By Jacques-Louis David, 1781. Poor old Woodland Plants, Sellers Wood
Now that the weather’s cleared up, yesterday evening I headed outside for a woodland walk. Quite an interesting time of year, with not only the woodland poster boy – Bluebells – out in full, but stacks more interesting species: Early Purple Orchid, Greater Stitchwort (the name comes from when it was used to treat stitch), Wood Anemone. Hawthorn trees were starting to blossom, too.
Arts & Crafts Book Cover Design
Being a fan of William Morris and the Arts & Crafts Movement (and for his pioneering science fiction, environmentalism and politics as much as his artistic influence), this exhibition sounds rather interesting: From Rossetti to Voysey: Arts & Crafts Stamped Cloth Book Cover Design, at Blackwell in Cumbria.
The exhibition brings together books with case-bound cloth covers by well known artists and designers, published between 1866 and 1911 and issued by commercial publishers. The featured designers read like a roll-call of the leading names of the day, including: DG Rossetti, William Morris, Philip Webb, Charles Ricketts, Walter Crane, Laurence Housman and Gleeson White.
The covers have been selected on the grounds of their style and for the proximity of their designers to the core of the Arts & Crafts Movement. Most of those included had work shown at the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society; four of the designers were Masters of the Art Workers Guild.
Jonah
Jonah is a forthcoming animated film from Kibwe Tavares @ Factory Fifteen, who made the incredible Robots of Brixton (basically, a short film that genre fandom should really be paying attention to, instead of the usual suspects). The above teaser artwork has just been released. What’s it about?
Jonah is a story set in the fishing town of Zanzibar of a changing man in a changing town. Aggressive tourism sparked through Jonah’s discovery of the world biggest fish has caused the town and himself to change beyond recognition. The town is now a glowing, tacky, money making, wildly opportunistic beach town, which has abandoned its original fishing roots. As an old man Jonah is ashamed of what his old fishing town has become and decides to hunt down the legendary fish and kill it, killing what it represents.
Jonah is being made in partnership with Film4, BFI, Channel4, Shine Films.
More over on the Factory Fifteen website.
Riding the Subway with Kubrick
A gallery of photos taken by Stanley Kubrick in 1946 of life on the Subway.
The Penguin English Library
An animation (of a peculiar journey for one particular Penguin) from award-winning director Woof Wan-Bau, to celebrate the launch of the Penguin English Library.