Art by Nike Schroeder

(Source: nikeschroeder.com)

juke243:

Some fun hand-made art by Dawn Rogal

magnolius:

Paper sculpture by Swiss artist Valérie Buess , this one titled “amazonenhelm”.

Scrap Metal Beast by Robert

 Jefferson Travis Pond

(Source: thisiscolossal.com)

sarakathleeen:

wilco at the mondavi center last night: beautiful, ephemeral, euphoric. they opened up with this little number (above) from their newest album, “one sunday morning,” and as the song grew, it was apparent that each odd curve and piece of paneling inside the mondavi center truly was designed for an outstanding acoustic experience. every twang of the song’s keyboard was visible and right in front of me. the crowd itself spoke volumes for the band’s musical accessibility: you had your typical scarf/beanie combo hipster in line to purchase a beer right next to your average jeans and tee-shirt grandpa. soccer moms and socialites came in hordes (overdressed and drinking wine) and there were a surprising number of children sporting ratty wilco attire (!). following the lengthy 12 minute opener, wilco wasted no time getting directly into the almost radiohead-esque (see: in rainbows: 15 step) “art of almost,” the title track from their latest, followed by “i might.” i like how they got their so-called “latest hit” songs right out of the way, so to speak, because so many bands will just wait to whip those out until you’re awkwardly left wondering…are they actually NOT going to play so and so?!

wilco stood in front of a curtain of hanging white things (rubber chickens, jellyfish, ghosts?) and delivered a solid 10 songs before saying a word of meet-and-greet. throughout the extremely varied set list (thank you wilco for harkening back to the older stuff and not just going though the motions of delivering your newest (quite amazing, however) album), tweedy blasted a guy for yelling “play freebird” (“do yourself a favor to humanity and never say that again; this must be why this place got pepper sprayed”), complimented a guy in the front row for his excessive collection of pens (the man then gave one to tweedy who declared “i feel a song will be written with this pen”), raved about the UC davis arboretum, and essentially shit on his fans (“clearly you guys didn’t get the no camera memo…there’s going to be a lot of pictures of my crotch, probably as your guy’s facebook profile pictures”). let’s just say tweedy himself isn’t as accessible as wilco’s music as a whole, but hey, it’s rock and roll right? and if you know wilco, you know this already. as long as the lead singer of a band i’m seeing isn’t kicking front-rowers in the face, blatantly supporting some outlandish public policy, or killing puppies on his or her off-time, i don’t mind the occasional on-stage underhanded jab or (distasteful?) sass. keeps me awake…call me masochistic.

following an eerie rendition of “black moon” in which tweedy’s haunting “i was always right/about the morning/okay, i’m an old shoe” further soothed the already captivated crowd into a state of hypnosis, the singer announced that they were done with their “introspective numbers” and immediately blasted into the squeaky-riffed intro of “i’m the man who loves you” followed by “i am trying to break your heart,” two stellar choices from yankee hotel foxtrot. this second hour was a cacophony of all their albums, constructed artfully like a smooth rainbow. each song was yes, a rendition of the studio version, but with an extra kick in the form of an extended jam session mid-song or an added keyboard note.

and really? a 5-song encore? this might be the only part of the show that rubbed me the wrong way. it seemed rushed and a little bit heartless. not that i don’t love wilco to death, but an encore is supposed to be a hard-hitting, memorable summation of the band’s show rather than (what appeared to be) a drawn out effort to reach the 2-hour time limit. the third song of the encore, billy bragg & wilco’s “california stars,” gained stacked momentum as the crowd sang along and couples swayed in unison to the ode to the california landscape. this would have been their better proverbial nightcap as the momentum fizzled when the song ended. either way, if this is the only complaint i have (hey, beers weren’t even that expensive, either) then consider me extremely pleased and musically high. 

(via sarakathleeen-deactivated201204)

Tree Leaves Made of Stitched and Knotted Human Hair by Jenine Shereos

Oil Paintings by John Stuart Berger

(Source: johnstuartberger.com)