Light dispersion - Newton's prims experiment

Light being dispersed into it's component was the other side of Newton's experiment. It is amazing to know that light cannot be white in itself.

A demonstration of Issac Newton's colour wheel - white made of colors

I found this demonstration of Newton's color wheel at Wolfram Demonstration project. Newton proved that light is a combination of a seven colors spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet).

I remember doing a color wheel in high school and it was a very interesting experience. The disc may have the right hues of the light, colours of the rainbow, and must be rotated quick enough to make our eyes not distinguish each one.

I cannot help to thing that white is a kind of illusion and if our eyes could see more quickly... well... I'm rambling.

Utamaro and his five women

The movie "Utamaro and his his women", 1946, tells the story of the printmaker who depicted women in a seductive manner usually wearing kimonos. To see a selection of the Utamaro's prints you can search here or wait till I post about them.

Nicholas Ganz the multimedia graffiti's man

I just visited Nicholas Ganz site from where I took these pictures. He is not only a graffiti man and can use canvas as a support - isn't it amazing? -or bottles as you can see at the picture.

The worse of his sins, or crimes, was taking photographs of street art and publishing them in a book "Graffiti World: Street Art from Five Continents".

Bad news for those who still think that graffiti is the result of a bunch of boys that has nothing better to do: the book was translated in many languages and became a blockbuster.

Worse: Nicholas, or Keinom his artistic name, published "Graffiti Women" when he noticed the lack of name of women in the street art scenery.

Quite an achievement since he also writes about the graffiti phenomenon around the world. Take a look at this page "What is Keinom?" where he writes a little about his story.

Take care Keinom!

Do you know this Norwegian city?

The name is A and it is the shortest name of a city.

The real Monet's garden at Giverny

When we think about the Giverny garden we forget that it still exists and only remember the water lilies. I just came across with this site that shows how the garden change in each station. These photos were taken in May, 210.

All kind of flowers! It's amazing! Visit the site Giverny Impression for more informations:

"In Monet’s garden, I believe most of the meetings between plants aren’t accidental. Monet, as well as the present day head gardener, was very good at organising dates among the Flowers."

Ariane

Hella Heaven at virtual world

This is my avatar at Second Life. Yes I am at this game as well as many strange people. Some people think that it is only a game but funny... you meet people from all over the world and can have nice relationships with amazing human beings and talk to them by voice and create a deep connection. It is also possible to share some of your problems with someone you never met and many times I talked to people who were in trouble like an American soldier that was psychologically very disturbed but had to go back to Iraq in two months. I only talked to him once and I don't know what happened to him.

As in real life you get disappointed and have to deal with many kind of annoying stuffs and even get hurt because of a friend or, seriously, a woman/man relationship.

That is strange but some people connect in such a way that they fall in love and I have even seen marriages of people that never met in real life.

It is very hard to explain how are things in the virtual world but I think it is a good experience if you have a little patience and is lucky to find nice people before you give up. There is not too many things to do at Second Life for those who are not connected to any institution and in the last years the first aim of the game is to make money for real life. Linden, the currency of the game, is bought outside the game with credit card and you have to pay for everything especially for land one of the most important sources of income and what made landowners have the function of shareholders in a real life company. It made a huge impact on the directions of the activities and the game lost in human resources what is causing discontentment to old residents and disappointment to new ones that find it hard to search for friends and don't know what to do aside listening to music and dancing in clubs just listening to music and attaching the avatar to a pose ball that makes the avatar dance.

Another problem is the new browser (viewer 2) that changed dramatically the display of the world. But it is the browser that is is available now when you subscribe or you can download Emerald that is similar to the old one and has enhanced features.

I just finished my house, my landowner has only two places and is a nice man who works as a bus driver in Las Vegas different from another one I tried before that has sixty places to run and is making a place with shops for VIPs.

The name of my house is Hella Heaven and these pictures are at the garden.

Leave me a comment if you want to visit me there. You are welcome. I can receive you when you start because I work as a mentor for the RHN's (Resident Help Network) group White Tigers that has more than three hundred mentors speaking different languages. Usually RHNs are very nice people whose sole aim is help others not only new residents but others that are facing any difficulty. Addictive? Yes it is a little bit but you have a real life after all. Let's play Barbie! (click at the pictures to enlarge)

Van Gogh and Hokusai's tree on blue background

Whenever I look at this van Gogh's painting, Almond Blossom, I think about Hokusai's work.

I don't know if van Gogh saw this printing but it's known that he was influenced by Japanese's art like many of his contemporaries and bought some of them.

Or it's quite a coincidence!

Error 404: nothing to do but laugh

When you are directed to a Error 404 page remember to laugh. Have a great Friday!

Update: Error 404 is the "page not found" that some links lead to. Click at the link to know more.

The Day Dream by Dante Gabriel Rossetti - inspired by a Tennyson poem

The Day Dream, 1880, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a painter and poet, is inspired by a Tennyson's poem The Daydream.

Rossetti not only did this painting but also wrote a sonnet that is inscribed on the frame:

"The thronged boughs of the shadowy sycamore

Still bear young leaflets half the summer through;

From when the robin 'gainst the unhidden blue

Perched dark, till now, deep in the leafy core,

The embowered throstle's urgent wood-notes soar

Through summer silence. Still the leaves come new;

Yet never rosy-sheathed as those which drew

Their spiral tongues from spring-buds heretofore.

Within the branching shade of Reverie

Dreams even may spring till autumn; yet none be

Like woman's budding day-dream spirit-fann'd.

Lo! tow'rd deep skies, not deeper than her look,

She dreams; till now on her forgotten book

Drops the forgotten blossom from her hand."

I took this pictures at Second Life in a exhibition of many artists and this is the Rossetti section. Click to enlarge to see it. At the right side there are three of Rossetti's paintings. Left, my avatar.

Work in Progress a 3D image by unknown: Geography while adolescent

Sometimes I stumble at forums and find some interesting images. I felt like sharing this 3D I just found here by someone whose nick is Janus in 2007.

I love maps, globes and during adolescence spent time looking at them not only trying to memorize the countries but also with amazement and the constant feeling of how big this world is.

However for a couple of hours it seemed I was a little more close to all humankind.

I still do it from time to time but my mind have other thoughts.

The wine sunset: we never get enough of images

I was thinking about how easy today is to find images of no matter what subject and if is it possible to get tired of all of these numerous images we are exposed daily.

I decided to search for "sunset" at google and found this photography at Vinography: a wine blog. Andy Katz is the photographer and I really loved this colour in a sunset.

We live in a image culture and it seems we are far from not being surprised by them.

The crystal ball by John W. Waterhouse "photoshoped" by the owner in the 1953

The crystal ball was presented in 1902 but John Waterhouse could never imagine that in 1953 the new owner of the castle where the painting was did not like the skull and made it disappear. It was in 1994 that, after being auctioned by Christies, the painting was analyzed compared with photographies of the Art Journal in 1908 and after X-ray it was possible to see that the skull is still there. Creepy is not the skull but the owner who removed it.

Funny Signs - Why you must be safe at the zoo?

Have a nice Friday and... be safe.

The Death of Socrates, 1787, and the French revolution

I have already published a post about this painting but I know nobody saw the video. The site Smarthistory is very good and has this video about the painting.

A dialog between a man and a woman goes slowly giving you a very good explanations about historical facts.

Here are some of the ideas they share:

"In 1787, just two years before the French revolution Jacques-Louis David, a very active painter in the revolution itself , presented "The Death of Socrates". Socrates, the Greek philosopher professor, is this figure in the center pointing up and was sentenced to death accused of corrupting youth's mind of Athens. Socrates urged them to think for themselves and to question everything. This is also the spirit of enlightenment. Socrates could admit that he was guilty and renounces teaching or he could die and the way he choses it is to drink kylix, that poison. Look at the emotion spectrum of his followers.... The only figure that seems to be at peace with this decision is the figure at the foot of the bed, and that would be Plato..."

