R.I.P. Sparklehorse's Mark Linkous

A while ago, I randomly discovered a version of the song Wish you were here. It was not like anything I had ever heard. It was: sad, eerily beautiful, and strangely nostalgic. It was like that dew smell you got when you woke up really early on a summer day. Music has never been the same for me.

I know this post is belated, and I wasn't going to write anything about this, but I guess I should, since I am a huge fan of the band. On March 6th, Mark Linkous was drinking heavily, and exchanged text messages with someone. He was at a friend's house, and became quite upset. He later went upstairs, where his belongings were, and left the house to go for a walk. That walk turned out to be Mark Linkous, taking a rifle and shooting himself in the heart. Literally. Although, many great musicians have taken their life, I have never been as huge of a fan of one, as that of Sparklehorse. I hope that last sentence made sense. It is 3:36am after all.

Unfortunately, it doesn't come as a surprise for me. I have come to the conclusion that many of the greatest minds of our time only exist, because they are fucked up in the head in some way. This goes for writers (Virginia Woolf, John Kennedy Toole, ect.), Actors (Heath Ledger for obvious reasons), Artists (insert most names here), and finally, musicians...

I think that it takes a certain type of mind, to create great art in any form. And to create beauty one needs to be extra receptive of the world, see it in a way that others don't. I believe this comes with a consequence. That ability to see such beauty in the world, can also cause a person to see it's ugliness, and be extra susceptible to it.

Sparklehorse was about to release a new album, Mark was about to finish recording all the songs. If this new album somehow gets released, I will make it my mission to buy it from a local toronto based music store. Keep in mind, I have not bought music in over half a decade. That's how much I love this music. My favourite song is Cow. Other great songs in extremely particular order are: Go (with the Flamling lips), Sad and beautiful world, Hundreds of Sparrows, Ghost of his smile , Saturday. However, if you pick up any album, and listen to almost any song, you will not be disappointed, yeah, it's that good.

My favourite piece of art that I did is Unicorns come from Whorses, which I made inspired by Sparklehorse's horse. And my next painting(my last one, that I didn't finish, but will as soon as I am done the current), is also influenced by the same horse mask. Damn.

Sadly I have never seen them live. I wished they had toured here more <: (

So this is what I have of it so far. I changed the make up on the girl, to make her more "spade-like". A way to separate my work from Sylvia Ji, so I don't seem like that much of an art asshole.

Something new I have been working on. Its a mix between the Day of the Dead/candy skull works of Sylvia Ji, and the super sexy Harley Quinn. More updates to come.

Field trip

Lateral relationship of the Branches of the facial nerve and vessels to Paratoid gland and duct
(Graphite)

5 month of fetus (Graphite)

Recently went to the Grant's Museum at the University of Toronto. These were some of the goodies I drew there. A pretty crazy place for UofT students to study/eat lunch, considering the room was filled with body parts in jars.

Limiting reagent

In chemistry, a limiting reagent is the one chemical in a recipe that drives a reaction, that is the slowest (or least in amount). It slows everyone else down. Hence, the reaction can only make as many products (or as fast) as the limiting reagent will permit. The limiting reagent is the weakest link, and determines the strength of a team.

If you own your own place, and I don't mean a student, or recent grad, that lives with roommates (parents). I mean, if you have a career and are a yuppie, or on your way to owning a fancy place. What's the one limiting reagent that determines a person's impression in your mind? That's right, the quality of the TOILET PAPER in their home.

Imagine them having really shitty and low grade toilet paper. Its the most basic of human needs, the least you could do is dish out a couple of more cents for a quality wipe. So next time you are out shopping for toilet paper, don't settle for the no name/cheap/tree-bark/cheese-graters rolls.

Disclaimer: This post was inspired by my random thoughts, and does not reflect any recent events having to do with the toilet paper of anyone acquainted with me ; )

More photography

(Ed Hopper Metropolis pt.2)

So here's another photograph I made, taken near the corner of Spadina and Queen, Toronto, Ontario.

Photography

(Ed Hopper Metropolis pt.1)

This was done for my photography/photoshop class. It is mainly inspired by Ed Hopper paintings, only with a twist. If you look carefully, this is actually an intersecation, and all four streets can be seen in this photo. A panoramic view with a gradient ranging from a lonely street to that which is busy with cars.

So I started school at the Toronto School of Art recently. And a few of us got together on the weekend to do renovations for the student lounge. We painted a Mural (based on the tattoo design in the previous post) and the walls.

This is a panoramic-styled photograph. The room is actually quite small and has four equal walls. Like a box. That's where we hangout at TSA, a box. Fun times.

Tattoo?

So this is a tattoo design my friend had asked me to do for her about 1.5 years ago (or more). I started roughs but never really felt inspired, and as a result, hated the ones I came up with. That is, until recently, when I stumbled upon some very cool cherry tree designs. I never thought to put the heart of the design into the trunks until I saw these examples. Using these examples I learned to draw the trunk a certain way. I would have actually copied the tree trunk from said examples, but its too damn hard. Much easier to learn the pattern and do it yourself.

Next time you watch a film or television show, and the characters are at a fast food place, pay attention to what they order. No matter what they get, the "drink" is always a milkshake of some sort. Am I wrong? Why is this important? Aside from the fact that mixing a desert like a milkshake with greasy burgers and fries is just plain wrong; people on tv will always ALWAYS order a milkshake with their meal, but do you ever see anyone in real life do it? Most people get a coke or other forms of pop, but never milkshakes.

So why is it that TV wants us to think that's what we should be ordering? Are the people who invented milkshakes paying television off, so their product can make a comeback? I was just at a mcdonalds the other day and this discussion came up, thought i would post it here. If you don't see an update on this blog, it was the milkshake people that got me.