Artist Jen Mann gives good face. Her print work and paintings are the love children of a high fashion magazine and the prime of the pagan planet. Her pretty subjects have the bone structure of perfect creatures, and the animals she sometimes coaxes out of their ethereal surroundings (or their skulls) are equally perfected.
While the imagery elements (howling wolf, pretty woman) could easily have come from that hippie/suburban spirit shop on Main St., Manning's soft renderings of bold features keeps her work well in the realm of higher art. You can see more of her work at her website and on her blog.
I'm seeing so many women in the city wearing feathers in their hair lately. Entire street vendors have ceased to sell anything but plumage embellished headbands, and have been attracting quite the crowds with their displays. Although, I generally have a natural aversion to any wide-spread trend (I'm just that unique, y'all), I'm finding this one kind of charming. Why the change of reaction? Well, every time I see a headband full of feathers catch the sunlight and shimmer in some girl's hair, I am reminded of this nature video that I love oh so much:
How amazing are birds of paradise and their fine feathered selves? I mean truly! They are so crazy/beautiful. Watching that video so reassures me of the absurdity inherent in the dating process as well. Fluff your finest feathers, shake what your mama gave ya, and hope the right chicky is watching. That's all we can do, right? I say put some feathers on your head and see where they get ya. I just hope you don't attract any pigeons...
