Portrait by Remo Frangiosa |
Philly-Bob’s Free-for-All 2022One 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. Also, occasional prose observations on politics and life.Click on a pic to enlarge. May take several clicks to get full-size. |
ARCHIVE: Webpage Proprietor's Portraits II
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.
"Would you like to be more successful at your job? Do you need to find financial backers for your money-making idea? Do you wish your sex life was more exciting? Do you suffer from constant aches and pains? Would you like to turn your worst enemy into your biggest supporter? Do you long for happiness, success, health, wealth, and friendship?"In the background, an AI-generated still life, light filtering through bottles on an alchemist or apothecary table (Link2). Unfortunately the link has gone dead so I can't credit the uploader by name. I like his work.
Note that a recent legal decision (Link3) held that AI-generated work is not entitled to copyright protection.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/frank-rudolph-young-somo-psychic-power Link2: https://boards.4chan.org/b/thread/891195076 Link3: https://aibusiness.com/ml/ai-generated-comic-book-loses-copyright-protection
December 22, 2022
NOTE: Sometimes Bob Moore reviews books written in foreign languages whose translations into English have won prizes.
The 2021 prize for translation from French into English went to Hubert Mingarelli's "The Invisible Land" (Link1) translated by Sam Taylor.
This slim (137-page) novel takes place in a defeated Germany, shortly after the Nazis surrendered. It follows a war photographer, his assignment finished, waiting to go home. Impulsively, he decides to take a short trip to photograph German families in their homes. An occupation officer assigns him the fancy limousine of an executed German officer and assigns a young American, O'Leary, as his driver and body guard.
The novel covers the two weeks the photographer and O'Leary travel around, almost aimlessly.
The time and place provide horrors enough -- including bodies in a concentration camp, corpses floating in rivers, and the grim mistrust and hostility of the defeated Germans. But Mingarelli handles these matters with a light touch.
What gives the novel its haunting tone is the everyday life of the two travelers:
"I fell asleep and dreamed about the tarpaulins that we'd spread over the dead that night, and in my dream they lifted up and we thought it was the wind and even though we hammered stakes into the ground to hold them down they still kept lifting up. We held them down with our hands, using all our strength, but a greater force continued to lift them up and each of us knew deep down that it was the dead, pushing at the tarpaulin with their gray legs."
O'Leary and the photographer share the discomforts of camping out in the car, form no attachments with the German citizens they photograph, and know nothing of the larger world. The book ends as the two are returning to the car after one last photography session, during which a miscommunication led O'Leary to shoot a farmer.
The two trudge back to the car.
"For more than an hour only our footsteps reverberated in the night. O'Leary's kept fading behind and I kept stopping and waiting for him. After a while, as we were walking together, I said: 'The sea isn't far, O'Leary. Check the petrol when we get to the car and if you think we have enough left, we can try to find somewhere near the water where we can sleep. You want to try that?' "A long time after, as we were approaching ... the car, I heard a word muffled by a sigh and I thought he was murmuring an answer to himself, that he'd said yes to a question he had asked inside his head. And just as I remembered the question that I had asked him, he whispered, the words half-broken by a sob: 'Yes, sir, we can try.'"
Is that optimism, or pessimism?
Sadly, Mingarelli (pictured above) died of cancer in Grenoble, France, in January of 2020.
Link1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Mingarelli
December 21, 2022
SOURCES: IMAGES: Eight camouflage patterns discussed in a thread on Reddit's 'K' (Weapons) board (Link1) MUSIC: Excerpt from 1949 suite "The Battle of Stalingrad: Stalingrad in Flames" (Link2) by Soviet and Armenian composer Aram Khatchaturian (Link3) FRAME COLOR: "Coyote Brown" (Link4)
Link1: https://boards.4channel.org/k/thread/56358556 Link2: https://archive.org/details/lp_the-battle-for-stalingrad-the-fall-of_aram-khatchaturian-dmitri-shostakovich/disc1/01.02.+Suite+From+The+Film+%22Battle+For+Stalingrad%22%3A+Stalingrad+In+Flames.mp3 Link3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aram_Khachaturian Link4: https://colorcodes.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Coyote-brown-color-swatch.jpg
July 23, 2022
In order to clear time for this task (1. Philly-Bob's Free for All 2023), and for (2.) installing a new computer for Janice, and for (3.) figuring out money and taxes for next year, I'm going to cut back on my work this week.
And this post will be the first post on my page in 2023.
December 10, 2022
Link1: https://archive.org/details/1923AmericanTypeFoundersSpecimenBookCatalogue
December 10, 2022
"To begin, the person should visualize a bright shining ball of golden light two or three feet above the head. Then with the right hand reach up into that light and make a fist, grasping the light-substance in the hand, which should then be drawn down to the forehead. Touch your forehead and says: “Tiw!” then continue to pull the light down through the head and touch the mouth and say: "Woden!” Next draw the light down in a column through the body and touch the solar plexus and say: "Thunar!" Then move the fist, and the light contained in it, from the solar plexus to the left shoulder; touch the shoulder and say: “Frey!” Now, drawing light across the body in a horizontal direction, touch the light to the right shoulder and say: 'Freya!'"
Link1: https://archive.org/details/abookoftrothbyedredthorsson Link2: https://archive.org/details/j.-g.-macqueen-hititler-akilcelen-yayinlari Link3: https://archive.org/details/B-001-038-724-ALL
December 4, 2022
A drawing to illustrate an ad for Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound, from a 1946 issue of the movie magazine "Photoplay" (Link1), sold to treat "female functional monthly disturbances." The illustration's complicated sky and the unhappy look on the girl's face are meant to show those 'disturbances.' The ad copy reads:
"Are You Just a Plaything of Nature?
"Nature may endow you with breathtaking beauty, a lovely curvaceous figure. She may bestow gifts on you that make you a brilliant actress, a leader in your class at college, sought after at dances, or a charming wife and mother.
"Yes, Nature may do all this. But even so—you may find your face mockingly slapped if you suffer these distressing symptoms which so many unfortunate girls and women do."
The compound was as much as 20% alcohol and modern science dismisses it as a "valueless preparation kept on the market for about fifty years by means of lying advertisements and worthless testimonials."
However, Pinkham is interesting for other reasons: an early female business leader and an abolitionist who, surprisingly, split with the Quakers over the issue of slavery -- see the discussion of Quakers and slavery below (Link2).
She was also the subject of a rip-roaring Irish drinking song: "Lily the Pink" (Link3 & embedded below).
Around that image, another bookbinder's ornament from the 1937 "Buch und Schrift 10.1937 - Jahrbuch der Einbandkunstand" (Link4; trans: 'Book and writing 10.1937 - yearbook of binding').
Link1: https://archive.org/details/Photoplay-1946-08-Vol-29-No-3 Link2: https://www.friendsjournal.org/slavery-in-the-quaker-world/ Link3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5ak-JkzfKc Link4: https://archive.org/details/buch-und-schrift-10
December 1, 2022
Modotti was living in Mexico and the simple composition (sickle, ear of corn, bandolier) seems to address some of the political currents of the time. Modotti was an artist's model, actress, and a Communist Party member who appears in Diego Rivera's murals and Edward Weston photographs. In the 2002 film "Frida," she was played by Ashley Judd. A six-part TV series starring Monica Belluci, ("Radical Eye: The Life and Times of Tina Modotti"), portraying her adventurous life (Link2), is still in production.
Modotti died at the age of 45 in what may have been an assassination.
Behind that still life, a bookbinder's ornament from the 1937 "Buch und Schrift 10.1937 - Jahrbuch der Einbandkunstand" (Link3; trans: 'Book and writing 10.1937 - yearbook of binding').
Link1: https://archive.org/details/transition-3 Link2: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8834662/ Link3: https://archive.org/details/buch-und-schrift-10
November 30, 2022
Out of respect to the illustrator, only slight changes in texture and color introduced into the image.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/life-1942-01-26-v-12-n-04 (since removed) Link2: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.29419 Link3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILWSp0m9G2U Link4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChhCpSVrjvU Link5: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/26/arts/music/irene-cara-dead.html
November 28, 2022
Link1: https://archive.org/details/2022-11-26-17-18 Link2: https://www.dafont.com/egyptian-nights.font Link3: https://archive.org/details/lp_world-war-ii-songs-in-hi-fi_the-four-sergeants-rose-marie-jun
November 27, 2022
Link1: https://archive.org/details/1976_20221124
November 26, 2022
Schwitters comes up because, in my new series of reviews of prize-winning translations, an upcoming subject is a selection from a German "rumination" on exiled Schwitters thinking over his life and art in exile in England's Lake District.
Link1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Entartete_Kunst,_Degenerate_Art_exhibition_catalogue,_1937,_p._23,_Johannes_Molzahn,_Jean_Metzinger,_Kurt_Schwitters.jpg Link2: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Kurt_Schwitters#/media/File:Box-R-Bild_by_Kurt_Schwitters,_1921_-_Galleria_nazionale_d'arte_moderna_-_Rome,_Italy_-_DSC05478.jpg
November 25, 2022
Link1: https://archive.org/details/ireland-1845-1850-the-perfect-holocaust-and-who-kept-it-perfect
November 20, 2022
November 17, 2022
Was especially fascinated by the patterns of gold inlay on leather book covers. Will be using those patterns for a while.
For instance, the pattern above was created by combining and colorizing the two black-and-white patterns shown at right.
I'm still working on freeing myself from my dependence on Adobe Photoshop, making everything very slow.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/jahrbuch-der-einbandkunst-1.1927
November 16, 2022
Here, in the foreground, a German soldier hoists a shell for the 88, an image from Reddit's 'K' (weapons) discussion group. (Link1)
In the background, distorted, another soldier loads an 88 shell into the gun, a photo from the Warfare History Network (Link2).
Link1: https://boards.4channel.org/k/thread/55857234; withdrawn; later found at https://www.reddit.com/r/TankPorn/comments/n6vm7g/88cm_pzgr3943_apcbche_l71_its_a_flak_88_round_and/ Link2: https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/why-german-88mm-gun-was-best-in-the-war/
November 13, 2022
Link1: https://archive.org/details/altertum-23
November 11, 2022
Link1: https://archive.org/details/biologia-pdfdrive/page/n3/mode/1up Link2: https://archive.org/details/aa.-vv.-introduccion-a-la-antropologia-biologica-2016 Link3: https://www.dafont.com/khscala.font
November 10, 2022
Link1: https://archive.org/details/cqgM_pavitra-go-go-seva-ka-tatparya-kya-hai-of-japesh-bandyopadhyay-and-paromita-band
November 7, 2022
Link1: https://archive.org/details/1970-sears-toy-catalog (has been withdrawn)
November 5, 2022
NOTE: Sometimes Bob Moore reviews books written in foreign languages whose translations into English have won prizes. The list of recent translation winners can be seen here. I am grateful to the Free Library of Philadelphia for obtaining the books.
