Happy New Year!

This medieval conception of the unviverse is a free image from Wikipedia.

Artist Norval Morriseau dies at age 75

Norval Morriseau, a self-taught artist, has died in his old age. He developed his own style of bright colours, flat shapes, and dark outlines to express the spirit myths of the Ojibway. The Globe and Mail says,

He broke the taboos of his people by revealing sacred stories, but believed it was his mission to put his heritage before the modern world so it could be kept alive. He was “a living bridge to the past,” said Donald Robinson of Toronto’s Kinsman Robinson Galleries, his major dealer for more than 15 years.

Daily Dose of Imagery: Redbull Air Race

The Daily Dose of Imagery for 20 November 2007 is a low-level air race screaming through Budapest last summer. Go to the link for higher-resolution pictures.

S-Man’s Daily Photoblog

I discovered S-Man’s photoblog by looking at the Wikipedia entry for Toronto.

Anagram TTC map

Artist Robot Johnny made a map of the Toronto Transit Commission’s subway lines with the station names converted by re-arranging the letters. The TTC reacted humourlessly and issued a cease-and-desist order, instead of accepting that they’ve become part of the popular culture.

There’s also a link to a pun war using the names of Toronto subway stations.

Mosaics at Dallas-Fort Worth airport

On the way to New Orleans I had an extra two hours at DFW, late at night. The airport was quiet and the shops were closed. But there was still floor art: large, durable artworks inlaid in the floor for everyone to enjoy. My favourite piece was the circular swamp with waterfowl.

I t was upright to the viewer from any approach:

Another circular mosaic showed travellers or airline personnel, each with a striped scarf.

I visited the upper levels of the airport and took the Skylink train from one part of the airport to another. In those halls, there were terrazzos in the shape of airplanes or, in one case, what appeared to be the fictional starship Enterprise.

Une artiste

L’artiste blog Erelca et Erelca3D…

"Evolution" wall

Thanks to PZ Myers for pointing out this lovely series of graffiti–not scientifically acurate but nifty and thought-provoking.

Friday cephalopod: glass invertebrates

Rudolph and Leopold Blaschka, a father-and-son team, are famous for creating the glass flowers at Harvard mentioned by Marianne Moore in a poem. They also created about 800 glass sculptures of marine invertebrates both large and small. The octopus above is one of the Blaschka’s glass sculptures of marine life. Their techniques have been lost and their work can not now be duplicated.

Links to more information:

• Glass animals collected and cleaned
• Blaschka glass model project
• Rudolph and Leopold Blaschka
• Dublin Blaschka Congress in 2006
• glass marine invertebrates at Harvard
• glass marine invertebrates at Cornell
• William Warmus, photographer, has photographed the Blaschka marine invertebrates
• glass flowers at Harvard Museum of Natural History–more than 3,000 glass models of plants made over fifty years

Drawing with negative space

This is a basic technique in drawing. It starts out simply but is an important technique for realistic drawing of natural subjects.

Pictures are by Michael Sibley.