One man's visual art, largely consisting of digital manipulations of images, taken from (1) my own photographs/videos, (2) downloaded from the Public Domain, or (3) utilized under the Fair Use provision of copyright law.
Although I have been interested in art and graphic design all my life, I only began working seriously after I retired in 2010.
In October, 2017, I changed artistic direction from still images to animation and video. This new direction was a time-consuming artistic discipline, with a steep learning curve, and many more variables.
My images are strongly influenced by the optical textures I see when I close my eyes and by what I see when I dream. They are also influenced by the hallucinatory visions I saw under the influence of anaesthesia following open heart surgery.
I often use commercial art, illustration, and typography as a source of ideas.
For maximum effect with my animations, click on the four-sided [] icon in the control bar, which should size the image to fit your screen. For my still images, click repeatedly on the image until it is full-size, which may be larger than your computer screen.
SHERLOCK HOLMES' SOUL MATE (3:02)
NA
SOURCE:
na
December 21, 2019NEW CLOSING PANEL (0:11)
Experimenting with new closing shot for 2020. Video in background (Link1) shows New Zealand high school performing a Maori war dance in 2015. Not sure whether this will make it as my closing panel next year: it's kind of noisy and aggressive, and at 11 seconds, it's too long.
But as I near my 75th birthday and my young man's swagger disappears, my testosterone levels dip, and I am pressured in social media to lose my cis* binary mindset, I feel kind of mad and heedless. Also: impeachment.
* CIS: Short for "cisgender" (opposite of "transgender"), used to describe someone whose gender identity matches their anatomical gender at birth. SOURCE:
December 20, 2019ABSTRACTION IN LAVA AND LIVING THINGS (2:05)
More impressionistic. Not satisfied with titles, either first shot in video ("Volcanic Lava under Three Selected Images"), changed to translation of Latin song title.
SOURCE:
VIDEO: Hawaiian lava flow 2015 from National Geographic (Link1)
MUSIC: "Preludio sopra Ecce advenit" 2019 organ composition by Italian Carlotta Ferrari (Link2)
IMAGE1: Photo of Mongolian woman from 1926 "On The Trail Of Ancient Man: The Central Asiatic Expeditions" (Link3)
IMAGE2: Picture page from 1920 "Toronto Sunday World," headlined 'Another Group of This Season's Beautiful Toronto Debutantes' (Link4)
IMAGE3: Drawing of trees from cover of Environmental Impact Report for Santa Clara County, California (Link5)
Link1: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hyE2NO7HnU
Link2: imslp.org/wiki/Preludio_sopra_Ecce_advenit_(Ferrari,_Carlotta)#IMSLP601552; Permlink: imslp.org/wiki/Special:ReverseLookup/601552
Link3: archive.org/details/onthetrailofancientmananarrativeofthefieldworkthecentralasiaticexpeditions/page/n103
Link4: archive.org/details/tosundayworld08Feb1920
Link5: archive.org/details/csjvwd_000450
December 20, 2019TRAGIC K-POP FIGURE'S LAST MESSAGE (3:20)
Goo Hara was a Korean Pop (K-Pop) singer and dancer who committed suicide last month. She was 28 years old, a 90-pound worth $10 million dollars and savagely misused in love -- her boyfriend attempted to sell explicit photos to the press and went to jail for three years.
Most K-Pop music has seemed to me like American bubble-gum music (like "Secret Love" in the middle of this video), but I came to be fond of the mellow romantic songs that she was listening to in the first and last piece of the video.
SOURCE:
VIDEO: Excerpts from Goo Hara's last Instagram recorded in her Seoul apartment on Nov. 24, 2019 (Link1)
MUSIC: Excerpt from Goo Hara's 2012 hit "Secret Love" (in midsection of Video) (Link2)
IMAGE (Background): Map from 1929 "The Canadian School Atlas" (Link3)
Link1: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA0uXyojUzM
Link2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzSdZy3yBMQ
Link3: archive.org/details/canadianschoolatlas
December 17, 2019TRAIN WRECK TEST (0:35)
A deliberate train wreck, done in 1984 to test whether a nuclear waste container could survive extreme condition. The container "flask" is the yellow metal box that the train plows into.
SOURCE:
VIDEO 1: Sequence from "Crash Test - 5 Largest Full Scale Experiments Caught on Camera" 2019 compilation by Dark5TV (Link1) It was a test of a container for nuclear waste described herein.
VIDEO 2 (Underlying): Alife art by by Scott Draves and the Electric Sheep, 2019 "electricsheep-flock-247-32500-3" (Link2)
IMAGE1 (Underlying): Illustration of Typhoid in diarrhea specimens from 1923 "Diseases of the rectum, anus, and colon" (Link3)
MUSIC: Excerpt from "Rebond" on 2019 album 'Tierce Opacité' by French improvisational due Half Evidence (Link4)
Link1: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1alckrpkD6k
Link2: archive.org/details/electricsheep-flock-247-32500-3
Link3: archive.org/details/39730450RX3.nlm.nih.gov
Link4: archive.org/details/eg0_222
December 15, 2019
Political Thoughts
Recommended reading: An article by Umair Haque, This is How a Society Dies:
America and Britain are Textbook Examples of a New, Gruesome Phenomeon: Rich Nations Self-Destructing Into Poor Failed States, which expresses my sense of political despair with the world today -- America is in hell with Donald Trump, even worse after equally execrable Boris Johnson's victory in once-great England. Europe and NATO breaking up, and I suspect UK will break up eventually. Imagining a world in which the two English-speaking nations -- US and UK -- are humbled, who becomes top dog? I've been watching Russia with my bibliographic webpage Russia Sources, and just tonight added a new China Sources page. (These links are located at the upper right of my web page.)
OLD-TIME CAR CHASE (2:15)
I especially like the hand-cranked siren in the police car.
SOURCE:
VIDEO: Car chase scene from 1935 movie "Midnight Phantom" by Bernard B. Ray (Link1)
IMAGE1: 1935 Movie poster (Link2)
IMAGE2: Illustration of ancient farming practices from 1965 Time-Life "Great Ages Of Man: Imperial Rome" (Link3)
MUSIC: 2019 Organ composition "Pastorale sopra Ad te Domine levavi`" by Carlotta Ferrari (Link4)
SOUND EFFECT: 1996 "Hanna-Barbera Lost Treasures Sound Effects Library" (Link5)
Link1: archive.org/details/midnight_phantom_1935
Link2: www.imdb.com/title/tt0026711/
Link3: archive.org/details/greatagesofmanimperialrome1965moseshadas
Link4: imslp.org/wiki/Special:ReverseLookup/600133
Link5: archive.org/details/HB05SFX
December 11, 2019ENTRY FOR FEBRUARY SHOW
May be entry for Plastic Club exhibition in February on theme of "Close Up." Will have to start getting ready for year-to-year transfer from 2019 to 2020: a laborious and error-prone file transfer and a redesign of the closing page.
SOURCE:
IMAGE: "Still Life with a Porcelain Vase, Silver-Gilt Ewer, and Glasses" 1643 painting by Dutch artist Willem Kalf (Link1)
MUSIC: Excerpt from song "Biomechanical Modulation" on 2019 album 'Recollections Vol. 3" by the Bulgarian netlabel Mahorka (Link2)
FONT: "Ukrainian Princess" by Vladimir Nikolic (Link3)
Link1: archive.org/details/Carter_Collection_Dutch_Paintings/page/n119
Link2: archive.org/details/mhrk208
Link3: www.dafont.com/ukrainian-princess.font
December 8, 2019P-38 AND MARCHING NURSES VIDEO
Private art therapy in motion. SOURCE:
P-38 IMAGE: Brochure "F 35 Lightning II" by U.S. Air Force (Link1)
NURSES: Photo from 1999 catalog "Propaganda and Dreams: Photographing the 1930's in the USSR and the US" by Corcoran Gallery of Art (Link2)
MASK: Image from 1994 catalog "World of Lois Mailou Jones" by Corcoran Gallery of Art (Link3)
MUSIC: Excerpt from song 'Gato Lucas' from 2019 release "Audio Dark" by the Barcelona group Audio Dark (Link4)
Link1: archive.org/details/f35lightningii
Link2: archive.org/details/cor5_0_s06_ss01_boxrg5_0_2008_028_03
Link3: archive.org/details/cor5_0_s06_ss01_boxrg5_0_2008_025_25
Link4: archive.org/details/slc53.culture_deaf-audio_dark
December 5, 2019P-38 AND MARCHING NURSES
Private art therapy. SOURCE:
TBA
December 4, 2019POLITICS AND BUSINESS IN JAVA (3:31)
SOURCES:
GRAPHIC IMAGES: Illustrations from 2019 Indonesian organizing manual "Hak Hak Pekerja Perempuan" (Link1; trans: 'Women's Workers' Rights') by Kolektifa Salatiga
VIDEO: Selections from 2007 documentary "Ngatini" about Indonesian street vendors (Link2)
MUSIC: Song "Di Kala Malam tiba" (Link3; trans: 'Sweet Memories') by Indonesian popular singer Lilis Suryani (1948-2007)
Link1: archive.org/details/hakpekerjaperempuan/page/n23?q=kolectifa+salatiga
Link2: www.engagemedia.org/Members/emily/maruli/videos/ngatini.avi/view
Link3: archive.org/details/LilisSuryani
December 3, 2019CHANGE IS GONNA COME (0:49)
SOURCES:
NA
November 21, 2019TRAGEDY IN FILM AND OPERA (2:47)
Thought I'd try my hand at super-processing traditional film. I tried to get a super-saturated and stylized look.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Closing scenes from 1975 Italian crime film "Il Tempo degli Assassini" (Link1: trans. 'Season for Assassins'). Scene features Joe Allesandro and Magali Noel.
MUSIC: 1910 performance of "Sono Andanti" from Puccini's opera 'La Boheme' by Maria Bronzoni and Franco de Gregorio;
Link1: archive.org/details/youtube-kKdHur77lZU
Link2: archive.org/details/78_la-boheme-sono-andati_maria-bronzoni-franco-de-gregorio-puccini_gbia0032985a
November 20, 2019EARLY JAZZ, EARLY PORN (0:51)
A technical feat, combining 52 separate images into one video.
I had to study the words in the Collins and Harland song carefully, because the two also performed blackface music ("Coon Songs"), now considered offensive. I also consider that genre problematic, but I don't think "Cancel Culture" should be allowed to erase them from musical history.
SOURCES:
IMAGES: From a collection of German "Sweetheart" pinup playing cards circa 1935 (Link1)
MUSIC: 1917 song "Everybody's Jazzin' It" by Collins and Harland (Link2)
Link1: archive.org/details/sweetheartplayingcards1935
Link2: archive.org/details/78_everybodys-jazzin-it_arthur-collins-byron-g-harlan-hays_gbia0043468b
November 19, 2019 WHAT LIES BELOW (0:29)
Possible entry in upcoming "Below the Surface" exhibit at Plastic Club. Not sure.
SOURCES:
IMAGE1: Illustration of patterned window glass from 1949 catalog of Mississippi Glass Co. (Link1)
IMAGE2: Illustration of floral window glass from 1949 catalog of Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass Company (Link2)
IMAGE3: Illustration from 1907 "Blair's Canadian Drawing Series" (Link3)
MUSIC: 2019 composition "The Light Snow" by Maryland-based George L. Smyth (Link4)
Link1: archive.org/details/mississippiglassco.3
Link2: archive.org/details/libbeyowensfordglasscompany2
Link3: archive.org/details/blairscanadiandrawing
Link3: archive.org/details/thelightsnow
November 16, 2019 SWIRLS COLLAGING INTO WOMAN IN TOMB (0:57)
Music came last in this video -- and even provided the title.
SOURCES:
MUSIC: Excerpt from 2019 "And Day Brought Back My Night Part 2" by French musician Sobria Ebrietas (Link1)
IMAGE1: Illustration from 2004 "Gear Geometry And Applied Theory" (Link2)
IMAGE2: Composite of illustration from 1907 "Blair's Canadian Drawing Series" (Link3)
IMAGE3: Engraving of woman in tomb from German religious almanac "Caecilien-Kalender für das Jahr 1.1876 - 5.1880" (Link4)
Link1: archive.org/details/PILOTELEVEN_021
Link2: archive.org/details/geargeometryandappliedtheory
Link3: archive.org/details/blairscanadiandrawing
Link4: archive.org/details/caecilienkalenderfurdasjahr1.18765.1880
November 14, 2019TRADITIONAL 'AUM/OM' SOUND/SYMBOL (1:18)
A spiritual symbol hidden behind computer geek language. I'm so ignorant of the world that I don't know whether Indonesia, the source of the music, is one of the cultures that chants 'OM'.
SOURCES:
MUSIC: Full performance of song "Akhsyaha" from 2018 album 'ZOO' by Indonesian group Khawagaka, based upon
ancestral spiritual teachings (Link1)
OVERLAY: Decorative frame for Sanskrit text from manuscript at Panjab University (Link2)
IMAGE1: Cover for a 1910 Germain's seed catalog (Link3)
IMAGE2: 1988 Painting "Identity Card" by Sergei Shutov, from '10+10: Contemporary Soviet and American Painters'
(Link4)
AUM/OM SYMBOL: Sacred symbol (and sound) Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, Unicode character U+0950
Link1: archive.org/details/yesno092
Link2: archive.org/details/gurubilaspathshahisumersinghmssno1175gurumukhialm9shelf1panjabuni
Link3: archive.org/details/annualcatalogue00germc
Link4: archive.org/details/cor5_0_s06_ss01_boxrg5_0_2008_023_11
November 12, 2019MATHEMATICAL PUZZLE (0:34)
The puzzle in foreground is a mind-bending thing called an "Ouroborotorus", which a mathematician discovered in the 1940's based on a composer who noticed a rhythmic pattern in a Sanskrit nonsense word, "yamdtdrdjabhdnasalagam."
SOURCES:
OVERLAY: Puzzle from 2008 "Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities" (Link1)
IMAGE1: 1981 Painting "I'm Not Jasper John" by Yurii Albert, from '10+10: Contemporary Soviet and American Painters'
(Link2)
IMAGE2: Illustration from 2008 "An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Uniforms From The American Revolutionary War" (Link3)
MUSIC: Excerpt from "10272019c" from Thomas Park's album "Bermuda" (Link4)
Link1: archive.org/details/professorstewart39scabinetofmathematicalcuriosities
Link2: archive.org/details/cor5_0_s06_ss01_boxrg5_0_2008_023_11
Link3: archive.org/details/anillustratedencyclopediaofuniformsfrom1775-1783theamericanrevolutionarywar
Link4: archive.org/details/Bermuda10272019
November 11, 2019TECHNICAL EXERCISE (0:56)
"Double Slide" = two moving background layers, in this case moving in opposite directions; "Optical" = an optical illusion.
