There are some brilliant, intense people in this world, but while we live in an era where everyone is special and no one is special and there is plenty of money all around to support talent that is both mediocre, out of this world, and really, really shitty, few people really stand up and out. With so many voices, it is all too easy to be drowned out by the clamoring masses. Sure, places like YouTube have made it easier for the little known creative director to really show off and do experimental things, they are one in a zillion amongst crapcrapcrap. Who else would like the era of Everyone is Special and Everyone Wins to be over? Man, do you remember when poets were household names and writers of philosophy were widely read?

Thankfully there is brilliance at the end of the tunnel, if only you can wait it out that long. Most of it can be found right here in your internet home, cherished and blogged about to your heart’s content. I’ll tell you my favorites, how about yours?

1. Roadside Projects

I about peed my pants when I discovered this artist. Her name is Jayme McGowan and she’s absolutely irresistible. There is something about the faces of her creations that does it for me, not to mention how very much I like circus themed art. I’ve purchased three of her prints, three from her circus group (two are shown below)  and oh, how I want to own the fourth too. I can hardly wait till they show up. The originals, I have no doubt, are beyond beautiful. She creates in 3D paper, which is both very easy and very hard to pull off. The cutting out and gluing down of paper pieces is easy. The concept and execution is fundamentally difficult. That’s why I can’t say enough about artists like this. You can, literally, feel yourself climbing into them. How cool is that?

 

 

 

 

2. Abney Park

Steampunk. This is either a beloved subculture or one that is completely foreign in every sense of the word. Steampunk is a subculture that combines the romance of steam technology- think goggles, dirigibles, brass and oh, steam, with Victorian elegance and dreamy literary references. Military coats combined with long drawn Victorian dresses, tall hats adorned with cracked leather goggles. It is a world wholly its own in which many people trespass and carry on. There are many conventions, many fairs that tip its hat to this genre, and most Anime conventions and Comic Cons can be see filled with them. I love them something terrible. (Check out the book “Court of the Air” by Stephen Hunt for my current foray into the Steampunk genre)

Well it’s not just creative clothing and funny accents that gets us there. It is also music like Abney Park which is so very rich in texture, story and sound. And let’s not forget to mention how incredibly good looking their lead singer is. Particularly their newest CD, the songs are filled with the clicks and whistles of steam technology, rubbed with the velvety goodness of romantic, dark, foreboding vocals and delicious stringed instruments. I get a little warm just talking about them. They even have a track on the deliriously beautiful Mirrormaskmovie by Neil Gaiman.

3. Bitey Castle- Brackenwood Movies

Ooooh. I love this man. Adam Phillips is so brilliant I want take him home and devour him. I found Bitey Castle several years ago when he’d just started his film “Waterlollies” and honestly, I thought the man would never finish. But it’s done now and it’s fantastic. They are all fantastic. They are short flash movies and so worth the time.