Film Still Tuesday

Lost Highway, by David Lynch

2001: A Space Odyssey, by Stanley Kubrick

Magnolia, by Paul Thomas Anderson

Skyfall Art

The new James Bond film, Skyfall was probably the best Bond film I've seen in a long time. It was fun, self-conscious about it's own Bond movie conventions (with lines like, "somebody usually dies"), and probably more more beautifully filmed than any Bond film in recent memory. The dramatic lighting of the final showdown reminded me of some of the incredible shots in Apocalypse Now. For that matter - they also reminded me of Turner's paintings. This painting "The Fighting Temeraire" by J.M.W. Turner makes an appearance in the Skyfall scene pictured above:

There's also an incredible Friedrich-esque Scottish landscape in the film:

Caspar David Friedrich, "Evening Landscape with Two Men", 1830

My own photo of the Scottish highlands from August, 2012:

Two film photos from Rome

Last year at this time, I was finishing up the semester (as I am now) and getting ready for our trip to Rome. Here's a couple of film photos I took while there with my plastic Diana camera.

Spaced Out

There seems to be a real outer-space trend in movies and music lately:


Other Lives, "For 12"


Wolf Parade, "Yulia"


Another Earth


Melancholia


Tree of Life

Recent inspiration

Autumn in Colorado.

Field recording.

The music of Arvo Pärt

The Island (2006) directed by Pavel Lungin

"Into Great Silence" by Philip Gröning, 2005 - a documentary about Carthusian monks.

Another Earth

We saw this movie recently and really enjoyed it - it is the kind of movie you think about days later. Worth seeing if it is playing in your area.

Photo of the Day

Today's another most-of-the-day painting binge.

This photo is from the Peak to Peak byway on the way to Estes Park - a very European looking church high on a hill. The photo was edited with the easy to use free online photo editing tool : Rollip. You don't need an iphone to make your digital photos look analog.

Wise up

Posting has been brief lately - I'm working on a few small experiments - graphite drawings of stone statues on very heavily gessoed canvases stretched over panels. It seems to be working so far. I'll post pictures after they are more finished.

On another note, I re-watched Magnolia again last week - still probably one of the most affecting movies I've ever seen:

Film from Yellowstone

Here's some kinda dusty scans of a few of the photos we took with a plastic Diana camera and 120 film while in Yellowstone.Photos copyright Nathan Abels.

Upcoming Werner Herzog film

read more about the project at the Guardian.

Currently Watching

I've been slowly working my way through two very beautiful, quiet and inspiring films.

"The Passion of Joan of Arc", 1928

The story behind the film is really interesting (via Wikipedia), "The original version of the film was lost for decades after a fire destroyed the master negative. Dreyer (the director) himself attempted to reassemble a version from out-takes and surviving prints, but he died believing his original cut was lost forever. In one of the most important discoveries in cinema history, a virtually complete print of Dreyer's original version was found in 1981 in a janitor's closet of an Oslo mental institution. This version is now available on DVD" - and streaming online through Netflix.

Also watching, "Into Great Silence" by Philip Gröning, 2005 - a documentary about Carthusian monks.

'Give Us Today Our Daily Terror'

My art appreciation students are writing interesting essays about Martijn Hendriks 'Give Us Today Our Daily Terror' -in which the artist edits out every bird from Hitchcock’s The Birds.





read an interview with the artist about the work here.

There has to be something mysterious.

Still from My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done - an upcoming film by Herzog and David Lynch (source).

There's a interview with filmmaker Werner Herzog on Slate today (thanks for the tip C-Monster). One particularly interesting part of the interview reads,

Jacob Weisberg: I've seen you quoted as saying that you'd rather die than see an analyst. Can you elaborate?

Werner Herzog.: I think it's a mistake of the 20^th century. You could not live in a house that was illuminated to every last single corner. And human beings become uninhabitable when they are scrutinized and illuminated into their last little dark abysses. Just leave people as they are and don't touch it. I think psychoanalysis is one of the great mistakes of the 20^th century. It's one of the reasons why I would dismiss the 20^th century as a mistake. I think the 20^th century in its entirety was a mistake. Psychoanalysis is just a small brick in my argument, that I could build up.

