Thanks Guys

This was a challenging semester for me but it was also a challenge met. I have become what art school is all about and that is a little more refined and directed. I wanna say thanks to Joe and my classmates for their help and support.

Congradulations to all and to all...Enjoy the break.

Thanks Guys

Pascal

CANVAS SALE

Sam Flax is having a 70% off canvas sale for the month of Dec 09.
40x40's are $20, 30x40 are $17 and so on.

pASCAL

Pin up show!!

Iman person


MINT gallery in Atlanta is having its annual postcard pin up show on December 12th. This is the 4th year that the show has taken place and is all open entry. I participated last year and it was a great chance to see interesting and creative work. This year they have raffle prizes from WonderRoot, Solstice, The Independent and Alternative Apparel just to name a few. The submission guidelines are outlined below:

Artists must hand deliver their work to the MINT Gallery on Friday, December 11th between 7 and 9 p.m. or on Saturday, December 12th between 1 and 3 p.m. Artists may submit up to 4 pieces but none may exceed 4" x 6" and they must be delivered unframed and unmatted. Artists can price their work individually or as a series to be sold as a set. However no individual piece may be priced over $50 and no series may be priced over $125. Artists must agree to donate 40%, 60% or 100% of the selling price to MINT. Those who chose to donate 100% will be recognized and honored at the show. Unsold artwork may be picked up on Sunday, December 13th between 3 and 6 p.m. The required application/release form is available at the drop off or via email from mint@mintgallery.org.

MINT website

Yellena James

I was drawn to the first set of drawing we looked at during Monday's critique. The elements that I find interesting are the continuous line work and intricate forms that grow outwards. An artist that I randomly came across that reminded me of those drawings is Yellena James. Her background in graphic design comes through in her bold and colorful drawings and paintings. Some pieces appear as flat landscapes with a variety of line work that reference plants and microorganisms. Her paintings are more atmospheric where the forms float through the space. The imagery completely takes over the surface pulling the viewer into the alternate realm. The pieces are also relatively small which makes the viewer come closer to see the intricate patterns. I’m drawn to her work because the repetitive imagery and forms create an interesting language that adds to the imaginative space.

www.yellena.com

Jason Thielke

Jason Thielke is an american artist. I feel that his work relates to what a lot of people in the class are doing. He does portraits using laser etches, acrylic transfer, and drawings. Thielke has an incredible way of rendering the figure using intricate line work and interesting patterns. the figure is made up of contour lines and exploratory lines using no value and minimal color. He interprets the figure in a very interesting way that looks very scientific to me, as if he is relating the body to nature. I really like the use of medium. he does laser etches on wood. and uses different inks and transfers to produce the images. I really like the 3d effect of the etching on wood.

paper arts

Iman Person

Lately in my research I have been coming across some great artist who work with paper. I think that most people designate paper arts to just craft work, but i've found two artist who have definatly taken paper to the realm of fine art. The first artist that I stunmbled across was Jade Pegler. I think she's one of my new favorite artist. She uses a lot of paper mache to create amazingly unique and organic sculpture. I love the muted colors that she uses. Here pieces make me think of a stop motion alien dream world...if that gives you any type of visual. She also does amazing drawings of her creations. Here is some of her work and a link to her blog:





Spectrescope

The second artist is Pablo Lehmann. I apreciate the amount of time it looks like is put into every piece. The way the cut outs are milipulated in some cases feels like tapetry and the the addition of text seems like he's weaving thoughts or history. I love how light and delicate the work is:



Website

Buddhism:End of suffering& Plato's cave

I have repeated Buddhism and Plato several times but the ideas are impossible to explain with only a couple of sentences. Of course, a lot of people read Plato's The Republic. But I 'd like to point out something I think I didn't explain enough.

First, the purpose of life in Buddhism is to end suffering. But we are bound to 'The wheel of life cycle' which Buddhism already explained. To do this, there are 'Four ways to noble truth' and 'eight path' to do this.

1. All of life is marked by suffering.
2. Suffering is caused by desire and attachment.
3. Suffering can be stopped.
4. The way to end suffering is to follow the Noble Eightfold Path.

