1920's flapper

Trying to find out a bit more information about this picture when I do I'll update this post.

Marble Bar, Western Australia

Marble Bar is a town in the Pilbara region in far North Western Australia. About two hundred kilometers inland from Port Hedland. It is also one of the hottest places on earth!

Marble Bar is a very historic town, with many old building and remnants from the past, dating back to the 1800's. It is also a place of immense natural beauty, unspoilt gorges and oasis like waterholes, only accessable by four wheel drive, Although it once boasted a population of five thousand people, during the Gold Rush era today it boast fewer than 500 residents.

Another point of interest I've been there and had a beer at the famous Iron Clad Pub! This place boast some very interesting characters. Go there and check it out for yourself . Australia's hottest town is cool! The black and white photo below is of Marble Bar in the late 1800's

Aubrey Beardsly 1872-1898

Aubrey Beardsly was an English writer and illustrator. He illustrated the play Salome, written by Oscar Wilde. His work has an erotic element which made it scandalous at the time. Beardsly's life was tragically cut short, when he died at 25 from tuberculosis.

Bay of Fires

The Bay of Fires is located close to St Helen's on the North East coast of Tasmania. It was named by Captain Tobias Furneaux in 1773 because he noticed numerous fires along the coast, They where the fires of the local Indigenous population. Furneaux, was a British navigator and navy officer who accompanied Cook on his second exploration of the area. He was the first man to circumnavigate the world in both directions. He drew the earliest European maps of Tasmania, during 1773-1774, Many of the names of places on that map survive to the current day. The Bay of Fires being one of them ! Recently The Bay of Fires was voted the second most beautiful beach in the world in The Lonely Planet Guide. It has been one of Austalia's best kept secrets, where tourists have enjoyed almost deserted beaches, of pure white sand and transluscent aquamarine water, set against a backdrop of orange hued granite boulders

Nighthawks: Edward Hopper

Nighthawks,1942: Edward Hopper, currently exhibited at The Art Institute of Chicago

The Bar, 1954, John Bracks, privately owned, Australia. It last sold at auction for 3.2 million !

Nighthawks is one of the most iconic paintings of the modern era. It is based on a diner in Greenwich Village, where Edward Hopper lived at the time. Hopper was fascinated with urban scenes. The sharp lines and empty city streets, convey a sense of isolation that can sometimes be felt in big cities. There is also a sense of menace of danger lurking in the shadows. The other painting The Bar was painted in Melbourne by local artist; John Bracks twelve years after Nighthawks. The contrast, in detail, between the woman in the foreground and the faceless men in the background suggest that they are disconnected. The figures all have sharp angular features making them appear hard and calculating. Both artists depicted the turmoil which characterized society in the aftermath of The Second World War.

Woman seated in chair at Cooktown, Queensland, Australia, 1885
Thats pretty hardcore, wearing that in the Tropics. What where they thinking?

Cy Twombly

Cy Twombly was voted onto the international best dressed list in Vanity Fair Magazine, August,2009

'Three Studies from The Tremeraire' 1999, can be viewed at the art gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

Cy Twombly is an American artist born in 1928, His works are abstract and impressionistic, with an emphases on line and composition. His paintings are enormous, The above paintings where purchased by the Art Gallery of N.S.W in November 2004, for a multi million dollar price tag

Rock Lighthouses

Above, Wolf Rock Lighthouse, 8 Miles Of the coast at lands end Cornwall, completed 1870

Above and below Bishops Rock Lighthouse, of the coast of The Isle of Scilly in Scotland, completed 1858

Don't you just love Rock Lighthouses ! predominately built during the eighteen hundreds on the isolated rocky outcrops which surround Great Britian. Bell Rock Lighthouse (not pictured) is one of the earliest examples, completed in 1811; it is considered one of The Seven wonders of the Industrial World. These structures have stood the test of time, I wonder if off shore structures built today such as oil riggs and beacons will do so well, I doubt it !

Frederick Douglass, born 1818, Talbot County, Maryland, U.S.A

Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in Maryland in The U.S.A,in 1818. At the time it was illegal to teach slaves to read and write, as it was observed that this made them more inclined to question their position. Frederick taught himself to read and write covertly, by watching the local white kids doing so. In 1838, he managed to escape his owner and fled on a train to Massachusetts and joined the abolitionist movement.

Frederick became a popular anti-slavery lecturer and published an autobiography Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglas, an American Slave in 1845. The book was an instant best seller, and revealed Douglass to be a deeply gifted communicator, demonstrated by his eloquent style of expression. In fact he was so good people questioned whether his story was true.

Fearing the publicity surrounding his literacy success would alert his owner to his whereabouts, Frederick toured Ireland and it was during this time his supporters bought him from his owners and he officially became a free man. He returned to The U.S.A in 1948 and became a very important political figure, holding many government committee positions, advocating fair treatment for African Americans. Frederick was also a supporter of the women sufferage movement famously stating he could not accept the right to vote as a black man if a woman did not get to do so.

Frederick was married twice, his second marriage to Helen Pitts a well known white feminist (pictured, sitting down, her sister Eva is standing up) caused a scandal not only because she was white, but because she was 25 years younger. frederick ultimately became a wealthy man and lived a comfortable life, but continued to advocate for the rights of others until his death on Feburary 20, 1895.

A truly inspiring man. Read his autobiography its an amazing insight into the life of an extroadinary man. Its a first hand account of the cruelty suffered by slaves and their fight for not only freedom, but dignity and respect.

Contemporary Australian Landscape Paintings

Outsider Art

'Outsider Art' is a broad term used to refer to a diverse range of artists who are generally self taught and operate outside of the mainstream art community.

Fleeting moments, gone forever
In the blink of an eye, never to return
Beyond reach, trapped in time
Distant memories, hazy, incomplete
Not quite real, wild recollections
Pictures and frames, glimpses in the mirror
Fragmented pieces, lost and broken
In the night, hidden from view
Dark and still, forgotten, left behind
Impressions which fade, like the sun
Floating far away, into the clouds
High above, that darken the sky

Book Review

Polish girls wearing dresses they made themselves using straw

A family in Finland

I recently read "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins. Dawkins is a Professor of Science at Oxford University and is considered one of the preiminent intellectuals of our time. He is also passionate about atheism in a way that some people are passionate about religion. In The God Delusion he is very much aiming to persuade believers around to his point of view. For me this was the problem, as someone who has never believed in God I need no convincing that god does not exist, as for his target audience, its an uphill battle trying to convince religous types with rational arguements, people believe what they want to believe, in spite of the evidence.

Recommended Reading

QuirkyAlone; Wuthering Heights; 1984; Kashgar; We Need to Talk about Kevin; Shantaram; Hand to Mouth

Good Movies

Into the Wild; The Year My Voice Broke; Ameile; The Crying Game; Leaving Las Vegas; The Marchinist, Fight Club; Whitnal and I; Some Kind of Wonderful