The Black Woman Is God.

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© Nicole Dixon.

The Black Woman Is God art exhibition tells and shows you the story of black women’s divinity through the lens of black women reclaiming their ancestry, culture, history and future. The brainchild of Karen Seneferu, this project is in it’s second incarnation in 2016 and will be featuring dozens of artists in at least three separate exhibitions at different locations throughout the summer and fall. The curatorial project is lead by a team that includes karen, Sasha Kelley, Zakiya Harris, Idris Hassan and many others including volunteers from the exhibited artists. As the team prepared for the first exhibit at the Oakland Museum, they held a series of meetings to help the participants get to know one another and to help plan and prepare for the exhibit.

This series is a documentation of these gatherings in an effort to recall and retain the importance of community and sisterhood in collaboration for social justice, ideology shifts, art, and, of course, love.

The Black Woman Is God: Reprogramming the God Code.

The show will be at SOMArts, July 7th through August 18th, 2016.

Simon Stalenhag.

Simon Stålenhag has an amazing body of work, paintings which are sci-fi, dystopian, poignant, a little bit sweet, a little bit horror. It was really difficult to choose some to post here, they are all fabulous. Have a visit at Simon’s gallery, it’s well worth it.  Click for full size.

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All art by Simon Stålenhag. Simon Stålenhag Art Gallery. The prices for prints is very reasonable, I think I’m going to have to indulge once. Or seven times.

DC Comics Reboot: Rebirth

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DC Comics, once known as Detective Comics, slowly came to life and prosperity in the late 1930s and early 1940s. While moderately successful in its early days, it wasn’t until the rises of Batman and Superman that the company really took off. Skip ahead over 75 years, and DC Comics is one of the “big two,” along with Marvel. Now, they’re about to completely reboot their entire line of comics… again.

After the marginal success of their last reboot, the company aims to refocus on the core of what makes their characters so special. This reboot’s called Rebirth, and as DC Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns explained in an announcement trailer, “The whole point of Rebirth for all of us is to get back to the essence of the characters.” Because sweeps like this don’t happen very often, this week we’re looking at Batman, Superman, Green Arrow, and Green Lantern. Do they mark a bold new direction for the company? Or should readers steer clear?

Giaco Furino at The Creators Project has the low down on all the new rebirths – Batman, Superman, Green Lantern and Green Arrow.

Cool Stuff Friday

“I Am His Hands. He Is My Eyes.” The Friendship That Built a Forest​. Get your tissues out for this one, folks.

 

This image released by Electronic Arts shows the new diverse characters that will be available on "The Sims 4" the latest edition of "The Sims" video game. (Electronic Arts via AP)

This image released by Electronic Arts shows the new diverse characters that will be available on “The Sims 4” the latest edition of “The Sims” video game. (Electronic Arts via AP)

You can now create transgender Sims in popular video game.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The creators of “The Sims” are opening up gender customization options for the first time in the long-running history of the popular life simulation video game.

“The Sims” publisher Electronic Arts and developer Maxis said a free update available Thursday for “The Sims 4” will remove gender boundaries and allow players to create virtual townsfolk — or Sims, as they’re known — with any type of physique, walk style or voice they choose.

LGBTQ Nation has the full story.

I’m not very good at paying attention to time. I have an alarm clock, but no other clocks in the house. I do have watches, but none of them work, and I don’t like to wear them. I don’t much like the idea of having a clock hanging overhead, either, but have come across a clock which may change my mind…

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The Colour O’Clock by Duncan Shotton. Fabulous! I also quite like his plate-plate collection:

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He has a number of delightful things, go have a look: http://dshott.co.uk/

Crushed Mummy Pigment.

Mummy brown, Egyptian brown, or caput mortuum (literally, “dead head” in medieval Latin) was a rich pigment varying in hue from burnt to raw umber, made primarily from white pitch, myrrh, and ground-up ancient Egyptians and their pets.

