Two watercolours by Fabien Verschaere

"Untitled" (2004) by Fabien Verschaere. Watercolour on paper, 25.5x20 ins (32x24 cm), signed and numbered at the back.

"Untitled" (2004) by Fabien Verschaere. Watercolour on paper, 25.5x20 ins (32x24 cm), signed and numbered at the back.

Fabien Verschaere (1975, Paris, France) lives and works in Paris. His exhibition entitled "Babe I'm On Fire" at Parker's Box in Brooklyn, NY opens next week, September 7th 2007.

The work of Fabien Verschaere is a personal mythology articulated mainly through drawing and watercolors. These paper works and wall drawings create an intimate theatre, where recurrent patterns, human figures (self-portraits, women), animals or objects blend with each other to result in a personal and imaginary world that evokes the human condition. Verschaere's strange configurations, confrontations of characters, situations and atmospheres provoke feelings of ambiguity towards our own relationship and the artist's relationship with this curious universe. The existence alluded to here seems attractive and repulsive, exotic and banal, sometimes dangerous or exciting, sometimes full of meaning, and at others derisory and insignificant. These constant shifts provide the work with its strong foundations, while propelling the spectator towards unexpected encounters.

"Odalisque" (2007) by Anwen Keeling

"Odalisque" (2007) by Anwen Keeling, oil on linen, 122 x 81cm. From "the falling dark" series.

An odalisque was a virgin female slave who could rise in status to be a concubine or a wife in Ottoman Seraglios. Most were part of the harem of the Turkish sultan. See also previous posts featuring odalisques.

Here's some ArtSpeak™, courtesy of Elizabeth Hastings, Liverpool Street Gallery:

Keeling’s beguiling, realist paintings capture suspended moments in fictional lives with a reverence for drama, suspense and elegance. Like film stills from an Alfred Hitchcock thriller, Keeling’s isolated female figures are placed in a series of interiors where the space is either suffused with subtle, refracted light or illuminated by the harsh glare of an electric bulb. A film noir ambience is achieved with chiaroscuro effects and deep shadows which suggest an emotional and psychological undercurrent to the work. Yet the viewer is left to create their own narrative.

Here's a very nice photo of the artist herself:

"Disheveled Blonde" (1999) by Lisa Yuskavage

"Disheveled Blonde" (1999) by Lisa Yuskavage. Gouache and pastel on paper. 32.4 x 24.8 cm. From an auction, estimate: $35,000-45,000

See also: previous post on Lisa Yuskavage.

"Mambo Jambo" by The Perez Prado Orchestra

"Mambo Jambo" by The Perez Prado Orchestra (Globe Records in Stereo! / Japanese).

Found here at LP Cover Lover. See more in the "nudes" category.

Listen to samples at Amazon.com, or buy the single copy left in stock (and leave a comment so I can update this text). See him perform his biggest hit, Mambo No. 5:

"Cashback" (2007) by Sean Ellis

Based on the Oscar nominated short, Cashback is the tale of life on the graveyard shift at a supermarket. When a bad break-up leads to insomnia, art student Ben joins the nocturnal existence of a group of young grocers who indulge in the art of the imagination. As Ben learns to let his run free, he begins to see beauty in the ordinary as well as the possibility to love again.

Here's the trailer:

Here's the original 18 minute short:

I really liked this movie. At some points it suffered from debut feature film syndrome (too many ideas crammed into one movie) but it's still highly recommended. The IMDM rating is 7.5/10

Justin Chang wrote this for Variety:

Slickly charming, genteelly erotic and directed with supreme polish, "Cashback" is a conventional romantic comedy that plays unconventional games with time and memory. Elaborating on his Oscar-nominated short of the same title, Brit filmmaker Sean Ellis reveals a gift for formal sleight-of-hand that's ultimately more dazzling than his patly amusing script. Though frank sexuality will limit audience scope, pic's kudo cachet and bankable title should earn worldwide distrib Gaumont some cashback of its own from savvy younger viewers. [..] It's [in the supermarket] that Ben discovers his ability to stop time, a phenomenon that gives him a new appreciation for the beauty around him. The beauties in this supermarket readily identify pic as a supremely cushy male fantasy. Ben wanders the aisles of the store undressing the drop-dead gorgeous women around him -- photographed by Angus Hudson in unsparing detail -- then sketches their portraits.

Buy the DVD at Amazon: