150 Years ago Today June 25, 1876

 June 25, 3:00 PM

Following Custer's orders to strike the southern end of the village, Major Reno launched a mounted charge. He was quickly overwhelmed by a massive counterattack of Lakota and Cheyenne warriors. Forced into a defensive timber line and then a chaotic, bloody retreat across the river, Reno's surviving men dug into defensive positions on the bluffs (now called Reno-Benteen Battlefield).

Custer is Isolated

June 25, 3:45 PM

While Reno was pinned down, Custer moved his battalion of roughly 210 men northward along the ridges, hoping to strike the village from the flank or capture non-combatants. Warrior leaders, including Crazy Horse and Gall, redirected their forces northward after repelling Reno, completely cutting Custer off from any support.

Custer's Last Stand

June 25, 4:45 PM - 5:30 PM

Surrounded and heavily outnumbered on a high ridge, Custer's five companies were systematically overwhelmed. Soldiers shot their own horses to form makeshift breastworks, but the defensive lines collapsed rapidly under heavy gunfire and hand-to-hand combat. Custer and every single man in his immediate command were killed.

- The Bismark Tribune actually had a reporter embeded with the 7th Calvery.  He was killed along with the others and is known as the first Associated Press reporter to die in the line of duty.

Spectral Fronds and Flowers Comprise Elegant Animals in Molly Devlin’s Paintings

Spectral Fronds and Flowers Comprise Elegant Animals in Molly Devlin’s Paintings:

With bodies composed of ghostly ferns, flowers, and fungi, Molly Devlin’s fantastical and ethereal acrylic portraits invite us into a dreamy woodland realm. Her works tap into the beauty and resilience of living creatures, from a white bear cloaked in translucent butterflies to a diminutive mouse composed of different lifecycle phases of a dandelion. Part fauna and part flora, each elegant animal is a reminder of nature’s interconnectedness.

Devlin is currently working toward a solo exhibition opening in early August at Corey Helford Gallery in Los Angeles. She’s also finishing up a mural in collaboration with S.V. Williams along the American River in Sacramento. See more on Instagram.

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Like a bird on a wire - Leonard Cohen

 Like a bird on a wire - Leonard Cohen

Driving With Dog

Ilektra Poirazoglou made a music video about driving with her Bassett Hound, Elliott

 Driving With Dog

Hope-65

 

In the not too distant future, we reach out beyond our own solar system in search of a new home. To do this, space ships are launched, “manned” by our closest relative – chimpanzees. Specially trained, they must ascertain whether or not our exodus may begin, giving us a new home full of natural resources to claim as our own. One of these chimpanzee explorers is Hope-65, one of a long line of her kind to go into space on our behalf. She eventually arrives at a planet which fulfils all the necessary criteria to sustain us into the future. It’s time to let us know, so we can journey to our new home…

This beautifully made animated short was created as a graduation project over a two-year period by students at Ecole Brassart, a French school of the creative professions. The character animation of Hope-65 herself is expert, belying the fact that this is a student made film. The new planet is gorgeous - realised with great care and attention - I think anyone might wish to live there! Although one does have to suspend disbelief around a chimp being allowed to make such a final final decision, that's not too much to ask!

Hope-65 was created by Eliott Curaba, Louis Grand, Nolan Vercasson, Alicia Serra, Mathilde Peis, Evan Mastropietro, Tonin Molina and Léo Soler with music and sound design by Görkem Agar, Eliott Manche-Gentelet, Hugo Bressaud and Ayden Heurtevent. I think this is probably the first time we have featured something by Brassart students on Kuriositas, and from the quality of this, I very much doubt it will be the last. A huge congratulations to all the students (and their teachers) involved in this animated short – it really is something to be proud of.

Hope-65

Booth's Escape Route - April 14 1865

 

Exploring Biophilia, The Art of Jim Naughten

Exploring Biophilia, The Art of Jim Naughten:

Jim Naughten’s Biophilia unveils a luminous liminality. It’s a space where the essence of life flickers between the real and the imagined. 

The colors employed are warm against ethereal foggy skies, and bring the unique creatures into focus.

Each creature, rendered in spectral hues, appears as a guardian of nature’s unseen spirit, their forms pulsating with dreamlike vitality.

These aren’t animals as we know them; they are archetypes.

Through pale iridescent palettes and a fascinating digital alchemy, Naughten conjures animals that exist beyond our fractured world. A brief glimpse of nature’s soul refracted through a visionary lens. 

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The electric blues and molten gold colors vibrate with uplifting energy, as if infused with inspiring messages from a beautiful harmony of existence.

Biophilia encourages us to look through this fascinating veil, to celebrate the sacred thread that connects us to the wild. In Naughten’s creatures, we see echoes of ourselves: radiant, resilient, and yearning for a joyful reunion with the infinite.

“’Biophilia’, an AI art project, transcends the boundaries of reality to paint fictional images of wildlife, illuminating the expanding gulf between humanity and the natural world. Through the fusion of human creativity and machine learning, the artwork weaves hallucinations into the fabric of surreal, fictional animal portraits. 

They act as visual metaphors which question our fractured relationship with the wild world. Through biophilia, we are attracted to the animal in art, and recognise and continue to feel affinity through our shared history, albeit through an increasingly distance and distorted, man-made lens.”

Images © Copyright Jim Naughten. Images used with artist’s permission. See Jim Naughten’s work on his website. 

The post Exploring Biophilia, The Art of Jim Naughten appeared first on Moss and Fog.