The 2021 prize for translation from Arabic into English went to Rasha Adly's "The Girl with the Braided Hair" translated by Sarah Enamy (Link1; author portrait above digitized and stylized from Link2).
It tells the story of two romances, one a sophisticated, modern-day relationship between a bookish art historian and a real estate appraiser, both middle-aged; the other a 1790 triangle between a beautiful 15-year-old Egyptian girl and two officers in Napoleon's army during his invasion of Egypt in 1798.
Zeinab, daughter of a Sheikh, is "a girl, slender like a stalk of rattan, her skin an unusual color, not white and not dark, but the color of saffron dust. Lips red as cherries, hair black and thick like a waterfall, a spring in her step like a leaping deer." Shortly after the conquest, Napoleon sees Zeinab in a crowd and asks her father to bring her to the great Celebration of the Flooding of the Nile.
There, Napoleon seeks her out and invites her to his chambers, where he undoes her braids, asks her to dance for him, and expresses his admiration for her beauty, but does not sleep with her. (The translator does a brief reading in English of the scene between Napoleon and Zeinab here
Instead, Napoleon refers the simple village girl to a couturier to be groomed and dressed in the French style and to a scholar to be tutored in the French language.
"At nine every morning, a magnificent carriage crunched over the gravel, its horses beating the ground with their hooves, cutting through the narrow alleyway and raising a cloud of dust in its wake that blocked all light. It was Bonaparte's personal carriage, driven by a special coachman ... come to pick up a fifteen-year-old girl, a girl with braids that lay over her shoulders and a shy smile set in innocent, childlike features."
Zeinab also catches the eye of a young artist in Napoleon's army, who paints her portrait.
A century and a half later, that unidentified portrait is handed over to Yasmine, a Cairo art historian for preservation. It is through Yasmine's diligent research adventures that the painting's story unfolds, from Zeinab's love for the French painter to their grisly ends: Zeinab at a guillotine as a collaborator after Napoleon leaves and the painter in the agonizing plague that afflicted the French army.
The modern-day life of Yasmine and her long-time suitor Sherif is also told, with a happier (if more ambiguous) ending. Yasmine's suitor has given up a prosperous career as a businessman to convert to Sufism, which is described in some detail. And Yasmine's grandmother reveals dark secrets in the family's past, enabling Yasmine to finally be more open to a suitor's attentions.
Link1: https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2021/summer/girl-braided-hair-rasha-adly Link2: https://hoopoefiction.com/hoopoe-author/rasha-adly/
November 2, 2022
Link1: https://archive.org/details/ScreenlandDec1923 Link2: https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditCamoThread/comments/n3di8h/multicam_woodland_camouflage_original_by_tounushi/
October 29, 2022
Link1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theban_alphabet
October 26, 2022
It tells the story of a family -- 13-year-old narrator Brian, his 16-year-old deeply disabled brother Lucien, and their grifter father Maurice. As it opens, Brian and Maurice live hard-scrabble in a backwoods trailer park and Lucien lives in an assisted living facility. But the facility needs renovation. and the facility director asks Maurice if the disabled Lucien could spend the summer with his family. The father refuses until he finds out there will be cash reimbursement. This changes his mind.
There are several developments over that Summer. The father disappears for long periods and leaves the difficult care and feeding of Lucien (nonverbal, incontinent and immobile) to Brian. Neighbors in the trailer park squabble over money. And Brian develops a crush on Selma, a 19-year-old mentally-challenged resident of the living facility -- and they go through adventures trying to arrange a moment alone so they can go "belly-to-belly," as Selma puts it. The boys' mother and her new husband appear to complicate things.
Doherty's translation is smooth and unobtrusive, except for occasional Anglicisms he picked up in Scotland before he moved to the Netherlands.
Here is the scene where Brian and Maurice come to visit Lucien in the care facility:
"Ready?" Dad looks at me, one hand on the door handle. "Bry?"
I nod and he throws open the door as briskly as he once pulled milk teeth from my mouth. The closed blinds flap against the open window. Crepe-paper birds on strings dangle from the ceiling. Below them lies Lucien. The thick hair on the back of his head is sticking up, uncombable as ever. From the waist down, he is lying flat on the blanket, but his face and upper body are turned away from us. He's grown closer to the sides of his bed since we saw him last. My brother changes in little things. Thicker eyebrows. Spots along his hairline. Bottom lip sticking out like the rim of holy water basin."
By summer's end, Brian and Lucien have formed a Rain Man-like bond.
At their parting, Brian says to his older brother, "When I'm old enough, you can come and live with me. I promise."
Robben summarized the book to an interview this way: "Summer Brother is the story of two teenage brothers who learn to love each other, although one of them cannot speak and has the inner world of a small child."
Link1: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/apr/26/summer-brother-by-jaap-robben-review-empathic-portrait-of-a-dysfunctional-family Link2: https://omroepvenlo.nl/nieuws/artikel/97008027/jaap-robben-te-gast-bij-start-poezieweek
October 24, 2022
LINK1: https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/10/06/in-photos-russian-conscripts-undergo-basic-training-a79005
October 21, 2022
LINK1: https://archive.org/details/norbert-gopel-developarea
October 17, 2022
Link2: https://toronto.citynews.ca/2018/08/05/surviving-dionne-quintuplet-visits-birth-home-two-decades-away/
October 13, 2022
October 9, 2022
October 7, 2022
October 3, 2022
Link1: https://archive.org/details/journal-de-radiologie-et-delectrologie-11-1 Link2: https://archive.org/details/1984-01-cryptologia Link3: https://archive.org/details/what-the-bleep-do-we-know-2004-german-quantum-edition-by-artblood Link4: https://www.dafont.com/mister-october.font
October 1, 2022
Link1: https://archive.org/details/tender-glances-polka-parke-hunter
September 28, 2022
In the foreground of this image is a set of watch-faces and wrist bands displayed in the Portuguese Design Center's undated textbook "do Desenho ao Design" (Link1; trans: 'From Drawing to Design'). That book is also the source of some berries which are barely visible in the frame background.
Two other elements come from a 1980 Russian collection of photographs of minerals, "Los Diamantes Son Preparados Por Los Químicos (Los Científicos A Los Escolares)" (Link2; trans: 'Diamonds Are Prepared By Chemists [Scientists To Schoolchildren]'). Just behind the wrist watches is a diagram showing how scientists calculate the density of dust. Another element is a drawing demonstrating how matter builds up on a crystal, which appears in the frame.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/do-desenho-ao-design Link2: https://archive.org/details/b.-v.-deriaguin-d.-v.-fedoseev-los-diamantes-son-preparados-por-los-quimicos-los
September 25, 2022
"Ukraine guarantees every Russian soldier who surrenders three things. First, you will be treated in a civilized manner, in accordance with all conventions. Second, no one will know the circumstances of your surrender, no one in Russia will know that your surrender was voluntary. And third, if you are afraid to return to Russia and do not want an exchange, we will find a way to ensure this as well."
Link1: https://i.4cdn.org/k/1663916176037783.jpg Link2: https://boards.4channel.org/k/thread/55295828 Link3: https://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/geroyizm-i-muzhnist-nashih-voyiniv-ne-zalishayut-zhodnih-sum-77997
September 24, 2022
I was about the same age as the boy. I paid no attention to polio, but my mother did and I got the shot. This was during the heyday of the Davy Crockett Disney series and my mind was more on Crockett's signature coonskin cap than on poliomyelitis and its iron lung therapy.
I am entering this image in the Plastic Club's Emotions Through Color online exhibition.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/look-v-19-n-15-1955-07-26-sas
September 21, 2022
"Willie den Ouden, the Dutch record swimmer, [congratulates] the Hungarian [swimmer Ferenc] Csik on his victory in the 100m freestyle swimming."Look into it -- and it's dark. Tiny, pretty Willie den Ouden was a world record swimmer, with an eye on an acting career. Hungarian swimmer Ferenc Csik was also a champion.. Unfortunately, World War II intervened. Willie's family home and all her medals were destroyed in bombings, her debut movie was cancelled, and she became a refugee, moving through three marriages and several countries. Csik became a doctor and was killed treating the wounded during an air raid. No one does well in wartime -- not even Beauty. Someone published a list of Olympians killed in the war (Link2).
Link1: https://archive.org/details/bilder-deutscher-geschichte-cigaretten-bilderdienst-olympia-1936-band-2 Link2: https://web.archive.org/web/20200417055433/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/friv/lists.cgi?id=65
September 17, 2022
The first illustration is for an ad for Odol toothpaste, the second is for Campari aperitif.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/2022-09-14-18-11
September 16, 2022
September 15, 2022
The cartoon character in the center is the gentle giant Patoruzo, the last chief of an extinct tribe, created in 1928 by the Argentine cartoonist Dante Quinterno. The image appears in the 1937 edition of "Paturozo" (Link1) children's magazine.
Another element of this image is from a 1967 edition of the Argentine children's magazine "Anteojoto" (Link1; trans: 'Telescope'): over the chief's shoulder is Panconita, the youngest daughter of the cartoon Pancanaro Family, a popular comic in Argentina.
And in the background, from "Patoruzo", is a cartoon cafe scene showing two diners in a contest of wills over who pays the check.
In a good mood because I had my annual checkup at Philadelphia's Wills Eye Hospital and they said my eyes looked good, with possible cataracts way, way down the road.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/patoruzu-n-9-1-junio-1937 Link2: https://archive.org/details/anteojoto-n-150-5-octubre-1967
September 14, 2022
Perhaps too early to crow, but recent losses of territory captured by disorganized Russian army to well-trained and well-armed Ukrainian army may signal the disastrous end of Vladimir Putin's plan to conquer his neighbor.
Above, a Soviet era military wrist watch with a Red Star and a slogan ("Death to Spies"). Nowadays, a collectible, it is being sold on collector's website "Etsy" (Link1).
