Gez Fry moved to Japan and dedicated two years to learning how to create beautiful anime-style illustrations. Now he creates beautiful, anime-style illustrations. Makes we want to spend a couple of years drawing just to see if I could pull it off.
Here is an interview with him in Ping magazine.
And here is his website. Check out the gallery of course. The work is severely fantastic, and reminds me of both Shadow of the Colossus, and Ghost in the Shell (lets link to part II).
Since its summer, I was talking about summers past with friends the other day.
Summer is supposed to be spent in the woods. Collecting
Salamanders, frogs, toads, cataloging them, putting them back exactly
where I found them. Having berry wars with the neighborhood. Climbing
everything. Dirt biking (ala BMX not Honda) through the woods and
sandpits. Finding bullet shells there to make whistles. Picking our
way trough the swamps, trying not to get lost or wet or eaten alive by
mosquitos. Failed on all three counts at different times. Making bows
and arrows from beech tree branches to shoot at frogs. Catching
bullfrogs by moving very quietly behind them while they are distracted
by your other hand in front of them (but not too close to scare them
underwater). Swam at all the nearby beaches, jumped off the Union St.
Bridge into the North river (tidal, brackish water, reversing current,
variable depth). Jumping off the cliffs of the Hingham quarries.
Finding unexplained stashes of 80s porno mags in the woods (who the
hell did that? and all the 13 year old boys of Norwell thanked you).
Jumped the Rte 3 freeway overpass into uncertain waters of the North
River below. Ran up and did it again. Tried to do it again the next
year, but too scared by the height. More North River by the various
rope swings. Building branch and fern lean-to’s to camp out in.
“Parachuting” – climbing a skinny beech tree until it bent, then
hanging from it as it bends all the way to the ground – snapping back
when you release your grip. Going on the one big camping trip each
year, and many smaller ones. New hampshire, Cape Cod, and when really
lucky, Baxter State park Maine, Acadia Maine. Sailing around Hingham
bay in the little Sun Fish single person sailboat.
And on and on. This adult shit is wayyyyyyy overrated.
That said, I did spend the last half a week down in Mexico, and I’ll tell you more about it (with pics and video) real soon. And thats why no posting last week.
Over at the Rise Flickr page (link in the bar on your left) I posted some photos of a house my friend Selena is working on at Barbara Bestor Architects. Its just some detail shots of some really nice things going on there. So take a look.
A R T F U L Wednesdays
In light of the recent Israeli/Hezbollah fighting in Lebanon, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss the work of Walid Raad and The Atlas Group. I was first introduced to Raad’s work through Professor Gene Gort at Hartford Art School when he invited Raad as a visiting artist. He gave a slide show and presented several videos that appeared to be experimental documentaries about the Lebanese civil war. Afterwards, I remember overhearing Gene say to Jeremy something to the effect of “don’t believe a word he says.” Years later I saw Hostage: The Bachar Tapes at an LA Freewaves screening and I was reminded of how powerful Raad’s work is. This video is presented as if it is made by a Lebanese man who was held hostage with 5 Americans leading up to the Iran Contra Affair. It chronicles his hostage experience through a direct address to the camera combined with video compositing of appropriated news footage and a long take of the Mediterranean Sea. No where on the tape or in its credits does it mention Walid Ra’ad or The Atlas Group. Occasionally there are digital glitches. One thinks they are mistakes and not part of the original piece, but after a while one realizes the glitches are clues to its making, reminding the viewer that this is manipulated and edited video art not a fully factual document. Yet it still calls into question – did the Arab hostage really exist? And if so, why was his voice not heard until now (2001) and the American’s voices heard through their published memoirs in the early 1990s? Atlas Group’s website says this piece is part of files that they created but are attributed “to named imaginary individuals or organizations.” Yet Souheil Bachar has his own page on the Internet Movie Database. Hmmmm?
Ok. I know this goes beyond the confines of Art, Music and Architecture but this is important!
Humidity is like a wet finger in your ear. It’s more humid here than in Boston at the moment. Though it is a bit cooler, it gets pure skanky in the office without an air conditioner. Yilk.
Intermittent Architectural Thursdays Returns on Monday
Today a note from one of my friends led me to look up some old cut-away drawings of Ferraris. Like this beauty. This got me thinking about drawing class back in school (yes, we did draw with pencils, not just computers), and the giant, fantastic drawings of Paul Rudolph.
I was able to find a few of them online:
House, House, Tower, House, House, Birds eye, Birds Eye of an Exhibit
And here is a whole slew of them – though most do not have enlarged images to click to.
These bring back memories of 1st year, perced on a high stool, graphite on hands, making precise lines across fine paper. Then of course the inking process is where the real fun is. You tape a sheet of mylar over your drawing, pour yourself a nice glass of red wine or port, and slowly trace out the linework. Luckily, ink on mylar erases very well. Of course, my drawings never were quite like the works linked above. Lucky for me, there is illustrator and photoshop.
Holly Myers has written a nice review of our installation Sweater for the LA Times. Read it here.
So, this must be a like a Steinway Grand to you eh, Tim?
World’s Fastest Growing City: Dubai A Flickr photo set.
In many areas, it is not easy to see Dubai’s sky without at least one crane in your view; Industry experts cautiously estimate that 15 to 25 per cent of the world’s cranes are in Dubai. Some US$ 90 BILLION are on-going in Dubai alone.
This makes me both amazed and sad.
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