Gourmand, 2002
Andrew Severynko
Andrew Severynko’s website reveals an idiosyncratic mix of pastoral watercolors, mixed media, and metal steampunk beasties. He’s represented by Williams Gallery.
via feuilleton
Add comment January 9th, 2008 cicada
Metamorphosis
Almacan
Digital artist Almacan (Kazuhiko Nakamura) creates intricately detailed surrealistic portraits, equal parts Giger and da Vinci. This one reminds me of an insectoid Green Man about to disperse into the undergrowth. . . and also, strangely, of Richard Dadd’s Bacchanalian Scene. Almacan says:
I am inspired by surrealism and cyberpunk styles of art. I find myself drawn to 19th century machine designs and armor among other things from that time period as motif. All of these images have been created with a portrait style while still containing a puzzle type quality.
His work is available via his website and Deviantart store.
Via feuilleton.
8 comments December 9th, 2007 cicada
I’ve been running across an unusually large number of things I covet lately, and it occurred to me that if you are reading my blog, you (or your friends/family) might have similar tastes. So I thought I’d post a list of gift ideas for those of you who are starting to look. I am NOT getting commissions, I promise. 
First, with GREAT fanfare: Peacay/PK at BibliOdyssey has accomplished what I’d have judged impossible: a book! My mind boggles at the copyright implications. . . it must have been an incredible pain to track down book rights to the images, but what a treasure (and how fitting for the images to go full circle, from old books, to a blog, back to paper). BibliOdyssey - the Book: Amazing Archival Images from the Internet
There is a wonderful interview with PK here, at 3 quarks daily.
Just in: a review of the book here.
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The Undercover Brain Bag by Jun Takahashi: a purse with sulci and gyri. It’s like doing a callosotomy every time you get your wallet out! I found this via Virginia Hughes. Before you get your hopes up, apparently there’s only one of these bags, and I can’t figure out how much it is or how exactly to buy it! Maybe that’s the point: unless your brain is that big, you can’t have it. At (I think) Someday Store.
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Now this is the best. I hope you already know that for Christmas you can give your loved one gonorrhea, herpes, or even Ebola. And they’re so CUTE! Think Geek: Giant Plush Microbes
No explanation why they have a neuron in the list with all the contagions, but I’d like one of those, too.
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Made With Molecules: sterling silver beta-endorphin choker necklace
I know I keep plugging Raven Hanna’s neurotransmitter jewelry, but she just told me her long-awaited endorphin choker has been revealed publicly. This gem is the entire sequence of beta-endorphin. This is the gift for the lady geek who already has everything else - and given the time that goes into one necklace, you will want to order NOW!
Myself, I’m still eyeing Raven’s neurotransmitter charm bracelets. Who knows, it might help with what my boss referred to last week as “your very apparent GABA imbalance.”
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Not everyone knows their endorphin from their estrogen, and non-scientists need gifts too. For non-molecular jewelry, visit my friend Ophelia’s etsy shop (Ophelia herself IS a scientist). I get compliments every time I wear her work - it happened again today - and you know no one else will have the same piece, which is especially nice for me since I and all my friends shop at Ann Taylor, and unfortunately have the same clothes. Ophelia’s Jewels
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The “Science: It Works, Bitches” T-shirt. I have almost bought this like, five times. What is stopping me??? Oh yeah - I’m broke. Blame Ann Taylor. the xkcd.com store: t-shirts
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The “viva la evolution” t-shirt. Che Guevara’s Jurassic doppleganger: what more could you want?? Trilobite clothing
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Pretty things from Walteria Living and emily amey here, and here.
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New! Check out Street Anatomy’s own Christmas list of anatomy-related gifts
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I will be updating this list as more strange things appear on my wishlist. . . for the record, Santa, I have none of these things . . . yet.
Of course, if you really really like me, you’ll buy me this.
3 comments November 10th, 2007 cicada
Mo at Neurophilosophy nominated me for the Intellectual Blogger award. That is an honor, especially coming from Mo, who posts about twenty times as often as I do on twenty times as many subjects. And if you’ve ever had a conversation with him, you know he can talk extemporaneously about all that stuff too.
