Book of the week on Google - Veronica Henry

Veronica Henry's latest best selling novel 'A Night on the Orient Express' is the book of the week on Google Play

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The Orient Express. Luxury. Mystery. Romance.



For one group of passengers settling in to their seats and taking their first sips of champagne, the journey from London to Venice is more than the trip of a lifetime.



A mysterious errand; a promise made to a dying friend; an unexpected proposal; a secret reaching back a lifetime...As the train sweeps on, revelations, confessions and assignations unfold against the most romantic and infamous setting in the world.

The Eden House - Bad Men (OnTheirWayToDoBadThings)

Phil Manzanera ! - wow - splendid and the track is pretty good too.

Featuring:

Monica Richards - (Faith & The Muse) - Vocals
Simon Hinkler - (The Mission) - Guitar
Phil Manzanera - (Roxy Music) - Guitar and Chaos
Stephen Carey - Guitar
Tony Pettitt - Bass
Andy Jackson - Guitar
Simon Rippin - Drums

Video produced and directed by The Eden House

The naked female form as a tool ?

At what point does a nude painting, drawing, print etc, become a sexual or voyeuristic object? Is art above pornography? Is eroticism pornography?

The principal characteristic of voyeurism is that the voyeur does not normally relate directly with the subject of his/her interest, who is often unaware of being observed. Voyeurism may involve the making of a secret photograph or video of the subject during an intimate activity. When the interest in a particular subject is obsessive, the behavior may be described as stalking.

I have always loved the drawings of Degas. The way he portrayed women in ‘the moment’  is sensual and truthful, a skill to be admired. His intimate sketches are defiantly voyeuristic.

In the late 1880s, Degas developed a passion for photography and this new skill influenced the composition of his paintings. He photographed many of his friends, dancers and nudes, and used them as source material for his drawings and paintings.

At what point does Art become pornography?

Does it make it OK for an artist to say he is being erotic in his work, when a non-artist would be accused of being a pornographer or are they the same thing packaged differently?

The use of increasingly explicit sexual imagery in print, on TV, on the Internet, as advertising etc. is common place. This is not a new phenomenon, the female form has been used to sell products and services ever since man invented ‘the market place’. Sexuality is considered one of the most powerful tools of marketing and advertising.

There is a thin (if not a completely invisible) dividing line between art and porn. Intent and message maybe the grey area between them – erotic art is marketed as, and is intended to be seen as pieces of art, flirting with formal elements of art processes, for example referring to other historical artworks. Pornography also uses these tools but its primary intent is to sexually arouse. The distinction between art and porn is highly subjective and I would argue that there is really no difference.

Post-advertising sales response studies have shown that using the naked female form as a tool for attracting immediate interest is effective – but are we becoming immune to sexy ads and not bothering to read the sales pitch?

Voyeurism. (2013, March 6). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 08:42, March 18, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Voyeurism&oldid=542348200

 ‘Le déjeuner sur l’herbe’ a photographic version.

Edouard Manet’s Déjeuner sur l’herbe (a large oil on canvas, during 1862 and 1863) caused a big stir at the Salon des Refusés in Paris, having been rejected by the Salon jury of 1863. Manet seized the opportunity to exhibit this and two other paintings, at the 1863 exhibition and reveled in the public notoriety and controversy that followed.

The painting has historic and pastoral overtones, depicting the juxtaposition of a female nude and a scantily dressed female bather on a picnic with two fully dressed men in a rural setting. This painting references previous works of art by Titian (c.1487–1576) and Giorgione (c.1476–1510). The piece is now in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. A smaller, earlier version can be seen at the Courtauld Gallery, London.

The image above was created using 35mm negatives that had been taken using a Pentax SP1000 camera.  All Pentax Spotmatics (SP) use the M42 screw-thread lens mount. The lenses are focused at maximum aperture to give a bright viewfinder image for focusing, then a switch at the side stops the lens down and switches on the metering to enable the exposure to be set prior to shutter release. The above photographs were taken in 1981 and 2012 and merged together in March 2013.

Bow Wow Wow‘s version of the same painting:

Famously, coinciding with Annabella Lwin’s posing for album cover work, her mother alleged exploitation of a minor for immoral purposes, and instigated a Scotland Yard investigation. As a result the band was only allowed to leave the UK after McLaren promised not to promote Lwin as a “sex kitten”. This included an agreement to not use a nude photograph depicting Lwin as the woman in The Luncheon on the Grass (Le déjeuner sur l’herbe), though the picture was used as the cover of the band’s 1982 RCA EP  The Last of the Mohicans, which became their best-selling album in the U.S.

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Win $5000 - design competition

Procter & Gamble – design competition – $5000 prize

Can you transform a brand for the most savvy and affluent women, with your innovative ideas and designs! Enter the contest and win prizes worth $5,000! The worldwide recognized brand Olay has recently launched the “Reinvent Olay Pro-X!” contest. 

