BEAUTY: Photography--Omar Victor Diop

Fine art photographer Omar Victor Diop created his Allegoria series to invite us to think critically about environmental justice, anthropocentricism, and our collective and individual responsibilities in securing more viable, liveable futures. His self portraits show him with species that are extinct or will certainly be in the next few decades, as well as referencing landscapes (and food) that are in peril. The artist's website says his work's "dramatic renditions borrow openly from different genres that include classical painting, universal religious iconography, and mid-century West African photographic studio portraiture, as well as Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock compositions from the Edo period—'pictures of the floating world.'"

https://www.omarvictor.com/

"Cascade" by Peter Murphy

I really love the 1995 Peter Murphy album "Cascade"--after his prior albums "Love Hysteria" (1988) with the amazing track "Indigo Eyes", and "Deep" (1989) that featured the even more amazing tracks "Crystal Wrists" and "Cuts You Up" (as well as the incredible sleeper track "Marlene Dietrich's Favourite Poem"), it seemed that the former Bauhaus lead signer could not top himself but then here is "Cascade." Both lyrics and music deepened on this collection of mood songs. All tracks are marvelous but it is the closing track, "Cascade" with Murphy's otherworldly harmonies that seems to encapsulate the experience of the whole mystical creation.

We have no image
We're just called the good friends
We call the madmen back
As they fly to the ant hills

We never know, we never know
We sleep in satin nights
Throwing energy like bluebirds
In twilight

We call to stillness
As we kiss the water king's hand
We hear the one same name
As the darker the land gets

We never know, we never know
We're fueling for the light
Cascading like the rain
In twilight

Waiting for you, you look so close, we walk
A thousand stairs
Aching for your hand, our love a distant
Voice, we have no image we are light

We are not asking
No favors from the dead
We wash with moonlit hands
On the shores of our island

We never know, we never know
We sleep in satin nights
Throwing energy in silver curves
In twilight

Peter Murphy with Bauhaus, May 2022--Photo by Steve Rapport

https://www.petermurphy.info/

The Way We See The World Shapes The Way We Treat It

"The way we see the world shapes the way we treat it. If a mountain is a deity, not a pile of ore; if a river is one of the veins of the land, not potential irrigation water; if a forest is a sacred grove, not timber; if other species are biological kin, not resources; or if the planet is our mother, not an opportunity -- then we will treat each other with greater respect. Thus is the challenge, to look at the world from a different perspective."
--David Suzuki

G.O.P. Says One Nation Under The Gun!

This retro-looking art from Todd Alcott would be biting sarcasm if it weren't true.

https://www.instagram.com/toddalcott/

More Collage...2022

When the pandemic started, regular readers may recall that I spent some of my downtime creating a lot of new art work including a series of collages previously seen here. I enjoyed playing in that medium so much that I have continued to create collage pieces and posted a second installment here. And here is a sample of what I have been making this year so far...

Top to bottom: An Awakening; A God In An Alcove; At The Heart Of A White Star; A Second Chance; The Disease; The Blind Museum; Better Living Through Science; The Desert Is An Ocean Without Water; When There Were Trees; The Temple of Hypnos, God of Sleep

IN NO OTHER COUNTRY

In no other country do we see the level of gun use that we have here in the United States, where this culture has fetishized, venerated, and worshiped fire arms to a grotesque degree, and where the conservative politicians who could do something about this rampant--AND DECADES OLD--scourge have decided to literally sacrifice the lives of children in favor of unrestricted gun ownership. So much for the right-to-life.

From The New York Times The Morning newsletter, May 25, 2022

From AMERICA'S GUN CULTURE on BBC News, May 25, 2022

From AMERICA'S GUN CULTURE on BBC News, May 25, 2022

From AMERICA'S GUN CULTURE on BBC News, May 25, 2022

From AMERICA'S GUN CULTURE on BBC News, May 25, 2022

From The New York Times The Morning newsletter, May 26, 2022

Vogue's Objects of Affection with Rick Owens

A severe, retro-futuristic, monastic, travertine box. And we get to see the Owenscorp cantina!

https://www.rickowens.eu/en

BEAUTY: Interiors--Cecelia Casagrande

Interior designer Cecelia Casagrande is clearly a maximalist, a designer after my own heart. I love her choices for this Colonial Revival home built in 1895 by developer Moses Crane in Newton, Massachusetts. The dark colors on the ground floor are marvelous, moody, and certainly reminiscent of a Victorian sensibility. Animal motifs abound with art works by Hunt Slonem, the Leopard Walk wallcovering by Cole & Son in the dining room, and the truly delightful Ms. Ward wallpaper by Grow House Grow in a powder room which features a small repeating print of scientist Mary Ward walking an enormous praying mantis. Casagrande's color palette and fearless pattern mixing add to the rich, layered sense of this house--the styling throughout is fantastic. And surprising is her use of the palest pink in the primary suite, which really does look incredible with the Carrera marble in the bathroom.

https://www.ceciliacasagrande.com/