HOW ARTISTS SHOULD LIVE

This, believe it or not, is a post about the need for fabric and textural variety in interior decoration. I need to make that clear right away because at first glance the whole post looks like a bunch of girls in their underwear. That's because all the images here come from adult sites. I just didn't know any other place where I could find the kind of colorful interiors I had in mind. I'll try to clean up the pictures where I can. It's the best I can do.

Anyway, I think the house shown here (above) is an Australian photographer's collective. This is the kind of environment artsy people of all kinds thrive in. Artists require color. We have to see it all around us every day. It's not enough to put colorful posters on the wall. Color requires texture and pattern to read effectively, and that means fabric, plants, stone, glass, and wood grain.

Look what these windows (above) do for this room.

I like fabric draped over furniture. The example above is a little too girly for my taste, but it makes the point.

I love this picture (above) because it really sells the idea of a sleeping porch that doubles as a sort of greenhouse or potting shed. It's a whole room devoted to color and texture, and to the changing quality of light as the sun makes its way across the sky.

How do you like the muted yellow bedspread and the purple and indigo pillows? What do you think of the weathered old rug on the floor and the artfully sagging old cot?

It wouldn't cost much to build a structure like this (above). The roof is corrugated translucent plastic, and the screens are weighted plastic screening fabric that hangs like drapes. I like the Japanese-style frame.

I like rooms that are drenched in light in the daytime, and are dark and mood-lit at night. For a spot that's dark no matter what the time of day I suggest luxurious, thick, heavy, dark green...either as a carpet (above) or as a drape.

Bed linens (above) are a great excuse for complex color. The patterns here remind me of washi, the Japanese colored rice paper that you see in craft stores.

You can't get away with fabric this flamboyant (above) unless you're a girl. On the other hand, Matisse probably had stuff like this around the house.

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Well, that's all I have to say about that. On another subject, I'll be posting twice a week from now on, probably on Monday and Thursday. That's one day less than before. The reason is that since December I've gotten more than a third fewer hits. The number is still pretty good, but I'm a ham and I miss the larger audience. Maybe it's for the best because this'll give me more time to work on income-producing projects.

MORE FOOLIN' AROUND

Warning: this might not be office or school safe.

There... I like this head (above) a lot better than the previous one. 

Out with the old (above) and in with the new!

Boy, I get a lot of mileage out of this expression (above). It comes in handy for lots of things.

I got this (above) off the net, but I can't remember where.

This eight-legged woman (above) didn't turn out well at all, but I kinda like the idea. The painted part of the caricature is by Tomo. 

Last but not least, here's another photo from the net.  This kid was photographed at the very moment he was about to drop the "F" bomb.  Yikes! Imagine if the kid didn't learn any other word til he got older.

Also, you can tell by the condition of his nose that this kid snorts his baby food. A born iconoclast.

RED LEGS

Just fooling around. Here's a caricature of me done by John K on top of a pair of legs I found on the net. 

Here's a caricature of Nate drawn by Aaron Philby on top of the same legs. Holy Cow! It works!

CARICATURIST NATE KAPNICKY

Haw! Here's a funny man at work. The caricaturist is Nate Kapnicky

 I found out about Nate from Aaron Philby. That's Aaron above, drawn by Nate.

 Nate has a proper appreciation of stupidity.

 Give the subject (above) a haircut and a shave and he could pass for a doctor, but the caricaturist is trained to overlook unimportant things like character and intelligence. A caricaturist quests after the ultimate, the summit, the Grail of funny art...I speak of the quality of sublime ignorance.

 Holy Mackerel! The guy looks like a hawk!

 Above and below: two awesome interpretations of the same girl. I like the use of subtle, grainy color in the portrait above.

 Holy cow! Notice that both versions show a fever blister. I know what you're thinking, that it's cruel to show that. It is, and for that reason I wouldn't have done it myself, but in Nate's defence I'll add that a caricature is done for the benefit of the crowd of watchers, as much as for the subject. Watchers like things like that.

 Above, a noble nose.

 Wow! A terrific side view (above)! Man, when you draw one this good you hate to give it away!

 I'm surprised that most caricaturists prefer to draw frontal poses. It seems like side views are usually more funny. Years of mugging in front of a bathroom mirror make most people adept at hiding their ignorance in a frontal pose. Few people, on the other hand,  are practiced in hiding it from a side view.

 Yikes! This kind of caricature (above) is not for the timid!

