James (Jim) Flora is best-known for his wild jazz and classical album covers for Columbia Records (late 1940s) and RCA Victor (1950s). He authored and illustrated 17 popular children's books and flourished for decades as a magazine illustrator. Few realize, however, that Flora was also a prolific fine artist with a devilish sense of humor and a flair for juxtaposing playfulness, absurdity and violence. From jimflora.com.
New York Times' A. O. Scott reviews Vittorio De Sica's masterpiece of Neorealism, The Bicycle Thief.
Photograph of Honovi-Walpi, a Hopi Snake Priest, with Totkya Day painting. Image by Edward S. Curtis, 1910. Library of Congress.
"Nature transformed through industry is a predominant theme in my work. I set course to intersect with a contemporary view of the great ages of man; from stone, to minerals, oil, transportation, silicon, and so on. To make these ideas visible I search for subjects that are rich in detail and scale yet open in their meaning. Recycling yards, mine tailings, quarries and refineries are all places that are outside of our normal experience, yet we partake of their output on a daily basis." Artist statement.
"The things that inspire me to create, I find, are buried deep within the structures and systems that form the underpinning of our natural world. My studies in the natural sciences have made me aware of these hidden layers of complexity present in even the simplest objects. These invisible layers are seen most clearly through the lens of logic, which is used to decipher the underlying rules and laws that govern the physical world." From Faur's artist statement.
"The undersea world contains thousands of beautiful creatures and plants. Perhaps the most stunning of all of them is the humble Nudibranch which means ‘naked gill’. There are over 3,000 different kinds of nudibranchs all over the world." From nudibranch.com.
"'Clouds is an innovative, sophisticated and courful new tile concept for the home, designed by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec in collaboration with Kvadrat. The tiles can be used as an installation or be hung from a wall or ceiling". From kvadratclouds.com.
"Mead's jewelry stands out in stark contrast to the expected use of precious stones, gems and metals. Where most people see finite use for a common object, Mead sees vast potential. Examples of pendants include a gleaming drill bit, a single matchstick or even a brassy dental retainer, each cast or plated in silver or gold and strung on a fine chain. Mead even used a wad of worn-out bubble gum to model a bright pink gob pendant complete with teeth marks." From kielmead.com.
"In 1939, William Eggleston was born in Memphis, Tennessee and later raised in Sumner, Mississippi, a small town in the Delta region. Eggleston became a bit of what northerners still call a southern gentleman. (It is said he takes pride in never having worn jeans in public.) He attended three colleges and graduated from none of them, landed in the middle of the hard-living Memphis music scene and, in the mid-1970s, helped reinvent fine-art photography." From Culturekiosque.
Its always interesting to see how our perception of things change. The above image is a "lozenge" camouflage pattern used during WWI and below is the the new "pixel" version which has been recently introduced. They're always finding new uses for PhotoShop.
Women of the Orient: An Account of the Religious, Intellectual, and Social Condition of Women in Japan, China, India, Egypt, Syria, and Turkey. by Rev. Ross C. Houghton, A.M. 1877
Having started his artistic career studying Nihonga, a 19th century painting form, Murakami rejected the notion of an artistic divide between high and low culture, drawing inspiration from Japanese anime cartoons and Manga comics and grounding his work in "otaku," or "nerd," culture.
In 2000, Murakami founded the "Superflat" movement, a post-modern response to the levelling of Japanese society, both in economic and culture terms, and the aesthetics of mass-produced entertainment conveyed via LCD screens." From CNN.
