jinian | Entries tagged with art

One of the fun things about walking to school is that the trail goes through a few spots sheltered enough to nurture people who are just starting out in the graffiti world. Less visibility means you can practice how you want to write (and spell) your handle without getting caught the first time you're out with a spray can. In general I support graffiti when it's not destroying anyone else's art, which means tagging on murals makes me mad, buildings are case-by-case depending on how interesting I find them, and advertising or construction barriers are A-OK. (Sometimes I think it's a good thing I'm not responsible for anything legal in this world.)

Some examples:

Rogue Soul, who had not yet decided whether the abbreviated "Roso" was appropriate
OBESE, pleasingly rotund of letter as well as concept
endless, in ethereal cursive, seemed to find that one time tagging was enough
overt OVERT overt overt OVERT on the concrete bridge railings, so many times it's collaged on itself
My personal favorite, furlough, couldn't decide on style or spelling, so there's FURLO with a spiral in the O, a few other variants, and then FERLOW with a backswept arrow on the W -- I've actually seen this one in a few other places in the area, so they've left the nest!

Lots of these are on the promotional banners over the construction fence by new dorm construction, which have photos of current and past students. Some graffiti reference their placement: The message "wanker" probably refers to the Benedict-Cumberbatch-looking kid on the poster, rather than being a handle, though I'd like to see someone tagging with that. "Nyarlathotep Fthagn" probably does not. This area is notable for curly Daliesque mustaches that in most cases are unusually well chosen for their subjects.

Perhaps as a commentary on the sheer volume of tags in that corridor, a little orange-striped warning sawhorse has "I AM A VANDAl :)" painted on the back.

Taking an alternate route the past couple of times, I've been newly amused by seeing "Czek" in a place or two, and then once where they clearly had to balance atop a fence to do it, "Czek up."

And, of course, some of the images are great too. There's a wonderful sketch, in approximately two unbroken lines of what looks like black oil-pastel, of a startled daruma on the concrete bridge near Hall Hall. Plus, these little guys have been adorable for upwards of a year; hopefully everyone finds them as appealing as I do and they won't be overwritten for a long time.

[Cute little blobs!]

Crossposts: http://jinian.livejournal.com/554659.html

Having hung my laundry out on the balcony on a little round clippy thing like a good resident of Japan, I am off to the zoo and botanic gardens. First, some images to share.

I would date with this person: Oregon Trail cosplay

New baby capybara OMG

I have my quibbles, but human ponies with different body types are pretty great, especially Pinkie Pie.

Food paintings/dioramas must be seen to be believed

Crossposts: http://jinian.livejournal.com/534883.html

[honestly I am probably an earth pony though]

Me as a pony by Alex Heberling, who draws fantasy comics as well as MORE PONIES and OUTFITS.

Crossposts: http://jinian.livejournal.com/504908.html

Have some amazing art!

Rashad Alakbarov's shadow paintings are wonderful, though the display order on the linked page is a bit anticlimactic. Scroll to the bottom and work your way up.

Sonja Hinrichsen's snow spirals and Simon Beck's stunning fractals speak to the wish I think all of us have to walk on that fresh snow first.

Crossposts: http://jinian.livejournal.com/494009.html

Gorgeous paper sculptures found around Edinburgh, artist unknown

(thanks to

telophase)

Crossposts: http://jinian.livejournal.com/477741.html

You may know Cunningham as a web cartoonist. He did the excellent graphical exposé of the vaccine scare that made the rounds quite deservedly a while back.

Nonfiction in comic form was interesting enough to get a library checkout from me. Cunningham worked as a psychiatric nurse for some time and, as a cartoonist, chose to address the misconceptions and prejudices people have against mental illness by telling stories about how he found the inpatients he worked with. Each graphic story covers a particular diagnosis or theme, such as "People with mental illness enrich our lives" or "Bipolar disorder." One irritating note -- the "Schizophrenia" section begins by saying that it's not the same as "multiple personality disorder," so I waited the rest of the book to see what he had to say about multiples, but there was nothing.

His spare, slightly messy line-and-black-fill drawings look simpler than they actually are. The layouts don't add as much to the presentation as I would have liked, but overall I think the style is effective in conveying the idea that the events presented are (black-and-white) factual. Occasional reverses into white lines on black and heavily posterized photographs ranged from pointless to powerful.

Possible triggers are permanent awful self-harm, suicide, scat, vivid descriptions of mental illness.

