Fantasy Architecture

 Birds Of A Feather

Architecture is a way to interpret fantasy using details and parts used in the composition.  I find it fascinating to use architectural details or parts in a way that is fantastic as in the somewhat mysterious Gothic image above with birds flying around building copulas formed in a square (it made sense to me at the time, copulas are at the very top of buildings where birds sometimes roost), galactic stars, spaceships or patterns.

 St. Basil Cathedral Moscow

The choices are endless as are the building styles for exteriors and interiors.  

Inspirational Cathedral Ceilings and Spires II

   
In the above image I have incorporated cathedral ceilings and spires for the image above which is a pattern of sorts, almost like looking through a kaleidoscope.

I would not have considered doing outer space art but became inspired when putting the church roofs of the image below in position and finding it looking very much like a space ship suspended in space heading somewhere.  Bring on Star Wars VIII!!

Star Domes

   
If cathedral dome roofs made into space ships are not your cup of tea, how about Victorian conical roofs with a Gothic rose window or Catherine window in stone made into galactic stars?!  

Named after St. Catherine of Alexandra who was executed on a spiked wheel, ouch!  It is from the 17th century and used in Medieval cathedrals.  All the major cathedrals from that period in France have these windows.  The Gothic revival period in the 19th century also used these windows.

Victorian Blue Star

You say blue is not your favorite color, too conservative how about a galactic star in shocking pink?!!  

Purple Victorian Star

Real stars are probably very colorful burning otherworldly metals and rocks.  Wouldn't it be interesting to see one up close.  Some stars and their colors can be seen from earth.

It is possible the origin of the rose window is found in the Roman oculous. These large circular openings let in both light and air.  The image below a sort of time capsule I believe is the dome of the Pantheon where the oculi is at the top, the best known example.  Early Christian and Byzantine architecture also made use of the use of circular oculi.

Time Tunnel

Iniquity too early of a time period how about Henri Toulous-Lautrec's Paris and the Eiffel Tower.  Here is how it might appear as a star.

Eiffel Tower Star

Some interesting facts about the Eiffel Tower it was built to sway slightly and on the sunny side it will grow as much as seven inches away from the sun.

The Tower was originally made to be taken down in twenty years. When it went up there was a petition of 300 architects, sculptors, artists and writers asking the Commissioner of the Paris Exhibition to halt the construction.  Trying to save it, Gustave Eiffel, who's firm designed it, made a meteorology laboratory on the third floor right after it's construction encouraging scientists to use it for their experiments.  Studies were performed there from gravity to electricity.

 

It was the tallest man made building until the Chrysler Building was built in 1930.

Ultimately what saved the Tower was it's usefulness as a wireless telegraph transmitter, enabling the military to communicate with ships during WWI.  Today it is still used as a transmission tower with more than 120 radio and television antennas.  

 

It is also home to two restaurants, several buffets, a champagne bar banquet hall and gift shops!  You can't get married on the Eiffel Tower but you can have your reception dinner there.

You say "So what can top the Eiffel Tower?"   They say two is better than one, two iconic buildings of New York, the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings combined!

Empire and Chrysler Buildings Star

Taller is better, only kidding!  The Chrysler Building has some nice assets one of them being the wood inlay and chrome steel detailing in the elevator.

     Chrysler Elevator by Dogears

The lobby is a contemporary abstraction of African marble and chrome steel.  The marble is not only on the floor it is on the walls and ceiling.  Like the elevator everything looks like it is in tones of medium to dark brown.

Chrysler Building by WestportWiki

 Chrysler Building by Norbert Nagel

This is one of the radiator-cap gargoyles, there is also a band of abstract automobiles on the building.  Patterned brickwork is used extensively.  

The Empire State Building was the tallest building for almost forty years and was topped by the North World Trade Center building in 1970.  To date it is the forth tallest building in the world.  Pretty impressive for being built in 1931.

Suzanne Powers gallery:  http://suzanne-powers.artistwebsites.com

I Love New York And Grunge

Merriam-Webster definition of "grunge": a type of loud rock music that was popular especially in the early 1990s; also : the fashions associated with this type of music,: heavy dirt

I love New York City and the grunge style equally. Both are synonymous with texture and have layers of it.  New York in the sense of arts, culture and food a seemingly never ending supply, so much to see and do.  Grunge, there are so many different textures (sometimes layers!) that can be found in objects large and small.  

Never in my wildest dreams in my formative years (I'm not going to admit my age here for the world although I have a degree in interior design from eons ago) would I have imagined liking rust, patina, aged, scratched, dented, flaking, dust, flea bitten, the list goes on...everyone was always chasing the new, not realizing what we were giving up.

I'm a firm believer that good design has no age or one style.  That is something design school gave me that no one can take away!

The idea of liking grunge it seems to be mostly the vintage type (not too old then it becomes antique, another style) goes along with the changes in fashion.  Today with jeans being worn everywhere, when I was growing up girls were not allowed to wear pants at school, we wore dresses, skirts, blouses with white gloves and a hat on Sunday.

I remember the day in high school when the rules changed and females were allowed to wear pants. It seems as we have become more relaxed in our dress so has everything else, fashion and art, it's all related to one another.  Who would have guessed what the future lay in store and what possibilities there was in dirt!
   

The image of the young man above is contemporary but it could be mistaken for fashion in the 60's.  The model's hair is the same length and "mophead" style the Beatles made popular.  Their hair was considered long, no males were wearing the shoulder length hair then. It is one of the first "signs" of grunge in my opinion, before this long hair on men was considered unkempt and meaning couldn't afford a hair cut. 

 

The New York grunge image is a kind of tip of the iceberg for me and the latest of a series of New York images (see previous post).  The gunge images in particular turned out better than I had hoped and I am now salivating to photograph old and even new objects that are presently in the garage including my neighbor's new motorcycle. I know new isn't old but grunge is associated with the Industrial style and I am seeing a lot of machinery parts, lighting, architectural details and machine shop accessory images.

   
Originally I wanted to photograph his pretty blond wife sitting on the motorcycle now I am more into shooting the motorcycle body more than the person!  I may appear somewhat fickle...but I can just see all that wonderful chrome gleaming in the afternoon light coming through the garage door?!  I understand now more what the fuss is all about...the curvy smooth metal, the glistening chrome...

 
It's exciting, grunge is a whole new art venue for me to photograph, manipulate and paint.  One of my favorite furniture and food photography styles has been rustic, somehow by doing the New York images I have becoming more aware of the possibilities of grunge.  It is a truth the more you do something the better you become.

One of the advantages of having an art gallery associated with other artists, I don't have to go off the site to see what others are doing and doing well.  Pinterest is as I have mentioned before in one of my posts invaluable for inspiration as is Tumbler and other visual sites.

I have run into artists who don't look at other artists work for inspiration, they have become uninspired for long lengths of time, even to the point of giving up their art! I do know about discouragement but that shouldn't last long once you become inspired.  

I am thankful for having so much art history behind us with every kind of art style available to view today and grunge fits right in, as they say "We've got it all!" 


Suzanne Powers art gallery:  http://fineartamerica.com