I just LOVE talking to interesting, smart, and yes, intellectual people, who make me think about things in unexpected ways. That’s part of why I love living in the city, and why I love the idea of this award. I note that many recent recipients of this honor are science bloggers; I hope no one minds if I instigate a little cross-pollination here and pass it on to some diverse artsy types. (After all, I’m at least half artsy myself!)
First up, one of my favorite blogs (and favorite people), Hungry Hyaena. Intellectual art and intellectual commentary. Perfect.
Heather at Cabinet of Wonders writes simply amazing posts on unpredictable topics–I was recently engaged in conversation about the Archimedes palimpsest, then saw the word palimpsest in a New Yorker, resolved to blog about “palimpsest,” and lo! she already has! That’s exactly why you should read her blog before you think of your own ideas. At least, I should.
I am fascinated by the frank commentary of art dealer Edward Winkleman. Don’t always agree with him, but I love a blog that makes me want to argue. I love anything that makes me argue.
I’m not completely sure I’m allowed to nominate Curious Expeditions because it’s written by two bloggers, D and M; but surely two participants doesn’t make it a “group blog”? (I can argue about that too if I must!)
Finally, for something completely different, you should visit The Name Inspector. If you like Language Log, you should love this.
The original post on the Intellectual Blogger Award includes a complete list of winners - an excellent idea, concentrating a variety of amazing blogs in one place. I already have too many to follow, but I did add a few more to my feeds. . . soon I will need to update my blogroll once more!
Incidentally, I release with goodwill all of my nominees from the obligation of listing five bloggers themselves, unless they wish to. Compulsory memes often go unfulfilled anyway.
About two months ago Drawing the MotMot tagged me as a Creative Blogger, with a nod to my “peculiar 19th Century Artist/Naturalist Steampunk sensibility” (which we share)! I never got around to choosing five more to spread the meme, because I was overwhelmed with moving and my new job. By now, I think many of my choices have already been nominated, and five links is probably enough for one post, but I wanted to thank DtM for the honor. (Besides, the bloggers I’ve listed above are Intellectual, Inspirational and Creative).
Add comment November 1st, 2007 cicada
Zeppelin
Digital
Mikel Robinson, 2007
Candles and Ghosts (blog); Galerie de Illuminata (etsy)
I’ve always loved antique patinas, rusty found objects, and vintage photographs, but these days it seems like EVERYONE has joined the mixed media bandwagon. Suddenly we’re saturated with sepia ancestors, butterfly wings, grungy fonts, and faux-scientific labels. I’m hesitant to work on the mixed media pieces I have on my back burner, because I’m afraid they’ll seem too trendy! My protests that I was doing collage before ephemeramania may sound disingenuous, but I really was. (I also routinely anticipate Pottery Barn trends by a year. And I was never a fan of New Kids on the Block or Milli Vanilli. See? You don’t believe me, do you?)
Although there are hundreds (thousands?) of creative people out there making lovely collages, I rarely find an ephemera artist who makes a strong impression on me with his or her body of work. Mikel Robinson is such an artist. I love his judicious use of illumination, which evokes the primitive technology of advertising lightboxes and magic lanterns, or the gentle fading of souvenirs abandoned under a perpetually sunstruck window. He understands the light-spirited whimsy-wrapped-in-history that is the heart of ephemeral art.
But at the same time, there’s a deeper tension in Robinson’s pieces. Zeppelin, the steampunky image above, is at first glance ridiculous. Check out those coke-bottle goggles! But it’s also a tragic juxtaposition: a humble, self-taught amateur inventor, whose aspirations to flight are embodied in a broken wing and a black machine of war. Sadly funny; damaged, yet stubbornly resourceful - it’s a quintessentially American take on Icarus.
