bookmark dump to clear my mind

This weekend, I went to ScienceWorks with Zaida. One of the exhibits includes a kalliroscope. It is a lazy-suzan table with a clear top and rheoscopic fluids swirling inside. The fluids were invented by Paul Matisse, an artist working in Groton, Massachusetts. I've often been mesmerised by this thing, but this last visit made me think of a picture I recently saw on someones blog of a geometric formation around one of the poles of Mars. Its a pentagram (insert a sharp intake of breath here). I would have completely forgotten the image, in fact, I couldn't find it again, if it wasn't for the fact that I was absentmindedly making geometric forms with the kalliroscope at Science Works. Here is one picture I did find of Mars. I also came across all kinds of Katrina hurricane pentagrams and magical five sided figures on the sun. But check out what can happen when you spin gaseous fluids in a kalliroscope, especially note figure (c) below:

Nothing mystical there. Just cool shit. I got lost in these other links while trying to understand swirling fluids:
The experimental nonlinear physics group, the physics of everyday life, ferrofluid in a rotating magnetic field, The Rosensweig instability in a ferrofluid, , a diffusion limited aggregation applet, a review of Philip Ball's book, The Self Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature, Java simulations of pattern formation.

My family has been obsessed with a collection of videos called Avatar: The Last Airbender. For a Nickelodean series it has great character development, plot twists, and cultural references. I'm bringing it up now because, in the series, human civilization is divided into four nations, the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Air Nomads, and the Fire Nation. Within each nation, an order of men and women called "Benders" have the ability to manipulate their native element. These Bending arts combine a certain style of martial arts and elemental mysticism. In each generation, one person is capable of Bending all four elements; this is the Avatar, the spirit of the planet manifested in human form. The Avatar is the fifth part of the pentagram. Which makes me think of the band Pentangle. Devendra Banhart says of Pentangle: "It's a perfect name too: five members, five fingers, four elements/limbs plus the spirit!"
Now that I've mentioned music, go trade CD's for one dollar at la la.

(This bookmark courtesy High Low and in Between.)

(INTERMISSION)

yeah maybe I should.
here are some bookmarked paintings:

The graphics take a back seat in the new paintings from Harold Hollingsworth

Bill Gusky gets dimensional and turns the pile into a glaze.

springs and wells paints faces, that aren't really faces, but paintings of faces

Melissa Reischman
Storm II, 2004
Oil on Canvas
36 x 36 inches
I really can't recall how I bookmarked Melissa's blog. Some of her paintings had me leaning into the monitor.

George Bethea
Buddha's Light
acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36"
via Helquin Artifacts
I think I was initially appalled by these paintings. But I'm kinda takin' a shine to them. However, the titles can irk me a bit. All this Asian culture seems to be streaming at me. I am not Asian. I don't want to borrow from or imitate, emulate, copy, or romanticize Asian things. It is going to be hard not to do that with my ink drawings. That and Pollock. I've been avoiding everthing to do with ole Action Jackson. I suppose I'll eventually break down and actually dive into the guy's oeuvre.

Lynda Hoffman-Snodgrass
Soulfire
Watercolor, 21 x 29.5"
I saw this person's paintings in a local gallery and I panicked. I felt my inky-ways could easily look like hers. I was discouraged. I don't like her paintings. Its going to take some soul searching to figure out why.

Karen Margolis

Floating Limbus, 2006
watercolor, gouache, graphite and thread on abaca paper 14 x 10 inches
from the Dieu Donne Papermill via Chris Rywalt
These works on paper by Karen I found inspirational. I wonder what capacity "thread" is used in her work?