A most evocative piece by Rockwell Kent, click for full size.
Nightmare. Rockwell Kent, Lithograph. Subject: Nightmares, Suicide.
The Healing Arts: Nightmare.
Affinity
Art, Fun, & Nonsense.
A most evocative piece by Rockwell Kent, click for full size.
Nightmare. Rockwell Kent, Lithograph. Subject: Nightmares, Suicide.
Guts. The tubes that transform delicious food into disgusting shit. Which, in turn, is delicious food to other creatures who turn it into even smaller shit. And so on until it is all recycled back into living tissue or fossilized. In nature as a whole there is no such thing as waste and if something can be digested and turned into energy to sustain life, sooner or later there will be an organism doing just that.
©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
The interesting story about guts that our esteemed Professor Kos told was quite literally about shit.
Our digestive system is not particularly effective in absorbing fats, a significant portion of excrement are lipid compounds. And this, indirectly, is responsible for the oh so typical color of the final product of human digestive system.
When red blood cells die, the heme has to be broken down in order for the iron to be re-absorbed and recycled. Some of the end products of heme recycling are two chemicals: one called bilirubin (yellow), which gets later on broken down into stercobilin (brown). This is the reason why bruises go from initially red through blue to yellow and brown color as they heal.
The same process is happening also in liver and the chemicals bilirubin and stercobilin are excreted with bile. And because they are not water-soluble but are fat-soluble, they remain in the undigested fat in feces and are responsible for their distinctive color.
Click for full size. Most below the fold. In the last shot, I was trying for a lovely light reflection in the street, but all that showed up were the street signs, looking rather neon. :D
A stunning shot of a Cardinal, from Kengi. Click for full size!
© Kengi, all rights reserved.
A quiet spot to rest along the way
©voyager, all rights reserved
Click for full size, text translations in the comments. The 3rd image is a surviving fragment of the original wall, featuring the Duchess. Hess could have done a much better job with the dress, and he left out those amazing braids!
Click for full size. As you can see, all effort was put into making Joanna Southcott as awful as possible. Ms. Southcott was a self-styled prophetess, and claimed to be pregnant at 64 years of age, and died shortly afterward. It would seem she was held to be nothing more than a con by the medical establishment, with little consideration that she might actually believe all the nonsense she preached. The depiction of her is certainly nothing at all like her actual appearance (there’s a photo at the link.)
A Medical Inspection. Or Miracles Will Never Cease. Thomas Rowlandson, Etching coloured, 1814. Subject: Obstetrics, Prophesy, Pregnancy, Anecdotes, Religious Mania, Joanna Southcott (1750-1814).
From Avalus, click for full size! Oh, and a reminder – Chemo brain! If you send me something and it doesn’t show up, please let me know!
© Avalus, all rights reserved.
I am no expert on horses. In fact, my knowledge about horses is quite abysmal. But at the resort where I vacationed this year they had this mare and she was kind enough to pose for a few pictures. And I think she is beautiful.
©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
I have never seen one of these near my home, but I was lucky enough to take this picture during my vacation in Krkonoše this spring. Looks like they were just shopping for some furniture.
©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
© C. Ford, all rights reserved.
Much like Valleray, pictured above, I too am desirous of a long, long sleep. So, I’ll probably be around sometime Monday, but I don’t know when. Things will start eventually, and there’s plenty to peruse from this weekend, because I suspect most people had the sense to be out and about enjoying themselves rather than sitting in front of a computer. I will definitely be gone on Tuesday, because I need to get away from this house, this computer, this everything. We’re going to go travel gravel for a while.
Judging by the number of caterpillars hanging around the little red house I think the Bird family must be away on vacation. Maybe they’re staying down the road at the Welcome Inn.
©voyager, all rights reserved
©voyager, all rights reserved
Yesterday evening found me distracted again, chasing one tangent after another until I landed on Cornelis van Haarlem (1562-1638), a most talented painter. He was a Northern Mannerist, and given all the foibles of that particular style, he made his characters luminous and achingly beautiful, even when they were misbehaving. Click all images for full size. The first painting which caught my eye was A Monk With A Beguine, painted in 1591:
Een monnik en een begijn, A monk with a beguine, by Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem.
The detail and light are wonderful, it’s all so…lustrous. And reluctantly lusty. You can almost feel their consciences attempting to get the better of them, and failing. The story of the Beguines is an interesting one. I think there’s a lot to be said for such structures as the beguines, just sans religion. At the time, this was a good option for a lot of women, when they had few choices in life.
What grabbed my attention next was Venus and Adonis:
Venus and Adonis, by Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem.
You can see in Adonis’s face there’s some problem, one which has him quite emotional, while Venus has the solid air of confidence and casual comfort. Again, the details are astonishing in their beauty and light; the pearls are translucent.
I’ll add just one more here, The Fall of the Titans, which leads me to the conclusion that all men should have a dragonfly for their dick. Yep. Here’s a detail first, then the full painting:
Detail from The Fall of the Titans by Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem.
The Fall of the Titans by Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem.
Look at the faces, those expressions. Incredibly poignant, once you can stop looking at the dragonflied and butterflied* genitals. Also, dragonfly dick and the character at the bottom right are same person.
*Not meant in that way!