The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters

Francisco Goya, El sueño de la razon produce monstruos, 1799.

Los Caprichos, the collection from which this comes, is extremely disturbing and this is the only etching I can look at. It also has the best title.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi

The Round Tower, ca. 1761
Title Page for Prisons, ca. 1761

Piranesi etched some amazing views of Rome that are incredibly detailed and huge, but I couldn't find reproductions of them. His drawings of "Imaginary Prisons" are just as good. What fantastic, ominous visions he had.

Row well and live

Row well and live, originally uploaded by vidalia_11.

R.I.P. Charlton Heston. I only learned today that he was very liberal in the 1960s. He was also extremely witty. Thanks for the memories, Charlton.

Piero della Francesca

Ideal City, ca. 1470.
della Francesca was obsessed with studying perspective, and this is a beautiful example of his obsession.

Carafa Chapel (1489-91)

The frescoes were painted by Filippino Lippi. They're located in the church Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome. Wouldn't it be fantastic to attend services in a church with gorgeous frescoes on every wall?

Wassily Kandinsky (1886-1944)

Kandinsky is very cool. I just realized it and now appreciate him.
Yellow, Red, Blue (1925)
Composition VIII (1923)

Give Us The Teachings of His Majesty

For we no want no devil philosophy.

Bob Marley (1945-1981)

Vittore Carpaccio (1450-1525)

The Dead Christ (1520)
Portrait of a Knight (1510)

Gustave Moreau (see previous post) was influenced by this Venetian Renaissance artist, and made copies of Carpaccio's paintings when visiting Italy. Carpaccio is a precursor of the Venetian style. His paintings are incredibly detailed and some of the details are pretty strange. I didn't include a painting of St. George Killing the Dragon because all the corpses and body parts lying on the ground were too disturbing! The Dead Christ has similar gruesome aspects but it's not quite as scary. To me, it almost looks like Dali painted it.

Gustave Moreau

Hesiod and the Muse (1891) Musee d'Orsay

I picked up a small book at the library on Gustave Moreau and realized that his paintings are gorgeous. I'd always thought they were too complicated and impressionistic, but I was confusing him with Redon. The paintings are exquisitely detailed. He worked extremely hard on his art, making many preliminary drawings and sketches. As a young man, he went to Italy and copied many famous artworks there. People wanted to buy them, but he kept them as reference materials.

Great master drawings

I want to draw, but have already lowered my sights to sketching. It got me interested in the drawings of the great masters. This is a study of the Madonna's draperies by Leonardo da Vinci.

African dwarf frogs

Photo © Johnny Jensen, Johnny Jensen's Photographic Library.

I just lurv these adorable little frogs. I used to have some. You can't believe how funny and cute they are. I hand fed them some frozen fish food. They also love to eat brine shrimp.
JJ's Photographic Library

Maksim Mrvica

I was browsing around YouTube when I came across this rather gorgeous young pianist. He was playing a Chopin piece in a disco like theater, dressed in punkish attire. He played so beautifully. I saw some of his other videos, they're all good. When he played, he sometimes looked up to the ceiling in a mystical way. I really liked that.

A Greeting for the New Year

A Greeting for the New Year, originally uploaded by lake.sider.

A lot has happened since my last post. I'll try to be less neglectful of my blog! 2008 is going to be great. Happy New Year, everybody!

Freshwater stingrays

People have these as pets in their aquarium. They are the cutest things ever.

Scientists Find Oldest Living Animal, Then Kill It

From www.foxnews.com:

British marine biologists have found what may be the oldest living animal — that is, until they killed it.

The team from Bangor University in Wales was dredging the waters north of Iceland as part of routine research when the unfortunate specimen, belonging to the clam species Arctica islandica, commonly known as the ocean quahog, was hauled up from waters 250 feet deep.

Only after researchers cut through its shell, which made it more of an ex-clam, and counted its growth rings did they realize how old it had been — between 405 and 410 years old.

Another clam of the same species had been verified at 220 years old, and a third may have lived 374 years. But this most recent clam was the oldest yet.

"Its death is an unfortunate aspect of this work, but we hope to derive lots of information from it," postdoctoral scientist Al Wanamaker told London's Guardian newspaper. "For our work, it's a bonus, but it wasn't good for this particular animal."

Age

This angelic, Botticellian person turned into someone who looks 110. This is a flattering photo of him. But so what - Bob Dylan is the greatest.

Bottom photo is AP, Bob Dylan at Jazz Fest 2006 in New Orleans.

That's Church

I don't know if you've ever been to a black church. It's pretty exciting and emotional. I used to go to one all the time, when I lived near Richmond, CA. If you go to about the middle of the video, people are shouting and getting the holy ghost.

Photo by Peter Helms Feresten, Altar Call, Truth Tabernacle, Fort Worth, TX, 1978.

http://www.afterimagegallery.com/ferestenaltarcall.htm

Franz Liszt

Portrait of Franz Liszt painted by Henri Lehmann in 1839.

Franz Liszt had an incredible life, spanning much of the 19th century. He was the equivalent of a rock star in his youth, when he traveled through Europe giving piano recitals. Liszt had a brilliant, charismatic personality, and yet he was a charming and nice man: a true romantic. There is too much to say about him, so I highly recommend the biography by Alan Walker. It is three volumes, but they are page-turners.

Memory, 1870 by Elihu Vedder

Memory, 1870, originally uploaded by vidalia_11.

This is a small painting at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. I have seen it a few times, and it's quite mesmerizing.

New sea life discovered

These cuties were discovered in the Southern Philippines. The fish and the squid are only about 1 centimeter long.