A Night of Gilded Art
Oh deary! Gilding has been plugging away at FanPhIn now for more hours than she can possibly count. Her eyes have long since crossed so who knows if perspective is spot on at this point, but frankly, Gilding has come to the decision that she doesn’t give a shit. Fairies are wonky and therefore photographs and photomontages containing Fairy shall hence forth be acceptingly wonky. And you, the public, shall fucking love it!
In the midst of FanPhIn psychosis, Gilding had two of her scanography pieces featured in the Arts Potpourri at her community college. The pieces were “Another Ink & Time” and “I Am Goddess” for which she had posted images of in Monster of a FanPhIn….
To begin with, Gilding wore a pair of fabulous Giraffe print, peep-toe, heels. The dress was fabulous too, but taking a picture of the dress in the same downward angle only captured her glory globes, so no dressy-dressy shot for you.
The turn-out at the art show opening was actually pretty significant, which is a testament to the hard work of the Prof. of the Visual Arts Department, and all the support of the Visual and Performing Arts Department faculty and staff as a whole.
Mr. Gilding and our best-firend, Atomic Terrier, came out to support–Gilding would say it was to support all the fine artists presented, but in truth it was all for Gilding .^_~. 
So, the picture of Gilding and Atomic Terrier came out a little blown out, and there were, certainly, very nice pictures taken of us that evening, but lets face it, this pic was just soooooo “us” that to be true to ourselves and this candid blog would have been diminished if any other picture had been used.
Gilding and Mr. Gilding, of course, couldn’t pass up a candid moment with this beautiful sculpture because, well, when can anyone ever pass up an opportunity to tweak a sculptural penis.
This piece was the creation of fellow student, Jeanne–a bronze and metal work sculptural artist of 30 years attending art classes to broaden her works in new and other mediums.
And now we see why Gilding doesn’t build 3-dimensional pieces, for certainly they would be wrought with penis imagery and Mr. Gilding would feel a necessary impulse to take even more silly pictures poking fun than he does already. Then again, it’s only because Gilding is the one taking the pictures that none are ever taken of her antics. Cookie for the photographer .^_~.
From the Moon to the Closet Door, Henry Selick Marries Stop-Motion with Digital 3-D Modeling
So, what do you do when the moon goes out, leaving you and your pet flying squirrel stranded in the dark in your fishing boat in the middle of the bayou. Why, you snag the giant fish-of-stars with your fishing hook and ride the sky straight to the moon, of course. And that’s exactly what Leon and his pet squirrel, Earl, bravely explorers that they are, do. Only, courage has nothing over shy when Leon meets Moongirl. Not understanding why he should help Moongirl, a snappy, glow-eyed girl, repair the moon or learn how to operate its controls, Leon discovers he is part of a greater purpose in this mystical story when the Gargaloon monster steals his bait jar and he and Earl have to skillfully win it back.
Moongirl was director Henry Selick’s, famed stop motion animation director of The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach, first all-CG-animated film. This film short will be screened at this years Comic-Con International at San Diego via the San Diego International Children’s Film Festival. The short can also be purchased packaged within the adapted book, of the same name, published by Candlewick Press.
Currently Selick is working on Laika Entertainment’s first feature film, Coraline, which will be the first major stop-motion animated feature to be shot in 3-D, or in otherwords, its a 3-dimensional stop-motion animation movie.
Adapted from Neil Gaiman’s children’s novel, Coraline is a spine-tingling and fantastical adventure about the brave, curious, and lonely Coraline (voiced by Dakota Fanning) finally opens that mysterious locked door in the drawing room of her new home. It reveals only a brick wall when she finally opens it, but when she tries again later, a passageway mysteriously appears, opening up to a flat decorated exactly like her own–but strangley different. And her “other” parents in this alternate world are much more interesting–despite their creepy black button eyes. Besides, these parents give her everything she wants. But when they make it clear that they want to make her theirs forever, Coraline begins a nightmarsih game to rescue her real parents and three other children imprisoned in a mirror with only a bored-through stone and an aloof cat for help.