Procter & Gamble are running a design competition that gives you the chance to participate in the creation of the new Olay Pro-X. Join the community, submit and share your innovative ideas for new Pro-X products, redesign its packaging and transform the way the Olay Pro-X story is told. The rules for participation are easy: Just visit www.cocreate-pg.com to get inspired, upload your product ideas and win cash prizes up to $5000. … Continue reading →

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‘Manet: Portraying Life’ – very disappointing London exhibition ?

This post is stolen from the blog of Morgue Gallery:

‘Manet: Portraying Life’ has been organised by the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in collaboration with the Toledo Museum of Art and is the first ever retrospective devoted to the portraiture of Edouard Manet. The exhibition consists of more than 50 of his works, a vast number of which were ‘never exhibited in his lifetime’ (and maybe should never have been exhibited).

Manet’s ‘Olympia’ is one of my all time favorite paintings but…

If you were not already familiar with Manet’s painting I think you would get the wrong impression from this exhibition – the quality of the majority of the paintings is ‘second rate’ at best and most definitely not typical of his work.  This exhibition has done him a massive injustice, threatening his status as an important innovator. He is one of the greatest artists ever but this exhibition portrays him as a mediocre one – a massive shame.

I think you have to view this exhibition as ‘work in progress’ or ‘paintings to be resolved.

The painting of  Berthe Morisot  is one of the ‘stars’ of the show and does the man credit. Morisot herself is credited with convincing Manet to attempt plein air painting, she also  became his sister-in-law when she married his brother, Eugene…

I wish I’d painted this (maybe?)

Manet’s Olympia (which is in the Musée d’Orsay) is an important painting. In 1974 at Stourbridge College of Art I did a series of paintings based on ‘Page 3 models’ and I was intrigued how Manet’s Olympia … Continue reading →

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Art blogs may also serve as a forum to reach out to anybody interested in art — be it painting, sculpture, print making, creative photography, video art, conceptual art or new media. In this way, they may be visited not only for the practitioners of different forms of art, but also collectors, connoisseurs, and critics.

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'My Life in the New York Times' - Ross Bleckner

Ross Bleckner is an American artist and the current Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations.

In 1995, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum had a major retrospective of his works from the last two decades of exhibitions at acclaimed institutions such as San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm Moderna Museet, and the Carnegie Museum of Art. Through his philanthropic efforts, Ross Bleckner has enabled many community organizations to perform their vital work. He is on the board of AIDS Community Research Initiative of America (ACRIA), a non-profit community-based AIDS research and treatment education center. Bleckner is currently a Clinical Professor of Studio Art at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. In May 2009 he was awarded the title of Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations. He was the first fine artist to receive the position. Later that year Ross Bleckner travelled to Gulu, Uganda to work with former children soldiers and abductees. Together the children and Bleckner created portraits and paintings, which were sold at a United Nations benefit and through his exhibition, Welcome to Gulu, at Lehmann Maupin Gallery. Proceeds raised were used to aid to UN's effort to stop human trafficking in Uganda. Ross Bleckner currently lives in New York City.

Filmmakers Derek Britt and Gerald Seroy are shooting a feature length documentary about artist Ross Bleckner. To crowdfund this effort, they are utilizing Kickstarter to offer exclusive pledge rewards rarely available to the public. Pledge rewards include:

• 1. A limited edition, autographed copy of Ross’s newly revised and expanded journal, My Life in the New York Times (Allworth Press, October 2012). Ross has not had a book signing tour so this is an exclusive opportunity to be the proud owner (or gifter) of an autographed copy of his book ($60).
• 2. An artist signed, limited edition print of one of Ross’s sought after hummingbird series. This is a beautiful 11”x14” pigment print on archival paper and it’s a Kickstarter exclusive ($350).
• 3. An original painting by Ross Bleckner from his hummingbird series. There is only one original painting offered. It’s an acrylic on linen, signed by the artist.

For more information, visit the filmmakers Kickstarter project click here.
 

About Ross Bleckner’s Book: American artist Ross Bleckner comes this stunning and thought-provoking collection of more than one hundred collages assembled from clippings of New York Times articles which is newly revised and expanded. Chosen for its personal significance to Bleckner and for the ways in which they later affected his work, the fragments of text and image in some pieces are unadorned; in others, the artist has painted around the clippings in watercolour and then photographed them in order to create a meaningful work of art. In My Life in the New York Times these pieces—each of them accompanied by the artist’s commentary—are brought together in hardback for the first time.

Ross Bleckner. (2012, June 3). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 10:08, February 8, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ross_Bleckner&oldid=495757824

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This year World #Book Day falls on Thursday 7 March

New books by top authors for only £1.00

The Internet is driven by words, keywords and phrases, images and various types of embedded media or apps, to be part of this information and entertainment stream you have to be able to read. If you can't read then you have a limited experience.

