Burning Man Big Art

Friend Marguerite Leggoe's son Robert worked on some of the great metal sculptures featured at this year's Burning Man.  Check out the photos at the Burning Man website.  Image to the left by San Francisco based photographer Hunter Luisi.  Sculptures done at Big Art in Oakland.

I love being there without actually having to be there! 

Frog Art and Furniture

In going through my Google Reader blogs, I was struck by this exceptional Frog Table posted by Art Splash.  The designer is Dutch Hella Jongerius who has other recent work on his website Jongeriuslab.  I like frogs (an example is my Frogs and Toads poster here) so think the idea of furniture with a frog built in/on is a great idea.

Why I Don't Write

I don't write because I could never write as well as, for example, Ann Patchett.  A good example is the following excerpt from her book Run in which a priest wonders whether there is no afterlife after all.

"Father Sullivan hoped to elevate the present to a state of the divine.  It seemed from this moment of repose that God may well have been life itself.  ... How wrongheaded it seemed now to think that the thrill of heartbeat and breath were just a stepping stone to something greater.  What could be greater than the armchair, the window, the snow?  Life itself had been holy.  We had been brought forth from nothing to see the face of God and in his life Father Sullivan had seen it miraculously for eighty-eight years.  Why wouldn't it stand to reason that this had been the whole of existence and now he would retreat back to the nothingness he had come from in order to let someone else have their turn at the view?  ... What a shame it would have been to miss God while waiting for Him."

The book is highly recommended!

Lynda Barry on Tour

One of the saving graces of Amber, Matt, Wilson and Cole moving to Seattle is that three of my favorite cartoonists lived there:  Lynda Barry, Matt Groening and Charles Burns.  There must be something in the Pacific Northwestern air that brings out the oddly creative in a good way.

Randomly googling recently I came across a Drawn and Quarterly blog post about Lynda's new book and her upcoming tour to some of my favorite cities (San Francisco, LA, Portland, Vancouver, Chicago and NYC).

In 2000, on a visit to Seattle, I bought my first Lynda Barry book The! Greatest! of! Marlys! published by Seattle based Sasquatch Books.  Her latest Picture This: The Near-sighted Monkey Book will be published in November by Drawn and Quarterly.  I can't wait to get my copy.

Wikipedia has more info on Lynda Barry here. and you can pre order the book from Amazon by clicking the link below.

Heather Preston's Beautiful Art Book

Local Marin artist Heather Preston has published "Tree Spirits" showcasing her fabulous art with story-essays that center on the majesty of nature and trees.  A book well worth having!

If more people immersed themselves in the beauty that surrounds us, as Heather has done, we would all be in a better place and would be more likely to achieve a future depicted in panel #15, rather than in panel #13, of R. Crumb's limited edition 15 panel Short History of America poster published by Kitchen Sink Press in 1992.

Artist Friends of Relatives

On a recent trip to Portland Oregon to visit family I encountered a new artist I like - Paul Cumes - based in Santa Barbara.  Paul is the childhood friend of my nephew Matt Songer and Matt had a few of his paintings up at his house.

A link to Paul's website is here 
A You Tube video of Paul painting is here

The painting shown here is one of Pauls.



Speaking of Santa Barbara artists, I also really like the artwork of my old high school classmate Hank Pitcher.