self portrait with paint

"Manchester-based artist James Birkbeck applied makeup to himself to look like one of Vincent Van Gogh's self-portraits and photographed the result."

http://opheliasg.tumblr.com/post/2321526660/van-gogh-make-up-ok-now-this-is-cool

vanity fair sheer gown

Mark Shaw, 1953

http://www.svenskamobler.com/itemdetails.php?id=99045

animal hats

and.....i'm back! for now.  not much time for a long post, but...

A late Merry Christmas, and Happy Boxing Day :)

New York for Christmas - well, obviously, I would have rather gone home, but NY was so much fun!  It's a lovely city, and I haven't been there since I was about ten!  This definitely goes on my favorite cities list.  And the most realistic choice (even if it's not realistic) of places I would love to live (definitely more realistic than Stockholm, Paris, or London, for example).  Shopping on Canal St, at the Garment District, watching the skaters at the Rockefeller Center, eating at Little Italy, exploring the Met, Christmas Eve service at St. Bart's...

I even bought an animal hat (well- it was cold outside, and the hat was sooo warm!!!).  A mouse.

I think it's one of those things that looks way cuter on babies, but I'm still obsessed with mine :)

http://www.etsy.com/listing/61879472/frog-hat-childs-earflap-hat-1-2-years

van gogh self-portraits

did he have eye alignment issues?

self-portrait with bandaged ear and pipe, 1888

self-portrait as a bonze, 1888

i'm not going to pretend i came up with this on my own.  when i was reading the description of margaret livingstone's book, vision and art: the biology of seeing, she mentions great artists who had strabismus, and how that may have contributed to their, well, greatness.  she named a few - rembrandt and picasso included - and i may be imagining that she named van gogh as well.  well, this was from my neuroscience textbook, and i'm not likely to open that in the next month at least....so i'm just going to have to buy livingstone's book soon, or else be forever curious :)

i found this interesting article by her, though: http://harvardmedicine.hms.harvard.edu/fascinoma/fivesenses/vision/viewmasters.php

reading list

So, the holidays this year are a mess.  I don't know what's actually going to happen, but to make a long story short, England cannot clear their runways, and I am going to ring in the new year somewhere on this side of the Atlantic.

Anyway -

My reading list for this year (or rather, Christmas + the year of 2011):

The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat, by Oliver Sacks
Musicophilia, by Oliver Sacks (finish reading....)
Lincoln and Darwin: Shared Visions of Race, Science, and Religion, by James Lander (because it just came in from Amazon a few weeks ago)
Vision and Art: The Biology of Seeing, by Margaret Livingstone

Haha, just a bit of light reading, right?!

That's because it doesn't include all the Harry Potter books I plan on re-reading...
(speaking of which, I still haven't seen the movie! MUST SEE IT!!!)

baby it's cold outside

so i used to think this was the most annoying song ever.

and then the celtic thunder christmas cd came out...and then the glee version came out...

here are a few of my favorite versions.

Celtic Thunder (of course):


Lady Antebellum (I like country, and besides, this version isn't that country!):


the clip from Elf (just for kicks; it always makes me laugh):


so, i realized that i post a LOT of celtic thunder stuff.  i should probably stop being so obsessed.  and trying to project my interests onto other people.

so if i can't get a hold of a vera wang,

can i wear this for my hypothetical wedding?!

i'm in love with this dress.

http://lookbook.nu/look/1385019-Frolicking-through-the-Forest

something about that face (or color scheme...)

I know these are different time periods and all....still, Marcus Stone's Olivia (1880) reminds me of Kate Winslet in Sense and Sensibility. Must be the colors and general bucolic atmosphere.

on the subject of portraits....

i saw this at the bp portrait awards exhibition at the national portrait gallery a few summers ago.

captivating, in its own right.

Amelia, by Cecilia Bennett
http://www.npg.org.uk/bp-portrait-award-20091/the-exhibition/exhibitors4/bp-exhibitor-10.php

john singer sargent, modernized.

Every once in a while I see Nicole Kidman's Madame X-style photo (from Vogue June 1999) - but I didn't realize there was a whole Sargent-themed photoshoot!

My favorites -

 after Madame X by John Singer Sargent, 1884

Mrs. Carl Meyer, 1896

Repose, 1911

more cool website distraction.

um, yes. i can't wait....

http://www.wefeelfine.org/

this is cool.

http://twistori.com/

feeling uninspired.

last day of classes today.

melancholy introspective

another playlist, just because.

the newest additions (as of two days ago) - "This Time" and "Elgar - Something Inside," performed by Jonathan Rhys Meyers for the August Rush soundtrack.  I am officially obsessed.

eleanor antin

I was lucky enough to see an exhibition of some of Eleanor Antin's photography work in San Diego about four years back...and I still remember it!  It's too bad I can't find any more high-res pictures, because it's hard to appreciate when you can't see the details :(

The Gamblers, from "Roman Allegories"(2004)

Proserpine Welcomes Helen to Hades, from "Helen's Odyssey" (2007)

Casting Call, from "Helen's Odyssey"

Judgment of Paris (after Rubens) - Dark Helen, from "Helen's Odyssey"

Judgment of Paris (after Rubens) - Light Helen, from "Helen's Odyssey"

The Tree, from "The Last Days of Pompeii" (2001)

The Last Day, from "The Last Days of Pompeii"

i don't know how they do it

all that dancing while talking business......

i tried that at ballroom class and it completely failed.  i definitely cannot think of timely responses and not lose track of steps and counting at the same time.

(i love becoming jane.....although i think i cry without fail at the ending each time, when she sees him again and meets his daughter....)

impressionism/modernity/modernism

modernity, the social themes of modern life as painting's subject matter.
modernism, the artistic project concerned with flatness, sensation, affect.

what is the relationship in impressionist painting?

Claude Monet - Rouen Cathedral, facade 1894 (at MFA)

and a really long article -
"Impressionism, Modernism and Originality" by Charles Harrison, in Modernity and Modernism: French Painting in the Nineteenth Century