Art & Math
One of the consistent themes throughout my work has been that the lines of nature repeat themselves on every scale. A dish soap bottle, made to be ergonomically correct for our hand is the same basic shape as the female figure. Taken to a larger scale, the same shape can be seen repeated in intertwined branches of a tree.
There are reasons that nature repeats the same lines. It is efficient, and works on sizes from large to small.
The other night I was watching PBS, a show about fractal mathematics, and was blown away. The theories I have been playing with can be broken down to a basic mathematical formula.
More to come…….
For the Love of God
For the love of God
Originally uploaded by PetefromBookham
Damien Hirst’s “For The Love Of God” is hitting the auction block.
The diamond encrusted skull originally contained a pricetag of $100 million. Read the article here
Guiness Commercial with Ainsley Burrows
I just found this link to a commercial with Ainsley Burrows. Surrounded by technology, still the most powerful force is the spoken word.
delete!
delete!
Originally uploaded by Caramdir
I love this concept.
In 2005 , Steinbrener-Dempf covered all lettering in Vienna’s 7th district for a period of two weeks. All signs, slogans, lettering and logos were covered.
More info here Panoramic view
The Pleasure of Eros
Originally uploaded by MisterBlank
I’m cleaning through and organizing some past work. It’s the jumping off point to where I am going. And to some, the last show I guess was a bit out there. Somebody just last week commented on it, and wanted to know what the hell I was thinking. This show was 2 years ago!!!!! Hehehehe two years later and it is still in their head? I did something right To say that the little old ladies that showed up to the opening for free cheese were a bit shocked would be a bit of an understatement. Wait till they see a giant vagina with sawblades and beartraps attached (Dentata)
I don’t normally discuss the why and what I was thinking of my pieces. It’s for the viewer to interpret themselves. But I want to establish a solid foundation for where I am going so that people don’t run over in horror as I talk to their children.
Walking through an old book store, I ran into this book titled “Warne’s Pleasure Book for Girls”. The title alone intrigued me. Published in 1926, it was a summer reading book for girls, filled with short and medium sized stories to help fill their summer days. I just laughed at the idea of how the context of words has changed in such a short period of time. In today’s standard, it would be inappropriate and ….dirty.
Even the language of the stories inside had a slightly erotic style. Once again, completely unacceptable today.
At first glance, the piece is slightly forbidding, surrounded by brown paper, and her chest cavity carved through the book and replaced with chicken wire and a wasp. It’s naughty, like a Playboy wrapped in a paper bag.
The wasp is actually something different. In early Roman times, the God Eros was often depicted as a small wasp-like insect. When you understand the significance of the wasp, the piece takes on a different interpretation. The chest cavity and honeycomb shape of the chickenwire become a nest, the home of Eros, ie, love. And the pleasure of Eros, in any context, is something that resides in all of us. But not allowing ourselves to delve further than our initial reaction keeps us from the pleasure and beauty of Eros.
(This is the bottom of the frame, a segment torn out of the book, I just thought it humorous, and a jab at those that wouldn’t take the time to get past their initial reaction. And I love how the character moaned the sentence.)
Art vs Porn
I love both these images. And I love that they are the same. We accept one, but discard the other as trash, porn, gratuitous, and demeaning to women with no redeeming social value.
And also violence, castration, ….wait that’s Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus”. In the mythology, Kronos (Saturn in Roman mythology) castrated his father, Ouranos (Uranus) because of his violent and cruel behavior, and threw his discarded penis into the ocean. As the semen exited the penis, it caused a churning of the sea out of which arose Aphrodite. Aphro (meaning sea foam) it most definately a nuance towards the ejaculate.
One of the beauties of Botticelli’s version is his use of a mondra (sp). The early Romans believed that the female figure has 46 specific poses (mondras) that men, and women, find alluring.
Is it a surprise then that we find the image on the left to be alluring? It not only contains the same pose, flowing hair, similar but not exact hand placement, and even a foaming water reference on the background.
The difference to some is context. But the fact is that we are all born with information stored in our central nervous system that allow us to respond to timeless information. If you appreciate Botticelli’s image, it is because part of you is responding to that ingrained information. So why the guilt and shame when we are drawn to the other?
Top image from Sex, Not Sex
What do you get…….
When you put 8 artists together and someone else footing the bill?
Originally uploaded by MisterBlank
It’s a good day when your client is a government agency, and they purchase for you alcohol, lamp oil and torches, and let you play with fire next to historic buildings just for fun.
Blog Action Day 2008
Is it any surprise that people are hurting right now?
For well over a year, our economy has been in a recession. And people are running out of resources. Within the last few weeks, we are watching as friends, business associates and neighbors are starting to open up and explain how they are hurting.
When you watch good people, who have spent their life playing by the rules, start to crack under the pressure, you know we have a fundamental problem on our hands. When their children are calling my children saying that they have no food in their house, there is a problem.
No bailout is going to help these families. And no politician has the courage to stand up and tell us what we already know. The true strength of our country is it’s people. And people need to be called into action to help their neighbor.
I hate the media heads saying that it was people’s fault for borrowing what they couldn’t afford to pay. To them I say, Listen asshole, people borrowed on the hopes and opportunities of tomorrow. They knew things were bad, but as Americans do, they were optimistic about the future. Unfortunately, the future hasn’t come yet. And their resources are depleted.
Whether you are a banker, investor, stock broker, teacher, or laborer, something fundamental has changed. Our futures are now all tied together. And no one will see a return to their stocks, investments, real estate values or wages until everyone last one of us is back on their feet.
If you are in the store, buy 2 of something, or take advantage of a buy-one-get-one-free sale. Keep one, and share one with a neighbor in need.
Don’t wait for them to come to you. It’s easier for people to accept help than it is to ask for it.
To read more on poverty – Blog Action Day
In New York
I tried to do an experiment on my train ride to NY. I thought it would be cool to have strangers on the train take a picture with THEIR cameraphone and send it to my blog, giving updates on my journey from their point of view. Apparently, people who are likely to take the train are not the type of people to carry a camera phone.
On top of that, I met many people with interesting stories, eager to talk and share. Most of the stories were not pleasant, and it felt wrong to listen and then ask them to participate. It felt like I was only interested in hearing their story for my own personal agenda. So I let it go. But I did take some photos, and will post about my journey and some of the people I met, like tunafish lady, the guy who goes through people’s luggage when they sleep, the criminal brothers (one on his way to avenge his brother’s death, and others.
Tomorrow I head back for Florida……
Stranger on A Train
Multimedia message
Originally uploaded by MisterBlank
Always have god in your heart – max
Art, Arte, and Antaphrodisiasm 