(Girl in the Castle, click image for a larger version)
“Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale.”
~Hans Christian Andersen
This week’s Friday Favorite firmly evokes the spirit of the fairy tale elements of the Once Upon a Time Challenge, for this week I showcase the art of Nicoletta Ceccoli.
(Vent, click image for larger version. All images copyright Sophie Thouvenin)
“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.”
~Aaron Siskind
Photography as a medium has been little represented as a Friday Favorite here at Stainless Steel Droppings. Last week’s journey down the pathways of artist Anne-Julie Aubry‘s website ensured that today would see that grievous error corrected. For it was there that the simple act of pointing and clicking unveiled the photographic art of Sophie Thouvenin.
With her cameras of choice, the “Nikon D80 with her macro lens (105mm for macro and 50mm 1.4 for portrait) and the Polaroid SX-70 used with Time-Zero” (*1) Sophie brings the viewer a more up close and personal view of the world that is right before your eyes.
I sent Sophie Thouvenin an email today requesting her permission to expose you to the same breathless excitement that I experienced last weekend by allowing me to share her photography with you today. To my immense pleasure she gave me freedom to do just that!
(Black Bird)
*Update: After reading this article on Anne-Julie Aubry’s work here, be sure to check out my interview with her, located here.
My travels around the internet have once again yielded bounty in the form of a delightful artist to share with you as a Friday Favorite. French artist Anne-Julie Aubry works in both the traditional and digital paint mediums (with occasional collage) to create deceptively innocent works of art that are visually arresting and thematically intriguing.
(Eve, click on image to enlarge)
Ever on the lookout for artists to feature on Friday Favorites, I decided to walk down the path of the Endicott Studio blog, hoping to find artists in the Once Upon a Time II Challenge vein. It was a fruitful journey, yielding many a worthy artist. Given that the first Friday Favorite of the challenge period was Brian Froud and the fact that he was not actually featured on a Friday, it seemed only fitting to use today’s Friday Favorite to feature an artist whose work reflects the same nature spirit as the books and artists we have been discussing here over the past week or so.
Thus it is my great pleasure to introduce you to the works of artist Rachael Direnna.
(Faerie Queen by Brian Froud)
Touch the wooden gate in the wall you never saw before.
Say “please” before you open the latch,
go through,
walk down the path.
(from “Instructions” ~Neil Gaiman)
Once Upon a Time (II) is about journeys…yours… mine…ours. I frequently find myself aware of the serendipitous occurrences, the coincidental connections, that unveil themselves when the seasons synch up with my reading. My awareness is heightened when we are traveling on these seasonal reading journeys together.