Brooklyn, New York
Dana Tanamachi is a graphic designer and custom chalk letterer… her evocative work speaks for itself. See more on her website here...
Shown above: chalk lettering used on a wine label, poster, and magazine cover… (thanks to GDC colleague Brian Branch in Moncton for the link).
—Plato (428-348)
Jakarta, Indonesia
I’ve recently become acquainted with a remarkable fellow: Bambang P. Eryanto (thanks to the vagaries of the Internet). Artist, engineer, entrepreneur, visionary… Bambang graduated with a degree in Science in 1998, at which time he left his hometown for the capital of Indonesia… “supposedly promising jobs and an exciting career,” some 500km from his home village, armed with a mere Rp 50.000 (less than USD $6), given to him by his parents.
In Bambang’s own delightful ESL parlance: “In my heart I promise I will not go home until I was quite successful. Long story short I experienced a lot of work, until finally I stood alone and own a business in the field of electrical and construction, has been almost 10 years I wrestle this field there is a feeling saturated, but I can not leave this business, because many are related, such as employees, family and many who rely on this business, also the suppliers who have to sell the goods to us. At the moment getting fed up that I began to delegate to others who can help my leadership, step by step moving towards success.”
“From here I went back to my hobby rather (than) lie fallow, that is painting. Actually painting hobby I’ve lived since the year 1976, when it I was only 16 years old. Although it was a hobby but I do professionally, and several times exhibitions, including solo exhibition, this achievement that makes me happy, because I was self-taught painter. But I knew painted does not involve a lot of people, all I can do myself, I realize living in developing countries, I met a lot of unemployed, homeless, beggars, people who are not school. If I just paint, I’m very selfish, and there is a feeling of sin is still a lot to see my people suffer. My Country which is too limited, there is no unemployment benefits, no medical benefits and education fee is very expensive for the average person. On the other hand I also can not build a new company and hold them to pay, because companies need time to build, capital and skills that are not small. While they need to eat right away.”
“Apparently God Allmighty—knowing will be his people who want to help others, not much in the environment and power grid construction projects in my company. There are many things I find stuff like the rest of the project, iron pipes, Polycarbonate, PVC pipe, various bottles, wire, etc. Year 2005, from here I began encouraging because things I found was actually new, though it rest. And the most appalling is the number of pvc pipes are sometimes thrown away, and we know plastic decompose in the ground it took more than 100 years. Wire, bottles and crumpled Polycarbonate also granted, sometimes just thrown in the trash.”
You likely get the picture. Bambang re-purposes discarded materials to create employment for others as well as delightful one-of-a-kind artifacts that are useful, emotionally engaging, and in an odd sense… redemptive. Visit his website to learn more, here.
Images: A selection of the delightfully functional assemblages that Bambang et al put together… rock on, Bambang!
Vancouver, British Columbia
Sadly, my artist friend Jennifer Romita’s cat Powder passed on yesterday (not easy to take, I know how it feels). Powder has loomed large in Jennifer‘s work. Here’s some of what she’s shared…
I share my space with a small domestic cat named Powder. As cats go, she is particularly meek and fidgety, and certainly not the brightest. But what she lacks in understanding, she makes up for in affection. She wouldn’t hurt a fly even if she could. And though I may never dress her or take her around town in a stroller, Powder is very much like a child to me. I rarely think about her cousins in the wild that would sooner hunt me than see me as a reliable daily source of kitty treats.
We pet owners forget that our furry children are animals whose bodies and instincts have been honed over thousands of generations. Ironically, Powder is at her fiercest and most feral-looking when she’s preparing for a nap. When she yawns, I get a glimpse of the wild animal stalking around in her genes. So in honour of my gentle beast, I have tried to paint a portrait that captures this part of her nature that so often goes unnoticed. As this piece came together over the course of a month, the image itself began to alter the nature of my domestic environment. My space slowly became dominated by a savage beast I hardly recognized. The energy and wildness of Powder’s portrait is an absurd foil to her quiet presence.
I question our connection to adopted animal companions. Is it just anthropomorphism that distorts our bond, or do we perceive pets as genuinely less animal—and somehow more human—as a result of that bond? Whichever the case may be, I suspect that one of the essential properties of domestication is its capacity to further disconnect us from the “wild beasts” in nature, and ultimately, with the natural world around us.
Images: ‘RAWR’ and ‘Nose,’ both acrylic on canvas, 30″ x 40″, 2009.
Munich, Germany
I love stumbling across old trade magazine covers like this…
“Ye shall know them by their fruits.
Do men gather grapes of thorns,
or figs of thistles?”
Matthew 7:16, the Bible (King James Version)
It’s Friday—I’m in love… (original image source unknown)
