Art Forms in Nature: Prints of Ernst Haeckel

I found the images of this book of Ernst Haeckel's 'Art Forms in Nature' on someone's blog by coincidence today. Ernst Haeckel created these stunning illustrations of creatures and life forms through studying them at great detail being an biologist, naturalist, philosopher and professor. I think it's extraordinary that he has made art from natural life that you would otherwise probably overlook. His detailed patterns remind me of the artist Katie Scott who' work I have recently looked at, also having a similar subject matter it has inspired me to look further into nature for some idea for geometric patterns. 

David Maisel : Library of Dust.

I was recently browsing through Tumblr searching the tag #rust and it took me to an image of a rusting old can. I was instantly drawn to this image not just because of the decay but because it was so unusual in colour and texture. Most of the time when to you come across some rust it is dull in colour, usually being brown or black but the colours in this image really caught my eye as they were so vibrant. Luckily the person who had reblogged the image had labelled it so I googled the artist name (David Maisel) and was taken to his website. I found that he was a photographer who's work investigates the idea of beauty and searches further for a deeper meaning to it. Other then the elegant and attractive side to beauty he explores the braking down and deterioration of an object to show that that too can be beautiful in it's own way.

     

I looked at his work entitled 'Library of Dust' and found it to be quite an interesting idea based on an unusual subject. The cans that I had been looking at were from this work and I discovered that Maisel had taken photographs in and old staterun psychiatric hospital. Inside the cans lie the remains of cremated patients of the hospital which have not been collected by the families of the patients. As the cans have been there for so long the ashes have reacted with the copper cans which is what has caused them the turn colour and rust and the corrosion at the seams. He also took photographs of the rooms around the mental institution. They too had been left untouched since it shut down in the 1970s so they are also full of decay and rust with detail like paint cracking off the wall. 

 This links in really well with what I have currently been looking at with my work as I am focusing around the decay in buildings and bridges. It has caused me to explore decay more and to want to try out some experiments with materials to see if I can create a texture and look of rust and decay. An idea is to maybe create different backgrounds that are quite messy or tactile and then to draw in some way on top of them or maybe cut shapes or designs out of them. I would also like to work directly on top of my photographs of Manchester and Salford Quays and see if I can display a look of ageing to them to symbolise the decay of buildings that I have found from my research. 

Pink Floyd Album Covers

I have been looking closely at the album artwork of the psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd for some inspiration as I realised that a lot of their album covers are similar to the type of stuff i've been working on. Simple shapes & funky colours & patterns have been used to create the album artwork which represents the bands style perfectly. 

After doing some research I discovered the artist who designed the album covers was graphic designer Storm Thorgerson. Although it was designed by Thorgerson it was drawn by a collective of art designers Hipgnosis. Thorgerson first became famous for his design for Pink Floyd's album 'The Dark Side of the Moon' (below) which is often referred to as one of the greatest album covers of all time being reprinted for posters, place mats & t shirts. 

Something I read about him during my research was how his work frequently includes surreal aspects. I find this very inspiring as i'm currently trying to open my mind to the surreal world with my hippie project, as i've been creating work which relates to psychedelic vibes & open minded illusions. 

On describing his love for photography Thorgerson said "I like photography because it is a reality medium, unlike drawing which is unreal. I like to mess with reality...to bend reality. Some of my works beg the question of is it real or not?"

 He has also designed numerous amounts of other amazing work including album artwork for bands such as Muse, Led Zeppelin, Biffy Clyro & Black Sabbath. And Hipgnosis have designed work for AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, The Pretty Things, Yes, T. Rex & many more. 

Leif Podhajsky

The Designer Leif Podhajsky is one of my very favourite designers! His work never fails to excite me being so full of experimentation, colour & quirkiness. I only discovered his artwork last year when I fell in love with an album cover of a c.d I had titled 'Innerspeaker' by the alternative band Tame Impala. After researching who the artist was who created this incredible wave of colour & explosion, I discovered his other designs & have been addicted ever since!

The reason for my expression of adoration for this designer is that I have found his work to be an major influence on my current work on hippie's. His designs are similar to the stuff that I have been experimenting with with inks as some of his designs (like the one above) remind me of ink, dye or watercolour running into each other. 

Taken from Podhajsky's website, on this image: 

"Experiments in data bending and visual sound manipulation. 
These artworks were exported as uncompressed data and fed as raw binary into a sound editing program. This essentially is the sound of an 'image'.

Tapping into the vibrations of the the digital zeitgeist, I believe that these sounds although abstract let us perceive the images with all of our senses. Yawing from our reality and dipping into an interwoven network of information and consciousness that operates on an alternate frequency."

