Solid Flow

Theo Altenberg's O.T. Oil on Cardboard 2010, No. 4
http://www.theoaltenberg.com/wp/painting-drawing/

Theo Altenberg is many different kinds of artists, including a painter.  Many of his paintings have a similar look and feel to the one shown above.

To me, many of his more recent paintings (within the past two or three years) seem like he captured the nature of flowing water - delicate and cool at the same time.  It's hard to capture the feel of still-flowing fluid in a still state, but I believe that Altenberg has done it well.  The way the different colours blend into each other remind me of when I would put drops of different food colourings in a glass of water and watching them disperse about the glass.

The above painting in particular reminds me of a flower.  And also of water.  Which makes sense (to me, at least).  Flowers live off the nutrients that water provides.  They are natural and nowadays people are being more and more concerned about the protection of both water and the environment / plants and animals.  Even with all the advancements in technology, nature is something us humans just can't live without.  Literally.

Plants and animals are our energy source.  And even if you're like the many people in the west who like meat and refuse to eat veggies, it is those vegetables that fed the animal you had for dinner.  In school I learned about Bioaccumilation, where toxins build up in animals, and the amount of toxins in the animal is greater the higher up the food chain you go.  With humans being at the top of the food chain, we would have the highest accumulation of toxins than any other animal below us.

Toxins are bad. Period.  Having the most toxins in our bodies than any other is worse.  We have to make a concious effort to take control of our environment to make it a better place to live for not only humans, but for the other animals who share this planet with us.

Musical Flowers

Canada Blooms, Canada's largest flower and garden festival, recently came to an end.  Although I did not go, I saw pictures of some of the showcases in the Toronto Star, and was greatly impressed by what I saw.

http://media.thestar.topscms.com/images/e3/d7/5dba8abe4fdd823b5a01303eafd3.jpeg



http://www.canadablooms.com/images/gallery_full/070307_276.jpg

I saw the above photo first, and I initially thought that it was just a regular piano, except that it was red.  Imagine my surprise when I realized it was actually a sculpture made of flowers!

Flowers and gardening never really interested me, and I never thought that they could be used to form a model of another thing.  It seems really odd, although not in a bad way, that the delicate petals of many flowers went into forming the likeliness of a piano.  Most pianos are made of natural materials - a wood body and ivory keys.  However, these natural materials are hard, and ment to last for years and still look nice.  Flowers, on the other hand, only last a couple of days before wilting and dying (flowers in my care, atleast).

Music played on a piano is ment to express many different emotions, from anger to happiness, and for the musician to express intense emotions such as anger, the piano is more forcefully played.  Although flowers and not a very precious thing to me, I can't imagine trying to play an intense piece of music on a delicate item such as the flower-made piano in this showcase.

Although the "piano" is obviously not ment to be played, it still looks like the real deal.  Though, I wonder how it will last looking a nice red - aka, not wilted - for the week that the festival is on for.