Akira Yoshizawa

Elephant!

Monkey!

Origami has it's own natural beauty, a beauty which is may not be so clearly defined possibly due to our Western eyes, our appreciation of art having a somewhat different nature, however no one can say what the master origamist Akira Yoshizawa achieved in his career is nothing but beautiful. He was and still is considered as one of the greatest orgamists ever and, well, I'm not one to argue.

Art often baffles me in so many different ways. Most often it's with the profound mechanical skill of an artist with pen or paint, sometimes it's the mind-blowing concept behind a piece abstract work, but this time round  it's one of those 'HOW DO YOU DO THAT?' kind of feelings. It's the incredible lifelikeness of his folds. The fact that the medium and material is paper and is essential blank in any context or colour or connotations and then for his pieces to come across with so much personality imbued in to what are just seemingly folds.... I'm just insatiable with this mystery. Witchcraft is what it is.

And it appears Google too was quite in love with him too as they celebrated Mr. Yoshizawa's birthday with a doodle not so long ago, he would have 101! Head over HERE to check it out.

To read up on an interesting article about an exhibition in years-gone-by and to see more of his origami follow this link HERE for a good time.

Oh, and what the heck, here's a biography too HERE!

It is a truly special art from on which I could and should get in to. Check it out yourself!

Don't forget to enquire about our Zine dedicated to Writing, Illustration & Photography!  

William Carlos Williams - The Use of Force

William Carlos Williams was an American poet and short story writer who had strong ties with modernism and imagism and had a background of being a working physician. He is probably most famous for his poem 'The Red Wheelbarrow' which implements the 'ideas in things' ideology where the language is stripped down and imbue emotions within concrete images. This style of writing can be influenced as strongly by photography as well as writing. 

Here you will find probably my favourite Williams short story, where he makes use of his physician background entailing a rather difficult home visit on a sickly little girl. The frustration and forcefulness is conveyed powerfully and engages the reader with the struggling doctor-patient relationship. 

...

They were new patients to me, all I had was the name, Olson. Please come down as soon as you can, my daughter is very sick.

When I arrived I was met by the mother, a big startled looking woman, very clean and apologetic who merely said, Is this the doctor? and let me in. In the back, she added. You must excuse us, doctor, we have her in the kitchen where it is warm. It is very damp here sometimes.

Updates, Connection Problems and Lucien Freud Exhibition

So, how bloody annoying  is it when your laptop that perfectly works for two years suddenly decides that the internet connection it's been perfectly connecting to for two years isn't there anymore?

Yeah. So, until I sort that out I am very much afraid (((Hyperpower))) may sit still for a few more days.

Anyway, UPDATES!!

I've progressed exceedingly well with the Zine, out of 16 pages I have 14, and am thinking about upping the content to 20 pages, but printing costs have to be considered too. I have several contributions from some very cool people and am waiting on some more. I think it's going to turn out pretty cool. When I can, I'll post some photos of the process.

Today, I went to the Lucien Freud exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery and believe if you get the chance, go. Freud's portraits are astounding in their intensity of attention to detail and I would think, though not meaning to be photographic, obviously, in many cases better than a photograph. Freud seems to capture the sitter, in his very laborious and time consuming process - apparently David Hockney's portrait took 130 hours! - and the sitter's essence. They're not only time invested in to the painting but emotionally invested too as Freud talks to them.

The exhibition is so good and it'll be on until the 27th May so definitely check it out. Here's the website HERE

Richard Avedon

I do confuse myself sometimes. Portraiture in painting bores the crap out of me, but portraiture in photography, done well mind, is so enthralling. I imagine being asked to be a subject for a portrait means you either have loads of wrinkles, look whacky or both.

Richard Avedon had been prolific in his portraiture, photographing big, influential figures from all the arts, literature, film, music, dance and artists and fellow photographers. His work is captivating in its intimacy.

The top image has the privilege of being my favourite portrait photograph ever. It sparked off an interest in Ezra Pound, the image's subject, that later affected an essay I was writing at the time. He appeared to be a wholly complex character, knowing many other affluent figures in literature and art, dealing with unsavoury characters like Wyndham Lewis, and personal heroes like Ernest Hemingway (even though many consider he was unsavoury too, I don't I think was he was cool).

