Spelunking Into the World of Etymology

I'm intrigued by the meanings of words & where they came from. I'm been perusing the etymology books from the Harold Washington Library Center, and found some pretty neat things. My favorite of these word books so far is Word Nerd, by Barbara Ann Kipfer.

I've decided to sketch some of these findings. This week, in conjunction with Illustration Friday's topic, "Subterranean," I drew "Spelunking."

From Kipfer's Word Nerd: Spelunker: Cave explorer / speleologist. It comes from the Latin word for cave, 'spelunca.' (In Greek it's 'spelynx').

Songs:

Spelunking - Laura Veirs (YouTube)

The New Underground - Guster (iLike Pop-Up)

Tableau Vivants Bring Me Joie de Vivre

I love tableau vivants, people dressing up as paintings. I love trying to replicate the details of a well-known piece of art. That's why I am so excited about this music video, from a band called Hold Your Horses! The song is called "70 Million." It includes homages to Jacques-Louis David, René Magritte, & Sandro Botticelli, among others.



70 Million by Hold Your Horses ! from L'Ogre on Vimeo.
(Found via http://www.bestweekever.tv/2010-03-05/music-video-recreates-famous-paintings-my-art-history-degree-finally-worth-something/)

Here are some of my past photograph & painting recreations.

Man Ray, Le Violon d'Ingres (Ingres' Violin), 1924.

Andrew Wyeth, Christina's World, 1948.

 Songs:

Man Ray - The Futureheads (Lala Pop-Up)

Old Master Painter/You Are My Sunshine - Brian Wilson (YouTube)

Venus - Shocking Blue (YouTube)

Rene And Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War - Paul Simon (Spike.com, slightly NSFW)

How I Taught Myself To Scream - Los Campesinos! (YouTube)

Andy Warhol - David Bowie (YouTube)

Circles, Lines, & Balloons - Ashley Harwood & Jason Hackenworth

The most challenging shapes to make while bending neon are circles, due to the exact geometry and the need to evenly heat and shape the glass over a small ribbon burner, which is about the length of a keyboard. This is why I am bowled over by Ashley Harwood's neon circles. And these are not tiny loops, these are enormous, multiple tube works. They look like celestial shapes, planets, and galaxies. In this piece, 1.66782048x10^-9, (made in 2007,) there are 10 transformers powering this sphere.

We are the Light that Travels into Space (2007).

The other artist whose work has captivated me this week is Jason Hackenworth. He creates enormous creatures entirely out of balloons. Some of them are even interactive and wearable, but most are blown-up (ha) sculptural replications of tiny microbes and sea creatures. This piece is called Ecstasy of the Scarlet Empress, (photo via NY Times).

Songs (YouTube):

Red Rubber Ball - The Cyrkle 

Blue Light Red Light (Someone's There) - Harry Connick, Jr.

Blue Light - Bloc Party

Red Light - The Strokes 

A Balloon On A Broken String - The Boy Least Likely To

99 Luft Ballons - Nena

It's Hip to Be Square

I have a lot of t-shirts; I've been collecting them for the last 22 years. Eventually they become paint stained, ripped, or deteriorate altogether. I've decided to recycle and quilt my old ones. I've got 14 ft by 4 ft worth of shirt fabric. Let's see what'll happen. The geometry of craft!


Here's the layout of one side, scaled down to a quarter.








Here are the cascading squares.










And of course, the sketchbook.













Songs (All Links to YouTube):

Hip to Be Square - Huey Lewis & The News

Hardest Geometry Problem In The World - Mark Mothersbaugh

The Cascades - Scott Joplin

Square One - Coldplay

Don't Tell Me To Do The Math(s) - Los Campesinos!

Radio Theme For This Week: Songs with Names in the Title

My theme for my show on CHIRPRadio.org this week is Songs with Names in the Title. Last week (Feb. 4th) I played Whistling Songs, and that was a lot of fun to put together. Here is the inspiration for this week's theme:



Suggestions?

Listen for the show online Thursday from 9 am-12 noon, Chicago time (that's 10am-1pm for the East Coast).