The recent “Embodiment – a human canvas” event at Native Lounge in SLO reminded me of one of my favorite movies. It’s from the 90s and pretty cheesy. But there’s some spectacular artwork in it. One of the characters is an artist working on a calendar for an insurance company (if I remember correctly), one painting for each month. They are Trompe l’oeil murals with live models on painted backgrounds. The paintings in the movie are by artist Timna Woollards.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Artist Alexa Mead does something quite similar – painting live models in front of a painted background. It is almost the opposite of a Trompe-l’œil (French for ‘trick the eye’), an art technique involving extremely realistic imagery in order to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects appear in three dimensions, instead of actually being a two-dimensional painting. Mead and Woollards are painting real people to make them look like they are 2D.

Here’s one of my favorite Trompe-l’œils, “Escaping Criticism” by Pere Borrell del Caso:

And here is an example from Alexa Mead:

the process

the finished piece

the artist with model

Color me inspired. Gosh, I have to find some time to paint…

Oh, by the way, the movie is called “Where the heart is”, or “Die Zeit der bunten Vögel” in German (meaning “The time of the colorful birds”, which I find more fitting). And it is at the top of my Netflix list. 🙂

The ampersand is one of my favorite typographic symbols because you can see the evolution of type in it (depending on the typeface). It is a ligature of the word “et”, which is Latin for “and”. The word ampersand is a corruption of the phrase “and per se and”, meaning “and [the symbol which] by itself [is] and”.

Evolution of the ampersand

The modern ampersand is virtually identical to that of the Carolingian minuscule. The italic ampersand, to the right, is originally a later et-ligature.

Font Aid IV is a designers’ initiative to benefit the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. The font “Coming Together” consists entirely of ampersands, representing the idea of people coming together to help one another. Nearly 400 type designers, graphic designers and other artists from around the world contributed; the list of names is here. All proceeds from sales will go to Doctors Without Borders to help with their relief efforts in Haiti. (Needless to say, MyFonts and other distributors refrain from their usual commission.) Coming Together contains over 400 glyphs and is supplied as a single OpenType font for Windows and Mac OS X.

How cool is that?

I came across this a few years ago and it just popped up on facebook. Maybe the Universe is trying to tell me something. And you, too!

THE DASH
by Lisa Ellis

I read of a man who stood to speak
At the funeral of a friend.
He referred to the dates on her tombstone
From the beginning to the end.

He noted that first came the date of her birth
And spoke of the following date with tears,
But he said what mattered most of all
Was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time
That she spent alive on earth
And now only those who loved her
Know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own,
The cars, the house, the cash,
What matters is how we live and love
And how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard;
Are there things you’d like to change?
For you never know how much time is left
That can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough
To consider what’s true and real
And always try to understand
The way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger
And show appreciation more
And love the people in our lives
Like we’ve never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect
And more often wear a smile,
Remembering that this special dash
Might only last a little while.

So when your eulogy is being read
With your life’s actions to rehash
Would you be proud of the things they say
About how you spent your dash?