In the Labyrinth

Be Awed By The Virtual Sistine Chapel

I love the internet. Especially when it provides the most astonishing opportunity to virtually visit the Sistine Chapel -- a fabulously clear 360 degree look at this complex and beautiful work of art. You can move every where -- throughout the ceiling and zoom in on the smallest of details. Although I have stood in the chapel and stared upward -- I wasn't able to view it in such amazing detail. Oh, it is really glorious!

Art Is A Way: Elsa Mora's Beautiful New Art Website

I have been a fan of Elsa Mora's work for a number of years now and am absolutely delighted to see her new and much improved website Art Is A Way, with so many wonderful rooms of art in which to stop and browse, and just be wowed by the detailed art she creates -- with pens, scissors, needle and thread. One feels that every aspect of Mora's life is filled with the love of creating art -- the life force that creativity gives to all of us if we but accept its presence in our life like grace in action.

Invisible Words

Woman Hidden In A Drop Of Water

 

Do read the post that accompanies this piece called "Hand in the Rope" from her sketch book. It reveals how Mora so beautifully translates some of the most harrowing events of her childhood into art that pulls her always toward life.

At Sea in the Bathtub

I ordered this because in our new house I actually have a bathtub and wall where these amazing tentacles can go. It's like filling the house with dreamy landscapes -- now if I could only find a way to bring my computer into the tub with me. I may have to go old school and write my novels in a note book while adding hot water every fifteen minutes or so.

And speaking of the bath, read this gorgeous and sensual poem, "The Loneliness of Men Bathing," by Mary Campbell in The Paris Review. Here is a bit to whet your appetite (yeah...pun intended.)

"No one bothers to imagine men in baths.
None of us sitting home alone
On a dull, rainy evening
Thinks of the nude male body
Half-floating, eyes closed, in scented water
Littered with petals, loosening himself
Into the liquid grace of muscular abandon,
One arm perhaps draped over the bath’s edge
Beckoning unconsciously, the left hand
Drawing a long, slow line along
The silkened, opened, underwater skin
Of an upper thigh until it reaches
Tactile complications at the loins
And just gets lost..."

Read more>>>

Reve des Monuments: Imaginary Architecture

If you are any where near Paris this January -- February, 2013, consider stopping by to see this amazing exhibit created by the French Center For National Monuments -- "Reve des Monuments, Imaginary Architecture," featuring imaginary castles and buildings from an extraordinary collection of medieval to contemporary art, film, and interactive exhibits. It looks to be a stunning experience...so wish I could go.

 

The Mambo King and the Queen of Sheba

I am quite taken with this astonishing music video by ThorstenCoo Productions of "El Rey del Mambo y la Reina de Saba" from the Spanish band, Klaus and Kinski. Thorsten Coo Productions specialize in unique music videos (which have earned them award recognition) that "mix techinques such as puppets, collage, ink, illustration, rotoscopy and animate it all with stop motion and Flash." Beautiful and sensual -- and with a bite. I especially love the gracefulness of the wolf in the pasadobles.

Skulls: Knitted, Filigreed, and Filled

Just in time for the Halloween Holidays, let me share my favorite skulls of the moment:

Crania Filigre Anitomica from Joshua Harker, an artist exploring a phenomenal new process between sculpture and software that permits him to create incredibly rich organic forms beautifully complex and delicate like this filigree skull. Needing funds for his work, Harker posted the film below on Kickstarter ( a website that allows artists to bring their projects directly to the public for funding). He requested $500.00 in donations and received $77,271. Click here to see the skull in awesome 3D

Need to whet your whistle? How about these fabulous painted glass skulls filled with tequila from Kah Tequila, specializing in artful tequila bottles to honor loved ones on Day of The Dead? They come in full sized bottles, but are also available in a pack of three miniature skulls -- perfect for your ofrenda altar.

I am in awe of this knitted skeleton -- the skull so soulful, detailed, and slightly fuzzy. This is the work of fiber artist Ben Cuevas whose talent with the needles astonishes me. Like the skeleton? Check out the knitted hearts for his "Waiting Room Installation."