There is more at the video and I hope you listen to it and go to the SmartStory to check if they have something about any of your favorite painters.

July, 14 the French National Day and the function of women's brain

"This is how our brain works... WE WOMEN... It's not complicated as it seems. Read the explanation above the image:

(click at the image to see with white background)

Every blue ball represents a thought about something to be done, a decision or a problem to be solved.

And what about the man's brain?

Well, the man has only 2 balls to handle and their thoughts are focused only on both of them."

Today is the French national day and there are many controversies about how the day was celebrated. I do not want to think of this day as a political issue but as a celebration of the French cultural patrimony.

I just found the post above at Sophie's blog EurekaSophie and this is my homage to what this day means to me.

Thank you Sophie and those French who are creative and follows a heritage that makes Franch such an amazing people. They created camembert! That is enough! Vive la France!

Tennyson's poem "The Lady of Shalott" depicted by John W. Waterhouse

This is very known painting and maybe you have already saw it but does not know what it represents and who is the painter. He is John Williams Waterhouse who did this work in 1888.

This is the text of the Tate Gallery, where it is now:

"This painting illustrates Alfred Tennyson’s poem The Lady of Shalott. Draped over the boat is the fabric the lady wove in a tower near Camelot. But she brought a curse on herself by looking directly at Sir Lancelot.With her right hand she lets go of the chain mooring the boat. Her mouth is slightly open, as she sings ‘her last song’. She stares at a crucifix lying in front of her. Beside it are three candles, often used to symbolise life. Two have blown out. This suggests her life will end soon, as she floats down the river."

I will post another of John W. Waterhouse painting: "The Crystal Ball". Stay tunned mum!

Something to put a smile on your face - Tequila effect

I copied from this site. Just want to make you smile for a few seconds. Take care an be at peace!

New York, New York this diverse and amazing city by Nina Hagen, Edward Hopper and others

"New York, I want to wake up in a city that never sleeps..."

This is a very diverse city and this is part of it's charm. In the 80ies New York New York sang by Nina Hagen, an opera singer who is also a punk rock and other characters, was a big hit and I danced many times while she was singing even alive at the First Rock in Rio, 1985. Her voice is amazing! Put your mouse on the pictures to see the titles.

"Keep in touch, keep in touch....."

"...Let there be light!

Because David Bowie is going to be here tonight!"

Bruno Amadio's Crying boy - Dare to cry

"Boys don't cry" and lately girls are also being mocked when feel like crying. Adults are not supposed to cry and whenever someone starts crying people often say: "Don't cry." I would like to say "Don't laugh" when people are happy... I digress.

There are many paintings of people crying and this is the first post I am doing about this theme.

This is the story of the boy and the painter that I found here:

"On a hot, dusty day in Madrid in 1969 Amadio was finishing a portrait when from the streets below he heard sobbing. Looking down from his balcony he saw an urchin dressed in rags sat outside the local tavern weeping uncontrollably. He called down to the boy asking him what the matter was. The boy, still sobbing, looked up but didn't reply. Taking pity on the lad Amadio took him to his studio, fed him and then painted his portrait. The boy visited him many times after this and he painted his portrait on many occasions but the boy never stopped weeping and he never uttered a word. A short time after his first encounter with the boy Amadio was visited by the local priest who was in a state of great anxiety. The priest had seen the boy's picture and told him that the boy's name was Don Bonillo and that he had ran away after he had witnessed his parents being burnt to death in a house fire. He went on to say that Amadio should have no more to do with the child because wherever he went fires would mysteriously break out. Amadio was appalled that a man of god should tell him to turn his back on a vulnerable orphan. Ignoring the advice of the clergyman he adopted the boy soon after.