Second, the way to end the life suffering is through freeing oneself from the place which you belong and giving it up any attachment from secular things. I used this idea to express my works. The ways to freeing myself, I used the physical transformation and fusion with the nature.

I tried to connect Plato's cave idea to Buddhism in my final work. In the big painting I did, I created the modern cave like what Plato's cave. The allegorical setup for the shadow and light are about the idea from Republic, but the direction of the figure is from Buddhism. And the leprosy of legs shows the suffering in Buddhism.

The cave idea is about seeing our own shadow inside of our own world. We all sit toward the inside of our cave and have our own opinions (what shadow creates). But we can't turn our head to see the sunlight(knowledge) or next to the shadow because we are bound to our own presumptions accumulated for long years. This idea is similar to the stereotypes in psychological makeup which sets in early age of our lives.

To check out the interesting story of Plato and Buddhism, I found these websites.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/images/PlatoCave.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/PlatosCave.htm&h=309&w=567&sz=49&tbnid=xsFqUa-ZYsNgyM:&tbnh=73&tbnw=134&prev=/images%3Fq%3DPlato%252Bcave&usg=__jc_5BrhqLQNgHFJ58he6Uu6qqlg=&ei=hhMZS4PhIYG1tgfZtoHXAw&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=4&ct=image&ved=0CBQQ9QEwAw

http://www.religionfacts.com/buddhism/beliefs/human.htm

chad shore

I really enjoyed going to the contemporary with the class a couple of weeks ago and seeing a few working artist's studios. I think everyone was inspired and encouraged to see local artists making it happen in their own way. I wanted to include a friend of mine who is also doing really well as a working artist.

Chad shore is a local artist that lives in Gainesville, GA. He is a family friend who has taught me a lot about the art world as far as technique, presentation, and business. He is a general artist who paints, sculpts, does installations, and has a clothing company. chad has shown in numerous galleries across the country, has had his clothing in fashion shows and boutiques and has done numerous sculptures and installations for large organizations and events, and recently got his painting ,"my angel" , chosen to be on the 1800 tequila bottle.

Shore has two main painting styles; "fashion art" with a pop- art influence and "surrealist- abstraction". all of his art is exciting and edgy with a dark feel using bright pops of color and a lot of black. they all have strong fashion influence and are very much design based. He uses a lot of wet on wet techniques forming images out of what the paint has already given him. he also uses a lot experimentation with mediums that I feel are extremely successful and fresh as well.

Chad is involved in a lot of extreme sports such as motocross, skate-boarding, surfing, and snow boarding. He took that love for excitement and adrenaline and applied it to his clothing company "sixtus clothing" where he uses these elements that he loves and focuses them towards that specific audience. I was really encouraged by the way Chad has made it in the art world by doing what he loves and having fun doing it, which is what it is all about. Chad has many art shows in the area. You can find out about them on his website at www.chadshore.com he has a video on his "about" page where you can see his studio space and how he works.

Collide art show

I went to an art show about a week ago called "Collide". The show was hosted by a non- profit organizations called Luo ( greek for "to be set free) . the organization is dedicated to helping

"set children free"from poverty through academic educations, nutrition, medical care and biblical curriculum. this is made possible by raising money by selling art made by artists who go to the areas and paint with the children. each canvas is painted by a child in one of the poverty stricken areas. all of the paintings are painted colorfully and energetically and are usually painted with feathers and leaves with imprints of the feathers and leaves sometimes. each painting has a handprint/ footprint along with the signature of the child who made it. I thought it was a really neat way to spread art with an active purpose and truly make a difference. I was thinking about going to south africa this summer with the team to help them out with the kids and paint with them. if anyone else is interested let me know!

check out their website www.luo-setfree.com for more information.

Judy Pfaff

In high school, i wrote a paper on Judy Pfaff, not thinking I would ever refer to her work. She creates amazing installations, sculptures, drawings, and prints. Her work is inspiring to me, and so enjoyable to look at. I have referred to her work throughout this semester because I feel that in some ways it relates to mine. Her line work is very intriguing and shapes that are created from them draw you in. I could look at her work all day and constantly see something new.

