The Art Appreciation Thread

[MsBlack]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/2008analuxpFig1d.jpg

(From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetration)

[V_Translanka]

If you think that liking Starry Night is somehow passé or something, you can go ahead and stick your nose high, put on a snooty voice and say you prefer Starry Night Over the Rhone...



I think they're both fairly equal, myself.

Anyway, I also enjoy Dave McKean who designed most of the covers for Neil Gaiman's Sandman/Dream comics (and a ton of other comics), a ton of CD covers, the first edition cover of Stephen King's The Dark Tower IV: Wizard & Glass (one of my fav books), directed the Neil Gaiman movie MirrorMask and did the concept art for the Prisoner & Goblet of Fire Harry Potter movies, etc...Very fitting, dreamy, freaky stuff at times...



Speaking of Neil Gaiman's Sandman brings to mind another artist I'm sure we're rather familiar with: Yoshitaka Amano. If you haven't read The Dream Hunters, the first American comic he did (kind of an offshoot of the Sandman series), I highly recommend it. Amazing art & a touching, lovely story as well. His work on Elektra & Wolverine: The Redeemer was also awesome, though Logan just doesn't transfer as well into Amano's softer, more femininely defined world (maybe if he was in costume...?). Obviously he's also famed as character designer for numerous Final Fantasy games & the anime Vampire Hunter D...



Alright, if I stray too far into comic art this will get outta hand...So I'll do that later.

[Thought]

The Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carroll

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
   Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
   And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
   The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
   The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
   Long time the manxome foe he sought--
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
   And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
   The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
   And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
   The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
   He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
   Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
   He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
   Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
   And the mome raths outgrabe.

The Tyger, by William Blake

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night :
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears
And water'd heaven with their tears :
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger, Tyger burning bright
In the forests of the night :
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visitor", I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door —
            Only this, and nothing more."

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; — vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow — sorrow for the lost Lenore —
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore —
            Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me — filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating,
"'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door —
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; —
            This it is, and nothing more."

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
"Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you" — here I opened wide the door; —
            Darkness there, and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore?"
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!" —
            Merely this, and nothing more.

The Road Goes Ever On, By J.R.R. Tolkien

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

The Helix Nedula (also known as "the eye of god"), compiled from the Hubble Telescope and various ground-based images in 2004 (its a picture, so I'm going to count it, even though natural beauty is a big of a stretch for "art")

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NGC7293_(2004).jpg