ideas : People : stories.
the Human Being stuff
I bet you never look at these chairs or those album covers or any concert where it might be featured the same way again.
I know I won’t.
But also, I just when artists have this sort of dialogue with other artists/historical figures. Not only does it show homage and respect to those people, it heightens their message, their purpose. If only I were smart or cultured enough to catch it on my own.
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-N- Stuff : Movies Without Soundtracks : The Story Behind Soundtracks : Hans Zimmer : Radiohead : Blue Planet
I’ve always enjoyed this story, especially in the classroom because although students tend to pick up pretty quickly the sweet relationship between the tree and the boy, they also feel the pang of selfishness that the boy exudes. “This story is kinda sad,” they say. Or, “He only thinks of himself.” And they’re right. Which leads into the essential question, “What is life all about?”
The discussions that ensue are brilliant.
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Guillaume suggests that you turn off the lights and plug in a pair of decent headphones because if you can get past the strange black bathing suit - and that is a big if - this film is perfectly unsettling.
I can’t decide if a few scenes are a bit doctored up a bit, or if they’re just that spectacular that my mind can’t grasp them. I sent Guillaume a message, asking. If he responds, I’ll let you know.
You can see more of Guillaume Néry’s work on his Youtube channel, but so far, this one is the best.
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-N- Stuff : Art : Inspiration : Short Film
“From a seed to war, from meat to love, from indifference to apocalypse.
An attempt to capture the world in a nutshell” (via).
My wife showed me this guy today. As advertised, it was a “life changing eggsperience!”
This one is my favorite.
You can follow @the_eggshibit for more, and watch his Youtube video to see how it all started. Enjoy!
Also check out:
Smallest Sushi on Earth : Smallest Cup of Coffee : Cracked - art made out of saltine crackers.
If you look closely, you’ll find the characteristic shadows, the armor, the weapons, and the portraits that make Karl’s work his own. And more than that, you’ll find a composition full of many, many moments.
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Love this video.
Its easy to get lost in the art and lose his words, but listen carefully. His process of creating is inspiring, and encouraging.
“I had no idea what this animation would be when I started, and that’s really my big tip. If you’re ever feeling stuck or blank creatively, take a step into the unknown and start doing something . . . until it starts your interest or sparks an idea, and then build on that.”
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-N- Stuff : Inspiration : Art
Banksy also sold one of his most iconic images for 1.4 million. Then, as a prank, the frame shredded the painting. Pretty brilliant, but also, kind of a jerk move.
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-N- Stuff : Art : Documentaries : Banksy
In his work, literature becomes a tool that articulates situations, places and objects where each piece is full of theoretical meanings related to one another.
“Jorge Méndez Blake is a Mexican born artist that draws connections between literature and the visual arts through assemblage, drawing, and environmental interventions” (via).
He is also a man who would rather quote another than create something new, which I find truly intriguing.
Here are three videos by The Nerdwriter, “a weekly video essay series that puts ideas to work.”
I’ve always enjoyed art and wish I could participate, but I’ve also always felt bit distant. Even though I look and stare and draw conclusions, it often seems the art “Won’t give an inch.”
“Boredom is exactly when we feel time and being most acutely. It can inspire a profound mood.”
Also check out Movies inspired by Art, see how The Village stole from The Princess Bride, or more ideas from Nerdwriter1.
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-N- Stuff : Art : Nerdwriter1
I hate em. And I love em.
Volumes is a 4K Full CG art film by Maxim Zhestkov exploring the juxtaposition of emotions with the laws of nature. Billions of colourful particles dance, play and communicate with each other in an eternal hypnotic ballet governed by the invisible forces (via).
Man that is funky to watch, and fun to interpret.
If this is a reenactment of my day, my emotions, what was it? When was it?
It may not align perfectly, but its fun to consider.
You check out more of Zhestkov's films here.
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I just friggen love this video, especially the mirror scene at the 41 second mark, because they're something about artists being inspired by other artists that encourages the hell out of me.
No competition. No jealousy or envy. No stomping on others in order to get ahead, just simple collaboration, inspiration, and creation.
I love that.
Coexist from Michael Marczewski on Vimeo.
"Stock footage clips are placed within computer generated worlds in this series of animations. The two coexisting elements playfully interact. Oh... and there is also a cave full of boobs.
This compilation film features some of my favourite animations from my collaborative Instagram series. See more here: instagram.com/michaelmarczewski" (via).
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I cannot stop staring at this saltine art piece by Kristen Meyer, "a multimedia artist currently residing in New Haven CT with her husband and two daughters." And when I discovered that she had two daughters, it made a bit more sense. It may not be true (and probably isn't), but I'd like to think that her daughters are young, maybe one is three and the other just over a year, and that they both love saltine crackers and milk, constantly asking for more but never really eating all of them or finishing their drink. So every day, after every snack, she's left with a saltine cracker mess to clean and sweep and toss into the garbage.
But not this day. No. Today (or whatever day it was she made this), she put the girls down for their afternoon nap, grabbed the broom, then paused. A few of the crackers were already in place, it just needed to be completed. And she had time.
When it was finished, she stepped back, admired her work, and called it "Cracked."
Then the kids woke up and ate it.
I doubt it happened that way, but no matter. I love the piece. You can see more of her work on her website or on instagram.
I think my daughter would really like hanging out with Kristen Meyer.
Also check out:
Smallest Sushi on Earth : Smallest Cup of Coffee : Art
Enjoy the day!
Kendrick Lamar can now add Politzer Prize winner to his growing laundry list of awards.
Shocked? If so, you're not alone. I was too. Because, I always thought that the Pulitzer Prize was set aside for great writers and poets and journalists? That it was for classical musicians, not rappers.
