Spore Addict

I'm enjoying the scientific imagery in Colin Johnson's illustration work, often used metaphorically (fungal spores to symbolize data copying, metamorphosis of caterpillars into butterflies for a story on nuturing small businesses) or sometimes as a straight artistic interpretation of science (like a university magazine cover for a story on microscopy. Cells, spores, butterflies, eyes, nerves, assorted flora and fauna, robots and a surprising number of snowmen abound.

The Pink Opaque, 2008, 6" by 9", mixed media on board

Spore Addict, 2007, Mixed media on canvas, 10 x 8 inches


Greenhouse Gases, 2010, approx. 8-1/2"W x 10.5"H, Mixed Media on Board


Replicating Data Storage for Storage Magazine, 8-1/2"W x 11"H, mixed media on board.


Microscopic World, 2012, approx. 9-1/4"W x 11-1/4"H, Mixed Media on Board. (cover illustration for Washington State Magazine. The piece revolves around the college's dept. of Microscopy & Imaging)

Be sure to check out Colin Johnson's website and his flickr photostream to look at his portfolio.

Solipsist

Solipsist is an experimental short film directed by LA-based Andrew Thomas Huang. It is visually stunning and reminds me of strange otherworldly art by Mœbius and Luigi Serafini, complete with creatures similar to but distinct from bioluminescent fish (of a craftier sort), alien folk costumes and unfathomnable human interactions. Watch it:

SOLIPSIST from Andrew Huang on Vimeo.

It won the Special Jury Prize for Experimental Short at SLAMDANCE 2012. The dancers, costume designers, puppet makers and masters, avant-guard make-up artists and CGI artists have created something quite astounding under Huang's direction. The combination of techniques is also used to great effect. The making of is also quite something:

SOLIPSIST - Making Of from Andrew Huang on Vimeo.

I am glad such a thing exists.

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Mœbius

One artist who is universally revered amongst the comic book artists I've met is Mœbius, the nom de plume of French comic book artist Jean Henri Gaston Giraud (8 May 1938 – 10 March 2012). He worked under his own name, producing the Franco-Belgian comics western series, Blueberry, amongst others, and under the pseudonym Gir, but I know his otherworldly, surreal and beautiful work as Mœbius best. The statue on the left the little figure is facing, is in fact a self-portrait. He was famous for his science fiction work, including the wordless comix fantasy 'Arzach', his influence and involvement in film, and his mainstream comics work, including on The Silver Surfer. I've often thought about posting his uniquely imaginative art, which is so beautiful drawn and coloured that his talent left other artists at a lost for words. Sadly, it's his untimely death which is prompting me to do so today.

Seraphinianusness

I wrote previously about my favorite book which I've never seen in person (or, should I say, in analogue form), the Codex Seraphinianius, by written and illustrated by Italian architect Luigi Serafini from 1976 to 1978. It's a visual encyclopedia, of a foreign, paradoxical yet familiar, world, complete with its own language and obscure meanings. Today, I bring you more art which reminds me of this particular brand of marvelousness; personal wonderland wunderkammer.

English artist and illustrator Ellis Nadler describes his "pictures as key frames or storyboards for some sort of bizarre movie. Or perhaps as stage sets for an opera I shall write some day." The "Scenes from the Speonk Archipelago" (one of which appears above) and gloriously mysterious and surreal Tarot-like 'Cards of Wu' in particular, make me think of Serafini. Do yourself a favour and peruse his portfolio!


from "Scenes from the Speonk Archipelago"


from "The Cards of Wu"


from "War"

Finland-based Vladimir Stankovic also creates bizzare, otherwordly wunderkammer (see in particular his Biophilia set), strange yet somehow familiar characters and a sort of personal mythology.


Beautiful feeling


The Mushroom Princess


Underneath the Reflection - Her Majesty


The Cursed Forest

Local Toronto favorite, illustrator Nicholas Di Genova (currently being exhibited at Galerie Dukan Hourdequin, Paris, but often found here in Toronto at Magic Pony or Narwhal) has invented this incredible, detailed, pseudo-scientific diagram style of illustration, complete with his own imaginary wunderkammer of composite creatures and seemingly obessive compulsive sets of flora and fauna - which has to be seen to be understood. He's quite prolific, so you should expect to spend some time at his site. Consider 'Angler Tortoise', 'Chluthu Toad' and '211 Herbivores' below, but do visit his site for a better look!

