Freckles

freckles make me smile

Chocolate Covered Beetle Art Car

A chocolate-coated car was placed in front of a supermarket in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China, on Valentine's Day. This eye catching car was the work of seven employees from a local car company. The car was wrapped in a plastic wrap before being painted with melted chocolate. A total of 200 kg of chocolate was used in its making.

Article from Spluch

Facebook graffiti doodles

Graffiti on facebook is kinda like a flash-based version of msPaint, but it's one of the few cool apps there, far as i'm concerned :P the replay feature is great too. you can view my graffiti replays here.

THE AGONY OF TANTALUS

If Beethoven had gone deaf all at once, he might not have developed into Beethoven. He might simply have adapted to the loss, as many others have.

But Beethoven's hearing gradually slipped away over 25 years, coming and going unpredictably. It faded tantalizingly in and out of reach as he was trying to realize his artistic visions. This slow torture caused him daily anguish. He could never be certain whether he would be capable of conducting a concert. Worse, he never knew which precious sound would be his last.

Beethoven didn't dare tell the world about his disability but he wrote of his despair in a private testament, agonizing that when other people heard a sound,

I heard nothing... such incidents brought me to the verge of despair.... I would have put an end to my life -- only... it seemed impossible to leave the world until I had produced all that I felt called upon me to produce, and so I endured this wretched existence.

Historians such as Robert Greenberg and Maynard Solomon believe Beethoven was able to reach new heights because of the spiritual and physical isolation he suffered during his prolonged struggle with his hearing. Perhaps his seclusion from the sounds of the world freed him from convention and allowed him to create new musical forms.

Beethoven's tragic burden is an example of what Peter Viereck calls "the weight that tortures diamonds out of coal."

Which brings us to the artist Degas.

Degas started out as a meticulous craftsman, carefully trained in traditional drawing and painting methods.





However, he suffered from increasingly poor vision his entire adult life. As John Updike reported, "by his forties he was virtually blind in his right eye; and by the 1890s he periodically donned corrective spectacles blacked out except for a small slit in the left lens."

Over the years as his eyesight dimmed, Degas developed a looser, more energetic style:







He lived in dread of his oncoming blindness, but as the artist David Levine noted,

It didn’t stop Degas.... He went on to change his way of seeing. He just moved into a rhythm of color and bigger generalities in the way he saw things like hands or faces.

Just as with Beethoven, some of Degas' most beautiful work resulted from his enormous talent twisting and turning to escape being smothered by the artist's physical disability:




Green Landscape


Wooded Landscape

Tantalus was the character from Greek mythology who stole ambrosia from Zeus' table and brought it back to his people, revealing the secrets of the gods.

His punishment was terrible: he spent eternity in a pool of water beneath a bountiful fruit tree. But whenever he reached for the fruit, the branches raised above his grasp. Whenever he bent down to try to drink, the water receded. (We get the word "tantalize" from poor Tantalus.) And while all that food and drink hovered beyond his reach, the gods placed a threatening boulder over his head.

The price of ambrosia comes high.

THE SIMPLER SIDE OF WILLY POGANY

Many people say that the illustrator Willy Pogany (1882-1955) reached the pinnacle of his career with a series of lavish, ornate books including The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1910), Tannhauser (1911), Parsifal (1912) and Lohengrin (1913). These books feature spectacular gilt designs on sumptuous leather bindings, elaborate borders on each page, and illuminated initials with hand calligraphed text.



Personally, I find them exhausting.

I don't think Pogany started getting interesting as an artist until he shed all the regal trappings and learned to simplify.







Left alone with just a line and a blank page, Pogany began to produce work of enduring value. Each line becomes more important when you don't have fancy textured paper and intricate borders to rescue (or obscure) the quality of your work.



Here are a few scans of Pogany's original drawings so you can see his line up close:





Even his small, "simple" drawings weren't that simple.



Surrounding a picture with fancy borders can enhance its appearance, but only to a limited extent. Ultimately, the picture pays a heavy price for that boost; it is harder for a picture to achieve greatness when encumbered with ornamentation. One of the most important things for an artist is knowing when to stop.

Car Flipping Art Cars

April in UK means that the British Rollover Championships is going on full "tilt". This video is hilarious and when I saw it I knew it would make the art car central "hall of hillarity" (and I am not talking about any presidential candidate in particular) The cars are painted somewhat artistically therefore I think they be included here.

"Tapigami" Masking Tape Cityscape by Artist Danny Scheible

Danny Scheible is the amazing "Tapigami" artist who created an entire city scape using regular masking and painter's tape. I met Danny at Art Car Fest 06 in Berkeley CA, where he came to visit all the cars and was gracious enough to make and give out small versions of what he does. We talked for a while and during that time he created a small city scape that I have in an old 100 CD plastic container to protect it from dust. There is not a lot of mention of him on the net but since we drive art cars through cities, I figured it would be OK to write about him on art car central. Maybe he can do a city scape inside a car!!! Danny you rock and you have inspired me with your art.

from this..

To this!!!!!





and the video