SOURCES:
OVERLAY: Design representing Evil Eye from magazine "Dharma Combat #10" (Link0)
IMAGE1: Optical illusion downloaded from 4Chan Worksafe GIF board (Link1)
IMAGE2: Illustration from a 2001 commemorative album "Cardcaptor Sakura Memorial Book" (Link2)
IMAGE3: Photograph from 1989 catalog "Lee Miller: Photographer" by Corcoran Gallery of Art (Link3)
MUSIC: Excerpt from song "Zero Hour" from 2019 album 'A Piece Of Sunlight And Other Stories' by Studio 112 (Link4)
Link0: archive.org/details/Dharma_Combat_no_10; from the collection of the Swedish "Archives for The Unexplained"
(www.afu.se/afu2)
Link1: boards.4channel.org/wsg/thread/3093200
Link2: archive.org/details/cardcaptorsakuramemorialbook
Link3: archive.org/details/cor5_0_s06_ss01_boxrg5_0_2008_023_04
Link4: archive.org/details/A_Piece_Of_Sunlight_And_Other_Stories_Studio112/06
November 9, 2019CUSTODY OF THE EYES (1:15)
Technical experiment. Besides the multiple moving images, the text behind a mask, and a second draft on a video. Technical problem, worked around but not solved: duration.
SOURCES:
IMAGE 1: Nude photograph from 1989 catalog "Lee Miller: Photographer" by Corcoran Gallery of Art (Link1)
IMAGE 2: 16th century plate from "Italian Renaissance Maiolica from the Wiliam A. Clark Collection" by Corcoran Gallery (Link2)
IMAGE 3: Page from 1915 "Libro Azul," a book of Guatemalan news (Link3)
IMAGE 4: Photographs from an article about singer Bobbi Baird from 1957 "Show" magazine (Link4)
MUSIC: Excerpt from song "Girun" by French electronic musician Nicolas Tourney's 2019 album 'Enter the World' (Link5)
Link1: archive.org/details/cor5_0_s06_ss01_boxrg5_0_2008_023_04
Link2: archive.org/details/cor5_0_s06_ss01_boxrg5_0_2008_022_22
Link3: archive.org/details/libroazul
Link4: archive.org/details/showv05n06195706.show
Link5: archive.org/details/eg0_218
November 9, 2019FINDING ONE'S WAY THROUGH THE CONFUSION (1:15)
Giving up on old movie trailers as a source of inspiration.
SOURCES:
IMAGE1: Recolored map from 1981 "Cunninghamia" from National Herbarium of New South Wales (Australia) (Link1)
IMAGE2: Detail from 1480 fresco "Saint Jerome in his Study" by Domenico Ghirlandaio (Link2)
MUSIC: Excerpt from 2019 "Sonata for 2 Flutes and Piano" by Jeff Manookian (Link3)
Link1: archive.org/details/cunninghamia5natic
Link2: www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope_learn_from_st._jerome_to_live_in_contact_and_living_dialogue_with_scripture
Link3: imslp.org/wiki/Special:ReverseLookup/595922
November 7, 2019EXPERIMENT: ANCIENT METALWORK PLUS B-MOVIE TRAILER (0:55)
Excerpt from trailer shows a woman hanging from a branch over a pool of crocodiles, and a man
bitten by a snake. First use of trailer with text. Spent much of today going over hundreds of trailers,
kind of disappointing.
SOURCES:
IMAGE 1: Metalwork depicting an eagle carrying a hare, fifth century B.C., from 1972 "Soviet Union: Arts & Crafts in Ancient Times & Today" (Link1)
VIDEO: Excerpt from trailer for 1966 low-budget horror film "Death Curse of Tartu" (Link2)
MUSIC: Excerpt from 2019 performance of a 1910 composition "Marcelo" by Juan Elias (Link3).
Link1: archive.org/details/cor5_0_s06_ss01_boxrg5_0_2008_010_f11
Link2: archive.org/details/sinema-trailer_death-curse-of-tartu
Link3: imslp.org/wiki/Special:ReverseLookup/595634
November 3, 2019ANCIENT MIDDLE EAST QUEEN'S NECKLACE AND HEADGEAR (0:45)
Video finger-exercise.
SOURCES:
IMAGE 1: Illustration from 1957 "Everyday life in Sumer and Babylonia" (Link1) showing Sumerian queen's headwear.
IMAGE 2: Example of "Zhostovo painting," an old Russian folk handicraft of painting birds and flowers on metal trays (Link2)
MUSIC: Excerpt from 1867 "Vals" from Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg's Opus 12, performed on piano by Constantin Stephan (Link3)
Link1: archive.org/details/sumerbabylonia1571421237
Link2: www.russianlife.com/discover/events/zhostovo-a-russian-american-odyssey
Link3: imslp.org/wiki/Special:ReverseLookup/592751
November 1, 20191970 INDUSTRIAL FILM BY CATALONIAN FILM-MAKER (5:05)
With apologies to my musician friends, I lay one musical track over another to accompany these pictures of Spanish dairy processing from a film by Spanish film-maker Joan Capdevila Nogués. Note recent decline in my production of videos. That is because my usual source of public domain video (screen-name PICFIXER) shut down for a while; but now someone uploaded nearly 100 trailers for grindhouse films.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Excerpt from 1970 film "Proceso y tratamineto de la leche" (Link1; Translation: 'Milk Process and Treatment') by Catalonian film-maker Joan Capdevila Nogués (1921-2012)
MUSIC:
Excerpt from undated song "バイバイ・バイタリティー" (Link2; Translation: 'Bye bye vitality') by Yukiga Futte Uresii
Excerpt from song "De la poesia a la protesta" (Trans: 'From Poetry to Protest') on 2019 album "A las cacerolas (Calles de Santiago)" (Link3; Translation: 'To the casseroles (Streets of Santiago)') by A22009 Collective. "Cacerolas" means pots, frequently used in street protests around the world.
Link1: archive.org/details/procesodelaleche
Link2: archive.org/details/ByebyeVitality
Link3: archive.org/details/A22009_AlasCacerolas
October 31, 2019AZTEC SACRIFICE SPARED
Private art therapy. SOURCE:
TBA
October 22, 2019GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS
The way I work is I develop folders of downloaded images, up to 100 at a time. Then I "harvest" them, recombining them into experimental pieces like my Oct. 12 "PLATES, CELLS, & WATER SPRITE." But then, as I finish up a folder, there are images left over -- usually pretty young women -- that touch me in some simple, romantic, sensual way, and these I work on without wild experimentation. Here is one. SOURCE:
TBA
October 18, 20191920'S MAGAZINE ILLUSTRATION FOR INSURANCE AD
TBD SOURCE:
TBA
October 16, 2019MARY PICKFORD, DARK ELF ANIME, SURVEY BOUNDARIES
TBD SOURCE:
TBA
October 15, 2019IMPEACHMENT BUZZ INCREASES (0:43)
Researching composer Bardia Youssefi, was reminded of richness of Iranian and Persian culture. I am embarassed by American policymakers' desire to go to war with Iran and other Middle Eastern countries. Especially depressed by Trump's mistreatment of allies, the Kurds. For the sake of history, Arab leader Saladin (who gave Jerusalem citizens safe passage during one incident in the Crusades) was a Kurd.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Excerpt from 1952 English comedy "Miss Robin Hood" (Link1)
MUSIC: From 2017 composition "Nothing to Nothing" by Iranian composer Bardia Youssefi (Link2)
Link1: archive.org/details/missrobinhood
Link2: imslp.org/wiki/Special:ReverseLookup/591911
October 14, 2019PLATES, CELLS, & WATER SPRITE
Three procedural variations of a composite image. Variations due to different treatments of Inkscape traced paths.
SOURCE:
TBA
October 12, 2019GENUINE UKRAINIAN VOICE: WHY CHERNOBYL?
Ran across an interesting 2015 documentary, "The Soviet Woodpecker," by quirky Ukrainian artist Fedor Alexandrovich, who was born around the time of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The documentary inquires into Chernobyl's causes. Alexandrovich's thesis is that the nuclear plant explosion was arranged by Moscow to cover up the failure of an expensive early-warning radar project built next to the nuclear plant. The "Duga" project was known as the Soviet Woodpecker for its unique radio signature. I don't vouch for the accuracy of this thesis, but along the way the film covers much Ukrainian history and gives a sense of the Ukrainian-people versus the Russian-oligarch drama that has suddenly entered American political discourse. The documentary project was cut short when Russian secret police threatened to kill Alexandrovich's son. Spoiler alert: the Trump crew sided with the Russian oligarchs.
It's 82 minutes long. If your video player has a "CC" button, you can get English subtitles.
Link: archive.org/details/russianwoodpecker2015
October 12, 2019FEELS SO GOOD: BOVINE STYLE(1:12)
TBA
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Cow using wall-mounted device to scratch body parts, originally downloaded from Reddit.com, video watermarked to PETSABS.COM, but I was not able to find it there.
MUSIC: Excerpt from 2019 composition "No Food In The House" by Maryland-based George L. Smyth. It was composed along with Smyth's haiku:
No food in the house
Someone please go to the store
Finally, dinner!
Written for Clarinet, Horn, Trombone, Tubular Bells, Cymbals, Vibraphone, Violin, Viola, Cello and String Bass. (Link1)
Link1: archive.org/details/nofoodinthehouse
October 12, 2019COMPASS ROSE, ANGELS & LETTERING SOURCE:
TBA
October 11, 2019ENGINEERING CHART, YEARBOOK DESIGN & SWITCHBOARD SOURCE:
TBA
October 9, 2019COINS, SPIDERS & SCREWS Theoretically, the second image is a vector graphic, which means it will retain its quality upon enlargement. It is stored in a SVG file of 61K. SOURCE:
TBA
October 7, 2019CEILING TILES AND DOODLES SOURCE:
TBA
October 7, 2019THREE QUILT DESIGNS ON PATTERNS SOURCE:
TBA
October 6, 2019THINKING ON CLIMATE CATASTROPHE(5:45)
Thinking about widespread climate degradation. 1933 film "Deluge", special effects before computers.
Here's Philly-Bob's environmental platform.
Reduce single use plastics
Reduce reliance on fossil fuels
Reduce energy company infuence on environmental policy
I'm not sure how this differs from "Green New Deal" -- except the Green New Deal includes a price tag.
This piece is dedicated to Greta Thurnberg.
SOURCES:
VIDEO & AUDIO: 1933 film "Deluge" by Felix Feist, based on science fiction novel by S. Fowler Wright.
October 4, 2019RECOLORING OF MARS & MICROSCOPIC CHARTS AND FIGURE FROM ROMAN CATACOMBS
A kind of faux marble made by combining photos from Mars Lander and cell structures, with a picture from the Roman catacombs overlaid.
SOURCE:
TBA
October 1, 2019RASTER/VECTOR RECOLORING/RESIZING OF FERN COLLAGE
Recolored second version is a vector image and can be printed any size -- from a locket to the side of a building.
SOURCE:
TBA
September 30, 2019RASTER/VECTOR TREATMENT OF PEASANT GIRL OF NORMANDY
Portrait of a Norman peasant girl by 19th century French genre painter Leon Bazille Perrault, from an art catalog.
SOURCE:
TBA
September 28, 2019EGYPTIAN IMPROVISATION IN VECTORS
A normal ink-heavy public domain Photoshop collage, with an added wrinkle of recolored Trace Bitmap paths in Inkscape.
SOURCE:
TBA
September 28, 2019ITCHY SCRATCHY COOTIES(0:45)
Biology.
SOURCES:
VIDEOS OF SARCOPTES SCABIEI (Scabies parasite):
LARGE: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sarcoptes_scabiei.ogv
SMALL: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCm4ekxBujc
MUSIC: Song "Verb" from recent album 'On Grid' by Yukiga Futte Ureshii
at archive.org/details/OnGrid
September 27, 2019DANCER AND COOK ON ISLAMIC COVER DESIGN
Having fun doing these during a period I'm not getting out much. Today, a class I was simultaneously looking forward to -- and dreading -- was cancelled, so I had a night free. Second version: trying for a little more definition.
SOURCE:
TBA
September 25, 2019MUYBRIDGE MODEL AND BUG ON WEEDS
Another moody, finger exercise -- coded self-pitying message to self.
SOURCE:
TBA
September 25, 2019ANIMAL ANTENNAE, WINGS, MALE TERMINALIA
More moody, finger exercises -- a coded message to myself. Images of insect anatomy from 2010 "Rhagionidae phylogeny" (Link1).
Second row shows experiments using Inkscape's PATH/TRACE BITMAP command. Not what I intended (it only includes about one-eighth of the image of the first row antenna composition) but it serves as practice and has an interesting abstract look.
SOURCE:
September 21, 2019BORIS JOHNSON BIRD ON MUSHROOM CHART
Moody, finger exercise.
SOURCE:
TBA
September 16, 2019FATHER AND CHILD VICTIMS OF WORLD WAR II
Sometimes I think a good majority of this country has forgotten the horrors that Fascism unleashed on the civilized world 70 years ago.
SOURCE:
PICTURE: Photo from 1983 German book "Einsatzgruppen im Verbande des Heere" (Link1: trans. 'Operational Groups [Death Squads] in Association with the Army') showing bombing victims near Kassel, Germany. Foreground shows adult holding child.
OVERLAY: Chart from book of drafting techniques.
Link1: archive.org/details/historische-tatsachen-17
Insignia: real-life-villains.fandom.com/wiki/Einsatzgruppen
September 14, 2019ANXIETY AND PEOPLE DURING DEMOCRATIC DEBATE
Collage composition using three images and the same type as yesterday.
SOURCE:
TBA
September 12, 2019GIRL WITH PET AND HABIT
Collage composition using three images and the same type as yesterday.
SOURCE:
PICTURE: Photograph (probably staged) from 1978 book "Dope Inc: Britain's Opium War Against the U.S." (Link1).
BACKGROUND: Collage of two charts from 1935 book "Color in Sketching and Rendering" (Link2)
FONT: "Kujiwara" (Link3), a design font by Askar Fadhilah
Link1: archive.org/details/DopeInc.BritainOpiumWarAgainstTheUs1978.pdfVersion2/
Link2: archive.org/details/a.l.guptill1935
Link4: www.dafont.com/kujiwara.font
September 11, 2019WAAH-WAAH, WOOH-HOO: TWO SIDES OF PHYSICALITY
Moody expression of ambivalent feelings: disgust at my warm-blooded biology (all too prone to decay) and thrill at the idealizations of beauty and grace. Explanation to follow, perhaps.
SOURCE:
CARTOON: Anime character "Cirno" (Link1), an ice fairy, seen in Reddit BANT (International Random) discussion (Link2)
BACKGROUND: Images of diseased feet from 2019 "Nail Disorders" (Link3)
FONT: "Kujiwara" (Link4), a design font by Askar Fadhilah
Link1: knowyourmeme.com/memes/cirno
Link2: boards.4chan.org/bant/3
Link3: archive.org/details/nails_201908
Link4: www.dafont.com/kujiwara.font
September 10, 2019EARLY VERSION OF MY FAIR LADY (2:02)
Moving away from EBSYNTH experiements, returning to more serious, classical style. There is an upcoming show at the Plastic Club whose them in "Beneath," and since the Eliza Dolittle story is a story of different class levels, I might enter this; I won an Honorary Mention award, recently, for my entry in the purple show. A lot of sound editing in Audacity.