How To Admire One Another In A Good Year

BibliOdyssey has posted some terrific engravings of Swiss (Basel) dress from the 1630s. I have to say I was captured by this engraving entitled "How To Admire One Another in a Good Year." Still trying to work what the young woman has concealed under her headdress -- that hoof sticking out beneath the veil is a bit alarming. What we won't do for fashion. You can see many more wonderful engravings on the BibliOdyssey post or, the entire book of engravings online here.

Crocodiles and Tricksters

It seems the post-art this week has been all black and white...so I am happy to add another fabulous work to the week's postings. This one is a new post from artist Emiliano Lake Herrera who has combined his love of the Brazilian martial art Capoeira with art and Capoeira's rich Afro-Brazilian mythic traditions in the work above. The post provides a short description of the crocodile as trickster and his role in Capoeira. Very cool. Check out his exhibition of Capoeira art -- these are richly colored paintings -- and I am hoping some time in the future he will put all the black and white pieces up in a gallery too. I love the energy of his figures, and all the movement.

Emiliano Lake Herrera: Amate Inspired Art

I absolutely love these wonderful small pieces of Amate-style art created by Emiliano Lake Herrera. Amate art has a fascinating history -- originating first as Amatl, a handmade bark  paper on which pre-Hispanic people chronicled their histories, trade agreements, and tributes. It was also used in religious ceremonies as an intermediary between the people and the Gods. The tradition of making Amatl and its use in religious ceremonies almost died out as Latin America became both more Catholic and more modern. However, the tradition was revived in the late 20th century as Nahua potters in the state of Guerrero who created beautiful scenes of daily life on their pottery decided to draw and paint them on amatl paper as they were easier to transport to market. The paintings became commercially successful -- and very popular with art collectors in the North.

This style of art is wonderful -- decorative patterns that border robust scenes of the nature, the community's daily activities and customs. It was these "life-filled" scenes that particularly attracted Lake-Herrera, a Mexican-American artist researching traditional Mexican arts. He began creating his own contemporary interpretations of the Amate style. Some of the works are iconic representations of the sacred -- figures of Christ, the Jaguar Dancers, The Ornate Skull, and The Sacred Heart, surrounded by evocative patterns that heighten their symbolic importance. Others are just fun -- cooking at the grill, a black dog waiting for scraps, a child buying fruit popsicles, lovers dancing.

Do stop by Emiliano's blog The Studio and have a look at the full gallery. I am so hoping that in the near future, we might see some of these wonderful small but engaging works of art made into prints. For more information on the Amatl let me recommend "Amate Art of Mexico" a terrific article by Rita Pomade, and the book Markets and Cultural Voices: Libert and Power in the Lives of Mexican Amate Painters, an intriguing study of the relationship of traditional artists to the contemporary market written by economist and Amate collector Tyler Cowen.

Guillermo del Toro: Living With Monsters

Here's a fabulous article by Daniel Zalewski for The New Yorker on director Guillermo del Toro's creative genius as an artist and filmmaker, especially in the creation of monsters and original fantastic creatures. The short film above gives a peek into del Toro's amazing sketch books which became the source of his creatures in films like Pan's Labyrinth and the Hell Boy I and II.

Here's a bit about del Toro's unusual childhood from the article:

"Del Toro was a playfully morbid child. One of his first toys, which he still owns, was a plush werewolf that he sewed together with the help of a great-aunt. In a tape recording made when he was five, he can be heard requesting a Christmas present of a mandrake root, for the purpose of black magic. His mother, Guadalupe, an amateur poet who read tarot cards, was charmed; his father, Federico, a businessman whom del Toro describes, fondly, as “the most unimaginative person on earth,” was confounded. Confounding his father became a lifelong project."

I love looking into artist's sketchbooks, to admire the creative process, which even in rudimentary sketches can be so beautiful (unlike writing which is usually a page with some really horrendous sentences scribbled out). Awhile back on JoMA we featured a number of artist sketchbooks and I thought here might be a good time to mention them: "The Fairy Tale Sketch Books of Alan Lee, Ian McCaig, Charles Vess, and Terri Windling" and "Traveling the Wilds" by Oliver Hunter.