Curio: Lisa Brawn's Woodcuts

Alexa from Pop Elegantiarum here with your weekly arts and crafts.

Recently I came upon these woodcut paintings by Lisa Brawn. Lisa carves detailed portraits into wood, generally beams of salvaged Douglas fir. Usually artists carve into wood in order to make prints from the resulting block; instead, Lisa paints the carved block itself to create one-of-a-kind portraits. She looks to pop culture for inspiration, and finds "suitably rustic and rugged subjects" in tough guys like Steve McQueen, but notes that "Sophia Loren holds her own anywhere". I think her chosen medium is perfect, since it calls to mind Christian wooden icons; it's like she's made pop culture devotionals (Saint Bullitt and Saint Sophia, natch).

Here's a selection.

It Was a Sort of Madness, Honey © 2008

Jake © 2009

You're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat © 2008

Bullitt © 2009

Eight (Links) is Enough

Ask David Lynch I asked him a few questions today. He was sympathetic about my cat's health problems but he sure was mean / incoherent once I asked any question about myself. What will Lynch tell you?
CHUD "What if Jaws (1975) was made today?" I love this article and I absolutely believe that it would be as described. So...much...backstory nowadayzzzz
IMDb Q'Orianka Kilcher (The New World) arrested in oil related protest. We all know that oil companies (and our dumb societal resistance to developing alternate forms of energy) are going to be the death of us all so it's good to see young activists out there.
fourfour turns five. Happy birthday to an amazing blog. Rich shares his 20 favorite posts

Observations on Film Art Why are today's movies so unimaginatively shot with back and forth closeups? I'm always bitching about this so it's nice to see other people begging for variety, too. More blocking for your actors, please, directors. Try "The Cross"
The Scott Brothers on The Discreet Charm of Catherine Deneuve:

It’s that filmic resolve that sometimes gets labeled as “emotionally distant”, which is wholly unfair and misses the point of her amazing abilities as an actress.

Movie|Line Christina Hendricks removes her body parts in sci-fi music video. Honestly I think I just read a book like this. Was it Saturn's something?
Los Angeles Times the great cinematographer William A Fraker (Rosemary's Baby, Bullitt, Looking For Mr Goodbar) passes on. RIP

Earliest (Second Hand) Movie Memory: Jaws (1975)

I'm ready to love a big summer blockbuster again. But will there be one worth loving? I worry.

It pains me to say that I don't remember my first moviegoing experience. Some people do and I'm jealous of each and every one of them. I assume it was something Disney but I've never been able to recall and my parents aren't helpful there (they're not movie people). My earliest cinematic memory is actually second hand. I was scared to death of Jaws (1975) as a little kid a full decade or so before I actually saw it. Ahhhh, irrational childhood phobias...

[These illustrations were first published on the site in 2003]

First Panel: Jaws' poster haunted me. Neighborhood kids fixated, snickering, on the nude swimmer. I stared in horror: How could any animal have so many teeth ?!?

Second Panel: I tried to inure myself by playing the famous theme on our piano. Nothing worked. The backyard pool became fraught with terror.

Third Panel: People blame Spielberg for creating the blockbuster filmmaking mentality. I blame him for ruining summer in the pool.

What's your earliest movie memory?
Were you scared of any movies as a kid that you didn't see until years later? I'd especially love to hear from any readers who have first memories from earlier than the mid 70s so that I don't feel so old! ;) I don't suppose TFE readers born in the 1990s have any movie fears. Don't they wean kids on slasher flicks now?

Link-By Posting From Nashville

Hi y'all. Nathaniel (c'est moi!) is still in Nashville and feeling very out-of-time and place, shuttling from downtown hotel to movie theater to well attended/scrumptious VIP tent between said movie theater and parking garage. It sounds strange but it's pretty on the inside. There's even a red carpet outside for celebrities I don't recognize (Music City, you know). Celebrities seen wandering through VIP tent that I *do* recognize include Michael Clark Duncan, Mario Van Peebles, Sheryl Crow, Jane Seymour and always memorable character actress Beth Grant (No Country For Old Men, Little Miss Sunshine, Donnie Darko among many others). She's pictured below in what was a very flattering flowing emerald dress... though I wished when I saw her that it was more sparkly in motion. Uh... Get it? Ba dum dum. I'm here all week.


No Nicki Kidman like last year though *sniffle*. Last night I played poker until the wee hours (my first time ever!) with fellow jurors and a couple of filmmakers. Texas Hold Em Whilst In Tennessee. My my my my my my my my poker face. I don't have one. I lost.

There's so many newsy bits I haven't discussed since I'm in the alternate reality of the film festival and they all feel so ancient now despite just happening in the past week. Anyway, for now, random links!

Flickers remembers Yentl warmly. Someone needs to
Techland names 12 disaster movies that are better than Titanic for the 98th anniversary of the great ship's sinking
Deadline People keep asking me what I think of Kirsten Dunst joining Lars von Trier's Melancholia. A hearty nod of approval is what I think. She's making the right moves for a major comeback...i.e. potentially reminding people that she's actually a very talented actress, not just some overly famous celebrity


Guardian offers an amusing solution to the creativity drought of today's "remake it!" frenzy
GreenCine Daily on Summer Hours and the myth of age-appropriate cinema. Good piece but I have one tiny bone to pick. Kohn asserts that the main character is several decades older than he, suggesting that he is still in the womb. Charles Berling is only 51. If you were to be several decades younger than 51 how young exactly would you be? Have your parents even met yet?
Coming Soon Looks like Viola Davis is finally getting that lead role we've all known she deserves. She'll star as The Help, a drama about a housekeeper whose candid comments to a writer send shockwaves through her community.
/Film Joss Whedon to direct The Avengers? I refuse to be as enthused as the rest of the internet. Like I've said before I'll believe this entire movie's existence when I see it. It sounds like way too many contracts to corral into one movie. To me at least. Nevertheless the internet will keep writing about this movie until 2022 and beyond even if it spends decades in development hell.
Thompson on Hollywood on Ryan Phillipe and abs
Erik Lundegaard another interesting review of Kick-Ass
Peel Slowly remembers Jaws and investigates the tiny shifts in its iconic marketing

That's all for now. Enjoy...
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