happy

i can't describe how happy it makes me to look at these paintings by emily pwerle

the sad truth ... but!

but they do make me feel better!
via soothsayer, this isn't happiness

however!

sister corita saves the day, via my love for you is a stampede of horses and the museum of craft and folk art

basquiat

the painters and dockers used to have a song about basia bonkowski, who compered rock around the world on 0/28 (as it was then)

i mention this only because i started singing basquiat to the same tune in my head

i watched a cool documentary on sbs 2 (as it is now) about basquiat's artistic life.
his work was described as carnal.
i find it more visceral than carnal.

it featured interviews with basquiat's contemporaries including his girlfriend/muse from his early years, jennifer clement.
she's written a book, widow basquiat: a love story
she seemed cool. recounting stories of how they met in a sleazy bar,
a dive and that she was a bit scared at first because he was wearing a "big coat" and looked like he was homeless

the doco has lots of black & white footage of jean-michel basquiat strolling the new york streets in his big coat, jazz in the background.
he was in a band called gray for a while

it shows some of his initial graffiti work, as samo (same old shit)
which feels more like pop-up philosophy or poetry

there's footage of an interviewer asking what the was the last thing he wrote, a cheeky looking basquiat says, which of the following is omnipresent? a) television b) the church c) mcdonalds d) samo
and he grins
some discussion of basquiat/samo, banksy, graffiti, artists cross that fine line

the doco mentioned that he grew up in brooklyn and that his mother, matilde, would take him "across the bridge" to manhattan where they would visit MOMA, the guggenheim, the metropolitan museum of art
an ideal art education
i think this comes through in his wonderful confident lines
his bravurra
basquiat's last works before his death
there was quite a bit of discussion of premonition of death
and dying before 30 (he died at the rock-god age of 27)

an excerpt from basquiat - a quick killing in art, by phoebe hoban, via nytimes

reading you like a book

i'm a great one for judging a book by its cover. in fact, i'm so superficial i'll often just look at the cover and skip the book entirely.
because i love a good book cover.
the issue's come up a few time in the virtual visual ...

fake "polish" book graphics for classic books

contest winners ... some of them looking very polish graphic indeed. the idea arose because of a recent book celebrating 1000 polish book covers

each book begins first with a little idea, dick bruna covers via but does it float

stretching an idea to album covers, again via but does it float (oh what a good site), this time
i take sound and change them into words,

in turn via project 33

today is brought to you by the letter ...

i saw this
and immediately wanted to share it being a zed girl,

a typographic visual by ramiro chavez


it has reminded my of my obsessive compulsive behaviour when i was 4 years old and a regular watcher of sesame street.
every episode was brought to us by a number and two letters.
towards the end of the show, i would get one of the papers from my dad's tally-ho packet (he rolled his own drum in those days) and would write the two letters and the number there before sesame street announced the winning characters


i liked it when sesame street was brought to me by the number 3 (red ball on big dipper)


and the number 6 (Queen of 6)


and the number 8 (King of 8)


i wasn't particularly fussed about the letters, although i did love the two "g" sounds ballad sung by g-grover and g-george
and the letter "l" song by ernie and bert (for words like licorice, and linoleum!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ3eiaK6LAU