get your ass the hell off my boat

eatsleepdraw is a neat blog of artwork submitted by "contributors across the globe". This drawing of Bill Murray as Steve Zissou makes me very happy:


dcbowers.co.uk

Wind; snow; light

Charles Simic writes a chilling portrait of winter wind (via @poetrynews on twitter), but the really interesting writing is in the comments section:

Marjatta Ripsaluoma [Moderator] Today 07:19 AM

As a Finn, and been one for almost 65 years, I know what is a snowstorm, or blizzard or continuing hard cold, especially now after an unsually hard winter, colder and more snowier than since 1961.

I love cross country skiing, but as I moved for more convenient life to nearby city Vaasa, which is right on the coast of Gulf of Bothnia, in Ostrobothnia, we get the benefits of the already warmed North Atlantic in form of more snow - or water, like it's been more common lately.

We don't get many power failures, hardly none at all, but in countryside they would be common. And the older eyes cannot take oil lamp light for reading no more. We have a summer shack in inland, where that was necessary, until we got a sunpanel.

I like the snow rather than sleet and mud. It makes the SAD-syndrome harder to hit. It makes things light. You live more South than we do, as you may know that this is the world's northern most grain growing area. This country would be uninhabitable if Gulf stream would stop.

Soon you'll get the Spring winds again!

I love this! It's so charming: The slightly off grammar, the Finnish place names, the sentence rhythm. Just lovely.

Also lovely and suitably wintry is the latest print at 20X200:

Nethermead by Joseph O. Holmes

Colours

Drawn to colour lately, combinations, cacophonies. Documenting colour in my house, with either my camera or photography skills not quite up to the task. These photos are faded, or too saturated, some glinting missing:

Dispatchwork

Matrix magazine posted a link to a picture of Jan Vormann's work on twitter yesterday, and I wanted to see more so found his Dispatchwork website. He has travelled to cities around the world (mainly in Europe so far) fixing crumbling infrastructures with LEGO. I love seeing the shock of colour among the mostly grey or brown bricks:


It's particularly effective when the LEGO fills a small chink in the building that you might barely notice if you walked past:

Milkshake 'n Honey

Oh, Sleater-Kinney, you were so hot:

Happy International Women's Day!

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn is the 16th book I’ve read so far this year; I’ve started to write up a summary of it for the 95 Books blog, but have been struggling because it’s a really important book and I’d like to do it justice.

For now, check out the website to get a sense of the book’s scope. Also check out the long list of charities that help women in the developing world (all, frustratingly, American charities, although some have Canadian chapters, i.e. CARE).

Also, check out non-charitable philanthropic opportunities, like Kiva.org (you can lend money in increments of $25 to women entrepreneurs throughout the developing world) and Women for Women International (you can sponsor a woman who has survived war by providing financial assistance to her and her family, funding her rights awareness and job skills training, and writing her letters of support).

The disparity between the freedom and opportunity we enjoy in the first world and the oppression many women suffer in the developing world is profound and troubling. "Women's liberation" might seem like an antiquated term but it's still a vital concept, and it won't be complete until all women have some measure of autonomy, power, and self-respect. Let's make it happen.

Art, for cheap

I spent yesterday all in a flurry over 20x200, a website from New York that sells limited edition prints for very reasonable prices: editions of 200 (8x10) for $20; editions of 50 (11x14) for $50; and various larger sizes for various higher prices. At first I wanted to buy everything, but I've since calmed down and placed a modest order for three prints today. Tangentially, I wonder why my first urge is to buy art that interests me. Shouldn't viewing it, linking to it, knowing it exists out there in the world be enough? Why commodify it, why own it? Luckily, 20x200 artist William Powhida has some answers:



Good points all. I'm just excited to cover the off-white walls of my apartment with something other than cut-outs from art-themed calendars, crap paintings I did myself, scarves hanging from those 10,000 Villages wooden fabric hanger things, a scary early-70s wood face carving my parents got in New Zealand and blackmailed me into rescuing from their basement, and some university degrees.

Anyway, here's a couple of prints I like but didn't buy (yet):


Photographer's Dilemma by Tatsuro Kiuchi


Untitled #10 by Kent Rogowski

Woodcuts!

I saw some intriguing woodcuts by Calgary artist Lisa Brawn at the Axis Gallery in Art Central this weekend. Apparently she's been using hundred year old Douglas Fir beams from heritage buildings and grain elevators for her material, which is so flipping cool: I love art that salvages local history. If only I had a few hundred bucks to spare, I'd get this Johnny Cash (something about the background stars really appeals to me):