Good Morning Mesoamerican Sunshine

Click here to watch the beautiful Flash animated short by Ethan Fleischer, The Defeat of Seven Macaw. It is an adaptation of a tidbit of the Mayan book Popul Vuh – “A fun, action-packed creation mythology,” according to Ethan and “The single most important piece of Mesoamerican literature,” according to Wikipedia – in which the protagonist Hunahpu bests the villain god Seven Macaw.

Mayan design elements from pottery and sculpture were appropriated to create the style of the piece. The short’s sound drives home the experience of being in a place before earth-as-we-know-it.

Fun fact: Ethan cast his 8 year old son Alek as the voice of Seven Macaw.

For more odd and pretty things from Ethan’s portfolio see ethanfleischer.com.

Turning Poetry into Material

By Daniela Morell

Abhinand Lath has transformed the solid wall into a glimmering surface that responds to movements and colors around it. His company, SensiTile, makes panels from optic light channels that are embedded in concrete. The result, inspired by an eleventh century Japanese poem about sunlight streaming through a bamboo forest, is a visually kinetic surface. ...

More at http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/story.php?artid=3041

Landscape of Refraction

Aliza says this painting is about the experience of interactions with light--real and imagined. It's called Day Time. I see a landscape of refraction at once of earth and air. This beam is holographic, oozing photons within itself. The ground is warm and living. The ray having released its light bounces off-screen back in shaky focus toward the sun. I feel content with that journey and anticipate a springtime.

Dimensions: watercolor paper sized

Image courtesy: Aliza Morell

Drama and Toys for the Kids in Newark

Newark, NJ is exciting and sad for all the its early century grandeur, urban decay, and glimmers of renewal. PBS recently aired a documentary called Revolution '67 which talked about that piviotal moment when black communities defended themselves against political dismissal and systemcatic concentration of poverty downtown, which all but ensured the final exodus of a scared middle class and the beginning of a slow, cloudy, era.

It's four decades later and I'm trying to remember if I've ever seen Newark when it wasn't overcast--even though I've always gone there to see something beautiful. The most recent rainy trip was to tour the soon to be LEED Silver rated new schoolhouse of St. Philip's Academy, complete with well-behaved uniformed children and a roof garden.

But this post is really about my friends Annie & Kevin who along with a dedicated team run the AIDS Resource Foundation for Children. Out of a firehouse headquarters in downtown Newark they provide services for kids and families who have to claw their way through so much tough history and some of its worst consequences.

If you're looking for something good to do today I recommend participating in their holiday toy drive. It's fun, you can browse the kids' wish lists and pick out something specific at www.angelwish.org/center/arfc.php. Who knows if that kid with a building toy and some encouragement today can be an urban planner tomorrow.

Illustration: Daniela Morell for the AIDS Resource Foundation for Children

Greetings from Jonny Morell

It is well known in the Morell/Pacer household that Aliza, Marge, and myself have the artistic gene and Jonny is the intellectual one (he is after all currently writing a book about unintended consequences in program evaluation). But all of us are known to think verbally and create visually.

My father's artistic accomplishment is most clearly noted in the greeting card format as rendered through PhotoShop and the internet. In this prime example we can see his famously illegible handwriting in mystic reverse interwoven with a planetary clock.

"Why the clock?" asks my dad. "Why not the clock?" he answers. "I get these ideas in my head for interesting objects that can blend well with my doodles. I have brides, ducks, and penguins too. This did not start as a card, but simply as an image I was working on. Last month I needed a card for someone and went fishing for material. I found this, reworked it a bit and made it a card."

For more see: Well for more you'll just have to get on his holiday mailing list.

Image courtesy: Jonathan Morell

Dio Rama Ding Dong

"The Bison and Pronghorn Group, measuring 27' by 16', is one of the largest dioramas in the Hall of North American Mammals, which opened to the public on April 9, 1942. Collecting for the diorama began in August 1937, when James L. Clark, then Director of Arts, Preparation, and Installation at the Museum, led an expedition through Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota to gather specimens and make studies of possible background landscapes." --AMNH

Magestic and inert, the dioramas at the American Musuem of Natural History in NYC are top notch. Perfect pelts stand confidently in idylic settings while screaming children (do children always scream?) flitter around. The concentration of time and place is quiet like an old technology and intense like a 3D projection.

Photo: Dani Mae, more at http://www.flickr.com/photos/metrodsm/sets/72157603044134758

Illusions

"Objects in mirror may be more real than they appear," explains Emily Stephens about her animation Illusions. A meal, a shower, a gasp, a bike crash. This beautiful, mysterious film takes Emily's signature style in kinetic directions.

See more at: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=majindat

Video courtesy: Emily Stephens