Art

BEN VENOM

Source: Past — BEN VENOM

Ben Venom graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2007 with a Master of Fine Arts degree. His work has been shown both nationally and internationally including the Levi Strauss Museum (Germany), National Folk Museum of Korea, HPGRP Gallery (Tokyo), Fort Wayne Museum, Charlotte Fogh Gallery (Denmark), Taubman Museum of Art, Gregg Museum of Art and Design, and the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles. He has been interviewed by NPR: All Things Considered, Playboy, Juxtapoz Magazine, KQED, Maxim, and CBS Sunday Morning. Venom has lectured at the California College of Arts, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Midlands Art Centre, Humboldt State University, Oregon College of Art and Craft, and Adidas. Recently, he was the artist in residence at MASS MoCA and the de Young Museum. Ben Venom is currently Visiting Faculty at the San Francisco Art Institute.

 

Also:

https://www.redbull.com/us-en/ben-venom-king-of-heavy-metal-quilting

Art, Monday Musings, Tech

Monday Musings — 29APR24

Well, it’s been a couple of weeks. Been sick. I was actually in the hospital last Monday. I fainted due to some med changes, and all my blood work numbers were BAD on Friday the 19th. Been home a couple of days, with more med changes and feeling okay so far. Let’s say that having Multiple Myeloma, and a heart condition sucks ass.

The Body

Here’s an artist I never heard of before. Love his work, go explore his site.

https://jesscollins.org/paintings-romantic

Here’s another cool artist: https://yinkashonibare.com/

So to change the subject for a second; electric vehicles. Talking about rickshaws or 3 wheel electric bikes, and how in some places they are leaving EVs in the dust. https://restofworld.org/2024/e-rickshaw-yc-electric-india

I think a city (this doesn’t work quite as well for rural areas)that has a mix of electric bikes, trikes, rickshaws, and EVs, plus public transportation that’s reliable, sounds like a great place to be. If I had an electric trike (not a bike for me, my balance isn’t that great) I could be a bit more independent. I could get a little exercise without over stressing my body, and go to stores and restaurants and be outside a bit more (except in winter, here). This would help a lot of seniors also.

Well that’s it for today, back next Monday for more stuff. Keep your powder dry, and remember solutions are everywhere. Just got to turn over the right rocks.

Art, books

A challenge to herself

Even her novels are, in a sense, commen­tary on her novels. The books of Earthsea grow in subtlety and wisdom, one to the next: The Tombs of Atuan a correction to A Wizard of Earthsea, Tehanu a correc­tion to the whole fantasy genre. (Tehanu also boasts, I have to add, the best climax I have ever read in any novel, of any genre. In every climax, we should encounter the protagonist’s best efforts, and something extra: the breath of the gods. In Tehanu’s climax, the breath is STRONG.)

Source: A challenge to herself

books, Monday Musings

Monday Musings–8APR24

Found this book at Goodwill. I read these back in the 70s/80s, and loved them. Zelazny is a great writer with a lot of style, and always a pleasure to read. Get it on Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Great-Book-Amber-Complete-Chronicles/dp/0380809060

A storyteller without peer. He created worlds as colorful and exotic and memorable as any our genre has ever seen.” —George R.R. Martin

One of the most revered names in sf and fantasy, the incomparable Roger Zelazny was honored with numerous prizes—including six Hugo and three Nebula Awards—over the course of his legendary career. Among his more than fifty books, arguably Zelazny’s most popular literary creations were his extraordinary Amber novels. The Great Book of Amber is a collection of the complete Amber chronicles—featuring volumes one through ten—a treasure trove of the ingenious imagination and phenomenal storytelling that inspired a generation of fantasists, from Neil Gaiman to George R.R. Martin.

Or Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-great-book-of-amber-roger-zelazny/1103272283?ean=9780380809066

Or use my affiliate link to Bookshop, and help me, and a local bookstore out: https://bookshop.org/a/99799/9780380809066

Been a slow week for me, and that’s about all I’ve got for today. Read books, they’re good for you, and fun.

Why you should read everyday

Because it actively engages your brain, reading is one of the healthiest hobbies for your mind. Not only is reading educational and informative, which is beneficial in itself, but it also rewires the connections in your brain, leading to many benefits.

  1. Stress reduction. Studies show that reading can help relax your body by lowering your heart rate and easing the tension in your muscles, with a reduction in stress of up to 68% in people when silently reading a literary work for only six minutes.
  2. Mental stimulation. Research suggests that reading can slow the progress of Alzheirmer’s disease and dementia by keeping your brain active and engaged, especially when reading out loud.
  3. Memory improvement. Reading has been shown to slow the rate of memory deterioration and even improve your memory and thinking skills.
  4. Vocabulary expansion. Reading is one of the best ways to learn new words. That’s why many researchers advocate for more reading experience in schools.
  5. Better focus. Researchers have found that, compared to using social media, reading helps improve concentration by increasing the capacity for longer attention spans.
  6. Improved brain connectivity. Studies have revealed that reading a narrative improves the connections inside the left temporal cortex of the brain—the area which is associated with language reception. The increased connectivity lasts for a few days after a reading session.
  7. Stronger analytical skills. When reading fiction, your brain takes notes of all of the details and gets into critical thinking mode to try to figure out what happens next, a practice that is useful not just when reading but in day-to-day life and work.

As playwright and novelist Somerset Maugham put it, “to acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.” And yet… So many distractions, so many series to watch, so many podcasts to listen to. Finding the time or the motivation to read can be hard.