DAY SEVEN-AND-TWENTY: VICTORIAN ERA MONSTERS

The Art of Travis Louie:

Travis Louie’s paintings come from the tiny little drawings and many writings in his journals. He’s created his own imaginary world that is grounded in Victorian and Edwardian times. It is inhabited by human oddities, mythical beings, and otherworldly characters who appear to have had their formal portraits taken to mark their existence and place in society. The underlining thread that connects all these characters is the unusual circumstances that shape who they were and how they lived. Some of their origins are a complete mystery while others are hinted at. A man is cursed by a goat, a strange furry being is discovered sleeping in a hedge, an engine driver can’t seem to stop vibrating in his sleep, a man overcomes his phobia of spiders, etc, . . .Using inventive techniques of painting with acrylic washes and simple textures on smooth boards, he’s created portraits from an alternate universe that seemingly may or may not have existed.
They are beautiful and couldn't keep the all for myself...

STAND STILL FOR A PORTRAIT HERE

DAY SIX-AND-TWENTY: WANT TO BE A VICTORIAN? THE TOP TEN CREEPIEST THINGS ABOUT BEING ONE

10. VIGNETTES -
creepy relayives dressing up to amuse other relatives. Nan as a nymph: not something my psyche wants to see. Ever.

9. POORHOUSES -
Poorhouses were government-run facilities where the poor, infirm, or mentally ill could live. They were usually filthy and full to the brim of societies unwanted people...

8. PEA-SOUPERS -
fogs so thick you could barely see through them. The pea-soupers were caused by a combination of fogs from the River Thames and smoke from the coal fires that were an essential part of Victorian life.


7. FOOD -
The Victorians loved offal and ate virtually every part of an animal. This is not entirely creepy if you are o.k. with the weird and the wonderful, but for the average person, the idea of supping on a bowl of brains and heart is not appealing. Another famous dish from the Victorian era was turtle soup. The turtle was prized above all for its green jello-like fat which was used to flavor the soup made from the long-boiled stringy flesh of the animal

6. SURGERY - In a time when one in four surgery patients died after surgery, you were very lucky in Victorian times to have a good doctor with a clean theatre. There was no anesthesia, no painkillers for after, and no electric equipment to reduce the duration of an operation.

5. GOTHIC NOVEL -
The red room in Jany Eyre. Yes please. No thanks.

4. JACK THE RIPPER -
How could you not know?

3. FREAK SHOWS -
Including Hysteria.. Enter Diane Arbus.

2. MEMENTO MORI -
Enough said.

1. QUEEN VICTORIA -
When her husband Albert died in 1861, she went into mourning – donning black frocks until her own death many years later – and expected her nation to do so too. She avoided public appearances and rarely set foot in London in the following years. Her seclusion earned her the name “Widow of Windsor.”

AN HOMAGE TO SOMEONE WHO DID IT BEFORE ME

DAY FIVE-AND-TWENTY: MEMENTO MORI, THE VICTORIAN ERA'S OBSESSION WITH DEATH

Memento mori is a Latin phrase meaning “Remember you shall die” as commentated in a previous post (avid readers will be aware of this). In the Victorian era, photography was young and extremely costly. When a loved one died, their relatives would sometimes have a photograph taken of the corpse in a pose – oftentimes with other members of the family. For the vast majority of Victorians, this was the only time they would be photographed. In these post-mortem photographs, the effect of life was sometimes enhanced by either propping the subject’s eyes open or painting pupils onto the photographic print, and many early images have a rosy tint added to the cheeks of the corpse. Adults were more commonly posed in chairs or even braced on specially-designed frames. Flowers were also a common prop in post-mortem photography of all types. In the first photo above, the fact that the girl is dead is made slightly more obvious (and creepy) by the fact that the slight movement of her parents causes them to be slightly blurred due to the long exposure time, while the girl is deathly still and, thus, perfectly in focus. They are a sad and beautiful reminder. Exactly what they are described as Memento Mori

TRAIL OF BONES STARTS HERE

DAY FOUR-AND-TWENTY: TWINNESS

There will always be something visually arresting about twins...They know things. Secrets. Its in their eyes....

CLICK HERE FOR MORE
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DAY THREE-AND-TWENTY: THE SEDLEC

The Sedlec: Henry, the abbot of the Cistercian monastery in Sedlec, was sent to the Palestine (Holy Land) by King Otakar II of Bohemia in 1278. When he returned, he brought with him a small amount of earth he had removed from Golgotha and sprinkled it over the abbey cemetery. The word of this pious act soon spread and the cemetery in Sedlec became a desirable burial site throughout Central Europe. During the Black Death in the mid 14th century, and after the Hussite Wars in the early 15th century, many thousands of people were buried there and the cemetery had to be greatly enlarged. Around 1400 a Gothic church was built in the center of the cemetery with a vaulted upper level and a lower chapel to be used as an ossuary for the mass graves unearthed during construction, or simply slated for demolition to make room for new burials. After 1511 the task of exhuming skeletons and stacking their bones in the chapel was, according to legend, given to a half-blind monk of the order.

