Entries in Donnie Darko (7)
Beauty vs Beast: Gyllenhaal x 3
Who is with me in missing Jason's Beauty vs. Beast column? He's been offline a lot this month. So here's a Beauty vs Beast in his honor, training our eyes on the one and only Jake Gyllenhaal. Or, rather, the Jake Gyllenhaals as he's versatile.
Therein lies the twist. It's All-Beautiful Jake (Brokeback Mountain & Love & Other Drugs) versus Beautiful & Beastly Jake (Donnie Darko & Jarhead) versus All-Beastly Jake (Southpaw & Nightcrawler). Who gets your vote? Ready? You're always ready for Jake. So go... Vote and Comment. Pound your keyboard so hard that you wake Jason up and he returns to us next week to resume his series.
Previously on Beauty vs Beast...
Janet Leigh's Marion Crane beat Anthony Perkin's Norman Bates by a slim but still surprising 55% of your votes. Your love blindsided us. Jason and I both thought it would turn out differently given that Norma Bates is an immortal villain and Marion Crane is well, dead and buried (or, rather, submerged) but y'all are so predictable when there's an actress involved. Hence this week's all male challenge. There's no actress to win your automatic vote. However will it turn out?
Curio: Thrift Store Paintings Reimagined
Alexa here. I'm a self-professed lover of thrift store art: paint-by-numbers, portraits on velvet, Margaret Keane wannabe prints, Warner Sallman's Head of Christ, the cheesier the better. So illustrator David Irving's current project has me feeling a little "why didn't I think of that?" envy: David collects old thrift store prints and paintings and, in his words, "re-directs" them by adding well-known characters or objects into the scene, many from the world of the movies. The works operate as sly collages that conflate the two worlds (almost) seamlessly.
Here are some of my favorites...
Curio: Danielle Buerli's Three-dimensional Tributes
Alexa here with your weekly art appreciation. In my frequent perusals of the pop culture artwork shown at Gallery1988, Danielle Buerli's work has always stood out. Danielle is an illustrator working out of Zurich, Swizerland. While in art school, Danielle's illustrations began to emerge from the page, and now she primarily creates diorama environments with found materials, often with inspiration from popular culture.
Here are some examples of her wonderful movie tributes (more after the jump... )
Curio: Suspect and Fugitive
Alexa here with your weekly arts and crafts. Nathaniel's banana Bond boredom from last week reminded me of a project that Seattle-based artist Kris Garland/Rakka Deer did back in 2008. Titled Suspect and Fugitive, the series involved making one item a day from suspect (questionable) and fugitive (non archival) materials. This involved Rakka combining pop culture portraiture with food (and sometimes other materials) in new and clever ways every day for one year.
Like this pancake Cate Blanchett...
Maybe Nathaniel should try this. Favorite actresses and foodstuffs maybe? In any case, here is some more inspiration courtesy of Rakka from Donnie Darko to Doris Day after the jump