Coraline will open up in theaters nationwaide February 6, 2009.
Links: Laika Entertainment | Amazon.com to purchase Moongirl: Collector’e Edition Book & DVD
A Home to Float About
The Floating Home originated from the designer’s participation in a Europe-wide competition initiated by Wasserstadt GmbH Berlin. The task was to create a uniquely maritime structure–neither ship nor house. The floating home is a construct similar to those used in Germany to build housing in otherwise waste land areas in which water made traditional construction of homes impossible, with that of the lifestyle of Londoners living in Little Venice.
The basic structure of the individual floating home consists of a steel skeleton construction with planking on both sides. The wall and ceiling constructions are vapor-permeable. The outer shell is made of either glass-fibre reinforced plastic as used in yacht building or aluminum sheeting with a seawater-resistant coating. A reinforced concrete pontoon system as used in marina construction forms the floating base.
The dimensions of the openings in the facade are customizable by the future owner since the post-beam construction is individually fitted to tailored design and opacity. The floor plans can also be altered and extended felxibly, making it possible to build and “remodel” the home as life chaging phases occur. For this reason, floating homes are also able to be made available to locations all over the world.
The floating home’s design and construction links to existing waterfront (which need only be made at certain structural points), meaning the water’s edge can remain in its natural state.
Link: Floating Homes
Art You Can Pray Too
These are just too bizarre not to put them on the mantle–right next to the weeping Madonna and Bleeding Jesus. Don’t give Gilding that look. Weeping and bleeding statues are freaky and bizarre in as much as they are beautiful. Mr. Gilding can have his religious iconography and Gilding can have her freaky baby heads. A match made in heaven. Hahahaha…get it–match…heaven! Laugh dammit, that was funny.
Little Joseph (see, even the name says it belongs on the altar .^_~.) is a hand-painted, porcelain candle holder by designer Maxim Velčovský.
Link: gnr8
Penis Au Gratin & Brassy Balls
“Ahhh… lovely golden palaces completely full of riches. I’ll rip ‘em off and rob ‘em blind, those dirty sons of bitches.”
“There once was a lady of Totten / Whose tastes grew perverted and rotten. / She cared not for steaks / Or for pastries and cakes / But lived upon penis au gratin.”
“There was an old man of Madras / Whose balls were made of fine brass. / So in stormy weather / They both clanged together / And sparks flew out of his arse.”
“[Leprechaun Drunk]: Pour all you want, pour all you can, you won’t beat me, ’cause I’m a Lepre*CAN*. Mph! Cahn.”
Quotes from the movies, Leprechaun 2 and Leprechaun 3.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day
The Knights of the Coconut
The Pythons decided on a joke where the characters would pretend to ride horses while their porters banged coconut shells together, an in-joke as to how BBC radio shows had produced the sound effect of horses since the 1930s (a gag seen previously in the sole surviving episode of the 1956 program A Show Called Fred, and also used on The Goon Show in the form of “here comes a man riding on coconut shells”) with the added benefit of being much cheaper than hiring horses and learning to ride them. The use of coconuts leads to an extended discussion on how coconuts could have found their way to the British Isles. The possibility of swallows carrying them, absurd as it seems, reappears in a key moment late in the film and helps Arthur advance his quest.
And Furthermore…
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Who goes there?
King Arthur: It is I, Arthur, son of Uther Pendragon, from the castle of Camelot. King of the Britons, defeater of the Saxons, Sovereign of all England!
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Pull the other one!
King Arthur: I am, and this is my trusty servant Patsy. We have ridden the length and breadth of the land in search of knights who will join me in my court at Camelot. I must speak with your lord and master.
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: What? Ridden on a horse?
King Arthur: Yes!
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: You’re using coconuts!
King Arthur: What?
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: You’ve got two empty halves of coconut and you’re bangin’ ‘em together.
