jim henson

Walking along Mission Street in San Francisco on a recent afternoon, I did a serious double-take while passing by a colorful taqueria.
Visible through the open door of El Gran Taco Loco is this ▼ memorable image, painted on the wall...

Wow. So many questions.
Not just the jalapeno's 'stem', but the taco's eyeglasses, the gun - -
- - What exactly are we witness to in this scene?

Immediately I cursed myself for not having my camera with me.
Thinking about it this morning, I decided that others before me must have documented this fascinating piece of artwork.
- - And sure enough, that's just how amazing the internet is.

- Click here for another view of the above image. Larger, slightly different angle. (Source)

All of the images in this post come from the home page of Burritoeater.com, a site providing a valuable public service, having reviewed (and "mustache-rated") over 725 burritos (so far) all around the City and County of San Francisco, California.











I loves me a good burrito AND being transfixed by art, so clearly, there's much to explore...

(click on images to enlarge in a new window)

Our internet is a fun and fascinating tool, but its laziness can be confounding.
Pertinent background information is so often avoided, or eschewed in favor of propagating misinformation.

A small case in point: Images of the oddly hairy baby doll shown below have been circulating on the web for several years now, most often presented as a lone, wacky 'WTF' photo, and almost always with the implication that it was spotted for sale in a marketplace for cheap Asian-produced toys.






Almost never mentioned is that
'You Can Shave The Baby' was never a
consumer item, but rather an art object created in 1995 by Zbigniew Libera, consisting of a set of ten matching dolls in ten matching cardboard boxes.

As described at the Polish artist's website;
"...His works - - photographs, video films, installations, objects and drawings - - piercingly and subversively (in an intellectual way) play with the stereotypes of contemporary culture."






In this vein of presenting 'transformed toys', Libera preceded 'You Can Shave The Baby' with 'Ken's Aunt' in 1994, a similar set of heavier-set Barbie-like dolls wearing unflattering foundation undergarments - -


(click on image to enlarge)




- - he followed in 1996 with perhaps his most famous and controversial work,
'Correcting Device:
LEGO Concentration Camp'
- - Three editions of 7 different highly customized boxed
Lego System sets.










From Zbigniew Libera's Artist's Statement included in an exhibition at The Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota:

"My ability to work with objects is taken from everyday urban contemporary life. In my study of the development of correctional devices and educational toys, I see such devices reveal more about a society and its mechanisms for creating and enforcing its norms than any study of society could.

"'Lego', a construction made partially from various Lego kits, takes us into a village with a mental hospital, Stalin's prison, World War II and Bosnian concentration camps. Thus, I feel I mix historical with contemporary references to represent our world, our little inferno, as built and sanctified by norms.





"'Eroica', is a four-boxed set of toy soldier-sized women figures. They are based on classical models.

"They are a reminder that in the 1990s no toy soldier set is complete without the inclusion of women, who have become the special targets of victimization in genocidal settings such as Bosnia, where rape camps have been well documented. Such is the fashion of 'heroic' actions of armies in genocidal and even less violent encounters where women are victims.

"During an academic conference in Brussels in December, 1997, an agitated audience, who felt that the Lego Concentration Camp was a real toy which was available for sale, demanded that I comment about why I constructed it.

"My response then, as it is now, was:
'I am from Poland. I've been poisoned.'"


- More Zbigniew Libera links are at Wikipedia.

It was in a previous 'Reasons To Be Cheerful' post, a little over a year ago, that I happily reported that I'd found a new website for artist Isabel Samaras.

- That post mentioned how the various mythologies at play in her paintings had been changing in recent years; It also displayed a few examples, provided links to more, and excitedly mentioned that a book collecting her work was being planned. (Follow link)

Now here we are, Spring of '09, and I'm excited to have received word of an Isabel Samaras double-whammy in the offing...

◀Her long-awaited monograph from Chronicle Books, 'On Tender Hooks: The Art of Isabel Samaras' is due to make its appearance any day now, and looks lovely.

