I have a new camera, to go with new shoes, suitcase, sandals. Lots of shopping lately.
Here is a photo I took from my recent Richmond Hill retreat. Not really representative of my time, but a favorite image from the bunch.
Happy to be shooting again. :)
I opened a subscription to Vogue. Interested in their high fashion images. Kind of a shift from my Wired source material, hope to work them together at some point, but fun to work with a new kind of input.
Two new collages. The first one, Sorry..., came together nicely, in terms of the black tones, and the suggested image created by the juxtaposition, that one image seems to be speaking to another. I like the brief hints of bright yellow and red, and the link between the chaotic visual lines of the building and the stress on the female figure's face.
The second one is simpler, but I'm happy with it as well, a quiet suggestion of brain waves, and the background figure almost jumping from the foreground figure's head, taking readings. I like the color harmony with the light or muted tones as well.
This is a collage I made back in January, and didn't scan until now. I'm happy with it, generally: themes of surface texture, consumerism, and the personal quest. Cerberus was the three headed dog that guarded the gateway to Hades in Greco-Roman mythology. He's featured also in Dante's Inferno.
Two new collage. Not my favorites, kind of chaotic, not much flow, or focal points. The source image was printed on really high stock paper, which was nice, but hard to appreciate in a scan. Nice sense of density, and a kind of glittering brightness to the city images.
I'm reading the voyages of Sinbad as part of the Arabian Nights, and I'm struck by how closely it resembles modern science fiction. In his second journey he is stranded on an unknown island, populated only by a giant bird who blots out the sun. He escapes by tying himself to the birds leg, before landing on a second island filled with giant snakes and valleys full of diamonds. He eventually makes his escape with some merchants come in search of the diamonds, and makes his way home.
The connection with sci fi comes in the unknown, the sense of undiscovered worlds and fantastic creatures. One of the things I've liked about Arabian Nights is the sense of wonder about our own world. It's written in a time when much of the world was still unknown, and the storytellers imagine fantastic, wonderful possibilities. As scientific explorers charted the known world in the 19th and early 20th centuries, our storytelling imaginations shifted from undiscovered parts of the planet to the stars, and space carried that sense of menace, wonder, and limitless possibility that our formerly uncharted planet used to carry.
Dreams and imagination lives on in our uncharted areas...wherever that may be.
I've wanted to pick this one up for a while. I haven't been disappointed. Her voice is so pure and guileless, with a winsomeness similar to John Denver, but seeming less effete in a female voice. It's clear that Mitchell was a big influence on Jewel's aesthetic and sound, with a plainspoken folksiness. Very soft, melancholic. Beautiful.
The latest book of the month for Fountain's Book Group. It looks to be a great companion to November's Omnivore's Dilemma. This book is a fascinating look at the perfume industry, and the sense of smell in general. Nonfiction, it has an interesting aesthate and scientist at its center, Luca Turin. I'm enjoying the opening 20 pages... :)
Random quotes:
"Odor...contains all the mysteries" (ix), Smell as something both "unlimited and instantaneous" (7.9), "Real men don't [wont] smell things. It's a female thing" (12.2), "You just cannot believe that a single molecule (of scent) has so many features" (13.4), Protagonist's mother: "what thrilled and impressed me was his interest in absolutely everything" (16.5), "You have just used the last bottle of L'Origen in the known universe" (21.6).
I visit this site every few days to see what people are posting. It's a fun repository for unusual visuals, like an online flea market, just trolling for little gems. Very occassionally there will be something risque, but most of it is just distinctive photos.
http://pizdaus.com
