Recently in art Category

I just ran across what I find to be a stunning collection of artistic erotic images (pretty porn), on a Tumblr blog called "Le Chagrin".

This site is decidedly NSFW, so don't click if your boss is standing behind you - http://chagrin.tumblr.com/

What I like about this site - aside from just pure hotness - is that it's a completely non-themed collection defined by one thing; beauty. Every single picture I've seen is artistically gorgeous. But it doesn't suffer from the tendency some 'artistic' erotica sites have, of mistaking demure and soft-core for artistic; many of these pictures are profoundly hard-core (there's plenty of fucking, plenty of pegging, plenty of cock-sucking and come). But there's also a lot of romantic imagery; that's one of the things I love. There are photos of couples kissing, embracing, and even sleeping.

There are images where the erotic content is implied, and many where it's front and center. The selections below are chosen because they're all work safe, but trust me, the first page you hit from the link above is a profoundly hot pegging image, so don't be fooled by these.

(Thanks to the beautiful and talented Monica for sending me a link to this site)

I think I'm in love with Justine Lai.

This is a bit of her 'Join or Die' series. In her words:

"In Join Or Die, I paint myself having sex with the Presidents of the United States in chronological order. I am interested in humanizing and demythologizing the Presidents by addressing their public legacies and private lives. "

(you can read the whole statement here)

My friend Pink made this for (of?) me.

It suits my Sad Kermit phase.

The Santa Clara County Office of Education has been, for the past twelve years, been building an impressive collection of children's artwork. I wasn't aware of this until recently though.

From the SCCOE web site:

Thirty-four student artists from public schools throughout the county were honored when their work was accepted for display at the COE (County Office of Education). Their work—selected from 280 submissions—now will hang alongside more than 600 other pieces that have been collected in the past 12 years. We welcome visitors who want to stroll through our hallways and view the creations of our talented students.

My daughter Olivia was one of those selected this year. A month ago, we attended an unexpectedly moving awards ceremony, at which educators and major Bay Area arts figures spoke about the importance of art in both education, and life.

This year's winners are here, and below is Olivia's piece, which now hangs in the main hallway in the SCCOE building (click to see larger).

Yeah. Dad's proud.

Well, i wasn't sure it was possible to reduce a person's essence, the totality of what makes them them in a few brush strokes.

Bit it kinda seems like cartoonist Doug Shannon does a pretty good job.

This guy was at a party I went to saturday (a Bar Mitzvah, actually, which was a unique experience for this california gentile), and of course I had to shoulder kids out of the way and say do mine next. The best thing is to watch the guy doing this, seeing which people he reads and captures instantly and who he does not. It requires not just a particular cartooning talent to do this nonsense, but also a certain intuition about people. We all have varying degrees of how well we read faces and body language; some people just seem to have an extra gift.

I've been trying to lay hands on these images for ages.

Finally, as I said, skin stories is out on DVD. What this means is that the image that I've long, long wanted to use as a design source for my tattoo backpiece is in my hands.

Now all i have to do is decide who. And there are only two artists i know who can do this justice, and who i wanna spend months with working on it. My friend Klem, or my friend Freddy (sorry, that links to a stupid flash thing, click on 'artists' - but it doesn't work on Safari).

But here's the image in three pieces. I might later try'n stick these together in one but it doesn't matter, this is enough to take to the shop.

Finally.

I've posted a mini version previously - below is the whole thing, and here is the verse that inspired it.

Skin Stories, a brilliant film by Emiko Omori and Lisa Altieri-Sosa, is finally available on DVD. This is a video I've talked about before, an in-depth exploration of tattooing in the south pacific, with a particular focus on tattooing in New Zealand's Maori culture. It's the best film i've ever seen on tattooing, largely because it eschews the usual focus on the outrageous ('look at these crazy people who tattoo their faces!') and simply tells the story in the voices of people who wear tattoos.

I've been waiting for this to come out on DVD for two years; both because I wanted to own it, and because there's an image in it that I need to take to my tattooist so we can begin work on my backpiece.

It's a bit on the pricey side; it's coming from hawaii, and it's not something that's going to sell thousands of units, so I forgive them. But for those who've been waiting to get hold of this (that may be only me), it's about damned time.

I'm thinking of doing a major blog re-design.

I'm aces at the movable type template/plugins etc, but i sort of suck ass at graphic design (when I say suck ass, I mean in a bad way). So i need someone who can work with me on this who sorta gets movable type templates and who gets my aesthetic.

Anyone interested?

What I got in mind is something akin to this; with a color palate and design based on classic old school tattoo flash. I want to keep something similar to the general layout i have now (i have too damned many links to do two columns), but with a re-vamped (and maybe easier-on-the-eyes) color scheme. I actually have a shirt that looks really similar to the color/design feel i want (click for a full-size view):

If you're interested in helpin' me out, let me know.

My man Julian Lamb of Ruby Crush sent me some quick snaps of his latest work; this stuff ain't on his site yet (though I hope it will be soon); so this is a preview or what's to come. He sent me several but i particularly want to feature this, which I think us simply awesome.

(click those for a bigger view)

He's perfectly captured the look of the classic swallow tattoo (which represents both home, and freedom, in classic sailor tattoo lore). It's a stunning piece. I love how Julian's work is developing; if I had the cash I'd buy one almost everything he's shown me.