Marcel's Art: Opus palladianum

You're looking at the only one of Marcel's paintings with this mosaic-like quality (although I would like him to pursue it further - so far that has not happened).

People have seem many different images in the geometric patterns of Robot Hump Mountain - so I think it's best if I just let Marcel hint at the theme he was illustrating and let you come to your own conclusions. Here it is in a poem, straight from Marcel to you:

"The petals of the sun curl as their last drop of moisture is obliterated,
by the very heat they live to create, this heat of friction,
of massive stony protrusions moving, rubbing, living.
And as the leaves attempt to cradle the other, more intrude upon their space, leaving no room for privacy, no room for being!"

**As for the painting's title, I'd like to think that there's a clue in there as well. But that's not how I see it, and if you know Marcel, you know it's equally likely that it's just a trick to throw you off.

"Take that. I owe you nothing anymore."

Salvador Dalí claim that's what he said to his father as he handed him a condom full of his own sperm. He had just been thrown out of his home and told never to return.

Weird.

I doubt this is true. Who carries around used condoms in their pockets, thinking that surely "THIS would be the day I need one of these on hand"?

Then again, Dalí was no ordinary man. He was imaginative and capable enough to come up with this zinger of a comeback on the spot, and strange enough to have the necessary supplies. The eccentric guy believed he was the reincarnation of his dead brother and underwent an exorcism later in life (and I'm not saying these two are necessarily related), and that's just the beginning.

He was born 105 years ago this week. If you don't feel like reading his entire autobiography, which I'm sure is fascinating, check out this collection of images to satisfy your daily requirement for the bizarre.

I really like the explosion coming out of his mouth (they should use this in anti-smoking ads somehow), am very confused by the levitating dwarf, and LOVE the one where he's shown kicking at a woman's body whose limbs are flying off, as if in zero gravity. I've seen this happen in a number of his paintings, but never before had I imagined a catalyst other than spontaneous combustion. Plus, it seems so adorably childish: like a little brother impishly toppling his sister's just-finished tower of building blocks. Or it's misogynistic, if you think he looks angry and is kicking that poor woman into pieces.

Nice.

"You are quiet, I will be, too"

Ten years of research by German historians has cast a shadow of doubt on the long accepted story of Vincent Van Gogh cutting off his own ear. Apparently, fellow artist Gauguin chopped it off! Read the story here.

I'm not sure what's more dramatic: Van Gogh meticulously removing his own ear with a little razor as he begins his descent into madness - OR - his friend, whether purposefully or not, slicing off his ear while they were bickering, then cowardly running away and inventing the story of Van Gogh's self-mutilation. Van Gogh didn't sell out his buddy, who would have probably gone to jail. But he was left lonelier (and more bitter?) than ever and on his way to his later suicide.

For now everyone still agrees that he wrapped the severed ear in cloth and gave it to a prostitute.

Well, at least we still have that.

More sketches

Why is that fish smoking a cigarette? Any ideas?