Wall Street Cyclops by Charles Santoso

Well? How do you think a cyclops would adapt to life in the fast lane? Now I've seen this, I kind of wish they were real... Think I might suggest this concept to my urban fantasy writing friends. I'd love to see what other improvements (aka damage - depending on where you're standing) he would do.

Created by the very talented Australian illustrator Charles Santoso who has a wonderful blog HERE and can be followed on Twitter HERE. Every one of his pictures seems to tell a story (often with a little wink and a nod). His style if wonderfully appealing and there's quite a bit of myth and folktale thrown into his work too so be sure to have a good browse.

Via the always-awesome Super Punch.

Furniture & Home Goods for Colussus (and other Giants)

Did you know local Los Angeles giants (as in ogres and their kin) actually have someone making furniture for them? Well sort of. I'm sure Robert Therrien would be surprised if Jack's nemesis appeared at the workshop and ordered a set of replacement plates but at least he could fulfill the order and keep a troublesome customer happy!
The Los Angeles based artist creates over-sized (REALLY over-sized) plates, tables, chairs, pots and pans and more (which make for awesome photos ops!). You can see more images HERE.

The image above gives me instant Jack and the Beanstalk recall.

From an older exhibit reviewed by Absoluetartsnews.com:

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art – LACMA – presents the exhibition Robert Therrien from February 20 through May 7, 2000. Robert Therrien features six major sculptures, most done within the last five years. Among the newer motifs included in the exhibition are a spiral of fifteen beds, a stack of giant plates and bowls, and three 15-foot fake beards that hang on their stands from armatures that would encircle a monumental pair of ears. A further selection of two- and three-dimensional pieces in a variety of media illuminates the artist’s unique method of developing and recycling imagery.

Did you see the note about the 15 FOOT BEARDS?! This is a guy homo-gigantor-sapiens must love (sorry - not sure of the actual Latin classification of giants). It probably comes as no surprise to learn Mr. Therrien's first exposure to art was comic books. There's an awesome article on him and his wonderful art HERE.
On a related note, looks like some messy teenage giants have been roaming Venice and leaving their chewing gum behind them... (See HERE for some more great - as in both giant and cool - pictures like the one below).
Anyone noticed how we sometimes find evidence of giants (footprints, chewed gum etc) but not the actual giants themselves? Methinks giants must be super-stealthy!

Red With A Twist Makes "Top 10" Best Designed Movie Posters

The movie is "Hard Candy", the year was 2006 and features our beloved Red - sort of. It's a psychological thriller (as you might have guessed from the poster) and it doesn't take much to see why this design is so good.

From Total Film:

... the best thing about this poster is that it throws us a complete curveball – our immediate assumption that this kid is in for a torrid time, but then we look again and notice, hey, she isn’t actually caught in that trap...

You can read the rest of the poster review HERE.If you're interested, you can learn more about the movie on Wikipedia HERE but please note: this movie (or its description) is not for the faint of heart. The review excerpt above has given you a clue...

Red Riding Hood in Blue

Yep. Red Riding Hood is wearing blue - at least in the photos we've seen so far. Cast-in-costume photos shot behind-the-scenes of the movie-currently being shot in Vancouver, Canada, include pics of co-stars Virginia Madsen (Red’s mom), Gary Oldman, Cole Heppell, Jen Halley, Billy Burke and Lukas Haas.

(Yes, that's the on-screen love interest, played by Shiloh Fernandez.)

You can see all 17 photos HERE.

But that's not all.

All sites posting and commenting on the photos agree the costuming for Amanda Seyfried, who plays the title role in The Girl With the Red Riding Hood (working title), isn't sporting the iconic Red Riding look. But I suggest you take a closer look.

Maybe I'm reading much more into this than is intended but is anybody else looking at the virgin blue, the red threads woven in, the 'horny' headdress and thinking that maybe the costume is perhaps closer to a red hood than it first appears? Of course I could totally be reading into it. I do love symbology and have a tendency to see it everywhere but if this isn't intentional I'll be very surprised. Any costume designer worth their salt builds story into their characters' costumes, even if it's story that's never directly addressed. This appears a little less subtle than that to me, but it's effective, nevertheless.