J.W.: Filmmaking developed in the 20^th century.

W.H.: Yes, yes, some good sides as well. No doubt.

J.W.: But I'm interested in what you say about psychoanalysis. Is the concern that self-understanding would make one less of an artist, or make people less interesting in general?

W.H.: I think people become uninhabitable, as I say, and less interesting. There has to be something mysterious. Just think about being with a woman who had not, no mystery left at all. If everything was explained about a woman, it wouldn't fascinate me anymore. If I could be explained like an encyclopedia, it would be awful.

(my emphasis added)

Nothing appears as it should

film still from Lord of the Flies

"Nothing appears as it should in a world where nothing is certain. The only thing certain is the existence of a secret violence that makes everything uncertain."

~Lucretius (source)

Jeremy Blake films at Ubuweb

"Liquid Villa", 2000



"Guccinam", 2000

Jeremy Blake, Century 21, 2004

These films are available to watch or download at Ubuweb. I played "Century 21" on my tv when we had friends over the other day and it instantly turned the monitor into a colorful morphing painting. It was a nice way to transform a black rectangular box into something aesthetically pleasing but not as distracting as something with sound or a narrative. I've mentioned Blake's work previously - they are rewarding and beautiful films (including parts of Punch Drunk Love and Beck's Round the Bend video). Ubuweb describes "Guccinam" as being, "Like a slow-burn acid trip, Blake's kaleidoscopic morphings are gorgeous and mesmerizing - digital wallpaper at its best."

Art and Film Friday; Vol. 12 - Paris, Texas

This clip is the opening scene from Wim Wender's Paris, Texas. I saw the 1984 movie for the first time last week and loved it. It's a rich and beautifully composed film - it was really fantastic and a visual inspiration.

Still from Paris, Texas
Still from Paris, Texas
Mark Tansey, Robbe-Grillet Cleansing Every Object in Sight, 1981, 72x72"

Still from Paris, Texas
Luke Barber-Smith, Grace, 2009, 43x34 inches, c-print

Still from Paris, Texas

Still from Paris, Texas
Jason Stopa, Untitled (Mirror Series) Oil on Canvas. 2009

Still from Paris, Texas
Robert Adams- from What We Bought - The New World, Denver, 1970-74 - from flickr user Jodan TateStill from Paris, Texas - this one already looks like a painting.
Still from Paris, Texas
Vija Celmins, Untitled Portfolio: Desert, Lithograph, 16x20", 1975

Still from Paris, Texas

Edward Hopper, Nightwawks, 1942 - photo of the piece in Chicago by flickr user Jing a Ling. I think a lot of the google photos of this work don't show the color accurately - this one is pretty close.Still from Paris, Texas
Phil Sims, Green Navigator, 2008

Still from Paris, Texas
Damien Loeb, Lolita, 2005, Oil on Linen, 36x84"

Art and Film Friday; Vol. 11 - Gerry

Still from Gus Van Sant's 2002 film Gerry

Jason Stopa, Untitled (Mirror Series), Oil on Canvas. 2009

Still from Gus Van Sant's 2002 film Gerry

Edvard Munch, Melancholy III, 1902

Still from Gus Van Sant's 2002 film GerryStill from Gus Van Sant's 2002 film Gerry

James Everett Stanley, Two Figures, 2006, Oil on canvas, 72” x 84”

Still from Gus Van Sant's 2002 film Gerry
Nocturne Grey and Gold Snow in Chelsea by Whistler, 1876
Still from Gus Van Sant's 2002 film Gerry
Vincent Romaniello, Untitled 730, 54x64 inches, mixed mediums on canvas, 2007

Still from Gus Van Sant's 2002 film Gerry
Mark Rothko, No. 14, 1960, via SFMOMA

Peter Allen Hoffmann, After A.D., 2008, Oil on canvas, 12 x 12 in, Courtesy Freight + Volume, NY