Chronicle is also simultaneously releasing a fancy limited edition of the book that's packaged with a print, and a handy paperback book of 30 Samaras postcards, which will surely feature some of her earlier 'classical' riffs on pop-culture icons.


But wait! There's more - -


A new series of Isabel Samaras paintings will be unveiled in a few weeks in
San Francisco!

- Into The Woodz: New Works by Isabel Samaras will show at The Shooting Gallery, 839 Larkin Street in San Francisco, from 5/9/2009 - 6/4/2009.

◀ The new paintings take the childrens classic 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears', and re-works it as a more contemporary romantic tale.

In a preview posting at her blog, i feel it too, Isabel gives some details:

"When I started working on the paintings for this show I was thinking about the Princess culture being sold to little girls – how your highest aspiration is to be rescued, married off and whisked away to a far off castle.

"But what happened to the girl who didn’t hook up with a Prince, who stayed in the woods?

"I wanted to explore that story, so for this show I picked Goldilocks, and as I so often do I created my own version of a happier ending — that the moment when she and Baby Bear lay eyes on each other it was love at first sight. (Goldy has definitely gone to the bears.)

"In my imagination the girl who stayed in the woods got to find herself after she got lost — she didn’t trade her identity in for a tiara, and she found true love (because love conquers all, even inter-species romance)."


- Read more of Isabel's thoughts about these paintings and sneak a few further peeks of them at her blog.

- Read more about the gallery show at Happenstand and at Juxtapoz.

(Reposted from 'Brief Window')

A treat to find new artwork by
Alternative Comix creator J.R. Williams!

- Follow this link to J.R. Williams' 'Cartoons and Comics' Flickr set.

I recall first seeing his comics in the pages of 'Weirdo' back in the '80s, and then in' Crap' and other titles in the '90s, but it seems like it's been a little while since running across his name.

(Not to be confused with the earlier
'Western' cartoonist of the same name)

Recent work on display at Flickr shows that he's been busy, and branching into fine art, but the comics background is still present.

Images rendered in ink, acrylics and watercolor mix with delightfully odd digital collages.

(Via Eye of the Goof)






















































See also:
- A December '08 interview with Williams at the Blah Blah Gallery blog.

- Another Flickr set; less comicky, more artsy, and very cool.
Follow link to J.R. Williams' 'Abstract/etc.' gallery. ▼

I was quite pleased the other day when someone sent me a question in an e-mail and suggested that I "...look like I know what I'm talking about".

Thank you! That's one of the nicest compliments I could hope to receive.

The question asked of me was whether I knew the origins of the image adapted for 'Faile Dreams' ►,
a recent print from the Brooklyn, New York-based art collective Faile.

What the person didn't know was that up until that moment I'd never heard of Faile, or ever seen their work.

I feel I've been deprived!

Thank you, E-mailer, for turning me on to something new. (and thanks to you too, wikipedia)

So the gist of what I've learned is that Faile began in 1999 as street artists pasting posters around NYC and elsewhere, they moved eventually into graffiti stenciling, and inevitably into the world of fine art.

Common to much of their work are images and themes adapted from comic books, trashy novels, graphics in the yellow pages, and other such 'low-brow' pop-culture media.

- Examples can be seen at the Faile website, and also at a FAILE flickr set.

Not unlike tracking down the sources of audio samples in hip-hop records, a 'game' that ensues for Faile enthusiasts is to try and determine the origins of the many visual 'samples'.

- Examples of those discussions can be seen in various places online, including the 'Original Sources of Images and Fonts' at the Faile Forum.

SO BACK TO THE QUESTION: Regarding the original source of the line of kneeling ladies image in the 'Faile Dreams' print, I don't know the answer.

- - BUT DO YOU?

In a large number of Faile works (from what I have determined so far), a common reference point are girl's romance comics of the 1960's and '70's, and that looks to be a fairly safe bet here.

I'm most familiar with the romance books published by DC rather than other companies, and in looking at other Faile prints I feel like I was seeing several examples of DC material, often in what looks like a typically 'flat' Don Heck or Vince Colletta drawing style.
(or someone from that 'school')
The kneeling ladies look just a bit different to me.