SOURCES:
VIDEO & SOUNDTRACK: 1938 British film "Pygmalion" (Link1) script by George Bernard Shaw, based on 1871 musical by W.S. Gilbert.
Eliza Dolittle is played by Wendy Hiller, Mrs. Pearce by Jean Cadell. Later redone as 1964 film "My Fair Lady"
with Audrey Hepburn as Eliza.
MUSIC: Claude Debussy's 1890 "Clair de Lune" adapted 2017 for a videogame 'LUNA OST' by Kakofonous Dischord and other
students at a Colorado community college. (Link2)
Link1: archive.org/details/pygmalionvideoqualityupgrade
Link2: archive.org/details/kakofonousa.dischordlunaost
September 9, 2019COSPLAY COSTAR DISS TRACKS (1:14)
A selection of three cuts from cosplay Internet celebrity named BONIBONKERS, who appears frequently on Tik Tok. BONIBONKERS, of ambiguous gender and ethnicity, but undeniable cuteness, is a celebrity among Cosplay fans. Part innocence, part bitch, all lip-synching. The first cut is a pantomine to soundtrack from a recording of Alice in Wonderland. The second cut is from a "Diss Track" (insult song) aimed at another cosplayer, Mia Khalifa, who offended local custom in some way: "You got a boyfriend/ I bet he doesn't kiss ya/ He gon' find another girl and he won't miss ya"). Typical teenager insult. The last, loud cut ("Kitty Kitty") I haven't been able to identify.
Not happy with results, will skip bibliographic work and titling. Again, using EBSYNTH tool. Returns to 1920x1080 YouTube size, which I find too large for my webpage. Hit the four-bracket-square control at the far right of the screen to size the image to your screen.
SOURCES:
TBA
September 4, 2019EXERCISE IN NEW NEURAL ART PROGRAM: COSPLAY STAR
Testing out a new neural art program, DreamPaint. Neural art programs use Artificial Intelligence techniques to apply the graphics of one image to another target image. Here, I apply it to three still images of an Internet cosplay performer, Bonibonkers, from my current video.
SOURCE:
Links: www.dreampaint.art September 3, 2019INKSCAPE EXERCISES: COVER, PAPER, DISTORTED FACE
Collage of a fruit bowl magazine cover, a wallpaper pattern, and a cinematographer's example of scene distortion.
Slowly gaining proficiency in Inkscape.
SOURCE:
Links: TBA September 2, 2019USING NEW VIDEO TECHNIQUE (EBSYNTH) V
Again with the EBSYNTH. A sweet love story from a 62-year-old movie.
SOURCES:
VIDEO & AUDIO: Excerpt from 1947 film "It Happened on Fifth Avenue" (Link1), featuring Charles Ruggles and Ann Harding. The film tells the story of a group of people squatting in an abandoned Fifth Avenue mansion during the post-WWII housing crisis.
TECHNICAL NOTE: New application "Ebsynth" (Link2) used to apply color to video. Image on last page shows Ebsynth control panel. Ebsynth was written by Prague-based company SCRTWPNS (SeCReTWeaPoNs).
Link1: archive.org/details/ithappenedonfifthavenue
Link2: ebsynth.com/
August 31, 2019INKSCAPE EXERCISES: OLD ARABIC PATTERN
Distorted and recolored, an illustration from a 2019 book "Glimpses Of Mughal Architecture" (Link1) by Umair Mirza. The Muslim Mughals ruled India for two centuries. This is a tiled panel.
Slowly gaining proficiency in Inkscape.
SOURCE:
Link1: archive.org/details/glimpsesofmughalarchitecture August 28, 2019RUSSIAN PRINT: RIVER STYX FERRYBOAT ARRIVES
From a 1928 Russian exhibition catalog, entitled "Kataloh vystavky hraviura i rysunok orhanizovannoi" (Link1), a spooky Halloween-style engraving (or woodcut) of what seems to be a rowboat carrying a passenger from the Land of the Living (lower right) to the Underworld. The three skeletons in the cemetery merit a second look. Two of them have long beards, and a third seems to be female. SOURCE:
Link1: archive.org/details/frick-31072003189919 August 26, 2019CONTEMPORARY ANTI-RASPUTIN CARTOON
Historical figure Rasputin in a critical cartoon of the time, portraying him as a womanizing, warmongering false preacher. Used Inkscape to simplify it into an image that could be blown up to the size of skyscraper without loss of detail. From the 1927 book "Rasputin, Der Heilige Teufel" (Link1; trans: 'Rasputin: The Holy Devil'). Rasputin comes to mind because of some of the seedy characters in the current administration. SOURCE:
Link1: archive.org/details/rasputinderheiligeteufel August 26, 2019USING NEW VIDEO TECHNIQUE (EBSYNTH) IV
Again with the EBSYNTH. The action-packed close of a 1941 movie about a German spy trying to fool a village of Englishmen. SOURCES:
VIDEO: Ending from 1941 English movie "Cottage to Let." The Nazi spy is masquerading in a Royal Air Force uniform but is detected by clever townspeople; finallyhe is trapped in a funhouse with mirrors at a village carnival. (Link1)
MUSIC: Excerpt of song 'Gamborimbo' from 2019 album "Acoustic DJ" by Taker 51/Raul Diaz of Avila Spain (Link2; gamborimbo is Spanish for a piece of excrement stuck to the hairs of the anus, similar to the vulgar English "Dingleberry")
Link1: archive.org/details/cottagetoletvideoqualityupgrade
Link2: archive.org/details/taker51-acousticdj2019
August 25, 2019CAPTIONED COLLAGE
Experimenting with a graphic style: public domain collage, followed by GIMP and Photoshop filters, then neural-style filter and Inkscape bitmap transfer. Short poetry. No biblio now.
August 23, 2019 CLICK-BAIT HEADLINE: 1918 FLU SCENE
A second work based on a previously used photo from Philadelphia's 1918 "Spanish Flu" epidemic (Link1). Combined with an image from a 1966 book of Italian folklore, "Guida. All' Italia. Leggendaria. Misteriosa. Insolita. Fantastica" (Link2; trans: 'Guide. To Italy. Legendary. Mysterious. Unusual. fantastic').
I've been reading about recent changes in journalism. Big fortunes have gone to folks who specialized in 'click-bait' -- a style of writing and presentation that emphasizes sensationalism and emotional appeal. For example, check out the patient-zero website, BuzzFeed.com or UrbanDictionary's definition. Today, I'm using a 'click-bait' style headline. SOURCE:
Link1: www.phillyvoice.com/1918-philadelphia-was-grippe-misery
Link2: archive.org/details/guida.allitalia.leggendaria.misteriosa.insolita.fantastica August 22, 2019ILLUSTRATION FOR STAG POEM
Relaxing with art. Nothing in mind. From a 1957 "Tiger" men's magazine (Link1). The poem ("Letter from a father to a son") is a simple poem describing in great detail a woman undressing. Look it up for a laugh.
This is also a kind of finger exercise in Inkscape, to get me on track during a time of some confusion. SOURCE:
Link1: archive.org/details/tiger1957vol02no01 August 21, 2019HOLY FAMILY
Relaxing with art. Processing recent experience. Biblio notes later (or not at all).
This is also a kind of finger exercise in Inkscape. SOURCE: August 20, 2019TANK HULL AGAINST CHURCH CEILING
Relaxing with art. Biblio notes later (or not at all).
This is also a kind of finger exercise in Inkscape. SOURCE: August 19, 2019USING NEW VIDEO TECHNIQUE (EBSYNTH) III
Again with the EBSYNTH plus Photoshop. Interior shots of an old BWR (Boiling Water Reactor) nuclear power plant. Slow but steady progress. Finally got music in -- a Spanish guitar intro. Also use of digital manipulation from three sources: neuralstyle.art, Photoshop, VideoStudio. SOURCES:
VIDEO: Extract from 1969 Indian government newsreel "A Dream Fulfilled" (Link1) about opening of nuclear power plant. The Tarapur plant is still running, although experts warn it is vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis and should be decommissioned.
MUSIC: Extract from 2019 song "Ipaco" on album 'Acoustic DJ' (Link2) by Raul Diaz of Avila, Spain.
Link1: archive.org/details/dli.MoI.INR1071Eng
Link2: archive.org/details/taker51-acousticdj2019 August 19, 2019SICK SISTERS IN PHILLY DURING 1918 EPIDEMIC
The flu epidemic of 1918 struck a world just finishing up a ruinous European war. It spread around the world. Here, from a Philadelphia source (Link1), a little sister sobs next to the bed of her flu-stricken big sister, whose husband has gone to war.
This is a kind of finger exercise in Inkscape. SOURCE:
Link1: www.phillyvoice.com/1918-philadelphia-was-grippe-misery
August 16, 2019USING NEW VIDEO TECHNIQUE (EBSYNTH) II
Slow but steady progress. No music again, sorry. SOURCES:
VIDEO: "Nina Dobrev Head Orgasm" uploaded to YouTube by George Orwell (Link1). Dobrev is a Canadian actress known for her work on "The Vampire Diaries."
IMAGE: Processing with Secret Weapons' digital manipulation program EBSYNTH. Screen shot of control panel shown in last frame.
Link1: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvLMyIHJkys August 16, 2019USING NEW VIDEO TECHNIQUE (EBSYNTH)
First successful rendering of old movie footage using a newly introduced video tool called EBSYNTH. Hard to figure out.
May return to video work. No sound, couldn't figure out how to TWEET it to EBSYNTH.
Another win today: Ted Gutswa and I successfully printed two large pictures on NextFab's Epson 9700. August 13, 2019WORK ON LASER CUTTING DESIGNS XXI August 9, 2019WORK ON LASER CUTTING DESIGNS XX
The infamous MBS, Mohammad bin Salman, who came to power in Saudi Arabia by imprisoning, torturing, and killing his family. Murdered a journalist for an American paper. Good friends with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, who is said to have supplied him with American intelligence. August 10, 2019WORK ON LASER CUTTING DESIGNS XIX
Just read a book on Oxycontin crisis. Disgusting misuse of science. The maker of Oxycontin publicized a letter to the editor in a medical journal in 1980 which claimed that "opioid medications caused addiction in less than 1% of patients." Doctors believed it, but later found out the actual addiction rate is as high as 56%.
Same scientific chicanery on tobacco in the 1980's and on climate change today.
Main image is an illustration by Bill Ashman for a 1952 "Amazing Stories" (Link1). The story is an early story (title: "Idiot Command") by well-known writer John Jakes.
In the background, two overlapping images:
One is a handwritten antisemitic rant by psuedonymous 'Some Nobody' entitled "Go Against The Macabes Zionist Nazarene Israeli Mossad Msm Gov Corporate Shills." (Link2) The writer's craziness leads to an interesting texture, distasteful and destructive as the writer's ideas are. Other ideas: the benefits of semen retention, the danger of chemtrails, and Martians are responsible for the idea of God.
The other is an illustration showing a small intestine from the 1911 "The mechanical factors of digestion" (Link3).
The font is Street-Stencil by Woodcutter (Link4). Sources:
Link1: archive.org/details/amazingstoriesv26n10195210
Link2: archive.org/details/goagainstthemacabeszionistnazareneisraelimossadmsmgovcorporateshills
Link3: archive.org/details/mechanicalfactor00cann
Link4:www.dafont.com/street-stencil August 8 2019WORK ON LASER CUTTING DESIGNS XVIII
Similar work. Sources TBA.
August 3 2019WORK ON LASER CUTTING DESIGNS XVII
A collage of two items: (1) the typography of a Hungarian cover for the 1914 book "Régi magyar asszonyok" (Link1; trans: 'Old Hungarian Women') and (2) an illustration from the 1967 catalog of the "Boynton Waddell company catalog of embossed wood mouldings" (Link2).
Going far afield in this sidetrack. That's what a creative person does, that's what Art is.
Second version is color version I prepared for the upcoming class on color printing at NextFab. It uses two fonts (Lomtrian and Street Stencil) I've described previously (Link3, Link4).
Sources:
Link1: archive.org/details/rgimagyarasszony00takt
Link2: archive.org/details/BoyntonWaddell
Link3: www.dafont.com/lomtrian.font
Link4:www.dafont.com/street-stencil August 1,2 2019WORK ON LASER CUTTING DESIGNS XVI
Advertisement for Harley-Davidson motorcycles in a 1950's men's magazine, like Popular Mechanics (Link1)
Sources:
Link1: Link lost
August 1, 2019WORK ON LASER CUTTING DESIGNS XV
Illustration from 2016 book "Historia De La Espana Medieval" by Montalvo (Link1) shows rubble from a destroyed 10th century Islamic palace on the outskirts of Cordoba, Spain. The caption (translated) is "Fragments of a Dream."
Same font as yesterday (Link2). Image was done wholly in Photoshop, having trouble in Inkscape. (Link2).
Sources:
Link1: archive.org/details/monsalvoantonjosemaria.historiadelaespanamedieval2016_201907
Link2: www.dafont.com/street-stencil
July 30, 2019WORK ON LASER CUTTING DESIGNS XIV
Another fan screenshot from a Reddit group (Link1) following the heavy teenage soap opera Euphoria. The picture shows character Nate, football star and bully, a true villain.
Same font as yesterday. Image was done partly in Photoshop, partly in Inkscape. (Link2).
Sources:
Link1: www.reddit.com/r/euphoria/comments/cjag0e/we_ride_at_dawn_to_kill_this_smug_faced_prick/
Link2: www.dafont.com/street-stencil.<
July 29, 2019WORK ON LASER CUTTING DESIGNS XIII
Fan screenshot from a Reddit group (Link1) following the heavy teenage soap opera Euphoria. The picture shows character Rue, played by Disney acting factory product Zendaya; her role is as a recovering/relapsing drug addict who has fallen in love with a beautiful (but incomplete; i.e., still with penis) M-to-F transexual Jule.
Image was done partly in Photoshop, partly in Inkscape. I have until August 17 to end my $20/month cloud subscription to Adobe Illustrator and learn to work in $0/month Inkscape. Click on image to enlarge. The font is Street Stencil, by my favorite font-creator, Spanish Woodcutter (Link2).
Sources:
Link1: www.reddit.com/r/euphoria/comments/ciirvm/seeing_all_the_love_for_maddy_knowing_damn_well/
Link2: www.dafont.com/street-stencil.<
July 28, 2019WORK ON LASER CUTTING DESIGNS XII
Illustration of dancers from 1912 book "Seidl, Arthur. Die Hellerauer Schulfeste Und Die Bildungsanstalt Jaques Dalcroze" (Link1; trans: 'Seidl, Arthur. The Hellerauer Schulfeste and the educational institution Jaques Dalcroze'). Dalcroze developed a method of music teaching called "Eurhythmics." The piece is intended as a wall stencil.
We were clumsy and needed help -- clearly newbies -- but Ted and I got a job done on the laser cutter today. A milestone in a journey that began early in June.
Click on image to enlarge.
Sources:
Link1: archive.org/details/seidlarthur.diehellerauerschulfesteunddiebildungsanstaltjaquesdalcroze.1912
July 24, 2019WORK ON LASER CUTTING DESIGNS XI
Collage of three parts of a mortise door-lock set from a 1900 catalog of hardware (Link1). The three parts are the door knob, the finger plate, and the bell handle.
