The French House Painter’s Sweater

Photograph © 2010 David Versluis

Seeing this house painter’s sweater in Ouistreham, Normandy reminded us of the work of Josef Albers’ geometric designs and visual perception, Anni Albers’ textiles, Henri Matisse’s cutout letters, and Alexander Calder’s playful spirals.

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Heidegger: About the Nature of Things

Part 1a: 15 minutes. Produced by request from a Follower.

Part 1b: 15 minutes.

Thinking About “Things” Part 1 — Tuesday, March 2, An Evening With Philosopher and Dordt College Professor, Mark Tazelaar.

Regarding Robert Rauschenberg’s painting Pilgrim, Robert Venturi mentions the piece in his important book Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, 1966. Venturi writes:

…the surface pattern continues from the stretcher canvas to the actual chair [chairs have stretchers too] in front of it, making ambiguous the distinction between the painting and the furniture, and on another level, the work of art in a room. A contradiction between levels of function and meaning is recognized in these works, and the medium is strained.

Marc Edo Tralbaut in his book, Vincent Van Gogh, discusses Van Gogh’s Boots, 1887, by quoting Martin Heidegger, who said, “Engraved in the hollow of a boot is the weariness of the steps of work. The rough and solid weight of the clog tells of the slow and obstinate trudge across the fields”.

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“Me, Myself & Design” 2010

Dordt senior student, Paul Hanaoka, presents his portfolio to Mr. Joe Sparano of Oxide Design Inc. of Omaha. As Sparano gives feedback, Dordt students, Andrew Hornor (background) and Mark Veldkamp (foreground) observe the review.

On Saturday, April 10, six of us from Dordt College traveled to the Concordia Campus in Lincoln, Nebraska to participate in “Me, Myself & Design” — an event organized by Mr. Paul Berkbigler, Director of Education, AIGA Nebraska. This festive occasion provides a great opportunity for students to meet professional graphic designers and to ask questions about what’s it like to work as a designer.

In addition to panel discussions and portfolio reviews, by the professionals, the event is an excellent way to connect with the AIGA member design community.

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Work in Progress

The 2010 Sioux County Oratorio Chorus Poster Project

Size: 11 x 17 inches

David Versluis, Designer

Background image is from quarter-sawn oak paneling (c.1500) found in the interior design of the Musée de Cluny, which is officially known as Musée National du Moyen Âge (National Museum of the Middle Ages) and photographed by Versluis. Light passages in the image were generated through Photoshop techniques that, although blurred, seems to bring out the Gothic and Renaissance styles.

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New Blog

Fellow DC AIGA members,

I set up an ad hoc online portfolio. Please take a look!

scotthendric.blogspot.com

Thanks.

Scott.

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LATIN INSCRIPTION

William the Conqueror, as penitence, founded and built the Abbey for Men in 1067. The Abbey’s church, the Romanesque style Église St-Etienne, is the finest church of cathedral size and scale in Caen, France. This is an inscribed foundation stone from the Church’s Gothic ambulatory, which was built later in the thirteenth-century.

Because of the deterioration it’s difficult to determine clearly the typographic style. However, the incised letterforms suggest, perhaps, a Latin inscription in Roman “Square Capitals”, which were usually written without word spacing or punctuation. It could be my imagination but the carved letters feel Anglo-Saxon with a hint of Gaelic.

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The irony of Matisse’s foliating shapes?

On display in the Atlantic Wall Museum, Ouistreham, Normandy, France, is this photograph, which shows a camouflaged German bunker positioned on the Normandy coast in the early 1940s. In the Battle of Normandy, World War II, Ouistreham marked the eastern edge of Sword Beach. The museum is also called the “Le Grand Bunker” and served, during the War, as a formidable German post strategically guarding the entry to the Port of Caen. The photo caption states, “Fire-control post camouflaged with regular patterns and covered with camouflage netting.” However the patterns are reminiscent of Henri Matisse’s leafy shapes along with the contrast of positive and negative space.

The irony of juxtaposing Matisse’s cutouts with German camouflage came to mind while reading Riva Castleman’s Introduction to Matisse’s “Jazz” book published by George Braziller in 1983. Castleman writes:

During the [German] Occupation Matisse was burdened not only by poor health but also by the strain of war and concern for the safety of his family. (Mme. Matisse was interned by the Gestapo and their daughter Marguerite was about to be deported.)

Knife Thrower, 1947, 6 color print
16.75 x 25.5 inches © Greg Kucera Gallery

Matisse began to conceptualize the “Jazz” book during the War and completed it, in 1947, after the War ended. A two-page piece in the book is called the “Knife Thrower”. Greg Kucera in his essay “Context for the Creation of Jazz” provides this insight:

The victor/victim duality of war is symbolized in the complementary but opposing dangers expressed in two related prints; self-inflicted danger in the case of the sword swallower and victimization at the hands of another in the depiction of the knife thrower and assistant.

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