I was traversing the various topics on the Springleap.com website this morning where I stumbled across a rather disturbing article from our fearless leader Eran about the Seardel group textile mills closing down.
Basically this is a big chop for the South African textile industry which is already in an unstable position due to the recession and of course countries that offer cheaper alternatives.
First off let me say that I am not going to emulate Eran’s blog.
While I am familiar with the textile industry I am not the guru that Eran is in this particular field, so please go across to Springleap.com and have a look at his blog for a better understanding of the whole Seardel textile group shut down:CLICK HERE.
Ever heard of the band tool? Ever seen a cover of a tool album?
Beautiful on both accounts if you answered no. Tool’s been around for a couple of years, offhand since 1992 I think with their first album being Opiate. Earlier albums were very dark and ominous compared to more recent releases.
But I want to focus more on the album artwork, in particular, the work of Alex Grey.Grey did the art for two of five albums including the tour for the release of the Lateralus album. Alex’s art is psychedelic in nature, being classed as psychedelic or visionary art. Many of his paintings include detailed representations of the skeleton, nervous system, cardiovascular system, and Lymphatic system.One of Alex’s main themes is subtlety and the multiple layers of reality that are glossed over in the mundane routine of life.
Tool isn’t the only band that Alex as done work for, Beastie Boys, String Cheese incident as well as Nirvana’s infamous, In Utero are just some of his other collaborations. Alex is a pretty talented dude, here is his address http://www.alexgrey.com/ check out his page and see some of his other pieces as well as his philanthropic work, and his art philosophy.
Modern art, abstract art, new age art….whatever you want to call it, really gets up my nose.
Many moon ago I commented on Jackson Pollock’s No.5 painting…which is pretty much one of the most expensive paintings on the creators green earth.
My hatred for this type of art has laid dormant for quite some time, but when I stumbled across a really fun cartoon by Tayyar Ozkan I just had to write something on the subject of abstract art.
To say that abstract art is subjective is putting it mildly…some of the crud that these artist put together is beyond the ken of everybody but the person who created the artwork in the first place…well besides perhaps the gods themselves or a hippy that licked the back of a poisonous frog.
Today I’d thought I’d talk about a comic illustrating genius called Frank Cho.
This guy is undoubtedly one of my favourite comic artists and is one of the comic industries most progressive forerunners of the human figure.
Chances are along your travels you have seen Cho’s work and gone “WOW”, but just never realised that it was in fact his designs.
Frank Cho was born in Korea but moved over to the states when he was only six years old.
According to good ol’ Wiki it says that he has a bachelor of science in nursing…go figure.
This supposedly after he declined a scholarship in art, because the school did not have an artistic focus that he agreed on…well I never, most people would jump at the chance just to get their foot in the door.
However it seems to have been a wise decision as even though he doesn’t have a “formal” education in art he has still become a legend in the business and will no doubt hold a powerful position for his entire life.
What has always blown me away about Frank Cho’s artwork is his amazing work with the female figure….NO I am not being a perv.
Seriously if you have a look at his work you will see exactly what I mean, his style in regards to the human figure maintains anatomic proportions whilst still having a truly original “Cho flavour”.
To list all the publications and comics Frank Cho has appeared in would indeed be an entirely different blog.
