Wintergatan

 

Meet the Swedish band Wintergatan, "Milky Way", with their debut song Sommarfågel. 

This is from 2013, but I only just found out about the band today because of their amazing "Marble Machine" video which you really need to check out here. They do such interesting things with both their music and their visuals, so hop over to youtube to get better acquainted!

Sana Takeda

A Japanese artist currently working mainly for Marvel, Sana Takeda came to my attention for her collaboration with writer Marjorie Liu on the series Monstress. It's an intrically drawn, stark tale of power and pain, supernatural forces and a particular barbaric type of slavery, and is an extremely compelling read.

This review, in particular, struck me and deserves to be shared: “That tenuous space between survival and terror is where Monstress lives. It’s a comic book with mud in its blood, unafraid to be a swirling epic as well as a ghastly dark fantasy.” – Vox

Yasunari Kawabata

The first Japanese author to have received the Nobel Prize for Literature, Yasunari Kawabata is a name I had regrettably not heard before today. Having read and thoroughly enjoyed his short story "The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket", I purchased his "Palm-Of-The-Hand Stories" - a series of short stories written over the span of his career - and greatly look forward to reading them!

I picked up also the collection of short stories "A Tranquil Star: Unpublished Stories" by Primo Levi (an Italian writer) and "Ecstatic Cahoots: Fifty Short Stories" by Stuart Dybek - an American author whose excellent article "The Surprising Power of Stories That Are Shorter Than Short Stories" introduced me to both previously named writers. In it, he discusses the dual visuality of haiku in their original form, speaks of poetry in fiction, and wraps up the article with the beautiful finishing lines: "Even though we all write on computers now, I still think of writing as words on paper. And when you write a story or a poem, it just illuminates. Meaning shines through words like light through cut paper, beaming out into the night, and projecting its image onto another person’s heart."

Colors of the World

Hey there! So I've had a project in the works that I debuted on Monday: Colors of the World! It's an artistic project exploring different cultures around the world, looking at traditional arts, textiles, patterns, culture, language and much more. Each month I'll be working on a new culture or country, posting a photoshoot at the beginning of each month and following it up with blog posts over on the website, so check it out! It's in its beginning stages still, but by the end of the month there'll be something of interest for everyone, and I'd love to have your feedback and support! Here's the LINK, and a sneak peak...

Rob Gonsalves

Rob Gonsalves is a surrealist painter (or "painter of magic realism", as Wikipedia calls him) born in Toronto, Canada. His paintings really are magical, typically merging two different concepts and scenes into one image that needs to be seen to be believed. Let me share with you a few of my favorites, and look at his other beautiful work here!

Tamsin van Essen

This artist is a British ceramicist who does some very interesting concept work based on scientific, medical and social historic themes. I found her "Vanitas" project particularly beautiful (probably because I'm very fond of swirls and squiggles), and here is her description for it:

Vanitas Vanitatum
A garniture of beauty and decay

This collection explores the transience of beauty and the vulnerability of excess. Inspired by the melancholy opulence of 17th century Dutch vanitas paintings, and the tragic allure of Dickens' Satis House, I aim to capture the fragile moment when abundance turns to decay.

An exuberance of decoration disrupts the vases' forms, implying deterioration and ruin. Frozen in time just as disintegration begins, the vases represent an ornamental memento mori, hinting at the impermanence of existence and the inevitable decline of beauty.

Marcin Sacha

The air today smelled of snow and winter, and Marcin Sacha's work seems appropriately dreamy and tranquil to share with you today. This Polish photographer has an incredible portfolio full of colors both muted and vibrant, breathtaking landscapes, candid photos of people, and surrealist photography - and it is all worth checking out. I particularly like the foggy landscapes, and here are a few of my favorites.

From the album "Tuscany":

From the album "Fog":

Each album has many, many more photos than I can show you here, and it was difficult to choose only these six! Really, check out his portfolio - it's amazing.  
 

Graham Gercken

Today's artist is Australian painter Graham Gercken, whose Fall paintings in particular are spectacular. Riotous in color, yet evocative of crisp air and the sounds of nature, I would love to have any of these on my wall.