( minor spoiler, for structure as much as anything )

If it's handy, this is worth reading, and I'm very much looking forward to Science Tales.

Crossposts: http://jinian.livejournal.com/476940.html

Tuesday morning:
Turns out the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art doesn't open until noon. I spent some time in an art gallery (Fanny Garver's), where I bought one of the silk scarves I'd been eyeing all weekend and a little flower-or-sea-anemone glass marble. Still only 11:20. I repaired to a bench and read a big chunk of Half World, worrisomely depleting my supply of travel reading.

Soooo I went back to A Room of One's Own for I think the third time this weekend? and got the GoH book and Huntress. The latter has a beautiful cover with an Asian girl and a sword, and I liked Ash more than I think a lot of people did, so I can't imagine I won't like this. (Probably it's that my expectations were set appropriately by the many reviews I've seen, but I thought Ash was worth reading even in the bare-retelling section and got very good in the second half.)

Then the museum! I found out they were having an exhibition of works to do with industry, technology, and working class people, which seemed to me like an extension of the many protest-supportive signs I saw all around the capitol, though I'm not sure when they planned it. I like to imagine enthusiastic curators pulling an all-nighter to get it up right away. I saw lots of lithographs and etchings, many of which had that glowing geometry that works so well in the Metropolis poster. Other highlights (ha): Eva Rubinstein with a young woman in drag on a train; Franck's "Hudson Fugue", a dark landscape covered with light curves evoking repetition and circadian rhythms; William Gropper's manically cheerful iron-bending hero "Joe Magarac". (But argh, the freaky font they used for the exhibition's main signs. No stroke except where there was (the u and n joins), and a seemingly random choice of serif or sans-serif by letter. It may in fact have been a Courier-Helvetica mashup. Or F2 segregants -- which trait is dominant, I wonder?)

And now airports. Madison airport remains uncivilized, and apparently Minneapolis airport has joined it in wanting money for wi-fi. Extremely inappropriate behavior which I am not about to reward. Half World very good, Huntress even better.

Crossposts: http://jinian.livejournal.com/466374.html

Saturday was beautifully clear and sunny; Sunday was beautifully misty and dramatic. Some stressful moments, but overall an excellent trip. Saturday night I broke into a hut, talked to loads of people, and even won a game of pool. Early Sunday I showed off the beautiful walk up the shore trail to another grad who works on my hall; we saw a convoy of kayakers as well as some nifty birds and lovely partially-hidden vistas.

Sunday I was persuaded to go see a strange mausoleum, expanding my San Juan knowledge base. When I told Wim about this he pointed out that mausoleums contain remains. Where were these corpses? In the chair-seat plinths? The first-year grads who came along were ostentatiously leaning on the headstone chair-backs trying to trigger the trap door that they were sure was present; I think I like these boys so far. The chair backs have names and dates but also such epithets as "32° Mason", "An Elk", and "Republican".

It was a bit of a struggle to find more things to do, so we poked around Roche Harbor a bit and then returned to the labs (glorious place I love now mostly empty yay!) and to downtown Friday Harbor. Lunch took ages as the Hungry Clam was very busy, and I was about done with humans by that time. Pretty much everyone was leaving on the 2:15 ferry, which I wasn't, so after lunch I got the town more or less free of people I knew for a while too. I went to the used bookstore (Ozark Trilogy 2 & 3), a new bookstore (bought zero, boggled at their YA selection as usual, fell in love with the Charles Vess illustrations for Gaiman's Instructions), the yarn store (fingering-weight hemp yarn on sale, the second volume of Bordhi's New Directions for Sock Knitters!!1!), and the native northwestern art gallery (bought zero, admired much, especially a wonderful Susan Point print, "Salish Path").

Damaging my faith in sea planes further, my scheduled 4:30 departure was canceled. Apparently it wasn't the fog on landing, though there was a bit, but the fog between Seattle and San Juan that was the problem. Thus I planned to take the ferry, which would have worked better if the ferry had come on time. Sheesh. It wound up being nearly two hours late due to a breakdown, but I had a book. When we finally got under way, I finished Jaran, wrote processy stuff until the Lopez Island stop, then went out and admired the puffy and skeined mist as we navigated through the islands at sunset -- completely worth standing out in the wind and damp chill. I caught a ride home with a professor's family including nerdy animal-loving daughter, which was a little awkward but mostly fun, and arrived home around 9.