Tomorrow (Wednesday), Ted and I go for our first session on the NextFab lasercutter. Nervous.
Click on image to enlarge.
Sources:
Link1: archive.org/details/prykepalmerc19001
July 23, 2019WORK ON LASER CUTTING DESIGNS X
Woodcut of three men and three women being burned at the stake during the Catholic/Protestant conflict in England. The image is taken from the 1631 "The Mirrour of Martyrs" by John Foxe. It is reprinted in the 2011 "Martyrs' Mirror: Persecution and Holiness in Early New England" (Link1). The book explains "the folklore of martyrdom among seventeenth-century New England Protestants, exploring how they imagined themselves within biblical and historical narratives of persecution. Memories of martyrdom, especially stories of the Protestants killed during the reign of Queen Mary in the mid-sixteenth century, were central to a model of holiness and political legitimacy."
Tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon is the laser-cutting class I have been looking forward to. It will determine whether and when Ted and I will be certified to run designs on NextFab's lasercutter machine.
Click on image to enlarge.
Sources:
Link1: archive.org/details/martyrsmirrorpersecutionandholinessinearlynewengland
July 19, 2019WORK ON LASER CUTTING DESIGNS IX
French traditional artist Charles Muller's 1875 painting "Charlotte Corday in Prison", from an 1895 collection of engravings of famous "tableux" (defined as 'a group of models or motionless figures representing a scene from a story or from history; a tableau vivant.' The volume is called "Les Tableaux célèbres du monde : collection de reproductions photographiques de chefs-d'oeuvre modernes comprenant deux cent cinquante-six beaux spécimens de l'art ... des principaux musées de collections particulières célèbres ou des ateliers d'artistes éminents" (Link1) Beautiful proto-feminist self-educated farm girl Charlotte Corday is known for her bathtub assassination of out-of-control Revolutionary leader Jean Paul Marat. It's a good story, relevant today as the cloak of legitimacy is slipping on the current administation and we the people face troubling issues, such as degrees of progressive zeal (impeachment v. election, AOC v. Pelosi). Sometimes 2019 America feels like pre-revolutionary France.
Click on image to enlarge.
Sources:
Link1: archive.org/details/gri_33125000076584
July 18, 2019WORK ON LASER CUTTING DESIGNS VIII
A fractal from the just-published "The Family Tree Of Fractal Curves" (Link1) by Jeffrey Ventrella. I have been following fractals for decades, and Ventrella has made a new contribution, a "taxonomy" of fractals. The delicate curve shown is labeled "A self-crossing curve of the family E(3,0) splined."
Click on image to enlarge.
Sources:
Link1: archive.org/details/thefamilytreeoffractalcurves_201907
July 17, 2019WORK ON LASER CUTTING DESIGNS VII
This one marks my extreme alienation from crass and cruel Trumpian America. Been especially watching the Jeffrey Epstein story. It seems sexual ethics are just for the poor and are routinely ignored by the rich -- even by the most fervent Christian fundamentalists.
The image is entirely imaginary. It's meant to look like a figure in a textbook. The language at the top is Lomtrian, an imaginary alphabet font which I described on July 11 (Link1). The two images are from the 1956 "Concrete Manual, 6th edition" by the U.S. Department of the Interior. (Link2)
The next class for my laser-cutting certification is Saturday, 7/20; my friend Ted and I are studying hard for it. This design, with the black part cut out, I may use as a stencil.
Click on image to enlarge.
Sources:
Link1: www.dafont.com/lomtrian.font
Link2: archive.org/details/unitedstatesdepartmentoftheinteriorbureauofreclamation1956
July 16, 2019WORK ON LASER CUTTING DESIGNS VI
Background is a cover design for the 1868 "The Muse's Pageant: Myths And Legends Of Ancient Greece" (Link1).
Center foreground are two plastic molds for a model of a Yak-25 airplane, from the 2013 "Soviet Spyplanes Of The Cold War" (Link2). The plastic mold displays some of the island/bridge, foreground/background issues that I'm thinking about in lasercutting design.
Click on image to enlarge.
Sources:
Link1: archive.org/details/mythsandlegendsofancientgreecevol.2
Link2: archive.org/details/sovietspyplanesofthecoldwar
July 15, 2019WORK ON LASER CUTTING DESIGNS V
Background is an ad for products and supplies used in a mechanical drawing instrument called a Meccanograph (also called a Spirograph), from a 1977 issue of "Meccano Magazine" (Link1).
Foreground is a character from a dingbat font called "Lomtrian." American Font designer "Rym" explains, winningly, "Alien font made for a project that never really took off. Feel free to use it for anything!" (Link2)
Click on image to enlarge.
Sources:
Link1: archive.org/details/meccano-magazine-1977-01/page/n19
Link2: www.dafont.com/lomtrian.font
July 11, 2019WORK ON LASER CUTTING DESIGNS IV
Still one more attempt at laser-cutting design. Again, I can't run this on the lasercutting machine until I am certified. The next step in certification is a class on July 20. Illustration from 1962 "Guide to Modern Clothing" (Link1) and overlaid design is from dingbat font "Ampersand" by one of my favorite font designer. (Link2).
On second thought, I don't this will work with white as cut-out, because the central section of the ampersand is an "isolated black" -- an island -- and will drop out.
Click on image to enlarge.
Sources:
Link1: archive.org/details/guidetomodernclo00stur
Link2: www.dafont.com/ampersand-2.font
July 10, 2019WORK ON LASER CUTTING DESIGNS III
Another attempt at laser-cutting design. I think this will work, although I can't really tell until I get them on the laser-cutting machine. Image is from a 1950 Mémoires du Muséum national d'histoire naturelle (Link1)
Click on image to enlarge.
Sources:
Link1: https://archive.org/details/memoiresdumuseu40musee
July 10, 2019WORK ON LASER CUTTING DESIGNS II
Another attempt at laser-cutting design. I think it is flawed. The death-head circles have nothing to stabilize them in the composition. Fooling around with the color. Background is an Arabic window design, source unknown. Foreground death-heads are from a dingbat in the Skallae font of Serbian designer Vladimir Nikolic. (Link1)
Click on image to enlarge.
Sources:
Link1: www.dafont.com/skallen.font
July 10, 2019WORK ON LASER CUTTING DESIGNS
Just to let you folks know I'm still here. Working hard to learn the contemporary laser-cutting machine. Learning Adobe Illustrator (needed for specifying laser-cutting operation). I still haven't been trained on the laser-cutting machine itself. Anyway, here's a sample of the work I'm setting up for the laser cutter. Imagine the white areas are cut out. The image is a selection from the cover of
an undated edition of the public domain "The Original Folk And Fairy Tales Of The Brothers Grimm" (Link1) The cutout illustration is by Andrea Dezso, a contemporary artist.
Click on image to enlarge.
Sources:
Link1: archive.org/details/theoriginalfolkandfairytalesofthebrothersgrimmthecompletefirstedition
July 8, 2019BRUTAL MURDER OF CHINESE SLAVES (1:14)
A horrifying scene from a 1948 thriller, as a narcotics cop aboard a Coast Guard cutter observes slaves chained to an anchor jettisoned from a smuggler's ship into the ocean.
Did a little study of worldwide slavery in doing this piece, and discovered that slavery has occurred in almost every country, but American slavery was especially odious because it was based on race. Some observers suggest that American slavery should be termed "racialized slavery" to distinguish it from other forms.
The funeral music was written after a 1652 accident when a popular "lutenist" (a musician who plays the lute) named Charles Fleury, known as Blancrocher, died in a fall down a flight of stairs. The composer Johann Jakob Froberger was with Fleury at the time. Fleury was so popular that three other composers, besides Froberger, wrote funeral songs in his honor.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Excerpt from 1948 movie "To The Ends of the Earth" by Sidney Buchman (Link1)
MUSIC: 1652 "Tombeau (Funeral song) in C-minor" by Johann Jakob Froberger, performed 2019 by Richard Siegel on Harpsichord, Cembalo, and Clavecin (Link2; Permalink: Link3)
Link1: archive.org/details/TOTHEENDSOFTHEEARTHVideoQualityUpgrade
Link2: imslp.org/wiki/Tombeau_in_C_minor,_FbWV_632_(Froberger,_Johann_Jacob)#IMSLP577076
Link3: imslp.org/wiki/Special:ReverseLookup/577076
June 16, 2019SELF PORTRAIT 2019
Going through a lot of changes as I get to the half-way point of my 74th year. I may not have time for a while for the videos/animations. But my life is interesting and I'm learning new things. Click on image to enlarge.
Sources:
NA June 13, 2019PRO-WAR PROPAGANDA THAT LED TO INCALCULABLE SUFFERING (1:47)
In 1937, as World War II was beginning, Japanese and Germany film-makers collaborated on a pro-war propaganda film, "The Samurai's Daughter," which painted a picture of fascism's resistance to personal freedom and self-righteous sense that they were entitled to conquer neighboring countries. The joint collaboration did not go over well -- Japanese thought it was condescending. And what really hurts was its depiction of peaceful pastoral farming scenes as justification for the brutalities that were to follow.
Note the beautiful movie poster used as a floating background. Original are sold online for $130,000!
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Excerpts from 1937 joint German/Japanese propaganda film "TochterDesSamurai" (Link1; trans: 'Daughter of the Samurai').
(1) Still of "Casualties of a mass panic during a June 1941 Japanese bombing of Chongqing" (Link2)
(2) Still of editorial cartoon from U.S. Army film "Battle of China" (Link3)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: 1937 movie publicity poster (Link4)
MUSIC: Excerpt from 2019 composition "The Madder Red Of The Twilight" by Maryland-based George L. Smyth (Link5)
Link1: archive.org/details/TochterDesSamurai
Link2: pt.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficheiro:Casualties_of_a_mass_panic_-_Chungking,_China.jpg
Link3: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Japanese_bayonet_into_map_of_Manchuria_Why_We_Fight_no._6.jpg
Link4: www.imdb.com/title/tt0028028/mediaviewer/rm2369439232
Link5: archive.org/details/TheMadderRedOfTheTwilight
June 13, 2019DID GEORGE LUCAS SEE THIS OLD WESTERN? (1:52)
40 years before George Lucas's 1977 Star Wars, in which a major plot element is the discovery that villain Darth Vader is the father of heroic young Luke Skywalker, there was this 1936 western with a similar plot -- in reverse.
"Talking movies" were only a decade old, and the sound was poor despite my attempts to fix it in Audacity. So I added subtitles -- an evening's work.
A personal note. My creative journey has taken an unexpected turn, more technical than artistic. I have joined the artist and innovator's workshop NextFab, along with my buddy Ted; we intend to learn how to use a laser cutting machine. This is going to require me to learn a vector graphic program (like Adobe Illustrator of Inkscape) to write the machine control program.
In addition, I have also decided to pick up my old interest in the programming language Python.
Not sure how this will affect my experiments in video and animation.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Excerpt from 1936 western "The Idaho Kid" starring Rex Bell, with Earl Dwire (shown) (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Stained glass window from Lyon Cathedral, shown in 1982 "Zeitvergleich : Malerei und Grafik aus der DDR" (Link2; trans: 'Time Comparison: Painting and Graphics from the GDR')
MUSIC: Excerpt from 2019 song "#409" on album "Gently Close The Mouth" by Japanese electronic
music composer Takahiro Mukai (Link3)
Link1: ia601408.us.archive.org/1/items/IdahoKid
Link2: archive.org/details/gri_33125016374221
Link3: archive.org/details/mhrk216/Takahiro+Mukai+-+Gently+Close+The+Mouth+-+01+
June 7, 2019SPOOKY ARTIST AND MODEL IN MUSEUM (1:29)
The old Egyptian mummy setup restaged to the volcanic ruins of Pompei. He was a roman gladiator who fell in love with a noble lady -- who happens to reincarnated today. I speeded the action up by 150% -- can you tell?
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Excerpt from 1958 horror movie "Curse of the Faceless Man", with Elaine Edwards, shown. (Link1)
MUSIC: Excerpt from 2019 "Everything, And More" by Maryland-based musician George L Smyth, a piece using Clarinet, Baritone Horn, Piano, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Bass, String Bass and Voice. (Link2)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Collage based on paint samples from 1923 Sears Roebuck & Co. mail order catalog. (Link3)
Link1: archive.org/details/HORRORNIGHTATTHEBIJOUdoubleFeature
Link2: archive.org/details/EverythingAndMore
Link3: archive.org/details/SearsRoebuckAndCoCatalog1923
June 2, 2019COMPETING FOR GOVERNMENT STAGECOACH CONTRACT (0:46)
A very young John Wayne as a Pony Express rider, laid off after that system is closed, who decides to open a stagecoach line. The government arranges a race to decide who gets a $25,000 mail contract.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Excerpt from 1936 Republic Pictures western "Winds of the Wasteland" starring John Wayne (Link1)
MUSIC: Excerpt from 1957 performance of "Trio Sonata in F major" by Italian composer Giuseppe Sammartini (1695—1750) (Link2; permalink Link3); performers are Mario Duschenes (recorder), Jean-Pierre Rampal (flute), Robert Veyron-Lacroix (harpchichord).
Link1: archive.org/details/WINDSOFTHEWASTELANDVideoQualityUpgrade
Link2: imslp.org/wiki/Trio_Sonata_in_F_major,_IGS_46_(Sammartini,_Giuseppe)#IMSLP574750
Link3: imslp.org/wiki/Special:ReverseLookup/574750
June 2, 2019
A Note on Captions and Translations
Recently I learned how to add English subtitles to foreign-language films. It came about because I have been hearing good things about the Russian movie "T-34," a World War II story about a struggle of wills between a German and Russian tank commander, with lots of action, a love story, and a very Russian view of the superiority of the T-34 model tank (introduced in 1940) over the German Panzer tank. Anyway, I ran across a video of the film (labeled "Public Domain") on archive.orghere. Then I found a website that contained numerous SRT files that contain the captions in various languages. The SRT file website is subscene.com, specifically here. I downloaded a T-34 English caption file, and then went through the labor of merging the video file and the SRT file. Like so many things on the Internet, this was not easy because instructions were contradictory, recommending different products, such as here. I used Movavi, which I already own. The hassle was worth it. The captions were well-written and timed perfectly with the action.
THIS COULD BE INTERESTING: REACTION SHOT (0:05)
Reaction Shots are brief clips that demonstrate a reaction or response. They are often used on Internet chat boards instead of comments. Here is one, adapted from a 1947 English circus movie, "Dual Alibi," showing circus clowns watching acrobats.
