One of my favorite painters

Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer (September 30, 1865 - September 24, 1953 was a French Symbolist/Art Nouveau painter and potter.

He was born Lucien Lévy to a Jewish family in Algiers. In 1879 he began studying drawing and sculpture in Paris. In 1887 Lévy began making his living in southern France, overseeing the decoration of ceramics. His own tastes in pottery decoration were influenced by Islamic Art. In 1895 he left for Paris to begin a career in painting; around this time he visited Italy and was further influenced by art of the Renaissance.

In 1896 he exhibited his first pastels and paintings under the name Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer; he'd added the last two syllables of his mother's maiden name (Goldhurmer), likely to differentiate himself from other people named Lévy. His paintings soon became popular with the public and among fellow artists as well. He earned high praise for the academic attention to detail with which he captured figures lost in a Pre-Raphaelite haze of melancholy, contrasted with bright Impressionist colouration. His portrait of writer Georges Rodenbach is perhaps the most striking example of this strange and extraordinary synergy.

After 1901 Lévy-Dhurmer moved away from expressly Symbolist content, incorporating more landscapes into his work. He continued to draw inspiration from music and attempted to capture works of great composers such as Beethoven in painted form. He died in Le Vésinet in 1953.

Art Renewal Center: Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer

ArtMagick Galleries: Dhurmer

The Piano

Such a great animation: beautiful, gentle and sad.

Bringing you the best of bygone eras

Amazing collection of retro links: Retrolounge

"A child said, What is the grass?"

Walter Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist. He was a part of the transition between Transcendentalism and Realism, incorporating both views in his works. His works have been translated into more than twenty-five languages. Whitman is among the most influential and controversial poets in the American canon. His work has been described as a "rude shock" and "the most audacious and debatable contribution yet made to American literature."

The Walt Whitman Archive

Leaves of Grass (1900)

Halloween

Halloween is the one of the oldest holidays still celebrated today. It's one of the most popular holidays, second only to Christmas. While millions of people celebrate Halloween without knowing it's origins and myths, the history and facts of Halloween make the holiday more fascinating.

The History of Halloween

Halloween website

Halloween Poems

Tomas Baginski: The Cathedral

Botanical wonders

Scientific marvels; drop-dead beautiful works of art; a genus onto themselves: these are just a few of the explanations given to describe the allure of a legendary, century-old bevy of exquisite glass blossoms and fruits.

In “Botanical Wonders: The Story of the Harvard Glass Flowers,” The Corning Museum of Glass brings to bear its unique curatorial, conservation, and glassmaking capabilities to illuminate more fully than ever before the story of the delicate glass replicas of botanical specimens known as the Glass Flowers of Harvard.

The Corning Museum of Glass

Lisa Law - Hippie History

Lisa Law's story is one among thousands that emerged from American society in the turbulent 1960s. Americans in that era faced many controversial issues-from civil rights, the Vietnam War, nuclear arms, and the environment to drug use, sexual freedom, and nonconformity.

Many young people questioned America's materialism and cultural and political norms. Seeking a better world, some used music, politics, and alternative lifestyles to create what came to be known as the counterculture.

Lisa Law's photographs provide glimpses into the folk and rock music scenes, California's blossoming counterculture, and the family-centered and spiritual world of commune life in New Mexico. They are moments that she lived, witnessed, and recorded on the frontier of cultural change.

A Visual Journey: Photographs by Lisa Law 1965-1971

Always look on the bright side of life

Monty Python Official Website

Monty Python's Complete Useless Web Site

Leonardo Solaas software art

Beautiful, enchanting - I could play with these programs for hours. 'Dreamlines' is my favorite, watching the image appear, move and change is magical.

Dreamlines is a non-linear, interactive visual experience. The user enters one or more words that define the subject of a dream he would like to dream. The system looks in the Web for images related to those words, and takes them as input to generate an ambiguous painting, in perpetual change, where elements fuse into one another, in a process analogous to memory and free association.

Autopoemador takes a poem, or any text, and makes a random audiovisual experience out of it. It is an automatic poem reader, that literally processes words and makes something different out of them: a language, chaos or order, in which clear understanding and communication do not matter any more.

Autopintador is a paint program with a will of its own. The user has a strokes palette and several control tools. When drawing, though, the strokes move around the screen by themselves, and eventually disappear. The outcome is a painting in movement, that results from the interaction between user and machine. It is a game of forms and colors, that discloses it’s possibilities with playing and experimentation.