ISO 50 posted some gorgeous high contrast monochromatic photos of the Matterhorn, shot by Nenad Saljic. The style reminded me quite a bit of Ansel Adams’ images from Yosemite. Saljic captures the peak from the same vantage points at different times of day and night. Check out the full set over here.
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Sasita Samarnpharb it a Thai born illustrator currently residing in London. I came across her work this week on Jux, and am really enjoying it.
On an unrelated note, I was really wishing that I could hit Basel this year. I have been reading a lot about it. Apparently Levine is hosting a screening of a film that Invader made. And… there is Banksy drama.
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I’m really digging this series by Swedish artist Linn Olofsdotter. I love the colors, and the way that they pop against the grayscale backdrops. Her work reminds me of a cleaner timeless version of a lot of the psychedelic neon art from the 60’s. View additional images from Olofsdotter’s ‘World in Bloom’ on Juxtapoz.
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Yesterday I came across a collection of the 38 known self-portraits by Vincent Van Gogh. The portraits include sketches and paintings by the Dutch master. It is pretty incredible if you know any of his back story at all, to flip through all of these works and try to imagine what was going on in his life at the time each was created. Click through here for the full set.
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Ana Teresa Barboza has created an amusing set of embroidery art with the theme of animals turning on humans. The piece above was the one that I liked the most. I actually thought it was kind of hilarious. Check out the rest of the set on Laughing Squid.
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I came across these fresh new pieces by Ethos on Boooooom!, the other day. There are a few things that I really like about Claudio Ethos. I really like the scale of his outdoor work. He goes reaaaallly big. I also like the aesthetic that the he creates by distorting reality. I once heard beauty described as a strangeness in proportion. I think that Ethos accomplishes that in his work.
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Earlier this week, Jux turned me onto the illustrations of Madrid based Gabriel Moreno. I also loved the description that Juxtapoz gave of Moreno’s work:
psychedelic figural images almost read like streams of consciousness. With drastic color gradients and multi-layered imagery that both emerge from and envelop his figures, Moreno creates dreamlike scenes in which his subjects’ thoughts seem to bleed through their skin.
After pouring over his website, I discovered that even his commercial illustrations are right up my alley. Definitely worth checking out.
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This is one of the many videos that I have watched featuring footage of NYC when the power was out in hurricane Sandy’s aftermath. It was produced by an outfit called “We are Already Alive.” I like the combination of timelapse and slow shutter stills. The soundtrack consists of commentary by the videographer. If you want to enhance the experience put on some dark electronica of the top of it. If you have 20 more minutes and want to see another good hurricane film, check this one.
How do we feel about the recent photo shoot that our newly re-elected president of the USA did with Terry Richardson? I understand the value of Obama doing the talk shows and all of that other crap that was traditionally thought to be uncouth for the commander in chief. But, Terry Richardson? It’s almost like Bam is trying to create controversy or allude to a scandalous side of his personality.
Is he trying to purposely provide fodder for the extreme right wing? Okay, you want to score points with the edgy art/fashion crowd. Really? First of all, aren’t those the people that you can already bank on to support you? They already think you are cool. Second, why not shoot with someone like Scott Schuman or any other semi-boring yet prevalent fashion photog? Better yet, why not get portraits by an photog instead, like Annie Leibovitz? Then you get edgy but artsy instead of pervy and gross.
I mean, I’m not trying to get all political. I’m also not going to opine on the artistic value of Terry Richardson’s work. I’m just saying that anyone who knows anything about Terry Richardson would think twice about associating him or herself with the guy, if they are trying to maintain a sqeaky clean public image. If W mag won’t shoot with him anymore, that says a lot, in itself. I had always heard that TR was shady, but when the Jezebel article came out, I have to say that I was a bit shocked. It made me think differently of him as a person. It also cast a bit of a shadow on all of his work, from my perspective. Would Bam let his daughters shoot with the guy?
For Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Kate Moss, etc., sure. But the Prez? Idk, man. It just feels weird to me.
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I hope that the image of the owl in this post doesn’t end up becoming ironic. I say that because, as everyone knows, the owl is traditionally associated with wisdom; and, as I’m dusting the mothballs off of this blog, I am questioning the wisdom of doing so. Even though the issues that caused me to initially put it on hiatus have been resolved to a large degree, there are still a lot of items that are potentially in flux. Because there are still so many unknowns, I have decided to make a compromise and keep things extremely impersonal.
