where the wild things are

Artwork: Illustration by Maurice Sendak for Where the Wild Things Are

Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are is one of my all-time favourite books. So this story recounted by Sendak about one of his readers made me laugh:

"Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters...I sent him a card and I drew a picture...I wrote, 'Dear Jim: I loved your card.' Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, 'Jim loved your card so much he ate it.' That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it."

(source: @_nitch)

V

Watched the brilliant V for Vendetta. A reminder of how ideas, truth, hope, love and the power of people uniting around freedom from oppression, tyranny, surveillance, discrimination, control and fear matters. Freedom forever.

A Yoshitomo Nara Day

Artwork: Yoshitomo Nara, 旅する山子 Traveling Yamako, 2019

Dreaming of the sea…

Four Tet at Lost Village

This made my day! Four Tet’s epic set at Lost Village Festival 2021. Recommend listening to it on SoundCloud here .

It’s time to repair the 🌎

Artwork: Paste-up by seiLiese, It’s time to repair the 🌎, 2021

Poignant paste-up by street artist seiLeise, “It’s time to repair the 🌎”.

All Day

Here’s the Ebinum brothers (Victory and Marvel; @ebinumbrothers) newest dance performance , All Day. Choreographed as part of a series titled, Beautiful Life, the brothers wrote this abut the piece:

“We should love all day, trust all day, help all day, smile all day and do what we love all day so we can be happy all day.” 

A Yoshitomo Nara Day

Lockdown life…

Sky Room

Artwork: Elvio Chiricozzi, Sky Room (La Stanza del Cielo), 2103, Castello di Rivara, Torino (mixer media on wood); Photo: Sveva Angeletti

Elvio Chiricozzi’s installation at Castello di Rivara in Torino, Sky Room (La Stanza del Cielo), 2103, is wondrous. The artist who employs a meticulous rendering of natural elements has brought the clouds, the sky, to earth. The natural elements are a metaphor for Chiricozzi into the state of being. Clouds—effervescent, changing, vaporous, compelling—and in Chiricozzi’s installation, poetic and philosophical, both subtle and powerful. Beneath our feet, reverie is not simply inspired by looking up at the sky, at a distance, it is within our reach, more tangible, more real.

The video directed by Sveva Angeletti is a riveting documentation of the installation process.

Banksy's Spraycation

Banksy at his satirical best, The Great British Spraycation (2021). Enjoy!

never without his mask

Artwork: Seth, Never without his mask, St-Pierre at La Réunion, 2021.

Wonderful recent mural from Seth, Never without his mask, that’s part of his upcoming exhibition, L’ile aux marmailles at Galerie Very Yes in St-Pierre at La Réunion. It sadly resonates as we’re currently in lockdown #WTF in Melbourne, and it’s masks everywhere, curfews etc. It’s freaking upside-down world nuts right now.

the world in our hands

Artwork: Mural by Rocket01 (@rocket01.co.uk), Lisbon, 2021

I’m tired of being bludgeoned by the toxic stew of an endless MSM cycle spinning the same things, centred on fear and negativity—covid, climate, whatever. I’d like to see what’s possible and positive and good for a change. Which is why I’ve posted this mural by street artist Rocket01, The world in our hands. Because this world of humans, the natural world and its creatures, is—despite the dark stuff—beautiful and precious, and maybe I’m more aware of it because of the dark stuff.

create

Artwork: Paste-Up by WRDSMTH, create, Cleveland Institute of Art, 2021

Another great paste-up by WRDSMTH in Cleveland. And pretty good advice.

Arise Sun

Here’s a rather dreamy, sensuous new song from Robert Levon Been from BRMC (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club), Arise Sun. It’s from a film score Robert worked on last year with Paul Schrader for his upcoming film The Card Counter, coming out September 10th.

Arise Sun

Robert Levon Been

Jackie

It’s lockdown in Melbourne again! Unbelievable. Been listening to Yves Tumor’s great new EP, Asymptotical World. Got the track Jackie on repeat. Check it out!

Jackie

Yves Tumor

key to the sky

Artwork: Mural by Seth (@seth_globepainter), “Courant d’air” Altkirch, Alsace, France, 2021

Magical. Seth’s recent mural “Courant d’air” (Current of air) in Altkirch, Alsace, France.

a reminder

Artwork: by @adidafallenangel

This resonates. Street artist @adidafallenangel wrote about rejection today on IG and why he makes art:

“I make art because it’s like air to me, I simply could not exist without it, creating new things out of nothingness is pure magic to me and without it I would be an empty shell.”

Just needed the reminder to focus on the process and love it, not necessarily on the outcomes and opportunities, that “creating new things out of nothingness is pure magic”.

A Yoshitomo Nara Day

Artwork: Yoshitomo Nara drawing, 2021 (@michinara3)

Brainstorming…

the sky is a sea

Artwork: Photograph by Enric Gener, 27MM, Mediterranean Sea, 2020

One of my favourite ocean photographers, Enric Gener or 27 MM (@27mm_photo)—photographing the heavens.

In the light saturated city I live in, I can only wish to look up at the sky and see the stars so close and clear.

A beautiful vision—the sky is a sea.

To Be List

Artwork: Billboard by Madame Gandhi, To Be List, 2021

Artist Madame Gandhi (@madamegandhi) was asked to design a billboard by For Freedoms in Boston to raise awareness about Asian hate and in the process asked the question: Why does anyone hate to begin with?

She said this about the project: "I thought about how we need more love, more kindness, more empathy, more compassion and more care. So often in our day to day lives, we are consumed by the daily grind and immediate tasks at hand on our to-do list. So what if instead, we were reminded on a daily basis of the higher vibrational qualities that we should all aspire to have?"

breathe

Can’t stop listening to this. Remix of The Prodigy’s Breathe by Tom Frankel & Dayne Harper who front the UK indie/underground label Council Work (free DL on SoundCloud here). Check it out.

The Prodigy - Breathe (Frankel & Harper Council Work Remix