Quotes: Paul Klee

Color possesses me. I don't have to pursue it. It will possess me always, I know it. That is the meaning of this happy hour: Color and I are one. I am a painter.

From artist Paul Klee, 1879-1940.

Category: Quotes

Music: Arcade Fire Video "Neighborhood #3"

Arcade Fire's Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) is a great song that reminds me of 80s New Order and it has a great video that reminds me of 90s Radiohead.

The video played fine in Internet Explorer but Yahoo Music does not support the Firefox browser.

Category: Music

Art: Matisse, His Art and His Textiles

The exhibition Matisse, His Art and His Textiles. The Fabric of Dreams will be on display at the Royal Academy of Arts in London and then the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York this year. Dr. Janet McKenzie describes it on Studio International:

The premise of 'Matisse, His Art and His Textiles' is that textiles were 'the key to (Matisse's) visual imagination'. Hilary Spurling has recently published the second volume of her scholarly and impressive biography of Matisse, which inspired this current exhibition. In her catalogue, she admits that a comprehensive study of the role played by textiles in Matisse's career is not possible; nonetheless, she puts forward a most convincing argument for the importance of fabrics in his work, which, she argues, stimulated and released his creative powers. The exhibition aims to show that the essential properties of fabrics enabled Matisse to break through to a new level of pictorial reality. In the past, art historians and critics have emphasised Matisse's genius as a colourist; his decorative materials have been viewed in the general realm of 'oriental influence'. John Berger, however, captured the essence of his powers: 'He clashed his colours together like cymbals, and the effect was like a lullaby.'

Category: Art

Web: Firefox Throws and Finds

There are a couple nice Firefox tips in Jason Sweeny's Tips Towards Faster Web Browsing:

5. The SuperDragAndGo Extension allows you to select a link or a piece of text and "throw it" (drag it slightly) to open links or Google searches in a new tab.
   
6. Activate Find-as-you-Type to perform quicker word finds on web pages.

[via Lifehacker]

Here's the current list of Firefox extensions I use.

Categories: Web, Firefox

Music: Tone396 Mix

Download Tone396's latest mix Tone396@The.Controls.05 featuring the Chemical Brothers, New Order, Gwen Stefani, Billy Corgan, Nine Inch Nails, and the Prodigy among 26 tracks.

Category: Music

Quotes: Matisse's Dream

What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter - a soothing, calming influence on the mind, rather like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.

From Henri Matisse, 1869-1954, via the May issue of icon.

Category: Quotes

Art: Pollock on Art

Jackson Pollock from Constable.net's Artists on Art:

I continue to get further away from the usual painter's tools such as easel, palette, brushes, etc. I prefer sticks, trowels, knives and dripping fluid paint or a heavy impasto with sand, broken glass and other foreign matter added.

When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a sort of 'get acquainted' period that I see what I have been about. I have no fears about making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well.

Category: Art

Design: The Principles of Design

Digital Web Magazine's The Principles of Design is the first of three articles that look like a great foundation for web designers without a graphic design background:

Let’s begin by focusing on the principles of design, the axioms of our profession. Specifically, we will be looking at the following principles:

• Balance
• Rhythm
• Proportion
• Dominance
• Unity

Categories: Design, Web