Delicate landscape

Untitled, from the Weeds series, 1996
Byung-Hun Min (Korean b.1955)
Image: Museum of Contemporary Photography

Min's ethereal and unique photographs are reminiscent of traditional ink landscape painting. His Weeds series takes a simple bit of nature and captures it in a special rephrasing. Ming's inspiration stems from his Korean culture and landscape.

"Min’s photographs of grasses were taken on repeated visits to the same site where weeds have grown up against vinyl greenhouses and dried to their surfaces." (see Image link)

Vinyl greenhouses would not be the first thought coming to one's mind when looking at these photographs. The transformation that occurs through Ming's lense is delicate and sensitive creating a new miniature landscape.

See more of Ming's work from the Awakening exhibition at the Australian Centre for Photography and on the Muse-ings blog.

Bath Beach

Bath Beach: a sketch (Bensonhurst), ca. 1887
William Merritt Chase
1961.5.24 Parrish Art Museum
Image courtesy of Parrish Art Museum (see more works by Chase by clicking here and on the artist's name)

A painting that caught my eye as I flipped through a volume of the catalogue raisonne of American Impressionist, William Merritt Chase. I may have mentioned this before, but my American Art history knowledge is not remotely up to par, and while I know of Chase, I don't think I could have connected him directly with his painting until now (time spent merging records ends up equaling time looking through books :). His work is quite pretty (one of the reasons I shied away from American art and Impressionism so long is that I didn't see much else in it than that) but I seem to be attracted more to the works that have stronger, richer color, I'm a sucker for green grass, though not necessarily bright (see Feeding the Pigeons, love it) color. The perspective of Bath Beach also draws my attention, while we cannot see any detail in the figures (his wife and daughter) they remain a focus of attention as the promenade path leads our eye to them, the grass and water frame them, the man on the bench is blurred the trees hover over them and the other significant object is in close proximity to them (the canon), keeping our attention centered.

Wave Field

Wave Field, 1995
Maya Lin
Shaped earth; 100 x 100 feet. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Image at Uniquely Michigan

A bit of earth/land art and public art practically in my backyard, I just discovered this work by Maya Lin. With initial thoughts to highlight Maya Lin's Vietnam Memorial for today I discovered more of her work and veered to the less heavily associated work. While this is very much an earth bound work Lin's fascination and ideas stemmed from art history, science and autobiography. The results are a truly integrated work that shares its beauty with the public.

"A concept as inextricably bound to Eastern philosophy as it is to the principles of thermal dynamics, "The Wave Field" - as an inherently social work - demonstrates that out of destruction can come creation and the possibility for renewal. " (Art:21 Maya Lin's "Wave Field" PBS)


The waves are 3 to 5 ft. high which help to engage on a close physical level as one can sit in the wave (Image at umich)

This is the first in 3 "Wave Fields" by Lin. Check out NYTimes this article and video with Lin discussing the third and final field at the Storm King Art Center which will open in the spring of 2009.