Others are here (searching "Reaction Shot" on Google/Images). We live in an inarticulate age.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Excerpt from 1947 English circus movie, "Dual Alibi." (Link1)
Link1: archive.org/details/DualAlibi
May 31, 2019VIDEOCOLLAGE: 1920 HOLLYWOOD FLAPPER AND 2019 NORTH CAROLINA RAPPER (0:42)
Another juxtaposition. Louise Brooks is an interesting and tragic Hollywood figure. And although I often dislike rap, I like the stylings of A. Moss.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Excerpt from 1929 early talkie mystery film "The Voice from beyond the Grave" with William Powell and Lorraine ("Lulu" Brooks (shown). (Link1)
MUSIC: Excerpt from 2019 album from Winston-Salem, NC, white rapper A. Moss entitled "Carolina Raised." (Link2)
BACKGROUND IMAGE 1: Illustration from 1928 issue of Ukrainian magazine "Hart" (Link3)
BACKGROUND IMAGE 2: Six photographs of a patient with catalepsy from 1893 "La photographie médicale : application aux sciences médicales et physiologiques" (Link4)
BACKGROUND IMAGE 3. Advertising for commercial weighscale from 1917 "Hardware World" (Link5)
Link1: archive.org/details/THEVOICEFROMTHEGRAVEVideoQualityUpgrade
Link2: archive.org/details/BS450042
Link3: archive.org/details/Hart--1928--April-May--4-5
Link4: archive.org/details/gri_33125008559904
Link5: archive.org/details/HardwareWorldVol12No712
May 29, 2019MUSIC VIDEO: VILLA-LOBOS GUITAR EXERCISE (2:18)
An odd-sounding (to my untutored ear) guitar composition, commissioned by Andres Segovia.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: 2019 video of Luciano Tavares performing one of Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos's (1887-1959) "Studies for Guitar", each one based on a choro (Brazilian tune) played by itinerant street musicians; guitar virtuoso Andres Segovia commissioned the studies (Link1 from Villa-Lobos in the 1920's; permalink Link2)
BACKGROUND IMAGES 1: Samples of stone siding in 1899 catalog of The Canton Steel Roofing Co. (Link3)
BACKGROUND IMAGE 2: Illustration of Atrium of a Renaissance-style palace from 1776 "Caprici di scene teatrali" (Link4; trans: 'Caprices of theatrical scenes')
BACKGROUND IMAGE 3: Vaporwave color samples mentioned in Reddit's Vaporwave Art group (Link5)
Link1: imslp.org/wiki/12_Estudos,_W235_(Villa-Lobos,_Heitor)#IMSLP572'474
Link2: imslp.org/wiki/Special:ReverseLookup/325723
Link3: archive.org/details/TheCantonSteelRoofingCo.1899
Link4: archive.org/details/gri_33125016285369
Link5: postimg.cc/Vdz03Fv1
May 16, 2019VIDEOCOLLAGE: THE CONSCIENCE OF AN EVIL PERSON (0:54)
Video allows a depth of connection between meaning and texture.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Scene from the ending of the 1930 mystery movie "The Bat Whispers," directed by Roland West (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGES: Contemporary theatre posters for film (Link2)
MUSIC 1: 2019 Song "If You Want to Drive Out Nothing is Inevitable" from album 'Cars Apocalypse' by Yoshiwaku/Ed End (Link3)
MUSIC 2: Excerpt from 2019 song "Dirty Hands" from album 'Black Files EP' on netlabel Soisloscerdos (Link4)
Link1: archive.org/details/THEBATWHISPERSstanard35mmVersion
Link2: www.imdb.com/title/tt0020668/
Link3: archive.org/details/Cars_Apocalypse
Link4: archive.org/details/slc44.029-black_files
May 14, 2019REMIX: POST-APOCALYPTIC VIDEOGAME AND RUSSIAN FOLK SONG (1:50)
Mixup of film of Russian folk dance concert and samples from a newly released videogame, "Borderlands 3".
SOURCES:
VIDEO: 2019 Video review of game Borderlands 3, "We've played it! - 20 Things You Should Know" by GamesRadar(Link1)
MUSIC & CHOIR: 2014 perforance of Russian folk song "Kalinka" in Moscow's Tchaikovsky Concert Hall (Link2)
Link1: www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlASdpRI69Y
Link2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP9a-OTn2QA
May 13, 2019REMIX: MORE OLD SCI-FI (1:40)
An old Russian film from the Sputnik areas, combined with an old medical manual, an old book of Russian architecture, and an exercise from an 18th century guitar virtuoso.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Extract from 1957 Russian film "Дорога к звёздам" (Link1; trans: 'Road to the Stars')
MUSIC: 2018 performance by Stefan Nesbya of "Divertissement, Op.106" by Italian guitar virtuoso Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829) (Link2, Permalink Link3)
BACKGROUND IMAGE 1: Collage from decorative patterns in 1895 "Pami︠a︡tniki drevni︠a︡go russkago zodchestva" (Link4; trans: "Russian Architecture")
BACKGROUND IMAGE 2: Illustration from 1893 "La photographie médicale : application aux sciences médicales et physiologiques" (Link5: trans: 'Medical Photography: Application to Medical and Physiological Sciences')
Link1: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CX0oSjwLqI
Link2: imslp.org/wiki/24_Prime_Lezioni_progressive,_Op.139_(Giuliani,_Mauro)#IMSLP571671
Link3: imslp.org/wiki/Special:ReverseLookup/571673
Link4: archive.org/details/gri_33125016373843
Link5: archive.org/details/gri_33125008559904
May 10, 2019STREAM OF UNCONSCIOUS: DREAM #5 (0:48)
Another dream image, in the Drinking from the Fire Hose series. Subverse, a game being developed and funded by videogame players, mainly horny young men. Here is the pitch: "Since the dawn of time, humankind has stared up at the cosmos with a mixture of trepidation and wonder. Turning our curious eyes toward the glittering stars speckled around our little blue planet, we have often asked ourselves the eternal question: Are we alone in this universe? What is out there? More importantly… can we bone it? That’s why we made Subverse - a tactical RPG/SHMUP hybrid that takes place in a fully explorable galaxy where you get to be the Captain of your very own ship...which is crewed by the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit." Vocabulary review: RPG = Role Playing Game; SHMUP = Shoot 'em Up; Waifu = "A fictional character from non-live-action visual media (typically an anime, manga, or video game) that one is attracted to and considers a significant other. [Urban Dictionary]"
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Preview clip for videogame under development called "Subverse" (Link1)
MUSIC: Excerpt from 1914 cylinder recording of "The Junk Man Rag" by banjoist Fred Van Eps (Link2)
BACKGROUND IMAGE 1: Illustration from 1904 edition of Italian pro-fascist author Gabriele D'Annunzio's play "La figlia di Iorio : tragedia pastorale" (Link3; trans: 'The Daughter of Lorio: Pastoral Tragedy')
BACKGROUND IMAGE 2: Stock video "Particle-blue-abstract-animation-form-motion" from Studio Backlot (Link4)
BACKGROUND SHAPE: Character from 2018 "Lomtrian" dingbat font by Rym (Link5)
SLEEPER IMAGE: Newspaper illustration for article entitled "Men turn into their dads at age 38" (Link6)
Link1: studiofow.com/subverse/
Link2: archive.org/details/edba-2225
Link3: archive.org/details/gri_33125008471969
Link4: www.studiobacklot.tv/stock/motion-backgrounds-5/particle-blue-abstract-animation-form-motion
Link5: www.dafont.com/lomtrian.font
Link6: www.irishmirror.ie/news/world-news/top-ten-tell-tale-signs-youre-3421379
May 7, 2019STREAM OF UNCONSCIOUS: DREAM #4 (1:33)
Another dream image, in the Drinking from the Fire Hose series. Schlocky sci-fi of the 50's. The opening Sleeper image sold for $9,3 million!
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Scene from 1958 science fiction film "Missile to the Moon" (Link1), low-budget remake of 1953 "Cat Women of the Moon."
SLEEPER: 1946 drawing by Pablo Picasso, "Portrait de femme endormie" (Link2; trans: 'Portrait of a sleeping woman')
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Theatre poster for film (Link3)
BACKGROUND SHAPES: Characters from 2018 "Lomtrian" dingbat font by Rym (Link4)
MUSIC: Song "Render 6" from 2017 album 'Watchers' by Horiso (Link5)
Link1: archive.org/details/MissileToTheMoon
Link2: curiator.com/art/pablo-picasso/portrait-de-femme-endorm
Link3: www.imdb.com/title/tt0053072/
Link4: www.dafont.com/lomtrian.font
Link5: archive.org/details/horiso_-_Watchers/brhnet52_05_horiso
May 6, 2019STREAM OF UNCONSCIOUS: DREAM #3 (1:06)
Another dream image, in the Drinking from the Fire Hose series. Experimenting with a different sleeping soul in the opening -- this time a homeless man napping on a bench.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Scene from 1962 English mystery film "Out of the Fog" by Maurice Wilson (Link1)
MUSIC: Song "Pleasant Melody" from 2018 album 'Fairytale' by Russian-born Natasha Beller (Link2)
BACKGROUND VIDEO 1: Scenes of blowing trees in cyclone from Twitter feed of Indian politician Chowkidar Jay Panda (Link3)
BACKGROUND VIDEO 2: Instagram video from singer Natasha Beller (Link4)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Instagram Collage from Natasha Bellere, colorized (Link5)
Link1: archive.org/details/OutOfTheFogUK
Link5: archive.org/details/BSOG0076
Link2: twitter.com/PandaJay/status/1124167930986418176
Link3: www.instagram.com/p/Bn6rz4an0l0/
Link4: www.instagram.com/p/BgqWLiClyj3/
May 4, 2019STREAM OF UNCONSCIOUS: DREAM #2 (1:39)
Another dream image, in the Drinking from the Fire Hose series.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Selection from early (1928) talky "The Studio Murder Mystery", a scene featuring Florence Eldridge and Doris Hill (Link1)
BACKGROUND 1: Decorated letter "V" from 1856 alphabet designed by Godfrey Sykes (Link2)
BACKGROUND 2: Image from cartoonist Winsor McKay's 1905 comic strip "Little Nemo in Slumberland" (Link3)
BACKGROUND 3: Movie poster from 1928 theatre release
MUSIC 1: Selection from 1897 operetta "Les p'tites Michu" by André Messager (Link4; permalink Link5; trans: 'The Michu Girls')
MUSIC 2: Selection from "Elementals," a recent sampler album of nature sounds recorded by sound recordist Lang Elliott (Link6)
Link1: archive.org/details/TheStudioMurderMystery
Link2: archive.org/details/gri_33125010054084/page/n401
Link3: archive.org/details/LittleNemo1905-1914ByWinsorMccay/pa
Link4: imslp.org/wiki/Les_p%27tites_Michu_(Messager,_Andr%C3%A9)#IMSLP570489
Link5: imslp.org/wiki/Special:ReverseLookup/570489
Link6: musicofnature.com/
May 1, 2019STREAM OF UNCONSCIOUS: DREAM #1 (2:10)
My current art life is constructing odd trains of thought based on observation and exposure to a near-infinite volume of images, videos, and songs. I view them as dreams. I like this one a lot.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Light show at 2019 concert of Iranian musician Siamak Abbasi (Link1)
MUSIC 1: 2016 song "La Mecanica de las Cosas" (trans: 'The Mechanics of Things') on album "Lo Inquietante" (trans: 'The Disturbing') by Chilean producer Federico Schumaker (Link2)
MUSIC 2: Track #16 on undated album "Yukani Zikani" by Yukiga Futte Uresii (Link3)
BACKGROUND IMAGE 1: Sample from 1758 book of calligraphy "Der getreue Schreibemeister" (Link4; trans: 'The Faithful Scribe')
BACKGROUND IMAGE 2: Sample from 1940 Sears Roebuck "Color Perfect Wallpapers" catalog (Link5)
VARIOUS BACKGROUND IMAGES: Illustration from 1955 catalog of Johnson & Smith Novelties (Link6)
Link1: archive.org/details/Siamak.Abbasi-Bebin.Cheghadr.Dooset.Daram-mosicvideo.com
Link2: archive.org/details/pndvd02_mt
Link3: archive.org/details/YUKANIZIKANI/16_YUKANI_ZIKANI
Link4: archive.org/details/gri_33125011256506
Link5: rchive.org/details/SearsWallpapers1940
Link6: archive.org/details/Novelties001
April 29, 2019OLD MOVIE MORPH MIX: THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME II, SHORT VERSION (1:49)
A second version of the 1936 movie of H.G. Wells' 1933 vision of man's future, shortened because the Plastic Club Members' Medal show limits videos to 3 minutes in length.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Selections from 1936 science fiction film "Things to Come" (Link1) directed by William Menzies based on H.G.Wells 1933 novel.
MUSIC: Song "Stargazer" from 2019 album 'In Orbit' by Crimean producer Cutside (Link2)
Link1: archive.org/details/THINGSTOCOMEVideoQualityUpgrade
Link2: archive.org/details/BSMX0177
April 24, 2019PERSONAL STATEMENT: THE MEANING OF HISTORY (0:58)
My father was a decorated & wounded veteran of World War II and my great grandfather was a Union soldier imprisoned in a Confederate military prison, Andersonville. One irony: the background transitions from fine marble to a grisly roadside atrocity photo from WW2. But my source for the photo was a 1940 German book of atrocities, allegedly committed by Poles against the German community in Poland, used, presumably, to justify Nazi invasion of Poland. I used it because a) I didn't want to search for another atrocity photo and b) in a global conflict in which 70-85 million -- nearly 3% of the world population -- perished, the "side" and "identity" of killers and victims is less important than their suffering and death.
SOURCES:
MUSIC: Song "Lyria" from 2019 album 'Ancient Era' by Naos (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGE 1: Illustration from 1888 "Eight Marble Patterns" by W. Sutherland (Link2)
BACKGROUND IMAGE 2: Illustration from 1940 "Polish Atrocities Against The German Minority In Poland" by Hans Schadewaldt (Link3)
FONT: "Thor Gonzalez" by Spanish typographer known as Woodcutter (Link4)
Link1: archive.org/details/NaosAncientEra
Link2: archive.org/details/gri_33125001305834
Link3: archive.org/details/PolishAtrocities_201904/page/n192
Link4: www.dafont.com/thor-gonzalez.font
April 24, 2019WHIMSICAL MISCELLANOUS REMIX: GAME PLAY, PINUP, DESIGN (1:34)
An experimental piece -- departing from the old movie motif.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Selection from "Boreal-Alyph," a 2019 fan version of the first=person shooter videogame 'Half Life.' (Link1)
MUSIC: 2017 "Violin Sonata No.2" by Californian Davide Verotta (Link2; permalink: Link3)
Link1: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtGXflL_hno
Link2: imslp.org/wiki/Sonata_for_Violin_No.2_(Verotta,_Davide)#IMSLP568620
Link3: imslp.org/wiki/Special:ReverseLookup/568619
April 17, 2019OLD MOVIE MORPH MIX: THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME (4:29)
A dated 1936 cinematic retelling of H.G. Wells' 1933 vision of man's future.
Not sure I like the new 1080x1920 pixel file format. It's clumsy on the web page and slows things down for a benefit not as yet determined.
SOURCES:
VIDEO & AUDIO: Selections from 1936 science fiction film "Things to Come" (Link1) directed by William Menzies based on H.G.Wells 1933 novel.
