Kristina Carroll - Ophelia

I'm fascinated with characters who are driven to extremes by love. Like Medea, Ophelia has been misused, though exactly how is never explicitly mentioned. To me, she was always meant to represent the very fragile and most human elements in Hamlet. Between ghosts and murder and incest, how does one lovesick girl compete? We connect with that simple desire in the face of evil and the tragic results of what happens to innocence in  madness. I see the death of Ophelia as the point of no return for the other characters.

I really want to do something more with this I was playing around with the shapes of flowers and thinking of orchids when developing the overall shape.

Alice Stanne - Mating Ritual

Why go through all those crazy displays to prove your strength and agility when you can just tweet at your girl...

Carly Janine Mazur - Red Hot Love

Had some extra paint on the palette and decided to fingerpaint and scumble a little.

Scott Murphy - Metal Love

Heading out to a concert tonight, so here's a quick sketch of one of my favorite metal musicians, Abbath from the black metal band, Immortal. As I mentioned before, I love all (well, most) music. I don't know what I would do if I couldn't listen to music every moment of the day. It's also great to live in New York city where you can go out and find a great concert on almost any night of the week.

Marc Scheff - Mating Ritual

I admit a fascination with the visceral. Underneath all the flowers and poetry, there are mechanics. Muscles, tendons, saliva, nerve endings, unpretty things that hold up the curtains of our lives' theatre. Underneath, the oil of olay and botox and implants, or the natural beauties with faces the color of Spring afternoons, stately gentlemen, or good-time charlies. Underneath. I wonder what we are reaching for, when so often it's nothing, just us.

acrylic and pen on paper

Tim Paul - Mating Rituals

Oh the ritual of the first date, where we compare ourselves to see if we are a match!

Challenge #9 for Saturday Feb. 23rd

Our 9th Challenge  comes courtesy of Marc Scheff

 The subject is:  "I would do anything for love, but I won't do that."

Jeffrey Alan Love - Dredd

I watched Dredd the other night and loved it.  How many other directors/writers would have had him take off his helmet?  How many actors would have insisted in their contract that their face had to be shown?  I had no idea what Karl Urban looked like until a friend told me he was that one guy in Lord of the Rings.  And if anyone else had made the film they would have had Anderson and Dredd kiss, and added about ten to fifteen minutes at the end to "wrap things up".  It lived up to my expectations while also confounding them and I love when a movie can do that to me.

Carly Janine Mazur - Mating Rituals

I was at work all day, and hadn't much to do considering the kids are on February break. I then spent a good while rooting through my supplies and using a set of alphabet stamps I had found, individually coloring and stamping each letter. Originally this was to be the background for something, but I love how this looks by itself. It shall remain the mating call of typographers and graphic designers.

Scott Murphy - Mating Ritual

Well, this didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, but in any a case I always thought peacocks had a pretty sweet mating ritual. My grandfather used to bring us to a farm when we were younger and they had peacocks. I remember them being some of the most amazing sights when they had their full plumage on view. so anyhow, this is my tired lame attempt.