Lullaby
Mixed Media
Mikel Robinson, 2003
Although there may be a lot going on under the surface, Robinson keeps his pieces refreshingly simple, resisting the insidious urge to layer and texture an image to death. He lets the artifacts speak for themselves, with minimal (or no) framing: in short, he knows when to stop! In his restraint, Robinson is more closely aligned with the intimate assemblage tradition of Joseph Cornell, than with current trends in altered books or scrapbooking - though the stray butterfly wing here and there does keep his work looking current.
Mikel Robinson’s work is available through his website and through his etsy gallery.
Add comment September 20th, 2007 cicada
Bibliophiles: bookmark this link! Librophiliac Love Letter: A Compendium of Beautiful Libraries.
One of my favorite blogs, Curious Expeditions, has written what may be the definitive blog post for library lovers. I’ve only been to four of the libraries on the list, but I was at one of them just today, so it was a timely post.
There are definitely more beautiful libraries in Europe, but I’m excited to pop over to Georgetown and see the deliciously steampunky Captain Nemo Riggs Library. Can’t wait for a giant squid to swim past those portholes.
I posted previously on the Real Gabinete.
More good library stuff and links here.
1 comment September 10th, 2007 cicada
imaginative/anachronistic illustration of the Bushnell Turtle
unknown artist
Submarine artist/tattoist Duke Riley and compatriots were cited Friday morning in NYC for towing a “strange-looking” replica Revolutionary War sub near the Queen Mary 2. The strange sub is apparently modeled on the Bushnell Turtle. Several Turtle recreations have tested, including one by the students of Old Saybrook High School.
Riley’s version can be seen in action in this flickerset:
And here’s a lovely steampunk version of the Turtle by Rick and Laura Brown (2003):
The Browns’ sub model is prettier, but Duke Riley handily wins the contest for best artist’s statement:
My work addresses the prospect of residual but forgotten unclaimed frontiers on the edge and inside overdeveloped urban areas, and their unsuspected autonomy.
I had to read that one a few times. And it gets weirder. According to Riley’s website,
From 1992 to 1997, I lived and worked in an 8 by 10 foot pigeon coop constructed out of a widow’s walk on the roof of an old dilapidated building in Providence, RI. I shared the space with both domestic and street pigeons.
Wouldn’t it have been great if he took pigeons along in the Turtle?
1 comment August 4th, 2007 cicada
Last weekend I discovered Seattle’s Gas Works Park. By accident. And ended up on a tour through the derelict gasworks - led by the park’s designer, Richard Haag. The structures are fenced off, so I got the impression this was an unusual privilege. Fortunately my camera’s battery wasn’t completely exhausted, though I was torn between taking photos and listening to Haag recount his efforts several decades ago to convince the city that the industrial site could be bioremediated. Among his persuasive arguments: growing a nice crop of tomatoes in what was thought to be dead soil.
A former refinery that converted oil and coal to gas, the plant became obsolete in the 1950s, leaving the ground beneath saturated with tar and aromatic hydrocarbons. It was one of the first toxic industrial sites to be successfully reclaimed for public use through bioremediation (although it is still monitored, and intermittent cleanup efforts continue).
My first reaction was WTF?!? How could I know nothing about this extraordinary place? I am so impressed with the city of Seattle (and Haag) for maintaining the towers in their rusty steampunk glory, instead of leveling them, as the original plans for the site demanded. Out of 1400 such gasification plants once operating across the US, this is the largest remnant left standing.
From the park outside, the gasworks now resemble a gigantic modern sculpture with a fashionably distressed patina. The unreal blue-green of the Seattle grass contrasts so strongly with the red rust that it stings the eyes. But in among the towers, the scene is ghostly. Blackberries twine lushly through the iron girders, obviously undaunted by any lingering contamination in the soil. Small piles of bleached bones, perhaps from rodents or birds, litter the ruins. Only a few dangling loops of slender T1 cable, probably from a security system, betray that the Internet Age has supplanted the Industrial.
Although the refinery is barely over 100 years old (and despite its rivets and cogs, not properly “steampunk” at all), rain and benign neglect have left it seemingly ancient, like a half-exposed fossil. I hope these images capture its aura of timeless decay.
