Undecided on a subject or artist to feature this Arty Farty Friday, I cast around for ideas. First, I noted that American artist/illustrator John Schoenherr was born this day, 5 July, in 1935; he died in 2010. He is best-remembered as illustrator of the now iconic 1965 sci-fi novel Dune by Frank Herbert.
I could never match the information on this artist already available in the bog of his son, Ian devoted to the life and work of his father.
So....onward I went.
Noticed that an arty photographer died recently (26 June): Bert Stern who will be remembered most for his 1982 book of photographs The Last Sitting, a collection of 2,500 photographs taken for Vogue of Marilyn Monroe over a three-day period, six weeks before her death. The camera loved Marilyn and the feeling, it appears, was mutual. Who else, before or since has managed to depict such joie de vivre and/or sexy come-hitherness? The skills of the photographer, no doubt, had a lot to do with it too!
Not enough there for a post though.
On Father's Day one of my husband's sons gave him a book Outsiders (Art by People); looking through its numerous illustrations I noticed some artwork by Sage Vaughn, a contemporary artist, born 1962. His website is HERE. I felt especially drawn to his delicate paintings of butterflies, one reason being that for the past 24 hours an old song kept buzzing around in my head - Bob Lind's Elusive Butterfly - I always loved that song, but why I should suddenly think about it and keep hearing it in my head was a total mystery.
Sage Vaughn specialises in delicate paintings of wildlife - birds, butterflies abound - in juxtaposition to foggy illustration of aspects of modern life and its technology: a tension between the natural world and the artificial.
I'm wary of showing any of Sage Vaughn's work for fear of copyright slapped hands (or worse), but I'll risk a small representation or maybe two, to illustrate the point which brought me full circle to where I began this post:
See....a coincidental round trip from the huge Dune worm illustrated by John Schoenherr to Sage Vaughn's butterflies and a wormy looking creature.... via Bob Lind:
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Well, my goodness, Twilight. Previous to visiting your site, I had just been going through the astrology of the mid-1960s and was connecting the dots like never before...this was a turbulent epoch for me that led to many changes.
ReplyDeleteThen I tune into your blog today and "Elusive Butterfly" was presented to me via the fluttering wings of your mental wanders. Wow...brought back a rush of memories of that mid-60s era that I had just viewed from the planetary perspective. Quite refreshing to hear "Elusive Butterfly" to touch the poignancy.
The words to "Elusive Butterfly" are fantastic! I love the way Bob Lind puts himself into the listener's mind-dream. I was under the spell of Neptune's conjunction to my Sun, Mercury, and Venus at that time. "Elusive Butterfly" is a very Neptunian song! There were some intense aspects that year, primarily Uranus conj Pluto in Virgo (opposed by Saturn in Pisces!).
Thanks for the "deja vu"!
mike ~ The song is definitely Neptunian - I hadn't considered that, and should've done because I now see transiting Neptune is just minutes away from my natal Jupiter at 6.03 Pisces (semi sextile Sun at 6.46 Aquarius). I must be feeling Neptune-ish! :-)
ReplyDeleteThe 1960s were turbulent for me also, interesting, in the way a slap up the side of the head is interesting (!), but decidedly uncomfortable and unstable at times. I wouldn't want to live it all again - not that particular era anyway. Its music was good though! :-)
We’re livin’ a time of “turmoil” - I like to call it a “turn-oil” - but there’s a main difference: That this present time lacks of the sense of purpose and direction.
ReplyDeleteIn this sense, I do think this present time o’ ours is more comparable to the Thi[r]sties o’ las’ Century - I’m poetic today - ha ha ha
The song you quoted the link is even too Neptunian ...
Chomp ~~ :-D Clever play on words chomp!
ReplyDeleteNeptune probably rules poetry too, so you must be feeling Neptune-ish also. The planet is travelling through its own sign, Pisces, now - so the atmosphere all around will, perhaps, be more Neptune-ish than usual.