Next to that, an English translation of instructions distributed by Ukraine telling Russian soldiers (via a QR link) how to surrender. It appeared on 4-Chan's "K" (Weapons) board (Link2).
Let's just hope that a desperate Putin doesn't do anything rash, like using a tactical nuclear weapon or chemical weapons. Even escalating the invasion of Ukraine from a "police action" to formal war with national mobilization could lead to turmoil in Russia.
Link1: https://www.etsy.com/hk-en/listing/1038476118/komandirskie-sovi Link2: https://www.etsy.com/listing/809024056/sale-steampunk-jewelry-watchs-parts-12?click_key=e64459fd056e54bae0504920bfb92f736b510bb4%3A809024056&click_sum=99923c15&ref=shop_home_active_9 Link3: https://boards.4channel.org/k/thread/55138935
September 12-13, 2022
I have found this magazine, nearly a century old, to be a great source. It has good photos and the ink-drawings (like this one) used for ads are excellent. Here is a listing of available issues.
It's not specifically listed as public domain, but I consider the risk of being sued very low. The magazine ceased publication in 1968.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/2022-09-10-17-12
September 11, 2022
Figures depicted: lower center, Elon Musk. Over his shoulder Lady Gaga. At top, young Elvis, Michael Jackson, and Britney Spears. Just below that, older Elvis, Jackson, and Spears. At bottom, James Morrison and Janice Joplin.
The background is a pattern of roaches from an advertisement for pesticide 'RAID Ant and Roach Killer' in the 1989 American "Memories" magazine (Link2).
Link1: https://archive.org/details/zero-to-one-book Link2: https://archive.org/details/memories-1989-08-09-c
September 10, 2022
My only memory of the Queen was that, during her 1959 visit to Canada, I was among a crowd that waited to wave as her train passed the Belle River, Ontario, train station. I don't approve of monarchy as a political system, but Elizabeth was okay.
Link1: https://assets.catawiki.nl/assets/2019/7/18/b/7/f/b7f37440-dd34-4a00-aca4-dd75040f9075.jpg
September 8, 2022
Link1: https://archive.org/details/equal-rights-indigenous-people-and-rights-of-minors Link2: https://archive.org/details/laudelinas-x-25-x-30.5-cm-2 Link3: https://archive.org/details/quietingpractica119bere
September 8, 2022
Link1: https://archive.org/details/handlin-oscar-a-pictorial-history-of-immigration-america-1972
September 4, 2022
On my mind because the Ukrainian Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is the site of battles between Russian and Ukrainian troops, with international inspectors demanding access for safety inspections.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/golden-kamuy-volume-5 Link2: https://archive.org/details/zeiss-works-and-the-carl-zeiss-stiftung-in-jena-1904
September 3, 2022
Because cigarette (and thus cigarette cards) are so small, I wonder whether the artists used techniques to heighten details. In the detail at right, notice the dark highlighting of the features. It looks like the artist painted first in watercolor and then did details in black ink. Anybody heard of that production technique? I may try it.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/cigaretten-bilderdienst-hamburg-deutsche-maerchen-1939
August 31, 2022
One source is an illustration of an unidentified woman signing, from "اموس الاشارة الموحد للصم", a book of Arabic sign language (Link1; trans: 'Standard Sign Dictionary for the Deaf').
Another image source is from a deep Internet dive into connections between a far-right Catholic cult centered around Marian apparitions in Yugoslavia and America's Qanon political faction. At the bottom of my image is a photo from the book "Big Q Little Q: The Calm Before the Storm" (Link2) written by an anonymous 'Friend of Medjugorje', showing, at bottom left, the pale white statue of Mary of Medjugorje and, at bottom right, Yugoslavia-born Melania Trump visiting the statue.
A third source, at right of center, behind the signing lady, is a graphically bold illustration for an ad for sewing thread, from a Polish fashion magazine"Świat Kobiecya" (Link3; trans: 'Women's World').
Fourth is another page from that Polish women's magazine, displaying women's underwear, and fifth is a collage of military camouflage patterns in small rectangles from 4Chan's "K" (Weapons) board (Link4) .
Link1: https://archive.org/details/20220809_20220809_2347 Link2: https://archive.org/details/big-q-little-q-download-v-4-1 Link3: https://archive.org/details/ndigczas-049902-1930-023 Link4: https://i.4cdn.org/k/1660071839155100.jpg
August 28-29, 2022
"Convalescent youngsters in the surgical ward of Philadelphia's famed Children's Hospital sit entranced at a television show."
The photographer was Dan Wiener.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/colliers-v-125-n-02-1950-01-14
August 27, 2022
"Body of dress fashioned from soft, sheer, genuine Tussah Silk—a most beautiful material. The wide, generous yolk of elegant silk Spanish lace, the rage of the hour! A wide band of this same beauteous lace is also all around the skirt near bottom, At waist is narrow self material girdle, with rich rosette of white lace run through with ribbon drop in contrasting color."
Link1: https://archive.org/details/argosy-v-160-n-02-1924-05-17
August 26, 2022
Link1: https://archive.org/details/2022-08-21-02-12
August 22, 2022
Link1: https://archive.org/details/1967_20220818
August 21, 2022
Link1: https://www.wikiart.org/en/albrecht-durer/the-knight-death-and-the-devil-1513
August 18, 2022
"The pearly foam of REUTER SOAP cleanses the skin, giving it a velvety softness. Your complexion will glow with everything the charm of youth, thanks to the very fine SOAP OF REUTER, so soft. and intensely perfumed with the legitimate fragrance of natural essences, which accentuate its high quality.
She is posed in front of the abandoned entrance to a pillbox from the Russo-Finish War of 1939 from the 1942 book "Бои в Финляндии: воспоминания участников. Части I и II" (Link2; trans: 'Fights in Finland: memoirs of the participants. Parts I and II')
Link1: https://archive.org/details/MundoUruguayo1632 Link2: https://archive.org/details/boi_v_finlyandii_vospominaniya_uchastnikov/%D0%91%D0%BE%D0%B8%20%D0%B2%20%D0%A4%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%BB%D1%8F%D0%BD%D0%B4%D0%B8%D0%B8.%20%D0%92%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%8F%20%D1%83%D1%87%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2%2C%20%D0%A7%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%82%D1%8C%20I/
August 16, 2022
Link1: https://boards.4channel.org/k/thread/54771388
August 14, 2022
"3160 Afternoon dress in pastel red crêpe Mongol. The front of the skirt is finely pleated, an original cape finished with a bow, richly decorated with gnziczków [?].
"3161 Afternoon dress with crepe mongol. The sewn skirt creates regular folds. Plastron and cuffs in light green Georgette crepe.
"3162 Elegant afternoon dress made of emerald crêpe de Chine, belt trimmed with white leather. Original neck finish."
The small yellow box at the left bottom originally contained subscription info. I replaced that with a character from the Dingbat font "Egyptian Letters" (Link2) by Ding Bang.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/ndigczas-049902-1930-023/mode/1up?v= Link2: https://www.dafont.com/egyptian-letters.font
August 12, 2022
Link1: https://archive.org/details/B-001-038-222-ALL/B-001-038-222-03/
August 8, 2022
I did this in the Thursday morning drawing workshop at the Plastic Club, with crayon and marker pens.
Link1: Drawing by Bob Moore
August 6, 2022
Link1: https://archive.org/details/news-article-houston-chronicle-april-29-1995-p-158/
August 5, 2022
Color was achieved by robotic algorithm in my last three images (7/30,7/31,8/1) using (1) an autocolor utility in GIMP's G'Mics add-on called Auto Coloring Book by Reptorian and (2) the Colorize and Style Transfer utilities in Photoshop Cloud's Neural Filters package. Of course, I used my natural color eye to adjust those colors.
An additional feature: unlike most of my work, this was done in 300 dots-per-inch instead of my usual 72 dpi.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/2022-07-30-17-42 Link2: https://www.dafont.com/khscala.font
August 1, 2022
Link1: https://archive.org/details/2_20220716
July 31, 2022
Link1: https://archive.org/details/faustina-de-bressier-1887
July 30, 2022
Link1: https://archive.org/details/rko-radio-1937-1938
July 25, 2022
Since so much of my recent work is digital collage, I've been thinking about what it means to collect and assemble different images. Here, for instance, is an old-style collage, like I used to make in the 80's: pictures cut from popular magazine and glued to a backing.
This is an untitled collage by Jardel Oliviera, appearing in a 2022 Portuguese collection of poetry and art "Con Ficcion Amientos." (Link1: trans 'With Fictional Stories'). The collection is subtited "Coltivo de inenção tá a ars am tampos pandâmics," which roughly translates to 'Collection of work from a time of pandemic'.
Does the collage make straight-line literal sense? No. Is it pleasing? Yes. Does my idiosyncratic digital treatment (click on the picture once or twice to zoom in and view the texture and details) improve it? Perhaps.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/conficcionamientos
July 24, 2022
Sometimes I feel like I'm sitting in the control room of my body (the head), and the world outside is a confusing blur.
The main photo is a picture from a 4Chan.org "Weapons" (/k) board thread asking folks to send in ‘Cool War Pictures from Any Time'. Someone sent in this picture (Link1), an interior shot of the cockpit of a Mitsubishi G4M ("Betty") light bomber. I like the composition and the crew's calm. Here's another discussion of this photo of Betty's cockpit:
"One of the most famous cockpit photos of the Betty from a vintage publication, a very rare one taken at a time when the Army and Navy issued strict orders not to take photos of sensitive aircraft areas."...The guy sitting on the foreground on the right is the plane commander, the one in front of him is the pilot. The one on the left side with the binoculars is the observer while the one sitting in front of him is the co-pilot.
"A number of interesting details are visible in this photo. Notice that none of the crew members wears a parachute (at least I can't see one)...
"Finally notice the absolute lack of any form of armour protection giving the impression of a civilian passenger plane. Unless someone considers as protection the shades on the canopy..."
I have cut out the windows from that photo and displayed in them the wild creatures that trouble the boy's dreams in famed children's artist Maurice Sendak's book, "Where the Wild Things Are." They were turned into a video in 2002 (Link2) by the Vista Group.
Music in the background is from a compilation of pieces honoring this year's "Netlabel Day"; the song is 'Logos' by Illit and Marcelo Diaz (Link3).
