Fish & Bird 4

Au Revoir Simone Remixed

One of my favorite lady-bands, Au Revoir Simone, have just released a remix album of their The Bird of Music called Reverse Migration which features remixes from Jean-Benoît Dunckel of Air, Alexis Taylor of Hot Chip, The Teenagers, Best Fwends and Ruff and Jam, and a few others. Since their original The Bird of Music album features all electronic beats anyway, it already sounds like an album of "remixes," so I am not too sure this new release is anything short of a marketing ploy, but it still is fun to listen to. Check it out here: http://amiestreet.com/music/au-revoir-simone/reverse-migration/

Fish & Bird 4

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders

The Wunderkammer exhibit reminded me of one of my very favorite films, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, that I also had discovered at MoMA at their PopRally screening last Halloween. The imagery is incredibly beautiful and surreal with that wonderfully hazy 70's coloration (think Virgin Suicides, but more gothic/romantic, erotic and dreamlike with vampires!). I am beginning to believe one of MoMA's curators and I should be friends.

Wunderkammer: A Century of Curiosities

Four Generations- Seb Patane

The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity - Odilon Redon

Locust Tank - Nicholas Lampart

This Sunday, I went to MoMA and saw the Wundekammer: A Century of Curiosities exhibit. It seems to be set up as to show how delightfully strange and beautiful the artist's mind is, using 20th & 21st century artists work and 16th, 17th, and 18th century old collectibles that evoke the spirit of the Wunderkammer, a collection of oddities that emerged in 16th century Europe. The curation of this exhibition hints that there is a collective unconscious of interest in the manipulation of nature clashing with society represented in the similarly stylized collages, drawings and grostesquely assembled sculptures and found objects. Although the context of the original works became to be overshadowed by the fact that a lot of the work simply looked alike, it was still enjoyable to see since I love pretty/creepy things.

Fish & Bird 3

Third Bird & Fish painting.

Sawdust and Diamonds

I have been listening to Joanna Newsom nonstop. Someone try to stop me.

Fish & Bird Painting 2

Stolen Style

I totally stole her style (well, actually, the stylist for this Nylon spread) for a shoot I styled for a model that looked exactly like her.
See?

So Fragile

I have a little girl crush on French actress Clemence Poesy.

She is the daintest.

This image I found from the outtakes from her featured spread in Blast Magazine.

She looks cold.

Fish & Bird Painting 1

First of my Fish & Bird paintings series.

Vain and Vapid

This image was taken from a blog that I had stumbled upon:

http://vainandvapid.blogspot.com

This lovely lady makes her own clothing and styles her own beautiful photoshoots. The style is simple, innocent and very fresh. I am an admirier.

More Birds...

Iconomania = Obsession with Icons or Portraits

When I was in college, my drawing teacher took us to the Met and explained that, eventhough no one really thinks about it now, all of the nude portraits of women were like modern day Playboy portraits for the rich men to put in their salons. I always wondered how the nude male statues were received. Why do we feel completely comfortable viewing nudity in fine art form only?

Distracted Gods

Another beautiful pale sepia, yellow, green, and apricot pink image. Love with the looming possiblity of danger. The anatomical rendering of the woman figure is bizarre and lumpy.

Ghosts in Color

I need to find more vintage sepia toned photograghs that have been painted. The colors are so vivid compared to the hauntingly washed out background and figures. This would actually make an interesting fashion photography spread.

Pretty Junk

If garage sales were color coordinated...

Two Love Birds

Pigeon and Turtle Dove sitting in a tree...

Big Bird

I love the feathered headdress and the fuzzy, yellow 70's polaroid vibe. So dainty.

Yellows, Greens and Pinks

I believe that when someone experiences true inspiration, the reaction is nothing short of complete obsession. I am a painter, and I constantly struggle with being inspired, and creating imagery our of my idea that is actually aesthetically pleasing. *Sigh. However, lately I have taken on a project inspired by the song "Fish & Bird" by Tom Waits. (In fact, all of the songs are amazingly beautiful, and as "dainty" as Tom Waits can get.) However, this song in particular literally brought tears to me eyes- that rarely happens. If you have not heard the song, it is about the tragic impossibilty of the love between a little bird and a whale:
"He said, 'You cannot live in the ocean'; And she said to him'; You never can live in the sky'; But the ocean is filled with tears; And the sea turns into a mirror; There's a whale in the moon when it's clear; And a bird on the tide"
Oh God! Sniffle, sniffle. So, I have decided to paint little birds and fish with one another. In my search of images, I have stumbled upon these beatuiful images with awe-inspiring colors...

Hello, stranger...

Welcome to Pretty Oddities- a self indulgent, yet hopefully inspiring site that pays homage to all that I find to be beautifully strange. From images that I have stumbled upon to imagery I have been obessively imagining, each post is a little glimpse into what it means to eternally daydreaming in color. Summed up in my favorite quote from one of my all time favorite books, "We felt the imprisionment of being a girl, how it made your mind active and dreamy and how you learnt what colors went together." - Jeffery Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides