Art by Joanna Gianulis

I have only just discovered Joanna Gianulis, a ridiculously talented illustrator who draws fragile images of children and animals. Her works often represent ideas and notions of loss, fear, innocence and danger. It's gorgeous work, and you could do worse than take a look at her website and get lost in her imagery.

Victims

Hide and Seek

Innocence Part 2

Educate Yo'Self!

Gabby Sibide, star of the new film Precious, seems like one cool, confident lady - New York Magazine

Charlie Brooker hates Windows but the cult of Mac scares him more than any system failure. Hmmm - The Guardian

Also, he's not a fan of Art Wanker Damien Hirst. Now that's a stance I can get behind - The Guardian

A homeopath and his wife were jailed Monday for failing to provide adequate medical care to their infant daughter, who died as a result of untreated eczema. Not a happy ending, but a necessary one, given the circumstances - Ninemsn

'$16m youth mental health centre to open in Sydney'. As someone who struggled with mental illness throughout my youth this seems like a good idea to me - ABC Online

Sometimes I falter in my belief that every generation progresses a little past the previous generations' prejudices. Articles like this help to restore my faith - The New York Times Magazine

Miranda July is Super Cool and We Should be Friends

I really like Miranda July. She reminds me of a friend of mine from uni, Ria. They are both just super cool, without trying to be, and without affectation. And I always realise how uncool I am when I compare myself with either of them and their achievements. I would hate them for this, except Miranda July seems really sweet, and I know Ria is, so instead I feel happily envious for them and a little sad for me.
The below images come from a Vice magazine story where July posed as background extras from classic movies like Grease. This series is classic, quirky July and I love it.

However out of all of them, I think this last pair is my favourite. The image of July moves past the recreation hook and is a beautiful, haunting image in its own right.

Find of the Day

8 x 10" archival print of the Thumb War Battle of 1684 by Sarah Neuburger - US$18.00 at her online store The Small Object.

I know my family still harbours a of lot of resentment for how that war went down. 

Also check out the archival prints for the battles of 1732, 1857 and 1862.

Today's Find comes via BB HyphenBlog - Danke!

Caitlin Shearer's Bleeding Knees and Blushing Damsels

Take a look at the work of Caitlin Shearer, a 20-year-old artist hailing from Sydney.

She has prints and shirts available from her etsy shop as well; the shirts are particularly lovely and eye-catching.

There's something so appealing about her strong browed creations - they are delicate yet brittle all at once. I hope that Frankie or Yen feature her artwork soon, she is on the up!

Summer of Colour!

As dust storms paint the entire city an ugly shade of rust, I'm going to take it upon myself to brighten things up with a cornucopia of colour! So, to start things off...

Shoes! Irregular Choice is responsible for some rather, uh "quirky" creations, but these are hands-down bitchin'. I'm a sucker for anything retro-space-age and these are no exception. I found these via makeup mogul Doe Deere's blog, which is worth a look if you enjoy feeling pangs of envy. In all honesty though, Ms Deere is a sweet slip of a gal who can rock pretty much any colour combination with her flaming red hair. Behold:

She is just lovely, no? I'm a bit wary of mixing too many colours at once, but she makes it work.

The only thing better than watermelon? A colourful slice of Watermelon pie. Fun summer dessert indeed!

Innovative beauty photography by Iain Crawford featuring every hue imaginable, courtesy of TrendLand.

This poptastic Massachusetts apartment (thanks, Apartment Therapy) is so rad. Especially loving the plush red chair and wall of Pez!

This restaurant fitout for Mezzoart Cafe by Prv Commissions is officially amazing. The decals, the screaming colour, the Louis chairs... perfect.

Dear Yayoi Kusama:

You are magical.

Sincerely, me.

(Images via here, here, and here.)

And as a final colour explosion, I shall leave you with this video from the Horrors. Enjoy!

Tattoo Porn

I love tattoos. Adore them. Can't get enough of them. I am constantly ogling perfect strangers in the street to get a closer look at their tattoos, which probably makes me seem a wee bit creepy, but not as creepy as I could be if I also tried to surreptiously take photos. Social taboos and general decency prevent me from becoming a fully-fledged tattoo stalker, but thankfully the internet can help me out here.

When I was younger, I was very much under the impression that the only people who got inked were bikies, juvenile delinquents or prison inmates. Oh, not to mention people with a penchant for shaded portraits of celebrities and Jesus.

Yep, he's laughing right at you, kid.

Sexy

Needless to say I was not a fan, and by the time the tribal armband/Japanese character/tramp-stamp-fest of 1990 onwards hit its stride, most tattoos that my young self saw were pretty hideous and nothing to aspire to. However, both the quality of the inks and the artists themselves have increased exponentially over the years. Anyone can get anything tattooed anywhere (for a price), and while this has lead to a strangely high number of men decorating themselves with stoned copulating unicorns riding a rainbow of ecstasy (or shitting out a rainbow of ecstasy, you know, whatever floats yer boat) it also means that people are getting some pretty gorgeous and alternative work done. So enough with the bad - we all know what a bad tattoo looks like - let's get on to the awesome.

This chest piece isn't my style, but my god it is incredibly pretty. For more photos, clicky clicky here.

Scott Harrison is fast becoming one of my favourite tattoo artists, due in no small part to amazing pieces such as these (I want me some hinges like #2). He works out of Portland, Oregon so for now I'll just have to admire from afar.

  

Kiwi lass Rose Hardy has some super incredible work with a cool original vibe. She occasionally works down at Chapel Tattoo in Melbourne, so fingers crossed I can book in with her one day. (That chestpiece? HOLY SHIT I WANT IT NOW.)

