Thursday, December 15, 2011

Edwina White

I was flicking through the pages of the latest Frankie Magazine last night when I came to an add for the theatre production Pygmalion featuring the above artwork by Edwina White. I was so taken by it (as was my mother) that I jotted down the artists name and proceeded to google her. The results were, of course, pure awesomeness. Here's a taste of what you can find on her own personal website.

Horse Drawn, 2009.

Riding for Children, 2009.

Remembering Isabella Blow, 2007.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Music + Animation = Awesome

So I was reading a recap of an episode of Merlin the other day (yes I watch Merlin) and the writer included a music video of the song Bronte by Gotye and it was the most beautiful and moving thing I've watched in ages it was lovely. I'm sad to say until that time I hadn't heard of Gotye so naturally I hit youtube and watched all the music videos I could find. I love his music, it varies a lot which keeps it interesting and the videos are really different and engaging.

Here are my two favourites,

Bronte: Directed and animated by Ari Gibson, Background art by Jason Pamment.

State of the Art: Directed and animated by Greg Sharp & Ivan Dixon.
This one I intended to listen to while doing something else but from the moment the video started I was hooked and had to watch the whole thing, and I've had the song stuck in my head for days.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Sandra Diekmann

It's been a while but I'm back, and with some beautiful images by the uber talented Sandra Diekmann too.

Crowned Crane

Magic Breeze

White Bison

Unravel Me

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Dynamic hmmm?

I've reverted back to my old layout as it came to my attention that some people couldn't view my blog while in dynamic  mode.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Dynamic eh?

So, first of, what do we all think of bloggers new dynamic modes? Do you like my default choice of snapshots or do you think mosaic or flip card would have worked better?
Until gadgets are supported I'm planning on moving my links and blog lists to their own pages. Blogger might beat me to the punch, however, since I don't intend to do it until after NanoWrimo,which is going well by the way, thanks for asking.

I'm really only squeezing this post in because I allowed myself to be distracted by the pretty new dynamic modes although I am sad you can't see all my super fancy links etc. anymore :( but you haven't come here to read me writing about blogging, you've come to look at some pretty pictures so away we go...

As I have a severe case of Wrimo brain (similar to baby brain) today's pictures will just be an arbitrary collection of things I find pretty (I'll try to be a little relevant to the theme of the blog).

Moon by Sandra Diekmann

By JS Rossbach

Come Play With Me by Audrey Kawasaki, 2007

Into The Wide Wide World by John Bauer

Which Mask by Norman Lindsay
I should have save this and the Audrey Kawasaki for a masquerade post. Oh well I'm sure there's plenty of others out there.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Artistic Blues

I'm feeling bit mopey at the moment which is silly because things are going really well. I'm feeling really pumped about my jewellery and accessories biz, and my writing even seems to be on track. But  I haven't been drawing much and when I think about that it makes me sad.

I would really like to pick up on all the artistic practise I'd been doing at the beginning of the year and try and figure out a way to incorporate it into Hearsay. I'd also really like to do some artwork that is somehow related to the short stories I'm working on at the moment; think islands, teenage girls, gods, cults, and ritual sacrifice.

The Night Watcher by Cory Godbey

Like a Restless Wind by Stella Im Hultberg

By Rachel Suggs

And finally one of the inspirations for my short story

Andromeda by Odilon Redon

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Myst

Years ago my parents bought me an anniversary edition of the best selling video game, Myst, along with it's sequel, Riven, third installment, Exile, and the the latest in the franchise, Uru, (yes I know I'm missing 4 and 5).

Only recently have I actually played them. I have finished Myst and Riven and am part way through Exile (I will save Uru for after I've bought 4 (Revelation) and 5 (End of Ages).

One of the most impressive thing about Myst and it's sequels is it's cutting edge, photorealistic (for the time) graphics, some of which I will share with you now (thanks to http://au.ign.com/ for most of these images).

