Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Pink Elephants on Parade


Cover illustration by Toshiyuki Fukuda

One of the few reasons I did like going to the Circus as a kid,
at the end I got to ride the baby elephant...

CYRK elephant poster by Jan Mlodozeniech, 1966

CYRK elephant poster by Hubert Hilscher, 1964

Circus elephant by Roger Hilton, 1973

Elephant by Naoto Kitamura

Elephant with long trunk by Mieczyslaw Wasilewski, 1974

Skinny elephant with butterfly ears by Andrzej Pagowski, 1979

Carlsberg Elephant Beer by Kjed Nielsen, 1960

La Collina degli Elefanti book cover by Sabrina Lupacchini, 2007

Baby elephant by Sebastiano Ranchetti

Illustration from La Petite Famille by John Alcorn, 1964
thanks to art.crazed's fantastic flickr stream

The Elephant Book cover by Ed Powers, 1963
thanks to Eric Sturdevant's awesome flickr collection of vintage children's books

Red Elephant by Edward Gorey

Calico Elly by Ward Jenkins

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Sunday Safari – The Circus is in Town

Christmastime in Italy is also Circus time (ok, here everyday is Circus time - 
but that's another story). I have never been a fan of traditional circus animal acts, 
but how could I escape the charm of their colorful and quirky transfiguration into 
a rainbow of shapes, silhouettes and symmetries by imaginative artists across the land?

Two illustrations from the comic book Alex, Il Piccolo fantastico Giocoliere
(Alex, the Amazing Juggler) by Gianni Peg, 1981

Cyrk by Józef Wilkon

Illustration from Wio, Leokadio by Elzbieta Murawska, 1974,
thanks to Ksiazki / Books

Hooggeëerd publiek. Circus in Nederland Toneelmuseum poster,
Amsterdam, 1978, from ReclameArsenaal

Cirque de Moscou sur Glace poster by Henri Galeron, 1990

3 Beagles, Monkey on bicycle, 2 growling tigers, and 2 hugging bears
posters by Wiktor Gorka, 1968–71

Bobinski's Mouse Circus Band, drawings for Coraline by Jon Klassen, 2007

Illustration by Violeta Lopiz, 2007

2 circus posters from bpx' fantastic USSR posters collection on flickr

Gianluigi Toccafondo - The Tail




Gianluigi Toccafondo is a very talented painter, illustrator and animator who lives in Milan since 1987. He was born in the tiny country of San Marino (like Nicoletta Ceccoli) in 1965, and received his artistic training from his ceramist father and later at ISIA graphic school in Urbino. He has collaborated with many important Italian publishers and magazines, and is famous for the animated videos he creates for advertising and tv show title sequences. Toccafondo has also produced seven animated short films as personal projects. For his 1989 debut La coda (the tail), he used about 1200 stills from Buster Keaton movies, which he photographed, xeroxed, painted and then filmed with a 35mm camera.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

We sailed away on a winter's day


...thinking of Joanna Newsom, this sweet stop-motion video was produced 
by Jovana Sarver in the Film and Video classroom of her high school in Harrisburg, PA.


the sight of bridges and balloons makes calm canaries irritable!

The Meadowlark and the Chim-choo-ree and the Sparrow

Amy Dover is a young artist from County Durham in North East England. 
She studied Art and Graphic Design, and after graduating in 2008, 
has been devoting her talents to art, illustration and letterpress printing.
Amy's draws inspiration from nature, folktales and ancient myths. 
She loves antiques and vintage ephemera, and sometimes uses old books 
and letters as a support for her graphite pencil drawings.





Amy also loves listening to music, and for her degree show she decided to illustrate 
some of the animal metaphors contained in Joanna Newsom's Ys. Seeing her Ys-inspired
 artworks on Behance really piqued my interest, since I am a huge Newsom fan. 
In fact, after discovering Ys, I spent months obsessively listening to it and extolling 
its virtues to family and friends. I think that Amy's project is a fantastic idea, since
 Newsom's songs are full of poetic narratives, deep symbolism and beautiful imagery.
 Dover's haunting animal pictures, much like Joanna's songs, are exquisitely 
and traditionally crafted, and explore the dramatic aspects of the natural world 
and its conflictual relation with our "civilized" approach to life.

Blind My Buttons with Salt. Fill My Long Ears with Bees,
from Newsom's Sawdust and Diamonds

Ursula, from Monkey and Bear

Half-word, from Only Skin

Amy's first solo show was held last July at her sister's Electrik Sheep gallery in Newcastle,
and her prints, stickers and postcards can be purchased from her website.

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