Destino: Dalí meets Disney

Beginning in 1945 Salvador Dalí spent eight months, with Disney story board artist John Hench making storyboards for a short film called Destino but the project was abandoned. Rediscovered in 1999 by Roy E. Disney (nephew to Walt), the film project was completed by director Dominique Monfréy at Disney Studios France, 58 years after it began, by 2003. They were able to encorporate 17 seconds of completed film, and seek advice from Hench and Dalí's widow Gala.



I found the baseball player the most unexpected thing in this intriguing surrealist animated short.

And now for something completely different...

This appeals to the parts of my brain which appreciate the Wunderkammer, dark humour, the absurd and the surreal. This post is also for my mother, who grew up on the prairie, and hence is of the opinion that the only good gopher is a dead gopher, to the dismay of her city-bred children who had the temerity to think they are cute!

From CRAPPY TAXIDERMY:




These are from The Gopher Hole Museum in Torrington, Alberta, Canada. Below we have some good, old-fashioned composite creatures.




(via the Mincing Mockingbird blog)

While I am on the subject of dubious? unusual? creative museums, are you familiar with the Museum of Jurassic Technology? Their quixotic collection covers everything from Anathasius Kircher's magnetic oracle to 'GARDEN OF EDEN ON WHEELS
Selected Collections from Los Angeles Area Mobile Home and Trailer Parks' to Dogs of the Soviet Space Program - and more.

There are also a muriad of weird and wonderful, and oddly specific museums to be found, with the slightless search. These include but are not limited to the Washington Banana Museum, Icelandic Phallological Museum, The Museum of Bad Art and the Meguro Parasitological Museun. I could go on...

Do you have a favorite oddity or quixoitic museum?

Talking Trees, with scarves

I have posted about cutting paper, and before I continue on with the wonders of folding paper, I would like to go off on a brief tangent to ask, "How cool is Jing Wei?" This young illustrator grew up in Northern California, though she was born in China. Currently she is based in "a treehouse in Brooklyn". Her style is has a touch of the surreal, magic, the cute and comics, but she has such delicacy of line and colour, in her chosen media: the woodblock print. Oh, and she has a things about scarves. Go look at her portfolio already! You can find more on her blog too.


Roperite - woodcut, ink, 12 x 12 (inches, I assume?)


Lobsters - woodcut, ink, 9 x 16.5


Groover vs. The Automatic Cat Feeder- woodcut, ink, 4 x 6


Talking Trees - woodcut, ink, 11.5 x 14

otherworldly or innerworldly

Reno-based sculptor Rebekah Bogard's ceramics were featured recently on my love for you is a stampede of horses. Clearly her work exists in a world of its own, though I can see how it connects with the otherworldly work of the previously featured Renee Adams. Her work also features reinterpreted flora and fauna. She is playing with the innocence and yet complexity of animals. She is playing with stereotypes, of gender, cuteness, and colour, and yet there is this rawness and openness. Femininity with power. Check out her site.


Botany of Desite 26" x 19" x 10" (2007) Earthenware, underglaze, glaze


For Your General Bliss 18" x 16" x 10" (2006) Earthenware, underglaze, glaze, resin


On the left: Addiction 9" x 7" x 6" (2001) Earthenware, underglaze, glaze
On the right: Floridus Animalis 29" x 17" x 16" (2003) Earthenware, underglaze, glaze,terra sigillata, metal rods

Courtney 19.5" x 29" x 15.5" (2001) Earthenware, underglaze, glaze, metal rods

Another female ceramic artist subverting the traditional use and forms of china and ceramic sculpture is Canadian superstar Shary Boyle. Her surreal, yet exquisite sculptures also have something to say about sexuality, and gender. She also uses animals, flowers and things which could be cute, or feminine, in a different context. If you don't already know her work, check out her site, where you will also find drawings, paintings and projected art.


2006. Snowball. Porcelain, china paint. 24cm tall.


2006. Ouroboros. Porcelain, china paint, gilt. 16cm tall.


2004. Porcelain, china paint. 26cm tall.

Jay with Gems Philosophy

I saw this collage by Hope Kroll on dear ada and I need to share it with you. This image expresses so exactly the philosophy behind this blog:


That's it in a nutshell collage. A jay with a collection of gems. That is what magpie and whiskeyjack is all about; corvidae collecting sparkly things.

Hope Kroll has a tremendous collection of weird and wonderful collage, in the surrealist tradition, on her site. Check it out. These are thumbnails of Wakening, Science and Faith, and Precursor, respectively.