The plot remains largely a mystery at this point other than "a Gothic retelling of Red Riding Hood" (actually it would be 'Little Red Cap' as 'Hood' is the Perrault version) and the IMDB one sentence synopsis:

Set in a medieval village that is haunted by a werewolf, a young girl falls for an orphaned woodcutter, much to her family's displeasure.

... but the dress, particularly the one with the horned headdress (which would logically appear to follow the 'walking in blue with boots' one at the head of this post), says a lot. Particularly about transformation, magic, blood magic, lust (and hormones) and innocence.

Until the script and story come to light speculation is king but so far I haven't seen anyone connect the dots like in this particular way. iO9 mentions magic but even the 'sexy superstar' sites haven't twigged to the horned = lust = sexual maturation aspect of Red that I've seen.

Just my take.

Of course, you didn't really think they would do a 'Red' film completely minus the hood, did you? I found the other half to the top photo. Take a look at what Amanda's harried assistant (dresser?) is holding over her arm.
Note: Additional horned headdress costume images via HERE and Amanda-plus-assistant photo found HERE.

Story of Snow White - Art by "12x07"

DeviantArtist "12x07" had her Snow White image featured on the site recently with this recommendation:

story of snow white by ~12x07... some juicy, energetic pop art to quench one's hunger for bold colours, masterful execution, and tantalisingly awesome loose structuring, with an endearing subject matter in addition to all... how could one resist?

Watercolor with white gouache and, if I'm not mistaken, a little Klimt influence in there too. Even with the traditional 'girl holds apple' presentation of the character it still brings some fresh perspective to the story.

You can see more of "12x07"s dark work on her deviantArt gallery HERE.

Fairies in Lampshades & A Forest of Forks - Meet Compagnie Akselere's Sleeping Beauty

This would have to be the most unusual theatrical retelling of The Sleeping Beauty I've seen in some time. Perrault is credited as the source author while Liverpool-born, French artist and puppeteer Colette Garriger is the creator & main performer. The show is just arriving in the US now after an lengthy international tour, with performances scheduled from September 2010 on.
Here's the official blurb:

At her birth they call her "Princess." Her fate is sealed. Left to her own devices and brilliant imagination, this modern day Princess pays off her debts and takes her skeletons out of the cupboard once and for all. Now arriving in the United States after an international tour comes a creative retelling of the Briar Rose tale joining shadow puppetry, object theater, and passionate monologue into a hard-hitting story filled with dark humor.Created by Liverpool-born, French-transplant artist and puppeteer Colette Garrigan.

* Funded in part by a Jim Henson Foundation Presenter's Grant (2010)

And excerpted from a review on Australian Stage:

This version of Sleeping Beauty is closer to a nightmare than a fairytale. A girl grows up in a poor family in Liverpool, England. She is the youngest of seven. Her father dies. She gets farmed out to her grandmother who locks her in the cupboard under the stairs. She steals and thinks it is so exciting to be going in a police car that she waves to all the people she knows. She meets boys who lead her astray. And she knows she is a princess and that prince charming will arrive - even if it is in the form of a medical miracle.From the mind of creator and puppeteer Colette Garrigan comes a passionate monologue with shadow puppets about the loss of innocence and reality versus fairytale.... Garrigan is very much centre stage, and creates the shadow puppets primarily from herself and various unusual objects on the table in the centre of the stage. Forks become a forest, a toaster rack a shopping centre, all projected onto the white semi transparent screen hung at the back. This is not puppetry as most would know it, with only one brief scene using small hand operated puppets that are ingeniously fitted into a lampshade.

You can read the whole article HERE and see more performance photos from the company site HERE.

Kelley Lubsen's 'The Seven Swans' and Other Fairy Tale Art

A recent lovely fairy tale discovery on deviantArt, this picture of the Seven Swans is so beautiful I wish I could get a copy for my wall (one of all-time my favorite tales and I grew up with a single book with '7' swans as opposed to the six or twelve that were included in the fairy tale collections). You can see a much larger version with deviantArt stamp HERE.

You can definitely see the Trina Schart Hyman influence (one of my favorite illustrators and apparently one of hers,according to her bio on deviantArt) and I don't think that's a bad thing at all. In fact, more please!

