Bison at the American Prairie Reserve in northeastern Montana.
For international viewers, find link to video here: CBS Sunday Morning, Nature: Bison
Love Lifted Me (130 sec)
August 17, 2017 by 15 Comments
Al Pacino, Holly Hunter and the stars of this scene in the movie Manglehorn: Tim Curry and Lamonica Lewis. (Source: Your Eyes Blaze Out)
I Needed Color: Free from the future. Free from the past. Free from regret. Free from worry.
August 12, 2017 by 28 Comments
What do you do when life chooses you? You can choose not to do it. You can choose to try to do something safer. Your vocation chooses you. When I really started painting a lot, I had become so obsessed, there was nowhere to move. In my home, paintings were everywhere. There were becoming part of the furniture. I was eating on them. I found myself looking around at one point, a really bleak winter in New York. It was just so depressing and I think I needed color. […]
You can tell what I love by the color of the paintings. You can tell my inner life by the darkness in some of them. You can tell by what I want by the brightness in some of them. […]
I think what makes someone an artist is they make models of their inner life. They make something physically come into being that is inspired by their emotions or their needs…
I like the independence of it. Love the freedom of it. No one else tells you what you can and can’t do…and, there’s an immediacy to it. Art has to be service, like you are servicing your subconscious…
When I was a kid I spent half my time in the living room performing for people. I spent the other half of my time in my bedroom by myself writing poetry and sketching. I was not the type of kid that you could say as a punishment: “good to your room” – because my room was Heaven to me. My isolation was welcome…
I don’t know what painting teaches me. I know it just frees me. Free from the future. Free from the past. Free from regret. Free from worry…
~ Jim Carrey, excerpts from I Needed Color
Note to Self: Who knew that the star of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), Dumb and Dumber (1994), The Mask (1994) – had this talent.
Hopper, in films…forget the words. Watch. (90 sec)
August 9, 2017 by 17 Comments
Over the years we’ve brought you a handful of video essays about the relationship between visual and cinematic art, how directors will borrow from famous paintings and sculptures in their framing, but never before have we brought you such an essay that focuses exclusively on the influence of one artist. Thanks to editor Ignacio Montalvo, however, now we can.
Edward Hopper is one of the most famous American artists of the 20th century. A native New-Yorker, Hopper was a realist whose work was centered around depictions of modern American life, like a starker sort of Norman Rockwell, a man not afraid to show the shadows blended into the everyday. His most famous work, Nighthawks, a simple late-nite diner scene from 1942, has been recreated time and time again in film, television, and graphic print, but that’s just one of the artist’s many paintings that have appealed to filmmakers over the years. In episode eight of the new Twin Peaks, an episode many, myself included, consider one of the most artistic achievements the medium has ever known, Lynch makes no less than three direct visual references to Hopper’s work, which in his hands become perversions of the American dream.
Many other filmmakers have also interpreted Hopper through their personal perspectives, ranging from the innocent to the corrupt, realistic to farcical, and severe to lighthearted. Press play above to start your tour through the Movie Museum of Edward Hopper.
~ H. Perry Horton, “Framed: The Influence of Artist Edward Hopper on Contemporary Cinema” from Film School Rejects, August 8, 2017
Related Posts: Edward Hopper
Ancient Road / Fallen Heart
July 8, 2017 by 11 Comments
I struggled picking a favorite – his Solo (Ancient Road) or the Band’s performance (Fallen Heart) – so here’s a 2-pack. Jeremy Enigk, 42, a singer-songwriter from Seattle. Find him on Facebook and iTunes.
a fugitive breeze, a rustle of leaves, choral insects
July 3, 2017 by 21 Comments
Quiet, please.
In contrast to “Baby Driver,” with its high-decibel cacophony, this week also brings Patrick Shen’s “In Pursuit of Silence.” It isn’t really silence that’s being pursued in this beguiling, meditative and elegantly photographed documentary. As one murmuring head after another observes, absolute silence can’t be achieved in these earthly precincts, and doesn’t warrant chasing after in any case. What’s de-stressing for the body and nourishing for the soul is quiet that contains benign sounds—a fugitive breeze, a rustle of leaves, choral insects, a bird sending signals from the far reaches of a serene acoustic surround. The film begins with a tribute to “4’33,” the seminal composition by John Cage in which music is not played—by a pianist, or a full orchestra—for the four minutes and 33 seconds of the title. In Mr. Shen’s evocative sequence, words are not spoken but, if you listen carefully, sounds of nature and even human laughter can be heard under—or over, or within? —a succession of graceful images.
~ Joe Morgenstern, from ‘In Pursuit of Silence’ Review: Dulcet Symphony. A meditative documentary explores quiet and the auditory world around us. (wsj.com, June 29, 2017)
I find comfort on my own thought
June 3, 2017 by 13 Comments
Rayman is a walking juxtaposition — his raspy voice and eerily enticing lyrics demand a listener’s attention, while he himself prefers to keep his head down and let the music speak for itself. Little is known of the rising genre-melting artist, who fuses R&B swagger with hip-hop grit all while spinning compelling stories much like a country artist can — and the mystique is intentional…
Ben Lovett/Keyboardist/Vocalist from Mumford & Sons: “I came back from a tour a year or so ago and… there was music blaring out and the whole office was vibing. They were dancing around, singing along, and I felt like I had just been completely left out of the party and that was quite rare. If that’s happening normally it’s some classic hit, but it was something I had never heard before. It was Allan Rayman, obviously. I immediately got infected with the bug, went into my office, sat down and listened to what was Hotel Allan front and back and was completely blown away.”
~ Lindsey Havens, Billboard.com: Rising Artist Allan Rayman Discusses His Rule-Breaking Artistic Vision & More in First-Ever Interview
Lyrics from Tennessee:
…Well, this boy, he needs no company
This life is sharp like Pittsburgh steel…
It may be tough, don’t follow me
This boy, he needs no company
No company needed (Don’t need it)
I find comfort on my own thought…
Notes: OnestoWatch.com – 10 Reasons Why Allan Rayman Is The Most Mysterious Man in Music