Myst - 1993


Pretty impressive for 1993 don't you think.

Riven - 1997



Exile - 2001



Exile was developed and published by by different companies from the first to games.

Revelation - 2004


These screenshots make me desperate to get up to this game.

End of Ages - 2005


While the graphics style of End of Ages differs from the previous three games I am still keen to play it as it is the conclusion to the story of the first three.

Uru - 2003



These puzzle solving adventure games are challenging and fun to play with engaging stories that I really enjoyed (and am still enjoying) to unravel.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Warrior Women

Recently in Australia women have been cleared to serve in combat. Whether you think this is wrong or right, agree or disagree it cannot be denied that women have a long history in the military. This post will focus on woman from ancient and medieval times as well as some mythological figures and gods. If you are interested, Wikipedia has pages on women in war in Ancient times, Medieval times, Early Modern times, 1750 - 1799, 1800-1899, 1900-1939, WWI, WWII, 1945-1999, and 2000-present.

The first historical record of a woman leading and fighting battles is the Egyptian regent Ahhotep I circa 1560-1530BC. She fought the Hyskos invasion and was buried with jewels, weapons and military honours.

Ahhotep I
*Please let me know if you have any lovely pictures of her.

Pallas Athene by Gustav Klimt, 1898.
Athene or Athena was the Greek god of wisdom and war. She was born from her father, Zeus's, skull fully armoured. Her male counterpart, Aries, is much more emotionally charged which is interesting when looking at later societies who categorised women as overly emotional and men as level headed.
The face you can see here on Athena's chest is the head of the gorgon Medusa given to her by Perseus.

By Alexander Zick.
Tomyris was the Queen of Massagetae in Central Asia in approx. 530BC. She is reported to have fought and eventually defeated the Persian Emperor Cyrus the Great.
"The queen [Tomyris], on hearing that Cyrus ignored her terms, engaged him in the field with all the forces she possessed... Finally, however, the Massagetae got the upper hand, the greater part of the Persian army was destroyed where it stood, and Cyrus himself was killed."
Herodotus, The Histories, 1.215.

Cloelia Passing the Tiber by Peter Paul Rubens, 1630-40.
Cloelia was a Roman girl given as one of many hostages to the Etruscan King, Lars Porsena in 508BC. Cloelia managed to escape the Etruscan camps and lead a number of other young female hostages across the Tiber and back to Rome. Porsena demanded that Rome return her and so they did, but he was so impressed by her that he let her choose other hostages to go free. She freed the young boys. The Romans paid tribute to Cloelia by erecting a statue of her on horseback at the top of the Sacred Way, an unprecedented honour. (Livy, The Early History of Rome, 2.13.)

Source
The Lady of Yue, otherwise known as the Maiden of the Southern Forest, was a master swordswoman living during the reign of King Goujian of Yue (496-465 BC). She trained his generals and served him as an advisor.

Battle of Salamis by Wilhelm von Kaulbach.
In the battle of Salamis (480BC) between Greece and Persia, Artemisia I of Caria commanded five ships under Xerxes the king of Persia and also served as his advisor. She was the only advisor to warn him against the battles which eventually cost him the war.
During the battle of Salamis Artemisia was targeted by a Greek trireme (Hellenistic-era warship), but she attacked a Persian ship, causing the Greeks to believe she was on their side. However Xerxes believed she had sunk a Greek ship and was very pleased.

Wounded Amazon by Franz von Stuck, 1904-05.
The Amazons are a tribe of warrior women in Greek mythology. Accounts of their customs, homeland and actions vary, although there are archaeological findings that suggest an element of truth to the Amazon myth. There is a lot of interesting information available if you want to know more.

