Andrew Annenberg - Portal of Hunab Ku

¤ Andrew Annenberg's "Portal of Hunab Ku" is shown on his site: Annenberg Masterworks visionary fine art & posters. It is part of his "Lost Words Suite".

¤ "Portal of Hunab Ku" is an interesting painting in Andrew Annenberg's series of lost worlds. This one shows a sunken Aztec or Mayan temple complex now visited only by sealife like sea turtles, dolphins and whales. There is a peacefulness that the water brings along with the streamlined grace of the sea life.

I like the crisp style of Annenberg's work -- an illustrative style. It brings the right touch where you want to highlight the detail of the archaeological structures in the piece. He uses shades of violet to draw the eye to the entrance of the foreground pyramid. The emitted light might make you wonder just what lies within.

Dolphins and Whales are creatures of intelligence so it is fitting that they are explorers in this painting.

This is another image where you can look and find new details on further inspection -- some that might be obvious once you find them, might not have been noticed at first.

~ Darrell

¤ When one looks at "Portal of Hunab Ku" one automatically starts to look for similarities between the human race and the underwater world. The only similarity I could come up with is that these historical structures of the deep are the dolphins equivalent to children's building blocks. The shape and size of structure remains the same and one wonders whether they are content to use these cement blocks of the deep as their dwelling place or whether they would much rather be exploring the larger landscape of the ocean. One can only speculate as mankind have not been able to fully converse with these playful creatures of the deep. I look forward to the day when we can converse as one because they have a lot to teach us about living in harmony.

~ Mags

Blake Flynn - Ruins

¤ "Ruins" by Blake Flynn from Blake Flynn's site: "Blake Flynn - Artist".

¤ "An impossible collection of archaeological artifacts to make an
impressive composition... and is the woman trapped in contemplation?" -- is how I wrote my review on "StumbleUpon" eight weeks ago when I reviewed the image there.

Often when I review something on StumbleUpon I am pressed for time. I often review it when I am the first to have found a page or when I want to "photo blog" an image, and for some reason find I am on my way somewhere else. When I photo blog something it is often because I find an image or artist I very much like and want to be able to come back to in future. Blake Flynn is one such artist and "Ruins" is one of his works that I wanted to photo blog so I could come back to.

I have studied some archaeology and anthropology and recognize some of the artifacts used in "ruins" which intrigued me -- though a person doesn't need to have studied archaeology or anthropology to recognize those prominent pieces.

I still wonder like I did in my original review about the woman in the image -- is this woman, who has been staring at this scene so long that she is becoming a part of it; watching as it crumbles, or as it is being born? Is she a part of the scene and one of the collected artifacts -- a goddess of a time past -- or is she simply enraptured by what is going on. Is the ivy holding her down or her natural garb.

I do love the natural delicate lace-like detail the greenery adds, to the image -- but looking toward the top are the structures being torn down by time or being created in a Tetris-like fashion?

I like Flynn's surreal paintings and the styles he uses in them. I would love to have some of his paintings or prints of them, on my walls... or even to paint something like those paintings... Now if only I can clear out that corner of my office I use as a studio.

~ Darrell

¤ I have a thing for climbing ivy. If I had my way we wouldn't be taken over by aliens or electronics gone wrong, but delicate invading luscious green ivy. I like the way in which green ivy encroaches upon the landscape without caring about what us mere humans think. Blake Flynn has managed to successfully combine a life study of the natural human form with the archaeologist's playground. It seems to me like the life study of the natural human form has come to a mutual understanding with the climbing ivy.

~ Mags