Whaddya know, my favorite band’s (Against Me!) best album (EP actually) features their best cover art:
On June 28, 2010, In Music, By Wes
Well, our beloved Yanks went down to defeat on Saturday afternoon, put down in overtime by Ghana, poor defense and missed opportunities. At least we don’t have to face the prospect of hoisting that tacky World Cup posted about on Friday. Feeling bummed, I went with my girlfriend to an Atlanta Braves game on Sunday, looking for some good old American baseball to bring me back to sporting life; no go, as we went down 10-4 against the Detroit Tigers. Oh me, Oh life!
This is a long way to go to let you know I thought about Field of Dreams a lot this weekend, one of my favorite movies, and how it’s themes of hope, progress, history, family bond and baseball all mix perfectly, and headily, into an important and enduring way of looking at America. Terence Mann (AKA J.D. Salinger):
“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh… people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.”
(Basis will now break for you to go out and see this movie, finish crying, and come back.)
In the end, it is not defeat that matters, but the possibility of victory. The possibility of perfection is what will bring us back to the diamond, will bring us back to the World Cup in four years’ time, and what will bring us back to ourselves, and our country. It’s not July 4th, but it was an interesting weekend to be a sporting patriot. What does this have to do with art and design? It also made me think of perhaps my favorite Hendrix jam. Played loud and early, 1969, the alarm clock for what was for three days the the third largest city in New York State, 400,00 kids sleeping in the fields; The Star Spangled Banner played as commentary; as a blackboard erased and rebuilt, erased and rebuilt, and going on to perfection.
On June 25, 2010, In Sport, By Wes
In all the excitement of this enthralling and (for us Americans) inspiring World Cup, one thing that finds little mention is the astounding ugliness of the World Cup itself.
Just no good at all. But what about some of the other major sports? Here we have the Larry O’Brien Trophy, awarded each year to the NBA champion. It’s okay; a little slick perhaps.
Kobe, of course, is holding the Finals MVP Trophy. Let’s look next to the Lombardi Trophy, the NFL Super Bowl winner’s prize. It’s certainly a major improvement over the World Cup and LOBT, but there’s still a bit to be desired.
Now here’s one I like, and it gets big points for originality; the Commissioners Trophy, given to the winner of the World Series (MLB).
Ivan appears happy.
Okay, the best of the best, my favorite, and the best looking to boot; The NHL Stanley Cup. There’s just nothing better; the size of it, the way the players get to keep it over the offseason, the fact that there’s only one, it’s age and wear – it’s a classic.
On June 22, 2010, In furniture, By Wes
Tacky, or awesome? You decide.
On June 21, 2010, In _______vs._______, By Wes
There’s been a hubub recently about the marked similarity between the “look” of Lady Gaga as compared to a performer who’s been around longer and done some of it before; Irish performer Roisin Murphy. Take a look:
Pretty, pretty, pret-ee similar. Eh. For me, it’s the music, and that’s pretty much unimpeachable. As for Roisin, she had this to say: “I respect Lady Gaga’s work as an artist and as a fellow fashion icon. She is a very talented performer, playing the piano, singing live and dancing too. I Don’t Care about Shoulder pads!”
On June 17, 2010, In Branding, By Wes
My favorite album cover of all time (so far, that I’ve seen, etc.)
On June 14, 2010, In art, By Wes
I watched the popular 2007 documentary My Kid Could Paint That over the weekend, and I came away very interested, stimulated, and impressed. The story is one of a 4 year old child, Marla Olmstead, who executes beautiful abstract paintings on large (for her size) canvases. They sell for upwards of $20,000. Something funny though; whenever a camera was recording Marla paint, the work she did was sub-par. It looked like what it was, a four year old girl getting dirty and smearing paint over a canvas. The end results were not, seemingly, as good as the other paintings she’d produced and sold. Her parents explained it away by saying she was nervous, she did silly things, etc. Here the plot thickens; the father is an amateur artist himself. 60 Minutes did an expose on the family, essentially declaring Marla a fraud. The Olmsteads retaliated by releasing their own DVD, The Making of Ocean, which shows Marla making a painting from beginning to end, apparently with no help. This was the result:
For a child not yet old enough for Kindergarden, that’s not bad at all. But is it art? One of the more essential questions asked in the doc is: What is the worth of modern art? If “your kid could paint that,” does that mean it’s not art? Is a 4 year old capable of great art, of interpretive genius? Do you measure worth through the value of the paintings?
Look again at Ocean. Notice a few things about it.
The lines on the painting are mostly thick. With a few variations, the lines are thick and unsteady. The colors are unsophisticated in a cohesive sense. We see very little mixing between colors, between “zones.” When color is mixed, it’s not done with a deft or sophisticated sense; it’s merely on top of another color, or smeared. There are no brushstrokes, no clear intermingling of complimentary color. There are Mickey Mouse ears.
Now look at some of Marla’s other paintings; paintings which have sold for huge amounts of money, and which the Olmsteads claim she did herself, with no help or input whatsoever.
Take note of the fine, thin lines. The sophisticated mixing of colors to achieve the muted backgrounds. Note how the backgrounds fade into one another. Notice how the colors are complimentary. Notice how the same symbols are repeated with integrity and reasonable precision.
Here we have a super-advanced sense of blending, color, brushwork, and, again, complimentary color.
Decide for yourself. Decide this as well; how do we judge modern art?
My Kid Could Paint That was directed by Amir Bar-Lev.
On June 10, 2010, In art, By Wes
On June 7, 2010, In art, By Wes
After our last post, I thought it might be nice to go through the archives and find some other Warhol cover art. The first few he did are quite strong, but as the 60s/70s turned into the Wall Street 80s, Warhol’s work (and his subjects) got progressively more tasteless (in an aesthetic sense) and, sad to say, nakedly for-profit. Though some will argue forever that that was his whole point. (He once said: “Making money is art, and working is art and good business is the best art.”)
Here they are:
This is John Wallowitch!!! – John Wallowitch
Sticky Fingers – The Rolling Stones
Love You Live – The Rolling Stones
Silk Electric – Diana Ross
Aretha – Aretha Franklin
On June 4, 2010, In art, By Wes
Some folks don’t know that aside from being an artist, filmmaker and general mover and shaker, Andy Warhol also dabbled in music production. The band he ushered into the limelight (thanks, by the way)? The Velvet Underground.
Only the first true punk band; only the first band to harness the power and beauty of the drone; only our first introduction to Lou Reed, John Cale, and chanteuse Nico. The Velvet’s changed everything, and the cover of their first album, The Velvet Underground and Nico, became one of Warhol’s most absorbing, playful, and not-so-subtly transgressive images:
If you look closely at the top, you can see the lettering: “Peel slowly and see.” A pretty blatant come-on, even for the late 60s. Of course if you did peel it, your prurience was rewarded with the mock-innocent image beneath the peel;
Well, what did you think was under there?
We’ll go out with the Velvet’s masterpiece: