Curio: David Collier's Squiggles

Alexa here. David Collier is a Canadian artist who makes, amongst other things, interesting portraits in ink and watercolor. His lines and squiggles form fractured likenesses of the famous that are pretty fascinating. Most look to be single line drawings, or close to single line drawings, a technique that works well for all those expressive lines and crevices.  Check out his website for drawings of everyone from Dylan to Dostoevsky. 

Al Pacino

You can buy prints and mugs at his etsy shop. Here are some of the actors and directors he's captured. Meryl, Hitchcock, Woody and more after the jump...

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Curio: Liza Love

Alexa here. Liza Minnelli turns 67 today. (Nathaniel is seeing her in concert tomorrow!).  Count me among the disappointed that this year's Oscar telecast, said to be a tribute to movie musicals, didn't at least acknowledge Cabaret.  Seems they meant to celebrate only the revival of the form, but still, couldn't we get Liza to join the other divas for a number instead of making time for Seth Macfarlane's ode to boobs?

Oh well, count me amongst the grumbling olds. Suffice it to say that I love me some Liza. I can't wait until Arrested Development Season 4 premieres in a few months since I think Lucille Austero is one of her best roles.  In the meantime, here are some curios that celebrate her film life.

Watercolor by OhLaLaGalerie.

EGOT accessories, and more Cabaret and Arthur after the jump...

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Curio: The Exiled Elite

Alexa here. After posting the gorgeous pencil drawings of Marie Harnett, the work of another artist out of the UK who takes pencil to paper was brought to my attention. Matthew Warren has a passion for film that was nurtured when he worked on film sets during art school.  After a viewing of Drive inspired Matthew to seek out alternative poster designs for the film, he discovered the rich online world of fan art, discussed here at The Film Experience (he's a reader) and elsewhere on the web. Soon his project, under the name The Exiled Elite, was born. 

Matthew mixes his pencil sketches with marker-drawn text to create his wholly handmade designs; I love how you can see each marker stroke.

I've posted more of his posters after the jump.  You can see all his designs on his website, and you can buy prints at his shop.

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Curio: Oscar Food 2013

Alexa here. Every year the Oscars make me hungry. Maybe I'm feeling sympathy pangs for the starved nominees.  Or maybe it's because, as my husband puts it, this is my Super Bowl: all that time in front of the television gives one an excuse to snack it up.

Here's what we came up with this year:

  

 

• Hushpuppies in honor of Beasts of the Southern Wild
• Crabby Snacks in honor of Silver Linings Playbook (recipe here)
• Thirty Dark Chocolate Zeros
• Les Miserables Miseraballs
• Argo Fudge Yourself
• Chocolate Djmangoes unchained

More Oscar foods from 'round the web after the jump (plus Jennifer Lawrence)

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Curio: Oscar Art 2013

Alexa here. Fan art is really going mainstream this year, with the Oscar website featuring some amazing screenprints commissioned by Gallery1988 for the nominated films. Check out the entire Gallery1988 gallery here; I'm especially fond of this Django Unchained landscape by Mark Englert. My Oscar anticipation lead me to seek out even more creations celebrating films that are part of the Oscar conversation this year; here are some favorites from etsy and tumblr and flickr and the like. Happy Oscar week!

Watercolors for Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, and Argo, by Julian Birchman.

Many more after the jump...

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