Some Art Links and Why They're Awesome

If you're looking to spend waaay too much time enraptured by sociological profundities, check out PostSecret.

You'll laugh, and you'll cringe.

If you're a Minnesota artist,- and I do mean artist in every sense of the word, musicians, dancers, etc,- go peruse The McKnight Foundation.  The scope of their funding is crazy-broad, from International Collaborative Crop Research to Neuroscience to, of course, the arts.  Yours truly even received a grant.

If you're a fan of book art and would like to have your mind blown, check out Brian Dettmer's work.  Even the most vehement of bibliophiles will have to admit; maybe this book is more interesting cut all to hell.

Insert Twilight joke here.

Chubby Birds

More Chubby Birds.

Chubby Bird #5

Is anyone else out there kind of fascinated by staining paper?  I need a support group.  Tea-Stainers Anonymous.

Chubby Bird #6

Chubby Bird #7

Chubby Bird #8

More are in my Deviantart gallery.  A few are in my Etsy store.  If you see anything you like, let me know and I will post in on Etsy for you.

Sketchbook

From my trip to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts back in February.

Torso of a Faun, 1st century

Goat skull sketch.

Someone gave me a goat skull last year, to keep my bear and wild pig skull company.  Makes my studio look a little terrifying, but I have so much fun drawing them.  The goat is definitely my favorite.

I've done like, four of these.
Goat Skull on Scratchboard

You know what, just to balance things out, here's a sketch of a goat with it's skin on.  This is Baby, one of our goats, and she is a shit.

I'm sorry, was this your garden?

Chubby Birds

Chubby Bird #16

Chubby Bird #17

From my Chubby Bird Series.

A couple of years ago I got on a paper-staining kick.  No paper was safe.  There were always cookie sheets of black coffee-sludge baking in the oven or moist tea-bags all over my studio.  I knew I had a problem when I would buy tea I hated just because it made pretty colors.

Still, I have not used all this paper.

Graphite & conte on tea & coffee stained rice paper.
4x6
All the Chubby Birds are done in sets of four.

Chubby Bird #19

Chubby Bird #18

In other news, my Etsy store is now operational.  If you see something you like that isn't posted, let me know.  If you like something that is already sold, let me know that too,- if there is enough interest I'll get prints made.

*Update* I no longer live in a place with reliable internet, so the Etsy store is on hiatus until further notice.  If you'd like to purchase some of my art, email me or visit my website: www.torpid-porpoise.com

New Art

Finally got my scanner up and running.  Now prepare for a deluge of art!

La Corricella

Studied abroad in Italy my junior year.  It was a fabulous experience, and now Italy keeps popping up in my art.

Amalfi Coast

Study in Sienna #3

This was a small study for the Study in Sienna that won first place in the drawing category at the IMAGE show.  I wish I had a copy of that one; it's much better, but the darn ECRAC went and bought it...

Art Fair Schedule 2012

Art fairs I will definitely probably be peddling things at.  Come visit!
July 21st - Pine City Art Fest
July 28th - Milaca Rec Fest
August 3rd - Braham Pie Day
November 10th - Mora Hollyfair

This year's list is mostly local, since I'm all fat with child.  And if anyone has recommendations for other excellent art fairs, I'd love to hear about them.

New Deviant Art Account

Now with more cohesion!
I've made a new deviant art account, so everything is under the name Torpid Porpoise.  It was about time, too.  For some reason I had only been submitting things I kind of hated.  Start afresh!

Nymph with the Broken Back

Escher Girls is fabulous.  I have a love/hate relationship with comics; because on one hand, juxtaposed sequential visual art about ass-kicking individuals.  On the other hand, softcore porn.  No issues with porn, but that's not what I'm reading comics for.  Somehow it makes comics easier to stomach, knowing that I'm not the only one calling shenanigans.

I find your armor both functional and tasteful!

There have been quite a few articles recently addressing this issue, all of them enlightening in different ways, and the comment sections enlightening in quite a different way.


And with all of this talk of broken spines, I can't help but be reminded of the nymph with the broken back.

Aw, did you fall out of your tree?
Daniel Tixier

The "nymph with the broken back" refers to a sub-genre of art, most from the 1800's and early 1900's where naked women are contorted like they have a broken back; usually on the ground, or occasionally floating.  They were almost always specified as "nymphs" (i.e. the super sexiest), and sometimes the artist actually indicated that they had broken backs.

Alexandre Cabanel

Don't mind me, just napping naked on the road.
Georges Callot

Anders Zorn

Lady crop's comin' in real good this year.
Arthur Hacker

Jules Garnier

While I don't think the similarities extend very far (the nymphs' broken back is teh sex because vulnerability, whereas the broken back of comic book fame is willful anatomy negligence), it does intrigue.  Sexually idealized women with broken backs is kind of specific, and it's interesting that it's spawned twice.

Ol' floppy head.
Paul Albert Laurens

I wonder if people back in the day recognized how goofy as hell these look.

Probably not.
Marvel

Quick and Dirty Sketches

China marker on photo paper.