There is something about about this Bacon that I find compelling. I like the way the skin tones resonate with the curtain.

I am not surprised that the artist of the Gym and Dance Academy Murals in Portugal - http://motherangel.blog.pt/2116050/ - enjoys Blanche Calais-German and Eric Franklin.

I am learning anatomy from her and Eric Franklin’s books - Dance Imagery, Conditioning for Dance, Dynamic Alignment through Imagery. Franklin trained as a dancer and now is part of the ‘body culture’ movement. I took an afternoon workshop with him in NYC. He is fun.

Interesting point about digital surrogates. There’s an active business creating and selling avatars for Second Life, for example.

Interesting about the Chinese angle. The ad mentioned appeared next to an article entitled “China overtakes French art market”.

As usual, I have to google half of your words. Earlier this week ‘gloaming’ and now manga and pixar. You are contributing to my literacy.

Melanie,

Looking at the pictures one may think of form only. However, my recent interest in ‘body culture’ extends beyond form to the flow of energy. A project for this summer will be reading books on acupressure and acupuncture. Admittedly, we share our body with animals. But having spent so much time on model systems, I am ready for a look at humans.

Your examples are provocative. In them, the interest in the human form seems to have its emphasis on ‘form’ more than ‘human.’

There’s an entire East German school of art out there that paints in the manner of the erstwhile Soviet occupiers. Which is to say that there’s an entire school of like-minded Russians. And, of course, we are seeing an outpouring of Chinese art that draws upon the conventions of communist propaganda. Commies everywhere you look.

This coupled with the exploding phenomenon of computer avatars, the longstanding tradition of manga and PIXAR and we can see that the “figure” is depicted as a necessary
element of communication.