The font in the title looked at first to me like it could have been inspired by the old 'Logan's Run' title logo, but the two are a little different...

(UPDATE, 9.20.08: A reader has identified that title font as having been derived from the old Marvel Comics Micronauts series. See comments.)

... And that's about all I have.
To me the kneeling ladies image looks just a bit strange to have come from a comic book cover, but perhaps a splash page inside that comic book?
- - Of course, it doesn't have to be from comics at all...

WHAT ABOUT YOU?
Knowledge? Insights or clues to share?

Now I'm very keen to have an answer. PLEASE leave a comment if you can help.

Here we are with another anniversary of the 2001 September 11th tragedy.
Seven years ago is starting to feel like a long time.

I feel acutely aware that talking about 9/11 doesn't really fit in with the usual topics of discussion on this blog, so I hope you'll bear with me as I lamely struggle to focus on just the one related odd and tiny 'pop culture' nugget I'd been thinking about recently.

As usual, I'll leave it to others to discuss the broader 'important' subjects, while I tackle the 'essential ephemera'.

Thinking back on the first few days and weeks that followed that September 11th, I recall the collective shock and disbelief of when the attack first happened, the very odd lull that seemed to permeate everything in our daily lives for the first few days, and also the very heartfelt gestures and tributes that came from countries all over the world soon after (a.k.a. 'The Sympathy We Shredded').

I also remember that as days went on things began moving again, though it would be incorrect to say that things got back to normal.

On the home front it seemed that things just got progressively stranger as the American flag began popping up on every imaginable surface, and the notion that carrying on 'just like normal' could be equated with striking a blow against terrorism, i.e. "Keep shopping or the terrorists win".

Recalling that fall of 2001, I also remembered the 'America: Open For Business' poster. ►

Did you see this hanging in shop windows back then?
I sure did. It was all over the place in the SF bay area.

I'm not certain if nostalgia is the right word for what I felt recently when looking around the web trying to find commercial artist Craig Frazier's iconic design.
At this point it definitely feels to me like it's of a different era.

It spread to other cities across the U.S., but the poster originated in San Francisco that November as part of a particular campaign spearheaded by Mayor Willie Brown to stimulate the local economy following the 'paralysis' of 9/11.

- Follow link to Mayor Brown's original November, 2001 'San Francisco: Open For Business Week' message.

I confess that when I first saw the American flag-shopping bag image hanging in a window I thought it was a joke - - and at that time I was impressed by what I thought then was a pretty gutsy retort to what I'd felt was some oddly skewed patriotic fervor. But it wasn't a joke.

Time went on, the war began, and soon the sentiment of the poster began to get a bit jumbled up with the 'No Blood For Oil' images that were popping up too, and the 'Open For Business' message started to take on different shades of meaning than had been intended.

Soon that same poster began to look like a rather unfortunate, unintended joke.
Maybe that's part of why it feels like it's been a long while since I've seen it.

A few notes:

Looking back - -
- I was unable to visit these memories without recalling comedian David Cross talking about patriotism and the flag on his first CD, from 2002.
Follow that link to an audio only clip at YouTube - - one that is likely NSFW and (of course) may be offensive to some. (sorta kinda the point)

- That same flag mania also brought flashbacks of elementary school and summer camp back to me, when we were expected to know and abide by rules of flag etiquette, and could get into serious trouble if we didn't. Seems like maybe those rules haven't been so strictly enforced anymore.

- From December of 2001, 'All quiet on the homefront', an article at Salon.Com that compared the 'America: Open For Business' strategy with the call for homefront sacrifices during World War II.

Looking forward - -

- Meanwhile, graphic designer and illustrator Craig Frazier has done well since 2001, releasing several children's books, 3 stamp designs for the U.S. Postal Service, and 'The Illustrated Voice', a monograph on the creative and commercial process in art.

Frazier's recent credits also include the founding of Lookybook, a children's book review and sales website that allows parents to preview a wide variety of kid's books in their entirety.
(Gee, what a great idea, and gee, it's really cool!)

