Show & Tell: 10.2

 There are lots of books about psychedelic art, but a recent one called The Electrical Banana is a favorite of mine because it's one of the few who recognized Marijke Koger as being a monumental influence upon the style of the time. She was a founding member and creative director of the Dutch design collective known as The Fool, a group who made a huge splash in the British music scene in the late1960s. With Koger at the helm, they designed numerous album covers, worked with the Beatles to design and decorate their London Apple Boutique, designed and manufactured outrageous clothes for all the then-famous rock wives, painted murals and musical instruments for George Harrison and John Lennon, and somehow found time to record their own musical endeavors. Although much of the photography that documents these works makes Koger and her peers look as though they were leading opulent, affluent, and lavish lives, they worked extremely hard and for very little money. Koger in particular was extremely prolific at that time, and I think of her as being an unsung hero in the lexicon of psychedelic visual innovators. She admits to doing a fair amount of drugs in her youth and attributes the seemingly endless array of rainbows in her work to the effects of LSD. Although I don't feel a burning desire to experiment with hallucinogens, I would love to have a better understanding of the things that influenced her visual sensibility.  I also want desperately to raid her closet, but that's neither here nor there....

Chimera Cat

This is Venus, and she's what's known as a chimera cat. 

In her mother's uterus, this cat started out as a set of twins, and then the cells fused together to create a single animal with two entirely different genetic profiles. She's not a calico, with several fur patterns randomly appearing in her fur, but her face is literally split straight down the middle, one green eye, one blue. She is, in essence, her own fraternal twin.

A Chimera is a mythological beast, a mish-mash of several different animals. Obviously, Venus is all cat, but I can understand how the term applies. I heard a veterinarian once say that Mother Nature doesn't like straight lines, but apparently that's not always the case.

Show & Tell 10.0: Universal Inspiration

I spent 2 hours looking at this on Wednesday instead of finishing my draft on time:

Scale Of The Universe 2

This is a to-scale representation of of items in the universe, ranging from sub-atomic particles, to the estimated size of the universe.

When I feel overwhelmed by life, this helps put things in perspective.

Show & Tell 9.0: I don't think we're in Oslo anymore, Toto

What is it that makes metal Black Metal? One much-argued-upon criterion is that it must be Norwegian, but there are now many American Black Metal bands who would care to disagree.

In a purely sonic sense, the general stipulations for Black Metal (as opposed to Thrash, Death, Speed, Grindcore, Doom, etc.) include distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, fast tempos with blast beat drumming, shrieked or growled vocals, and raw or lo-fi recording styles. Even with this set of standards in mind, there is an awful lot of room for diversity among musical styles. This is perhaps why the point of origin becomes important.

Although it grew out of an eclectic European mix of Thrash Metal bands (Venom from England, Bathory from Sweden, and Celtic Frost from Switzerland), the so-called second wave of Black Metal was comprised almost exclusively of Norwegian artists. This coterie of bands was a tight one which championed exclusivity, elitism, and (in more than one unfortunate case) Nationalism to the point of Fascism.

Given this, it shouldn't be a surprise that many a true Norwegian Black Metal fan has a difficult time swallowing the idea of a Black Metal movement in the United States. When American metals bands first began borrowing the term, the backlash was immediate and the refrain simple: "They're all a bunch of Copycats." Accusations of musical thievery were rampant, and even the most eloquent nay-sayers could do little more than argue that Norwegian Black Metal was just somehow "More authentic sounding."

Despite the theory that US musicians just don't have the elusive "je ne sais quoi" to make it happen, there are more than a handful of Americans getting it done. Here are two groups whose music I enjoy: Lurker of Chalice, an obscure and now defunct San Francisco group; and Liturgy, originally just Hunter Hunt-Hendrix and now a 4 piece from Brooklyn, NY. Check out the music below:

Lurker of Chalice



Liturgy

See Jane get pissed....

I just read Stephanie's blog entry from yesterday, and it inspired me to post a famous campaign that always made me furious. Anybody remember this anti-aids/pro-condom advert from the late 1980s?:

I'm sure the Grandma in Stephanie's Fox News story would take exception with the term "dick," but that's not my issue with this campaign. I first saw it when I was in high school on a field trip to Washington D.C. I'm pretty sure we were in Georgetown at a funky shop called Commander Salamander (now unfortunately closed) when I saw this poster on the wall, and it immediately filled me with ire.