Link1: boards.4channel.org/k/thread/54458127 Link2: archive.org/details/TheVistaGroup-WhereTheWildThingsAre Link3: archive.org/details/slc72.netlabel_day_2022-soisloscerdos_mini_compilation
July 23, 2022
The overall surrealistic gear shape comes from a mold used to shape propellant mixtures, created by a European chemical conglomerate, mentioned in a 1988 issue of the Spanish aviation magazine "Aeroespacio" (Link1).
The positive and negative surfaces of the gear-like image are filled with two different military camouflage patterns, from a discussion on the 4Chan "Weapons" board of camouflage patterns. (Link2) The backmost pattern has its colors reversed to be blue-ish.
The pictogram on top of the positive gears is "The Grinning Face" emoji, from the 'Twemoji' set created on Twitter (Link3). Like clowns, I find emojis meant to be happy to be scary.
Deep in the background is a barely-visible photo of a jet engine on a hoist, also from the Spanish aviation magazine "Aeroespacio" (Link1).
Link1: https://archive.org/details/aeroespacio-461-ene-feb-1988 Link2: https://boards.4channel.org/k/thread/54467200 Link3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoji#/media/File:Twemoji_1f600.svg
That figure is set against a 1957 drawing (Link2) of an electrical transformer for a Lionel HO train set.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/mad_SPY_vs_SPY_pumpkin_stencil_2004. Link2: https://archive.org/details/lionel-dc-power-units-for-ho-trains-01
Link1: https://archive.org/details/uhq_volume47_1979_number1
Had a lot of technical problems with this one because there was little detail in the shaded side of the girl's face. But I like the innocent look of it.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/1977_20220714.
The stairway photo is by Ana Pobo. It appears in an issue of "Letras Salvajes" (Link1; trans: 'Wild Letters'), a Puerto Rican review of art and literature.
The font is "Rusty Fever" (Link1) a new font by designer group 'Fonts and Fashion'.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/ls_29 Link2: https://www.fontsandfashion.com/
Link1: https://archive.org/details/famous-detective-stories-june-1954. Link2: https://archive.org/details/1988_20220709 Link3: https://archive.org/details/apoeticsof-resistance-the-revolutionary-public-relationsofthe-zapatista-insurgency
Background is a 1717 architect's plan for Petersburg from the 1989 Russian "История Градо Строительного Искусства Поздний Феодализм И Капитализм" (Link1; trans: 'A History of Urban Building Art Late Feudalism and Capitalism').
On top of that, two images from the 1969 Russian "Исследование Пищеварительного Аппарата У Человека" (Link2; trans: 'Study of the Digestive Apparatus in Man'). One shows views of the small intestine with and without nutrients, and the other shows laboratory "apparatus for the simultaneous receipt of the same gastric and duodenal contents."
A very complicated piece; in the course of work, some of the colors in the layers have gotten out of line.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/1989_20220709 Link2: https://archive.org/details/1969_20220709
Below that, the eyes of a young Mexican girl from the 2010 "A Poetics of Resistance: The Revolutionary Public Relations of the Zapatista Insurgency" (Link2)
Link1: https://archive.org/details/squadron-signal-3009-british-paratroopers-in-actio Link2: https://archive.org/details/apoeticsof-resistance-the-revolutionary-public-relationsofthe-zapatista-insurgency
I consider this a companion piece to my e 23 football image. Not going for surprise or beauty, but just utterly ordinary images that say "This happened -- and I was around to see it."
Link1: https://archive.org/details/1957-bchs-yearbook
A group of four armed Christo-fascist Nationalist "Legionarios" roust a terrified farm family searching for weapons in 1936, in the Basque town of Irun. Fascist movements tend to attract small-town bullies, for the chance it gives them to push everybody else around. Note the soldier on the right with his hand in the farmer's pocket.
History is confusing. The Republicans in the Spanish Civil War were the good guys, just like the Republicans in American politics leading up to the American Civil War. It is only recently that the Republican label has come to stand for the most regressive, cruel, and anti-democratic policies.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/war-monthly-issue-030
Most of us are familiar with the story of Eve, tempted by the serpent, convincing Adam to join her in eating the forbidden fruit. Here is a statue depicting that event from the 5th Century Cathedral of Reims. Several departures from the modern story: Eve is dressed in modern clothes and the tempter is a small dragon, reminiscent of Daenerys Targarian in the modern Game of Thrones. The picture on the left is from the 1958 history book "Histoire 4e, Cours J. Isaac" (Link1; trans: 'History 4th, Cours J. Isaac'). The picture of the same statue on the right is from Twitter (Link2). Both pictures are laid over a skillful engraving or woodblock referenced in a discussion on Quora (Link3). barely visible.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/histoire-4e-cours-j.-isaac Link2: https://twitter.com/ancienteurope/status/1055095364351676417 Link3: https://www.quora.com/Who-or-what-exactly-is-the-serpent-depicted-in-the-Bible-This-serpent-is-clearly-a-snake-of-some-sort-and-can-have-offspring-and-talk
Early in his career, my father worked as a draftsman (on blueprints for a gas station in Michigan) and I developed an early interest in what was called Mechanical Drawing. Here, an illustration from a 1977 Romanian textbook "Desen tehnic industrial: pentru secțiile de subingineri" (Link1; trans: 'Industrial technical drawing: for sub-engineering sections'). I love the clarity of line. Of course, heavy digital distortion of the precise original.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/desem_202206/
A photograph of painted models about 2 1/8 inches wide, from an undated magazine "Scale Modelling Handbook" (Link1). The figures depict an English boarding party at the Siege of Badajoz, a bloody battle in Spain, part of the global conflict known in U.S. as the War of 1812 and in Spain and Portugal as the Peninsular War. The model was built and painted by Bill Horan with enamels.
The blue smoke in the background is a digital alteration of a religious image from an undated Romanian religious book, "Predici la Duminica Pogorârii Sfântului Duh (Cinzecimea, Rusaliile sau Paştile de foc)" (Link2: 'Sermons on the Sunday of the Descent of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost, Pentecost, or Passover)').
Link1: https://archive.org/details/scale-modelling-handbook-013-building-and-painting. Link2: https://archive.org/details/9.-dum.-sf.-duh
According to the Washington Post, the Russian Army is shooting 60,000 shells a day at Ukrainian troops and cities. .
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A photo from the 1954 "Street & Smith's College Football Preview." The equipment, especially the helmet, are outdated. The caption reads:
"GEORGE GALUSKA, Wyoming fullback, cracks Denver line for 8-yard-gain as teams play 13-13 tie. Bugs Carter (85), Cowboy end, hastens to block out Jim Bowen (left), Denver back 05 Martin Hicks (right) gets set to tackle."Denver ended up winning the 1954 conference championship.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/street-smith-1954-college-football-yearbook-c/. .
From a nostalgic thread on the Reddit "K" Weapons board, imagining plane designs that could have been but never were. A photograph of the 1929 Junkers G38. Notice how large the wings are. The engines were enclosed in the wing, along with passengers. The explanatory text: "You'll never service a plane engine from inside the wing during flight with your old gray haired mechanic senpai [master]... .Why even live?"
In the background is a pattern from a 1979 book of anime (Link2)
A diagram of the G38's innovative wing design is at Link3.
Link1: https://boards.4channel.org/k/thread/54099927 Link2: https://archive.org/details/animage-1979-v-008-february. Link3: https://books.google.com/books?id=QuIDAAAAMBAJ&pg=RA1-PA72&dq=Popular+Mechanics+1931+curtiss&hl=en&ei=Nij_TMTzG43InAeavtDBCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=Popular%20Mechanics%201931%20curtiss&f=true
Pure pattern. Foreground is "Retrospection," a Dingbat Font from Studio369 (Link1). It is a steganographic font. Background is the riding silks from the 2019 Kentucky Derby (Link2).
Link1: https://www.dafont.com/retrospection.font Link2: https://archive.org/details/silks_rtkd_silks_distribute_4-24-19
At her work desk, Spanish surrealist artist Remedios Varo working. The photo is undated. Inset in upper left is her 1959 painting "Presencia Inquietante" (Link1; trans: 'Haunting Presence'). Original here. The painting shows the artist at work in a high-backed chair; but inside the chair is an evil imp distracting her by licking her neck. She died in Mexico in 1963.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/cartas-suenos-y-otros-textos-varo-remedios-z-lib.org
One, in the center, chin resting on hand before a friendly cup of coffee, is a cartoon character in Neil Gaiman's masterful comic/fantasy series "Sandman". Her name is Death, and she is the opposite of previous depictions of death. As Wikipedia explains:
"Death instead appears as an attractive, pale goth girl dressed in casual clothes — often a black top and jeans. She also wears a silver ankh on a chain around her neck, and has a marking similar to the eye of Horus around her right eye. She is pleasant, down-to-earth, perky, and has been a nurturing figure for both incarnations of [Sandman]. This irony has helped make Death one of the most popular characters from [the series]. "
In the background is actress Jennifer Connelly, when she was just 21, during a photo shoot posing with her reflection before a full-length mirror, dressed in nothing but a thong (Link2). Connelly, a beauty to my Boomer generation, is now 52 and has aged gracefully. She is married to actor Paul Bettany.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/B-001-038-072-ALL Link2: https://i.redd.it/yr3h3feqbe591.jpg
Illustration used as two-page inside cover for a 1989 book of high-school readings, Избранное (Link1; trans: "Favorites"). Scene depicts three soldiers in lower left, a steaming locomotive in center, and a train station at right.
The rectangle in lower right was used for Cyrillic text; I filled it with background brown and superimposed my logo/brand. Later, at a friend's suggestion, I re-did it so that my logo does not cover the image area, although I had to fake the original woodcut or linoleum block style in the rectangle.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/B-001-038-072-ALL
Link1: https://archive.org/details/TheAmericanMagazineV126N01193807
I'm reminded of the car because I got an Uber ride in a Tesla M3 -- hot car of the moment -- today. Sells for $45,000.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/stanley-steam-cars-1911
Dingbat (representing Bearded Bob offering a flower) from recent Spanish designer Woodcutter's font "DrawnX" (Link2)
Link1: https://archive.org/details/1973_20220604 Link2: https://www.dafont.com/woodcutter-s-drawnx.font
Link1:https://archive.org/details/1947_20220604
Link1: https://boards.4channel.org/k/thread/53847387
Background is a 1970 Polaroid photo by Daniel Boudinet, used as a frontispiece in a 2015 Arabic translation of Roland Barthes' "The Light Room" (Link1)
On top of that, an early 18th century tempera painting by Italian sculptor Antonio Canova of three dancing girls (Link2)
Foreground is a rendering of a flowering plant (Leptolaena multiflora) found only in Madagascar, from the 1806 "Histoire des végétaux recueilles dans les isles australes d'Afrique" (Link3; trans: 'History of the plants collected in the southern islands of Africa') .
