Female Bust, 1936 ~ Pablo Picasso

Do you have ALL THE KNOWLEDGE about the world of Harry Potter?  Are your Muggle-born friends constantly turning to you for advice navigating the ever-shifting staircases of Hogwarts? Do you secretly have lesson plans ready for the day you get hired as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor?  

Or do you just know a lot about the wonderful world of Harry Potter and want to share it with the Dashcon attendees?

Whatever your particular brand of HP love, the Harry Potter committee at Dashcon is looking for a few friendly, knowledgeable, and FUN people to be panelists at a Q&A session for fans of all ages.  Whether your specialty is the etymology of spells, the use of folklore in character names, or your memorization of the Marauder’s Map - feel free to apply as a panelist!

We need your help!

Eduardo Terrazas First Solo UK Show at Timothy Taylor

Eduardo Terrazas Possibilities of a Structure: Grid 1.4.12, 1974-2015, Wool yarn on wooden board covered with Campeche wax 35 ½ x 35 ½ in.

art history meme • [6/9] paintings: francisco goya - el quitasol (the parasol)

The Parasol is one of a cartoon series of oil on linen paintings made by the painter Francisco Goya. This series of paintings was specifically made in order to be transformed into tapestries that would be hung on the walls of the Royal Palace of El Pardo in Madrid, Spain.

In his paintings, Goya often joins French fashion to the Spanish one. The woman in this particular painting is sitting on the ground, possibly resting from a long walk. She is dressed in French style, according the time period. She is holding a fan in her right hand, while a little dog is cuddled in her lap. The young man is holding the parasol (umbrella) in order to shade the woman’s face. He is dressed in the so-called majo style, meaning he is dressed like a poor person for the time period. His hair gathered in a net, and his belt is made of colorful silk. In the background we can see dark clouds in the sky and the trees swaying in the wind, possibly signaling a storm coming. The painting has very calm warmth it emits, which is then offset by the tree that seems to be blowing in pretty strong wind. The way the boy is standing, with one foot on the rock and one not, he seems to be triumphantly shading the woman from the harmful rays of the sun, and the possible storm.

This issue: Fall Preview, featuring The Hateful Eight’s Samuel L. Jackson and Quentin Tarantino

World, blown Holocaust. Old Poland, Market Day in Shtetl Zabludoff. Based on the stories of Sholom Aleichem and Bashevis Zinger. In Memory of the burned, destroyed Jewish Shtetls, do not give me no rest … 120х80cm. oil on canvas. 5000$

The company that makes Legos has landed at the center of a social-media firestorm after Chinese artist Ai Weiwei complained that it refused to supply a bulk order of the toy bricks for his art.

Ai said he wanted to use the bricks for an exhibition on free speech at Australia’s National Gallery of Victoria. The museum attempted to place an order but was told by the company that it “cannot approve the use of Legos for political works."A post on Ai’s Instagram account said:

"As a powerful corporation, Lego is an influential cultural and political actor in the globalized economy with questionable values. Lego’s refusal to sell its product to the artist is an act of censorship and discrimination.”

A free-speech advocate who was imprisoned by the Chinese government, Ai suggested that Lego was acting under pressure from authorities. The privately held Danish company recently announced that a Legoland theme park will open in Shanghai. 

In response, fans of the artist flooded Twitter and Instagram with offers of Legos, and Ai said he was setting up drop-off points for donations. He also posted a picture of Legos that had been left inside a car on a street in Berlin, where he is serving as a visiting professor at the University of the Arts.

Fans Flood Artist Ai Weiwei With Offers Of Legos

Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Hand-stencil rock art from Gua Tewet, Borneo, thought to be over 10,000 years old.

Photo courtesy of Luc-Henri Fage, via the Wiki Commons.

STACKSOPHONE, BABY!

Darkcho is an album of #mystical #Hasidic music, that sounds more like an #indie #folk #rock album with tradition than what you would expect of a #religious album. The music is very real, very #meditative and very very #human. A #physical copy of this #record is hard to find. As we look at the art we see how #mysterious it all is. Hand written lyrics and notes cover the panels, but there is no label, there is no #website, there is no way of finding out any more information and to top it all off, when you flip the cover over you read these fascinating words: “These songs collected here belong to the Jewish people. They originate from #holiness. They speak of self nullification and redemption, the need for healing and discovering the depths of the #Holy #One #Blessed Be He in this #world and the next. We take no recognition for any part of the material, lest the actual performing of the music itself.“

We couldn’t let the album not be heard, so we have put together a digital release with a new painting by the #singer, in order to ensure that the #world hears it, aged in the barrels of #Eastern #European folklore and steeped in centuries of #Jewish #musical #tradition. The album plays like a #Tarantino #soundtrack to the #deepest, most #spiritual moments of #life; full of depth and #style, antiquity and #freshness.

Get it at http://bancs.bandcamp.com (at Bancs Media)

The Black Widow: Forever Red YA book by Margaret Stohl is now available for pre-order! Get it here.