Final macrofauna tally: 6 deer in cutely shaggy winter coats; 3 raccoons; 2 garter snakes; a harbor seal (only its head visible); a fox (black or gray, it was dark out); cute and interesting birds.

To ferry dock: 15 minutes

To discover the need for a bicycle pump: 2 minutes

To discover this was a bad idea directly after dinner: 16 minutes

To find an open bookstore: 18 minutes

Other events of note:
. Found a Susan Point sculpture!
. Had to walk the bike for about a block of extreme hill on the way back

The Tale of Genji
Yoshitaka Amano
Text by Anri Itou and Junichi Imura
Additional English translation by Rachel Nacht
ISBN-10: 1-59582-063-9
ISBN-13: 978-1-59582-063-1
DH Press (Dark Horse)
$24.95
Hardcover, 80 pages

This is a book of Genji fan art by a major graphic artist. Amano has been the character designer for the Final Fantasy franchise forever, and his collaboration with Neil Gaiman on Sandman: The Dream Hunters is excellent, though less widely known in comics fandom than it should be. Much of his other work is represented at Amano's World. (This userpic is the queen of cups from the Amano tarot deck.)

There are around 20 double-page spreads of single paintings, one centerfold (Genji gets laid, lady unidentified), and single-page paintings on the rest of the pages. The focus is definitely on the art, but the book also acts as a quick guide to who all of these ladies are -- each gets a painting and a sidebar summary of her story and relationship to Genji. No other male gets one, though, and the ladies' names are transliterated rather than translated, so the utility is limited.

Is the art worth buying the book for? For Amano fans, absolutely. For Genji fans, see what you think:
( Dodgy Macbook photos behind the cut. )

Saturday: Wim's birthday. Brunch at the Space Needle's rotating restaurant, which is quite good now, with Wim's dad and his wife. Brunch costs a bit over $40 a plate, but that gets you a (shared) huge lovely appetizer tray including prosciutto, fruit, and crab dip; largish breakfast- or lunch-like entree; and excellent dessert. Also, if you're the birthday boy, you get a bonus dessert, which if you can't have dairy is three flavors of sorbet on a goblet of dry ice with hot water to refresh the vapor when it subsides. The draw is the view, of course, but the service was great and so was the food. Also, barrage of presents.

We went to the symphony on quasi-present-status tickets on Saturday night. I liked the Dvorak piece (Serenade for Strings in E Major, Op. 22) very much, and Elgar's Enigma Variations pretty well. Wim also liked Samuel Barber's Cello Concerto, Op. 22, which had a guest cellist named Mark Kosower, but I disliked the screechily dissonant parts, of which there were many. I can see why it's an interesting thing for a cellist to play, at least, though when I in the audience think the score must read "giant mess goes here" at several points I am not best pleased.

Sunday: Went to the Eric Carle exhibit at the Tacoma Art Museum with

rubricity and

simonelo. Lots of the original collage artwork from a wide variety of his books, one huge iconic Very Hungry Caterpillar, and a video that was largely inaudible but in places showed him cutting and gluing his handmade tissue papers to form pictures. I liked that they had lots of his children's books in one area, since there were many I had never seen.

The next exhibit in the museum was of pictures telling a story, which was neat because they'd provided a book for visitors to write what they thought the story was for any of them, and previous stories were posted by the paintings. One ninth-grade boy really appeared to have read the Gor books recently, eek.

Trimpin's Conloninpurple was neat but the participatory part didn't seem to be working. We also all agreed that it would have been nice if some parts of the museum had not been able to hear the nifty clunking tunes.

My favorite part of the whole museum was actually the exhibit of Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson's Symphonic Poem, which had a huge variety of media used to illustrate her childhood and her travels -- many huge, bumpy quilts laid out on tables and embellished with thousands of buttons and embroidery floss used six-stranded; a chair that she'd built up over years that they had to knock out her door frame to get out of the house; paint-and-fabric collage portraits; tall wooden organ-pipes painted all over, with music placed inside in some way I couldn't see, and crowned with wrought iron; musical scores written in playable but highly eccentric scripts. The best part was the plainer drawings. Some of them were pretty straightforward, nothing out of the ordinary for good drawings, but some of them were larger-than-life ink paintings of people from her neighborhood, beautiful black women and men with big bony hands and feet, and those were amazing. No one seems to have pictures of them on the web; I can only find highly colored ones and it was the shape of the lines that I liked so much.