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As India was well connected to the outside world through both sea and land routes, the influence of cultures of other lands have always been felt in the art of India. These myriad influences have enriched Indian Art over the years and in the new 21st century, one can see all these influences in the fine arts of India.
Posted by Amy as Arts & Culture at 1:16 AM EDT
The Circle of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art
Posted by Amy as Arts & Culture, Religion & Spirituality at 1:46 AM EDT
One of those frequently asked questions that pops up when I tell people I’m an Oriental dance artist (ie, belly dancer) is: “Do you do the dance of the seven veils?” Typically, whoever asks me this has just a bit of a leer and is clearly imagining a striptease.The first time I ever heard this question, it caught me by surprise and I think my articulate answer went along the lines of “Huh?????????” I’ve heard this question many more times since then, so obviously the story of Salomé has become deeply entangled in the U.S. perception of Middle Eastern dance. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised - the legend features a young woman who was beautiful, talented, and deadly. She could have been a villainess in a modern-day James Bond movie!
I eventually decided to arm myself with information about the Salomé story, so I did a little research. In this article, I’ll share what I learned.
Posted by Amy as Popular Culture, Arts & Culture, Travel at 1:26 AM EDT
500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art: a good overview, imaginatively presented.
Posted by Amy as Arts & Culture at 1:14 AM EDT
French and Italian Paintings of the 18th Century: online exhibitions.
Posted by Amy as Arts & Culture at 1:43 AM EDT
Discover Islamic Art: The Fatimids, The Ottomans, The Muslim West, The Umayyads, and much more.
Via Art Blog By Bob (a wonderful blog, by the way—check it out regularly).
Posted by Amy as Arts & Culture at 3:26 AM EDT
Peter Callesen is a visual artist who does lots of exquisite work, but it’s his work with paper that particularly interests me.
I love browsing through the photos on this site, especially the Large Scale Paper Cut Installations and the Framed A4 Papercuts. To get to them, click on the links on the left of his site.
If you’re interested, you can also read about the theory behind his work.
Posted by Amy as Arts & Culture at 1:03 AM EST
If you’re looking to expand the number of fonts you have available to work with, check out Abstract Fonts.
There are more there than I’d ever be able to use—more than 10,000. They’re all free, too.
It’s hard to believe that there are that many variations on fonts, but there are, and some of them are pretty interesting.
Via A Sweet, Familiar Dissonance.
Posted by Amy as Arts & Culture at 9:36 AM EST
M.C. Escher is well known for his artwork that features experiments with perspective.
Here’s a webpage that looks at the mathematical aspects of his work: The Mathematical Art of M.C. Escher.
The creator of the site says, “For me it remains an open question whether [this work] pertains to the realm of mathematics or to that of art.”
Although the page tackles such matters as tessellations and polyhedra—topics that weren’t part of high school algebra when I studied it—non-math people can follow the explanations easily.
It’s a good page for those who are interested in either Escher or mathematics.
Via Plep.
Posted by Amy as Arts & Culture, Math at 5:22 AM EST
Jackson Pollack is known for his art work that appears to be child’s play—splotches of colour and lines.
Now you can create your own version of a Jackson Pollack painting.
When you go to this site the page will be blank. Move the mouse over the screen and watch your painting develop. If you want to change colours, click the mouse.
I tried to save mine as a .jpeg, but unfortunately, in this case anyway, ars breva.
Via BookDaddy.
Posted by Amy as Arts & Culture, Fluffy Stuff at 8:34 AM EDT
Here’s a lovely site to visit: Keith’s Fractal Art.
There are numerous great images, such as Edge
or Crystal Cave 
There are also some great links to check out.
Via Ursi’s Blog.
Posted by Amy as Arts & Culture at 5:11 AM EDT
Here’s a link to a site called Strange Statues Around The World.
There are some statues here that made me blink, but there are lots more that I don’t think are strange at all.
For example, there’s a photo of what appear to be Fafard cows from Toronto. They don’t seem strange to me, but maybe that’s because in Regina we have Fafard cows (and some of his other sculptures) prominently placed, and I’m used to them.
Still, the site is definitely worth a visit.
Via Boing Boing.
Posted by Amy as Arts & Culture at 5:50 AM EDT
As a child, I can remember looking at my Etch-A-Sketch and wondering what the point was—I could never manage more than a few squiggles before I got very bored.
However, one young man has managed to create art using an Etch-A-Sketch.
There are some impressive works of Elvis, the Beatles, Cal Ripken, and many more. Each work takes between 60-70 hours to complete.
I never thought a children’s toy could create something like this.
Via Hassenpfeffer.
Posted by Amy as Popular Culture, Arts & Culture at 7:47 AM EDT
If you’re feeling like looking at the stuff our far-distant ancestors had nightmares about, take a look at Supernatural and Fantastic Images of the Middle Ages.
The images include representations of the Dance of Death, the Alphabet of Death, many demons (such as a demon carrying off a child promised to the devil), and much more.
The site’s creators give the following background:
These illustrations of medieval Devils, Demons, Witches, & Monsters are from authentic period sources. There are no 20th century-inspired fantasy images in this collection, nor any modern art with a medieval theme - these are the true visions our medieval ancestors had of the preternatural, the supernatural, and the unwordly.
It’s an interesting browse.
Via Incoming Signals.
Posted by Amy as Arts & Culture, Religion & Spirituality, History at 4:56 AM EDT
For those who are interested in the Hindu god Krishna, here’s a nifty site: Painted Visions from India and Pakistan, Past and Present.
The site shows 9 paintings that present the story of Krishna’s life. You can read the explanation of each painting, or you can listen to an audio recording. There’s also a card game to play that tests your knowledge of the information presented on the site.
