Darkened Forest

Under Construction

2010-08-19T10:02:00.002-04:00

Bear with us as we make some much-needed updates and freshen up the place so we can have room to share all the pretty stuff we've been keeping to ourselves...

Happy Halloween...

2009-10-31T09:36:00.000-04:00

.....from the editors.

(We promise to update this thing more often!)

---Chris and Amanda

ghosts in string and windows

2009-09-04T10:17:00.006-04:00

Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota creates immense installations with string, furniture, windows, and live people.

What I thought, on first glance, was a frenetic charcoal drawing, was actually a photograph of a white room, with a piano and chairs completely cobwebbed in black strings. The strings are attached to the walls, the ceiling, the floor, the furniture; they wind around each other and are woven in such a way that they define space and become shapes - or beings - themselves.

Other recurring items she uses are old windows from Berlin construction sites, hospital beds, children's school chairs, and shoes.

...but it's the string that gets me. A ball of yarn sitting on a desk is such a quiet, soft, unassuming thing. This artist turns it into a horrible, anxious tangle, a web of uneasiness...it almost looks organic, like an intelligent, plotting Spanish moss, ready to grow around you and swallow you up if you stay too still, too long.

dark and light

2009-04-21T14:38:00.004-04:00

Anke Merzbach's photography is dark, elegant, and moody.

Her work is a glorious combination of antiquated fashion and photo techniques, desaturated color, dirty contrast, and models of non-traditional beauty, strength, and grace.

She uses, sometimes to the point of flamboyant excess, a lot of digital photo processing and manipulation, but despite the modern tools, the photos have an air of antique-ness, but of a past world that never really existed at all.

You can find her work on her website, or on her Flickr Stream.

lending a hand

2009-03-28T18:45:00.003-04:00

I can't help but be mesmerized by the fluid, graceful, nearly mime-like movements of this raccoon's paw as he searches around for food pieces.

The word "raccoon" comes from Native American words meaning "he who scratches with his hands". Their nimble fingers are so incredibly sensitive that they use them as a second pair of eyes to "see" whatever they feel when they probe around in the dark, or under water. Even nearly-freezing creek water does not dull the sensitivity, and they can "see" crayfish and other food by feeling around in the coldest water.

Shelf Life

2009-03-15T23:12:00.005-04:00

Following suit to my blog partner's lead, here is a small sampling of some of my collections.

I recently purchased this hutch from a thrift store for what must have been 1/10 of the original price. It has made a perfect showcase for my previously cluttered curiosities.

A few of my Lenins , a lovingly dried snake that was found by my father and some random antique bottles, some found, some given. And a resin fingertip cast.

Last year's yield of cicada molts. I think I could have collected several hundred more had I started earlier.

These are only replicas that I have distressed for Halloween display purposes. I'm still on the fence about acquiring an authentic human skull, if the opportunity arises though....

The next installment will showcase my collection of taxidermy and critter skulls...

collecting dust

2009-03-15T18:01:00.007-04:00

Chris and I were talking the other day about ideas for different types of blog posts here on DF. One idea we had was to post a few more little things about us, because we like to think of ourselves as interesting, well-read, aesthetically adept individuals who have some neat things to share with the internet world at large. So we thought it would be fun to post about our personal collections of certain objects, which we, being treasure-hoarding artist-types, seem to acquire a large wealth of. So here are three of mine:

#1
Very old, well-loved stuffed animal toys. Clean museum-quality specimens need not apply. I like them dirty, with the mohair pulled off in spots, filled stiffly with straw or sawdust, and roughly charming. The bunny pictured is so old and faded you can't even tell he used to be blue, and his one glass eye being lower than the other is the result of a home repair. The lamb and his rusted little bell are so endearing, and that bear kinda, sorta does something when you turn the crank. I just realized I forgot to put my straw-stuffed rocking horse in the picture. Sorry horse!

They're sitting on a rusted and tattered old doll stroller...because I also have amassed a nice little collection of toy accoutrements for them.

#2 Antique medical, pharmaceutical, and science bottles. My collection spans the early 1900s to the 1950s, and includes some lovely gilded "under glass" labeled bottles (one is for Spirit of Ether), as well as some lovely hand-written science chemical labels, and a series of crazy old dental medications, such as Arsenic Discs and Silver Nitrate. There are still Arsenic disks in the bottle...supposedly they also contained Asbestos, Opium, and Cocaine, according to the label.

#3 Human Teeth. The molars in the foreground as well as the baby teeth in the vials are real. The antique Nuform tray and mason jar hold a bevy of porcelain teeth for denture-making. The ones in the jar are frequently put into my artwork, but the others will not be removed, save for the molars which have been cast into silicone molds to become an army of resin teeth.

Donations are welcome.

colonizing

2009-03-10T10:39:00.004-04:00

Lead by designer Derrick R. Cruz, a group of artists in New York has collaborated on a project called "A New Hive" to raise awareness and funds for the plight of the very important, yet often forgotten, honeybee. The global impact of Colony Collapse Disorder is affecting bee populations at an alarming rate, raising much concern over not only the future of these populations, but the plants they pollinate, and the ecosystems that are affected by their decline.

A show was set up at Earnest Sewn, and featured a dark, anachronistic display loaded with natural objects, symbolism, and about 200 pounds of honey.

Below, you can see one of Cruz's solid gold honeycomb necklaces, made with the lost-wax casting method, from an actual piece of honeycomb. It is displayed within a sugar pyramid filled with honey.

The proceeds from the art sold, as well as donations to the project go to support honeybee research, education, and development of sustainable beekeeping practices. For more information about Colony Collapse Disorder, click here or here.

from the pages of...

2009-03-05T16:09:00.003-05:00

The detailed, illustrative work of Italian artist Ericailcane brings to mind images from a forgotten Victorian storybook. Fussy, proper, macabre, and just not quite innocent enough to be for a child.

In addition to etchings, drawings, and installations, he has worked on a number of video projects, as can be seen here on his website.

garden of delights

2009-02-19T17:36:00.005-05:00

These fantastic little worlds are the creation of artist Kathleen Lolley.