Rob Pettit

Rob Pettit creates work from old cellphones. At first he was using them because it was basically free. Friends and family would give him their old phones they no longer used. But now it is more of a recycling project too. He wanted to come up with a medium that was common to everyday people but something that wasn't used in art very much.

He creates installations on the floor and the walls of all kinds of recycled cell phones, and he has received around 5,500 so far. He said that when people come to his shows, he encourages them to bring their old phones in to donate so he can use them to create another piece of artwork.

This is very interesting to me. I've always wondered what to do with all of my old cell phones, but never thought to create artwork from them. When I see a drawer full of them, i could never imagine them creating something so beautiful. Rob Pettit has accomplished that.

Catherine Opie

Catherine Opie is a photographer who's work I really like. I am inspired by her portrait photography, formerly for the vibrant images she produces but content wise because of the strong androgenous figures she presents. This is a big influence on me in the way I use the figure. When I do use a body that is less androgenous, that is, more obviously female, I tend to hide the face all together or leave it more simplified so that you even if you can put a clear label of feminine or masculine on it you can not label someone. It's about not letting the viewer go directly to one end of the feminine/masculine pendulume our society operates by but drawing attention to this often ignored or forgotten middle ground. My use of figure images is about gender-bending, breaking stereotypes and walking the feminine/masculine line but at the same time, being certain and celebrating the fact that I am female, but able to walk in the middle when it comes to roles.

David Wojnarowicz

One person I've looked at this semester is David Wojnarowicz. I really enjoy the way he works on maps, treating it just like regular paper, allowing us to see through his images in, what would be negative space, revealing the map. One picture I included on here gives me the same feeling of a map i suppose because the sky is blue like the ocean would be on a map and just has a technical feel like a map. I want to continue considering how I integrate different visual elements and their relationships while looking at his work. He plays between having the painted elements grounded yet also floating on these map type backgrounds. I'm not sure I can pinpoint exactly why I am drawn to this visual technique so much. I think part of why I am drawn to it though is there seems to be a connection between the real, physical, concrete world and his experiences and journey which is more objective, controversial and a product of his creative translation. The dual worlds is something can relate to with the issues I consider in my art work when I consider dual aspects of identity and considering identity in conflict with other parts of the world...the relgious world, the family world...much for me to continue to chew on here. I also enjoy the line in the 3rd piece and it's mechanical feel and the way it can be used as connective of different visual elements arranged in a collage type of manner.

Paul Klee

After critic today, I did some research on Paul Klee who Joe had mentioned. I found out that he and I share another thing in common beside our painting style: graphic design! During his career, Klee most notably worked at the Bauhaus teaching book binding, stained glass, and mural painting. He also designed several advertisement for art shows put up by the Bauhaus staff and students. The Bauhaus was also a place where other great designers like Herbert Bayer, Marcel Breuer, and more taught at before it was closed down by the Nazis. He also attempted to be an illustrator which is something I've always wanted to try. Here's some works by Klee himself above.

Dreams...Understanding your dreams

Symbology in dreams has always been an interest to me. I always find myself waking up in the middle of the night to right down my dreams. When I wake up in the morning, I like to look back at what I wrote and try to decipher the meaning behind these symbols and scenarios. Being a young female, I question my identity all the time and use my dreams as a method of trying to figure out who I am today. I love to read and own quite a bit of dream symbology books. I look at these books a lot and for the past few years have used my dreaming and these books as a gateway into figuring out the person that I want to be. For anyone that has an interest in dreams and dream pyschology here are some of the titles of books that I own that are quite useful.
A Dictionary of Dream Symbols: With an Introduction to Dream Psychology by eric ackroyd
The Ultimate Illustrated Guide To Dreams, Signs & Symbols by Mark O'Connell
Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of Symbols, Signs & Dream Interpretation: Identification And Analysis Of The Visual Vocabulary And Secret Language ... And Dictates Our Reactions To The World by Richard Craze