Blu Big Boom

Blu's latest creative opus, just posted on Vimeo, is spreading like wildfire all over the web, 
and deservedly so, since it's another huge and fantastic work of genius by Italy's greatest street artist. 
Enjoy!

An Antique Treasure Chest

Illustration from medieval French manuscript

I love how I can always rely on the web for interesting discoveries and pleasant surprises.

 From awesome artists I had never heard about, to wonderful blogs and information 

resources, I can find it all in the comfort of my studio, at any time I please, for the small

 price of an ADSL connection. I try to remember not to take this for granted, and to be 

grateful to the countless people who in their personal way contribute to this incredible 

and ever growing public repository of knowledge and art. Having worked in the past as an

 iconographic researcher in the publishing field, I know well how hard it used to be to 

find images for specific projects without having to pay high prices to agencies or spend 

hours looking around in dusty bookstores (by the way, I do enjoy dusty bookstores).

Medieval illustration from beekeeping manuscript

Blue kingfisher and lilies from Livre de Fleur, 1620

Illustration by Mark Catesby from History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, 1780

This morning, when thanks to Tumblr I came upon vintageprintable.com, I reacted with 

the classic "How come I haven't seen this before?". The website, as the name implies, 

hosts a huge collection of downloadable and printable public domain images. The animal

 section alone contains hundreds of variously catalogued images, from medieval

 bestiaries to Buffon, from Japanese prints to 1960s stamps. The kind of stuff one can 

usually find in Dover books, great for collages, crafts, and overall inspiration, but in a 

free digital format. The project is the brainchild of Swivelchair, a biopharma professional

 with the hobby of curating out-of-copyright scientific illustration.

Elephant and Zebra from Infants cabinet of Birds and Beasts, 1820

Echidna from Complements de Buffon, 1838

Ink wash illustration from Jean Baptiste Vérany's

Mèmoire sur deux nouvelles espèces de Céphalopodes trouvées dans l'océan, 1839

Butterflies from Oriental Entomology by J. O. Westwood, 1848

Indian snake charmers, 18th-19th century

Plate from Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur, 1904

(one of my favorite illustrated books ever)

Cover of A Cat Alphabet by Louis Wain, 1910

Brothers Grimm German stamp, 1963

All images in this post are a semi-random selection of things found at vintage printable.

Go take a look and try not to get lost; there's a lot more to see.

Carnival Animals

As mentioned in a previous post, I recently visited my hometown of Viareggio 

on the Tuscan coast to participate in the local Carnival festivities. The main events 

of the month long extravaganza are five parades of huge allegorical papier-maché floats

 (up to twenty meters tall) and masks accompanied by musical bands along the large

 beachside promenade known as "La Passeggiata". At the end of the festival, a jury awards

 prizes to the best floats. Started as a local celebration in 1873, the Carnival gradually

became one of Italy's most famous. Nowadays it attracts over 1.000.000 visitors every year.

This year's winning float, the ecological Earth, the only mother by Roberto Vannucci

Detail from Stolen love by Massimo Breschi, thanks to Luciano Castro on flickr

The themes represented on floats and masks range from political satire and social 

commentary to caricatures of celebrities and pure flights of fancy. This year's subjects

 included Obama, a variety of Berlusconis, a Metropolis-inspired automaton, a spooky 

Michael Jackson, and the monster above symbolizing violence against women. 

The characters are animated by various workers hosted in their complex wooden structures. 

A number of singers and dancers in costume also contribute to the floats' lively appearance.

Second place was awarded to Dance of the Dragon by Verlanti and F.lli Bonetti,

an allegory of China's rising power. I especially enjoyed the special effects: glowing eyes

 (a popular feature this year) and smoke coming out of the dragon's mouth.

A group of masks that really caught my eye was Fish and Plastic by Roberto De Leo, 

7 papier maché aquatic creations decorated with plastic cups, straws, cutlery, 

bottles and other materials.

In recent times there's been quite a bit of experimentation with new forms, techniques

 and materials. Last year my dear friends Gilbert Lebigre and Corinne Roger, a couple 

of artists who moved from France to Viareggio thirty years ago to follow their passion 

for papier maché, built a float featuring an awesome group of geese covered in feathers

 made of plastic bags. Their latest production, inspired by Italy's growing 

government-fueled anti-immigration paranoia, was also insanely great.

See a Sea Anemone

Lisa Barcy directed this lovely claymation featuring sea anemones and other wiggling

undersea creatures for Andrew Bird's song Anoanimal (from the 2009 album Noble Beast)

Etsy Beasts

So much to do, so little time... and yesterday all day in bed with the flu!

Here are a few sweet picks from some favorite etsy shops, still in time for Christmas

Star Belly underneath my bed limited edition print at firefluff

Blue whale book stickers at boygirlparty

Marcel Poisson at loulouandoscar

Crocheted seahorse at jpolka

Shirley print at kwilson544

Hen soft sculpture at whileshenaps

Small polar bear plate at oneblackbird

Raccoon costume print at Hisss

Baby porcupine fine art print at SharonMontrose

Pushmi-pullyu - Two Headed Lama signed art print at moonflygirl

Small Arctic Fox scarflette at PilliPillihandmade

Peace ladybug cotton tote bag at dindolina