1. Serj Tankian

http://serjtankian.com/

http://www.youtube.com/serjtankian

    " Serj Tankian is an Armenian-American rock singer–songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, poet, and a political activist. He is best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, keyboardist, and occasionally live rhythm guitarist of the Grammy Award-winning rock band, System of a Down.
    In 2002, Tankian and Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello co-founded a non-profit political activist organization, Axis of Justice.
    During his musical career, he has released five albums with System of a Down, one with Arto Tunçboyacıyan (Serart), as well as his debut solo album Elect the Dead and a live orchestral version incorporating the Auckland philharmonic orchestra Elect the Dead Symphony. He is currently producing his second solo album, expected to be titled Imperfect Harmonies. "

                                                                                                                  http://www.wikipedia.org

    Ok, so now that i have acquainted you with him, and his work i will present you the genius that is Serj from his solo album "Elect the Dead":

Serj Tankian - Sky is over


Serj Tankian - Baby


    Fact of the matter is, "Elect the Dead Symphony", was and still is purely mind-blowing shit from every point of view, if the original album was lets say "expected" from Serj, this sequel just upped the ante.

Serj Tankian - Empty Walls

1. Naomi Chen

http://www.petracore.com/

    From what i gathered about the artist, Naomi Chen is a student in the US, living in New York. She uses Adobe Photoshop CS3 and a Intuos4 as a pen tablet and it seems he likes to read Leonard Cohen. She listed somewhere that her interest are "antediluvian cowboys".
    Now you may, or may not know that the antediluvian is a term derived from latin (before the deluge) that refers to the biblical period between Creation and the Great Flood that killed every living thing except Noah, his family and his ark of animals.
    The Book of Genesis speaks about giants, and nephillim, monsters that lived in that time and age, and thus the figurative form of this word is mostly used to describe very old, entities, or monsters like vampires; H.P. Lovecraft is very fond of this term, and he used it allot in his horror books; all those beings most probably were fossils of large animals (mostly flying).
    All this ranting about the meaning of antediluvian is just to better understand Naomi's artworks, she is obsessed in portraying these ancient creatures in all her artworks, alone or at the feet of the cowboys, (the law-keepers or heroes in Chen's fantasy univers)

The one comprehensive piece of mind-boggling art from Naomi's current portfolio is, in my opinion "Seeking Solace"  :

   The attention to detail is absolutely remarkable: the broken skull on the end of the cross, the cross's wood itself, the creatures body, legs, torso, feathers, tallons, the bleeding wound on the head, the flow of blood on the hair and finally the man on the chair, questioning or judging the beast, apparently floating in a dark mist.
    These elements are what make up Naomi Chen's artistic universe: antediluvian monster, obvious biblical reference, the cowboy and the wattery shroud in which they float.

    The other bewildering piece is "Eden is not enough", in which she paints the struggle, the combat between a beast and a hero, the title and the canvas content speaks for itself more then enough.

     All in all a phenomenal artist, hope you enjoy her work as much as i do, and if you do, be shure to check out her website...

What do you think is actually "beautiful" ?

     A couple of days ago, i started a interesting conversation with a colleague. The whole discussion started from my friend's statement that i, am in fact, a very weird person (i should emphasize the fact that the term weird was used in a mild manner, as my friend didn't want to refer to me as damn right crazy).     I was labeled so because i take interest in what the majority consider "the ugly" or "the perverted", and by that i mean, i like to get in the mind of the people who create such things, i take pleasure in overviewing every little detail that composes one thing or another, it gives a whole new and different perspective when you observe the whole body of work in my opinion; that's why i consider "beautiful" things that usually have besides them a warning like "viewer discretion is advised".
    Now don't get me wrong, i don't have a macabre personality, nor am i a sadist, i like "normal" things like anyone too, and that's why i came up with a question to ask the mindless zerg that label people like me wrongfully: What do you think is actually "beautiful"?


    Well, over the ages the term has influenced how people think, and more important, what people percieve as being right and wrong, allowed or taboo. Point and fact: from about the 15th till well into the 18th century noblemen and women from Europe where mostly fat, thus the idea that being fat is being beautiful and wealthy; another classic example is homosexuality, yep, you read right, in fact sex was, and still is a big taboo all over the world but, something you might not know, is that the japanese embraced their sexuality... no, they didn't have sex in the streets or anything like that, but they acknowledged the phenomenon and respected it. Geishes wore had to please the client in any shape or form and meet his every request, even if that meant to sing, play a tune, dance, or call in a male geisha to satisfy the client. Oh, and be advised that geishas were never taboo in the japanese culture, meanwhile in the rest of the world people still struggle with homosexuality.
    While i don't really have anything against the people who like being told to what is good or bad (even if you think you choose what you like, those choises are actually limited), i do hate the consequences, the most important of which is the incapability to understand... anything other than what they are programmed to like.
    I am confronted daily with people who literally can't understand why i like a genre of music, or type of movie, or why i like anime, and especially why i like certain pictures.
    
    The answer is very simple, i like to look beyond what the culture in which i grew told me is wrong, or taboo, and see the real beauty. Oh and by the way, if i'm still on this subject, the expression "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is a letter away from the truth, as real beauty is in the eye of the beholders.