Created by the generally forward-thinking Global Protection Corp, this supposedly humorous ad intends to encourage safe heterosexual sex by borrowing the most ubiquitous children's book couple on the planet.  The only problem is that "Jane" is conspicuously missing from the picture. Instead, we have an utterly dehumanized "fox" . . . she has no name, no agency, no personhood, and no narrative purpose other than to be a disease carrying vector and the cause of poor Dick's untimely demise. I was all of 15 when I saw this, and I remember thinking, how is it that a simple stick drawing could make me feel so utterly alienated?

Disappointing on so many levels..... I'd like to get all the "foxes" of the world to unite and launch their own anti-dick campaign. If anyone has any ideas for copy or stick drawings they'd like to share, please do so below.

Show & Tell 8.0: An Exquisite Corpse

Participants in different musical subcultures usually have a distinctive style, and the more underground the culture the more far-out the uniform. In the beginning (late 1980s), Norwegian Black Metal was not about clothes, props, or make-up, but now the image of a long-haired barbarian in leather, spikes, and corpse paint is inextricably linked to the genre.

I imagine the way this came to be is similar to the time Marc Bolan of T. Rex impulsively put glitter on his face before a TV appearance. Soon after that night, everyone was doing it, and the aesthetic of Ziggy Stardust, Gary Glitter, Queen, Slade, and countless others gave shape to what became known as Glam Rock.

I'm certain a story like this exists with Black Metal, but with decidedly less light-hearted results (see below). This narrative, along with some other bigger and more important ones, will be the subject of my project 7. Stay tuned for more Mayhem.....

Darkthrone via

Gaahl from Gorgoroth via

Emperor via

Burzum via

Immortal via

A horse is a horse, of course of course.....

... unless it's a collection of kitchen utensils, that is.

I've always loved horses, and they've appeared in my art for as long as I can remember--crayon scribbles on construction paper to a multi-canvased painting thesis at MICA. Naturally, I have always been a great appreciator of equine art, so I was truly tickled to come across this last week:

While searching for alternative uses for household items (yes, I Googled it . . . out of sheer desperation), I uncovered this article on epundit about a Japanese-American sculptor, Sakaya Ganz. Because she could not bear to throw away depleted household items (she was worried they'd be sad and weep in the trash), Ganz began turning them into a menagerie of three dimensional work. Besides being ecologically responsible, these sculptures are also incredibly beautiful. The Brave Little Toaster would be so proud!

Show & tell 7.0: I'll tell a tale to you

The first fairy tales I ever heard came from an anthology of LPs popular in the 1970s, Let's Pretend: 1 LP, 2 stories (one on side A, one on side B). Although the stories are traditional, the series was re-adapted from a children's radio show created by Nila Mack that aired in the late 1920s through the mid 1950s. My memories of these stories have a strong visual element that no radio broadcast could ever convey. Of course, a story-telling album endeavors to inspire children to use their imagination and picture things for themselves; but the artwork on these record covers is so extraordinary that it informed not only my ideas of the faces and places of these classic fables, it also informed my most basic understanding of form, line, movement, silhouette and color. The artwork for the entire series of 25 records was created by David Chestnutt (a mysterious fellow, though I think his more recent work can be found here). The style is quintessentially psychedelic, calling upon conventions that had already been established by the artists of the Fillmore and Family Dog Productions in California, Push Pin Studios in New York, and the Beatles-associated Dutch design collective helmed by Marijke Koger known as The Fool. Even though these came into my consciousness when I was very young, these illustrations are the center of my grown-up visual ethos .... and that's about the biggest compliment I can muster.

Death Waltzes in...

Let The Right One In by Candace Tripp

In honor of Halloween (or Samhain, if you prefer), I'd like to showcase another record label whose art and design I admire: Death Waltz Recording Company. This UK-based label specializes in reissuing original soundtracks from horror films, some as recent as Let The Right One In (2008)  and as vintage as Zombi (1979).