The artist, Kelley Lubsen, known as FAyliN on deviantArt, is a recent graduate of University of the Arts (May 2010) and while she doesn't have a huge gallery on deviantArt it's worth taking a look all the same (click HERE). Fortunately, she also has an online gallery with her latest work HERE including some pieces from the Three Little Pigs and Peter Pan (see small examples at left & a HUGE version HERE, noting you'll have to scroll down a long way to find them). It's a little brighter and still lovely (though I adore the muted tones myself) and the truly gorgeous colored pencil work continues.

I do hope she continues to pursue fairy tale illustration and wish her the best of luck in her career.

Mermaids and Oil Spills

OPINION ALERT!
Plus controversial images and story below:

Vogue Italia has shot a controversial 'oil spill inspired' fashion editorial, complete with models (in their very expensive oil-covered clothes) simulating animals in distress. The image below in particular made me think this is what mermaids might look like (albeit it 'glamorized' in horrible positions) if they were real and having to cope with the recent oil spill tragedy. There are many other images, one which I found rather disturbing (which kind of looked like a mermaid coughing up oil) so I'll just stick with the cover and the one above for the blog.

You may ask why I'm posting this, especially since I was bothered by the spread, and my answer is this: I think it's an important issue to think about. Not all stories are nice - not the real ones, not fairy tales - but they're still something we should consider. Imagine the little mermaid's journey complicated by such a disaster. It's not so far fetched from what's actually been happening. Stories can help us work through issues that are too difficult in real life to properly face and to consider the mermaid angle is, I think, good brain food. Does it distance the tragedy? Or does it make us more passionate in our efforts to protect the environment and the earth's creatures? Perhaps putting a human (albeit mermaid here) face on the victims* may make us more conscious of our actions in future. [*Note: the victims do in fact include humans - many have lost their homes and livelihoods as a result of the disaster, not to mention the initial tragedy of workers killed.]

I won't make any more personal comments except to say I completely get the controversy over this.

You can go HERE see the entire spread via Refinery29.com and make sure to read the short post. Also note the links to help clean up and the comments written below by different points of view (neither are affiliated with Vogue Italia).

Via Super Punch.

Rapunzel in Legos

For Lego enthusiasts, please note the concentric rings used in this construction (wow!). Seriously awesome brick building and tale telling all in one go.

From The Brothers Brick:

Jordan Schwartz (Sir Nadroj) built a very bright interpretation of Rapunzel’s tower. The technique of stacking concentric rings to create a conical tower is very clever, and the effect is one of a kind. The creation looks deceptively smaller than its actual size, which is actually 3 feet tall.

The top level of the tower is modeled after the Peles Castle in Romania while the round part of the tower was based on a Lego design by Deborah Higden (you can see the Rapunzel tower designer's initial questions about the ring construction in the comments).

This 'MOC' (standing for 'My Own [Lego ] Creation') also got a write-up in Issue 10 of the official BrickJournal magazine, meaning the creator (and the fairy tale creation) were both recognized for the feat of 'brick engineering' it is.

You can see more detailed images HERE and see more creations by 17 year old 'Brick Master' Jordan Schwartz (pictured above) HERE.

Fairy Tale Art by Pat Brennan

Goldilocks and the Bears

For your viewing pleasure I'm posting just a few of the fairy tale themed work by digital artist/illustrator Pat Brennan (on deviantArt as moonmomma). The Goldilocks one at the head of the post remains one of my favorites, since seeing it a few years ago.

The Piper

Cinders in the Limelight

The Princess and the Pea

Yuki Onna

Undine

She has a LOT of gorgeous work in her deviantArt gallery, mostly fantasy based (lots of fairies and mermaids) so be sure to visit, take a look and leave a nice comment (and maybe hint how great it would be to see even more fairy tale pieces.. hint, hint). You can also visit her website HERE and her Flickr account HERE.

The talent must run in the family. Her daughter, Rebecca Parker, is just breaking into the book cover illustration biz too.

I'd love to see Pat work on a specific fairy tale project for a book herself though. She has such a lovely touch. While she does do commissions I gather she's very busy, so if you want to work with her be persistent in trying to contact her and let me know if you work together.