Besides the folk/fairy tale aspect of the characters, woodland settings, and rustic details, what really interests me about her work is the historical color palette, and the (perhaps deliberate?) many nods to both Hieronymus Bosch in both rendering style and creature/object design, and the desaturated stacked landscapes of Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

That similarity gives an ancient, otherworldly feel to her work, that seems to tell a definite story....even though you may not know what the story is.

More artwork and information about prints and other items at her website.

Hearts Day

2009-02-14T10:06:00.002-05:00

Love and ventricles from Darkened Forest!

Go West

2009-02-13T10:46:00.003-05:00

In the Short North Arts District of Columbus, Ohio, there is a wonderful little store called Collier West. I often make it a point to go look around whenever I'm in the neighborhood.

The website has an online store where you can buy goodies, but the best experience is to actually visit the store, if you can. The décor is basically what I want my house to look like - a little cluttered and a lot antique and intriguing. You feel like everything you look at is part of the whole of the store's aesthetic...like an antique store, but curated.

Antlers are everywhere (and for sale), as are branches, nature-inspired lighting fixtures, and lots of local and not-local original artware (like ceramics, plates, and jewelry). I even spotted the ceramic art of Laura Zindel, that we blogged about last year!

If you ever find yourself among the fab restaurants and art galleries of Columbus, make sure you drop into this jewel of a store; you will be very glad you did.

Mysterious Packages

2009-02-12T14:01:00.008-05:00

So it seems that being a blogger pays off sometimes. In this instance it paid off in a big way for 50 lucky bloggers. The makers of the newest stop-motion feature film CORALINE, have been kind, wait, no...AWESOME enough to send out 50 handmade mystery boxes to blogs of relevance. Now it's not often that we get INSANELY JEALOUS here at DF, but this is one of those times, this is why...

~
These boxes are nothing shy of masterpieces in of themselves, containing actual production props, scrapbooks and items of mystery.

While I have not yet seen the film (10 demerits for me) I still find this act of kindness on the filmmaker's part to be one of the most inspiring things I have seen in a very long time. Kudos, and congratulations to everyone who received these amazing treasures.

Parabolic

2009-01-25T15:29:00.005-05:00

Always the purveyors of fine WTF, Tool's videos never cease to bring amazing dark imagery to life with the use of stop-motion animation and fine cinematography. This video is an epic force of visuals that morphs from one nightmarish conceptual scene to the next. In other words, awesome. Enjoy.

Life On Mars

2009-01-20T20:03:00.003-05:00

VIMBY - Mars-1

Just ran across this great little spotlight on my friend Mario, AKA Mars1. Over the years Mario's work has become increasingly more abstract, complicated, detailed, skilled and beautiful. I can only imagine what he's cooking up next, as it will no doubt be other-worldy.

State of the Arts

2008-12-17T20:39:00.005-05:00

I was lucky enough to make it down to Art Basel Miami earlier in December and I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to share some first hand glimpses of the amazing sculptural works that were on hand.

While this is only a VERY small cross-section of the sculpture that was represented, these very few examples still show the vast range of mediums, techniques and individual voices that can be conveyed in the dimensional form.

Nature is Ancient

2008-12-04T09:50:00.006-05:00

Last week I stumbled upon the work of photographer Maleonn.

He works in a variety of styles, blending nature and open spaces with human strangeness and kitch. Some of his photos are black and white, and some are black and white with meticulous hand-coloring with watercolors.

Nothing is left un-damaged by his aging techniques, which leaves the viewer, after seeing his body of work as a whole, with feelings of another world...an expanse, a non-knowing of what is around him. It's all very moody stuff, I recommend it highly.

tattered fairy tales

2008-11-24T15:45:00.003-05:00

The folks at Gibbous Fashions create their couture out of scraps of discarded clothing, textiles, and other fabrics. Some from today, many from yesterday. The pieces are carefully matched, mis-matched, frayed, hemmed, stitched, and twisted onto each other, creating beautiful layers of color and texture.

Their artists' statement (of sorts), tells us that they believe that clothing should be lovingly kept, worn out, repaired, worn out again, and cared for like a cherished object. With the beautiful layers and stories woven into their pieces, it would be no challenge to treat them with such tenderness.

so softly

2008-11-17T16:22:00.006-05:00

Lyndie Dourthe is a french artist who makes beautiful objects - and LOTS of them.

The appeal of her art is not only in the beauty of the objects themselves - small studies in color, texture, form - but the repetition of the forms, and how they are arranged; in identical boxes of the same color, in rows, or in giant masses.

Her sense of color is wonderful; the palettes soft and lush and feminine and downright gorgeous. Light and texture seem almost tangible in these internet photos - i can only imagine how these lovely pieces look in real life.

all Hallows

2008-10-31T14:33:00.004-04:00

Happy Hallowe'en!

shards

2008-10-24T15:45:00.006-04:00

Andy Paiko is a U.S. artist who blends form and function in his glass pieces.

Check out both his "Sculpture", as well as "Sculptural Vesselware" on his website, for striking designs, some holding organic shapes. I really like how layered and ornate the work is - a jar that only needs to be five inches tall has a gigantic layered finial on top, just to show off. Glass is a beautiful and difficult medium to work in, and I really appreciate this artist's work.

Special thanks to DF reader CuriousArt who turned me on to Andy's work!

Geothermal

2008-10-07T14:48:00.003-04:00

Yes yes, I've been slacking on the posts. As Mandi has stated before, we belly ourselves up to the all you can eat buffet of work and fill our plates on a regular basis. Sadly fun things tend to fall by the wayside when I get busy.

I thought I'd just post a really beautiful (only one among many) and haunting video by Sigur Ros.
Directed by Floria Sigismondi, who is probably best known for her Marilyn Manson videos. Which,have a certain aesthetic that we rather like around here as well...I'll totally admit to it.

battle

2008-10-01T21:04:00.006-04:00

I can't quite figure Ryohei Hase out.

His work seems to not know where it fits either - at his best, he creates amazing, moody, visceral, motion-filled works with the same grimy flesh-realism that I appreciate in Odd Nerdrum's work. But at his most questionable, he creates pieces that seem more at home on the cover of a paperback science fiction novel than a gallery wall. And then there are the creature-design sketches.

