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.

Francis Picabia

I feel I don't appreciate Francis Picabia in the right way. I suppose not in the critical frame of mind where Picabia is seen as a major figure of the DaDaism movement in France and the US in the early 20th century.

For me Picabia has always been the name next to Otaiti , that image at the top, in the Tate Modern Gallery. I've seen the painting many times with each of my visits ad with every time I am struck by its despair and tragic darkness of the image. It's probably most affecting as it's a begging and pleading naked woman on her knees with a huge disembodied hand preying nearby. The autumnal leaves and the dank muddy colours evokes the sense of transition from peak to decline.

The multi-layered imagery is superb and at times can feel like the image is moving and shifting between one scene to the next.

This the Francis Picabia I enjoy, the one with startling imagery and with stories to tell. His DaDaist works may have been influential but for me I think I prefer his images with an element of coherency.

I've found there to be a lacking of decent websites to link to unfortunately so here's a bundle to make up for it: HERE, HERE and HERE.

Clarence John Laughlin

I do regret being so negligent of this here little corner of the internet. But it's mine and I do enjoy it when I pay attention to it.

I stumbled across Clarence John Laughlin a while ago and it came from one of the most unlikeliest sources, from an interview with Phil Anselmo (it's probably not that one) and even a Down song is named after Laughlin's most famous book 'Ghosts Along the Mississippi'.

Reading up on him feels kind of familiar, we share a love of language and, I delusively think, had a large vocabulary, what's more he had early aspirations to be a writer, my current fair now, but then developed a keen interest in photography, same here on all counts. So it is interesting to see this familiarity around his person and his direction of photography.

His photography feels evocative, like an echo of infused memories emerging as one image. It is ghostly, phantasmal even, starker in the grainy black and white.

Join me in buying the prodigious Ghosts Along The Mississippi

See more HERE

And see even more HERE

Love it.

Joan Miro

As you probably guessed it, I went to the Miro exhibition at the Tate Modern today and I went not really expecting much as my father had been before and he didn't get along with it, but I should have guessed he wouldn't go along with a surrealist because that's probably the area of art he is most confused by, but I went in sceptical, but I left a lover. Catalonia's Joan Miro is the man.

I loved how complexly simple his Constellations were, and the vastness of his triptychs, Miro admittedly inspired by the American Abstract Expressionism, my boy Rothko! and bros., the minutely detailed his early works were with form and placing thrown to the wind. Fantastic.

There's only twelve days left of the exhibition, so if you're on the neighbourhood it is definitely worth it.

MORE MIRO

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