15 comments June 18th, 2007 cicada
Full disclosure: I am not a fan of Philip Pullman. I didn’t love His Dark Materials; it was undeniably clever, but too heavy-handed for me to ever fully relax my guard (I don’t like being told what to think - even when I agree). Further, I didn’t appreciate Pullman whaling on C.S. Lewis in interviews (C.S. Lewis had issues, but come on, one can read Narnia without being surreptitiously brainwashed. I did).
So I was not eagerly anticipating the trailer for The Golden Compass (the first book/film in the Dark Materials trilogy - scheduled for December 07). When it was released a few weeks ago I didn’t even bother to go look at it. But today I was thinking about clockworks, which made me wonder what the filmmakers had done with Lyra’s alethiometer, and I moseyed on over to watch it. I was just getting annoyed by the shameless exploitation of the Ring imagery (yeah, we know who you are, New Line), when it hooked me. Wow. Unholy wow.
If the film is as good as the trailer, I will like it much better than the book! The polished-steampunk aesthetic is mesmerizing. Dirigibles are landing in Oxford. I’m happy.
Perhaps because I don’t fully visualize while reading, I hadn’t appreciated what a huge cinematographic opportunity this would be for filmmakers - far larger than Harry Potter or Narnia, because The Golden Compass is not set in a traditional fantasy world. It’s a familiar world that’s ever so slightly off. And I mean that as the highest compliment.
If you’re intrigued, behind-the-scenes footage just released on YouTube.
On C.S. Lewis (and why I think Pullman’s out of line): Meghan O’Rourke at Slate, Adam Gopnik at the New Yorker
2 comments June 6th, 2007 cicada
Muskrat Box
Ron Pippin
I have not gotten a single thing done today, because I’ve spent hours browsing the archive of assemblage artist Ron Pippin. Has there ever been a more charming collection of steampunk-influenced taxidermical wonder-boxes?
This cryptically inscribed muskrat skull (above) is exactly my cup of Victorian-naturalist tea. And the partially mechanized vignettes, like “The Operation,” are simply haunting:
The Operation (detail)
Ron Pippin, 1994
Ron Pippin has been represented by the Sherry Frumkin Gallery and Obsolete, Inc. But I can’t find a current exhibit of his work - if anyone knows where he might be showing pieces, let me know.
5 comments May 21st, 2007 cicada
Enzo & Donato
Brass, bone, fur, cast/painted plastic, glass eyes
Jessica Joslin, 2004
Jessica Joslin’s work is exactly what this blog is about: straddling the awkward rift between biological specimen and art object, and doing so with grace and charm. Her sculptures are chimeras of real and simulated bone, metal, found objects, and wistful glass eyes.
Joslin just finished a winter show at the Lisa Sette Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona. From the Lisa Sette Gallery newsletter:
While each piece she employs in her eerie animal reliquary is delicately beautiful, it is also the detritus of human engineering and design: old brass buttons and gold braid, glass beads, clockwork cogs and velvet ribbon. Such items are reminiscent of the whimsical technology of a century past, one’s grandparents’ house, the dark interiors of old fashioned movie theatres - and as such they have an intriguing, wistful quality. In other words, Joslin collects the things that all of us secretly want to, the shiny pieces that we might comb through, handle and admire, but ultimately force ourselves to put down; what would we do with such things?
I love that in Joslin’s pieces, bone - the most enduring part of an animal - seems like the ephemeral, fragile component, snugly caged in traceries of metal. It’s as if, in some steampunk future, the souvenirs of our biological heritage have been lovingly preserved and gradually repaired Tin Man-style, until the metal patches become the bulk of the beast.
Perrin
Antique hardware, brass, bone, leather, glass eyes
Jessica Joslin, 2005
View more pieces from Joslin’s four collections (Brass Menagerie, Flights of Fancy, Aves & Mammalia, and Cabinet of Curiosities) at her website.
Interview with Jessica Joslin from Art&Design.
2 comments February 6th, 2007 cicada
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