Ursula Kirchner — like Lotte Reiniger Silhouette Films — did amazing work in black and white detailed paper cut illustrations. These beauties are from Märchen, edited by Karlhans Frank, published by the Goethe-Institute in 1985. I love this style — it’s so dramatic, so filled with energy. I also think the way it’s constructed from […]
Ursula Kirchner: Fairy Tale Paper Cuts Read More »
The internet has been very good to me lately. I think it’s an electronic version of Hades where in the ancient world the living, depressed and uncertain, could slip down to it’s muddy banks to search for help among the shades of their ancestors. Just so it seems in a personally difficult year, I have
Pierre Ménager: A Portfolio of Six Block Prints of Old New Orleans Characters Read More »
I was quite astonished to see this wonderful mythic and western art of Javier Pinon — the unusual combination of cowboys and Greek myths. This is a collage of Icarus Falling — and it struck me so much because it bears an eerie resemblance to a passage of transformation that I wrote years ago in
Falling From the Sky And The Art of Javier Pinon Read More »
"Do you have any books the faculty doesn't particularly recommend? Flannery O'Connor's commonsense advice on the practice of making writing a habit: "I'm a full-time believer in writing habits, pedestrian as it all may sound. You may be able to do without them if you have genius but most of us only have talent and
Flannery O’Connor: Writing Habits Read More »
"6. After searching for entire nights without knowing it, beyond sleep, beyond exhaustion, having traveled forests of lucid insomnia, you will reach a great deserted clearing where, holding your breath, your ear against the ground, you can hear the very heartbeat of silence. Then, as you rise, you will realize that you are surrounded by
Fernand Dumont: Treaties on Fairies Read More »
"Beauty now for ashes wear, Perfumes for the garb of woe. Chaplets for dishevelled hair, Dances for sad footsteps slow; Open wide your hearts that they Let in joy this Easter Day." —"Easter," by Gerald Manley Hopkins "Maiden in Contemplation," painted by Gaston La Touche, 1854–1913
Happy Easter and A Beautiful Spring to You All Read More »
Illustration Art has a gorgeous post on the life of Russian artist, Zinaida Serebriakova, whose life spanned a revolution, and two world wars. Under incredibly difficult circumstances, she continued to paint, work as an illustrator, care for her children, and paint at regular intervals self portraits. Her work is lovely — and her self portraits
A Woman’s History in Self Portraits. Read More »
Here are some of the cartoons from 1950’s artist Virgil Partch‘s book Wild Wild Women. These hilarious, whimsical and wonderfully naughty cartoons remind me of an edgier James Thurber. The ASIFA- Hollwood says this about Virgil’s work: “Throughout the 50s, he published small collections of his cartoons, grouped by themes. “Bottle Fatigue” dealt with
Virgil Partch’s Wild, Wild Women Read More »
Oaxacan artist, Fernando Olivera, is perhaps better known in this country for his magnificent work in color — vibrant paintings that depict a magic realist Mexico — but I also love his smaller black and white etchings which are equally magical. I am determined this year to purchase one or two for the new house
Por Unos Ojos Negros Read More »
Actor John Turturro has acquired the rights to create a filmed version of Italo Calvino's Italian Folktales (perhaps my all time favorite fairy tale collection). Last year, Turturro tested the waters so to speak with a new play "Fiable Italiano" adapted from Calvino's collection. It was performed before sold out audiences in Turin, Naples and
John Turturro And Italo Calvino: Italian Folktales On The Stage And On Film Read More »