- Follow link to an April, '08 interview with Lookybook Founder Craig Frazier.

- Then there's 98 Pages, Frazier's online sketchbook, and squarepig.tv, his experiment in online animation.

Recently I've been visiting
My Friend Topic, and cruising her amazing collection of 'zines and booklets and pamphlets and other fascinating paper ephemera.

(You'll likely be seeing more results from my raids soon.)

One that I found intriguing was this booklet from 1954,
"... Published for mothers by Personal Products Corporation, Milltown,
New Jersey, makers of Modess".






This was one of many such booklets advertised in women's magazines over the years, so moms could send away for information to help them explain the process of menstruation to their growing daughters.

(click on images to ENLARGE in a new window)
























What struck me here, however, was the overwhelmingly somber tone to the illustrations in this particular edition, the work of
Alexander Brook, "... one of America's foremost painters."

Divorced of context, these painted illustrations are more than a little bit creepy.

Yes - - I'm a man, so what would I know of such mother-daughter talks, and yes - - it's 50+ years later and times have changed, as has 'personal products' technology.

Still, had I been either mother or daughter confronted with this book at that time, I think I might feel my life was over.
(I'll guess that may have been an ordinary response.)





A bit of further investigation online turned up a truly amazing website, The Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health, which is loaded with a wide and varied collection of information and images, from the whimsical and 'historically sad' to a gateway of helpful information.

You can read the entire text from this '54 edition of 'How Shall I Tell My Daughter?' archived there, along with commentary and background information.

While there, you can also link to several later editions of the same book (with completely different visual styles), or the companion volume, 'Growing Up and Liking It'.

(click on images to ENLARGE in a new window)

As to American realist painter Alexander Brook (1898–1980), he was known for portraits of women in quiet or reflective poses, so that reputation certainly couldn't have hurt him here.

He was born in Brooklyn, New York, but lived and worked in several places around the U.S. and in Europe after his artwork became popular in the 1930's.

During military service in WWII, he provided sketches to the army as a correspondent in Panama.
After his service he continued providing war illustrations under commission to LIFE magazine.









You can see more art by Alexander Brook online.
Follow links to:
- 18 selected Brook drawings on view at the Childs Gallery
e-catalogue.

- 4 Brook pieces at
The Smithsonian American Art Museum.

- A few more at artnet.

See also:
- More Modess print ads at the TJS Labs Gallery of
Graphic Design.

- - or, 'Just 79, and I don't mind dyin''.

Well, shoot.
Bo Diddley has left us, and once again it's just another end to just another era.

You can read Bo Diddley's AP obituary from Monday's Orlando Sentinel, or likely you won't have to surf far online for plenty of info and background and more.

I've always loved his music.
I never got to see Bo Diddley perform live, but I've known many folks who did, and heard stories told by many more.

One thing that's always struck me was the common elements of so many of the stories; Great show, great performer, a little salty sometimes and unapologetic about it.
Never seemed to miss an opportunity to talk about the bottom line and getting underpaid, certainly with plenty of experience of getting screwed by the music business.
- - But somehow he manged to make elements of bitter crankiness part of his charm and his own brand of warmth.
- - And he just kept on performing, right up until he couldn't.

So now he can relax and let it all go, secure in the knowledge that he left behind a fine legacy, a boatload of great music, and influenced a great many artists along the way.


The Gunslinger, ▶
From
Guy Peelaert's 'Rock Dreams', 1973













Below, ▼ detail from 'Rock Toons', 1986, art by Serge Dutfoy.










◀'Collage Drawing' by Opal Louis Nations, 1980

(Please see previous post for more of Nation's artwork)

See also my previous Bo Diddley post, featuring a 45 from 1966, and links to info about a great CD reissue of some music from his early '70's funk period.

















Lastly, some links to a few choice and vintage video clips:
- 'Road Runner' - 1960 TV appearance

- 'Bo Diddley' -late '60's/early '70's TV appearance

- 'Mona' - '72 UK rock festival

- 'Bodiddleyitis' - - some psychedelaerobics from another festival in roughly the same period