Sunday 31 August 2008

cute madness by junko mizuno

one of my favourite illustrators, junko mizuno. it guess it won't come as a big surprise that she's japanese. i absolutely love the trend with japan being a trendsetter in fashion and art. i wonder if i'd make better art if i was japanese. if not better, at least i bet i would make cuter and more mad art.

















i think it's great how junko mizuno touches upon the theme of female sexuality, and sort of reclaims it in a cute, cool and positive celebration of girlieness. it's nice to see feminism come in different shapes, as girls are different and relate to different things.

i don't think there is anything wrong in girly stuff, i don't think feminism is about making women more like men. having equal rights and equal respect; hell yes! but i don't see the point in adopting the qualities associated with manlyness (i say ASSOCIATED with as it's a stereotype and not always the case), like this new form of bitch-feminism where women think they're strong and liberated if they sleep around, act insensitive, hard and only think of themselves - and in general just adopt all the most negative things associated with the male stereotype.

i don't think we need more bitches, male or female. it's nicer to be nice and the way forward is fluffyness, respect and love no matter what gender you are.



i want the book of her called hellbabies, it's got a puffy pink cover with glitter and is filled with kick ass illustrations, - and not much to read as far as i can remember. i wouldn't mind the comic cinderella either, i haven't really read any of her comics, i wonder if they're good. i don't think her illustrations need a story though, they're cool enough on their own.

Saturday 30 August 2008

the enchanted pixie of no worries

..


pencil drawing - it has had the yellow colour added in photoshop. i don't think i'll ever get tired of drawing fairies.

Friday 29 August 2008

Thursday 28 August 2008

dark adorable clay creatures

I've looked at clay stuff today as I'm sculpting a polymer clay elf and wanted some inspiration.

Here is the work of a guy called Scott Radke.






Check out his flickr account for more of his work.

Wednesday 27 August 2008

the grandmother of performance art

marina abramović describes herself as "the grandmother of performance art".
"Abramović's work explores the relationship between performer and audience, the limits of the body, and the possibilities of the mind" - wikipedia
i find the performance she did with ulay called "rest energy" brutally intense.

"Rest Energy (1980); they hold a taut bow with an arrow loaded and pointing at Abramovic's heart, with only the weight of their bodies maintaining the tension. Microphones record their rapidly accelerating heartbeats." - link

aww they even have matching clothes and matching hair. they used to be lovers. something tells me their love for each other was dramatic.

Tuesday 26 August 2008

an attempt at embracing emo culture


i hate too much. i find it really enjoyable to hate, and i need to stop it. i read in science illustrated that people who take revenge and steal from others end up loosing in the long run. i guess they've scientifically proved that being a hater is bad karma.

something i really hate is pretenciousness. wannabes. i think i see it a lot in scene kids and emos.

maybe because they remind me of myself at that age and it makes me embarrassed thinking of how pretencious i used to be.

maybe i'll be more comfortable with myself if less of the people who remind me of myself annoy me.


i think emos get too much shit for who they are.

you can say it's sad how they claim to be individual yet they all look alike, but that is the case with all subcultures, like goth, punk or even ravers. being truly original is hard work when everything has been done before.

and i don't really think everything has to be original, as long as it's fun.

people seem to forget that although emo is a thing for teenagers, there's a lot of even worse styles teenagers go for. and often being a teenager is a little silly and pretencious, no matter the style. emo might be one of the cooler and rebellious styles for teenagers today, as a sort of modernised goth/punk. it's too easy making fun of teenagers and it isn't easy being one. luckily it's just a phase (for most people, i still treasure the teen angst).

i think i can like emo in the way i like marilyn manson. mainstream people don't like marilyn manson, that's expected. but i've also found that a lot of people who try really hard at being alternative are too snobbish for marilyn manson as he's not underground enough. i like marilyn manson for this very reason; because he's an outcast - even in the group of people where he should belong (also i actually like his music) .

emo is sort of like this. mainstream people ridicule them, and goth/punk/alternative people ridicule them too.

i don't want to be an ignorant cunt.

i think a lot of them look fun;
there's piercings,
androgynity,
big hair,
madly coloured hair (seems like HAIR is something they care about quite a lot),
strange clothing,

they're not that bad.

here are some photos of emo people that i like. i think some of them look scene, but i found all of them on an emo website, so i'll just trust the expert - and besides, i don't have to be an ignorant cunt to scene kids either:



this one looks goth to me, but he thinks he's emo. well suit yourself:


obligatory pout for picture (a good pout in a picture makes all the difference in the world!!):


i'm only including this picture because of the glimpse of an emo cock:


i used to walk about with plastic bugs in my hair too, so i'm biased to this look:



i found most of my emo pictures at fashion-emo-hairstyles.blogspot.com. a place to visit if all of this made you want to emo it up.

i also found a very amusing scene rant, including this bit on scene hair.
"The whole “backwards, poofy black mullet” thing doesn’t always have to be what all scene hair looks like, though; scene hairstyles can range from looking like a large dead skunk to looking like a large dead raccoon. Possibly in some cases just a very large dead bird of some sort. See below for examples.":

i can sense this person's resentment to hair resembeling a very large dead bird/racoon/skunk, but personally i like hair the bigger and more mad it gets. if i had the patience, the skills, the hair dye, the straighteners etc i would go for the look myself. but right now i'm struggling to even comb my hair on a regular basis, so i doubt i'll have the self discipline to pull off the large dead bird/racoon/skunk style in the near future.

the word "POSERS!" is stuck in my mind after having written this lengthy blog entry, then i remembered the main point of it was that i'm not an ignorant cunt any longer, and am ending this blog entry with this picture i found instead:


i am a super hero of my generation, but i never thought i looked retarded ;)

Sunday 24 August 2008

Saturday 23 August 2008

the somber illustrations of gustav dore

gustav dore illustrated such things as the raven by edgar allan poe, dante's inferno, paradise lost by milton and the bible. all dark stories, that he managed to make even darker in his illustrations. i think it's especially entertaining to see scenes from the bible this gruesome, although i guess back then it wasn't a subject to approach lighthearted.