The bottom image is of much-acclaimed and well-lauded director John Ford who Avedon captured immaculately his seeming impatience and stubbornness, which portrays Ford's personality wonderfully.

I'd recommend you to head to this website where you can see whole portfolios that are uncomparable: HERE

Roger Dean

I couldn't believe it going through our, admittedly rather brief, archive and finding that I have yet to mention the, frankly, brilliant Roger Dean. He's mostly known for his intergalactic and astoundingly beautiful and surreal landscapes, floating islands, dense jungles, monolithic rock formations, hive-like constructions and the odd pyramid or two.

However, above I've put two images of my favourite works by Mr Dean and they mainly focus on his creatures, that dragon up top is incredible in it's majesty and colour, and breathes a whole new way of thinking of what a dragon could be. And the octopus is there because I think the octopus is the boss. Obsessed with octopi(?) at the moment. Way cool.

His works are well-known for being used as record covers for bands like Yes and Rush and other prog rock royalty, and on his influencing many in the younger generations, the one that comes to mind the most is Arik Roper who is also a genius.

Check out his well made website HERE

Henri Cartier Bresson

I feel like we've been neglecting great photographers of late and so here is the fantastic Henri Cartier Bresson.

The big thing I love about Bresson's black and white photography is his ability to tell an engaging narrative. His images display emotive stories that are relative to the viewer. Panic, anxiety, loneliness, whilst also able to capture great images of warmth and love.

Bresson held the ability to reveal emotion in an encapsulating black and white photo.

My personal favourite image is the one at the top of the post. A man sharing a moment of loneliness or despair on the step of a pavement with a stray cat, framed by huge forbidding walls. It has it's own melancholic beauty.

I do also very much enjoy the second image, all those children peering down in a curiosity spiral. It too is rather beautiful.

You can check out Henri Cartier Bresson's offical site: here

View more exceptional photographs: here

Hapshash and the Coloured Coat

If you haven't already guessed, I'm a bit of a psychedeliphiliac (making up words is fun!) when it comes to posters. That and mythology wins me over every time.

Hapshash and the Coloured Coat are an artistic partnership between Englishmen Michael English and Nigel Waymouth from way back in the 1960s, having produced in that decade two psychedelic and proto-prog records and a hamper full gorgeous posters. You can read a review of one of their 'freaky' records at this endearing little site: here. Apparently it's "It’s wayward, repetitive, freaky, and VERY 1967." Interesting.

If one is paying attention you can definitely see the influence of Alphonse Mucha on Hapshash and the Coloured Coat, the vibrant and playful colours are telling an excellent, spacey in this case, tale. Other artists I'm feeling in Hapshash...'s works are Hieronymus Bosch and Max Ernst, mainly because I just lifted those names directly from their Wiki page.....

Anyway, I am really digging Hapshash and the Coloured Coat, it's the intricate detail and the excessive vivid colouring makes me want to sit and absorb it for hours. You can see more of 60s twosome in the odd place of The Who Museum website. Which is very odd thinking about it. Hit it up: here

If you also want to pretend you know everything hit their wiki page for info: here

Virgil Finlay

I know very little about Virgil Finlay. According to the insightful Wiki page he was an American pulp fantasy, science fiction and horror illustrator, and from these images the horror aspect is definitely shining through. These images are goddamn sinister. He liked to work with pen ink and paper, which is quite a time consuming art, so it makes it absolutely remarkable that he produced over 2600 images in his 35 year career. Astounding.

If your interest is picqued don't bother trying to find an official website or fan website, they're useless. Hit up that Wiki page for info, for more quality images hit: here.

That top image is suitable for the time of night I'm writing this (00:07). I half expect to see it rise up and gaze through my window. Creepy.

Good ol' Google.

Le Saut dans le Vide (Leap into the Void); October 1960 by Yves Klein

Yves Klein was brilliantly multi-faceted, adept at sculpture, drawings, architecture, paint, installation pieces, the guy was just pretty good all round. I first encountered Klein at the Pompidou Centre where a lot of his blue monochromes were on exhibition, and they really struck a chord with me. However, it was this specific photograph that provided the more interesting thinking fodder.

The above image is just majestic yet unsatisfactorily unreal, what looks like that Klein is falling yet held frozen in the air, what should be impending hospitalisation transforms into a surreal flight. I like that the image confronts the viewer with superficial misdirection.

A huge compendium of his work is available for viewing on his website: here.