SheWalksSoftly

Mark Ryden: The Gay 90’s

May 8th, 2010

I’ve been remiss in posting about one of this year’s highlights: Mark Ryden’s Gay 90’s Exhibit. I don’t want to inundate you folks with countless pictures so I’ll post a few with a link to others.

The giant show stopper, Incarnation. This painting was massive and breathtaking.

In person, these paintings have a surreal vibrancy that is slightly lost on film.

The frames were custom made for each painting. The added detail is superb.

There was a second room filled with non-oil pieces (and a third filled with concept sketches). This one particularly caught my eye:

Stilts and meat costumes…what more does an art opening need?

The wall of inspirational materials was really fun to look at.

There is a terrific post over at Unusual Life (rapidly becoming a favorite site of mine) with lots more photos of the opening.

More pictures from my evening here, including shots of some of my favorite artists of all time.
Fantastic Planet (La Planete Sauvage)

May 7th, 2010

The other day I watched Fantastic Planet (La Planete Sauvage), and I highly recommend it. This 1973 French animation is like the surreal alien lovechild of Dr. Suess and Salvador Dali.

A band of humans — known as Oms — are kept as domesticated pets by an alien race of blue humanoid giants called Traags in director Rene La Loux’s animated sci-fi classic, said to be based on the Soviet occupation of the Czech Republic. The story centers on an Om named Terr, who escapes his subjugation with a Traag learning device and eventually uses it to educate other Oms and incite them to revolt.

It was incredibly interesting to watch a depiction of human beings treated the way we treat our tiny pets (I wish people would be more careful handling little animals!).

I tried to find some good screencaps, but none of these do justice to the fantastical creations in this film.

If you like strange, wonderful things (and old school animation with visual pencil cross hatching!)…see this movie.
Desktop Goodies

May 4th, 2010

Anyone who has kept up with this site probably knows that I am a hoarder of images. So during this mini-break from actual posts (which will resume in a couple of days), I figured I’d just post a few of the random images saved on my desktop at the moment.

This type of image posting could actually be a fun experiment for the rest of the week. Welcome to my brain, folks. Enter at your own risk.
Fernando Herenu

May 2nd, 2010

And while I’m at it, take a look at these pieces from Fernando Herenu.

The black, white and red color palette is always rather compelling due to its intensity. Herenu makes wonderful use of it in these nightmarish chimeras.

See more on his website.
Vintage Robot Gallery

May 2nd, 2010

Okay, okay…I said I was going on a blogging break for the week. But I want to share this collection of vintage robots, recently posted on PopSci.

I like this one because he looks like he’s actually DOING “the robot.”

…and shoots? *blinks in bewilderment*

Because if there’s one thing you want a seven foot metal creature to do…it’s yodel:

They really needed to invent a robot to complete these tasks?

The robot golfer:

From the gallery here.
Please Stand By

May 2nd, 2010

I need to take care of some real world stuff, so I’ll be taking the week off from blogging. However, since some of you may have found this site recently, I’ll see if I can dig up some old posts worth seeing in the meantime.
Voracious Brain

May 1st, 2010

Subversive stitching is all the rage these days, and boy do I love some nice science embroidery!

My favorite in the set:

See more by Voracious Brain on flickr
The Gay 90’s

April 30th, 2010

Okay, I said I’d be back blogging today…but I had a chance to attend Mark Ryden’s Gay 90’s opening reception tonight.

I never have words to describe Ryden’s art because it’s so outrageously amazing. I’m awestruck and inspired. I’m still processing the whole fantastic evening. Pictures this weekend!
The Brain Explained by John Cleese

April 27th, 2010

Many real-life things to do in the next two days. Be back Thursday! In the meantime, enjoy this fantastic explanation of the brain:
Axe Cop

April 25th, 2010

I’ve been meaning to post about Axe Cop for weeks now. This comic is the fantastic result of a 29 year old artist illustrating a story told by his five year old brother.

I sat down one day and read each panel until I had completed the whole series thus far…what an incredible experience. I was laughing out loud, completely immersed in the pure absurdity of childhood imagination. I remembered what it was like to make up those stories as a young child, when nothing was off limits. The warm nostalgia was such a pleasant bonus surprise.

It is impossible to choose panels or captions that adequately express the awesomeness of Axe Cop. You just have to witness the fabulous jumping connections and surreality of the young mind.

You’ll see quotes like:

Bad Santa hurt people’s ears by playing his guitar and the Evil Flying Book bit people in the head.

Nobody lives on the moon. They would die. They live inside it. Right in the middle. Like Earth, it has grass, water, rivers and all animals except circus animals.

Fire Slicer’s magic move was called Fire Dumptruck, which involved scooping bad guys into a truck full of fire.

So they drove their mutant Bug Truck to the beach. After exploding the Mutant Bug Truck, Fire Slicer forced a ninja mechanic to fix the truck, then stabbed him in the brain with his fire sword and took it.

And panels like this…

For more fun, there is a whole Ask Axe Cop section, featuring questions from readers.

This may be my favorite comic of all time.