“I don’t give a damn if the client thinks it’s worth anything, or whether it IS worth anything — it’s worth it to me. It’s the way I wanna live my life. I wanna make beautiful things, even if nobody cares.” ~ Saul Bass
Money v Good Work. The eternal problem. So often neither go hand in hand. Howcome?
I posted this in February 2011, but felt it is worth remembering the origins of St. Valentine. Added to the Irish aspect, it is a lovely, but tragic story.
In the 3rd century AD, Claudius II, or Claudius the Cruel as he was known, ruled Rome. Claudius banned marriage, on pain of death, saying it distracted his soldiers and made them less likely to leave their wives to go off and fight.
The Christians of Rome, however, thought it a terrible suggestion and sought to get married. So their priests, one of whom was Valentinus, married the sweethearts in secret. Claudius learnt of Valentinus’s disobedience and sentenced him to death by clubbing, stoning and then decapitation.
A prison guard friendly to Valentine asked him to help him with his blind daughter, Julia. So Valentine taught Julia to appreciate things with her other senses and to regard her blindness as a gift, another way of ‘seeing’ things. When Valentinus was to be executed he wrote a note to Julia, urging her to stay close to God and signed it ‘From your Valentine’. He was killed the following day, February 14, 269 AD. When Julia opened the note she could see the bright yellow crocus inside. Her blindness was cured and the miracle was attributed to St Valentine. That is why Valentine cards are traditionally signed ‘From your Valentine’.
A little known fact is that St Valentine, martyr for the cause of matrimony and patron saint of love, is buried in Dublin. His remains are in a casket in Whitefriar Street Church, Dublin.
After working with Paul Smith on creative projects surrounding the film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, we have a vested interest in the film’s success at the BAFTA ceremony in London. Paul acted as Creative Consultant on the film with director Tomas Alfredson, worked on limited edition projects and has hosted exhibition’s of Gary’s photography in london, and also next week in LA. We spent the afternoon on friday at the final fittings for Gary’s bespoke BAFTA outfit. We have been lucky enough to have be given a self portrait by Gary prior to leaving for the event. 
People often say that Ian Curtis was a terribly misunderstood man. The public persona was one of a serious, introverted person who never joked around. After reading his biography, it became clear that he was in fact a happy guy some of the time. Here’s hoping he would have seen the funny side of this video. SoftwareDR is a creator who specialises in stopframe animation using Playmobil characters. The result is witty, and cleverly executed. Apologies to Ian.
Artistic renderings of the internal body, from anatomy books to fine art, are often poorly communicated versions of real-life. These paper creations by Lisa Nilsson, however, create the perfect balance of aesthetically pleasing detail and scientific accuracy… even though they’re completely made with strips of paper. Created using the paper-crafting technique of quilling, originally used by Renaissance monks and nuns to make artistic use of the worn out gilded edges of Bibles, Nilsson has curled and twirled some remarkably detailed and tiny pieces. http://lisanilssonart.com/home.html
British artist David Shrigley is best known for his humourous drawings that make witty and wry observations on everyday life. The are often crude, ill-advised but very, very funny.
Trained as a fine artist, his deliberately crude graphic style gives his work an immediate and accessible appeal, while simultaneously offering insightful commentary on the absurdities of human relationships.
His first major survey show in London has just opened at the Hayward Gallery. It covers the full range of Shrigley’s diverse practice. This extends far beyond drawing to include photography, books, sculpture, animation, painting and music.
He is guaranteed to lift one’s spirits with his ability to make people smile at the silliest of things. http://www.davidshrigley.com/
The crass commercialism of Valentine’s Day is nearly upon us. 99.99999% of activities surrounding this date are hollow, unappealing and cringe-worthy. However, one lovely installation in New York’s Time Square looks like championing a return to the beauty of the heart in a town that has it as it’s second unofficial logo.
The 10-foot tall glowing sculpture consists of 400 transparent, LED lit, acrylic tubes that form a cube around a suspended red heart. The transparent tubes refract the lights of Times Square, creating a cluster of condensed city lights around the heart. The hovering heart will pulsate faster reflecting the chain of human energy in the heart of Times Square, for example, at peak times of travel.
Designed by Danish designers BIG, the sculpture will be on view until 29th February.http://www.big.dk/
Night was once a time for thieves and highwaymen, prostitutes, ghosts, and masked balls. Now it’s a place of bright lights, illuminating every part of the city. According to one of the characters in Hemingway’s story of the same name: “He disliked bars and bodegas. A clean, well-lighted cafe was a very different thing.”
The City Dark, a new documentary, looks at the light-filled world we have created in the past hundred years or so. Humans of the twenty-first century have grown accustomed to living twenty-four hour lives, and without the night sky above us, it’s easy to forget our own place in the cosmos. So much so, astronomer Thomas Hockey’s recent book How We See the Sky is a revolutionary call for a return to stargazing.
Whilst this film is shows the acceleration of a 24 hour planet, which in itself is a sad situation, the visual look and feel seems wonderful, based on this trailer. No release date as of yet in UK.