On the Australian front, we have the very lovely derby queen tattooist Miss Manners (this is one of my favourite sleeves ever):

Dude, there's a veritable cornucopia of awesome skin art out there, and I'm sure there will be many more posts from me on the subject. Get googling, y'all! There is much inky goodness to be seen. But for now, here's a picture of one of my favourite tattooed models, the slammin Miss Cherry Dollface. Her portfolio is well worth a look for her tattoos alone.

Joachim Froese

A bit about me, so this post makes sense: I am currently completing the third, and what should be (but won't be) final year of my photography degree at the Queensland College of Art. This is the year where I produce my final folio, spend hours in the dark room and also cry a bit. That seems to be the trend after five weeks back anyway.

Just like all the departments at QCA, the Photography Department has many up-and-coming and established and well renowned photographers tutoring and lecturing in their ranks, including Joachim Froese, Ray Cook, Paul Adair, Marian Drew and Nathan Corum, to name but a few. It can be easy to take them for granted and just view them as lecturers, or maybe even friends.

I was visiting a friend of mine's place the other day (which should really be described as an art gallery with some beds and a kitchen - amazing) and I saw this piece from Joachim Froese's Species series hanging on the wall:

Joachim Froese, The Temptation of Adam and Eve, 2005, 4 Silver Gelatin Prints

I am a little ashamed to say that, although there have been exhibitions I should have attended, this was the first time I had seen one of Joachim's works in person, true to scale - real - instead of recreated on a computer screen. And despite what those anti-almost-everything fuckers over on the right may say (whispers of elitism, etc) seeing an artwork in person is important, is special. There will always be a loss of detail in reproductions, and significant aspects of the work which influence your reaction to/relationship with the work, such as texture, size and scale, are often lost.

Elitist rant aside, standing in front of this piece of art made me think about how much I love Joachim's work - it's beautiful and accessible, but so much meaning and history can be found underneath the surface.

Joachim Froese has been my tutor for a few subjects during my time at the Queensland College of Art. As a tutor, he is strict but fair, incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about his discipline, encouraging of discussion and dissent against his views, and able to give constructive criticism that in no way lets you off lightly, but doesn't leave you feeling crushed and defeated either (which I recently experienced).

As a photographer, I really admire him and his work. Joachim grew up in Germany, and is particularly interested in and influenced by the Dutch and Spanish still life traditions. His works often references or even adopts traditional painting tropes. His unique style carries throughout his life's work, yet his works are never 'samey'. Technically, his work is also very strong - I can only hope to one day have such control over my images - and I really like that in art photographers. I don't really have much interest in those whose technical sloppiness is excused away as artistic intent, when really it's a lot more likely due to lack of control, laziness or an attempt to cash in on the latest cool photography craze.

Probably the most distinctive feature of Joachim's work is the creation of one image using multiple panels/prints. I originally assumed that this was done by shooting one frame, then chopping it up during editing, but each separate panel is an individual image, set up and lit so your eye will travel smoothly from one panel to the next. This allows him to play lots of lovely tricks with repetition, symmetry and fragmentation. The first body of work where he used this panelling technique was Rhopography 1999 - 2001.

Rhopography 8, 1999, 4 Silver Gelatin Prints

Rhopography 15, 2000, 3 Silver Gelatin Prints

Rhopography 18, 2001, 4 Silver Gelatin Prints

Fun Fact: Joachim only uses insects that have died of natural causes. He then pulls all their legs, wings and other attachment off and glues them back together exactly the way he needs them to be for his shot. So you are actually seeing the same bee twice in Rhopography 18, just repositioned after being pulled apart and put back together again.

Where the first Rhopography series focused on dead insects and referenced the Dutch still life tradition, Rhopography 2002 - 2003 draws from Spanish still life, in particular, monk and painter Juan Sanchez Cotan's exploration of geometry and symmetry in his images of fruit and vegetables in the cool house.

Juan Sanchez Cotan, Coing, Chou, Melon et Concombre

Rhopography 27, 2002, 3 Silver Gelatin Prints

Rhopography 40, 2003, 3 Silver Gelatin Prints

Rhopography 41, 2003, 3 Silver Gelatin Prints

After Species, Joachim's next work - and his first captured with a digital camera and in colour - was Portrait of My Mother in 2006, photographed during the last weeks of his mother's life.

Portrait of my Mother (detail), 2006, 3 archival inkjet prints

Portrait of my Mother (detail), 2006, 3 archival inkjet prints

Portrait of my Mother (detail), 2006, 3 archival inkjet prints

The work was a collaborative effort between Joachim and his mother:

"I photographed at night and during the day assembled the pictures on the computer at her bedside as she wanted me to continue with 'our' project until her last moment. After her death I finished the series until all her books were photographed in 'her' order."

The devastation of losing those we love is something we all have to deal with during our lives, and I think that Joachim's Portrait is made all the more poignant by the fact that his work is about a celebration of his mother's life, created even as that life faded away.

Joachim continued his exploration of memory and loss in his most recent work Written in the Past (2007). Each object depicted in the series is linked to his past - to Joachim, the images are explicit, like a diary entry. To those of us not privy to his memory, we are given this one clue and then left to interpret for ourselves.

Written in the Past 1, 2007, 3 archival pigment inkjet prints

Written in the Past 8, 2007, 3 archival pigment inkjet prints

Written in the Past 9, 2007, 3 archival pigment inkjet prints

Written in the Past 10, 2007, 3 archival pigment inkjet prints

Joachim's work is held in the public collections of the National Gallery of Australia, QUT Art Museum Brisbane and the Queensland Art Gallery, among others. His work has been featured and reviewed in such respected art publications as PhotoFile, PhotoNews and Eyeline.