CBrajkovich Ramblings

I was excited to see this Ted Talk by Callie Curry, who is also known as Swoon. She is one of the geniuses (the others being the New Orleans Airlift and many, many more artists and supporters) behind The Music Box. This particular vision started out as a Kickstarter project with the purpose of building musical architecture. With a successful campaign bringing in a lot of support, the work to bring the prototype musical masterpiece ended with a successful launch at the end of October, and is now the foundation for the next phase named Dithyrambalina. The temporary structure will only be around until the end of the year with limited performances scheduled, but from all the talk I’ve been hearing, the final house will be a thing of wonder. It’s already getting quite a bit of coverage in the art world, and is even filtering out to the mainstream world.

If you look at Callie’s extensive artistic history combined with her endless humanitarian efforts, you’ll see a woman who believes that our internal magic can make all of the difference in the world. She tells her favorite story about a homeless man who found one of her street art creations and called it the neighborhood’s secret. If someone was open enough to talk to him, then he showed them the “secret”. The entire neighborhood felt as though someone had left them a precious treasure. I seriously thought that this is so amazing that people can take such joy from an act of creation and build on the positive emotion so that it just kept spreading. And Callie’s following is also growing in recognition, which is to be expected for such a talented and caring artist.

-from a HiFructose tweet – thanks!

I just stumbled on one of the last talks of a hero of mine: Douglas Adams. He’s my hero because seriously, who has a mind like his? Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and its many successive volumes that took us all on a ride through the universe with his mild-mannered Arthur Dent and his insane posse…well, they were actually Zaphod Beeblebrox’s posse, but it’s all relative, right?

This UCtelevision talk shows Douglas discussing the equally unusual creatures that he encountered during his crazy travel adventures around our own little blue planet with his trademark hilarity and sarcasm. It’s sad to think that we will no longer be able to meet up with his delightful mind, except in his past works. Suffice it to say that I do visit his past works when I need a day off from reality. His visions are simply that powerful, as your mind wafts into the wonders of the universe, turning your brick walls into bouncy trampolines.

Thanks to Ted for linking me to this hilarious talk. And thanks to Douglas for pushing my mind past its limits on more occasions than I care to admit! Actually, no, I’m proud of the paths that he’s helped set me on.

p.s. The last half hour is the most poignant as he warns us of our human nature and how it impacts our lives, the universe, and everything.

I saw these images a while back and was struck by the emotions in such simple lines and sparse shading. You can tell when someone is good when they can make you feel when the work is pared down to its most basic form. Guy Denning manages to create an emotional impact with just some lines and colors. If you look at this site, you’ll see that Guy loves capturing the expressions of humanity at their most emotional. An image like the one above of an #OWS protester generates emotions simply because of the topic. There’s something I always liked about that mask. Perhaps it’s that it makes a mockery of our attempts at regal civility when times call for out-and-out passion? I thought this image was fitting since it is Guy drawing Guy. – found at Colossal and more places than I can remember

And if you want to see Guy live at work, then go visit his YouTube channel. There’s a lot to see.

This has got to be the single sweetest ghouly sculpture that I’ve seen. It’s called “Listening In”. And the awesome thing is that the artist, Greg Brotherton, is in my neck of the woods! Woo hoo. Greg takes the discarded mechanical components of found objects and recreates this wonderful world where Steampunk meets Horror in a sinisterly delicious way. How would you like to have a phone like this? I know that I would. Take a look at his site and see some more fascinating work where he uses motion and scary aesthetics to come up with some really beautiful pieces that puts man and machine together in such a dystopian way. Amazing!

Whatever you do, check out his piece called “Pushed Around”. THAT is…oh wait, did you see “Search Engine”?!? Oh, there’s more…look at “Into The Void”…never mind, check them all out. They are all that insanely wicked! WOW! – found through a Colossal post

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