Here is a great initiative – try to support and help with this mission: Quick Reads, which has a huge impact on helping thousands of adults improve their literacy, will be encouraging adults to ‘start a new chapter’ in 2013.

• Veronica Henry - A Sea Change
• Andy McNab – Today Everything Changes
• Kathy Lette – Love is Blind
• Simon Kernick – Wrong Time, Wrong Place
• Minette Walters – A Dreadful Murder
• Mike Tucker – Doctor Who, The Silurian Gift

These books are bite-sized novels which are clearly printed and presented.

Since its launch in 2006, Quick Reads has sold and distributed over 4 million books through supermarkets, bookshops, workplaces and prisons. NIACE has led the outreach work since the start of the initiative and continues to work with employers and workplaces to encourage adults to read more and improve their skills.

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Jenna is known as The Ice Cream Girl. She doesn’t mind the name one bit. After all, it’s a happy name, and there are far worse jobs than selling ice creams on Everdene beach.

Craig spends as much time as he can at the beach hut in Everdene he rents with a few of his mates. As a policeman, it is a restful change from his daily life, and he’s surfing mad. One weekend he’s down there on his own when he notices a girl on the beach. He’s young, free and single and she catches his eye. But on this particular summer weekend, both Jenna and Craig’s lives are about to change . . .

This year World Book Day falls on Thursday 7 March, plans for UK events have now been revealed... Read more

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We have a few left in stock if you would like a copy

The limited release of 100 CD’s of The Sampler #05  featuring Finish The Story which was originally released as an exhibition promo giveaway in September 2007. The discs are numbered and have the exhibition stamp. 

If you would like a copy for £5.00 – contact us

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A D V E R T

We have a few left in stock if you would like a copy for £5.00 – contact us

The limited release of 100 CD’s of The Sampler #05 was originally released as an exhibition promo giveaway in September 2007. The discs are numbered and have the exhibition stamp.

Review – Finish The Story – The Sampler #05

"…now their inclusion had been settled five Finish The Story tracks. ‘Playing At Life’ is even better with a mean throb, and more of his sublimely catchy, nagging guitar with Nicola’s unusually piercing vocals and a weirdly spooky synth. ‘Solace’ is more relaxed, actually far more towards the This Window style, being like ambient bellows, billowing………..and there’s an intriguing little slice called ‘Ripples In The Water’ at the end too. Read more..."

 free download“Where Is My Jesus?“ by This Window

Music we have produced

The music industry has been destroyed by this something for nothing culture, with albums being given away for free.

People are constantly looking for free promotions from businesses and are no longer prepared to pay a fare price for things. We have appeared to embraced the ‘something for nothing’ culture  and are consequently (probably) destroying the fundamental laws of capitalism. If you can get everything for free then how do we make money?

Something for nothing is a part of marketing, a way to trap your client into a product, a culture or a brand, to entice them or convince them to buy your related products.

The music industry has been destroyed by this something for nothing culture, with albums being given away free. It can be argued that this has made the music industry more democratic, enabling individual musicians and artist to compete in the free download market. However, this surge for free content has diluted the industry, the purse is getting empty so artists are not getting paid a fair return for their efforts. It gets worse – websites that delivered free content (and some paid) are now disappearing as the general public now only downloaded the free stuff and not the paid tracks.  With the demise of the 7digital indiestore service shutting down on in September 2010 an avenue for the democratic production of paid for and free downloads by independent artists has closed. There are dozens of  other viable alternatives for free mp3 downloads out there but for how long?

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Limited edition CD from M4tr Productions

We have a few left in stock if you would like a copy for £5.00 – contact us

The limited release of 100 CD’s of The Sampler #05 was originally released as an exhibition promo giveaway in September 2007. The discs are numbered and have the exhibition stamp.

Review by Mick Mercer – Finish The Story – The Sampler #05

…now their inclusion had been settled five Finish The Story tracks. Rejoice people, rejoice! ‘Trapped In The Hometown’ has a gauzy tangle of music behind slowly drawn vocals with its memorable guitar rising alongside and revealing a weighty variety of musical avenues to pull you down; the mood empty, or brightly in your face, a thoroughly diverting, divine encounter. ‘Playing At Life’ is even better with a mean throb, and more of his sublimely catchy, nagging guitar with Nicola’s unusually piercing vocals and a weirdly spooky synth. ‘Solace’ is more relaxed, actually far more towards the This Window style, being like ambient bellows, billowing………..and there’s an intriguing little slice called ‘Ripples In The Water’ at the end too.

• Technorati works for business
• In top 100 blogs – #living #art #business
• M4tr Productions is powered by WordPress