matouenpeluche

Dali and Babou

I found out today that Salvador Dali had a pet ocelot from Columbia called Babou. He used to take Babou everywhere. He took Babou with him when he sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, had him stay with him at hotels and even took him to restaurants. Crazy stuff considering ocelots, also known as dwarf leopards, are fiercly territorial and will fight to the death to protect their turf.

Images from here, here, here, here.

Birthday Books (part II)

 

Here are another couple of books I got for my birthday. The image above is from Dali: The Impresario of Surrealism by Jean-Louis Gaillemin. Again it is a compact book full of his work and terrific photos of Dali at various stages during his life. It's great seeing all his work together - he really was the prolific genius in my opinion. There's also plenty of biographical info about him too from cradle to grave so to speak.

To the left is the cover and the painting on the right is one of Dali's with the impossibly wonderful title: Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bumblebee around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening, 1944.

The next book I am very much looking forward to reading. It's called Me Cheeta The Autobiography and it's by James Lever.

You remember seeing those old black and white Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies on TV in the wee hours of Sunday morning? No? Well a whole bunch of Tarzan movies were made in the 1930s and 1940s in Hollywood and the Cheeta of those films wrote this book (ahem). Anyway, it's supposed to be utterly hilarious and a gripping read! I'll let you know! The image on the Left is the book's cover and the one on the right is a painting by Cheeta called Study in Purple and Turquoise #6: 'Water'(2001).

I trust everyone is having a lovely restful and relaxing weekend!

P.S. The lovely Christina of Down and Out Chic is having a fabulous giveaway of Diana's (City Lights) photography! I suggest you hot foot it over there to enter!! Just think...you could win this gorgeous "Couch" print! 

Bonjour Le Weekend!

YIPPEEE! It's the weekend!!...and this is how I feel - particularly as I have a whole two weeks off!!! Can you believe it? I can pretend I'm a bohemian artist for two (count 'em) whole weeks!!

*Ahem*

O.K. now that I have got that out of my system I'd like to introduce you to my new favourite photographer: Philippe Halsman (1906 - 1976). Halsman, the Latvian born American portrait photographer, is probably one of the most famous photographers of his generation. He was not only responsible for taking iconic photos of anybody who was anybody but was also responsible for the "Jump Book".

 

Halsman said at the time, "When you ask a person to jump, his attention is mostly directed toward the act of jumping and the mask falls so that the real person appears." Halsman even created his own philosophy of jump photography, called "jumpology". He published his iconic book in 1959 and it had up to 178 photos of everyone from Oppenheimer to Marilyn to Nixon to The Duke and Duchess of Windsor in full flight.



I am a big fan of his other photos too some of which you have probably seen before. These two of Salvador Dali are very nice I think.





Images from top are: Philippe Halsman and Monroe, Bridget Bardot, The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Salvador Dali and skull, Savador Dali and Rhino. All Photos are by Philippe Halsman and you can find them in Google images. You can also read more about Halsman here - he had quite an extraordinary life!!

Have a super duper weekend all you glorious bloggers out there!!

and

don't forget the GIVEAWAY of my work at Gabbi's and Jess' blogs!!

Confessions of a tragic postcard collector.

One of the joys (one itsy bitsy small one granted!) of moving is unearthing lost treasures and secret stashes of long forgotten mementos of a former life. In my 20s, when I was living in crazy share houses with cerebral and feisty girls, one of the first things I ever did when I moved in was immediately put up my postcard collection. This would take several days because I had hundreds of postcards from all over. I didn't really think too hard about what postcards to put next to each other, I just put them up. They seemed to look instantly good in my eyes. I had sets too: movie stars from the 50s, musicians, art, animals, black and white, colour. Here are a few of my cat postcards....

...and Trudi of glamorous blog The Deco Detective has done a gorgeous post about my drawings! I'm totally honoured Trudi thank you!