Link1: https://archive.org/details/20191110_20191110_0728 Link2: https://www.museocanova.it/le-danzatrici-di-canova-a-tempera-4. Link3: https://archive.org/details/CAT11024889
Link1: Photos by Bob Moore
Link1: Photos by Bob Moore
Next, my understanding of the anatomy issues involved. Urine flows through a channel in the prostate gland. When prostate enlarges, urine flow is reduced. The wings have nothing to do with the subject, they're just there for decorative purposes.
Link1: Photo & graphic by Bob Moore
As I recover from my surgery, I measure my progress on a gradient between red and yellow in the liquid collected in my out-of-body catheter drainage bag. Red is blood, from the damage done by surgery, and yellow is urine. As I recover from the surgery, the yellow is becoming more and more prominent. I used a red-to-yellow gradient on top of this piece.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/the-art-of-shen-ku-the-first-intergalactic-artform-of-the-entire-universe-pdfdrive/
Link1: https://archive.org/details/broszura_trauma Link2: https://cathysinker.co.uk/
Link1: https://archive.org/details/convorbiri-literare-anul-lxxvii-nr.-3-martie-1944 Link2: https://archive.org/details/enciclopedia-de-plantas-que-curan-018-ediliba-1987 Link3: https://archive.org/details/carlisle-clover-club-1916-1917
As Russian propaganda, the book is large and photographs are high-resolution. Worth taking a look at. I was attracted to a particular form of statues/monuments that were made with concrete.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/1975_20220509
I have switched from making the frame 10% of original to 20%. In other words, if width is 2000 pixels, I make height 140% (instead of 120%). I like the look in the frames. Used the 20%/large frame in last two images.
The background/overlaid pattern is a decorative rooster motif used on the cover of a 1990 Russian first-grade reading textbook "Русский Язык. Учебник Для 1 Класса" (Link1: trans: 'Russian LanguageTextbook For 1st Class').
The images of children jumping/skipping rope are from the 1969 Russian children's picture book "Веревочка" (Link2: trans: 'Rope').
It is purely a coincidence that I have been using Russian images a lot lately. Basically, I want to separate myself from today's widespread hatred of Russians because of the atrocities of Putin's troops and mercenaries in Ukraine. Japan committed horrible atrocities during World II in China, but it was a matter of ideology (militarism, emperor worship, racism) and when the ideology was ended, Japan rejoined the world of civilized states contributing to world culture. When the sickness of Putin's kleptocratic dictatorship ends, Russia will once again rejoin the civilized world, the home of Tchaikovsky and Tolstoy.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/1-.-.-.-1990 Link2: https://archive.org/details/1969_20220422
A digital assemblage -- my new term -- from five elements. Busy-ness and texture are part of my style, but this may be too busy, I'm not sure.
Background image is a brothel party scene of top-hatted men and fashionable women, from the 1909 French "Maisons De Plaisir Et Distractions Parisiennes" (Link1; trans: 'Houses Of Pleasure And Parisian Distractions'). The image is blue because colors have been inverted.
Superimposed on that are two copies of a photograph of a falling and breaking wine glass, used to demonstrate the relative elasticity of materials, from the 2000 Lithuanian "Mokslas: mokyklinė enciklopedija: 2000 svarbiausių temų apie mokslą" (Link2: trans: 'Science: A school encyclopedia: 2000 major topics about science').
There are also two images from the 1993 Mexican "Puros Cuentos. Historia de la historieta en México 1934-1950" (Link3; trans: ''Pure Tales. History of the comic strip in Mexico 1934-1950'). The first image is the startled woman in the center, from the undated cover of a Mexican magazine, captioned "Socorro! Bandidos!" (trans: 'Help! Bandits!). Another image, duplicated at the bottom corners, is a cartoonish maid looking on disapprovingly (source unknown).
Last image is a photograph from a Chinese trade catalog, showing rubber silicon seals, running top-to-bottom in the center of the image. (Link4)
Link1: https://archive.org/details/maisons-de-plaisir-et-distractions-parisiennes Link2: https://archive.org/details/ardley.-.-mokykline.enciklopedija..-2001 Link3: https://archive.org/details/puroscuentoshistoriahistorietamexico Link4: https://archive.org/details/silicone-rubber-seals
A colorizing digital treatment of an old black & white photo.
Sometime in Europe after the carnage of World War II, a group of teenage scouts (The Union of Polish Youth) work together to repair bombed buildings in Warsaw. The girls form a human chain to hand-carry street rubble, the boys (in the background) use pick-axes to take apart collapsing walls. The image appears in a Lithuanian translation of Anne Applebaum's 2013 book "Geležinė uždanga: Rytų Europos sugniuždymas, 1944-1956" (Link1: trans: 'The Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956')
I look forward to the time Putin is gone and the people of Europe (even Russia) will pitch in to repair the physical damage from Putin's desperate bombing of cities.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/applebaum.-.-gelezine.uzdanga.-2013.-lt
A religious chant I wrote years ago, meant to be sung on Good Friday from 3 PM to 5 PM, which was the supposed time of Christ's crucifixion in the Catholic Church where I was raised. It was customary for the devout to "keep the silence" during those hours.
In a secular version, the song is the same except, at the end, the names of all the people who have died in the last year are read.
The words are below. The intention is for maximum vocal improvisation in the long 'e' in Keeeeep. "Oncha" is a contraction for "Won't you".
Keeeeep the Silence 'Oncha Keeeeeep the Silence 'Oncha Keeeeeep the Silence 'Cuz A Man Dies Young Da-da dada duh
The devotion required participants to vividly imagine Jesus' suffering. It was part of the church's Stations of the Cross tradition. One year, as an altar boy, I carried a cross in the procession from station-to-station.
April 20, 2022
A composite ("digital assemblage") of three images.
In the deep background, under a camouflage net, two soldiers in gas masks service a guided missile (bottom right to top left) from a 1965 issue of the East German soldier's magazine "Armee-Rundschau" (Link1; trans: 'Army Review').
Next, bottom, three puppet figures created by the Russian artist and puppet designer Nina Simonovich-Efimova from her 1982 memoir "Notes of the Artist" (Link2).
Behind the puppets, a display of crystal/glass work from the 1922 "The Glass and Mosaic Industries of Venice" (Link3).
Link1: https://archive.org/details/ar-1965-01 Link2: https://archive.org/details/1982_20220416 Link3: https://archive.org/details/glass-and-mosaic-industries
An artistic experiment, combining two digitally adjusted technical illustrations from the 2006 book "Broadband Planar Antennas: Design and Application" (Link1). A planar antenna is "a directional antenna in which all the elements are in one plane".
At the four corners are segments of the universal symbol for "Biohazard", from a dingbat font by the Spanish type designer "Woodcutter" Manero (Link2). For background on the Biohazard symbol, see Link3.
All the elements of this image were originally black-and-white. The colors were added by computer, specifically a utility in the Gimp G'Mics filter package: Testing, called "Autofill Coloring Book;" and some style transformations in Dreamscope.
I intend to enter this in piece in the Plastic Club's Member's Medal show. It is either a sign of continuing improvement or appalling confusion that I usually enter my latest work into this show, which is intended to highlight the best work the member has done all year.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/broadband-planar-antennas-design-and-application Link2: https://www.dafont.com/laboratory.font?sort=date Link3: https://99percentinvisible.org/article/biohazard-symbol-designed-to-be-memorable-but-meaningless/
Two illustrations for Regina brand cigarettes, appearing in the 1934 "Le vie d'Italia" magazine (Link1; trans: 'Life in Italy').
The background is a popular military camouflage called MultiCam (Link2). The image appeared on 4-Chan's "K (weapons)" bulletin board.
"MultiCam has a background of a brown to light tan gradient, overprinted with a dark green, olive green, and lime green gradient and a top layer of opaque dark brown and cream-colored shapes spread throughout the pattern. This allows for the overall appearance to change from predominantly green to predominantly brown in different areas of the fabric, while having smaller shapes to break up the larger background areas. The MultiCam color scheme in Hex triplet is as follows:(i) Cream 524 B8A78B; (ii) Dark Brown 530 48352F; (iii) Tan 525 967860; (iv) Brown 529 6F573F; (v) Dark Green 528 5A613F; (vi) Olive 527 8C7D50; and (vii) Pale Green 526 85755C."
Link1: https://archive.org/details/2022-04-13-02-35 Link2: https://i.4cdn.org/k/1649979299099.png
Another in my series of postcards reminding my friends, family and neighbors Not To Fall. The last one was January 31. The message, as I said then: "Nothing can destroy your quality of life more quickly than a broken bone from a moment's slip on the snow or stumble on a stairway." I am usually inspired to do one of these when I come across an attractive stairway, as above.
The image is taken from Ernst Gombrich's revised 1950 "History of Art." translated into Spanish. (Link1) It shows an 1893 staircase from the Hotel Tassel in Brussels designed by Victor Horta.
Link1: https://archive.org/details/GombrichErnstHHistoriaDelArte
Behind the car is a chart showing the uniforms of the Aztec army at the time of their conquest by Cortes from the 2007 Lithuanian "Žymiausios visų laikų kelionės" (Link2: trans: 'The most famous trips of all time').
Link1: https://archive.org/details/wood-workers-journal-nov-dec-1994 Link2: https://archive.org/details/zymiausios.visu.laiku.keliones.-2007.-lt
Second version includes a cartoon from the 1974 "Co-Evolution Quarterly" (Link2) showing a black dog and a white dog chasing each other, ouroboros-style.
Undecided on whether to include the ironic black-and-white pop element in my work as a signature. The first image has a good texture, but is it enough?
Link1: https://archive.org/details/funkschau-1931-heft-39 Link2: https://archive.org/details/issue01_202204/page/10/mode/1up
Point one: Russian aggression in the Ukraine is NOT the number one problem facing the world. Climate change is. And Putin's warlord dictator childishness is just distracting us all from dealing with climate issues.
