Evidence » course: visual culture

here are some photos from howard finster's paradise gardens...
-karis

I really enjoy pictures such as this. I've been holding out on sharing this website all semester and now I decided to share it. These art works are so miraculous. Try it out. The pictures make great backdrops for your computer as well. Here is the site, check it out!:
http://gs2.sp.cs.cmu.edu/art/random/archive/index.html

what is it???

-graham

makes you gratefull -- and feel like crap too. these folk are hungry on weeks other than thanksgiving.

-graham

I came across this picture and for some reason it caught my eye.
It is not profound or full of incredible talent. It is simple, and I liked that.
I enjoyed the choice of colour and the darkness of Jesus.
The sky seems so bright and and happy, but it is reflected on the
face of Jesus and all I could see was a face of anguish. I dont know.
I just like it. Any comments?

I found this picture while searching for random stuff. I think it's quite beautiful and could say any number of things...which is, of course, why I saved it. I'd like to hear different reactions to it. I also have another picture dealing with tears, so hopefully I can get that up here soon too. Maybe we can contrast the messages then.
(Hope this works.)

Bethany Bertapelle

But, while comics have come up only fleetingly in our discussions, I thought it might be an interesting topic of discussion. I don't profess to be an expert or to like all comics, but as I am an avid reader I could hardly leave comics unexplored.

There are some extremely talented persons in the comic industry today, in both writing and drawing. While on the surface most comic's drawings are straight to the point and bring the story to life in a way. However, it's amazing what details one can kind if one looks at a scene for more than the moment it takes to read the words. Everything is and must be carefully crafted. While novels can get off by simply being a solid story, graphic novels must have an intelligent plot AND must capture the audience visually as well.

Here are several images from Watchmen, Alan Moore's Hugo Award winning work. The art is by Dave Gibbons. Actually, this looks to be made into a movie sometime soon and it is a fact that comic book movies have been invading in the past few years:

Watchmen made a huge impact in the eighties. The drawing was often dark and captivating as was the plot of the story. I love how comics can capture emotion so well; the characters must come alive to us and the artists do all in their power to accomplish that feat.

Next, there is the art of The Sandman by Neil Gaiman from the nineties. And, of course, it would hardly be complete without the beautiful art of Charles Vess who worked with Gaiman on the issue "A Midsummer Night's Dream", the only comic ever to win the World Fantasy Award. Charles Vess simply has a beautiful grasp on the fanciful!

And Mike Dringenberg and Malcolm Jones III's work:

There are so many more, but you're probably getting sick of my prattling already. So, I'll leave you with Dave McKean whose work in Black Orchid is as haunting and mysterious as ever:

Anyway, if you've never seen a comic book up close and personal before, at least you have some idea of what one might look like. One feature that I thought would bug me but that I actually like is the fact that colors don't always have to make sense. Some buildings might be blue and others brown, but it's the effect and the overall picture that mattrers. It's hardly drawing something as it is read; this art is all about trying to find ways to engage the reader, to catch his or her eye and to breathe life into the words. It does not, I don't think, work in the same manner as other types of art, but it still has a purpose and I can't see it as any less beautiful than other mediums even though it is, I think it's fair to say, underappreciated.

~Elizabeth Osinga

I first came across this image as a poster, which I now have hanging in my room, above my desk. Over time I have only become more fascinated with Magritte's work. Along the bottom of my poster is this quote, by Rene Magritte, "Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see." The precise combination of this picture, quote, and title create a riddle unto my mind that I enjoy returning to again and again.

-Bryan Kibbe

I've been a fan of Dave McKean's art for several years. After first seeing his work in graphic novels, I was drawn to find out more about him. The picture above, entitled "Death" is one of my favorites. I set is as my desktop wallpaper and set the background color so that it perfectly blends in to the picture; everyone who sees it tends to be quite taken aback by the face looking eerily out.

It is hard to say exactly why I find his work so fascinating. His talents are diverse and his art seems to very alive to me. Unlike some paintings or drawings that make me feel like I am distant from them, looking in to find meaning, his works are nothing like that. I feel like I am actively a part of what I am seeing, like there is meaning in it for just ME. I think when I look at the images he creates or captures in photographs and find myself wishing to step inside them. And, of course, the art is gorgeous!

Fourth floor: Hekmen Library.

<333alisa walterich

./ Brian Ryckbost

I looked up this afternoon while reading and "SAW" this.
-Karis

took this photo during the weekend's adventure out to the eco-preserve. wonderful weather for a walk.
enjoy
-karis medina

Drew DeVries

downtown streets are teeming with beauty

from Cabinet magazine's recent issue, doubles, this is brian mcmullen's collection of what he calls meta-greetings, appropriated greeting card displays.
"email him to show, trade, or sell: mcmullen@cabinetmagazine.org"

henry darger's realms of the unreal consists of 7 volumes, over 15,000 typewritten pages. discovered along with the drawings and paintings in his small chicago apartment.

henry darger's drawing/paintings have been cut out of volumes as dense as the text volumes, and pressed flat the measure roughly 2 ft x 9 ft, DOUBLE SIDED

they illustrate the chronicles of the glandelinian army's persecution of the vivian girls. john berryman wrote a book of poems called Girls on the Run, based on the darger paintings. this is a very small sample of images which become extremely violent and fantastical and curious.