ALIEN LIFE FOUND ON EARTH?

Can planets with extreme climates support complex life? Maybe. This little creature, only a millimeter long, is a tardigrade, also called a "Water Bear." It can live for decades without food or water, can survive temperatures ranging from near absolute zero to well above the boiling point of water, and can survive high pressure and very dangerous
radiation.

It's (above) so different than other life forms on Earth, that it's tempting to speculate that it doesn't come from here, but there's no evidence of that. It does have DNA just like we do, but it's more efficient at repairing it.

Russia attempted to salt Phobos with these things, but the rocket failed so Phobos was spared.

That's (above) an artist's rendering of our own galaxy. It's a spiral emanating from a bar. Probably the odd shape is the outcome of a collision with another galaxy. It must have happened a long time ago because it takes a while for merged galaxies to find a stable shape.

Just how old is our galaxy? Believe it or not, our own is one of the oldest galaxies we know of. It began to form long ago, shortly after galaxies first came into existence.

Question: which is older, the Earth or the Sun? Answer: the Earth. The proto-Earth formed when the Sun was still a hot ball of gas, before it ignited and became a star.

 When the Sun ignited it pushed out a giant shock wave that sent most of the smaller rocks and dust out past the present edge of the planetary Solar System. They settled into  a disk of remote asteroids called the Kuiper Belt. I think the Ort Cloud might have had a different origin.



Probably I'm the only person on this site who failed to see this footage when it was new. It's the meteorite that recently fell in the Urals. Although the rock is thought to have been no bigger than a car, the impact energy is estimated to have been that of several Hiroshimas.

ANOTHER MILDRED PIERCE POST

Yes, it's another post on the 40s version of "Mildred Pierce!" I admit it, I just can't get enough of that film. I'll keep watching it til I figure out why I keep watching it. 

Camus called the book's author, James M. Cain, America's greatest writer. I think I can guess why an Existentialist would say that. Cain believes that all people have both a good and a bad side, and for that reason the world is dominated by moral ambiguity and unhappiness. 

 Just for the record, I don't buy Cain's depressing philosophy but he's such a good writer that I give him the benefit of the doubt for the duration of the story.

  

Warning: I give away some of the less important plot elements here. 

There's a shooting at the start and Mildred is made to tell her story to the police. The novel doesn't start that way, but the device is pure genius because it justifies the narration and the flashbacks that follow. It's a nice way to compress a complicated story. 

Mildred's a simple housewife, but her excessive dedication to her snooty daughter brings her into conflict with her husband. It's tragic because they're both good people. 

She leaves her husband and takes up with an amiable weasel. He's amoral but she needs companionship. 

After she leaves her husband and ventures out into the outside world, she encounters four or five major types of people. It's like a medieval morality tale that introduces us, one by one, to the different kinds of false friends and demons that are out there. All have a good side, but all will eventually betray her. 

Mildred gets a job as a waitress and meets a woman who will become her friend. The friend is helpful when Mildred starts her own restaurant, but is also self-absorbed, and isn't proper friend material.

Unable to find a genuine friend, Mildred tries romance with a formerly rich gold-digger. He has a nice side, but..... 

Even the daughter she made so many sacrifices for treats her badly. Unable to find any good in the world she heroically tries to create the good by spoiling her kid. 

Yikes, I have lots more to say, but I'm running out of space. I'll have to continue this another time. 

AARON PHILBY'S KOREAN CARICATURES

Man, that Aaron Philby is one heck of a caricaturist! I would have thought Koreans would be hard to draw, they're another culture after all, but he makes it look like a lot of fun. 

 I could swear I've seen this couple (above) here in America!

Haw! The girl's body appears to be hidden in the crevices of her boyfriend's face. 

A head like a telephone (above).....very nice!

The subject (above) has immense appeal, and is perfectly set off by those flat, cardboard-type buildings and overcast sky.

At first glance it looks like the boy, ignoring the wind storm that's raging around him, is biting his girlfriend's peanut-shaped head. 

Holy Cow! This guy (above) has teeth like mine! I like the discreet little patch of stubble under the nose, and the heart that's been squeezed out of their union.

This guy (above) is one of those lucky people who are born cool. His girlfriend looks soooooo happy about it.

Couples (above) should always have interlocking heads. It's a symbol of their romance.

That's it for now, but for those who are curious to see more work by Aaron Philby, the man resides here:

http://aaronphilby.blogspot.com/