Surreal Silliness
Dear Snappettes (and Snappers), I do apologise for my long absence these past months – I have been unable to drag myself away from my drawing board and have been shamefully neglecting you my dear readers. Thank you for coming back and being so patient! Now, read on …
After The Lovers :: Tinto // D-Type Plate // No flash Here’s a bit of silliness that still makes me giggle every time I see it. I photographed this smudge on a bathroom door at the theatre where I work part time back in February (and it is still there!).
When I first saw it, it immediately reminded me of Man Ray’s iconic surrealist painting The Lovers, depicting a luscious pair of red lips floating above a landscape. I’m quite sure Man Ray would laugh too.
Observatory Time – The Lovers, by Man Ray (1932-34)
Colour Theory
White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose), 1950Today is the birthday of one of my favourite painters: Mark Rothko. He was born in Latvia in 1903, and died in 1970 in New York City. An abstract expressionist, he is most famous for his enormous colourfield paintings. Rothko says of his work:
‘I realize that historically the function of painting large pictures is painting something very grandiose and pompous. The reason I paint them, however … is precisely because I want to be very intimate and human. To paint a small picture is to place yourself outside your experience, to look upon an experience as a stereopticon view or with a reducing glass. However you paint the larger picture, you are in it. It isn’t something you command!’
No.8, 1952It is so true: one can lose oneself standing before a huge painting. I have seen very few in real life, but I find them mesmerising, hypnotic. They both confront and encourage one to look inward. He says:
‘If you are only moved by color relationships [in my paintings], you are missing the point. I am interested in expressing the big emotions – tragedy, ecstasy, doom.
‘The fact that people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I can communicate those basic human emotions.. the people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when painting them. And if you say you are moved only by their color relationships then you miss the point.’
See all his paintings here.
Words of Wisdom
Australian Madison magazine, 2011. Click image for larger version.When you’re young, you sometimes thing there’s some arrival point where suddenly you’re an older person. But now we know it just keeps unfolding. Getting older – it’s really the greatest gift. And that’s the secret no one tells you.
Here’s an uncommon point of view on ageing from actress Annette Bening, now 53. (I must say she was pretty adorable and gamine when she was young!)
I think for me 30 was the Great Age. I thought that would be when I would know everything, and be the woman I wanted to be. Now that makes me laugh! I’m quite a bit older than that now and know that I can – and must – always strive to be more than I am already, because that is the point of a life well-lived. Go forth and conquer, I say.
Flights of Fancy
Touch the SkyWhat a pleasure to discover a new artist whose work very much appeals to my own aesthetic. Dreamlike and surrealist, fanciful and full of whimsy and strangeness and visual puns, Catrin Welz-Stein beckons one to step into another world of the imagination.
Originally working as a graphic designer in Germany, Welz-Stein now lives in Malaysia and, inspired by her young children, switched to illustration three years ago. She creates her images digitally, collaging old illustrations and photographs, blending them seamlessly into fairytale works of art. Her colour palette is muted and delicately tinted with a dirty edge; the grungy textures add depth and grittiness.
Heaven and EarthIt is no surprise to learn that she is inspired by fantasy, children’s stories, the medieval age, Jugendstil, folklore and Surrealism, and by artists such as Otto Dix, Frida Kahlo, Picasso, Gustav Klimt, Magritte and Botticelli.
Who needs realism after all? There’s plenty of that around to drag us back to earth with a sudden jolt. Float away whenever you have the chance …
For more, visit Welz-Stein’s blog or Red Bubble gallery.
Madonna of the Tree
Sunshine Tattoo
Snow White
Summer Dreaming
A Catalogue of Cute
Cute guys and cute cats. How could you go wrong on such a premise? A friend of mine posted this on Facebook yesterday. At first I thought this was a bit wrong – was it sexist or something? Was it so wrong it was actually right? But the more I scrolled down on this neverending Tumblr (don’t you love it how they do that?) the more I began to giggle. This was actually very funny.
Just imagine searching for matching images every day. I’d be howling with laughter. What a job, but someone’s gotta take the fall for the rest of us.
I could have posted more hilarious pairs, but it’s not my blog. Des Hommes et des Chatons – check it out. I’m even going to add it to my blogroll. Heck, bookmark it and come back often whenever you need a fix of cute … cats. Or whatever.