MUSIC: 2017 composition "To The Edge... And Beyond!" (Link2) by American composer Robert Moore [no relation]. Moore says the piece is 'about Anthropogenic Climate Disruption - the single largest and most important issue facing our species.' (Permalink: Link3)
Link1: archive.org/details/THINGSTOCOMEVideoQualityUpgrade
Link2: imslp.org/wiki/To_The_Edge..._And_Beyond!_(Moore,_Robert)#IMSLP567547
Link3: imslp.org/wiki/Special:ReverseLookup/567547
April 14, 2019OLD MOVIE MORPH MIX: INNOCENT BEDROOM ACCOMODATIONS (1:14)
A 1931 romantic comedy / mystery story.
SOURCES:
VIDEO & AUDIO: Scene from "The Tip Off" (Link1) a romantic comedy of 1931. Two men (Eddie Quillan and prizefighter Robert Armstrong), dodging gangland hitmen, hide out with their love interests (blonde Ginger Rogers and Joan Peers). Their sleeping arrangements are innocent but would probably have been censored after the Hays Code was imposed in 1934.
MUSIC: "Engage Trio" collaborative work for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Violin, Viola and Cello by George L Smyth, Vonna Wolf and Eithan Hein (Link2)
Link1: archive.org/details/THETIPOFFImageQualityUpgrade
Link2: archive.org/details/EngageTrio
April 12, 2019OLD MOVIE MORPH MIX: QUAINT LOCAL THEATRE IN ENGLAND (3:22)
A World War II English movie aimed at building good relations with Russia. A Russian engineer visits England, learns to appreciate customs like local historical pageants.
SOURCES:
VIDEO & AUDIO: From 1943 English movie "The Demi-Paradise" (also known as "Adventure for Two") about a Russian engineer learning to appreciate England (Link1).
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Theatre poster (Link2)
Link1: archive.org/details/TheDemiParadise
Link2: www.imdb.com/title/tt0035793/
April 7, 2019OLD MOVIE MORPH MIX: ABANDONED CAMERA LEADS TO MURDER MYSTERY (4:05)
Curious English movie about a man who returns from a drive to find someone tossed a camera in the back of his car. Very mannered English mystery.
SOURCES:
VIDEO & AUDIO: Edited scenes from 1933 English mystery film "The Ghost Camera" (Link1) starring Henry Kendall and Ida Lupino.
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Theatrical poster for film (Link2)
Link1: archive.org/details/THEGHOSTCAMERAVideoQualityUpgrade#
Link2: www.imdb.com/title/tt0024054/
April 5, 2019OLD MOVIE MORPH MIX: OLD-TIME STUDIO CREDIT (0:21)
Short piece experimenting with new size (1920 pixels wide x 1080 high) compared to previous 640 x 480.
I expect it to be awkward for use on my web page, but it is the industry standard for YouTube and other outlets. On my screen, I have to scroll to the right to access the four-angle icon to size the image to the page.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Opening credits for Monogram Pictures 1937 adventure film "The Legion of Missing Men" (Link1)
Monogram was a low-budget studio active between 1931 and 1953.
MUSIC: Selection from 2019 recording "Engage Trio" by George L Smyth, Vonna Wolf and Eithan Hein (Link2)
Link1: archive.org/details/TheLegionOfMissingMen
Link2: archive.org/details/EngageTrio
April 3, 2019OLD MOVIE MORPH MIX: COLLAGE OF ENGLISH VICTORIAN MELODRAMA (4:10)
Tod Slaughter was an English actor with a long career playing menacing heavies in Victorian costume dramas.
Here he is in the 1936 "The Crimes of Steven Hawke," where he is a money-lender who doubles as a serial killer known as the "Spinebre aker."
This is an experimental piece. Will be changing to a different size format for future videos.
Music is a tribute by students to Chilean composer Jose Asuar, who died in 2017. Folk may be interested in checking out Asuar's
work here and here.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Collage of scenes from 1936 English film "The Crimes of Stephen Hawke" starring melodramatic actor Tod Slaughter (Link1)
MUSIC: One of a series of tributes to Chilean electronic musician Jose Vicente Asuar (1933–2017), from the 2019 album "Divertimento al Amanecer." This song is an interpretation by RandomVOLT of Asuar's 1967 'Divertimento' (Link2)
Link1: archive.org/details/TheCrimesOfStephenHawke#
Link2: archive.org/details/pn140/pn140_26_Divertimento_randomVOLT-Remodel.mp3
April 2, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: AMNESIAC ENGLISHMAN MARRIES GYPSY GIRL (1:49)
A scene from a 1946 lightweight romance, part of a convoluted plot involving amnesia, a missing locket, and accidental bigamy.
SOURCES:
VIDEO & AUDIO: Excerpt from 1946 movie "Caravan" produced by Harold Huth and starring Stewart Granger and Jean Kent (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Theatrical poster for display in movie theatres (Link2)
Link1: archive.org/details/Caravan_201903
Link2: www.imdb.com/title/tt0037578/
March 30, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: LONG STORY OF RUTHLESS TREASURE HUNTERS (8:17)
A look at the performance of ill-fated Frances Farmer as a cynical, sharp-tongued bar girl in a late 19th century South Seas adventure.
SOURCES:
VIDEO & AUDIO: From 1940 adventure film "South of Pago Pago" produced by Edward Small, starring Frances Farmer and Victor McLaglen (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Poster for theatrical release (Link2)
Link1: archive.org/details/SouthOfPagoPago
Link2: www.imdb.com/title/tt0033082/
March 29, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: FRENCH REVOLUTION DRAMA IN NOIR STYLE (2:15)
Stopping Robespierre and the Reign of Terrors
SOURCES:
VIDEO & AUDIO: From 1949 film "The Black Book" (also known as "Reign of Terror"), a low budget historical drama of the French Revolution directed by Anthony Mann in a Film Noir style and starring Robert Cummings (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Spanish-language theatre placard for the film (Link2)
Link1: archive.org/details/THEBLACKBOOKUncut#
Link2: www.imdb.com/title/tt0041796/
March 25, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: ADVENTURE ON FERRY BOAT (3:56)
I lived on Staten Island for many years and took that ferry.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Chase scene from 1948 movie "Close-Up" by Frank Satenstein about some incriminating photographs (Link1)
MUSIC: Piano improvisation "Circle I Sector IV" by Belarussian pianist Darja Bahasłova from 2019 album 'Fantastic Swimmers' (Link2)
Link1: archive.org/details/CloseUp_201903
Link2: archive.org/details/mhrk212/Fantastic+Swimmers
March 23, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: WHEN NONSENSE MAKES SENSE (0:46)
I am convinced I have experienced (on committees and the like) arguments that use the right words and phrases but don't make sense. This clip illustrates a step further: double talk, where the words themselves don't make sense.
SOURCES:
VIDEO & AUDIO: From 1944 film "Swing Hostess" by Sigmund Neufeld about a big band modeled on the Benny Goodman Band (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Poster for movie theatre display (Link2)
Link1: archive.org/details/SWINGHOSTESSVideoQualityUpgrade
Link2: www.imdb.com/title/tt0037336/
March 23, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: COINCIDENCE LEADS TO DRAMA AND DEATH (1:57)
A complicated story, which I do not tell in this video. Instead, an experiment in half-size insets in a stretch of video. The music is interesting; it's in Italian, I don't know what it says, but I like the female singer's voice.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Excerpts from 1940 "A Window in London" suspense drama by Josef Somlo, also known as "A Lady in Distress," starring Michael Redgrave and Sally Gray (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Placard for movie theatres (Link2)
MUSIC: Excerpt from 2019 "Attraversando Lo Specchio" (Crossing the Mirror) by Italian group Lang and Fabio Chiantini on Roman label 'Strato Dischii' (Link3).
Link1: archive.org/details/AWindowInLondon#
Link2: www.imdb.com/title/tt0031548/
Link3: archive.org/details/SDR043
March 20, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: HOW LADIES RESPOND TO PROPOSALS OF MARRIAGE (1:31)
Final piece from my analysis of this rather fussy, English movie. Fourth of four.
SOURCES:
VIDEO & AUDIO: From 1943 English costume drama "The Man in Grey" by Edward Black, starring James
Mason (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Movie lobby poster (Link2)
Link1: archive.org/details/TheManInGrey#
Link2: www.imdb.com/title/tt0036135/
March 19, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: CINEMATIC FORESHADOWING AS GYPSY READS FUTURE (1:18)
More anti-women stuff from this 1940 English film. Third of four.
SOURCES:
VIDEO & AUDIO: From 1943 English costume drama "The Man in Grey" by Edward Black, starring James
Mason (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Movie lobby poster (Link2)
Link1: archive.org/details/TheManInGrey#
Link2: www.imdb.com/title/tt0036135/
March 19, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: SOFT-HEARTED PRIVATE EYE IN A SMALL CAFE (2:43)
Turns out the prostitute he defends is killed the next day, and leads the private eye to a cache of stolen Nazi jewels.
SOURCES:
VIDEO & AUDIO: From 1957 crime film "My Gun Is Quick" with Robert Bray as Mike Hammer and Jan Chaney as 'Red'; music by Marlin Skiles (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Poster for theatrical display (Link2)
Link1: archive.org/details/MyGunIsQuick_201903
Link2: www.imdb.com/title/tt0050737/
March 18, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: DEPRESSION ERA FANTASY OF SUDDEN WEALTH (3:37)
Not a good movie, but more footage of popular 1930's actress Constance Bennett. The movie is a comedy of social status. More experiments, increasing vibrancy and saturation of background image color.
SOURCES:
VIDEO AND AUDIO from 1930 romance "Sin Takes a Holiday" by A.B. Derr with Constance Bennett and Basil Rathbone (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: 18-year-old Constance Bennett in dancing student pose, 1922. (Link2)
Link1: archive.org/details/SinTakesAHoliday_201903
Link2: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Constance_Bennett_-_Nov_1922_Shadowland.jpg
March 14, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: PLEASE TERMINATE THIS SHOCKING SPECTACLE (0:55)
More anti-women stuff from this 1940 English film.
SOURCES:
VIDEO & AUDIO: From 1943 English costume drama "The Man in Grey" by Edward Black, starring James
Mason (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Movie lobby poster (Link2)
Link1: archive.org/details/TheManInGrey#
Link2: www.imdb.com/title/tt0036135/
March 14, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: MATING IN ONE ARISTOCRATIC HOME IN REGENCY ENGLAND (2:50)
This animation illustrates some absurd ideas of female roles, from a movie set in Regency (late 18th century) England. May do more with film later.
SOURCES:
VIDEO & AUDIO: From 1943 English costume drama "The Man in Grey" by Edward Black, starring James
Mason (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Movie lobby poster (Link2)
Link1: archive.org/details/TheManInGrey#
Link2: www.imdb.com/title/tt0036135/
March 13, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: STEP AWAY FROM NARRATIVE INTO SHAPES (2:38)
More experimenting with filter techniques to add color and complexity to simple old black & white movies.
SOURCES:
VIDEO & AUDIO: From 1930 movie "Conspiracy" by William LeBaron (Link1), starring Bessie Love
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Poster for theatre lobby (Link2)
MUSIC: 2019 song "Dualitat" by PicnicBoy (Link3)
Link1: archive.org/details/Corspiracy
Link2: www.imdb.com/title/tt0020785/
Link3: archive.org/details/PXRec051EPPicnicboyDualitaetMP3
March 12, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: A RADIO PROGRAM THAT TAUGHT YOU TO TAP DANCE (2:42)
The dance finale of a silly 1936 romantic comedy about the tap-dancing suitor of a radio station owner's daughter; somehow they convince the father to run a program called 'Dr. Cassidy's School of the Dance,' which teaches the city how to tap dance -- through sound alone. Research on this led me via Wikipedia to the following discussion of tap dance moves:
"Common tap steps include the shuffle, shuffle ball change, double shuffle, leap shuffle, hop shuffle, flap, flap ball change, running flaps, flap heel, cramproll, buffalo, Maxi Ford, Maxi Ford with a pullback, pullbacks, wings, Cincinnati, the shim sham shimmy (also called the Lindy), Irish, waltz clog, the paddle roll, the paradiddle, stomp, brushes, scuffs, spanks, riffs, and single and double toe punches, hot steps, heel clicks, time steps, over-the-tops, military time step, New Yorkers, Shiggy Bops, drawbacks, and chugs. In advanced tap dancing, basic steps are often combined together to create new steps. Many steps also have single, double, and triple versions, including pullbacks, timesteps, and drawbacks. In tap, various types of turns can be done, including step heel turns, Maxi Ford turns, cramproll turns, and drag turns. Timesteps are widely used in tap and can vary in different areas. These consist of a rhythm that is changed to make new timesteps by adding or removing steps."
Experimenting with different ways of introducing color to these black & white movies.
SOURCES:
VIDEO & AUDIO: From 1936 romantic comedy "Dancing Feet" by Colbert Clark, based on the implausible idea that a radio program could teach listeners to tap dance (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGES: 1. Photograph of Mexican tap dance stage performance (Link2) and 2. enlargement with digital alteration of movie's Harlem tap dance scene.
Link1: archive.org/details/DancingFeet_201903
Link2: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:04232012dae_jpg_semana_de_la_cultura082.JPG
March 11, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: RECALLING CONSTANCE BENNETT (1:37)
Constance Bennett, who was the highest paid Hollywood actress in the early 1930's, caught my eye in this one for her changing expressions and her tense, focused energy. Here, she plays a Berlin streetwalker who befriends an escaped Canadian Prisoner of War. I like the idea of focusing on the performance of one actor; I don't think this first attempt at an actor-focused animation was especially successful, but I'll probably try it again.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Scenes featuring Constance Bennett from 1936 war movie "Everything Is Thunder" (Link1)
MUSIC: Title track from 2019 album "Dark Moon" by Maryland musician George L. Smyth (Link2). Piece was written to accompany the haiku by Lorin Ford:
beyond Pluto
the pull of a planet
dark moon
Rad more of Australian Ford's poetry at (Link3)
Link1: archive.org/details/EverythingIsThunder
Link2: archive.org/details/DarkMoon_201902
Link3: walleahpress.com.au/HaikuFord.html
March 9, 2019
`
DIGITAL REMIX: BUSINESS-LIKE MARRIAGE PROPOSAL (2:33)
From a 1945 mystery movie, a man and a woman come to an understanding in a noisy, crowded nightclub,
with kids at the table.
SOURCES:
SOURCES
VIDEO & AUDIO: Nightclub scene from 1945 "Club Havana," featuring character actor Rene Riano (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Cinema placard from 1945 (Link2)
Link1: archive.org/details/ClubHavana
Link2: www.imdb.com/title/tt0037605/
March 7, 2019
`
DIGITAL REMIX: NIMBLE-FINGERED SUITOR OUTWITS LANDLORD'S AGENT (4:17)
From a 1943 early Bollywood (Hindu/Indian) "Kismet," a subplot where a recently-paroled pickpocket saves a young woman from the greedy designs of a landlord's agent.
Note technical glitches, starting at around 2:50, especially at 3:28. These are worrisome, and may signal that my working methods and equipment are not suitable for longer works.
SOURCES:
VIDEO & AUDIO: 1943 Indian musical drama "Kismet" (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Theatre poster for "Kismet" (Link2)
SONG: "Space Guardian" from 2012 album 'Simulacra' by Indian group Saty (Link3)
Link1: archive.org/details/Kismet_201903
Link2: www.imdb.com/title/tt0036077/
Link3: archive.org/details/saty-simulacra
March 6, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: 1940'S EMPOWERED WOMAN BLURS BARRIERS (0:31)
From a 1944 movie, female reporter bypasses competition and fools butler to get the story.
SOURCES:
VIDEO & AUDIO: Clip from 1944 newspaper drama "Double Exposure" (Link1)
PHOTO of Philly_Bob by Janice Moore
MUSIC: Electronic music "13K" from album '98K' by South American label "Sad Martians From (Uranus)" (Link2)
Link1: archive.org/details/DoubleExposure_201903
Link2: archive.org/details/sad_martians_from_98K
March 5, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: CLEAN-UP, TIDY-UP IN LITHUANIA, 1963 (2:32)
From a 1963 newsreel, the state encourages residents to clean up balconies and courtyards.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Scenes from 1963 newsreel "Soviet Lithuania No. 31," depicting disorder in
the courtyards and balconies of the residential houses in Vilnius (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGES: Letter samples from 1933 Australian catalog of architectural
terra cotta decorations; different filters (Link2)
MUSIC: Sonic collage from 2019 album "Musicas Brutas" (trans: 'Raw Music')
by Spanish groups Cuneta (trans: 'Gutter') and Cerca Sonora (trans: 'Close Sound')
(Link3)
Link1: www.europeana.eu/portal/en/record/2051903/data_euscreenXL_0200d8c294094c1483f2988b51939ffe.html?q=video#dcId=1551475158959&p=80
Link2: archive.org/details/WunderlichLtd.1933
Link3: archive.org/details/at093_CunetaCercaSonora_01_Eter/at093_CunetaCercaSonora_02_XativarumEspeculaeXilofonito.wav
March 2, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: LAVISH DANCE NUMBER ABOARD OCEAN LINER (2:56)
From a complicated murder mystery set aboard a transatlantic ocean liner, the floor show in the ship's dining room -- very much in fitting with the Depression-era escapism of the time. (Reminds me of current fascination with meh celebrities like the Kardashians.)
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Sequence from ballroom dance number in 1934 mystery film "Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round" (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Spanish movie poster ("Buque sin Puerto"; trans: 'Boat without Port') (Link2)
MUSIC: Electronic Music No. 8 ("Stratosphere in F# Minor") by Australian composer Nicholas Locke (Link3, Link4)
Link1: archive.org/details/TransatlanticMerryGoRound
Link2: www.imdb.com/title/tt0025905/mediaviewer/rm2393012480
Link3: imslp.org/wiki/Electronic_Music%2C_Op.8_(Locke%2C_Nicholas)
Link4: imslp.org/wiki/Special:ReverseLookup/495460
March 1, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: LONG IRISH MEMORIES OF CROMWELL (3:47)
Look up Oliver Cromwell, the 17th century Puritan leader who beheaded the king of England. A divisive figure, who comes down to me (and my Irish Catholic upbringing) as a terrifying figure, although some may have a more positive view. This movie clip/anecdote features Deborah Kerr and Trevor Howard. Stuck to original soundtrack.
SOURCES:
VIDEO & SOUND: 1946 English film "I See a Dark Stranger" with Deborah Kerr and Trevor Howard (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Coat of Arms of Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate; motto: "Pax Quaeritur Bello" (trans: 'Peace Is Sought by War") (Link2)
Link1: archive.org/details/ISeeADarkStranger
Link2: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Cromwell#/media/File:Coat_of_Arms_of_the_Protectorate_(1653%E2%80%931659).svg
February 27, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: MURDERER SEEKS COMBINATION TO SAFE (4:36)
Another experimental piece. Early versions of this piece sent me into depression because I thought it was too dark and mushy, but I emphasized the darkness and I think Nicholas Locke's music saves it. I combined that music with some audio from the movie (apologies, Mr. Locke) because of the telephone sound effects and Ginger Roger's agonized scream. Tried to adjust music and audio using Audacity, which I'm just learning to use, didn't do great job.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: From 1932 mystery movie "The Thirteenth Guest" starring Ginger Rogers (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: From 1933 Australian catalog of architectural terra cotta decorations (Link2)
MUSIC: 2019 "String Trio #3 in D Minor Op. 15 No. 3 (Moderato Misterioso)" by Australian composer Nicholas Locke (Link3 & Link4)
Link1: archive.org/details/WHODUNITNIGHTATTHEBIJOUMysteryDoubleFeature
Link2: archive.org/details/WunderlichLtd.1933
Link3: imslp.org/wiki/String_Trio_No.3_in_D_minor%2C_Op.15_No.3_(Locke%2C_Nicholas)
Link4: imslp.org/wiki/Special:ReverseLookup/557810
February 26, 2019FUNERAL RITES FOR A BELOVED LITHUANIAN COMPOSER (0:39)
Jumped through hoops to gets this 1948 Eastern European newsreel -- copied it from screen -- but I like the surface created by the flowers and the girls' traditional costumes.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: From 1948 newsreel "Tarybų Lietuva" (trans: 'Soviet Lithuania'),
girls preparing wreath for funeral of composer Juozas Gruodis (Link1)
MUSIC: Excerpt from Gruodis' composition "Song of the Sea" from ballet 'Jūratė and Kastytis' (Link2)
Link1: www.e-kinas.lt/objektas/kinas/0104/soviet-lithuania-no-14#dcId=1551050925998&p=1
Link2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQCju3jvAEc
February 24, 2019WHEN NATURAL SOUND CREATES FORM 1:20)
Inventive Australian artist used recorded bird calls to make "bird-like" shapes in this animation. He called them "audio life forms." Another find in the collection of public access video from Europe at
www.europeana.eu.
SOURCES:
VIDEO & SOUND: fROM "Nightingale & Canary" animation created by Australian artist Andy Thomas (Link1) using digital technology and watercolor (Link2); commissioned by the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision.
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Photo of Nightingale by Frebeck (Link3)
Link1: andythomas.com.au/
Link2: www.cartoonbrew.com/cgi/nightingale-and-canary-by-andy-thomas-103017.html
Link3: commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33037774
February 23, 2019FANCY DRESS WHEN HOLLAND RULED THE WORLD (1:05)
1947 newsreel footage about show in Haarlem town hall displaying old ("traditional") costumes. Found it in a collection of public access video from Europe at
www.europeana.eu.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: 1947 Newsreel of showcase of traditional Dutch attire in town hall of Haarlem (Link1)
MUSIC: 2019 Ukelele prelude by Italian Dario Argentesi composer, "Recuerdos de Zhanggang" (Link2; trans: 'Memories of Shanghai')
Link1: openbeelden.nl/media/27678
Link2: imslp.org/wiki/Special:ReverseLookup/562128
February 22, 2019SOFT NAUGHTY FROM BEFORE THE HOLLYWOOD CODE (WITH HAIKU) (0:35)
Curious, brief combination of Hollywood glitz sex appeal and a long classical piece connected to some fine poetry.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: from undated "Pre-Code: The Unmentionables" also known as "Show Us Your Undies" by Unknown (Link1)
MUSIC: from "Transience" for four violins and four violas by George L. Smyth (Link2), written for haiku by Debbie Strange:
transience . . .
petal by petal
we let go
Link1: archive.org/details/PreCodeTheUnmentionables
Link2: archive.org/details/Transience_201902
February 21, 2019MANCUSIAN DIALECT IN ENGLISH MOVIE (2:57)
There is a cultural split in England between residents of the South (like London) and residents of the North (like Manchester). I visited Manchester on a trip to England some years ago, attracted by its industrial past and its world-class newspaper in The Manchester Guardian; while in the area, I visited Robert Oppie's Museum of Brands (which has since moved to London's Notting Hill neighborhood) and several excellent museums. There was once a Manchester School of film-making, now largely disappeared, which highlighted the Manchester accent (known as Mancusian). Note that several parts of the dialog in this snippet are unfamiliar to me, such as the idiom "stopping on."
SOURCES:
VIDEO and AUDIO: From 1935 English dialect comedy "The Right Age to Marry" by Maclean Rogers; product of the short-lived Manchester School of film-making. (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Photo of actor Frank Pettingell, who plays a retired Lancashire cotton mill owner (Link2)
Link1: archive.org/details/TheRightAgeToMarry
Link2: www.imdb.com/name/nm0678693/mediaviewer/rm490949632
February 20, 2019REMEMBERING MY 1980'S ROCK AND ROLL SONGS (3:40)
In musically-vibrant 1980's Detroit ("Motown"), I wrote rock and roll lyrics under the name "Robbie Panek," set to music by my buddy Hugh Cary. Thirty years later, one of those songs, "She Said Why," is still in Hugh's standard repertoire. Here, Hugh composed and performs the music; he once wrote to me about the musical changes that accompany the transition from the complaints in the recitatif/verses to the soaring "She Said Why" chorus:
"The key change is dynamite, going from the minor with the flat 5th sequence to F major 7th and Bb major 7th with diminished chords descending again to the closely related A minor."
I understand nothing of Hugh's musical language -- but the chorus sounds so hopeful -- and this country desperately needs optimism right now! (Maybe I should do a "We Said Why", an attempt at an anthem for the anti-Trump 2020 election.)
Hugh filmed the performance last year on his computer. (You'll notice how good my slightly-younger contemporary Hugh looks! He eats well, bicycles, and has crafted a relatively stress-free living situation.) I adapted Hugh's video somewhat, with an eye to the millenial genre of Vaporwave, which refers back to the graphic styles and music of the 80's and 90's.
I also included an image from my recently completed animation demo at the Plastic Club, part of
a busy weekend that also included the last class and exam of my radio production
class at PhillyCam.
I have decided to do more writing in these entries. The February animation festival marked a turning point -- perhaps an end point -- and I am reconsidering my options.
SOURCES:
VIDEO & AUDIO:
"She Said Why", performed 2018 by Hugh C. Cary. Written 1981 by Robbie Panek / Bob Moore.
BACKGROUND IMAGE:
Bob Moore 2019 animation demonstration. Photo by Janice R. Moore.
February 19, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: RICH PEOPLE PROBLEMS DURING JAZZ AGE (5:15)
A light English comedy about a handsome sleeping car porter who gets in a green-card marriage with a rich woman.
Showed my short Belgian Army animation in the Sixth Annual Philadelphia Independents animation festival. Also gave a brief demonstration of my technique; unfortunately a few technical problems in my demo. Overall it went well, but sleepless night after late night coffee.
SOURCES:
VIDEO from 1933 English romantic comedy "Sleeping Car" (Link1)
Link1: archive.org/details/SleepingCar
February 18, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: TENSION BETWEEN NAZIS AND NORDICS IN BAR (0:54)
Norwegian resistance forces helped sabotage the manufacture of "heavy water," which slowed (or stopped) German progress toward nuclear weapons.
SOURCES:
VIDEO & AUDIO: 1942 English war film "The Day Will Dawn," released as "The Avengers" in U.S., directed by Paul Soskin (Link1)
Link1: archive.org/details/TheDayWillDawn
February 11, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO REPAIR AN AIRFIELD (4:26)
A village turns out to help the French Resistance evacuate a downed flier and a spy. They pause when they hear a truckload of Nazi soldiers (singing) pass by.
SOURCES:
VIDEO & SOUND: 1944 English docudrama "School for Danger," telling the story of two English spies who parachute into Nazi-occupied France; also known as "Now It Can Be Told" (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Cover of Imperial War Museum Compact Disk of World War II espionage memorabilia (Link2)
Link1: archive.org/details/SCHOOLFORDANGERVideoQualityUpgrade
Link2: www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205131602
February 2, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: RIGORS OF 1940'S NURSING TRAINING (2:03)
A taste of life in the past.
SOURCES:
SOURCES:
VIDEO & AUDIO: 1943 English film "The Lamp Still Burns" about a woman who switches careers to go to nursing school during wartime (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Contemporary movie poster (Link2)
Link1: archive.org/details/TheLampStillBurns
Link2: www.imdb.com/title/tt0036095/mediaviewer/rm1170820096
January 27, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: EARLY DRAMA IN WORLD WAR II (1:04)
Last video before I have to make a selection for the two animation shows coming up. This time, the music is organ music from another productive composer on IMSLP.ORG, Carlotta Ferrari, a young Italian woman, deeply religious in subject matter, who specializes in organ music. Note that both Ferrari and Locke (ysterday) are diligent and productive artists; both pieces of music are from 2019 -- and here it's only January of 2019
Surviving heat outage in my building. My insurance will pay hotel expenses, but so far with adjustment the apartment is livable and I don't want to relocate. We'll see....
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Clip from 1943 English movie "The Flemish Farm," which tells the story of a commando raid to retrieve one unit's regimental colors. (Link1)
MUSIC: "La solitudine degli angeli" (trans: 'The Loneliness of Angels') 2019 organ composition by Italian Carlotta Ferrari (Link2 and 3)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Print "Ange voyageur" (trans: 'Traveling Angel') by 19th century French symbolist Gustave Moreau (Link4)
Link1: archive.org/details/TheFlemishFarm
Link2: imslp.org/wiki/La_solitudine_degli_angeli_(Ferrari,_Carlotta)#IMSLP557854
Link3: imslp.org/wiki/Special:ReverseLookup/557854
Link4: www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/385831893049316621/?lp=true
January 23, 2019DIGITAL SHOWCASE: MY FAVORITE MODERN COMPOSER (3:50)
These 15 or so months of making videos -- each one requiring a search for musical accompaniment -- has introduced me to a lot of different kinds of music. One of my favorite traditional composers is a young Australian composer named Nicholas Locke. Locke uploads his work to IMSLP.ORG under a creative commons license that allows derivative works.
I don't have the musical vocabulary to describe Locke's work, but I find it exciting with some of the best qualities of movie and classical music. Just three instruments in this one: violin, viola, and cello. What do you think?
Personal drama: a fire in the boiler room of my building leaves me without heat. My insurance covers temporary relocation expenses, but, at heart, I'm an old Michigan voyageur/trapper and Janice and I are considering sticking it out by closing off rooms and runnning a space heater.
I re-did the video because to make it more suitable for the upcoming "Dynamism" show at the Plastic Club. Here's the revised:
SOURCES:
MUSIC: "String Trio No.3 in D minor" composed 2019 by Nicholas Locke (Link1 & Link2)
Music visualization by VLC Spectrometer
BACKGROUND LAYER #1: Barn Owl from 1923 "Common birds of southeastern United States in relation to agriculture" (Link3)
BACKGROUND LAYER #2: Cover design from 1899 "Selected relics of Japanese art" (Link4)
FONT: "Executive" font by Woodcutter Manero (Link5
Link1: imslp.org/wiki/Special:ReverseLookup/557812
Link2: imslp.org/wiki/String_Trio_No.3_in_D_minor,_Op.15_No.3_(Locke,_Nicholas)#IMSLP557810
Link3: archive.org/details/commonbirdsofsou00beal_1
Link4: archive.org/details/gri_33125015941079
Link5: www.dafont.com/woodcutter-executive.font
January 22, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: CHASE SCENE AT AMUSEMENT PARK (3:04)
More experiments with VideoStudio Mask Creator. Also color from a video clip from StudioBacklot. This may be my entry into Animation Festival or Dynamism Show at Plastic Club.
Again, music from Locke; nice to see he uses Aboriginal names for Australian geography.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: From PicFixer's collection of public domain clips of 1930's chase scenes called "CLIPSY DOODLE 3 (Cut to the Chase)" (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Illustration from "Curbed" for article with "Coney Island’s iconic Cyclone roller coaster celebrates its 90th birthday" (Link2)
MUSIC: Extract from "Hervey Range - Barringha" from Townsville Suite, Op. 13 by Australian composer Nicholas Locke. 'Barringha' is the aboriginal word for the Hervey Mountain Range in Queensland, Australia. (Link3) Another link: Link4
Link1: archive.org/details/CLIPSYDOODLE3CutToTheChase
Link2: ny.curbed.com/2017/6/25/15870342/coney-island-cyclone-roller-coaster-90th-anniversary
Link3: imslp.org/wiki/Special:ReverseLookup/557122
Link4: imslp.org/wiki/Townsville_Suite,_Op.13_(Locke,_Nicholas)
January 20, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: TERRITORIAL DISPUTE AT THE HIPPO POOL (1:27)
Some improvement in use of VideoStudio's "Mask Creator" utility, separating the crocodile when it appears; the hippos' color is muted, but the croc's color is natural. Still troubled by my work, and worried about which pieces to enter into the upcoming (but separate) Animation Festival and Dynamism shows at the Plastic Club.
Again, like the last animation, music is from my favorite young composer, Nicholas Locke. I'm not sure this song fits the action -- or whether the January 16 Locke composition fits that action -- but I include them to recommend the young Aussie.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Visitor footage of crocodile who wandered into a "hippo pool" in the Serengeti -- and survived. Originally shared on LatestSightings.com.
(Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Photo of hippo/croc struggle from video (Link2)
MUSIC: Extract from " Castle Hill - Cootheringa" from Townsville Suite, Op. 13 by Australian composer Nicholas Locke (Link3)
Link1: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMXnhiv3NqY
Link2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=svayHx1F3HA
Link3: imslp.org/wiki/Special:ReverseLookup/557124
Also: imslp.org/wiki/Townsville_Suite,_Op.13_(Locke,_Nicholas)#IMSLP557124
January 19, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: ENGLISH MYSTERY (0:46)
Another remix of old movies. Added color, removed dialog. Still troubled -- was not able to master VideoStudio's "Mask Creator" utility.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Clip from 1938 mystery "The Black Doll" featuring Nan Grey (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Movie poster of the time (Link2)
MUSIC: Extract from "Magnetic Island - Yunbenun" from Townsville Suite, Op. 13 by Australian composer Nicholas Locke (Link3)
Link1: archive.org/details/TheBlackDoll
Link2: www.imdb.com/title/tt0029918/
Link3: imslp.org/wiki/Special:ReverseLookup/557123
January 16, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: DUCK SOUP DIPLOMACY (2:53)
Another remix of old movies. Discontented with these animations lately. February is animation month show at Plastic Club, will have to choose an entry.
SOURCES:
VIDEO & SOUND:
- Clips from 1933 Marx Brothers comedy "Duck Soup" (Link1)
- Clips from 1958 movie "The Lost Missile" (Link2)
BACKGROUND IMAGE:
Movie poster (Link3)
Link1: archive.org/details/TheLostMissile
Link2: archive.org/details/SONOFCLIPSYDOODLE
Link3: www.imdb.com/title/tt0023969/mediaviewer/rm3547531520
January 13, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: BEGINNING OF MURDER MYSTERY (2:00)
Opening of English mystery with comic overtones, with Gordon Harker in the title role and costarring Alastair Sim as the bumblin playing Scotland Yard detectives, derived from a popular English radio show of the time. "Each week Inspector Hornleigh interrogated various witnesses, one of whom makes some slip which convicts him. The radio audience were invited to match their wits against Inspector Hornleigh's, with the mistake the witness made not being disclosed until the end of the programme.
SOURCES:
VIDEO AND SOUND:
Opening of 1939 English mystery movie "Inspector Hornleigh" (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGE:
Movie house placard (Link2)
Link1: archive.org/details/InspectorHornleigh
Link2: trakt.tv/movies/inspector-hornleigh-1939
January 7, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: HAPPY ENDING (3:00)
First animation done on a new computer system, a refurbished Dell Optiplex 9010, bought from Fred, the friendly corner computer guy, for about $320. Had to reinstall all my programs. Curses upon the digital soul of Adobe, which always makes it difficult.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: From a 1940 English film "21 Days Together" based on John Galsworthy story. Vivien Leigh chases Lawrence Oliver to save him from surrendering to police. (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Publicity shot of Vivien Leigh from "Gone with the Wind." (Link2)
MUSIC: Song "Hegamila" from Khawaga's 2018 album 'ZOO' by Indonesian netlabel Yes/No/Wave Music label (Link3)
Link1: archive.org/details/21DaysTogether
Link2: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Vivien_Leigh#/media/File:Vivien_Leigh_Gone_Wind.jpg
Link3: archive.org/details/yesno092
January 4, 2019DIGITAL REMIX: SIMPLE WISH FROM AN INNOCENT TIME (3:13)
A bit of a rush job, trying to finish on the first day of 2019. Enjoyed revisiting the world of the 1930's singing cowboy -- the essential decency, where even a passing cowpoke will get involved in saving a widow's ranch from a greedy land developer. (Nowadays, the greedy land developers are in charge.)
SOURCES:
VIDEO BACKGROUND: Computer abstraction by Scott Draves (Link1)
MOVIE: 1935 movie "Roll Along Cowboy" starring singing cowboy Smith Ballew (Link2)
SONG 1935 song "This Is My Year" by Smith Ballew (Link3)
Link1: scottdraves.com/videos.html
Link2: archive.org/details/RollAlongCowboy#
Link3: archive.org/details/SmithBallewVocalCollection1925-1935
January 1, 2019DIGITAL RESTORATION: 1935 MORALITY FILM (4:37)
Two differences from previous entries. (1) I used the audio editing program AUDACITY to adjust the sound, although I wasn't skilled enough to remove the incidental music at about 2:45; (2) my intention was not to "remix" the video to make a new work of art, but simply to improve production values and edit it down to a short, affecting story.
The actor in the final scene (Conrad Veidt) was a refugee from Germany. The actor playing the servant girl (Rene Ray) moved on to become the Countess of Midleton.
SOURCES:
VIDEO & SOUND: Extract from 1935 English film "The Passing of the Third Floor Back" (Link1. First produced as a play in 1908, the moralistic plot tells of a Christ-like Stranger (Conrad Veidt) who straightens out the lives of all the residents of a London boarding house, including an unhappy serving girl (Rene Ray).
The script was based on a story by Jerome K. Jerome (Link2)
Link1: archive.org/details/ThePassingOfTheThirdFloorBack
Link2: www.gutenberg.org/files/865/865-h/865-h.htm
December 30, 2018DIGITAL REMIX: MAYBE ARMAGEDDON TOMORROW (1:28)
I read the news today, oh boy. Russia has been working hard on developing weapons, and Putin is very publicly flexing his muscle. I don't know about the American defenses -- back under Reagan generals were not promoted unless they supported his "Star Wars" antimissile system, and Trump's lack of attention and narrow focus on his self interest don't bode well.
SOURCES:
VIDEO:
Various Russian news videos, December 2018
BACKGROUND IMAGE:
Albrecht Durer's 1498 woodcut "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" (Link1)
MUSIC:
"Gloomy Sunday (Hungarian Suicide Song)" sung by Greta Keller, 1936 (Link2)
Link1: smarthistory.org/albrecht-durer-four-horsemen/
Link2: archive.org/details/GretaKellerCollection1929-1936
December 29, 2018DIGITAL REMIX: PHILADELPHIA HISTORY TABLEAU (1:37)
Remind me to visit Penn Treaty Park on the Delaware River, just a couple miles away from my home, where an obelisk marks the site of the famous elm where the Treaty of Shacamaxon was signed. The peaceful treaty between European settlers and an indigenous people had global significance; Voltaire in 1764 said it was "... the only treaty never sworn to and never broken." Why never sworn to? Quakers claimed always to speak the truth, so they didn't swear oaths; this is why Janice and I were able to get married in Philadelphia City Hall in what is called a "self-uniting marriage -- without swearing to either the State or a Religion, it was just between us.
And never broken? Well, not quite. The treaty lasted nearly 80 years, until the French encouraged the Delawares to commit the Penn's Creek Massacre in 1755. And the Delawares were eventually "relocated" to Oklahoma.
I hail from the American midwest -- Michigan -- where the relations between European settlers and the indigenous tribes (Ottawa, Pottawatomie, and Chippewa) was more troubled at the time of settlement, again because of French imperial ambitions.
SOURCES:
VIDEO: Scene from 1941 English film "The Courageous Mr. Penn," depicting unarmed Quaker William Penn signing a peace treaty with the Delaware Indians in 1683. The peace lasted nearly 80 years, until the French encouraged the Delawares to commit the Penn's Creek Massacre in 1755. (Link1)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: Depiction of the same event (the Treaty of Shackamaxon) by Italian-born artist Constantino Brumidi, painted upon the frieze in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Link2)
MUSIC: Title song from album "Finale Finis" by the label 'Jazzaria.' (Link3)
December 26, 2018DIGITAL REMIX: ENTRY FOR LINES SHOW (1:02)
Upcoming exhibition at Plastic Club has the theme of "Lines."
SOURCES:
VIDEO 1: Scene of marching Muslim soldiers in Jerusalem from 1924 German film "Nathan the Wise" (Link1)
VIDEO 2: Abstract design from "Flock" #244 of artificial life designs by Scott Draves and the Electric Sheep
MUSIC: "Prelude in D, Op. 32", 2018 composition by Marcello Severo (Link3)
Link1: archive.org/details/NathanTheWisesilent
Link2: archive.org/details/electricsheep-flock-244-32500-3/00244%3D33763%3D33763%3D33763.avi
Link3: imslp.org/wiki/Special:ReverseLookup/533988
July 31, 2018DIGITAL REMIX: ENTRY IN MEMBERS CHOICE SHOW (3:25) VIDEOCOLLAGE: PERE QUART POEM & EMPIRE STATE BLDG. CHASE SCENE
Trying out landscape orientation.
Frustrating that I was not able to include my translation of the beautiful poem by the Catalan poet known as Pere Quart. May return to this issue. One incidental result of my cyber-exploring around the world: there's a lot of art going on in Catalan Barcelona.
To my unworthy American ear, I hear the Catalan poetry as profane: "You fucked the cow." I blush before the original words: "Un xic de cor" -- translation: "a bit of heart."
Translation of the poem is below
God: And you, what do you want?
Me: Well, I just want to
-It can be-:
A bit of hunger
and a little bread.
A bit cold
and a bit of fire.
A little sound
and a bit of bed.
A little of seven
and a bit of wine
and a little milk.
And a little peace.
A little step,
a little bit of weight
and a bit of floor.
And a bit of a nest.
A bit of pic
and a little pac
-or a bit of salary
and a bit of a check.
And a bit of sunshine
and a little salt.
And a bit of sky.
A bit of good
and a bit wrong.
A little honey
and a bit of a fel.
And a little at night
and a bit scary of fear,
and a little chest
a bit of color
and little bit of shout
And a little light
and a bit of sound:
a little lightning
and a little tro.
A little joy
and a bit of kiss
and a little bit of sex.
And a bit of a dog.
And a little gas.
A bit of the fort
and a bit of the flow.
And a little rom
and a little smoke.
A bit of a place
And a bit of play
-tres kings, two new ones
And a bit of yellow
and a little gray
and a little green
And a bit of blue.
A bit of a train
and a little ship;
and a bit of rowing.
A bit of wind.
And a bit of snow.
And a bit of a rogue.
And a bit of a voice
-and a little vote.
And a bit of singing.
And a little verse.
And a bit of dance.
And of art. And gold
A little fish.
And a little fat.
And a bit of beam.
And a little thick.
And a little meat
and a little blood;
and a bit of hair.
And a bit of mud
and a bit of dust.
A little flam
and a little ice.
A little saint
and a bit of a dragon.
A little risk
and a little bit of income
-and a bit of Russian.
And a piece of field
and a little fruit;
a piece of closure
near the home
with birds and flowers.
And a little forest
with pins and splinters.
And a bit of a fountain.
And a little river
and a bit of rec
and a little bridge.
And a bit of gorg.
And a little sea
and a little port.
And a bit of crying.
A little linen
and a little leather
and a little skin
and a little thread.
A bit of mud
and a little juice
And a bit of pork.
And a little park.
A little taste
and a little bit of rank.
And besides me
a bit of yours
and a bit of theirs.
I want to be: donkey clerc?
beautiful ugly? right? fault
fat thin ready? llosc?
new old? firmly skinny
blah carry? empty? full up?
sweet dark? dry wharf
serious? slight short long
dark clear yaix? the end?
A little bit of everything.
And what do I want?
A little of sanity
And a little time.
And a bit of a world.
And a bit of luck.
And a little death.
And a little of You.
Hey, yes it can be.
Originally Posted in Circumstancias (1968)
SOURCES:
MUSIC: 1968 poem "Tirallonga dels monosíl·labs" by Catalan poet Pere Quart (1899-1986), improvised by Barcelonan group "Zero de Conducta" in 2018. (Link1)
VIDEO: 1952 Film Noir "The Thief" with Ray Milland. (Link2)
IMAGE:
- Charts from 1909 Finnish book on Hypnotism (Link3)
- Electrical Utility Systems Board from 1933 "Sweet Engineering Catalogue" (Link4)
Link1: archive.org/details/hr094
Link2: archive.org/details/TheThief1952
Link3: archive.org/details/HennigH.Hypnotismi1909
Link4: archive.org/details/SweetEngineeringCatalog
July 3, 2018
ARCHIVE: Webpage Proprietor's Portraits Time to change my image at top of this web page. The new image is a small pencil portrait done by Remo Frangiosa. It was done while I sat for Remo's portrait class over a two-week period at Philadelphia's historic Plastic Club in September, 2015.
The second image is a larger painting I commissioned from the Plastic Club's Andy Hoffmann.
Next are two other images also used as masthead portraits. Third image is an iPad self-portait in a coffee shop (approx. 2014). It is probably the best representation of my revulsion at the aging process and my sadness at the prospect of diminishing cognitive powers.
Fourth is an attempt to limit portrait to the fewest number of facial features and still be recognizable (approx. 2012). (Sorry: unlike the other images on this page, these masthead pictures don't enlarge when clicked...)
Fifth is a drawing done in our Open Studio workshop by Meri Collier, a Toronto-based artist and member of the Plastic Club.
To contact Philly-Bob, email me at bobmoore [at symbol] pobox.com (of course, replace "[at symbol]" with "@"].
Masthead Portrait by Remo Frangiosa, 2015
12/30/2018
