It has been said that for maximum impact, an artist needs only to juxtapose two contrasting things.
The phenomenal painter Mark Ryden does this spectacularly, by reaching into the viewer’s mind for familiar images of innocence and then placing them in an unsettling context.
The children in his creations seem to be continually challenged by a dark presence to which they either react, or more disturbing still, act normal around…
The original versions of most fairy tales were very dark and violent, a far cry from the syrupy banalities of a Disney cartoon or the slick dialogue of the latest computer generated smartass. Ryden’s technique somehow taps into this older fairy-tale realm and by combining it with the familiar, heightens the final effect:
Vintage Sesame Street
How do such creepy skits get made for children’s shows? Was it just that back then in the 70’s and 80’s creepy was considered normal or humorous? The first Sesame Street video is a case in point:
“Bride of Frankenstein”
It is a creepy enough premise that a purple skinned muppet is so desperate for love that he will create it Pygmalion style, woo it, (and perhaps later, force himself upon it), but the skit only gets worse. The creature he assembles is not even good looking by muppet standards! And when the creator is spurned, he actually disassembles the object of his affection by ripping off her/its face! The denuded head, having enough, stalks off and the creator is left to fend off the advances of a piece of cloth! Utter madness I say. Would you let your 5 year old kid watch this? I’m in my twenties, and even I think I’ll be having nightmares from this one!
Music is one of the most intimately human forms of self-expression. Many people spend years of their lives creating and sustaining a very unique taste in music that they argue defines who they are. Daniel J. Levitin, in his new book argues for a somewhat different paradigm. Humans as a species have ingrained six basic forms of music into their identity which, over thousands of years, have shaped human nature side by side with evolution. These six kinds of songs concern: friendship, joy, comfort, knowledge, religion, and love. Suddenly it’s as if one’s taste in music is simply a variation on the larger human concert.
In his first book, the New York Times bestseller This is Your Brain on Music, Levitin explored the fascinating intersection of neuroscience and music. This book was a primer on the ways in which music and the human brain interact, bringing together a large amount of cutting edge research, much of which Levitin was himself involved in. (more…)
Ansel Adams once said:
“Some photographers take reality…and impose the domination of their own thought and spirit. Others come before reality more tenderly and a photograph to them is an instrument of love and revelation.”
Andrzej Dragan certainly falls into this latter category of photographers. The quantum physicist and professor clearly has the soul of an artist and his photo-treatments give the viewer much added insight.
Some of his most amazing creations show famous figures who died young and how they would have looked in old age.
Marilyn Monroe
The term ’salaryman’ refers to a (usually Japanese) businessman who must work long hours for a corporation, often giving up his youthful dreams of induviduality.
The average salaryman has a depressingly predictable schedule. Every morning he knots his silken noose, jostles his way through a packed subway car and finally arrives at his nondescript office–where he must literally and figuratively bow to his superiors.
Artist Momoyo Torimitsu created a life sized salaryman to draw attention to this depressing part of Japanese business culture. The robot crawls along, cowed but not defeated, toward a goal that only he can guess at. He is sustained by nothing but his willpower and an occasional battery inserted into his buttocks.
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