Creators: Leonardo da Vinci

Creators

A growing list of artists, writers, poets, filmmakers, and creatives.

Leonardo da Vinci

The term I chose for my weekly Wednesday blog entry couldn't better describe my subject for today: Leonardo Da Vinci.  

This wizard of Florence was not only an exceptional artist, but he was an inventor, engineer, scientist and superhero (He went by the name Renaissance Man).

What I love, and have loved, about Leonardo is that he didn't limit himself to just one area of human endeavor to master, but anything he had an interest in.  I'll go through a few of my favorite works of his and let you know what I think, because, you know, you care.

Look at this drawing for a moment.  It was rendered so long ago and yet it still gently rises off the page.  The back of her head is a subtle gesture, and yet that is all we need.  The man knew what he was doing.  I love that classic da Vinci brow and nose.

These hands also pop off the page, going from sketch to life.  Could this be Escher's inspiration?

Our man Leo was one of the first artists to realize that babies were not miniature adults but pudgy little fat-headed aliens.  Her we have amongst his notes several renderings of a fetus as it develops in the uterus.

This guy was a scientist back before there was science to speak of.  He studied the world in ways his contemporaries couldn't comprehend: through looking around at stuff.  So while others were developing flying salves and amulets, he was designing artificial bird wings and discovering the engineering behind flight.

As far as his inventions go, he seemed to find it easy to design weapons of war, despite being a pacifist.  His inventions include but are not limited to:

• The Tank
• Giant siege Crossbow
• Underwater Breathing Apparatus
• Contact lenses
• The Ornithopter
• The Glider
• The Multi-cannon
• The Parachute

Although he never got around to building many of his creations, the people over at the discovery channel, when they aren't building motorcycles or pumping out other bs shows, came up with a show that actually builds Leonardo's creations and sees if they work.  It's called Doing Da Vinci.

His skill at painting was of course remarkable, but it was also pleasantly mysterious.  Many of his creations are surrounded in controversy, which I'm sure is good press for any artist.  If you paint something, you might as well get people pissed off.

Word up!

I'm Only Funny On Paper

I'm Only Funny on Paper

A Comic.

Kiss and Tell.

Creators: TH White

Creators

A Growing list of inspirational artists, writers, poets, filmmakers, and creatives.

T.H. White

When is comes to the legends of the western world, there are few that can top King Arthur.  There are many who have written on the subject, and there have been writings about the writings.  Without a doubt, the story is a good one, a wonderful adventure and tragedy.  Out of all of the renditions, however, my favorite comes in the form of TH White's The Once and Future King.  And now, to twll you why I think so.

White's rendition of the Arthurian story is broken up into five sections: the Sword in the Stone, The Queen of Air and Darkness, The Ill-made Knight, Candle in the Wind, and The Book of Merlyn.  It has all of the familiar trappings of the story (excalibur, merlyn, the knights, yada-yada) but what makes it something special is the personality with which it is infused.  In this story, Arthur starts his life as Wart, future squire who is trained by Merlyn, a half-witted wizard full of anachronistic statements and frustration.  We have Lancelot, a grotesquely ugly man who has a masochistic urge to punish hims self through service to the round table, and yet is still the perfect knight and steals the heart of the queen.  

If "Wart" sounded familiar, then you guessed right.  The Disney classic, The Sword in the Stone is based on the first book of his epic.  He actually got to see it made, and ultimately thought the songs were just too silly and they missed all of his serious points.

And for all you musical fans, Camelot is based on The Once and Future King.  As far as I'm concerned, the best on-screen Arthur, goes to Sir Richard Harris.

The reason i love this version of the story centers around its main character.  Arthur, in White's story, is an ordinary man.  He starts out as a typical boy, desiring adventure but expecting none.  Merlyn, decides to teach him through the animal kingdom, turning him into various animals to show him how their societies work so that he might know how to run one better.  It's important that Merlyn cannot tell him what to do: Wart must figure it out on his own.

Once adventure strikes, he comes up with a plan to try and make the wild world better: Might for Right.  He gathers the greatest knights in the world and uses them as a task force to bring peace an enforce justice.  This works for a time.  But when trouble is stirred up in the king's own home, havoc begins to destroy his world.  And there, at the end of his life, waiting for the final battle, he realizes his mistake: Might cannot be used for right.  He realizes that the world he fights over, the lands and the names, and the territories, don't matter:  People matter.

Give Terrence White a read.