Check out the animated elephant that moves back and forth as the site loads, and once the site is ready to go, make sure your speakers are on to enjoy the music.
Via Yahoo! Picks.
Posted by Amy as Arts & Culture, Religion & Spirituality at 4:26 AM EDT
Something Beautiful is a great idea—a blog that links to sites featuring beautiful photos.
In the past couple of days the sites have been about gardening, but recent posts also feature the Sutton Hoo site, a cheetah, and some Viking chess pieces.
This site is well worth checking out.
Posted by Amy as Arts & Culture, Blogs and Bloggers at 4:38 AM EDT
If you’re a woman and willing to answer a few questions, Cara Winsor Hehir is looking for your help.
She is a visual artist who is beginning work on a new project, and she’s looking for women’s input in order to do it.
She explains what she’s looking for as follows:
“I am proposing to create an exhibit that will express how women feel about their bodies. I will write a series of short essays and craft mixed medium works to accompany each essay.
I will interview women, through questionnaires, of all different body types, and arrange discussion groups, both in person and online, where women can gather to discuss weight, self esteem and other “female” issues, and hopefully have some fun.”
If you can spare a few minutes to help her, here’s her questionnaire.
Once you’ve finished it, you can E-mail it to her; you can find her E-mail address in the “profile” section of her blog.
Via Alone On a Boreal Stage and Unmanageable Imaginations.
Posted by Amy as Arts & Culture, Women at 3:32 AM EST
Leonardo Solaas has put together a website where a visitor can enter a word indicating which subject he/she would like to see in an internet dream. The site then presents images (the dream).
Solaas explains it in his artist’s statement:
“The system looks in the Web for images related to those words, and takes them as input to generate an ambiguous painting, in perpetual change, where elements fuse into one another, in a process analogous to memory and free association.
. . . .
Who is dreaming? The user, or the Internet itself? In a certain way, both. The program generates a personal moving picture, unique, unpredictable, and forever gone when it is finished, just like dreams. But that dream is made out of pieces taken form the subconscious of the whole net, gathered by some words of the user and the obscure logic of searching algorithms. The subject of this work is, many times, multiplicity. That of the particles in endless movement, that of the vast contents of the Internet, that of the users and the dreams they wish to dream.”
To see your own internet dream, visit Dreamlines.
Via Quotidian Hell.
Posted by Amy as Arts & Culture at 8:26 AM EST
Visions of Enlightenment: Understanding the Art of Buddhism is an interesting site focussed on Buddhist art.
There are four main categories in which to browse:
· the Buddha
· Buddhist Places
· Bodhisattvas, Deities, Guardians, and Holy Men
· Signs, Symbols, Ritual Objects
I especially enjoy the “Fact or Fiction” items in the lower left-hand corner of each section (and the rewards!).
This site has been put together by the Pacific Asia Museum.
Via Yahoo! Picks.
Posted by Amy as Arts & Culture, Religion & Spirituality at 8:30 AM EST
Today is the anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens (1812).
Come the Christmas season, you can’t go for longer than an hour without hearing some reference to Scrooge, or Tiny Tim (”God bless us, each and every one”), or the Ghost of Christmas Past.
It’s too bad that this is the only way too many people will ever know Dickens’ work. A Christmas Carol is a perfectly decent book, but it’s not his only one!
I’d have a hard time deciding on my favourite Dickens book. I think it would be a three-way tie between The Pickwick Papers, Bleak House, and Martin Chuzzlewit.
How can you not love an author who gives his characters names like Gradgrind, Podsnap, Pecksniff, or Turveydrop?
Posted by Amy as Arts & Culture at 5:11 AM EST
I still think the best thing to do with books is read them, but take a look at these four photos of the art work that’s being created using thousands of books:
http://storms.typepad.com/booklust/2006/01/lost_in_books.html
These photos are part of an art installation called Beauty and the Book. There’s a great write-up about it at Beauty and the Book.
The blog that featured this is definitely going on my list of “Blogs to Read.”
Thanks to my sister for letting me know about this site!
Posted by Amy as Arts & Culture at 6:24 AM EST
For several years now CBC radio has hosted an annual Poetry Face-Off. Five poets read their work and the audience does its bit by voting in a winner. Said winner goes to the national face-off. I keep rooting for someone from Saskatchewan to win the national contest, but so far it hasn’t happened. This year for sure!
The Face-Off was popular the first year and each year more and more people attend. It’s beginning to be hard to get a seat. This year–as if they needed to–the CBC has added an incentive to attend: free dark chocolate!
I had to miss last year’s event, but for sure I’ll go this year (and not just because of the chocolate). The five poets are Shelley Leedahl, Taylor Leedahl (yes, they are related), Holly Luhning, Ken Mitchell, and Gabriel Yahyahkeekoot. I’m familiar with everyone’s work but Gabriel Yahyahkeekoot, and I’m sure he’ll be as fabulous as the rest.
As in the past, the poets will be accompanied in their reading by Lee Kozak, Saskatoon musician/improv artist. Lee has done such a great job before that I’ve been close to being swayed in my vote by the music he’s played rather than the work that’s been read. I’ve been firm with myself, though.
The evening will open with a reading by the winners of two competitions in the Saskatchewan Writers Guild’s publication for teens (windScript) and it will close with a sketch by the comedy improv group the Bionic Bannock Boys–more artists I’m not familiar with (but that I’ve heard great things about).
If anyone would like to attend, the event takes place on Friday 17 February at 8 pm at the CBC Galleria (2440 Broad Street, Regina SK). Doors open at 7:00 p.m.–and you really should get there early!
If you attend, we might get in to an armwrestling match over the last of the chocolate.
Posted by Amy as Arts & Culture at 5:31 PM EST