I was listening to Terry Gross’ Fresh Air interview that she did in 2003 with Maurice Sendak, author of a trilogy that includes Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen and Outside, Over There. I was struck by his description of the monsters actually being inspired by memories of his older family members, who would come to dinner at his home in Brooklyn and with their hairy noses and moles and big ears would bore him to death at the dinner table with their meaningless dribble and hungry eyes waiting for his mom’s outrageously slow cooked food.
This juxtaposition between loving human connection and fearsome beasts seemed to capture the strange sense that Sendak’s characters don’t really fall easily into any one black or white space in our minds, but rather a blur across that spectrum of love and hate.
This morning I came across the paintings of Austin Power on the Behance Network. Specifically, his new series, titled “21 Portraits of People I Miss“. There’s a longing and sadness to his work that’s obvious, but also a serious and controlled discipline in these seemingly unfinished works, and a use of colors that really strike a chord with me as entirely contemporary and modern. Wonderful work and even more wonderful because they’re watercolors.
His show is opening tomorrow at Satsko, 245 Eldridge St., New York, NY 10002. 6-9pm.
View a selection of his work from this particular show.
View his portfolio online.
I saw this and was totally blown away. Pe Lang and Zimoun are a rare breed in that they’re capturing an incredibly polished and stylized aesthetic while simultaneously creating some amazingly sophisticated sound designing mechanics. Just so cool and so beautifully presented. I encourage you to spend some time listening and observing this installation. The work that went into this is awe inspiring.
I discovered sound and art installation artist’s Pe Lang and Zimoun’s “Untitled Sound Objects” series at the Today & Tomorrow Blog. They create sound textures using machinery driven objects, most performing a simple task or motion. I started watching the videos and was mesmerized, they play like it could be a new ambient/noise composition and they’re all beautifully and minimally designed installations. The rotors twisting the loops of chains is just too cool.
Watch (and listen to) the amazing video of the installation here.
View beautiful and minimal photographs of the installation here.
I’ve been noticing a trend in a lot of publications and blogs that I used to enjoy reading. When they’re starting to run out of ideas, they get confrontational, with their articles and posts becoming more like rants about things that frustrate them. The unfortunate reality is, as in life, no one is going to hear your criticism if it’s in the form of an attack, it’s human nature to deflect information when it’s presented this way. It needs to be in the form of a conversation.
Conversations have two sides, with both willing to hear each other. Otherwise it’s an attack, which is all to easy from behind a keyboard.
Let’s challenge ourselves to have more conversations, and listen to the other side with an open mind. I’m constantly surprised by how my mistaken perspective led me to believe something that turned out not to be true, but by being open when you’re wrong it’s easier to admit it.
The aesthetic of Evan’s paintings, for me at least, very much appeal to the designer in me. The importance and simple balance of minimal contrasting colors, shape and open space weigh heavily in his work. Some of my favorite prints of his are now, regrettably for me, sold out, but there are quite a few interesting images left on the Arkitip site. Perhaps it’s the restriction on color usage from the fact that these are prints that make for the simple beauty, but then again it’s the exercise of restraint that’s often key to wonderful creative works.
All available works at Arkitip: http://arkitip.com/printed-matter/hecox/