There are a few reasons that I have decided to fire this page up again. One reason is because I feel like it kind of grounds me in a way that other things cannot. That reason might not make a lot of sense. Beyond that, I have found that in the past months, I have been spamming the bejeebus out of my friends with email messages full of links to items that I find inspiring, aesthetically valuable, etc.. In particular, over the past month I have been sending one of my friends a “daily art link.” It is generally a link to something that I liked on boooooom! or Complex with a caption like “so dope” or “I love the colors.” I decided that if I’m going to go through the trouble to paste the link into an email or onto g+, what is the harm in reposting that stuff to Jake’s Mag with some light commentary? Right? I have to admit that the idea of posting images that aren’t my own seems a bit weird. But when things mellow out a bit more, I’m hoping to get back to full speed.
So even though this might be a bad idea, or even worse (boring), Here I go: I was flipping through Jux this morning and came across this set of owl paintings by John Pusateri. I am really into this set. I’m a sucker for art involving birds, anyway. So, I’m kind of an easy sell on any photos or paintings of birds that are even marginally well done. Pusateri’s work is definitely worth clicking through and checking out the set on Juxtapoz.
If you are into bird art, and you didn’t see the Edun campaign that Ryan McGinley shot earlier this year, you should definitely check that out too.
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The last round of Banksy work that cropped up had me a little bit disenchanted. But I have to say that I’m a fan of the Olympic commentary that popped up this week. I love the mattress placement in the one below.
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Not really a happy Friday at all, actually. It is dreary out. The weather, coupled with the news of the tragedy in Aurora CO last night has cast quite a gloomy shroud over this Friday. It’s days like this where you just kinda have to be grateful for those who are close to you. I thought it was appropriate to post an image of my favorite Steve Powers (ESPO) prints, above. The sentiment there just kinda sums things up sometimes.
I mentioned this installation on Friday, but I thought it would be requisite to share a little more. The contributing artists include: Tobias Bernstrup, Hisham Bharoocha, Etienne Charry, Brian DeGraw, Daniel Johnston, Jonas Mekas, Thurston Moore, David Shrigley, Alan Vega, Ben Vida, Liz Wendelbo.
I think that my favorite piece was this medley of vintage radios that were setup to play different parts of the same song in unison. I love art that has multiple mediums. A very cool visual and audio aesthetic.
Definitely stop through and check it out, if you have the occasion.
Trixie (my bike) has been in the shop since last Friday, getting shod with some new rims. I was perpetually bending the rear rim (including one pinch flat, where I had to replace the tire) anytime that I would ride over any small deviation in surface smoothness. It was getting kind of ridiculous. So, I finally broke down and ordered a set of high profile (hipster) rims. I picked her up yesterday right after leaving the office and ended up riding everywhere I went yesterday evening (which was kind of a lot of places). First I hit the latest installation at the SoHo Agnés b. That is where I snapped the photo above (on Howard St.). Not really sure why I didn’t just bust out the real cam for that shot, being that it was slung over my back. So, you getz iPhone image. Sorry.
After Agnés, I went to the WV for a Nike release party. Obama was in town yesterday, and his motorcade actually passed right in front of the spot where the event was being held. So, getting around was like a video game of weaving in and out of cars/cops. It was actually kinda fun.
Tomorrow, I’m off to MD, bright and early to shoot some moto-x with Redbull. Sunday morning I’ll be running the Portugal day race in CP. Should be a banger. Have a great weekend.
One of my favorite contemporary artists, SatOne (I wrote about him previously over here) recently released the image above of his new piece ‘come as you are.’ In addition to creating fantastic abstract art, SatOne uses a canvases that frequently have very good aspect ratios for iPhone wallpaper. So by keeping up on SO’s work, one has access to a regularly updated stream of abstract art iPhone wallpaper. I may or may not exclusively use SatOne art for my iPhone wallpaper. Enough people ask me about it, that I though I would share.
I am the type of person who appreciates tattoos from afar. I don’t think that I would ever get one. Most of my siblings have them. A couple of my siblings have a lot of them. Anyway, this week I’m working on a project for SL, where I get to snap some tattooed New Yorkers. I’m having a pretty good time doing it. These are a few of the images, so far.
Amped for the long weekend. Stopped by Fafi’s book signing this week on Bowery. It was good to get out (despite the rain) and see my peeps. One of my fav’s below: Ricky Powell doing the over-the-glasses “how you doin’?”
I also ventured out last night to celebrate with my friends who recently started this page.
Plans for the weekend include:
-Fix Bike
-Run
Hopefully I can squeeze everything in.
It’s not like I haven’t been busy. Because I have. Just a little too lazy to write on the interwebz re: what I have been up to. I know that there have been scads of first world humans out there waiting with baited breath for the next post. So– sorry, dudes. Anyway, John Mayer again last weekend. (above).
As if that wasn’t enough– JR threw up this piece on the High Line a block from my pad.
And another shot.
More meaningful words later, maybe.
