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Malaria, Albert Camus
Feb 27, 2009 — 12 comments
Red blood cells being destroyed by malaria
Amazing: it’s believed that of all the people who have ever lived on this planet, half of them have died of malaria. That is incomprehensible. The disease has been around longer than we have; some scientists think they have found evidence of it in dinosaur fossils.
Click here for an interesting article about malaria. It includes another factoid, which makes it pretty clear why the disease is still killing millions of people: “Vaccines exist for bacteria and viruses, but these are comparatively simple organisms. The polio virus, for example, consists of exactly 11 genes. Plasmodium falciparum (malaria) has more than 5,000.”
Hello. Albert Camus, genius.
Not really sure how I got on this subject, but it brings me to another: Albert Camus’ The Plague. Camus was one of the most brilliant minds ever, and I think this is his second-best book (behind The Stranger, one of the greatest written works of all time, which I have read at least 6 times, including a month-long exhaustive phenomenologically-oriented study of basically every page). The story is somewhat straightforward; it follows the doctors and citizens of a town that has been quarantined during an outbreak of plague. The brilliance of the book is it’s mutlidimensionality (that’s right, I just used that word): it can be read simply as a brutal and engrossing depiction of human suffering, and the consequences of an attempted resistance to a horrible disease. But it can also be read as a description of the human condition through Camus’ eyes, an allegorical situation that perfectly renders his vision of the absurdity of existence. We interact with each other, but we are isolated as individual minds and as groups of people, tossed into this realm of existence with little direction and without the ability to fully comprehend ourselves as conscious beings. Something about our species’ consciousness is clearly illuminated when we are confronted with something as bizarre and incomprehensible as the fight against a disease, the metaphorical unstoppable force, and the spectre of the death (the ultimate unknown) that it brings. This book is worth reading. The Stranger even more so. Read them. Discuss.
Now for something more aesthetically pleasing. I took this photo while flying into Chicago a few months ago. I think the way the clouds parted is interesting, plus I just think the Chicago skyline is cool. It might serve as inspiration for a painting at some point.
Dive: New Sculpture
Feb 24, 2009 — 1 comment
Here is the second study for the soon to be decided on and completed large-scale gypsum sculpture. This one is called Dive. Click here to see it from different angles.
Reaching Figure
Feb 13, 2009 — 3 comments
Having spent the majority of the last two years focusing on painting, I’m looking to get back into some sculpting. My goal is to create a somewhat large-scale steel/foam/gypsum sculpture in the next few months. Of course, I’m totally impatient with this sort of thing, I want to start right in, today. I’ve already scoured the city for the materials, cleared out a working space, and I’m ready to go. Only problem being that I need to figure out what I’m going to sculpt. Anyway, here is the first study in clay. I’m going to do a few of these and decide from them which to go forward into full-scale gypsum. I call this one Reaching Figure, for reasons that seem to be obvious. Click here to see more views.
Observer Progression, Big Rig Jig
Feb 10, 2009 — 1 comment
Here is the progression video for the newest painting, Observer. I had the basic idea set before I started the painting, mostly organized and composed in my mind’s eye. Based on that, I just sort of went for it, without much of a compositional drawing, which explains the mildly hectic planning stages on the canvas at the beginning of the video. As with the others (Untitled, Angel, Ephemeral Transition), watch for it to evolve, then devolve. Repeat.
Also, here is a sculpture Mike Ross created for Burning Man 2007, called Big Rig Jig. I know it’s been around for a while, but I think it’s worth seeing again. There is something awesome about the way he made it, something that strikes me as more artistic and visually interesting than most large steel sculpture you generally see. It’s not just something big that’s welded together; it moves, it’s got a personality. Also, it’s two semis swirling impossibly in the air in the absolute middle of nowhere. Awesome.
Observer
Feb 01, 2009 — 4 comments
New painting, Observer, finished. I think. At some point I might impulsively change something, but if that happens it’s doubtful that it will be anything that someone other than me would notice. Feel free to me know what you think.