Regardless of its application, this artist's talent is apparent, working digitally instead of with a brush and paint. I mean seriously, we're talking detail down to the reflections in a rabbit's eyes, and individual pieces of fur. Pop on over to his website or DeviantArt gallery (with beautifully large pictures so you can see all the detail).

play your hand

2008-09-29T16:01:00.004-04:00

Dear readers, I am so sorry for our absence. Time moves so quickly sometimes, I cringe when I realize almost a month has passed with no update to this Dark Forest. It seems that both Chris and I fill our life to the very top with things, and we often discuss whether or not it is such a good idea to be so full of "to do". But that is for another day.

Today I am looking at the haunting work of Valerie Hammond.

Her works are mixed media - paper, encaustic, graphite, other things, all carefully rendered upon the page. The colors are natural yet dreamlike - I don't feel like they are connected to this world, yet incredibly grounded at the same time. In this series, she just does hand after hand after pair of hands - maybe a repetition, but of such an iconic and expressive form. It doesn't even need to be attached to an arm or a body to speak volumes.

I love the ferns, the flowers, the coral. All laying still on a washy field of color. For something so simple, and careful and centered, they really are very evocative.

haunted

2008-09-02T13:38:00.004-04:00

Check out the photography of Lauren Simonutti. On her Flickr page, she asserts that her photographs are all done without the aid of digital effects - all manipulation is done in camera, or in the darkroom. Certainly refreshing these days.

Darker Forest

2008-08-26T20:09:00.007-04:00

What began as cottage industry catering to wealthy Victorian tourists in the Swiss town of Brienz in the early 1800's, Black Forest wood carvings escalated to a highly respected and sought after art form being exhibited in many great international exhibitions in the late 19th and early 20th century.

While the style is undeniably the inspiration for many new products in home decor as well as the driving force behind many an artisan, it's difficult to find a central resource on the web. That being said, I am more than happy to showcase some of our favorite carvings to save you the surfing. Enjoy.

seven deadly sips

2008-08-21T21:38:00.003-04:00

Hamilton Design has created a conceptual set of seven red wine glasses based on the Seven Cardinal Sins. All nestled in plush burgundy velvet and polished wood, they look like an antique glass medical device.

Each handmade glass, representing a different sin, is almost painfully clever in concept - the Envy glass is full of holes, rendering what is most desired (the wine) all but unattainable, and the Lust glass is suspended from above, the only way to release the liquid inside being to manipulate a frosted glass globe with the tongue.

I don't even want to guess the price, but these absolutely exquisite sets are available for purchase at their website.

windy city

2008-08-07T09:31:00.004-04:00

Both of us will be in attendance in Chicago this saturday for the opening. Amanda has done some amazing work that has to be seen in person to be fully appreciated. Also I will have two sculptures on display that we both collaborated on. See you there.

the magic eye

2008-08-02T12:40:00.002-04:00

Like Mandi said, it HAS been too long. Our real lives can tend to get very busy with our various projects, but we'll do our best to keep bringing you inspirado!

Music videos can be a perfect excuse to present amazing avant garde stories. There are so many to choose from, I narrowed this week's selections

to these two from Unkle and The Knife.

it's been so long

2008-07-24T14:11:00.004-04:00

Our apologies to you, Darkened Forest readers. We realize that it's been almost a month since our last post. Chris and I have both had a lot going on, between work, art shows, preparations for ComicCon, and home rennovations...that doesn't leave either of us nearly enough time for blogging.

But I'm going to try and make it up to you this week, while Chris is at Comic Con.

For my first trick, behold the art of Paul Toupet:

His fondness for rabbit masks, rotting fabric, and tattered cotton ticking has every ingredient to make me love it instantly.

His website is, admittedly, a bit of a pain - made in flash with load-times seemingly for no reason at all. But the work is great, taking inspiration from old tribal masks, baby dolls, and childhood toys from a forgotten age.

The work is ambitious, especially considering the fact that the artist is somewhere in the vicinity of 28 years old.

killing you softly

2008-06-26T22:58:00.002-04:00

Sam Weber falls into a small, distinct group of illustrators that have a way of making a beautiful delicate image out of something that would otherwise seem frightening. His work is handled with the proficiency and aesthetic of an ancient Japanese calligrapher, while at the same time conveying heavy illustrative concepts.

I believe in fairy stories

2008-06-22T21:51:00.004-04:00

I'm going to post something unabashedly girly because Chris can't stop me.

Whichgoose handcrafts absolutely beautiful fantasy crowns from natural materials, ribbons, beads, and tiny birds. The subdued palette and organic nature of them just fits my "fairy tale ideal" to an absolute tee. Her colors, photos, and textures are like a hand-colored photograph from the turn of the century. I might have kind of a girl-crush on her....okay, I do.

If you are going to a medieval fair this summer, or need something for a niece or daughter for dress-up, or if you're like me and feel your own need to play dress-up, be sure to check out her Etsy shop!

who's afraid

2008-06-15T01:07:00.004-04:00

Okay, I know that animal-head busts in classical patterns, or in solid mod colors are kind of a "thing" right now, and we here at Darkened Forest like to pride ourselves on having an aesthetic that is somehow beyond trends (a delusion, yes), but I saw this and just couldn't resist.

It's a resin wolf's head, papered in a black and white damask-type pattern, with beautiful, stoic green eyes. This would look amazing above my red velvet sofa, if anybody wants to buy it for me. Or, if you'd rather purchase it for your own sitting room, you can find it, and other papered creations, in the artist's Etsy shop.

timeless

2008-06-06T13:51:00.004-04:00

Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison create fantastic, beautiful, surreal, and impossible photo collage works.

Subject matter ranges from desolate, isolated spaces, wounds, anachronistic men in period suits attending to various tasks, and colorful butterflies gathering in natural and man-made arrays. Their works are photographic collages, seamless combinations of images that tell a story. This Wikipedia entry has a lot of great information.

While many of their works are cleaner, lighter, and more colorful, these pieces from the exhibition "The Architect's Brother" (of which there is also a book) are dark and timeless, with pollution and open space, and labor.

earthen vessels

2008-05-29T13:16:00.003-04:00

Laura Zindel creates beautiful and functional ceramic pieces.

