Illustration Corner

Time for another quick change to welcome the weekend. American artist Kris Lewis studied illustration but has become known for exquisite oil portraiture which looks somehow modern and classical at the same time. The one I'm featuring in Illustration Corner is called Sleep. It follows on nicely from Yoshimoto Nara's Cosmic Girls, which looked like they were in a pleasant dream. The picture below is called Low Tide. And you can read more about Kris and his work either here or on his own website.

Inaugural book review - Accordion Crimes

My inaugural book review is about the first book I've read since I was liberated from my studies. Actually that's only half true- I was using it to dislodge the vagaries of information literacy from my brain at night before sleep for the last month. And technically I'm not finished but I've got less than 30 of the 500-odd pages of the book left and feeling the familiar loss of a good book already. As I dont think the ending will weigh too heavily on my feelings about it, it's review time!
It's not a new book, so there are plenty of better, more comprehensive reviews elsewhere, but here's my take.
This is a book which I loved reading, despite its lenth, dark undercurrents and somewhat brisk dispatching of most of the characters. It follows the trail of a green button-accordion across the United States from its passage from Sicily in 1890, and from immigrant to immigrant's child and beyond. Along the way it's lost, sold, given away, and stolen by a colourful variety of characters. Part of what makes the story flow is the emotional investment most of the down-trodden owners make in the similarly misused and abused musical instrument. They recognise in its wail of misery a kindred spirit which comforts them at their lowest moments. There is a historical bent to the novel and Proulx's flair for grimy detail give each of the ages and places the accordion passes through a distinct odour, flavour and feeling. Some of the characters are unlikable and their demise draws little sympathy, but I got quite attached to a few of them and was sad when they met their wonderfully grim ends. The book says a lot about America's treatment of its immigrants - from Germans and Poles to French and Irish, all find the place a harsh and unforgiving land where dreams serve only to remind them of their own naiveté.
I've often wondered at the previous lives of some of my second-hand items (in fact I think this book was second or third or who knows how many hands!) so I enjoyed the detailed vignettes of the owner's lives and cultures, and how each one made the instrument their own. Highly recommended for an entertaining, sad, and sometimes disturbing read.

Book nooks

Wouldnt it be nice to curl up in here? (Image from 9GAG)

Or have a day to root around in here? (cant remember where i found this but its a bookshop somewhere!)

Illustration Corner

You might have noticed that the images in Illustration Corner are starting to vary from illustrations to prints, paintings and what have you. However, 'Image corner' doesnt have the same ring to it and I refuse to stick to one type of image so we'll just keep going...I'm contrary like that. I felt like a change this morning, I've turned a corner, as I finished the last assignment needed for my diploma on Friday (yay!) So, fresh images for fresh eyes (well actually they're a bit bleary at the moment)...I've got Yoshimoto Nara in the corner this morning - he's a well-known Japanese artist and I think his pictures are enchanting. The one to the left is 'The girl with the knife in her hand', and the one in the corner is called Cosmic Girls, and you can read a little about him and see more of his pictures here.

Illustration corner - a Leonard Baskin special!

Leonard Baskin was a Jewish American artist who engraved, printed, sculpted, illustrated: you name it he did it. And he did it well! He's one of my favourit print makers ever, I love his style; I first came across him when I was studying comparative literature and was looking at the war art/prints of Otto Dix, and I found one of his Holocaust prints (see below) which was perfectly desolate. Having said that his bird-man type prints are my favourite, and the new image (Indian head with Bird Hat) in Illustration corner is courtesy of him.

Creative Commons

I'm going to be the dissenting voice here and say that I think Creative Commons is great. I don't know a huge amount about it but what I've read would indicate that it simply offers a more web-based, social-media-friendly flexibility to copyright. Obviously creators of works need to apply a good amount of thought before making the decision about whether to go CC or C, and which type of licence to go for, but that's kind of for the best! For something like a blog it makes complete sense to me; on the web the lines are blurred between sharing and copying - but (without knowing about CC before) I'd picked up on the fact that bloggers always attribute who owns what when using content from other blogs/sites/images etc. With something like a blog the idea is to get people to read your blog - otherwise you're in a vacuum and its no fun. If a well-known blogger namedrops you in a post you get a thousand extra people who wouldn't noramlly know where to begin finding you are clicking on links to your blog. I think its broadly indicative of the new ways in which communities regulate themselves and share at the same time. I'm not using Flickr yet but I cant wait til we get there! Flickr uses CC. However, if you did want to make money from your photos you might need to double-think...But for me the bottom line is that people borrow ideas all the time and build upon them to make something new.

Cats and dogs

I'm a dog person! But I like a sprinkling of cats too. And I'm definitely an illustration person. Plus I know there are definitely some cat people amongst you. Therefore in a happy marriage of cats and illustrations I present this book: I Like Cats by Anushka Ravishankar and Various Indian Artists. I found it in Julia Rothman's inspirational book-loving blog Book by its Cover.
If you've never seen this blog and you like books take a peek, she really appreciates books as covetable, keepable objects.