Point two: Climate change -- melting ice in the Arctic -- will help out Putin's dream of a revived Russian empire. His Northern Sea Route would allow Russia to ship oil directly to China -- without using dollars. (See the orange and white dashed line on the right of the map above, from Link1; click on map to enlarge.) Global sea traffic could bypass the Suez Canal. Normally I would shrug this off as normal technological innovation and economic competition, but having witnessed Russian brutality in Ukraine, I don't feel any obligation to play fair. I would like the United States and other countries involved in the Northern Sea Route to resist this development using all the Putinesque tactics of transparent lies, mass media misinformation, strained legalisms -- even military force.
A busy Northern Sea Route would also give the U.S. a new Northern neighbor. I love Canada as friendly neighbor along our shared 5,000 mile border. My family spent summers in Canada and as a boy the Canadian/U.S. border was lightly policed, you just needed a drivers license to cross. But I am not at all happy with the prospect of Putin-era Russia with its rapacious conscript army as a Northern neighbor.
Here is a recent (April 3) video press release by the Russian state atomic energy company Rosatom about an Arctic voyage of a nuclear-powered icebreaker (Link2):
For a more military view of Arctic developments see The War Zone. And here is a recent (April 5) report on Canadian arctic defense.
Link1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Sea_Route Link2: https://twitter.com/Russia
A cartoon figure showing a a young Ukrainian soldier holding a Javelin anti-tank guided missile launcher and an automatic rifle (Link1), originally taken from 4-chan's "K" (Weapons) board. Gender can not be determined from the drawing, but from the context of anime big-eyed imagery and the religious icons of that region showing Mary, the mother of Jesus, it is a young female warrior. Artist is not identified.
Link1: i.pinimg.com/originals/f0/14/fc/f014fc82808ef478aaf48d78c929f8e9.jpg
A digitally-altered 2002 photo by Parisian photographer Guy Lequerrec showing a model studying her three reflections in two mirrors, from a Chinese magazine called "张悦然：鲤·系列" (Link1; trans: 'Zhang Yueran: Carp Series').
Balancing in the upper right corner, a photograph of a nude woman posing next to a brass gong, from the 1934 pulp magazine "Spicy Stories" (Link2)
Link1: https://archive.org/details/20220320_20220320_1719/%E5%BC%A0%E6%82%A6%E7%84%B6%EF%BC%9A%E9%B2%A4%C2%B7%E5%8F%98%E8%80%81 Link2: https://archive.org/details/spicy-stories-september-1934
Central image is a skeleton, an old (11th? 16th? century) engraving, from a 1994 Russian book "Философия смерти" (Link1; trans: 'The Philosophy of Death'); the accompanying text reads: "
Behind that is a collage consisting of (a) a decorative ceiling appearing in a 1996 catalog of the period rooms at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art (Link2); (b) a display of coins from the 1911 French travel book "Du Khorassan au pays des Backhtiaris, trois mois de voyage en Persez" (Link3; trans: 'From Khorassan to the land of the Backhtiaris, three months of travel in Persia'); and (c) a drawing of a milling machine from a 1958 textbook "Ball Tube and Rod Mills" (Link4)
Below and to the left of the skeleton engraving is a photograph of a nude woman seated in a window, from the 1934 pulp magazine "Spicy Stories" (Link5)
Also, above and below the skeleton engraving are copies of a diagram showing old-fashioned iron rifle sights, from an online discussion in 4chan's "K" (Weapons) board, about their usefulness in combat (Link6).
Link1: https://archive.org/details/B-001-037-207-ALL Link2: https://archive.org/details/p15324coll10_96980 Link3: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125014240549 Link4: https://archive.org/details/ball-tube-and-rod-mills-rose-and-sullivan-2/ Link5: https://archive.org/details/spicy-stories-september-1934 Link6: https://boards.4channel.org/k/thread/52575530
Link1: https://archive.org/details/penthouse-1987-10-b
I have resolved to work more on my writing than on my art. As I near the end of my days, there's a few things I want to get down. Expand text, reduce complexity of image.
This 77-year-old man is having prostate problems. A young man's prostate is about 22 cubic centimeters in volume. The ultrasound shows that my current prostaste is 90 cc. As a result of this enlargement, I have not been able to pee freely since January 6 and I wear a urinary catheter (an external bladder), with associated practical problems. Actually, I switch between two catheters: a 2000-cc night catheter and a 1000-cc day catheter.
I am getting decent care -- two ambulance trips, frequent visits from a home healthcare nurse, appointments at the urology department of HUP, and visits with my expensive local concierge doctor.
The only thing that bothers me is the incredibly slow progress of my treatment. It looks like it will be Spring before I will be able to return to normal peeing-- if I ever will. The catheterization also means I am not able to masturbate or have sex.
At my last Plastic Club live artist's workshop, I did a drawing (See above) about my woes, using ink and crayon , intended to honor the spirit of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo's paintings about her painful back injury, The figure on the left shows me with the enlarged prostate, the figure on the right shows me with a catheter. At top, the view from the emergency room window as I lay sleepless on the first night.
March 20, 2022
TWO MORE POINTS ON UKRAINE
I have resolved to work more on my writing than on my art. As I near the end of my days, there's a few things I want to get down. Expand text, reduce complexity of image.
First, let me address some issues raised by the Ukrainian war, which I am following obsessively -- four hours a day:
(1) Thirty years ago, United States Secretary of State James Baker assured Russian diplomats that the U.S. would never let Ukraine into NATO -- but the then U.S. president at the time (G.H.W. Bush) went back on the deal. (Footnote1; see March 14 entry) This is horrendous foreign policy practice on the U.S. side. This doesn't excuse Russia's brutal invasion, but it may provide a chance for the U.S. to offer Russia an "exit ramp" for Putin's disastrous policy. ("American and Russian diplomats had a misunderstanding on Ukraine, we understand that. And Ukraine did not have a seat at the table. Can we help Putin and Zelensky come to some agreement for an immediate cease-fire -- maybe no entrance to NATO for ten years or until the Russian Federal Assembly [Russian Congress] revokes this condition, and then only after a free election supervised by UN. Meanwhile, Russia goes back to its 2013 borders and works (as neighbors) with Ukraine on repairing the physical and spiritual damage caused by the warfare.").
And let this count forever as a black mark on the record of Republican President Bush. You fucked up bad and brought us to the brink of World War III. Does President Biden feel obliged to honor agreements reached by his Secretary of State with foreign governments? Of course he does.
(2) The question has been raised: Why are American progressives more upset about dead Ukrainians than about dead Syrians? Is it because Ukrainians are white? Perhaps partially, but I think the main cause was the extreme complexity of the Syrian situation. It was never clear (to me, at least) who was fighting whom in Syria, with US, Islamists, Turkey, and Russia disguising their identities behind acronymic proxies. In Ukraine, it's simple: Russia vs. Ukraine, Putin vs. Zelensky. A much simpler two-party game, with a convenient comic-book villain and hero.
Image notes: image is a videogame scene (from Warhammer) posted (but since removed) by a user on 4Chan's "K" (Weapons) board, with the face of the videogame character "God Emperor of Mankind" (Link1) replaced by the face of Volodymyr Zelenskyy (Link2). I added the arrow pointing to the enlargement of Zelenskyy's face.
LINKS:
Link1: https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Emperor_of_Mankind Link2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volodymyr_Zelenskyy
Two patterns are combined in the background:
First pattern is a square brick from the 1892 "Catalogue of moulded and ornamental brick" (Link2).
Second pattern is a page of technical drawings from the 2000 Ukrainian book "Креслення Сидоренко" (Link3; trans: 'Sidorenko's Drawings'; alternate title 'Technical Drawing') for vocational school students.). The author is V.I. Sidorenko.
LINKS:
Link1: https://archive.org/details/pressbook-ua-drums Link2: https://archive.org/details/central-press-brick-1900s-a Link3: https://archive.org/details/kreslennya-sidorenko
St. Patrick's Day 37 years ago is when Janice and I moved from casual conversation at the workplace to secret post-work meetings for intense love-making. I think the intimacy of that sex led to the comfort we now have with our aging physical bodies.
Anyway, this will be my anniversary card.
The left image is the cover of a 1992 Russian book "Кухня Кришны" (Link1; trans: 'Krishna's Kitchen') recently uploaded to the Internet. The Russian uploader is clearly upset by the war between Russia and Ukraine; he included this confusing comment: "To understand how karma can cause war, consider an example from the Vedas. Sometimes a fire starts in a bamboo forest as a result of the friction of trees against each other. The real cause of the fire, however, is not the trees, but the wind that moves them. Trees are just tools. Similarly, the principle of karma indicates that the US and the USSR are not the true causes of the friction that has arisen between them, a friction that could ignite the fire of an atomic war. The true cause is the imperceptible wind of karma, born outwardly innocent inhabitants of the world." This is not helpful, pal.
LINKS:
Link1: https://archive.org/details/B-001-037-061-ALL
LINKS: NA]
I don't understand the ins-and-outs of U.S. foreign policy, but this 1990 memorandum of a conversation (if accurate, above) between George H.W. Bush's Secretary of State James Baker and Russian representatives seems to indicate that America promised not to expand NATO "one inch to the East" of its then-current borders. Which gives some credence to Putin's demand that Ukraine should not be included in NATO.
Read the history of NATO expansion on Wikipedia and it seems to show that "[a]ccording to polls conducted between 2005 and 2013, Ukrainian public support of NATO membership remained low. However, since the Russo-Ukrainian War and Annexation of Crimea, public support for Ukrainian membership in NATO has risen greatly. Since June 2014, polls showed that about 50% of those asked supported Ukrainian NATO membership. Some 69% of Ukrainians want to join NATO, according to a June 2017 poll by the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, compared to 28% support in 2012 when Yanukovych [Zelenskyy's predecessor] was in power." (Link2)
In other words, Putin's bullying tactics, besides revealing to the whole world the weaknesses of Russian military forces, have also been self-defeating, assuming that the Ukrainian people's opinion on NATO membership will someday count.
CORRECTION: Wrong prez and Secretary of State: it was George H.W. Bush and James Baker, not Ronald Reagan and Howard Baker. (Thanks, Al). Looking at the Wikipedia article on Baker (Link3), the facts are still puzzling: "In May 1990, Soviet Union's reformist leader Mikhail Gorbachev visited the U.S. for talks with President Bush; there, he agreed to allow a reunified Germany to be a part of NATO. He later revealed that he had agreed to do so because James Baker promised that NATO troops would not be posted to eastern Germany and that the military alliance would not expand into Eastern Europe. Privately, Bush ignored Baker's assurances and later pushed for NATO's eastwards expansion."
