(Re)Inventing the past
While in Denver for a summer wedding, I had the opportunity to visit the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), a smallish, spare, but amazing space in the city’s downtown. Though contemporary art is thought of by many as bizarre, lacking in subtlety, garish or shocking for the sake of being garish and shocking, the contemporary … Continue reading
Regurgitated
I wonder what is like being from another country. This sounds sort of stupid, but Americans often have a strange, warped view of the music of other countries. It is not unexpected to have a country-specific oritentation towards your own pop culture. We are the center of our experience and of our own perspective. In … Continue reading
Kassandra Heller, Eric Orchard, Rebecca Dart, Alexis Barattin
Peeps to watch out for is a look at some of the next generation of up-and-coming creative people in the arts. For this installment, I’ve selected four very different and very, very talented artists working in book and graphic novel illustration, animation design, and more. With an emphasis on 2D illustration, these artists started out … Continue reading
Skin writing
The needle carves into the skin. It stabs deep into those cutaneous layers you learned about in science class and lays the ink down. Bits of blood bubble up and out. First comes the awful sensation — a shard of glass dragging across you — then, the “why am I doing this?,” followed by the … Continue reading
Wayne Barlowe
Wayne Barlowe is a living legend in the world of science fiction painting and creature art. Classically-trained at The Cooper Union, he became an award-winning author at age twenty-one with his first painted book, Barlowe’s Guide to Extraterrestrials (1979). Since then, his work has been seen in Life, Time and Newsweek magazines, on trading cards … Continue reading
Apathy Angel, Judson Harmon, Nadia Aboulhosn, Seth Nayes
“Peeps to Watch Out For” is a look at some of the next generation of up-and-coming creative people in the arts. For the first installment of this addition to The Idler, I’m excited to introduce you to four edgy and innovative performers, models and fashionistas who are creating buzz on the entertainment and fashion circuits … Continue reading
Interview with Peter Konig
Peter Konig’s resume is staggering. The visual effects artist, conceptual designer and animator has worked on a massive list of feature films, including Dragonheart (1996), Starship Troopers (1997), Beowulf (2007), Enchanted (2007), Splice (2009) and countless others. Konig was also the art director of Evolution (2001), as well as a contributing talent to the video … Continue reading
Nightmares on F Street, or, Archival horrors
So, this week I’m idling on location in not-so-sunny, slightly snowy, Washington D.C. The lady I’m vacationing with is out taking the bar exam for some reason and I’m tucked in my cushy One Washington Circle Hotel bed writing to you. Late yesterday afternoon we decided to do as the D.C. tourists do and get … Continue reading