This decision seemed to be validated in the coming months by the fact that copies of his portrait of the boy sold far and wide across the whole of Europe and he became quite wealthy. The painter and his ward were now living comfortably off the success of the painting and all was going well until one day on returning from a trip to a gallery Amadio came home to find his house and studio razed to the ground. The artist was ruined. The finger of suspicion pointed at Don Bonillo and the painter accused him of arson. In floods of tears young Bonillo fled the house, never to be seen again. Amadio didn't hear of the boy again. Then one day in 1976 news came of a horrendous car crash on the outskirts of Barcelona. It seems that the vehicle had smashed into a wall at high speed and had turned into a ball of fire. Inside the twisted wreckage the driver's corpse had been burnt beyond identification. His driver's licence in the glove compartment, however, was only partially burnt. The driver was a 19 year old youth by the name of Don Bonillo. Soon after the crash reports of mysterious house fires from all over Europe started to appear in news items. The houses all had one thing in common, amongst the smouldering rubble were undamaged portraits of a crying boy."

At the site I took this excerpt they have other paintings of the boy crying and the text approaches other issues. So go here for further explanations because I am just focusing on the crying. The story above is bogus. I don't care. I am focusing on the crying.

Cry when you feel like! This is normal and part of being human even if the reason is not very clear.

George Steinmetz revealing the mysteries of the desert

These are two of George Steinmetz masterpieces and if you want to see more go to his site. There you will also find a text he wrote about his work. This is the beginning:

"I became captivated by Arabia's Empty Quarter as a young man when I read Wilfred Thesiger's Arabian Sands. The Empty Quarter is larger than France without a single permanent point of water or human habitation. It's both the world's largest sand sea and one of the hottest places on earth, and has only been traversed a handful of times. I didn't want to repeat Thesiger's epic journeys many decades later, but when I discovered motorized paragliding I found a way to visualize this remote landscape in a new way. ..."

(read more here)

Le déjeuner sur l'herbe by Edouard Manet

Today this is one of the most famous of Manet's paintings but when exhibited for the first time it was a scandal.

The naked woman was the reason. After the post below it is funny to think it was a scandal but at that time naked women in paintings were not a contemporaneous woman as this one. She is a woman of that time and this is one of the reasons people thought it was immoral.

If she was a goddess there was not problem but she stares at you without any shame and how dare her being with two men?

Terry Rodgers exhibition and some thoughts about the universe he creates

I did a post about Terry Rodgers but I didn't publish the works he depicts luxury, sexy and some other activities considered a little immoral. These two paintings are being exhibited at the Galerie Nicola von Senger until next Saturday.

There is something at these sceneries.

This is the text by Alexandra Gmür and I share some of her thoughts. Before reading take a look at the post below. Hopper's universe is quite different.

"Terry Rodgers: Spellbound

Nicola von Senger Gallery proudly presents Terry Rodgers’ 3rd solo exhibition in Zürich, Spellbound. Rodgers (born 1947, Newark, NJ, USA) is an American artist known for his large-scale hyper-realistic figurative paintings. He creates scenes and a view of the world, using the words of Jean Baudrillard, that are a “simulation of something which never really existed.”

Half-clothed, with mostly jewellery, fur and underclothing, the protagonists of Terry Rodgers’ paintings exist in a setting of luxury. With wine and champagne in their hands, their flawless bodies fit perfectly in the polished environment of fine fabrics, flower bouquets and lustrous chandeliers.

