renaissance poisson

wondrous and fantastic images of what they're calling the "mandelbulb".

part of a large stone mural in the new nanaimo conference centre. i have got to go back some time with a tripod to get a picture of the whole thing; it's quite impressive.

in february i ran across this beautiful entrance, and posted about it. when we walked into the conference centre, i immediately thought "whoa, same artist?". indeed. his name is andreas kunert.

ok, so how weird is it that i'd rather have something like this implanted than get a real ink-in-flesh tattoo? hm.

electronic tattoo display runs on blood.

via enegim.

these are all old, most of you have probably seen them. but i never uploaded them to my scrapbook, and i was reminded of that by dr vrat's endeavours.

*guh* that's too many (10) even at medium size for no cut. ( so let's have one. )

i don't have the energy to do anything myself today, but i want to throw my support behind those who do, because i grew up -- in terms of the net -- within the gift culture, and will cherish it and participate in it until the day i die. i buy lots of fiction, manga, and some fine art because i've encountered the creators and/or their free samples online, so this attitude isn't particularly anti-capitalism even though it springs from the gift culture. but it is decidedly against the dimwitted sort of economics howard v. hendrix purports.

papersky is collecting links with contributions. and there's a community: ipstp. enjoy!

oh, and hendrix? am not likely gonna buy anything written by him again. not even just because of the ignorant and insulting rant, but because i still haven't managed to get through light paths after the second try. that's two strikes; with this many great authors out there, somebody in line for the third goes straight to the back burner. and since i won't be able to read anything good by hendrix on the web that would allow me to change my current opinion, tough noogies, eh.

i forgot to bookmark the link where i liked the wording best, so i'm gonna write my own. naturally i can't keep myself from faffing around [1] with the concept either, so here goes:

if you'd like to get a piece of "art" from me, comment on this post. i can't promise you quality -- that's why the quotes; i have a hard time calling my stuff artistic. but i'll try to make it something good; not a first experiment :). if i can i'll individualize it, but i might not know you well enough to do that sufficiently. it'll be a unique piece in any case. it might be a collage, or a photograph; it might be made from polymer clay, or wire (maybe with beads or rocks), or fabric; it might be knit, crocheted, sewn, woven, knotted. if it's for personal adornment, i'll consult you about colour and possible allergies.

there is no hitch. i won't demand that you perpetuate the meme because i don't see why only artsy people themselves should get art -- but it'd be really cool if you did decide to participate yourself.

i won't limit it to the first 5 people who comment either -- i'll toss all your names into a hat and pick a number yet to be determined, depending on my energy. [2]

[1] -- thanks go to rysmiel for that great term :)

[2] -- now my secret fear is that nobody will want anything because all my stuff SUCKS.

1ginko asked about our favourite painting, and i replied:

i don't have a favourite painting. i don't even have a set of favourite paintings. what speaks to me changes, and i keep finding new art that amazes me. the latest was ... *rummage* ... madrones at eagle creek by kesler woodward, whose work i really like in general; i can lose myself in his paintings for a long time.

and it occurred to me that i write too rarely about art i like, so i am copying this comment to remedy that a little. i think this mostly happens because i tend to wallow in art; i find something i like, and i'll sink into it and swim around in that world, and then i become ... filled. and writing about art on a full mind doesn't work for me; the writing takes away from the experience. unfortunately, writing about it a little later feels banal, like i can never capture how i felt, not even close. but hey, i can at least point and say "look! shiny!"; *wry grin*.

i'd be interested if anyone wants to point me at their own current or eternal favourites.

so the paramour has been back for a week, which has helped with dragging myself out of the slump. i've actually managed to do basic life maintenance (cooking, cleaning, errands), and that's been a good feeling. and the last couple of days i've also managed to add some modelling work. well, "work". mostly i've been playing with sketchup, the entry level version of which google now offers for free. it's a rapid visualization tool, quite intuitive, and great fun. i'm going to build a couple of 3D castle models for poser, i think. here's my first version of an ancient fortress, inspired by the one in in the village of kestřany, which is in south bohemia, in the czech republic. it dates back to the 14th century, and man, i'd love to live in this sort of place. one of the things i miss most about europe is the complete lack of really old buildings here in the "new" world.

	gothic fortress done in sketchup, rendered like a spiffy architectural design. :)
	lower fortress at kestřany this is an example of the references i used

bureaucracy muse close-up the *poing* wanted to see her face more closely, so here it is -- along with changed hair colour because i didn't like the red tape shader on the hair all that much. the hair needs a bit of extra postwork because there are a couple of angles where there should be curves.

i was working on something completely different, but she kept bothering me until i built and rendered her.

rainbow elf it's an inside joke. :)