Flora and Fauna are artfully arranged on her plates, bowls, and cups, like specimens in a museum. The best part, of course, is that they are available for purchase on her website.

Askewed View

2008-05-20T20:11:00.005-04:00

Former Tattoo artist, Chris Conn Askew creates amazing narrative imagery that feels very much of a different time and place.

With technical proficiency and a serious handle on capturing the mood of the moment, you would never suspect that he has had no formal art training. From what I know of the tattoo industry though, is that working your way up through the ranks is harder and more intensive training than you would ever receive in any cushy institution . HIS SITE is still under construction, but there are plenty of images to chew on in his myspace gallery.

pigment-free Friday

2008-05-16T21:41:00.003-04:00

mm.northwoods has an amazing Flickr set of albino Whitetail Deer that roam around their land. It's amazing how, with no pigment to let us immediately know what kind of deer they are, they appear to be some exotic, alien species....some rare and icy breed of snowy northern ungulate. Check out the other sets too, for lovely and interesting snaps of nature.

Swan Lake

2008-05-15T09:50:00.003-04:00

The Silver Swan is an automaton from the 1700s, and is kept in England's Bowes Museum.

This description is from the Wikipedia entry:

"The swan, which is life size, is a clockwork driven device that includes a music box. The swan sits in a "stream" that is made of glass rods and is surrounded by silver leaves. Small silver fish can be seen "swimming" in the stream. When the clockwork is wound the music box plays and the glass rods rotate giving the illusion of flowing water. The swan turns its head from side to side and also preens itself. After a few moments the swan notices the swimming fish and bends down to catch and eat one. The swans head then returns to the upright position and the performance, which has lasted about 40 seconds, is over. To help preserve the mechanism the swan is only operated twice a day."

Here, you can see a video of the Swan's performance, and even better, the enraptured wonder of the viewers in the background. Such art, technology, craftsmanship, and flawless motion are spectacular, especially considering it runs on clockwork and was created over 200 years ago!

operation goose rescue

2008-05-09T13:50:00.009-04:00

As we were pulling into the parking lot after our lunch break today, Chris and I spotted a lone Canada gosling toddling across the pavement. I slowed the car down, and he hunkered down to the ground; we looked around, but the family was nowhere in sight.

Knowing that the goose family would all be together, and that wherever they were, they had to have gotten there on foot, with babies in tow, we decided to go looking for them.

Chris hopped out of the car, cornered the terrified, shaking baby, and scooped him up, and I found a cardboard box in the trunk of my car, tossed my sweater into it, and we deposited him inside. The three of us set off slowly around the large multi-part parking lot, straining our eyes to find two large geese and some little fuzzy ones. Fifteen minutes after picking up the gosling, still no sign of a goose family. We didn't know what to do - should we just let him go where we found him, and hope his cries would attract his parents' attention? Should we try and find a wildlife rehabilitation center?

I was driving down the exit, and needed to turn around to go back to the building, so I pulled into a dirt lane that opens into a fenced-off expanse of land where the company is developing a greenspace, very far away, through some dense overgrowth, and an iron fence from where we found the baby. 100 feet in front of us stood two adult geese, and about six goslings the same size as the one anxiously squeaking in the box on Chris's lap.

We opened the door, Chris took the gosling and cautiously approached the geese. The moment the adults heard the baby's cries they started honking and bobbing their heads, and as soon as he was let go, the baby ran into the group and all were united once more.

We came into work about a half-hour late, but very happy knowing that, at least for now, our little gosling friend was safe, and that both of us had been able to be that close to this helpless wild creature, and give him the help he needed to be on his way to adulthood. It's a great feeling.

technologies of the future

2008-05-05T20:07:00.004-04:00

I'll admit, this isn't our usual aesthetic/range of interest here on Darkened Forest, but it's not often you strike gold like this. So, it was imperative that we spread the word.
Fred and Sharon make "movies". Movies of such an awkward caliber that it's elevated itself to an art form. These people are serious about what they do, head on over the their YOUTUBE CHANNEL and you'll see what I mean. The Technologies of Peace series is amazingly unsettling, as is their sense of "humour".

This may very well change your life.

on the inside

2008-04-29T09:25:00.003-04:00

Dream Anatomy is an online exhibit from the U.S. Library of Medicine. It features some interesting history and information about the development of Anatomy and Anatomical drawing throughout the ages. It is really amazing that most of what we know about the workings of the human body have become known only in the last few hundred years, when humans have been on the earth far longer than that.

If you follow the link to the Gallery section, you will see many images from the other sections of the website; click on them and some will open into extremely large files, which are great for study, and to really understand the difference in rendering and printing techniques used.

Found on FFFFOUND!

2008-04-23T14:07:00.007-04:00

Hop on over to FFFFOUND and you'll soon realize that every clever, beautiful, amazing image that you were going to create already been done. It's an amazing site that will keep you engrossed for hours if you let it. The site is a never ending expanse of interesting images pulled from art, advertising, photography, design,science...and damn near everywhere else.
A warning though, if I may, your head will probably explode.

there in spirit

2008-04-21T10:53:00.004-04:00

The late part of the 19th century and into the beginning of the 20th saw the fervent, some would say faddish, rise of Spiritualism. Out of that movement, some truly wonderful photography was born, with a definite artistry, and a type of mystery and off-kilter sensibility that modern "spiritual" images often lack.

These images and more can be found in the book "The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult", which can be previewed here.

of fog and bicycles

2008-04-17T13:56:00.007-04:00

Louise Robinson creates illustrative works of a quiet, desolate, archaic tone. Anthropomorphic girls, animals on bicycles, and repeated figures lurk out of backgrounds of neutral shades and stained paper.

Her technique is a mix of digital collage, painting, and heaven only knows what else, the images are rich and seamless, with a striking sense of color and just the right amount of restraint.

She sells her prints in her Etsy store, so be sure to stop in; if you're in the market for some unique, unusual, and haunting wall decor, you have stepped into the right place.

And hey, her first name is my middle name, so maybe I'm biased, but I really love the aesthetic she presents. Louises of the world, unite.

a tale of two rabbits

2008-04-13T20:08:00.009-04:00

It just so happens that Chris and I are both participating in an upcoming custom vinyl show featuring artists' takes on Frank Kozik's Smorkin' Labbit (see Figure 1 below):

Chris overhauled his into a new species of jaunty and amazingly cute ungulate...

...which is clearly herbivorous, spending its days quietly stalking low-lying plants.

Mine ended up like something excavated from the attic of a centuries-old home...

...complete with bendable wire ears, rotting frills, and a little cart that rolls when you pull it.

The show is at Rivet Gallery in Columbus, Ohio - I think we'll both be at the opening on the night of May 3, so if you're in the area, be sure to stop and say hello.

Bits and Pieces

2008-04-01T20:53:00.003-04:00

Kris Kuksi creates dark, macabre, purgatorial miniature landscapes that are littered with, what seems like, an endless number of figures of varying size. Besides being amazingly constructed and paintstakingly detailed, his assemblage sculptures are ingenious in their usage of everything from bones to star wars figures(if you look hard enough).

back and forward

2008-03-24T20:47:00.007-04:00

The Etsy shop of Builder's Studio cranks out some amazing things. From gorgeous retro-futuristic robot miniatures...

...to handmade Ray Guns, sized both for holding in the hand, or hanging on a chain around your neck. And what is even better? They're made of wood! The old, rustic patina-style finish on these pieces is wonderful, and though many of the shapes seem very "wood-like", the metallic sheen plays a trick on you and really makes you think you are looking at hammered, weathered metal.

Life In a Jar

2008-03-22T11:15:00.006-04:00

Of all the strange and inspiring places I have visited , The Mütter Museum
in Philadelphia, by far tops the list as the most sobering.

A small museum by comparison to most institutions, The Mütter is a collection of Medical anomalies intended to educate present, and future medical professionals(as well as curious civilians).

Founded in 1858, the museum feels as old as it is. This place is not for the faint of heart, but will make most anyone who actually IS human feel very much so. You're reminded of the wonder and fragility of life and the biology of our species with every exhibit.

Photography is not permitted inside the collection, and rightfully so, as most of the items on exhibit ARE or WERE part of someone at some point in time.

Anyone going to the Mütter will leave the place quietly and with much to contemplate.

just my type

2008-03-21T10:45:00.004-04:00

I am a fan and enthusiast of "regular, everyday" antiques. Tapestries, gaudy wall hangings, jewelry, and porcelain statuettes rarely engage my attention, but the trappings of every day life in eras gone by is absolutely fascinating.

At The Virtual Typewriter Museum, you will find an exhaustive and informative gallery of all kinds of amazing mechanical writing devices. From the upstroke-hammer models that we are all familiar with, to different, more experimental, or less widely known models:

Of course, most of them also fall into the glorious "polished wood and old metal" aesthetic that attracts me like bees to honey...

burning in the void

2008-03-15T17:48:00.006-04:00

I am not going to say much in this post - Odd Nerdrum is well-known, and one of my favorite artists. I have never been able to render the human form well at all, and his absolute mastery of anatomy, texture, movement, and color impresses and fascinates me to no end. He is unwavering in his realism, the worlds he creates are tangible, visceral, dirty, real, alive, fleshy, and blemished.

And even if you've seen his work before, I think it is always worth a second look.

smash glass houses

2008-03-11T10:03:00.005-04:00

With my blogging partner off for a week, relaxing in sunny paradise, I'm stuck here in thigh-deep snow, holding down the proverbial fort.

I had a lot of hermit crabs as a kid, most souveniers from beach vacations, and I was good to them, and they provided "entertainment" and "companionship" for years. I named them all after Greek deities, and fed them out of little clamshells. Whenever hermit crabs die, their muscles, obviously, relax, freeing them from their shells and letting you pick them up and observe the little wiggly legs along their soft sides, and the rest of their extremely odd and alien anatomy.

What they look like while inside the shell, however, I never really knew, until I found this wonderful photograph of a hermit crab pulled up inside a shell made of glass.

Home

2008-03-04T22:30:00.005-05:00

Several weeks ago I innocently purchased what was meant to be "something to keep my brain occupied while I paint" , little did I know what I was in for. Heima, is a documentary following the epic Icelandic band Sigur Ros through a series of free, unannounced concerts performed in various scenic and quaint locations in their native homeland.

The cinematography alone is beautiful enough to watch the entire film without sound, but coupled with several powerful and moving live performances by the band, Heima is in my opinion no short of masterful.

I knew little about Sigur Ros before watching the film, but I can say that I'm now a fan because of it. Aside from being versatile and accomplished musicians, the members of the band are humble and honest. They seem to have this symbiosis when performing that makes them sound like a single entity rather than a group of individuals.

I really can't say enough good things about this documentary, so needless to say, I highly recommend that you view it ... immediately.

When two Hartes Collide

2008-03-02T18:54:00.003-05:00

I recently completed this piece for an upcoming show in Rome in April. The Hartebeest is an odd looking creature, I studied the reference for hours , and I'm still not really sure where the eyes are.

the silence moves the hand

2008-02-25T14:22:00.003-05:00

If antiquated metaphysical ephemera interests you (and realistically, how could it not?), you will want to visit The Museum of Talking Boards.

It's an online gallery with a fascinating history of spirit-writing, and many of the fascinating designs and gimmicks of talking boards through the first half of last century. The design alone on some of these boards is just marvelous, and they range from the simple and beautiful, to the utterly ridiculous.

You'll also find enough theories, stories, and superstitions here to keep you reading well into the night, though the page designer's choice of text-to-background color combinations isn't always forgiving to the eyeballs.

The Lives of Perfect Creatures

2008-02-24T20:47:00.013-05:00

If you're a lucky person, you have made it to Culver City, California and raked up the courage to walk to a locked door on a busy city street, and ring the buzzer once, only to hear it swing open, and be ushered inside a blindingly dark and deafeningly quiet room.

The entrance to The Museum of Jurassic Technology.

When I tell people about this place, I always struggle for just the right descriptors - I'm sure people call it "weird" or "creepy", but it's not really those things, and every bit those things at the same time. Very few places strike me as "forbidden", and as I wandered around the windowless, curtained rooms of this modern museum, I couldn't help but feel like I was somehow given permission to see this place, it is so occult, so secretive.

