Mexico City, Mexico
The iconic Jorge Alderete, aka Dr. Alderete, is a Patagonian-born artist, pop illustrator, designer, animator, record-label owner, entrepreneur, and publisher who “uses trash culture, 1950s science fiction films, wrestling, and surf music imagery in his psychotronic illustrations, animations, and comics.”
Jorge is a frequent judge at international award shows, a prolific lecturer in the Spanish-speaking world, and his work has been exhibited around the globe. View more of his “in your face” work at www.jorgealderete.com or www.vertigogaleria.com
Jorge wrote me last week to inform me that he hates my blog… apparently it distracts him from doing his work. This post is my reply. (-:
London, UK
Truth is indeed stranger than fiction. It has now been confirmed that the Central Intelligence Agency used American modern art — including the works of such artists as Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko — as a weapon in the Cold War, beginning in 1947.
“In the manner of a Renaissance prince (except that it acted secretly) the CIA fostered and promoted American Abstract Expressionism around the world for more than 20 years.”
Why did the CIA support these artists? “Because in the propaganda war with the Soviet Union, this new artistic movement could be held up as proof of the creativity, the intellectual freedom, and the cultural power of the US. Russian art, strapped into the communist ideological straitjacket, could not compete.”
Read the full article, entitled “Modern art was CIA ‘weapon,'” from The Independent, here.
Good illustrations makes it look so easy… such as these concise instructions from The Art & Craft of Hairdressing (N E B Wolters, 1958 edition).
(somewhere in 18th-century Italy)
I stumbled across these lovely images today… from an 18th century Italian book entitled Scoperta della chironomia, ossia, Dell’arte di gestire con le mani by Vicenzo Requeno, a Spanish monk living in Italy. The book examines the gestural techniques as recounted in various Greek and Latin authors, concentrating on representing numbers with the hand.
(source)
Calgary, Alberta
Folks in Alberta who have had precious photos damaged in the recent floods now have the opportunity to have their pics professionally restored by volunteers organized by the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC).
Cape Coppermine, Manitoba
I’m excited by the opportunity of learning how to fly fish… (I successfully bid on a handmade graphite fly rod at a recent Concordia Foundation gala fundraising auction; the rod came complete with personal instruction by master angler James Skeoch Townsend, and a full day of guided smallmouth bass fishing “with boat, reel and line, fishing flies, and lunch provided).”
I used to be an avid fisherman (before I took up climbing two decades ago), but I never had the opportunity to learn fly fishing — should be fun!
—Henry James (1843-1916)
Happy Solstice, good people…
