love is how you spend your time
I love this illustration. Marimekko has a great history. Maija Isola created some of their classic designs with beautifully natural simple graphic forms. It’s inspiring to see the tradition going strong in the younger generation with Maija Louekari. This is a a lovely blend of quirky traditional Finnish character with contemporary illustration. And the primary colours really make it sing.
There’s a rather bizarre and unfounded accusation by the US military that the Reprieve legal team smuggled contraband underpants to a Guantánamo Bay prisoner. Agent Provocateur puts a little spin on the story with a cheeky campaign. The first pair of knickers were presented to Gordon Brown for Valentines Day. It’s nice to see some fun and humour in addressing the serious subject of prisoner’s held illegally without trial. And it certainly raises awareness.
The other day I got thinking about evolution. It happened randomly. Well. Maybe not quite. I read a book called Shantaram. Quite some time ago. And there was a bit of talk about increasing complexity in the dialogue. I found the writing a bit cheap. Typical best seller techniques. Cheap tricks aside, there are some interesting observations on how a western foreigner sees India. But the increasing complexity thing recurs here and there in my memories for some reason. And this of course comes back to evolution. Charles Darwin. Naturally. And from there I happened to find a classic Vanity Fair caricature of him. And I do have a soft spot for this style. So this picture expresses my search. This very little story. Simple.
Why is it that they always reveal the UK Budget in such a battered briefcase? I suppose, being English, tradition is the most obvious reason. But the thing really does look knackered. It’s so worse for wear it looks like they might have stolen it from Pete Doherty. It would hardly be a surprise if they hauled out copies of his Books of Albion and started reading obscure poetry. Or maybe it’s just part of the Cool Britannia thing that Tony tried so hard hard to plug. Perhaps it would help if he showed up on a skateboard and ruffled his hair a bit more.
I saw the lovely work of illustrator Raquel Aparicio some time ago. There’s something enduring about it to me. For some reason it came to mind again today. I particularly like the section called Very Personal Drawings.
Here’s an interesting interview with Tokyo artist Yuji Moriguchi. The work is an intriguing blend of traditional Japanese painting and often quite bizarre erotica. The results are beautiful.
Sometimes it’s very annoying the way time passes. When there is a lot to do it feels as if time is moving faster or there is somehow less of it. We have an obsession with time that borders on the ridiculous. Workers in most jobs are like slaves to time. It’s a luxury to be able to while away the time.
Sometimes I feel like I have that luxury more than average. But at the moment I feel like it’s slipping away. So I’m rushing. Juggling a lot. Trying to keep up.
I found this little animation that expresses to me what time is and where it comes from. What it is really about. Day following night. Simple.
This cannot really be rushed. But we can make pictures of it and speed them up. Or slow them down. Or just imagine free time.
I started listening to Roland Kirk some years ago. He’s one of the Jazz greats. A wildly creative and original performer. Something that I found odd on the albums were references to nose flute. I had no idea what it was. It turns out that it has quite global roots ranging from Hawaii to Africa to New Zealand to Philippines. The Hawaiians believed that the nose was purer and more innocent than the mouth and used the instruments to woo their sweethearts.
Mr Kirk was a wild multi-instrumentalist. He somehow managed to play a crazy range of instruments at the same time or switch really quickly between them. Often vocal politically and full of humour. His influence lives on. See him in action here.