Realistically, it is open to the public nearly every day, and for a modest admission fee you are free to roam the rooms and even have some Russian tea and cookies in an upstairs tearoom.

But if the daunting, quiet, dark atmosphere isn't enough to throw you, the exhibits probably will. It's a self-titled "educational institution dedicated to the advancement of knowledge", but what that knowledge is, and the degree of its provability or scientific integrity is often debatable.

Topics from old folk remedies to humans growing horns, to tiny sculptures within the eyes of needles, to a very large and involved display about the (alleged) capture of the (alleged) Deprong Mori, a bat-like creature who can use its sonar to move through solid objects.

I can't say enough good, strange, or fanatical things about this place. If I lived in Southern California I would definitely be a regular patron, and go a few times a year.

There is a great book written about the museum, which I read a couple of years ago, and wrote a fairly lengthy journal entry about. If you've been to the museum, I highly recommend the book, and if you haven't been there, book a flight now.

Edited to add: here is a Wikipedia article on the MJT.

glass eye

2008-02-18T20:34:00.008-05:00

It's not often you hear of photographers that construct their own cameras, let alone cameras that are made from skulls or contain infant human hearts or HIV positive blood. Wayne Martin Belger happens to do all of the above. It would be a gross misinterpretation to take his usage of controversial materials as shock art. Each pinhole camera is masterfully created with precision, purpose and profound respectful meaning.
Not only are the cameras themselves amazing works of art, but the photographs that are taken with them are stunning and haunting.
Each camera has a brief description of the meaning behind the concept as well as the materials used.

two worlds

2008-02-16T11:23:00.004-05:00

The Sheep Child
by James Dickey, 1966

Farm boys wild to couple
With anything with soft-wooded trees
With mounds of earth mounds
Of pine straw will keep themselves off
Animals by legends of their own:
In the hay-tunnel dark
And dung of barns, they will
Say I have heard tell

That in a museum in Atlanta
Way back in a corner somewhere
There's this thing that's only half
Sheep like a woolly baby
Pickled in alcohol because
Those things can't live his eyes
Are open but you can't stand to look
I heard from somebody who ...

But this is now almost all
Gone. The boys have taken
Their own true wives in the city,
The sheep are safe in the west hill
Pasture but we who were born there
Still are not sure. Are we,
Because we remember, remembered
In the terrible dust of museums?

Merely with his eyes, the sheep-child may
Be saying saying

I am here, in my father's house.
I who am half of your world, came deeply
To my mother in the long grass
Of the west pasture, where she stood like moonlight
Listening for foxes. It was something like love
From another world that seized her
From behind, and she gave, not Iifting her head
Out of dew, without ever looking, her best
Self to that great need. Turned loose, she dipped her face
Farther into the chill of the earth, and in a sound
Of sobbing of something stumbling
Away, began, as she must do,
To carry me. I woke, dying,

In the summer sun of the hillside, with my eyes
Far more than human. I saw for a blazing moment
The great grassy world from both sides,
Man and beast in the round of their need,
And the hill wind stirred in my wool,
My hoof and my hand clasped each other,
I ate my one meal
Of milk, and died
Staring. From dark grass I came straight

To my father's house, whose dust
Whirls up in the halls for no reason
When no one comes piling deep in a hellish mild corner,
And, through my immortal waters,
I meet the sun's grains eye
To eye, and they fail at my closet of glass.
Dead, I am most surely living
In the minds of farm boys: I am he who drives
Them like wolves from the hound bitch and calf
And from the chaste ewe in the wind.
They go into woods into bean fields they go
Deep into their known right hands. Dreaming of me,
They groan they wait they suffer
Themselves, they marry, they raise their kind.

--------

This is one of my very favorite poems. You can read some writing about it here. The mood Dickey sets is amazing, tangible, realistic, and unsettling. I could almost believe that it were possible for human and animal to create some kind of doomed life this way.

leather-bound beasts

2008-02-13T00:17:00.005-05:00

More Walton Ford goodness. Actually, this ,admittedly, makes me a little sad, mostly because I don't have the kind of ducats necessary to purchase his new book, Walton Ford: Pancha Tantra. There are two editions, but the prices are the likes of nothing I've ever seen in a newly printed book. The first "art" hardcover is going for a whopping $1800, and the "collector's edition is selling for a staggering $7000. More on the books at TASCHEN's website. I was lucky enough to snag his first book for the cover price a few years back, but I see it's going for over $300 on Amazon.

tiny legions

2008-02-12T22:59:00.004-05:00

"Bulla's photograph of hundreds of children wearing gas masks was not meant to be ghoulish, a commentary on war or lost innocence, but rather exemplified a reason for pride--the country was blessed with well-trained, well-equipped and obviously courageous young fighters. "

-- excerpt from Propaganda and Dreams

are we still married?

2008-02-09T20:53:00.000-05:00

I know that animation from the Brothers Quay isn't exactly news - but I thought I'd share one of my favorite shorts of theirs, a music video for His Name is Alive. I think the haunting, off-kilter music is just absolutely appropriate for the animation. Plus my love for battered old stuffed bunny toys will never subside.

still life

2008-02-05T07:28:00.000-05:00

By now I'm sure that it's no secret that we here at Darkened Forest have an affinity for all things taxidermy, especially old, haggard, Victorian historical taxidermy. Perhaps this is a contradiction in interests being that we are both vegetarians and aren't particularly keen on the killing of animals. But maybe it's by sheer adoration of the animal form that draws us to their likeness, stuffed or otherwise.
All that said, I've found that THIS SITE is a very comprehensive resource on the the history of modern taxidermy, for institutional, scientific as well aesthetic interests.

flying firecracker flirtation

2008-02-02T01:36:00.000-05:00

Fast, flashy, flighty little birds, and a woman whose job I envy.

(How could the females resist, with those moves, those crackly sounds, and those hot yellow pants?)

bugger

2008-01-30T18:58:00.000-05:00

Igor Siwanowicz has amassed a staggeringly large portfolio of otherworldly creatures that live right under our feet. Capturing images of insects (among other critters) through a macro lens, Igor manages to show the real beauty of nature in all of it's chromatic and detailed glory.

What strikes me most about this collection is just how many variations of mantids there are in the world, all of which look like they should be carrying a laser-gun. Pew pew

unholy stench

2008-01-29T15:25:00.001-05:00

If you tire of the popular bevy of home-scenting products which reek of vanilla, freesia, or raspberry, you may want to try a selection from the Douglas Little Company.

That being said, I will openly admit to being not only a hardened cynic, but a snobbish one, when it comes to fragrance. I am a dabbler/merchant in the fragrance arena myself, and feel that much of the soul of the perfumery industry lies in the poetry of perfume, the seduction of luxurious packaging, the romance of words woven together to create a mental tapestry before the consumer even smells the product.

Even so, I am intrigued by these lovely candles, I have smelled one or two before, and they are quite nice. I am interested in both the Winchester and the Ex Libris scents, given my near-obsessive penchant toward leather/wood/oakmoss scents, and may have to give one or both a try. The debossed boxes and overhanging labels, coupled with lovely typefaces and old ornaments look very nice, and I find it to be a very visually successful line of products.

Post-Script: not to diminish the experience of the smoldering woodsy tones and hand-through-the-fire etching on the glass of the "Salem" candle (above), but I wonder if Mr. Little realizes that no one was actually ever burned as a witch in Salem?

Post-Post-Script: They were actually hanged, for the most part, but I suppose there is little poetry in the earthy smell of wet leather gloves, rough-hewn wood, and the tenacious aroma of hand-wound flaxen rope. But I could be wrong.

a little bit noir

2008-01-28T15:56:00.001-05:00

Spanish photographer Eugenio Recuenco creates dark, moody worlds inhabited by stoic, doll-like people.

His work shows up in fashion magazines, advertising campaigns, exhibitions, and even musicians get in on the action (see the Rammstein photo shoot on his website).

I love the tableau-style work that mimics old paintings and photos; the color is eye-squintingly dark and undefined, it's completely unapologetic in that regard, it's great. I find the "15th hour" series to be disturbingly humorous in a "what will she do next?" sort of way, and there is a wry smirk of kitsch in the voyeuristic/fetishism-tinged photos as well.

old is new

2008-01-27T11:22:00.000-05:00

Continuing the theme of artificial artifacts and pickled cryptids, feast your peepers on the work of ALEX CF. He has quite a capable handle on creating authentic looking pieces that really seem to have history to them.
Before you go on your next vampire or werewolf hunt, I'd suggest consulting Alex for all your supply needs.

hoodwinked

2008-01-26T09:55:00.001-05:00

A few years back, this guy showed up in a few headlines, mostly in England:

Supposedly, it was found in someone's garage, and they asked their friend, Allistair Mitchell to investigate it, and he speculated that German scientists could have attempted to hoax the English near the end of the 19th century, and that it was offerred to the Natural History Museum, but they dismissed it, and ordered it to be destroyed, and if it weren't for a museum porter (a distant relative of the guy who discovered it in his garage, of course), the entire thing would have been lost forever.

This article , published in January 2004, gives more information....while this article, published in March of the same year, reveals the entire thing to be a publicity stunt created by Mitchell to generate excitement for an upcoming novel of his.

I can't really say whether or not it worked for him, but it's pretty interesting that this approach was taken to sell some books. What is more interesting is all the forums and websites the dragon in a jar showed up on (just do a search for it), and all the people who were hoping it was real.

The dragon, by the way, was created by Crawley Creatures, a cinematic creature, robotics, and prosthetics company.

naturally

2008-01-25T07:18:00.000-05:00

Walton Ford, creates magnificent, life-sized watercolors of all manner of the world's creatures.
While the work is often satirical and/or political, it disguises itself as that of old naturalist studies.
Truly impressive stuff for not only it's masterful creation, but scale and volume of work.

hard to reach places

2008-01-23T20:08:00.000-05:00

I recently completed this painting for "A Cabinet Of Natural Curiosities", an animal themed group show at Roq La Rue gallery in Seattle, Washington in Feburary.
The Gerenuk is an African antelope that is known for it's exceptionally long neck and ability to survive without water, as it can derive enough moisture from the plants that it eats.

just dirty enough

2008-01-23T10:23:00.001-05:00

Some really nice photos can be found on the Flickr page of a photographer who goes by the name Soozika. The "Old and Antique" set is really nice, excellently close macro shots with textures of old books, paper, printing, and other objects. Occasionally there is some jarring and unnecessary Photoshoppery, but for the most part the photos are well-composed and the colors look wonderful.

life from the clay

2008-01-22T20:18:00.000-05:00

Ron Mueck gets a lot of well-deserved attention on the ol' interweb, so I figured why not some more.
I was lucky enough to first encounter his work not through a computer monitor, but in person during the touring Sensation show at the Brooklyn Museum of art. Among the several pieces of his that were present in the show was a sculpture entitled "dead dad" which was a 3 foot long hyper realistic nude sculpture of his dead father, laying on the floor. Much like Robert Lazzarini's work, as mentioned in a previous post, Ron Mueck's work throws your perception for a loop. It's so real, every pore and hair in it's right place, but so unreal because the scale is off, sometimes not by much, sometimes gigantic, and other times very small.

I was very happy to find out that Ron Mueck had also worked for the Jim Henson Creature shop, and was the voice of Ludo in the film Labyrinth.

Take some time to curl up with this amazing short documentary about his art and process for creating these masterpieces. FYI there is a good deal of (artistic)nudity in this following film, for the weak or prude of heart. LINK

splitting hares

2008-01-22T14:29:00.001-05:00

Beth Cavener Stichter seems to have the same affliction I do - an unexplainable affinity for rabbits and goats.

Visit her website to see her amazingly alive, visceral, fleshy creations. Be sure to go to the "Materials and Techniques" section and click on the capybara to see the unbelievable amount of work and patience that goes into the large pieces - work that you never see, but is crucial to the piece. I love her sense of weight and movement, all the muscles seem heavy, the skin falling in fleshy piles where you'd expect it to.

fish eyed lens

2008-01-20T21:31:00.001-05:00

Kim Keever shoots amazing photographs of epic landscapes...