Rodgers’ works never fails to elicit polarized opinion. Response ranges from seeing it as “mere kitsch” to praising Rodgers as one of the most remarkable exponents of today’s figurative painting. As art critic Catherine Somzé says “Rodgers takes up clichés and flips them on their heads. What could initially be mistaken for advertising material, on closer inspection quickly seems to be an indictment of the so-called ‘good life’.” Looking at those meticulously painted canvases of excessive parties, makes one veer between envy and admiration, repulsion and excitement, and between a recognition of them as false realities and succumbing to them as convincing illusions. In this regard Terry Rodgers’ works are also about the viewer. Spellbindingly it draws the viewer into participating and reveals “how we interpret and react to what we see, and how our own lenses determine our perceptions.” (TR)

The opulent paintings, clearly related to the Old Master’s technique of the baroque era, can be read as a kaleidoscope of Western culture’s dream-world: The young jet-set generation celebrating the ABC’s of Living (2010), stereotyped beauties, clones of the rich and famous, all seduced by the lure of hedonism, promiscuity and luxury — a prescription conveyed by the media, and incorporated by society, of what we should do and how we should interpret the world to achieve happiness. Although The Coronation of Concupiscence (2010) seems to visualize the wildest dreams of a large part of mankind, the climax is over or it has never occurred. The protagonists, tired from searching for satisfaction, are captured in a cold and anonymous atmosphere, a whiff of vanitas in the air. Their faces, with eyes averted from each other, speak of loneliness, of an existential void, of longing and hope.

As our vision of freedom is heavily fictional, so is the imagery of Rodgers’ works. They are a construction by the artist, exemplified most obviously by his latest body of works, a series of photo-constructions made up of many different layers of photographs, abstract patterns and shapes, drawings and signs. The models depicted mirror the contemporary norms of social acceptance — young, thin, heterosexual. But Rodgers succeeds in deconstructing and unmasking the underlying mechanics of our perception of the world. Through the technique of the photo-constructions, he emphasizes how fragile and imperfect the image is, creating exuberant and surrealistic compositions."

Alexandra Gmür, April 2010

I would just like to remember that Plato did talked "simulation of something that never exists" and Baudrillard was not the first to think about it. But this is another post.

Edward Hopper exhibited at Hella Heaven

I came across with the blog Illustration Art when searching for Edward Hopper and I am amazed not only by the works David Appatof chooses but also by what he writes. I decided to copy some paintings he did choose at this post about Edward Hopper and part of his text since it is not very different from what I feel when looking at some of Hopper's creations. I added some other of Hopper's paintings and I'm sure I will make another post about him. I was sure I did a post about the third painting "New York Movie"... I will search at draft if there is anything saved. The first painting, empty corner, is not only about the space but is full of stories... If the walls could speak... that is part of what Hopper do: he listen to the walls and depicts the scene so to speak. You can see at the paintings that are in a room. Windows, lots of windows... and I just remembered Vermeer. Picture yourself in a gallery and enjoy.

"Edward Hopper loved to ride the elevated train through the city at night. As the apartment buildings raced by in the dark, he would catch flashes of unearned intimacy: lonely people staring at the walls... desperate couples... people whose privacy was protected only by their anonymity.

Sometimes I think that artists, like philosophers, are keyhole peepers at heart. They are observers, once-removed from the primacy of experience by the burden of consciousness."

David Apatoff

Cat by Andy Warhol and... a cat smoking?

"Don't let Holly know it."

This is the story about Warhol's cat "Sam" at Wikipedia:

Books and print

Beginning in the early 1950s, Warhol produced several unbound portfolios of his work.

The first of several bound self-published books by Warhol was 25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy, printed in 1954 by Seymour Berlin on Arches brand watermarked paper using his blotted line technique for the lithographs. The original edition was limited to 190 numbered, hand colored copies, using Dr. Martin's ink washes. Most of these were given by Warhol as gifts to clients and friends. Copy #4, inscribed "Jerry" on the front cover and given to Geraldine Stutz, was used for a facsimile printing in 1987 and the original was auctioned in May 2006 for US $35,000 by Doyle New York.^[66]

Other self-published books by Warhol include:

• A Gold Book
• Wild Raspberries
• Holy Cats