Between 1703 and 1710 a new entrance was constructed to support the front wall, which was leaning outward, and the upper chapel was rebuilt. This work, in the Czech Baroque style, was designed by Jan Santini Aichel.

In 1870, František Rint, a woodcarver, was employed by the Schwarzenberg family to put the bone heaps into order. The macabre result of his effort speaks for itself. Four enormous bell-shaped mounds occupy the corners of the chapel. An enormous chandelier of bones, which contains at least one of every bone in the human body, hangs from the center of the nave with garlands of skulls draping the vault. Other works include piers and monstrances flanking the altar, a large Schwarzenberg coat-of-arms, and the signature of Rint, also executed in bone, on the wall near the entrance. Its creepy and its wonderful, I can't wait to see it in the flesh - or lack there of!

(WIKIPEDIA TELLS YOU MORE)

DAY TWO-AND-TWENTY: STEAMPUNK AND STEAM POWER

Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction and speculative fiction, frequently featuring elements of fantasy, that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steampower is still widely used — usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era Britain.

These illustrations look back to the works of H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Mary Shelly, Robert Louis Stevenson, Edgar Rice Burroughs. It appears to be a mix of Victorian, beginnings of the industrial revolution, maybe a pinch of the Western explorers, and maybe a touch of Goth if you wish. The illustrator of these beautiful drawings is a blogger who goes by the name Doug and has been in the visual arts field since 1989. These drawings and sketches are a snapshot in time.

ALL ABOARD THE MYSTERY TRAIN

DAY ONE-AND-TWENTY: THE SECRET MUSEUM

Flamingos - dead or more dead, whatever takes your fancy.

Finches, these poor little things...

Wouldn't want to pat that!

Bird Collection

Nineteenth century wax models, with REAL human hair!

Fetus skeletons changed and re-arranged...

The backroom

More of the back room...(how cute are the owls in the background?)

Goat under a table, because everyone has one...

Various busts, scale replicas

Aaaah! The Birds!!!

This bizarro collection of photographs spans from a world-wide p a n o r a m i c view. From Paris to Chicago, blogger and artist Joanna Ebenstein travels the world photographing these virtually unseen curiosities. I particularly like the wax models with human hair - so creepy. Taxidermy has had a strange hold on me of recent, it both disgusts and compels me to want to know more, to see more...
(I bought a vintage coat with fur trimmings today, it seems I have crossed over to the darkside - past the point of no return!)

HERE FOR MORE CURIOSITIES...

DAY TWENTY: URBANDON

"The Count of Monte Christo rides to his beloved"

"Freedom to be his true self"