 Death Waltz is a new enterprise, so they only have a handful of releases available. Despite their youth, the label has already reached cult status; this is in part because the film scores they release come from more-or-less underground horror movies, but it's also because they have managed to gather a roster of top-notch artists to render the covers. The series initially possessed a visual unity by framing each image in blue and black, but the 2 most recent releases, Halloween 2 and Halloween 3, depart from that convention (but still look great). Many of these releases are already out of print, so if this stuff looks good to you, you'd better hop to it!

Zombi by Graham Humphreys

Donnie Darko by Tom French

The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue by Luke Insect

Prince of Darkness by Sam Smith

Halloween II by Brandon Schaefer

Halloween III by Jay Shaw

This Hue's for You!: 3 color palette resources

In case it isn't obvious, I am not afraid of color. This has been a point of consternation for more than one of my professors here at UB (present company excluded), but I just can't help myself! Bold colors make me so very happy!!!

In scenarios where it's appropriate to work with a fairly wide palette of colors, I find the most unified-looking color combinations are ones which purposefully exclude at least one primary and one secondary hue and their surrounding tertiaries. For example, try reds, purples, and blues, add some orange and teal accents, but exclude yellow and green and everything in between.

You can experiment with this and many more ideas at the ColourLovers website. It's a great resource for all things RGB/hexadecimal, plus you can author and store your own palettes and patterns there.

When a design calls for chromatic simplicity, I often have a hard time paring things down. That's when I turn to the Color Scheme Designer for help.

Click anywhere on the giant color wheel, choose one of the palette dials at the top on the left, and then you will get results that pivot around as many as 4 hues (tetrad), or as few as a single hue (mono). The new and improved CSD 3.0 is especially awesome because you can play with your palette in the following ways: adjust saturation and contrast; get detailed hexadecimal information on every color you see; preview how black, grey, or white text will read on top of each color; and even see your color scheme at work in sample "light" and "dark" page layouts. It's super handy!

Finally, Have you ever seen a shirt, a painting, a rug, a room, a garden, a building, or even whole landscape or street scene where all the colors seemed to be working in a pleasing way? Next time it happens, break out your camera phone, snap a picture, and upload your image to Color Hunter. This nifty site creates palettes for you by pulling colors out of your image. They have created a palette database by selecting images from flikr, and you can search for color schemes using keywords or hexadecimal codes. If you sign up, you can also save a library of favorites. Unfortunately, you CAN'T save your own palette creations, but you can always take a screen shot or jot down the codes for future reference. Below is a palette I made from a photo I took of the most beautiful place I've ever seen: A protected (and deserted) beach that's part of the Sian Ka'an biosphere near Tulum, Mexico:

One Lonely Drop

I have passed by the below poster everyday on the way home from our class for the last 7 weeks, and today I finally decided to post about it. As I've been working on our 4th project and searching my mind for visual reference points, my mind keeps coming back to this Popsicle.

I like the way the type hierarchy is handled, and I think the size and simplicity of the graphic is also part of its appeal. That Popsicle silhouette is instantly identifiable, and the colors are bold and attention grabbing. I also like the appropriate use of gradients and shadows to give the object volume and the poster itself depth.

Most importantly, there is one small detail upon which this poster's success hinges: the single falling drop. It's A) a nice visual reminder that the presented statistic pertains not to a faceless mass but to a group of individuals, and B) it's a surrogate for the implied subject of this whole campaign (not actually pictured in any of these posters)--the vulnerable child. The associations my mind makes are immediate and clear: I see a suspended drop, separated from the larger whole and being pulled in slow motion to the solid inevitability of the ground. It makes me think, naturally, of a car accident .... also happening in slow motion, and a child flying through the air. When I take a moment to think, it really seems amazing that such a deceptively simple graphic can pack so much behind it. This, of course, is just my interpretation of it. Perhaps others see nothing more than a dripping strawberry ice cream.

Below are some of the other posters from the campaign. While I really like all the graphics and  layouts from a design point of view, I think the above is the only one that manages to convey both humanness and the necessary gravitas.  In its subtle way, the poster points to the threat of tragedy upon which any child safety campaign must float.

images courtesy www.safecar.gov