Shakespearified Modern Slang

This is too good not to share. Here are some modern phrases, and how Shakespeare might have said them. I particularly like "talk to the hand" and "TL;DR" (too long; didn't read). Clever!

Adam S Doyle

Another artist with bold brushstrokes, Adam S Doyle's animals are airy and evocative, captured beautifully with heavy strokes that still manage to give the pieces a sense of lightness. I particularly love his birds and wolves.

Leck Mich Im Arsch

Did you know that Mozart composed a canon literally titled "Lick Me in the Ass"? I didn't know until just now. It's quite a fun canon, too, sung by six voices in a three-part round. It's uncertain what the original lyrics were, but it seems they might have just been repetitions of the line, "Leck mich im Arsch g'schwindi," of which the last word means 'quickly' and is 'geschwind' in its correct spelling.

The most common bowdlerized (censored, reworked) version translates to:
Let us be glad!
Grumbling is in vain!
Growling, droning is in vain,
is the true bane of life,
Droning is in vain,
Growling, droning is in vain, in vain!
Thus let us be cheerful and merry, be glad!

This is the canon - with notes and lyrics! Enjoy.

Silvia Cordedda

Look at this beautiful fractal art by Silvia Cordedda. I saw them only as small thumbnails and am so glad I clicked on the images, because these are best viewed separately and in their full glory. Her deviantART page has other magical work, so be sure to check it out!

Nightfall

Radiance

Malaise

Glimmer on a Sunday Afternoon

Chemehuevi Pottery

I spent several days in San Diego this summer, and saw some pretty neat things: Tide pools, sea lions, rock formations (which Google now tells me are not, in fact, called tafoni), traditional crafts, and much, much more. For now, however, I want to post about some of the aforementioned traditional crafts!

The Chemehuevi are an indigenous people of the Great Basin, and as part of the Southern Paiute people traditionally lived in the Colorado River basin and Mojave Desert. Taken directly from the Wikipedia page: "Chemehuevi" has multiple interpretations. It is considered to either be a Mojave term meaning "those who play with fish;"^[6] or a Quechan word meaning "nose-in-the-air-like-a-roadrunner."^[7] The Chemehuevi call themselves Nüwüwü ("The People", singular Nüwü)^[8][9] or Tantáwats, meaning "Southern Men."^[7]

When visiting the Seeley Stable Museum in Old Town San Diego we saw some very nice baskets and pottery, of which I know for sure that the baskets are by Chemehuevi weavers but unfortunately cannot remember whether the pottery was by the same people. Unable to find anything to either prove or disprove it, I'm afraid I'll simply assume for now that the pottery is also by the Chemehuevi.

Look at this, though! Isn't it gorgeous?

The sign reads "As a consequence, by 1975, there is no Chemehuevi basket weaving being done." Not only a rather sad message, but also unindicative of the origins of these pots.

Erik Olson

The Earth, Neptune and Saturn are so strikingly depicted with thick brushstrokes on a black background in these representations of planets by artist Erik Olson, and I wanted to share them with you. Beautiful!

MOBSTR

Just a quick visual post to get back in the swing of posting here! I came across this graffiti artist today and thought his stuff was pretty fun. Have a few examples and check out his website here!

Saris

I find myself mildly obsessed with the sari, an South Asian draped garment. Basically a glorified strip of cloth, the sari is wrapped around the body and draped until it hangs elegantly, the fabric often dyed in vibrant colors and embroidered in intricate patterns.

This mild obsession started when I came across the below image of a sari paired with a corset (which I can assure you is not the traditional way to wear a sari), and I was struck by the figure the model cut.

From there it took off and I scoured the internet for further images, happening across the website Shree Designer Saree and flipping through their catalogue and saving my favorite images. Something I find rather amusing is that they will describe the different saris with different adjectives: Keen, insightful, beneficial, savoury, miraculous, transcendent, amuse... Not sure how those describe the saris (I was particularly amused by "pathetic"), but have a look!

 

Despite the vibrant beauty of the above images, however, I find myself wishing I could try a sari-and-corset combo in the style of Zessinna - it looks so striking!