Defy Monday: Blizzard time AGAIN!!

Defy these mother nature.... just try.

Sorel Cate The Great

Sperry Top-Sider Pelican Boot

Keen Snowmass Low Boot


Until the Northeast gets over this spitting snow vehemently phase, we're just gonna have to wait it out.
In the mean time, stay safe and please people, protect those tootsies!

Wednesday Work: Tora Greve, you're in my dreams

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Where to begin? Tora Greve was mentioned a few weeks back on a blog I follow fondly, Fine Little Day - and while I am not in the practice of re-posting, it piqued my interest, and I had to investigate more.

Tora Greve is an artist residing in the Netherlands, hand weaving these wonderful, weird, intriguing tapestries. Her site is largely committed to the Sirius Solar System - an extensive series of tapestries telling the story of the place.

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I can't say I know anything about the Sirius Solar System, other than its moniker the Dog Star. But what I can say is this - I fell in love the minute I saw Tora Greve's work.

To work with such confidence in a seemingly free and playful way...well I want my studio practice to work like that. I am learning from you Tora.

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I would like to have a cup of tea, or several with Tora Greve, discuss the "news, rumors and anecdotes about the star Sirius, its inhabitants and contactees." Discuss her adventures chasing the solar eclipse.

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And see more of her Space Art. Then we should go to the flea market, look at the old and musty, while walking in the crisp autumn air, the browns and oranges and golden rod colors of the leaves on the trees, beneath our feet, crumbling, ... oh what a journey it would be.

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Look at Tora Greve's extensive body of work, here.

And if you are on the East Coast today - put on your boots! It's snowy out there!

DEFY MONDAY: Pants!

(The Bills)

The History of Western Subcultures in the 20th Century

(And a shout out to the Twins - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!)

Wednesday Work: Robert Wiene: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

Light!, Composition! Perspective! Oh My! It's never quite been done as Robert Wiene has done it, in his film noir: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. (1920.)

Having been said to be the inspiration for such contemporary film titles such as "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus", this film does not employ CGI, or any computer manipulation of the sort; this is real live set building, (tonal ranges painted in to play off of tonal ranges in the lighting (!)), real live film burning, capturing the exposure as the characters move across this surreal landscape in an early example of German expressionism.

There are not voices, nor is there dialogue, there are a few screens here and there of text, but mostly the film pulls you along via the visual experience with a classical musical score set over top.

I have to be honest, when I was made to watch this film early on in my schooling, I slept through it! Begrudging the experience even an ounce of my attention. Having grown older and wiser, now I look back at this gem of cinematography and shine in the afterglow of a masterpiece that is all but other-worldly.

(PS - It's available now on Netflix Instant Watch - you could see it for yourself while you eat breakfast!)

DEFY MONDAY: MLK!

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"I have a dream today."

(If you've never read the full-text, you should. ...Today is a great day to do it!)

Wednesday Work: Ivan Liovik Ebel

No, I don't speak French, but hearing it makes me blush.

Yes, I do love minimalistic, geometric, pastel, low-fi, etc... reminiscent of Paris in the Springtime.... GUSH!

L’envers du corps II, 2009

huile sur toile (oil on canvas)

170 x 170 cm

St. Peter-Ording, 2010

huile sur toile (oil on canvas)

100 x 140 cm

Perspective cavalière IV, 2010

écoline sur papier (ecoline paper)

70 x 50 cm

Légère incertitude, 2010

huile sur toile (oil on canvas)

150 x 90 cm

Thanks http://thisisnthappiness.com for sharing.

Thanks Ivan Liovik Ebel, for bringing me back to down to planet Earth!

Defy Monday: Identity Shiftin'

I was recently approached to do a fun photo shoot for a friend. To my surprise, the incorporation of a mask was at task. The search for just the right thing was much more interesting than I'd hoped, as I found all of these (and more!) along the way:

theNakedParrot.com

I had no idea the prevalence of handmade masks available for purchase online was so vast!:
 

Birch bark brown owl bird masquerade mask

Día de los Muertos in style:

MasqueFaire

MasqueFaire

 Maskworld.com carries these amazing hand-crafted Venetian Animal masks.