So I did some looking around and found Eatock Daily, a composer based out of Toronto who shared my thoughts and assumptions. But then, I read these words,
I’ve noticed that some classical types have been careful to sound respectful and inclusive when discussing this issue. Perhaps fearful of being labelled “elitist,” or hoping that just a little bit of hip-hop’s coolness might rub off on them, they praise Damn for its musical craft, sophistication and cultural authenticity, and say supportive things about Lamar’s prize-win (via).
And my "this is bullshit" radar sounded.
Then, when he quoted Norman Lebrecht, who called the decision, “an almighty kick in the teeth of contemporary composition" and added the he, "a classical {himself}" was "alarmed" by this decision because, "Even though the prize has almost always been awarded to a classical composer (with the exception of a few jazz artists) there has never been an official statement of this policy – it was an unwritten tradition", I pushed the panic button, holy shit!
Daily goes on to say that Lamar winning this award is "cultural erosion" and that "only time will tell if Lamar’s prize is a gesture of tokenism, or if the Pulitzers will largely embrace popular musics, and America’s classical composers will find themselves shut out of a prestigious award that used to “belong” to classical music." Damn.
But also, why? Why does the Pulitzer have to belong to classical music? Because of tradition?
What tradition?
Because from what I read, the Pulitzer music prize is awarded “for distinguished musical composition by an American", not tradition.
So why the animosity or frustration?
Probably because Mr. Lamar doesn't fit easily into the image of what many traditional American's consider art, and not only because of how he looks, but because he uses gritty language and raps about a lifestyle and reality many Americans would rather turn away from and ignore.
But if that's the case, why did the staff of Reuters win the Pulitzer for Feature photography? Because their images of "the world to the violence Rohingya refugees faced in fleeing Myanmar" (via) are pretty gritty too.
Rohingya siblings fleeing violence hold one another as they cross the Naf River along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in Palong Khali, near Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh, November 1, 2017. (photo from Pulitzer.org)
Hamida, a Rohingya refugee woman, weeps as she holds her 40-day-old son after he died as their boat capsized before arriving on shore in Shah Porir Dwip, Teknaf, Bangladesh, September 14, 2017. (photo from Pulitzer.org)
Mohammed Shoaib, 7, who was shot in his chest before crossing the border from Myanmar in August, is held by his father outside a medical centre near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, November 5, 2017. (photo from Pulitzer.org)
Why are these stories more valid than Lamar's? Why are these atrocities seen as "shocking" and move our hearts while Lamar's offend?
Why are photographers praised for their voice and style and Lamar criticized and considered a tainting of tradition?
Because he curses? What?
Mr. Daily actually beat me to these questions when he wrote, "It was only a matter of time before someone rhetorically asked, “Hey, wait a minute, if the Pulitzer is for ‘distinguished musical composition by an American,’ why shouldn’t hip-hop be considered?” And it is his answer that I find most troubling. He writes, "the Pulitzer Prize for Music must now be shared among (presumably) all genres of American-made music. And the small and marginalized contemporary classical music world just got a little smaller and more marginal."
Damn. Presumably? Marginalized?
Really?
Kendrick Lamar is unfit for this award because allowing more non-traditional music into the discussion will leave classical musicians feeling marginalized? What about musicians of the past hundred years who were never recognized because they didn't follow "tradition"? Where is their contribution to music and society and mankind's story?
Marginalized?
Because right now, as Mr. Lamar is being celebrated as the first rapper to win the Pulitzer, CEO Kevin Johnson's is trying to salvage the Starbucks image by closing 8,000 stores in May for "racial-bias education day" after two black men were arrested for not buying anything.
Do you know how many times I have sat in Starbucks and not bought a damn thing but just sat and read or wrote or waited for a friend? Not only that, do you know how many of those times I've asked for a free glass of ice water AND used the bathroom? Countless. And never was I questioned, denied, or even remotely suspected of anything other than sitting and doing nothing.
Marginalized? Really?!
This is exactly why it is so important that Mr. Kenrick Lamar won the Pulitzer Price for music, because now traditional America has to take him and rap and all those stories of how the other half live seriously. Because now traditional America can no longer use the argument, "That ain't music" or categorize it as, "black people music" and turn the station and their attention to something more agreeable to their ears. Because now (as it already has been for many years) it is truly part of America's music and a crucial component to America's story.
Damn. by Kendrick Lamar isn't a gesture of tokenism or a kick in the teeth to tradition and for sure it isn't a cultural erosion. It's progression in American storytelling, in American poetry, and in American voice. It's a piece of distinguished musical composition written by an American and recognized as "a virtuosic song collection unified by its vernacular authenticity and rhythmic dynamism that offers affecting vignettes capturing the complexity of modern African-American life" (via). And Kendrick Lamar deserves an applause, not a patronizing pat on the back.
"Pulitzer was the most skillful of newspaper publishers, a passionate crusader against dishonest government, a fierce, hawk-like competitor who did not shrink from sensationalism in circulation struggles, and a visionary who richly endowed his profession." And whether Mr. Daily or traditional America likes it or not, so is Kendrick Lamar.
Hot Damn.
You can listen to the full album on Spotify.
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"Art isn't created just to please our eyes; it also transfers ideas and provokes thought. Austrian cartoonist Gerhard Haderer has been producing satirical illustrations for decades now, highlighting why today's society is nowhere near perfect" (via).
I really appreciated these illustrations by Gerard Haderer because although some were a bit funny, some were also desperately on point.
As a collection (of which you can see more here), I quickly noticed a running theme of greed, distraction, and altered reality. All of which, at any given time, are exactly what my heart and mind wrestle with. Which is why, I think, I connected with these images. Because they illustrate the absurdity of what my mind can easily mask and camoflage.