Mummy brown, Egyptian brown, or caput mortuum (literally, “dead head” in medieval Latin) was a rich pigment varying in hue from burnt to raw umber, made primarily from white pitch, myrrh, and ground-up ancient Egyptians and their pets.

Someone, at some point in history, thought, hey, here’s an idea—let’s make paint out of crushed up mummies. Mummy, or Egyptian Brown, peaked in usage during the 18th century, in British painting especially. The “raw materials,” however, were a hot commodity long before that, as mummy powder was believed to have all kinds of magical healing properties and were a mainstay in 16th century European apothecaries. “In the course of at least 300 years of trade, an unrecorded number of archaeological objects was destroyed in order to make pigment,” says Khandekar of the highly unethical practice, whose popularity finally petered out in the early 1900s.

The Creators Project has an excellent article, along with some wonderful photos, about Harvard’s vast collection of rare pigments in their conservation lab. I was aware of all the pigments except for Mummy. That one left me rather stunned.

Kitchen cosmos: the universe made from food.

A planet and moon made from glasses filled with water, food colouring and coconut milk. The stars are made of salt, cinnamon and baking powder.

A planet and moon made from glasses filled with water, food colouring and coconut milk. The stars are made of salt, cinnamon and baking powder.

Hat tip to Marcus for sharing this amazing art by Navid Baraty.

From cinnamon galaxies and floury superclusters to coconut planets and sugary stars, photographer Navid Baraty has cooked up an entire universe out of the contents of his kitchen cupboard. Baraty has said the ‘fictional space scenes’ are inspired by Nasa and Hubble space telescope images. Here are a few of his otherworldly confections.

For his Wander Space Probe series, Navid Baraty made a planet by scanning the bottom of a glass containing water and food colouring, and conjured stars from salt, cinnamon and baking powder. Photographs: Navid Baraty.

For his Wander Space Probe series, Navid Baraty made a planet by scanning the bottom of a glass containing water and food colouring, and conjured stars from salt, cinnamon and baking powder. Photographs: Navid Baraty.

You can see much more of this beautiful work at The Guardian, Navid Baraty’s Gallery, and the Wander Space Probe.

Ferrofluid Photographs, Wow!

Photographer Philip Overbuary

Photographer Philip Overbuary.

Usually CGI is used to fake reality, but Copenhagen-based artist Philip Overbuary uses reality to fake digital images, using magnets and magnetic ferrofluid for an experimental photo series called Ferro. “I wanted to create something that didn’t look like photography,” Overbuary tells The Creators Project. “I wanted to do something people wouldn’t believe was actually real. Like a dream, or a psychedelic trip—but it actually happened and could be captured.”

Ferro stems from Overbuary’s work as commercial photographer where an overwhelming number of his commissions request heavily Photoshopped and 3D-rendered images. He enjoys using analog technology, like oscilloscopes and TVs with antennas, so it’s immensely satisfying for the artist to use mediums like ferrofluids to create images that look computer-generated but aren’t.

Photographer Philip Overbuary.

Photographer Philip Overbuary.

You can check out two photos from Ferro in The Censored Exhibition at this week’s Copenhagen Photo Festival, or see the full set at The Creators Project.

Onbashira Festival

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Held every 6 years in Nagano, Japan, the festival involves moving enormous logs over difficult terrain completely by hand with the help of thickly braided ropes and an occasional assist from gravity as the logs barrel down hills. The purpose is to symbolically renew a nearby shrine where each log is eventually placed to support the foundation of several shrine buildings. The event has reportedly continued uninterrupted for 1,200 years.

Onbashira is split into into two parts, Yamadashi and Satobiki, taking place in April and May respectively. Yamadashi involves cutting down and transporting the logs, each of which can weigh up to 10 tons. The logs are harnessed by ropes and pulled up to the tops of mountains by teams of men and then ridden down the other side. The event is exceedingly dangerous and comparable to the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, where a brush with peril is seen as a form of honor. The second part, Satobiki, is a ceremonial raising event where participants again ride atop the logs and sing as each is hoisted into the air. Participants of both events are frequently injured and sometimes killed, but despite the obvious risks the tone of Onbashira is quite festive with lots of singing, music, and colorful costumes.

