Let's do this!
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The Simpsons ripped off by Usher and/or The Hologram Formerly Known As Will.I.Am?
Believe it!
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This weekend I finished the biography on Nefertiti that I'd been reading. It's a good read, it is after all written by Joyce Tyldesley, but it's striking how little we actually know about the long-dead Queen of Egypt. How did she die? When did she die? Was she in fact Pharaoh after her husband died? Was she an actual believer in her husband's monotheistic religion (the first in history)? All of these questions are unanswered, and there is a good chance that most of them will remain so.
In fact, it seems to me that most of what we 'believe' about Nefertiti is actually an attempted articulation of feelings we have and reactions to seeing the famous bust of Nefertiti, which was shockingly recovered from the Egyptian desert less than a hundred years ago. I say shockingly because the piece seems such an ingrained part of Art History in general and Ancient Egyptian specifically that it's strange to think of its 'modern life' being no older than that of much of Art Nouveau.
One of my favorite moments in the book is when Tyldesley quotes from another of my favorite authors, Camille Paglia, from her book Sexual Personae. It's so good I'm reprinting it in full here:
As we have it the bust of Nefertiti is artistically and ritualistically complete, exalted, harsh and alien... This is the least consoling of great art works. Its popularity is based on misunderstanding and suppression of its unique features. The proper response to the Nefertiti bust is fear.
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Veering sharply from high to low, I saw Tron: Legacy this past week. For what it is, I thought it was pretty well done. It's a big, action slick Hollywood movie. But it was done well. Plus the soundtrack by Daft Punk is awesome. I've been drawing to it for a few days now and it really builds a mood and sticks to it nicely.
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A couple weeks back I posted an Iron Man bust (there's that word again) that I did on commission. This week I've done the companion piece for it. It's Black Cat, longtime adversarial love interest of Spider-Man.
Sound familiar? Yeah, well you're right. She's a Catwoman knockoff in a lot of ways. Still a heck of a lot of fun to draw though!
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