"These pieces are all about (urban) protection. Alhough some of them could stop a bullet, what protection do we have against the evil eye? invasion of personal space, facebook privacy? government internet filters?"

~~~

These beautiful pieces of jewellery are by an artist who calls himself Urbandon. Urbandon scavenges for junk metal and obscure findings creating machines that transport him in time and space, I think he took me for a ride when I discovered his page.... His fascinatingly wearable curiosities are created uniquely using items that range from bird bones to egg beaters. I wear spoons on necklaces, but this stuff is just gorgeous. Its an aesthetic that I associate with.

IT TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE, SHE SMILES. (GET LOST IN IT HERE)

DAY NINETEEN: THANK HEAVENS FOR LITTLE GIRLS

Sadism

Indifference

Ignorance (is bliss?!)

Alcohol abuse (But Bacchus is actually a friend...)

This monument in Moscow city depicts the children (standing in the middle) surrounded by filthy grown ups - each grown up has its own flaw or sin, one of the most common sins of the modern society, together they stand guard around the innocent children in an apparent abyss - going to either side would lead to some kind of attachment. Children can never be taught wholly right from wrong, each person has their flaws...

I KNOW MINE, WHAT ARE YOURS??

DAY EIGHTEEN: "IT IS THE FACE OF MY SOUL!"

DIALOGUE BETWEEN BASIL HALLWARD AND DORIAN GRAY

"So you think that it is only God who sees the soul, Basil? Draw that curtain back, and you will see mine." The voice that spoke was cold and cruel.

"You are mad, Dorian, or playing a part,"muttered Hallward, frowning.

"You won't? Then I must do it myself," said the young man, and he tore the curtain from its rod and flung it on the ground.

An exclamation of horror broke from the painter's lips as he saw in the dim light the hideous face on the canvas grinning at him. There was something in its expression that filled him with disgust and loathing. Good heavens! it was Dorian Gray's own face that he was looking at!

The horror, whatever it was, had not yet entirely spoiled that marvellous beauty. There was still some gold in the thinning hair and some scarlet on the sensual mouth. The sodden eyes had kept something of the loveliness of their blue, the noble curves had not yet completely passed away from chiselled nostrils and from plastic throat.

Yes, it was Dorian himself. But who had done it? He seemed to recognize his own brushwork, and the frame was his own design. The idea was monstrous, yet he felt afraid. He seized the lighted candle, and held it to the picture. In the left-hand corner was his own name, traced in long letters of bright vermilion.

It was some foul parody, some infamous ignoble satire. He had never done that. Still, it was his own picture. He knew it, and he felt as if his blood had changed in a moment from fire to sluggish ice. His own picture! What did it mean? Why had it altered?

He turned and looked at Dorian Gray with the eyes of a sick man. His mouth twitched, and his parched tongue seemed unable to articulate. He passed his hand across his forehead. It was dank with clammy sweat.

The young man was leaning against the mantelshelf, watching him with that strange expression that one sees on the faces of those who are absorbed in a play when some great artist is acting. There was neither real sorrow in it nor real joy.

There was simply the passion of the spectator, with perhaps a flicker of triumph in his eyes. He had taken the flower out of his coat, and was smelling it, or pretending to do so.

"What does this mean?"cried Hallward, at last. His own voice sounded shrill and curious in his ears.

"Years ago, when I was a boy,"said Dorian Gray, crushing the flower in his hand,"you met me, flattered me, and taught me to be vain of my good looks."
"One day you introduced me to a friend of yours, who explained to me the wonder of youth, and you finished a portrait of me that revealed to me the wonder of beauty. In a mad moment that, even now, I don't know whether I regret or not, I made a wish, perhaps you would call it a prayer. . . ."

"I remember it! Oh, how well I remember it! No! the thing is impossible. The room is damp. Mildew has got into the canvas. The paints I used had some wretched mineral poison in them. I tell you the thing is impossible."

"Ah, what is impossible?"murmured the young man, going over to the window and leaning his forehead against the cold, mist-stained glass.

"You told me you had destroyed it."

"I was wrong. It has destroyed me."

"I don't believe it is my picture."

"Can't you see your ideal in it?" said Dorian bitterly.

"My ideal, as you call it. . ."

"As you called it."

"There was nothing evil in it, nothing shameful. You were to me such an ideal as I shall never meet again. This is the face of a satyr."

"It is the face of my soul."

"Christ! what a thing I must have worshipped! It has the eyes of a devil."

"Each of us has heaven and hell in him, Basil,"cried Dorian with a wild gesture of despair.

Hallward turned again to the portrait and gazed at it.

"My God! If it is true," he exclaimed,"and this is what you have done with your life, why, you must be worse even than those who talk against you fancy you to be!"

He held the light up again to the canvas and examined it. The surface seemed to be quite undisturbed and as he had left it. It was from within, apparently, that the foulness and horror had come. Through some strange quickening of inner life the leprosies of sin were slowly eating the thing away. The rotting of a corpse in a watery grave was not so fearful.

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY BY OSCAR WILDE

"DORIAN GRAY" BY IVAN ALBRIGHT

DAY SEVENTEEN: ALL ART IS QUITE USELESS

Preface:-

The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim. The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things. The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.

Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty.

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.

The nineteenth century dislike of realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass.

The nineteenth century dislike of romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass. The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium. No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true can be proved. No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style. No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything. Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art. Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art. From the point of view of form, the type of all the arts is the art of the musician. From the point of view of feeling, the actor's craft is the type. All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital. When critics disagree, the artist is in accord with himself. We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.

All art is quite useless.

- OSCAR WILDE

DAY SIXTEEN: DIANE ARBUS

Diane Arbus was an American photographer and writer noted for black-and-white square photographs of "deviant and marginal people "(dwarfs, giants, transvestites, nudists, circus performers ) or else of people whose normality seems ugly or surreal to the normal eye. A friend said that Arbus said that she was "afraid... that she would be known simply as 'the photographer of freaks'; however, that term has been used repeatedly to describe her. This description of such a profound photographer stems from a fear from people who fail to understand the beauty in the unusual. These people are not freaks, they are extraordinary human beings.

It is as Oscar Wilde states in the preface to the Picture of Dorian Gray; "The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim. The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things.The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault."

Arbus was outside of normality. She went above and beyond, breaking rules and conventions to become who she really was. This takes guts and a lot of strength, but sometimes you have to have to say "Fuck society, I'm going to do it my way." She did and she made a mark on the world.

TO FIND BEAUTIFUL MEANINGS IN BEAUTIFUL THINGS, CLICK HERE