Althouse: Back then, I was fascinated by eyes...

August 8, 2010

Back then, I was fascinated by eyes...

... unmatched, surrealistic eyes.

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27 comments:

Trooper York said...: Holy Weegee Batman!

Are those your wedding photos?; 8/8/10, 11:46 AM
Fred4Pres said...: Wow. You are starting to freak me out now!; 8/8/10, 12:13 PM
bagoh20 said...: I woke up one morning next to the girl in the second one. We never spoke a word, letting our passions argue, inform and reconcile until I ran away in abject horror. I still dream of her and her eloquent eyes.; 8/8/10, 12:17 PM
Harry said...: Ann,

Just curious -- were you influenced by woodcarvings by German expressionists? Your drawings remind me of some of Kathe Kollwitz's woodcarvings.; 8/8/10, 12:23 PM
Fred4Pres said...: They do have a wood cut quality to them.; 8/8/10, 12:29 PM
lemondog said...: 2nd pic does look like a block print.; 8/8/10, 12:30 PM
Wince said...: Back then, I was fascinated by eyes... unmatched, surrealistic eyes.

Then you should check out the new video collaboration between Rufus Wainwright and Douglas Gordon.

Not actually "unmatched," all the eyes belong to Wainwright.

“When most I wink, then do my eyes best see.” So erudite singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright (son to Loudon, brother to Martha) cites Shakespeare’s sonnets as he rhapsodizes about his new collaboration with Douglas Gordon, the darkly inventive Scottish film artist responsible for the super slo-mo Hitchcock tribute 24 Hour Psycho and epic football film Zidane (featuring music from Glasgow’s foremost post-rockers Mogwai). The duo conspired to produce these haunting tour visuals, in which Wainwright flutters his kohl-splashed eye for a camera shooting at 1,000 frames per second, after his partner Jörn Weisbrodt (creative director at Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center) suggested they work together. The film, designed to accompany Wainwright’s new album All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu, was initially inspired by the record’s titular temptress—first immortalized in the plays of Frank Wedekind, now a personal symbol for Wainwright—but soon “dissolved and disintegrated,” he says, leaving only his eye slowly blinking in a sea of blackness.; 8/8/10, 12:34 PM
Anonymous said...: Now I know where the inspiration for the new über-creepy series of Google Android commercials came from.; 8/8/10, 12:35 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: I hate to keep repeating myself, but these are really good - definitely the most enjoyable work I've seen of yours. The photos are hit and miss (I've still got your roses as my desktop) but this is a confirmation of what I knew all along: you're an artist.

I think I'd be scared to have you as my lawyer - you're still too liberal, which I know is the artist's supposed mental sanctuary (I, still, will accept almost any idea as long as it's presented as art) - and the idea that you teach "religion and the law", to me, is frightening, but this at least gives me a little bit better of an understanding of your evolution as we watch the changes in your political views. For you, it's slow, which - with a gay son, and a NewAge ex-husband (that you're on good terms with) and being a woman - starts to make sense. I've always been a conservative, but it was devastating events (including the war) that compelled me to go there, accept it, kick the door open and - with relish - start bashing heads, metaphorically speaking. Now, like a soldier, almost because being an artist has always put me with liberals, I know where the bodies are hidden and I want to add more to the pile.

Anyway, these drawings have touched me (love the cross-hatching!) in a way nothing else you do has - including your straight-blogging, which is impressive in it's own right - and I'm grateful to see them.

It's like it's own language, and I hear you.; 8/8/10, 12:44 PM
Fred4Pres said...: If you are in a legal battle, the type of lawyer you want is one who driven to win and knows how to do it. Liberal, conservative, whatever. Those are just labels. All that stuff goes out the window. You do not want Montgomery, you want Patton.

Who happened to be a conservative.; 8/8/10, 12:48 PM
A.W. said...: Off topic, but a muslim who lost her mother on 9-11 speaks out:

"Yet, I worry that the construction of the Cordoba House Islamic cultural center near the World Trade Center site would not promote tolerance or understanding; I fear it would become a symbol of victory for militant Muslims around the world."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/06/AR2010080603006.html

So I guess t hear the liberals on this site talk, she must be an anti-muslim bigot, too.; 8/8/10, 12:55 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: Fred4Prez,

When I got divorced, I got a really smooth guy who looked like Satan when he smiled (otherwise, he had gentle style that made the opposition think he was a push-over) and I made sure he knew I wasn't backing down from anything. He thought I was crazy - my ex's killing spree wasn't clear to others at that time - but, when the restraining order hearing started, and he broke my heart by making my ex cry, I knew I had the right guy. (Especially after the black female stenographer apologized for what that bitch had tried to do to me - which came after the female Native American judge ripped her a new asshole for "wasting the court's time like this"). I never asked him what his politics were, just that he defend me the way I wanted, even with the fucked-up no-fault restrictions hindering us.

So yeah, you're right, the only thing that matters is to get a fighter that understands how you want to go into battle.; 8/8/10, 1:00 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: My brother was sent to talk to the school psychologist for drawing/doodling like that on his papers.

:-D

They are very good drawings.; 8/8/10, 1:02 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: Ann, seriously, you should add an exhibition of your drawings to your resume' - they're that good.; 8/8/10, 1:04 PM
Pastafarian said...: Funny, I just read an essay about a mass-murderer in prison in Texas, who was obsessed with eyes before he started killing women.

Watch your back, Meade.; 8/8/10, 1:17 PM
chickelit said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/8/10, 1:18 PM
chickelit said...: With regards to your sketches, was there some sort of Raymond Pettibon/Lynda Barry zeitgeist going around the art scene world in the late 80's early 90's?

I'm having trouble distinguishing and sorting all the contributors to that look.

This is a serious art history question from a casual observer.; 8/8/10, 1:30 PM
Pastafarian said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/8/10, 2:14 PM
traditionalguy said...: The eyes are the window to peoples soul. Some people have lively eyes 1). Some people have fixed and glazed over dead eyes 2). If you watch a typical talking head on cable TV, try putting your hand sideways in front of your eyes so that you only see the talker from his nose up. Once the other facial expressions are missing, the speakers eyes will be one of the two. Number two is usually a professional liar. Not that there is anything wrong with that.; 8/8/10, 2:16 PM
Pastafarian said...: Here's the essay on the murderer obsessed with eyes:

http://www.texasmonthly.com/cms/printthis.php?file=feature.php&issue=1993-05-01

Sorry, I tried to make a hyperlink, but Blogger wouldn't accept it. I'm not the most internet-savvy apple on the tree.; 8/8/10, 2:21 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Its Madonna.; 8/8/10, 2:26 PM
Pastafarian said...: Did I mention that the murderer was an accomplished painter, and amateur photographer?

For God's sake, Meade, get out now, while you can!; 8/8/10, 2:35 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: the guy is Boris Becker; 8/8/10, 2:42 PM
knox said...: Check out these eyes.

Crazy eyes actually kick in at :44. But if you watch the whole thing you won't regret it.; 8/8/10, 8:19 PM
bagoh20 said...: Knox,

I watched the video which then led me to video surfing the popping of zits, cysts and spider bites. It was a truly disgusting journey. Youtube is a strange world, because it's our world in a mirror. I'll never be the same. Thanks.; 8/8/10, 11:31 PM
A.W. said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/9/10, 8:43 AM
knox said...: bagoh,

LMAO. Not my fault!!

Youtube is a strange world, because it's our world in a mirror.

Actually, it's just like a mini-mall.; 8/9/10, 10:17 AM