Curio: Rich Pellegrino's Portraits

"Marty McFly" gouache
on hardboard, 5 x 7

Alexa here with your weekly art appreciation.

Nathaniel shared a link to this artist's work with me and I just had to blog it. Rich Pellegrino is a painter, RISD graduate, and child of the 80s. He paints in watercolor, acrylic, or gouache, straight out of the tube, creating richly textured portraits that are almost musical. ("I want a brush stroke to sound like a distorted A chord. You know -- something loud and visceral.")

It's not surprising that many of his subjects are musicians, but he's also inspired by film (especially the work of Guillermo Del Toro, who he calls a master of color and light).

Here is a selection of some of his colorful film characters. You can buy prints at his shop, too!

"Jack" (from The Darjeeling Limited) and "Audrey"

"Willy Wonka" and "Sobchak"

(Both from Gallery 1988 Crazy4Cult Group Show)

"Rosario Dawson/Zooey Dechanel"

By: Unknown On 07.37

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Curio: Odes to Harry Dean Stanton

Alexa here with your weekly art appreciation.

Craig's post about Harry Dean Stanton made me smile, something I usually do when I spot him on screen. There is something comforting about seeing that craggy face; like many character actors he has a changelessness about him. Maybe it's because he is usually just playing himself, something he has copped to many times in interviews. I soon wondered how many artists have taken on that distinctive visage. Here's what I found.

An illustration, courtesy of Richard Cardona.

A portrait of Harry made entirely from yarn.

Available for purchase here.

This one by Nick Craine is positively Lynchian.

Paris, Texas by way of Van Gogh, by painter Jack Goossens.

And finally, this is apparently hanging on Travis Barker's wall.

By: Unknown On 14.30

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This Link Goes to 11

Live Feed Glee inspired political attack ad. Who knew an attack ad could be cute?
Kenneth in the (212) my friend Kenneth will be seen briefly in the new Mindy Cohn gay flick Violet Tendencies. When was the last time you heard "new Mindy Cohn flick"... let alone a gay one?
Pop Justice "Bad Romance" is one year old today. Kinda. Still love it.

This Leonardo TotallyLooksLike double got
saved on my computer months ago. Every time I
notice it I start giggling. So I must finally share.

Vulture worries that Thor's Frost Giants will battle for the home tree in Avatar. Please. Thor should be so lucky to be (favorably) compared to Avatar. I'm guessing. I am just sensing a terrible terrible movie coming our way.
IndieWire assures us that the Spirit Awards are returning to their Saturday afternoon by the beach tradition.
ArtsBeat Broadway cools down its celebrity lust... for the current moment at least.
Popbytes Speaking of... can you believe that The King's Speech is already planning its Broadway bow? It hasn't even opened in movie theaters yet!
MTV Ang Lee's Life of Pi gets one step closer to production by casting its lead actor 17 year-old Suraj Sharma
Just Jared Tom Hardy for Snow White and the Hunstman? I'm in. Just please let some of these new fairy tale movies NOT view Tim Burton's hideous Alice as something to emulate.

...and some artwork for you
Y'all don't comment on the art related posts but you're going to keep getting them because Nathaniel likes to draw and he loves the artists out there making the internet a more beautiful / whimsical / imaginative place. Deal!
Becky Cloonan "Sluts of Dracula" omg love these sketches. And the title is to undie for.
Austin Translation "Bitter Moments with Count Chocula" a wee Twilight dig.

By: Unknown On 17.45

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Curio: Wes Anderson's Bad Dads

Alexa from Pop Elegantiarum here with your weekly arts and crafts.

There is a very cool exhibit coming up for those in San Francisco. As I've noted many times, Wes Anderson is a bottomless source of inspiration for visual artists. So Spoke Art, a transient art gallery and publishing house based in the Bay Area, is taking advantage of the bounty by putting on an art show tribute to Wes Anderson titled Bad Dads ("as nearly every Wes Anderson character has family issues, notably father issues"). The exhibit opens this Saturday at LoPo Gallery. And apparently there will be prints available soon from Spoke's online store!

Here's a preview of some of the images. It's not surprising that Royal Tenenbaum (of, well, The Royal Tenenbaums) figures largely.

Lauren Gregg

Dave Greco

Tim Doyle

Max Dalton

Kevin Tong

Caia Koopman

By: Unknown On 08.04

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No Exit Through The Simpsons Shop

Did you catch this frankly amazing Banksy-adjusted opening to The Simpsons? Here it is in all its subversive glory.



This makes me think two things.

1. I probably should have seen this year's buzzy Banksy street art doc Exit Through the Gift Shop. Of the three documentaries at Sundance that garnered the most "you must see this!" buzz -- the others being Catfish (loved) and Waiting for Superman (did not enjoy) -- it's the one I skipped.
2. Maybe I should still be watching The Simpsons?

By: Unknown On 07.47

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Curio: Steve Dressler's Film Poster Prints

Alexa from Pop Elegantiarum here, bringing you more from the intersection of print design and film. Steve Dressler is a favorite artist of mine, maybe because you can tell from his art that he is a sometime comedian in addition to being an illustrator. His designs comment on all things pop culture, from Donald Glover's Spiderman campaign to the douche of the decade Joe Francis, but he dabbles in film posters, too. Here's all his posters to date. I'm hoping we'll see more soon.

Raging Bull's glove and mic.

Travis Bickle's Taxi mohawk.

A remembered kiss in Broken Flowers.

Microkids!

The Japanese title for "Honey, I Shrunk The Kids."

The Extra-Terrestrial.

By: Unknown On 10.12

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Links: Cher, Cheyenne, Celestia, Carey and CQueen

Guardian good piece on Anne Heche, her not totally recovered career post-Celestia, and Hollywood's double standards about men and women with troubled souls.
After Elton first look at Cheyenne Jackson on Glee. He's replacing Idina as the Vocal Adrenaline coach. I guess that means he's off 30 Rock? But this'll be a better fit anyway. Yay for singing stars!
Lazy Circles speaking of Cheyenne...
Natasha VC makes a brilliant observation on the quality of Al Pacino's acting.
Broadway Buzz A Cher bio-pic style Broadway musical is in the works from director Andy Fickman (You Again)


Avengers Assemble have you seen these new YouTube shorts, the superhero team gathers to discuss business/politics. It's such a weird concept that I am forced to enjoy. They need to speed up line delivery a bit but each episode has a few good laughs.
Film Freak Central on Let Me In (I thought this review was interesting. Positive but definitely keeps the original in mind.)
Coming Soon Sacha Baron Cohen to play Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in a biopic. Filming starts in 2011. You know what's weird? The internet rumor mill spends so much time talking about pre-production and development that by the time something is official, one could swear it was official 7 or 8 months prior! and that it's totally old news.
PopWrap Carey Mulligan has been making surprise appearances at movie theaters in NYC to introduce Never Let Me Go. How cool.
Pussy Goes Grrr offers up a late "best shot", a minimalist one, from the wonderful Pandora's Box (1929)
/Film Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies) writing a new live-action version of Pinnocchio.
37 Posters by Jerod Gibson is a design project using movie quotes in the shape of the movie's iconography for new posters. Fun. The one for The Big Lebowski is probably my favorite.
Movie|Line Andrew Garfield sings "Bed Intruder". Wait, what? I have to post it here. It's just too funny/weird.



HELP. I'm curious as to what you all use for your blog reading? Do you click directly to the sites or do you use a blog reader? In the past I've always used bloglines which is where roughly 2/3rds of my link roundups are pulled from. I have hundreds of subscriptions... some of which I read and some of which... well, there's only so much time. Bloglines is shutting down as of October 1st so I'll have to rebuild elsewhere. I think I'll start from scratch so to as freshen up. Any suggestions?
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By: Unknown On 16.00

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actual e-mail received last night.

LOL. I guess my friend wasn't happy that I dropped Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole from those Oscar predictions. The film has it's official premiere tomorrow in Toronto so expect a lot of net reaction for better and for worse. Please get distribution and release date nailed down Most-Desired-Film-of-Mine-Except-for -Black-Swan (sorry)! You can do it.
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By: Unknown On 06.00

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