Art

What do you do when your girlfriend sprouts a set of wings and the tail of a serpent?

The picture above comes from the Fantastic in Art and Fiction website at Cornell University, which has an interesting and grotesque collection of dark images. The site is grouped into themes like Angels & Demons, Danse Macabre, Weird Science and many others.

I’ve been fascinated by the occult for years, and this collection reminds me of the appeal of the unknown. Notably, virtually all of the artwork is from centuries ago, before modern society replaced the threat of God and otherworldly influences with politics and terrorism.

Looking at some of these images, I remember the strange mix of curiosity and fear that I felt as a child, and the faces that would appear in trees and wallpaper and the knots in a door if you stared long enough…

I’m in the mood for a good ghost story now…

Friday, June 23rd, 2006 // Creativity

If you thought crash test dummies had it hard, spare a thought for the stick men (and women) of the world…

Flickr has an amazing set of images showing stick figures in danger. You honestly couldn’t begin to conceive of the number of ways a stick person could be mutilated or injured. Of course, it’s only a matter of time before someone decides to take the protection of stick men under their wing.

I wonder if you can get grant funding for that?

Thursday, June 22nd, 2006 // Observations