New work by Ane Graff

 Your Groundwater. Ane Graff

Opening Saturday February 2 at 14.00 p.m.
The exhibition will be opened by Karin Hindsbo, dir. Sørlandets Kunstmuseum,
and will be on display until April 28th 2013. A new essay by Norwegian writer Johanne Nordby Wernø on Ane Graff's art will be published especially for this exhibition.

You can view more of her work on my blog here - including a short interview she did with me way back in 2008.

Photo of the Day

Conditions Permitting - Rocky Mountain National Park Will Conduct Winter Pile Burning Operations. (NPS photo, picture taken by firefighter during operations last year) - this is what those piles of wood were for in my print from last year:

Wednesday Wind-down

I've lost a lot of interest in "post-rock" over the years (the crescendo formula was getting as predicable as a "drop" in dubstep) - but this is a really nice exception. I listened to this album all the way through a couple of times yesterday and I recommend it for those of you who enjoy post-rock and even modern classical compositions. It is a lot more dynamic and complex than most build-up/break-down post-rock.



I would also like to suggest streaming and/or purchasing Hiatus Kaiyote's "Tawk Tomahawk" - an unusual neo-soul/jazzy album that is hard to describe. Watch this video and I think you'll be sold:

Photo of the Day

click for source (flickr)

New Kris Lewis

 Kris Lewis

Lynx

Retired National Park Service employee Steve Chaney spotted two lynx in southwest Colorado last weekend and managed to capture the rare encounter on camera - via CPW

Wednesday Wind-down

This video perfectly accompanies this beautiful hazy composition by Finland's Olli Aarni. The full album is only available on mail-order cassette but you can enjoy this track over and over again via soundcloud:

for something more upbeat - this awesome yodelling mix is infectious (and a free download here):

Snow Play

We enjoyed the figid weekend in Steamboat Springs - snowshoeing, hot springs, sledding, and good friends. Check out this awesome video of our friend Sally on the sledding ramp we built (perhaps a little too high)...

Here's a couple other images from the weekend:

 Snowshoeing in Steamboat Springs

 rural protest (Steamboat Springs, CO)

Me tubing over my friend Matt - then eating a lot of snow

Aerial Image of the Day

Found this on an old disc of images - the blue line on the topographic map is the line we would fly to take photos - each red dot is a click of the camera and the blue rectangle is the coverage area.

On Never Looking Up

There's a new tumblr blog called "We Never Look Up" - which pretty well depicts the experience of those of us without smartphones (by choice in my case) in any public space. In my opinion the loss of actual human connection is huge. I've been slowly making my way through Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman - a book written about the cultural effects of TV and (as the title implies) perpetual amusement. The book better applies to the internet and smartphones now. He writes,

"Americans no longer talk to each other, the entertain each other. They do not exchange ideas; the exchange images. They do not argue with propositions; they argue with good looks, celebrities, and commercials. For the message of television [and the internet perhaps]  as metaphor is not only that all the world is a stage but that the stage is located in Las Vegas, Nevada."

Yesterday my middle school students told me that because I have an outdated phone, no cable tv, and listen to "weird music" I must be... an alien. Ha Ha. Hilarious - but also an obvious indication that I'm swimming against the tide with my frustration with the overuse and constant amusement people insist on with their smartphones.

It isn't this way everywhere - in fact, in Italy - people look up. It was instantly clear to us that we had arrived back in the United States last Monday when we looked around the room and saw "phone drones" everywhere. In a interesting study written up in Business Insider, "There is also the Italian attitude towards the utility, or should that be futility, of the world wide web...over a quarter (26.7%) of Italians think the internet is useless and uninteresting." I found Italians talking to each other, talking to strangers, enjoying the beauty of their city, and all the while - not looking down at their phones.

I know the chances of this trend reversing are minimal but maybe once in a while- take a walk around your neighborhood without your phone. Do you really need to know what everyone else is eating right now or what their baby looks like today?

Maja Körner

Three untitled works by Maja Körner.

Wednesday Wind-down

A beautiful short song, "Ubi Caritas" - by Taize, which translates to "Where charity and love are, God is there."



Malika Ayane, "Il Tempo Non Inganna" - while watching a lot of European MTV in our hotel in Rome we saw this video numerous times - and it is so pleasant and refreshing. Even if I can't understand the language- the melody is so catchy!



and lastly, this awesome cover of Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain" by the Liars  -easily the best cover on the whole tribute album

Constanza

When we visited Florence a couple weeks ago we made a special point to visit the Bargello Museum to see Bernini's bust of Costanza. For that matter, we made a special point to visit as many Bernini sculptures as we could in our time there. The history of this piece is quite dramatic. Quoting Ingrid Rowland:

Bernini was not a nice man; he paid a thug to slash the face of his mistress Costanza after catching her in bed with his brother Luigi. [He also broke two of Luigi’s ribs with an iron rod] Before that incident, however, he had carved a portrait of Costanza, plump and tousled, looking as if she has just risen from bed; it is perfectly clear what both Bernini boys saw in her.

Our own desire to see Costanza was also thwarted - as the gallery she stood in was being restored. On our quest to see as many Bernini's as we could in Rome, this wasn't the only time we had a door shut. One morning after walking a long way across Rome to see a Bernini sculpture in a small church, the gate shut right in front of us for the afternoon hours. Another time (the Ufizzi) -the Bernini was in a room reserved only for special tours. For more information on Costanza and Bernini, you may refer to this new book:

 

Bernini's Beloved, by Sarah McPhee

Upcoming

A few highlights from Italy

Caravaggio inspired street-art by C215

Raphael

Caravaggio inspired street-art by C215

detail of a James Ensor painting at the Vatican Museums

Ghiberti in Florence

After a wonderful trip to Italy over the holidays, I've picked out a few artworks to share - of course there were many incredible pieces so this is just a sample. One of our favorite no-photos-allowed works was this Bernini in a church in the Trastevere region of Rome (photo linked to flickr by clicking):