King Arthur: So? We have ridden since the snows of winter covered this land, through the kingdom of Mercia, through…
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Where’d you get the coconuts?
King Arthur: We found them.
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Found them? In Mercia? The coconut’s tropical!
King Arthur: What do you mean?
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Well, this is a temperate zone
King Arthur: The swallow may fly south with the sun or the house martin or the plover may seek warmer climes in winter, yet these are not strangers to our land?
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?
King Arthur: Not at all. They could be carried.
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: What? A swallow carrying a coconut?
King Arthur: It could grip it by the husk!
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: It’s not a question of where he grips it! It’s a simple question of weight ratios! A five ounce bird could not carry a one pound coconut.
King Arthur: Well, it doesn’t matter. Will you go and tell your master that Arthur from the Court of Camelot is here?
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Listen. In order to maintain air-speed velocity, a swallow needs to beat its wings forty-three times every second, right?
King Arthur: Please!
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Am I right?
Ahhh, such masters of brilliant randomness.
A Stand Up Vase
Because its just not enough to have an outstanding floral arrangement unless it’s literally “out standing.”
From designer Ettore Sottsass, the Shiva Vase was first manufactured in Spain in 1973. Made of glazed ceramic and for a mere $375.00, any floral arrangement can become a design worth standing up for.
Link: Moss Daily New
Mutant Minds Want To Know
So, Gilding is pondering…
Olivia Judson for the New York Times wrote on performing an impossible experiment in Stop the Mutants!. Experimental ponderance of stopping mutation aside, it was this statement that brought to forefront this question. Judson wrote:
“Since there’s so much pre-existing variation, getting rid of mutation wouldn’t cause evolution to grind to a halt until all the meaningful genetic variation ran out, leaving everyone in a population with the same sets of genes.”
So Gilding wonders, is it possible for humans to breed themselves into a state of non-evolution, a state at which evolution can no longer occur? Seriously, ponder it. If mutation occurs because of “accidental changes to DNA” which “provide the raw material for evolution”, could the human race through procreation of interracially mixed offspring at some point cause all meainingful genetic variation to run out, therefore, putting a halt to evolution?
Certainly its probably improbable, but is it impossible?
Above Image: part of an installation sculpture entitled We Are Family by Australian artist Patricia Piccinini
A Monster of a FanPhIn, the Flu, & a Scanner Replaces the Beloved Nikon
Gilding has been away hard at work–frantically so–not only on FanPhIn, which is taking far longer to put together than even Gilding has the patience to perservere through for the sake of realizing her vision, as well as on a Scanography project that her professor had also assigned her. While FanPhIn is barely off the ground running and hopes are that Gilding will be finally clear of the flu by this weekend so she may begin the photography part of this monsterous project, Gilding has managed to finish the Scanography project–well mostly.
The project was to consist of 5 collages of scanned images and each image was to read as a part of one complete series. Gilding finished 4 of the 5, however, it was more important to Gilding to have completed really strong pieces rather than merely meet a quota.
The images are a collaged construction of the newest couture ads from Vogue, Vanity Fair, and In Style Magazines scanned in at super high resolutions on an HP5330 scanner and descreened. 3 dimensional objects were then scanned using the same super high resolution on the same scanner, only the scanner’s top was removed so the scanner acted as a really large, really slow digital camera aperture. The two were then collaged together in Photoshop CS2, creating a unique blend of 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional textures, objects, and even colors.
Each of these images are 16″ x 24″ and printed by a high resolution plotter.
Tick Tock: An Internal Conversation
I Am Goddess
Another Ink & Time
All Wrapped Up
Perhaps There Is Such a Thing as Too Much Lovin’
So, while Gilding was tirelessly searching for essential elements to create the Sets of FanPhIn, she was also doing a little rummaging for pieces to turn into the costumes for the fairies.
And then she came across this:
Just incase you are confused as too what that huge swaddling of fabric in Gilding’s hands is, perhaps this detail close-up will clear things up:
Wait! It’s get better! The graphic on those gargantuan crotch covers says:
