Creepy, Crawly Indeed

Posted on January 21, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

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London-based book cover designer Jamie Keenan has created a terrific cover for a new paperback edition of Franz Kafka’s 1915 novella Metamorphosis. This version, based on a completely new translation by Susan Berofsky, has just been released by W W Norton in the U.S., and has an introduction by Davis Cronenberg. Bernofsky’s translation “strives to capture both the humor and the humanity in the macabre tale.”

I love the way that Keenan was able to cleverly reference the body of a beetle with an old Italian typeface. According to Keenan, he hoped to convey “that shiny black quality that beetles have and that weirdo, fiddly, twitchy thing that a lot of creepy, crawly things have.”

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On Such a Full Sea

Posted on January 20, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

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My copy of author Chang-rae Lee’s new dystopian novel On Such a Full Sea came with the quaint, antiquated book jacket that you see above. Now I’m coveting the very cool limited edition 3D printed cover version (see below). Lee’s American publisher Riverhead teamed up with the folks at MakerBot to create a 3D book jacket slipcase for the novel. Take a look at the video below to see how it was all done.

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By the way, like all of Lee’s fine books, it’s well worth a read, but with a less than satisfying ending.

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The Burroughs Century

Posted on January 19, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

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William S. Burroughs was an American author, painter, actor, Beat icon, and one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. To celebrate the anniversary of his 100th birthday ( February 5, 2014 ), his birthplace, Bloomington Indiana is producing a festival called The Burroughs Century in his honor.

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Burroughs’ manuscripts, correspondence, paintings and memorabilia will be on display. There will also be a film series, featuring Howard Brookner’s definitive portrait of the writer, Burroughs: The Movie, along with art shows, musical events, literary panels, and more.

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Berlin : Cold Paradise ?

Posted on January 18, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

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Russian-born, Berlin-based mural artist Polina Soloveichik describes her new hometown as a “cold Paradise”, but she’s doing all that she can to warm it up with vibrant, colorful wall art. The slickly produced little video below produced by Lufthansa follows Polina as she works her magic from sketches to finished paintings.

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Last Photo

Posted on January 17, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

There’s something touching and heartwarming about Ivan Cash’s quirky video series called “Last Photo”. In this sporadic, ongoing project, the San Francisco-based artist, writer and idea man travels to various U.S. cities and asks random strangers to show him the last photograph on their mobile phone and to describe the circumstances that led to the picture. So far Cash has visited New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco for the project, and plans to take “Last Photo” to New Orleans, Detroit, Dallas and Nashville .

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Adventures Underground

Posted on January 16, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

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“Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, and where is the use of a book, thought Alice, without pictures or conversations? So she was considering in her own mind, (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid,) whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain was worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when a white rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.”

I don’t recall exactly when I first read Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, I was five or six years old. But I do remember that the iconic children’s book blew my little mind. I must have checked that battered little copy out of my local library three more times.

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Now it’s possible to read the original 1864 version of the book, first titled “Alice’s Adventures Under Ground”, presented by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) to Alice Liddell at the British Library website. The entire handwritten volume, including Dodgson’s original ink illustrations, is now available.

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Walk This World

Posted on January 15, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

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Lotta Nieminen is a Helsinki-based artist, illustrator and graphic designer. Her witty and whimsical work has appeared in dozens of publications and advertisements. You may have seen some of her maps, such as the one she did of Paris for the French newspaper Le Monde (above). Or you may have run across one of her marvelous cityscape prints like the series she did last year on Budapest (below).

Here in North America Nieminen has been making her mark with work on public transit projects in Detroit and Toronto (see below). Now she has her first children’s book titled “Walk This World”. The charming book celebrates the similarities and differences between culture around the world.

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Lonely Louvre

Posted on January 14, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

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I’ve visited the Musée du Louvre in Paris three times in the last two years and not surprisingly it was ass-to-elbow, chockablock, bursting at the seams, swarming with throngs of tourists each time. Between the French school groups, enormous Chinese tour groups and an unusual number of Russians, it has gotten more and more difficult to enjoy the art work and the glorious museum itself.

Somehow Brooklyn-based, French photographer Franck Bohbot managed to get permission to shoot a series in the completely deserted museum. Take a look; you may never get another chance to see the Louvre this way.

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They Heart NYC

Posted on January 13, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

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Growing up in the New York metropolitan area in a family composed of 100% native New Yorkers, I always expected everyone to love New York City. So, it was no shocker to find that a survey of travel journalists voted NYC as their favorite city to visit. The survey of 100 travel pros conducted by the award-winning website 101 holidays also found that Paris was No.2 and Venice No.3 on the list.

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Syrian Museum

Posted on January 12, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

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Syrian artist Tammam Azzam left his home in Damascus at the start of the Syrian civil war. Losing his studio, he turned to digital art to call attention to the horrors unfolding in his homeland. Early last year, his piece called Freedom Graffiti went viral (see above). The work showed Gustav Klimt’s painting The Kiss photoshopped across a war-ravaged building in Damascus. That piece led to a moving series called Syrian Museum that combines photographs of Syrian devastation with famous paintings.

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