Art – Page 56 – Ellis Hollow

Running the Numbers

Via Crooks and Liars, Running the Numbers – An American Self-Portrait featuring digital art by Chris Jordan.

The artist’s statement explains it all:

This new series looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) [the image above] and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 426,000 cell phones retired every day. This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs. My underlying desire is to affirm and sanctify the crucial role of the individual in a society that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming.

My only caveat about this series is that the prints must be seen in person to be experienced the way they are intended. As with any large artwork, their scale carries a vital part of their substance which is lost in these little web images. Hopefully the JPEGs displayed here might be enough to arouse your curiosity to attend an exhibition, or to arrange one if you are in a position to do so. The series is a work in progress, and new images will be posted as they are completed, so please stay tuned.

Also recommended, Jordan’s two other online exhibits: Intolerable Beauty: Portraits of American Mass Consumption and In Katrina’s Wake: Portraits of Loss From an Unnatural Disaster.

There’s a small courtyard outside the Plant Science Building where I work at Cornell. It’s bordered on the north and west sides by four stories on stories of stone wall and ivy, to the east by a single story, and is open to the south. Below is a heated basement and nearby greenhouses radiate heat during winter. Talk about microclimates. Several woody plants there are at least a Zone or two outside their range.

I gaze at it from the Men’s room window a story above every time I dry my hands. This time of the year, it’s exploding with anemones that I can’t grow at home because of the deer.

I have no clue what this groundcover is that’s flowering there now, but it’s nice:

When your shake too much or fail to focus on your close-ups, you can always resort to PhotoShop filters.

purple anemone

white anemone

Actually, the second unflitered wasn’t all that bad:

The Dissolute Household

Great weather in the forecast. But no blogging or gardening this weekend until the house is in order.

The Dissolute Household

From the New York Times:

â€œThe Dissolute Householdâ€

Jan Steen (1626-1679)

Few artists combined situation comedy and moral rebuke with more panache than Jan Steen. Both are evident in this masterly depiction of an upper-middle-class family partying their way down the road to perdition. The house is still fancy, its larder well stocked. But domestic life is a shambles. A maid plies her mistress with wine while exchanging an obscene gesture with her master. The old grandmother has nodded off; one of the roustabout children chases a beggar from the door. A basket hangs from a rafter overhead. It holds a crutch and begging cup: the future. Art historians suggest that Steen might have used his first wife and children as models for the picture. And thereâ€™s no question that that master of the house, foppish, grinning, and defiantly self-aware, is a self-portrait.

Garden bloggers bloom day: September scans

In the 30s here last night. Â It looks and feels like fall outside, and everything looks (as jug band musicians say) ragged but right on the scanner.

Whites, including Sorbaria (reblooming again this year), Eryngium yuccafolium, Eupatorium purpureum â€˜Joe Whiteâ€™, Artemisia, Miscanthus.

Dahlia, Solidago.

Aconitum, Ligularia, Physostegia, Achillea, Lantana, Chelone, Verbena bonariensis.

Ditto above with some wild Eupatorium thrown in.

NIMG (Not In My Garden)

statue in filipendula

Here’s my contribution to blackswampgirl’s (aka Kim) Not In My Garden meme over at A Study in Contrasts. Long-time visitors (both of you) might recognize that the above image is a PhotoShopped combo from two earlier posts, Pink Filipendula and Honey, does this peplos make my butt look fat? The image came to mind as I thought about Kim’s meme. And I realized that I could make it even with my modest imaging skills. Hopefully it will relate to the text.

What you won’t find in my garden:

Formal design. No straight lines here, or proper spacing between plants. I love visiting a great formal garden because I can’t do it myself without a team of OCD hired help. It would drive me mad because I’d notice every plant out of line and every weed between the plants.

tacky statues Real garden statuary. Not that I don’t like it. Just my taste exceeds my means. I would love to put real, classic garden statuary in wilder spots of the garden. Such ornament would give it that kind of ‘nature taking over’ look. Just can’t afford it. If anyone wants to donate a real Venus Kallipygos or the southeast Asian statues that Nicole shot at Chiang Mai (and more Budha park) or any of the Laotian art she shot, I’ll give them a proper home. You donate, I’ll pay the shipping. Hurry, or I may resort to tacky modern imitations (right).

Stylish garden wear. Sloggers make great hanging planters. But when I garden, I don’t want to look good or worry about getting something dirty or ripped. That includes footwear.

Deer candy. Well actually I’ve got quite a few tulips and hostas. But I either moved them from our old place or came by them for free. With our deer pressure, I won’t spend any more money on ornamentals deer like. The more poisonous the plant, the more I like it.

Weed-free lawn. I would love a putting green or croquet court. I love the look of athletic turf. But don’t have the time or the energy. I’ve invited our turf guy to bring his class to my place to do turf weed identification, because I’ve got them all. I just run the rotary mulch harvester through it every week or so and put a little nitrogen on it most falls.

Enuf for now. I’m sure I’ll think of more this weekend. Stop back.

Update for Kim. Better?

Category: Art

Running the Numbers

Anemones in the hidden garden

The Dissolute Household

Garden bloggers bloom day: September scans

NIMG (Not In My Garden)