a blog about ratiocinations out of thin air and elsewhere
ASK ANYONE WHO KNEW ME when I was younger what I was going to be and they would have said, “Artist.” I always intended to make it to art school, mostly to paint. But things just kept getting in the way.
Now, I don’t even draw anymore, but I do occasionally write a piece about an artist, usually someone not all that well known by most folks. And this is where you would find that piece.
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THE IMAGE OF SANTA CLAUS in a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer that allows him to visit billions of households around the globe in a single night is usually taken for granted. It is so much a part of “traditional” western pop culture that Santa’s origins—especially the magical parts—are rarely considered by most people. [Continue reading]
I DON’T MEAN TO IGNORE THIS, my primary blog, but I have been pre-occupied with several other projects and most of my energies and attention have gone there. One of them was finding a new theme for my blogs, which regular readers should have noticed I did find several weeks ago. [Continue reading]
I DON’T FOLLOW EDITORIAL CARTOONING, although I certainly appreciate the fact that we may be living in its golden age. There are so many brilliant individuals who combine political and social insight with intelligence and with along with the ability to draw! [Continue reading]
THE SPORT OF TYCOONS is the title of the 1974 painting of Scrooge McDuck by legendary artist Carl Barks. Barks was a Disney Studio artist who made his way into comics in the early 1940s. Like other artists who worked for Disney at the time, his work was unsigned and so he was known only as “The Good Duck Artist” to fans. [Continue reading]
WE MIGHT WONDER what benefits impeachment is likely to yield, ponders Andrew Bacevich in “The Real Cover-Up: Putting Donald Trump’s Impeachment in Context.” As to the benefits of impeachment, Bacevich believes that answering that question “requires examining four scenarios that describe the range of possibilities awaiting the nation.” [Continue reading]
WHILE I WAS PLAYING with themes in search of a new look for Rather Rare Records over the past few weeks, I posted a page with a note of apology and explanation for all to see. To make the post eye-catching, I found this surreally cryptic painting by Michael Sowa and used it as the page’s featured image. [Continue reading]
THE CASCADES are a range of mountains that cut a wild and wide slash through the state of Washington from top to bottom. That part of the state between the Pacific Ocean and those mountains is Western Washington; that part between the mountains and the rest of the United States is Eastern Washington. [Continue reading]
MASAYOSHI MATSUMOTO uses balloons only! He has taken care to keep a very low profile: he is 25-years-old and a recent graduate of Tokyo Institute of Technology, where he studied organic polymer materials. I did find what appears to be his website at Isopresso. [Continue reading]
PSYCHEDELIC ART is not easily defined. Wikipedia defines it as “any art inspired by psychedelic experiences known to follow the ingestion of psychoactive drugs such as LSD and psilocybin. The word ‘psychedelic’ means ‘mind manifesting.’ By that definition, all artistic efforts to depict the inner world of the psyche may be considered psychedelic.” [Continue reading]