while I need to save my own butt...


Johan Christian Dahl

Hans Olaf Heyerdahl

Jan Vermeer

Vilhelm Hammershoi - Bedroom

Woman at a Window Caspar David Friedrich

Salvador Dali

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