Want something a little more Donnie Darko creepy?, Yeah, they've got those too:

lamanomasks.com

 It's my belief that changing it up, even if for a temporary short time, can add some fun, mystery and spontaneity to your life. (Think back to the first time you saw the Breakfast at Tiffany's shoplifting dime-store scene...) Don't have to wait until Halloween or be a kid to enjoy a mask. You could even make it your next project and whip one up yourself!

Wednesday Work: Speaking of Baroque - Modern Still Life Photography

(Sharon Core)

Though I referenced antique Baroque paintings in my last post about Alan Lightman's book, Einstein's Dreams, it should be noted that it was actually a contemporary still life photograph that I used as reference.

(Marian Drew)

The still life photographs of Sharon Core, Marian Drew, and Laura Letinsky, are gorgeous.

(Laura Letinsky)

Let's go eat a watermelon.

Reading List: Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman

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If you have not yet read Alan Lightman's Einstein's Dreams, I encourage you to do so at your earliest convenience. Not only a masterpiece of prose, bending simple words in the most fantastic of ways, it acts as a beginner's guide to metaphysics. Lightman explores time and the ideas of its passage (or rather its cyclical recurrence, or rather that it's sporadic, or rather that...)

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Lightman does not write for us about the world, instead his words create the world. When he points to darkened desktop or crumpled passersby - it is not that these subjects become lit up for the reader's regard of them, but more - it is as if at that very moment of Lightman's description the subject is born into being. As a consumer of Lightman's prose I am left to ponder that perhaps reality is not fixed, that it exists only in the moment of my recognition and the moment of my understanding of what is around me; that as a photographer it is not that I am capturing images, as much as I am discovering them; as an artist it is I who create (rather than react to) those personal truisms, as they are in fact built in my studio in the relationships I create between disparate objects and in the way that I place them in proximity to one another.

***

Lightman's novel Einstein's Dreams does much to encourage the individual to consider their experience, consider their perspective, and to take control of the life they lead. For it is, in fact "I" who is in control, whether I be acting upon with force or lackluster disinterest.

(Sharon Core)

As a visual artist I am drawn to anything which can create an image for the audience, no matter the faculties it calls upon. Through this observation of the ways in which others choose to create an image, I am always looking for ways in which they may manipulate the image, and in turn, how these tools and techniques may be used to manipulate the audience.

(Joseph Cornell)

Einstein's Dreams for me brings to mind a warm turkey sandwich, heavy cream and melted cheese, eaten in a darkened bar tucked away down an abandoned alley on an undesirable day. I do not hear the birds, nor the trees. There is no traffic but I can see - and what is I am envisioning are so many antiquated Baroque paintings, and abstract dioramas, like those of Joseph Cornell's 4th dimension.

***

Alan Lightman's Einstein's Dreams - I really do recommend it.

DEFY MONDAY: It's been resolved.

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I am not a big advocate for saying one needs to change. (Or believing that one can change.) Especially not change for change sake, say every year around the 1st of January.

What I am for is realizing what we're working with, what our strengths and weaknesses may be, and what kind of energies we have that we would like to see bend in some other direction than currently bent - - -

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I think I am wonderful, as every individual should think themselves to be - -

but here it is: a short list,

The Mountain's New Year's Resolutions 2011

1. Answer. The. Phone.

2. Be. Consistent.

3. No. More. Negativity. (shit-talking or gossip)

And more than those things we would like to change about ourselves, (or the people around us - but then that would be going against my resolution #3,...) what a New Year is best for is allowing a fresh start - a free pass past all the time we think we've wasted, all the wrong decisions we feel that we've made, up and around too many late nights spent "just thinking" - a fresh start to Get Motivated and to make the New Year even more than the year before it.

So, you heard it: Let's MAKE IT HAPPEN. It's 2011!

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(You can start by supporting your homegrown artist - find these upcycled eco friendly art prints over at Etsy from Moon and Lion. Many messages to start your New Year right!)