...all of which are created in a water tank in his studio.

As impressed as I am by the aesthetic of most of the photos, this might be a case for me where the process is more interesting than the final result,
even though the final result is no less than awe inspiring.

speaking of household rodentia....

2008-01-19T15:46:00.000-05:00

That last post made me remember a film I saw last fall. Christiane Cegavske supposedly put thirteen years of her life into Blood Tea and Red String, a feature-length stop-motion film. Nods to modern animators such as Jan Svankmajer are apparent, but it's pretty original, and I enjoyed seeing the clever and creative solutions she employed (cellophane for water, for example). When I saw it in the theater, the print looked really dark, and my hope is that once transferred to DVD that problem has been taken care of.

The soundtrack is cute, the pennywhistle-styled music seems appropriate for the forest-dwelling characters, and the "what-era-is-this-from" sound of it seems right in line with the anachronistic, low-tech look of the animation, so like works from other animators in the last 25 years (Brothers Quay, etc.), it's not immediately obvious what year this was even made.

Most impressive is the sheer construction of everything - for being the vision of one artist, the puppets are extremely detailed, the clothing, the props, the sets, it's all well thought out and cohesive. It's not perfect, but it's quite well done, and I'm impressed with her overall vision and follow-through.

I'm pretty sure you can rent it on Netflix, so if you have room in your queue, it's definitely worth your 1.5 hours.

marble house

2008-01-19T11:16:00.000-05:00

While doing some youtube digging this morning based on a tip that Mandi gave me, I ran across this nice little video by The Knife... I expect we'll be blogging them up more in the future.

pigment-free Friday

2008-01-18T16:20:00.002-05:00

For your enjoyment, some albino and leucistic birds. An albino crow, a leucistic red-tailed hawk (who resides at a local raptor rehabilitation center), and a very sweet little leucistic ruby-throated hummingbird.

skewed view

2008-01-18T09:06:00.001-05:00

A few years back, I ran across a sculpture of a skewed phone booth at Art Basel in Miami, that made my brain just plain stop working for a few moments. Later I would find out that Robert Lazzarini is in the habit of sculpting this brand of craziness on a regular basis. Sadly for you internetters, these things really have to be seen in person to get the full effect, but the installation photo below might give you an idea of what you're looking at.

the beauty of ugly

2008-01-17T13:37:00.000-05:00

I was thinking this morning on the way to work about why exactly I am drawn to things that aren't just less than perfect, but have obvious defects, wear and tear, or just "wrongness" about them. I came up with three conclusions, all of which play a part in my attraction to, and need to acquire and surround myself with peeling paint, rusting hinges, wobbly joints, and frayed edges.

The simple answer would be simply because I like the aesthetic; old worn objects tend to have a beautiful, unified color statement when placed together, and the patina of age and time has a tendency to soften edges, mute colors, and smooth out the stark corners of newness. Being made of more natural materials as well, the textures and colors just resonate with me; there is such visual poetry in a beat-up wooden bowl, a sun-bleached piece of moss green silk velvet, or the slightly dusty, peeling face of an ancient taxidermied creature. But I think there is more to it than that.

My first conclusion is the feeling of maternal protection many of these things give me. I always thought that if/when I choose a pet from a shelter, I would find the most ragged, three-legged, one-eyed cat they could throw at me, because he would probably be considered unadoptable, but I would love him in his ugliness. Many inanimate objects give me the same feeling, the feeling that they are vulnerable, and need to be loved and protected. Old plush toys with their vacant glass eyes and ripping, handsewn seams are very much like the Velveteen Rabbit - loved into oblivion. Objects can fall into ruin by being loved too much just as they can by being abandoned. Perhaps it's that exact dichotomy that draws me.

Another, probably obvious, idea is the constant search for fellow misfits. So many people feel like they can't relate to "most" other people, or that they are somehow different in a way that is seen by the general populous as "broken" or "strange" or "ill-fitting". I collect things that are misfits. They are old, they have very few, if any, matches in the world, and the very nature of them being produced one at a time means they are not one of a million, and maybe not even one of a thousand. And completely handmade treasures, like home-made toys, were made in a production run of one. Time has affected them all in a unique way, and even if they began life looking identical to their counterparts, they will look vastly different now.

The allure of ugly is very strong. I remember always being upset at the end of Beauty and the Beast stories, when the beast turns into the Prince - I always liked him better as the Beast. All that was interesting about him, all that was a little bit dangerous, a little bit primal, a little bit frightening, was traded in for a clean-shaven square jaw and doofus-y pageboy haircut. So boring. I love the quirks in other people; freckled skin, crooked teeth, cowlicks, shadows of life still marked on them, and in the case of my husband, a scarred upper lip and one pupil that always dilates twice as much as the other one.

I think I'll always be attracted to what is slightly "off", a bit foreign, a bit uncomfortable, a bit dirty. It's not just an aesthetic appeal, it's something that touches me deeply and resonates within me. Perhaps my modern life is just too sterile and branded, I don't know. But I do know that I will continue to create new things that seem like old things, in my neverending quest to fill my world with the comfort of things loved literally to pieces.

SCIENCE!!!

2008-01-17T08:24:00.000-05:00

It's not often that I'm insanely jealous of someone's collection of frightening nightmarish antiques, but with RADIO GUY, I will make an exception. He's amassed a number of finely aged items that range from dental mannequins to hat sizers. Some of the items are also for sale as it seems.

flimsy sheets of history

2008-01-16T15:00:00.000-05:00

If you're looking for a nice gift for somebody, or yourself, head over to Panteek Antique Prints and check out their selection. Head straight for the "clearance" area, there are a lot of lovely prints there in the 45-dollar range, like this shell print from 1849 .

It's also a great place to go for artistic reference purposes, and I will be the first to admit that I have downloaded just about every image on the website, to catalog it for future usage. The website itself is a far cry from being aesthetically stimulating, but it's easy to navigate.

In the beginning....

2008-01-16T10:17:00.000-05:00

I thought I would start this thing off with a bang.

Ron Pippin's work, to me, is the embodiment of aesthetic perfection and craftsmanship.

If you didn't know, now you know. More HERE.