"When the Greeks were at war with the Amazons (whom the Scythians call Oiorpata, a name signifying in our tongue killers of men, for in Scythian a man is “oior” and to kill is “pata”), the story runs that after their victory on the Thermodon they sailed away carrying in three ships as many Amazons as they had been able to take alive; and out at sea the Amazons attacked the crews and killed them."
Herodotus, The Histories, 4.110.1
Hypsicratea and Mithridates Riding into Battle.
Hypsicratea was a concubine who became Queen of Pontus when she married King Mithridates VI (134-63BC). She followed her husband into exile, donning armour and training in warfare to better serve him. She fought with axe, lance, sword and bow and arrow.

Boudica by Georgie Furst.
Boudica (circa 25-62AD) was a Celtic ruler of the Iceni people who lead an uprising against the Roman occupying forces in Britain.

Trieu Thi Trinh
A Vietnamese warrior from the 3rd century AD, Trieu Thi Trinh liberated part of Vietnam from the Wu kingdom (one of the three competing Chinese kingdoms) and for a time successfully resisted their advances.

Queen Mavia
Some time in the 4th century AD Mavia ruled over the Saracens of Southern Palestine and Northern Sinai she fought and repeatedly defeated the Romans who eventually signed a peace treaty with her. Later they requested martial aid and she granted them a troop of cavalry. She was Christianized by later historians.

Kahina
Kahina was a Berber, (In North Africa) religious and military leader although there seems to be some disagreement as to her actual nationality and faith (I'm no expert). Her actual name is Damiya (there are variations) but she was given the name al-Kāhina meaning female seer in classical Arabic.
In the 7th century AD Kahina lead the Berber tribes against the invading armies of the Umayyad Dynasty. While she withheld them for some time, the Berbers were eventually defeated..


Shield Maiden of Rohan

Shield Maidens are female warriors from Norse myth, though like the Amazons I personally believe there were likely a few female warriors fighting at the time giving rise to these legends. After all the best stories always have a grain of truth. And like the Amazons there are some historical accounts that support my belief. There were a lot of Shield Maiden pictures to choose from, some sexier than others, for some reason it seems common to believe they wore little other than their shields.

Tomoe Gozen by Kikuchi Yosai.
Tomoe Gozen was a 12th century female samurai. She fought in the Genpei war, was a skilled swordsman, archer, and rider, and was first captain to Minamoto, a samurai general.

Joan of Arc being burnt at the stake by Hermann Stilke, 1843.
 At seventeen Joan of Arc was the youngest woman to lead an entire nations army. She won many victories against the English, however, she also claimed to receive visions from God, which some people get sort of funny about. She was burnt at the stake as a heretic by the English but later she was made a saint.

Tamar of Georgia.
Tamar was the Queen Regent of Georgia from 1184 to 1213. She lead Georgia to its Golden Age and personally commanded her army.

Kunoichi by Yoshitaka Amano.
The Kunoichi were female ninjas trained in the arts of sabotage and assination among others. Ninjas were most apparent during the 15th century AD but possibly had antecedents as early as the 12th century AD.

Of course there are hundreds more I have not mentioned and millions we will never know about. I regret not including the Valkyrie and the Morrigan but no doubt will do a post on them specifically at some point. Please, if you have any favourite female warriors let everyone know about them in the comments.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Picture of the Week

It is a miserable day here in sunny Queensland. Rain, thunder, and general gloominess abound. That is why I chose the following as Picture of the Week!


Tlaloc, Aztec god of rain (as well as fertility and water). Today he has caused this foul weather, which I wouldn't mind so much, if I wasn't homely alone with a restless dog (he has finally settled, I just hope it lasts).

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Norman Lindsay

Prolific Australian Artist Norman Lindsay was born in February 1979 and died in November 1969.
I remember seeing a film about him when I was younger with Sam Neil, Hugh Grant and Portia De Rossi in it.
Today I was planning to do a post on dwarves but got carried away looking at Lindsay's work and couldn't resist sharing some of his amazing artworks with you.

Ambush, 1927

Creative Effort, 1920

Desert Island, 1933

Festical, 1923

Galleon's End, 1937

Wisdom's Devils, 1932

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