Portrait by Remo Frangiosa

Philly-Bob’s Free-for-All 2026 One man's visual art, largely consisting of digital manipulations of images, taken from (1) my own photographs/videos, (2) downloaded from the Public Domain, (3) utilized under the Fair Use provision of copyright law or (4) uncopyrightable images produced by A.I. image generation. This page is designed old-style, for display on full-size computer, not on phones or tablets. Click on a pic to enlarge. May take several clicks to get full-size.

Artist's Statement 2025 Archive 2024 Archive 2023 Archive 2022 Archive 2021 Archive 2020 Archive 2019 Archive 2018 Archive 2017 Archive 2016 Archive 2015 Archive 2014 Archive 2013 Archive 2012 Archive Unlocked Recordings New Public Domain New PD periodicals Old Books on Lymphatic System Notes Russia

Getting back up to speed after a long absence. Here is another pretty face on a strange background. The face is Marilyn Monroe; I like to use her pictures because they are ususally done with colorful, over-saturated Kodachrome film of the time. The background is a 1967 painting by Nusrullah Berk, downloaded from the newly available catalog of prints and photographs made available by Courtauld.

Sources:
 
https://www.reddit.com/r/MarilynMonroe/comments/1dw3bh5/marilyn_in_the_spring_of_1953_by_alfred/br>
https://photocollections.courtauld.ac.uk/sec-menu/search/detail/8eace271-a87a-8f6d-aacd-5281d4cc9de0/media/c4f9e086-4ad0-3b6a-5c35-4e223ed5d5da

Feb. 27, 2026

I previously introduced the concept of "liminal spaces", transitional spaces preparing to change. Here is a backroom of a furniture store, apparently awaiting a shipment of fresh new sofas and chairs. I imagine the silence is echoing and there is a faint smell of carpet.

Superimposed on that emptiness,an iconic image from the 1970's: a pretty girl posing on a fast car. The Reddit thread containing this picture got a lot of nostalgic comments. For example, "The 70's were a decade of the Bee Gees, Zeppelin and the Eagles. Camaros and Firebirds. MD-2020 and Peppermint Schnapps. Southern Comfort. $10 Mexican weed for a 4-finger lid. The Bi-Centennial. Most importantly, the girls were hot, kept up with us in beer-drinking contests and had just as much fun as we did...It was a great time to be alive. I sorely miss it."

Sources:
 
https://www.reddit.com/r/LiminalSpace/comments/1rai9vp/went_to_a_furniture_store_and_ended_up_walking/
https://www.reddit.com/r/1970s/comments/1qjcmgd/70s_cute_babes_and_cool_cars/#lightbox

Feb. 21-23, 2026

For you-know-who. Her smile during Zoom sessions is telegenic.

Feb. 16, 2026

A new word entered my vocabulary about a year ago: "liminal". I don't know why I never heard it in 79 years of active reading. Liminal refers to an "in-between state," poised to change one way or another.

Or, as defined in the Reddit group dedicated to liminal images, r/LiminalSpace:

"A liminal space is the time between the 'what was' and the 'next.' It is a place of transition, waiting, and not knowing. Liminal space is where all transformation takes place, if we learn to wait and let it form us."

Another meaning is "barely perceptible," as in subliminal.

Curiously, this image (or more precisely, composite of two images) was removed by the moderator of r/LiminalSpace because it included human figures: pure liminal images, I guess, are not supposed to have human figures.

The photos are from a large-scale installation art piece titled "Riverbed" by Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson. The installation fills an entire museum space with a rocky landscape and a small, meandering stream. It was created specifically for the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark in 2014.
 
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/LiminalSpace/comments/1qv6yyr/liminald

Feb. 5, 2026

Kristi Noem is Trump's head of Homeland Security and the force behind recent ICE militarization. Although it is ungallant to criticize a woman politician for her appearance, Noem's carefully-curated mug is worth pointing out. She will probably be fired soon, but she is ever-present on America's news shows right now.

Two interfering layers:

1. The face of Homeland Security head Kristi Noem Source: "https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgressiveHQ/comments/1q9t3nd/the_outside_is_starting_to_match_the_inside/"
2. A collage of illustrations from a 1930 auto industry periodical: "https://archive.org/details/sim_automotive-news_1930-12-31_10_1371"

Jan. 29, 2026

I haven't done a regular (my art piece plus my explanation) posting since Dec. 3. Part of this was exhaustion from putting together my show in December. And part of this was concern over what Shrinks call a "Family of Origin" issue: the declining health of my older sister Mimi.

Luckily, my family of friends responded nicely. My friend Ted took an old family photo -- from a 1969 antiwar protest -- and digitally altered it to highlight Mimi and I. Then my friends Jim and Peggy offered to drive Janice and I to Richmond, Virginia, to see her.

And my neice Maureen arranged lodgings for Janice and I and Jim and Peggy at Mimi's housing complex.

What I love about the 1969 picture is that it shows that despite the harsh divisions of the Vietnam War -- notice that Mimi is making a thumbs down signal while I make a clenched fist signal -- she was still gracious enough to put up me and my fellow protesters at her suburban home. And eventually, this former Goldwater Girl came around to become a progressive.

Jan. 14, 2026

I have the habit of noting the URL's of songs that I enjoy during my dazed stumblings through the Internet. Most of these are Oldies that brought tears to my eye. I save those songs as Comments on my web page. Here are a few of them. In my biased opinion, I lived through a period of wonderful popular music during my years in Detroit, New York, and Philadelphia.

Dance with Me (1975)
Downtown (1964)
Memphis
Leader of the Pack (1964)
My Guy
Steely Dan My Old School
Tiny Dancer
Everlasting Love
Lies 1965
As Tears Go By
Radar Love
Do You Believe in Magic?
It's My Life

Also, my hometown music buddy Hugh wrote to suggest I add Leo Sayer's I Can Dance. Hugh used a riff from the song in the soundtrack for a movie we did, "X-Way Island."

And here.

Dec. 12, 2025

This is a pivotal posting: it marks a new year (2026). It will be the last item of the 2025 edition, and the first item of the 2026 edition. Hours of tedious work ahead to accomplish this and to archive all the 2025 entries. Part of my usual holiday funk -- too many holidays, too many Christmas movies and commercials, plus that annual reminder of passing time, my birthday.

This picture also represents a recurring motif: "JUST DONT FALL", which is the one certainty I have about how other people should live their lives. No matter what legal or medical problems you have right now, friends, you will certainly be worse off if you trip and fall.

Picture contain two different layers:

• Picture of an entrance hall at some institution, with stairway and house cat.
• A decorative pattern I made from a background color and a dingbat font (MTF Leaves) of leaves

Originals:
   

Dec. 8, 2025

To contact Philly-Bob, email me at bobmoore [at symbol] pobox.com (of course, replace "[at symbol]" with "@"].