I would really like to experiment on photoshop to see if I can manipulate my colour playing with shapes, textures & filters & create some patterns for designs. I am looking to produce prints that would be suitable for fashion as I have found that hippie's wore psychedelic clothes to express themselves, so I would like to produce prints that people would think were expressing by wearing too. 

London

I recently took a trip to London to visit The Surface Design show. During the second day of my stay there I took a trip to Camden Markets as i'd heard so much about them but never actually been. I surprisingly found it to be a great inspiration to the project which I am currently undergoing, as I found certain parts of it to have a real 'hippie vibe'. There were unique hippie/ ethnic stores packed with beautifully crafted patchwork bags & psychedelic style clothing. I found the peace sign to be quite common on a lot of these clothes & seeing these stores has inspired me to want to produce a piece of clothing made of unwanted old material to regenerate it into something new, in a traditional hippie style way! I could collect scraps of clothing or material & sew them together & then add detail to them like peace signs, birds or feathers to make them link into what I am currently looking at.

Although I couldn't take any pictures of the actual clothing (as it belonged to the stores) I have made a mental note & a few sketches to take inspiration from. I did manage to take some photo's of some of the interior of a different part of the markets which included really wacky & mind blowing sculptures along with multicoloured prints on the walls & brickwork. I found the walls & brick decorations to also be very inspiring to my current work as I have been experimenting with paint splattering & letting colours run into each other in a free way. It has therefore opened my mind to the different type of surfaces that you can apply this type of experiment to as a design to, in an everyday surface.

As I went down to The Stables part of the markets I also found this very inspiring as it was full of music & pictures of old bands as well as more traditional hippie style clothing. I also found the interior of the markets downstairs amazing as it looked like old vintage stables & was really breathtaking. There was also lots of incredible artwork on the walls that was made up of colourful funkadelic imaginative drawings. 

Overall I really enjoyed the Camden Markets I will definitely be adding a date in my schedule to return soon! 

Rihanna (feat. Clavin Harris) - We Found Love.

The effects of drugs.....

I was recommended to look at this video by a friend when explaining my current project on 'freedom'. This video shows the effects that drugs & alcohol can have on a person in different ways & how it can effect mood swings & feelings, which could end up altering your life forever. While at first the high may seem all fun & games, it can then lead to the lows, the come down & the outright craziness. The aggression in this video seems very realistic & I think it's represented really well with the explosions, as I can imagine it may seem something like an explosion in your head when experiencing drugs. From looking at this video for some research I will take with me the idea of aggression, explosions, wide bloodshot eyes & the brightly colourful pills. The colour scheme in this video of the pills really appeals to me & is very similar to the colours that I have been looking at, as the hippies in the late 60s & early 70s wore clothes these colours to express themselves. 

Gotye - Somebody That I Used to Know

Album artwork - Gotye - Somebody That I Used to Know - Single.

I absolutely love this song by Australian alternative singer/ songwriter  Gotye (real name Wally De Backer). I was really thrilled to see that the song had an equally brilliant music video which was directed by Natasha Pincus & took 23hrs to shoot! I was particularly interested in the abstract artwork of shapes on the background wall, which disguise's Gotye & Kimbra with body art. Emma Hack is the body artist who created this illusion & I discovered that she is a woman of many artistic talents creating strikingly beautiful designs. Her website features many exciting patterns of wallpaper & displays her amazing exhibitions. I am keen to get hold of her first art book 'Wallpaper Collection' & think that incorporating body art into wallpaper designs is something very original & interesting. 

Here is some more of Emma Hack's work:

Take a look at Emma Hack's website to view more of her work!

 http://emmahackartist.com/ming.php

Hippie Hippie Hippie Love

I have been given a new brief over the Xmas holidays which is concentrating on 'personal passions'. Over the Christmas break I am to develop some drawings & research on what i'm interested in & things that really excite me as an artist. So I have been thinking of my interests & passions for a while & realised that nothing excites me more then 'Hippie' culture. I am really interested in the type of artwork that people create when having hippies in mind & am particularly fond of what hippies stand for - peace. I believe that everyone should find a way to live together in harmony & I think it's a wonderful thing, also being a free spirited person is something that strikes out to me. I will look into psychedelic style artwork & aztec patterns for inspiration. 

The 'hippie style' fashion has always really appealed to me including things like dreamcatcher necklaces, gypsy stone rings, John Lennon style round sunglasses, feathers in the hair, denim shorts & tie dyed clothing. I am going to concentrate on this passion for this project & am really excited to get started on developing something that I love so much. I will try to include my other interests into this work creating collages & patterns, whilst using things like paper, tape, maps, colour etc.

Here are some images of what i'm interested in which I have collected form my tumblr. blog: