Ray Caesar

The creepy eerie graphics of Ray Caeser: the Englishman born a dog, who learned to draw by doodling upside down on his stomach with pen. No actual paintbrushes involved.

Menacing Mothers

Lately many of my art teachers have been assigning prompts either in a collaborated way, or about something that "matters to you". For instance, in painting, I'm supposed to be designing an image that deals with some sort of problem that you feel needs to be addressed. Mine was originally inspired by the "We Can Do It!" poster from the '40s. Using a classic painting of a woman holding flowers with her young daughter at her side for reference, I replaced the bundle of flowers with a hammer as a sort of feminist statement. Unfortunately, as I was working on it yesterday, many people began interpreting the image as domestic violence....

Oops. 

 I will continue to work with the piece. Perhaps I can make the hammer a little less menacing by, well, actually painting it in. 

Puppetry

I've recently developed a particular liking to puppets, the making of puppets and the history of puppets. There are numerous kinds of puppets, but marionettes and GIANT political ones from Bread and Puppet are the most intriguing.



The about is a still from the film Across the Universe. A man who had apprenticed with the Bread and Puppet theatre designed them.











The above are some pieces from Bread and Puppet Theatre






Here is a snapshot of the English Mr. Punch and his puppeteer, from the Punch and Judy show. The production is very much British humour, in a sense that people get bashed over the head with sticks and receive visits from the Devil.

Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean collaborated to publish a very dark satirically fun picture book of The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch. In this version Mr. Punch manages to outsmart (and kill) just about everyone he meets.








....Much more scary.

And last but not least, some lovely vintage marionettes: