A Poutin' House

As I become wiser, I see more clearly the need for a Poutin' House. Everybody needs one....for obvious reasons. So I've begun the search for the perfect Poutin' House for me. 

Then, someday, I'll build it, if only in my mind.

This place is so magical, you couldn't pout for long in it. And it's just as magical on the inside.     Perfect. Click the link below to see more images.

Magical Poutin' House

This next one is perfect too---I can't think myself into a corner in it! And, it's recycled material, so I'll feel good about that too. Win + Win = Winning!

Tim Flach photographs

 

 

Tim Flach, see more at www.timflach.com

Tim Flach is a photographer whose work is somehow both epic and intimate at the same time. And they are beautifully, perfectly composed. Don't spend time thinking too much....just look.

Tim Flach

“It is a sign of great inner insecurity to be hostile to the unfamiliar.”

Oh, this is the best explanation of the importance of the writer and artist in society:

"Educators do all in their power to prepare you to enjoy reading after college. It is right that you should read according to your temperament, occupations, hobbies, and vocations. But it is a sign of great inner insecurity to be hostile to the unfamiliar, unwilling to explore the unfamiliar. In science, we respect the research worker. In literature, we should not always read the books blessed by the majority. This trend is reflected in such absurd announcements as “the death of the novel,” “the last of the romantics,” “the last of the Bohemians,” when we know that these are continuous trends which evolve and merely change form. The suppression of inner patterns in favor of patterns created by society is dangerous to us. Artistic revolt, innovation, experiment should not be met with hostility. They may disturb an established order or an artificial conventionality, but they may rescue us from death in life, from robot life, from boredom, from loss of the self, from enslavement.

When we totally accept a pattern not made by us, not truly our own, we wither and die. People’s conventional structure is often a façade. Under the most rigid conventionality there is often an individual, a human being with original thoughts or inventive fantasy, which he does not dare expose for fear of ridicule, and this is what the writer and artist are willing to do for us. They are guides and map makers to greater sincerity. They are useful, in fact indispensable, to the community. They keep before our eyes the variations which make human beings so interesting. The men who built America were the genuine physical adventurers in a physical world. This world once built, we need adventurers in the realm of art and science. If we suppress the adventure of the spirit, we will have the anarchist and the rebel, who will burst out from too narrow confines in the form of violence and crime."

Anais Nin, 1949 (Diary of Anais Nin, Vol 5)

From Brain Pickings

Russell Crotty

Russell Crotty, Vancover. Source: Russellcrotty.com 

I really enjoy most of Russell Crotty's work. I like the fact that most of his work is free of the need for framing; that it is three-dimensional, but still feels like drawing.  Mostly, I love that it makes me think of drawing in a new/different way.

  Click here a short video about him and his work at Turner Contemporary.

Suspended Together

I am always ranting to my students about using beauty to draw the viewer in.  A great concept doesn't change the fact that your work is going to be viewed from 15-20 feet away at first glance, and you need to find a way to make someone actually look at what you've done. Once you pull them in, have something interesting going on.

Suspended Together, Manal Al Dowayan

Suspended Together has that potential. Here is the artist's statement:

“Suspended Together” is an installation that gives the impression of movement and freedom. However, a closer look at the 200 doves allows the viewer to realize that the doves are actually frozen and suspended with no hope of flight. An even closer look shows that each dove carries on its body a permission document that allows a Saudi woman to travel. Notwithstanding their circumstances, all Saudi women are required to have this document, issued by their appointed male guardian.

Suspended Together, Manal Al Dowayan

The artist reached out to a large group of leading women from Saudi Arabia to donate their permission documents for inclusion in this artwork. “Suspended Together” carries the documents of award-winning scientists, educators, journalists, engineers, artists and leaders with groundbreaking achievements that gave back to their society. The youngest contributor is six months old and the oldest is 60 years old. In the artist’s words, “regardless of age and achievement, when it comes to travel, all these women are treated like a flock of suspended doves."

You can see more images here: http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2012/02/suspended-together/

Noemie Goudal

Noemie Goudal, Les Amants (Cascade), Colour Photograph, 168 x 208 cm, 200

This is lovely, isn't it?  See more at Noemie Goudal. Enjoy.