kat is fighting the puppygirl allegations

Shadow Boxer, Melanie Authier 2021, Acrylic on canvas, 72"x108"

I'm going to fucking gush about one of my favourite painters for a bit. Melanie Authier describes her own work, saying: "With every painting, my aim is to accomplish a sense of unfathomable space as a result of this jostle of visual language." and I'm gonna just stream of consciousness talk about why I love it.

Augury, Melanie Authier 2010, acrylic on canvas, 60"x72".

I first encountered Authier's work in a gallery in Montreal in around 2011. It was the middle of the day, I was alone and I was going to the show because it featured paintings by a couple of Concordia's professors. It also featured two images, somewhat like the above and I was entirely arrested with the way she paints. Creamy, buttery paintstrokes. Entirely abstract, but with this attention to form that borders eerily close to creating space, and subject.

Psychic's Knot, Melanie Authier 2020, Acrylic on canvas, 56"x66"

She's been exploring this style her whole career and it just keeps getting cooler, to me. It's like fabric billowing on the scale of a mountain range.

Exoskeleton, Melanie Authier 2021, Acrylic on canvas, 72"x84"

They move with a dynamism that I don't see in almost any other paintings. They have an energy that is incomparable. Flower blooms unfolding new dimensions between each set of petals. A steed made of innumerable dreams crashing through walls of reality.

Gravity Heat, Melanie Authier 2018, Acrylic on canvas, 28"x24"

I love when things cut off abruptly. Sometimes I can't tell if there is meticulous masking in the painting process, or if these shards of dimensionality collaging over each other are simply the result of highly controlled brushwork. Either way, I don't know how she kaleidoscope-like folds different realities of colour over each other like I'm looking at the painting through a crystal.

larger res on twitter

"What's a bad miracle?"

Nope was so good. I tried to capture some of my Big Thoughts about the meanings in it without spoiling anything. Peele made another great horror movie, in a different genre this time, but he still obviously cares a lot about the history of the camera. when you go, pay attention to the colors and visual design!

Vic Viper (Gradius)
Someone strapped Space Bits to a fighter jet and we get stuck with all the baggage. Noisy as hell. No leg room. Technical angles not meant for a human. They promised us a room with a view then filled it with instrument panels up to our neck. We're among the stars and we're treading water. We're kissing the cosmos and we're drowning.

Rating: Sardine can with a moon roof. At least it looks good from the outside.

R-9 Arrowhead (R-Type)
Over-engineered piece of crap. Congratulations boys! You wrung so much blood from this stone that it's crumbling to dust around us. Everything is space-age and round and shiny. Everything is held together with electrical tape and ~aesthetics~. Everything is as light filtered through the 8-ball of truth, balanced on outstretched fingertips five inches from our nose. Stuck in a lightspeed tailgate that never ends, courtesy of 🟠 This Fucking Thing.

Pilot's seat feels like it's balancing on an upright dime. The whole thing rattles around so much I feel I'm gonna break something any time I brush up against the controls. And were you going for a canopy length world record or something? If I drop my phone in here I'm never seeing it again. You give me this long a cockpit window, I better get to stretch my legs. AND GET THAT FUCKING ORB OUT OF THE WAY I CAN'T SEE

Rating: Flying home in a house of cards with a blind spot as big as the sun.

Solvalou (Xevious)
I mean, what's there to say. Solid like a Volvo. No one will ever love the seventies as much as that one person on the design team. It's a decent ride though. Nothing says "I am strapped screaming to the tip of two giant rocket boosters" like a ship you could easily make out of legos. Is it technically a ship if it doesn't go to space? Maybe it goes to space. You decide.

My one beef is that the seat is too high and it leans too far forward. Guess they gotta make you want to go that fast, for fear of tipping over. You can't fall down if you're always falling forward.

Rating: Flies like a brick. Tough as a brick. Give me more of that good vertigo.

Vic Viper (Parodius)
THIS. This is where it's at! I'm flying inside a dream. The ship is holding my hand, cradling me in its arms, pushing me into the great unknown. A+ and cushy as hell. The side panels cozy up the place like it's a retrofuturistic bachelor pad balcony and the view's fucking gorgeous. I want to hug and kiss this ship goodnight. I want it to kiss me back.

Rating: Best in class user experience. Sign me up, buttercup.