LINKS:
Link1: https://archive.org/details/navo-eastward-expansion/ Link2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine%E2%80%93NATO_relations Link3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Baker
First story: sometimes people ask where I get my images. Here is one source, an organization, The Public Domain Review that covers material in the public domain. Indeed, that's where I got the design in the frame of this image: an article "Love and Longing in the Seaweed Album" in the Review discussed 19th century pictures of seaweed; the image shown is a 1790 design for printed cotton by William Kilburn (Link1). I recommended subscribing to The Public Domain Review, or at least getting on its mailing list.
The second story is about the English King Henry VIII, who was seeking a wife. One of the possible marriage candidates was Anne of Cleves, and Henry commissioned artist Hans Holbein to a portrait of her (Link2). In the center is that portrait. Henry saw it, and decided to marry Anne. But the marriage, according to Henry, was never consummated, the marriage was annulled in two weeks, and Holbein's reputation was diminished.
Unlike most of my images, there was very little digital alteration of either the frame or the picture.
LINKS:
Link1: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Design_for_a_printed_cotton_by_William_Kilburn,_seaweed_pattern.jpg Link2: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Anne_of_Cleves#/media/File:AnneCleves.jpg
Background is a collage of glassware and lace from a reprint of the 1913 mail order catalog of Detroit's early dime store, "Kresge's Katalog 5 Cent and 10 Cent Merchandise" (Link1).
Foreground is a decorative page ornament, a pretty childlike figure, from a 1941 issue of a Brazilian Methodist children's magazine, "Revista Bem-Te-Vi" (Link2). The magazine's odd name is from the song of the Great Kiskadee, well-known in South America.
LINKS:
Link1: https://archive.org/details/kresges-katalog Link2: https://archive.org/details/bt-194111
An illustration from the 1561 "Der Stadt Worms Reformation" (Link1; trans: 'The City of Worms Reformation'), a collection of revised laws. It shows two dragons wrestling; the dragon is the symbol of the German city of Worms. The image is in the public domain. It nicely expresses the horror I feel as I follow developments in the Ukraine.
Note I changed the colors of my logo to the blue and yellow of Ukraine. The situation is complicated because of (1) Ukraine's dark history of anti-semitism in World War II and (2) the West's sympathy for the suffering white people of Ukraine is a lot more than its sympathy for the suffering brown people of the Middle East. And there is some reality to Putin's historic, sentimental vision of a former Russian empire. although in reality it's just myth, like the Holy Grail.
But those are just footnotes in comparison to the events as they are unfolding: the deaths, the suffering, the flagrant violation of international law, and the attractive character of Ukraine's quirky Jewish ex-comedian leader in comparison to the cold, merciless Russian leader.
LINKS:
Link1: https://archive.org/details/derstadtwormsreformation/
A scene of domestic order from the United States of the 1940's -- the land I was born into -- as Mom pours waffle batter into an electric waffle press, with a heaping portion of sausage roll-ups, pats of butter and a dispenser of maple syrup nearby. The recipe appears in the 1940 "The New Sealtest Book of Recipes and Menus" (Link1). Incidentally, the recipes in this book will be used in the heavenly kitchen, if I have anything to say about it.
The kitchen scene is overlaid with two patterns.
The first is a fabric pattern from a 1999 catalog of ancient Peruvian textiles in the style of the Nazca Culture, "Mary Frame Textiles De Estilo Nasca" (Link2).
The second pattern is an urban skyscape from a 2022 "Kit for curators" by photographer Maria Pons (Link3).
LINKS:
Link1: https://archive.org/details/sealtest_202112 Link2: https://archive.org/details/mary-frame-textiles-de-estilo-nasca-textiles-of-the-nasca-style Link3: https://archive.org/details/kit-para-kuradores-02-03-2022
SOURCES:
Lives are not all that are lost in modern aerial bombing. Some 25 of the works of Ukrainian folk artist Maria Prymchenko (Link1, Link2) were burnt in a Russian bombing attack on a Kyiv museum (Link3). Note the wildly imaginative titles she gives to her works.
LINKS:
Link1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Prymachenko Link2: https://www.wikiart.org/en/maria-primachenko Link3: https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/russia-ukraine-crisis/russia-ukraine-war-ukrainian-artist-maria-pryimachenkos-works-destroyed-in-kyiv-articleshow.htmlMarch 1, 2022
The historic bible is stored in Kyiv, in Ukraine's National Library. The city is currently under bombardment from missiles as part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
SOURCES
LINKS: Link1: https://www.pinterest.com.mx/pin/293719206938292596/
The caption: "My friends are in basements, in flight, and under fire. Help." The post includes ways to help the Ukrainian resistance -- donations for humanitarian assistance, medical supplies, and protective equipment at sites that accept credit cards.
Snyder gives no source for the photo but it was run in the local newspaper of Gloucester.
Note: Resolution for UN General Assembly to meet on Ukraine conflict was vetoed by Russia, with only India, China, and the United Arab Emirates abstaining, the other 11 nations voting for General Assembly to hold meeting.
SOURCES
LINKS: Link1: https://snyder.substack.com/p/a-few-more-ways-to-help-ukrainians?utm_source=url
Four days between entries.
SOURCES:
LINKS:
A week between entries. Clearly, a low-productivity period for me after my Sepsis-ode and the slow rate of progress in moving through the medical system for treatment of my enlarged prostate. This has reduced my general energy level (although I still get out of the house every day for errands). Productivity was also impacted by a video piece that just didn't seem to work out. I may return to it.
Reading a book about climate change, "Falter" by Bill McKibben. McKibben is starting an organization called "Third Act", activism for folks in my age group (Link1).
SOURCES:
Flying in the foreground, a metallic 'Lady of the Future', a detail of a painting by fantasy artist Julie Bell. It appears in a picture book "Twin Visions" (Link2) by Bell and her husband and artistic partner Boris Vallejo.
In the background, a chart from a 1958 Russian book on typography, "Построение шрифтов" (Link3w; trans: 'Type Construction'). The accompanying text explains "The table illustrates the changes in the style of the letter A of the Russian alphabet from 1021 (letter number 18) to 1835 (letter number 54)."
LINKS:
Link1: https://vtdigger.org/2021/09/02/bill-mckibben-launches-third-act-to-rally-older-americans-around-climate-change/ Link2: https://archive.org/details/twin-vision-masgical-art-boris-vallejo-and-julie-bell Link3: https://archive.org/details/1958_postroenie-shriftov
I initially selected the image because I was worrying about the massing of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border; a European war was the nightmare I was born into. At first glance, the image looked military.
But when I examined the image more closely (I couldn't read the text, which was in the Indian dialect of Telegu), I saw that it presented a less scary image, of a band of men carrying instruments walking behind a group of synchronized marching women, an image from a New Orleans or Philly Mummers parade.
The image was on the cover of a 1990 issue of an Indian literary magazine, "Srujana" (Link1; trans: 'Creation').
SOURCES:
LINKS:
Link1: https://archive.org/details/Srujana172_Feb90.pdf
From Hindu mythology, the blue-skinned lord Krishna and his lover Rahda. Rahda was the childhood playmate of Krishna, then became his beloved consort (but not wife) when they grew up. Krishna and Rahda are "worshipped as the combined forms of feminine as well as the masculine realities of God." Her images are beautiful. (Link1) This painting is from the cover of a recent religious book "Radha Shodasanama Stotram" (Link2).
The hearts in the frame are from the dingbat font "Hearts Salad" by the Spanish bad-boy Woodcutter (Link3).
This is my Valentine's Day card for Janice, who has been loving and tender throughout this period of illness and confusion. (There were moments during my 104-degree fever that I didn't recognize her.)
I hope the image shows how comfortably the male and female bodies fit together, not just the reproductive bits, but the hips and limbs and hollows, after decades of holding on to one another.
SOURCES:
LINKS;
Link1: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=radha&atb=v1-1&iax=images&ia=images Link2: https://archive.org/details/radha-shodasanama-stotram Link3: https://www.dafont.com/hearts-salad.font
SOURCES:
LINKS;
Link1:
SOURCES:
PHOTOS: Action scenes of University of Nebraska women's volleyball team, from various media guides (Link1).
LINKS;
Link1: https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22Nebraska+Media+Guide%22
SOURCES:
FOREGROUND: Display of decorative automobile hubcaps, source not available.
BACKGROUND 1: Photo of desserts from the 1940 "300 Tasty, Healthful Dairy Dishes" (Link1). Caption reads: 'Bring the Spring garden to your luncheon table with the pastry tube, cream cheese and salad greens."
BACKGROUND 2: Drawing of female nude by anime illustrator Olivier Vatine "Vatine Sketchbook 3" (Link2)
LINKS:
Link1: https://archive.org/details/desert_20220130 Link2: https://archive.org/details/comix-buro-sketchbook-3
SOURCES:
IMAGE: Photo from 1931 book "Encyclopédie de l'architecture : constructions modernes. Tome III" (Link1; trans: 'Encyclopedia of architecture: modern constructions. Volume III') by Albert Morancé. It shows the stairway of a hotel in the Parisian neighborhood of Montmartre.
LINKS:
Link1: https://archive.org/details/frapn02-encyclopedie-de-l-architecture-constructions-modernes-tome-3-1931
SOURCES:
LINKS:
An image suggested by my recent medical drama, where the bacteria Enterobacter cloacae got into my urinary tract and then my bloodstream. I woke up with a fever and Janice took me to the emergency room. The hotshot medical team at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) tracked it down and found the right combination of antibiotics to make it go away. Condition is called Sepsis and can be fatal.
The mental metaphor in my mind doing this piece: the battle cruiser ready to go find the target (=HUP and my doctor), and the hardy gun crew ready to do battle (=the scientists) tracking down the offending bacteria using high tech. The girls are a nod to the lovely women (doctors and nurses) who took care of me.
SOURCES:
BACKGROUND: Printed circuit board for Atari ST computer, from 1988 electronic magazine "Elektor Electronics" (Link1)
FOREGROUND (TOP): Photo of World War 1 Russian Black Sea cruiser "Ochakov" at anchor, from the 1986 Russian book in the series Remarkable Ships, "Крейсер Очаков" (Link2; trans: 'Cruiser Ochakov')
FOREGROUND (BOTTOM): Photo of gun crew from Link2
FOREGROUND (MIDDLE RIGHT): Photo of two schoolgirls looking at a picture book, from 1972 Polish book "Wychowanie Przedszkolne W Polsce Ludowe" (Link3; trans: 'Pre-school education in Poland')
LINKS:
Link1: https://archive.org/details/elektor_electronics-1988_11 Link2: https://archive.org/details/B-001-036-897-ALL Link3: https://archive.org/details/zofia-woznicka-wychowanie-przedszkolne-w-polsce-ludowej-1972
SOURCES:
FIGURE: Photo appearing in 1979 issue of Polish cinema journal "Film" (Link1), showing actress and writer Christine Pascal in the 1979 Polish drama "Panny z Wilka" (Link2' trans: 'Maids of Wilko') playing the youngest of five sisters revisited by their tutor after a long absence. Pascal (Link3) died in 1996, committing suicide in a mental hospital; suicide had long been a subject of her writing.
FOSSILS: Two illustrations from 1896 Paleontology book "Die Leitfossilien" (Link4: trans: 'The Lead Fossils') by German scholar Ernst Koken. (Link5)
BACKGROUND: Illustration from 1896 manual on winemaking, "La taille de la vigne: étude comparée des divers systèmes de taille" (Link6: trans: 'The pruning of the vine: comparative study of various pruning systems') showing grapevines on trellises.
LINKS:
Link1: https://archive.org/details/film-1979-01-07-nr-01 Link2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maids_of_Wilko Link3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Pascal Link4: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009222165 Link5: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Koken Link4: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009176710
SOURCES:
FOREGROUND: Polish actress Krystyna Janda in the 1980 Polish film "The Orchestra Conductor", from a still in the 1980 Polish cinema journal "Film" (Link1). Janda played Marta, a young violinist who discovers her mother had an affair with the conductor, John Gielgud.
BACKGROUND: Images of red and yellow heraldry from the kingdom (now city) of Aragon in Spain, from the 1995 picture book "Coat of Arms of Aragon" (Link2). The lineage was transmitted through the line of women, not men, as was the usual practice at the time.
LINKS:
Link1: https://archive.org/details/film-1980-03-16-nr-11 Link2: https://archive.org/details/blason-de-aragon
In the center, boyishly-thin English actress Twiggy, dressed as a traditional commedia dell'arte clown, perches on a cardboard crescent moon. She is flanked by the imposing duplicate figures of 70-year-old Indian barbell trainer Capt. (Army or Police?) J.N. Bannerjee. Barely visible in the background are some microphotographs of reproductive cells of the Octopbus.
SOURCES:
BACKGROUND FIGURE: From the 1973 Polish movie magazine "Film" (Link1), a photo of English model Twiggy in the 1971 movie "Boy Friend".
SEATED MAN: Photograph from 1930 Indian exercise handbook "Muscle Control And Barbell Exercise." (Link2). Caption reads ''Capt. J.N. Bannerjee, Bar-at-law At the age of Seventy." Image is doubled.
BACKGROUND TEXTURE: Matrix of microscopic slides from 2020 book "Invertebrata Embryology & Reproduction" (Link3)
LINKS:
Link1: https://archive.org/details/film-1973-12-30-nr-48 Link2: https://archive.org/details/217858632-muscle-control-and-barbell-exercise Link3: https://archive.org/details/Invertebrata-embryology-reproduction-2020
SOURCES:
IMAGE: Illustrations for 1898 science fiction novel "Through The Earth" by American author Clement Fezandie (Link1), digitally altered. Caption reads: "Up He Went, Spinning like a Top."
MUSIC: 1965 Song "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" written by James Brown, performed in 1971 by Singaporean singer 'Sakura' (Link2)
SHAPE: A template for a geometric shape (attach at tabs) from an undated Spanish-language "Plantillas De Poliedros" (Link3; trans 'Polyhedron Templates')
TEXT: "Egyptian Letters" 2021 dingbat font by Ding Bang (Link4)
LINKS:
Link1: https://archive.org/details/through-the-earth Link2: https://archive.org/details/lp_sakura_2 Link3: https://archive.org/details/plantillas-de-poliedros-imprimir-2do Link4: https://www.dafont.com/egyptian-letters.fontJanuary 17, 2022
SOURCES:
Photo of automotive motor from 1929 "Audel's Electric Library" (Link1)
A template for a paper triangle (attach at tabs) from an undated Spanish-language "Plantillas De Poliedros" (Link2; trans 'Polyhedron Templates')
LINKS:
Link1: https://archive.org/details/audels-electric-library-vol-8 Link2: https://archive.org/details/plantillas-de-poliedros-imprimir-2do/mode/2up
SOURCES:
IMAGE: Photograph from 1929 Russian book "Методика Селекции Льна И Конопли" (Link1; trans 'Flax And Hemp Breeding Technique') shows a young woman washing out flax seeds with tap water. She holds in her hand a tweezer. The book was written before Lysenkoism (Link2) crippled Russian biology research.
LINKS:
Link1: https://archive.org/details/1929_20220106 Link2: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/12/trofim-lysenko-soviet-union-russia/548786/
Another snapshot from my pessimistic worldview. The idea is that as a privileged American I get to observe from safety (like from a bus) the awful atrocities that have happened in my lifetime. And there's little I have been able to do to prevent or relieve them.
SOURCES:
FOREGROUND: Photograph of driver's seat and dash of a General Electric bus from a 1929 edition of Audel's 12-volume Electricity Guide (Link1)
BACKGROUND: 1991 painting of 1937 Nanjing Massacre (Link2) of Chinese citizens by Japanese troops by Chinese artist Li Zijian (Link3)
LINKS:
Link1: https://archive.org/details/audels-electric-library-vol-8 Link2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing_Massacre Link3: https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1080087.shtml
Looking over human literature, a whole lot of the most imaginative work has been done in the service of wildly implausible spiritual theories. The figure "Spiritual Symbol Man" is meant to represent the variety of these theories.
Although I don't understand Russian, I gather the Russian song about Green Grass -- sung by the tragic Red Army Chorus -- is a children's song:
Green grass, it's my pleasure. Green grass, this is my duvet [blanket]. When I think about it, I lie down on it. When I think about it, I sit on it.
SOURCES:
IMAGE: Illustration from 1994 Russian book "Astrology and Myth" by Semira V. Vetash (Link1), showing the Hindu deity Indra.
TEXT: "Egyptian Letters" 2021 dingbat font by Ding Bang (Link2)
MUSIC: Excerpt from song 'Green Grass/Travička Zelena' from 1959 album "The Red Army Marches In Hi-Fi" by The Alexandrov Red Army Ensemble (Link3); in 2016, 64 members of the ensemble were killed in the crash of a Russian Tu-154.
LINKS:
Link1: https://archive.org/details/semira-v.-vetash-astrology-and-myth Link2: https://www.dafont.com/egyptian-letters.font?sort=date Link3: https://archive.org/details/lp_the-red-army-marches-in-hi-fi_the-alexandrov-red-army-ensemble-boris-aleJanuary 4, 2022
Have set myself the goal of one video per week. But this holiday week has been hard, with three false starts -- and I'm not happy with this one.
Not a happy view of human nature as I stumble into 2022. Let's hope the January 6 committee restores my faith.
SOURCES:
IMAGE (Left): Bodies piled up in stairway below a second-floor interrogation center in Cambodian prison camp during Khmer Rouge rule in the 1970's, from a travelers visit to a current museum on the site (Link1)
IMAGE: Illustration of space vehicle control room from 1965 book "Orbiting Stations: Stopovers to Space Travel" (Link2)
MUSIC: Excerpt from "Largo & Allegro Vivo" on record "Cello Colours" by André Navarra; Jacqueline Dussol (Link3)
LINKS:
Link1: https://www.keepcalmandwander.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Tuol-Sleng-Genocide-Museum-Cambodia-171.jpg Link2: https://archive.org/details/orbiting-stations Link3: https://archive.org/details/lp_cello-colours_andr-navarra-jacqueline-dussolJanuary 3, 2022
A kind of artistic commemoration of the two strands of my religious past: (1) the Roman Catholic rosary of my childhood and (2) the Runic writing of my old European ancestors.
SOURCES:
IMAGE1: Photo of 9th Century Viking Runes carved on 5-ton granite slab in Sweden, from 1923 "Walzel Handbuch Der Literaturwissenschaft" (Link1; trans 'Walzel Handbook of Literary Studies')
IMAGE2: Image from cover of undated pamphlet describing the Roman Catholic prayer beads known as the "Franciscan Crown or the Rosary of the Seven Joys of the Blessed Virgin" (Link2)
LINKS:
Link1: https://archive.org/details/walzel-handbuch-der-literaturwissenschaft-bd-12.1 Link2: https://archive.org/details/franciscan-crown Link3: https://www.dafont.com/bad-times.font
SOURCES:
IMAGE: Cover of 1961 35-cent paperback "Brother and Sister: A Tender, Compassionate Novel Of Incestuous Love" by Donald Westlake (Link1) writing under the psuedonym Edwin West. Cover artist not credited.
LINKS
Link1: https://archive.org/details/brother-and-sister-by-edwin-west
My 77th birthday. Dinner with friends at a local bar with good food and a pool table -- how long since I've done that? Used to do that three times a week in the old days. Accepting a certain amount of Covid risk.
I feel loved and secure in my place in the world -- but time is running down for an overweight, underexercised near-octagenarian. Every project, every piece, could be my last. I'm okay with that.
SOURCES:
MUSIC: Excerpt from 1967 sacred song "Dies Irae: Oratorio Dedicated to the Memory of Those Murdered at Auschwitz" by Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki (Link1)
IMAGES: Illustrations from 1900 "Горькие плоды пьянства. Альбом рисунков, изоброажающих вред пьянства" (Link2; trans 'The bitter fruits of drunkenness. Album of drawings depicting the harm of drunkenness') published by Alexander Nevsky Sobriety Society, St. Petersburg.
LINKS:
Link1: https://archive.org/details/lp_penderecki-dies-irae-auschwitz-oratorium_henryk-czyzh-orkiestra-filharmonii-im-karo Link2: https://archive.org/details/gorkie_plody_pyanstvaDecember 23, 2021
SOURCES:
IMAGE: Photo by Bob Moore
December 22, 2021
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.