Via Colossal Art.

Photographing the Real Barack Obama.

Hat tip to Opus. Amazing, wonderful photos of our president, taken by Pete Souza.

Feb 2016 – Obama touches the face of three-year-old Clark Reynolds, in one of Souza’s most moving photographs.

Feb 2016 – Obama touches the face of three-year-old Clark Reynolds, in one of Souza’s most moving photographs.

 

Oct 2009 – The president jostles with congressmen during a basketball game at the White House.

Oct 2009 – The president jostles with congressmen during a basketball game at the White House.

More photos and full article here.

Renaissance Technologies

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If the public library was the proto-internet, then the book was both a trusty storage device and an early website. This is essentially how MIT’s School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences approaches books in the course “Making Books: The Renaissance and Today,” in which students learn about bookmaking technology.

The course, led by MIT historian Anne McCants and Jeffrey Ravel, sees students making paper and building a handset printing press. The idea is to illustrate that people in the distant past were also clever technologists, while also reconnecting students to the notion of making instead of merely consuming.

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This semester past, MIT Hobby Shop director Ken Stone led the students in the building of the printing press. First, students milled a huge reclaimed wooden beam from an old building, then they worked the wood in various ways until they had assembled a screw-type letterpress printer commonly used throughout the early modern period. During the build, students toured a Colonial-style print shop in Boston called Edes & Gill, paying particular attention to an early handset press like the one they were building. There they picked the brains of printmaster Gary Gregory.

The full article is at The Creators Project. Very, very, very cool, this. I’d love to learn how to do this.

Santa Fe: Native Treasures.

Beaded high heel sneakers by Teri Greeves.

Beaded high heel sneakers by Teri Greeves.

In the Hopi creation myth, and most Native American creation myths, we are allowed to be here on this earth but only provided we care for it and treat it with respect.”  – Dan Namingha.

Each year, the Native Treasures Indian Arts Festival brings over 200 Native American artists from 40 tribes and pueblos – each of whom is specially invited by the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture – to Santa Fe, New Mexico to display their artistic pottery, jewelry, paintings, glass, stone, bronze, baskets and textiles.

This year the theme is “Mother Earth” and is oftentimes depicted as a turtle in Native American mythology and art which signifies water, good health, long life, patience, determination and peace.

This year’s featured artist at the 12th annual Native Treasures Indian Arts Festival is Dan Namingha. A prolific painter for over 40 years, Namingha, who has been producing earth-friendly, pro-environmental messages for decades, was also awarded the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture Living Treasure award for his overall body of work as well as for recognition of artistic excellence and community service.

Full Story Here.

Neanderthal Sculpture Garden

A mysterious series of rock formations recently discovered in France have been identified as potentially religious or cultural work of Neanderthals from over 175,000 years ago, over four times older than the oldest cave paintings. Inside Bruniquel Cave in southwest France, researchers have found formations of broken stalagmites that appear to have been arranged intentionally, and are scorched in places with fire. These findings suggest that Neanderthals were not the brainless brutes we think of them as, but similar to us in their capacity for culture.

The study, led by Belgium-based scientist Sophie Verheyden, cites, “The regular geometry of the stalagmite circles, the arrangement of broken stalagmites, and several traces of fire,” as well as their location over 1,000′ into the cave to suggest mastery of the environment, “which can be considered a major step in human modernity.” Uranium dating (more accurate than carbon dating) indicates that these rock circles were made 176,600 years ago makes this feat very impressive. We know that Neanderthals could make markings resembling abstract art and use fire, but they’re not known for exploring caves past the reach of sunlight, much less to create works that could be a prehistoric sculpture garden.

Full Story at The Creators Project. Unfortunately, the study is behind a paywall.