Tag Archives: Passion

Coffee Break

Posted on April 18, 2013 | 1 comment

Nope, not the creamery ice-cream, but hopefully something visually delicious! Hehehe.

Okay… so last week I showed you an artist who paints with her lipstick (and lips!), and this week I have something similar.. Well not really, but these artists use another abstract medium–coffee! Angel & Andy, a couple, has been painting with coffee for nearly a decade and although this is nothing new in the world of art, they introduced hue shading using different blends and amounts of coffee. They’ve been exhibited around the world and have even been featured on the food network! Their stuff ranges from coffee shop fab (whatever that is, I just made that up.. like the fancy stuff hanging on shop walls) to totally adorable and witty. I think I’m gonna call it a night… I really NEED some coffee to go on at this point and we have that advocacy fair tomorrow (can’t be late 😉 )… See ya!

King of Coffee Coffee King

With a Wink
With a Wink

Coffee BreakCoffee Break

Kukkia
Kukkia

Awaiting FulfillmentAwaiting Fulfillment

Kaffe TelemarkKaffe Telemark

CostanzaCostanza

Double Coffee ScoreDouble Coffee Score

If you’re interested, here’s their website: http://www.justcoffeeart.com/index.html

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Kiss Her, She’s Irish!

Posted on April 10, 2013 | 3 comments

Hello there! I won’t be in class tomorrow due to some family issues, but please enjoy this post all the same! This week’s artist is super cool so I hope you think her work is as awesome as I do…

Natalie Irish uses a medium I’ve never seen before–lipstick! It’s totally CRAY! She said she got into thumbprint paintings in high school, but had originally gotten the idea from other artists. She had wanted to think of something innovative and original, but couldn’t come up with anything right away. Then one day while casually blotting her lipstick, she had an epiphany–lip prints. She soon decided Marilyn Monroe would be the best candidate for the portraiture project. And just as you can imagine, she repetitively kisses the canvas to build up the medium on the surface. A friend recorded the process and the video was uploaded to Youtube. Since then, she has created a handful of other kissing works, including Jimi Hendrix. Obviously, this medium is pretty tasking on the “painter,” requiring a LOT of time and effort, so she does a lot more regular drawing and painting (of which she is also incredible!).

Check it out:

Irish

Irish2

Irish3

Irish4

Talk about a passion blog! Hehehe.

P.S. Accidentally missed blogging last week. See below for more cool art!

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Paint Me Like One of Your French Girls.

Posted on April 4, 2013 | 3 comments

Rewind. Sorry, initially missed this week’s passion post. But here it is… Hopefully it was worth the wait.

So I originally came across this artist in one of the many magazines my brother sends me from the discarded mail bin at his work (believe it was a NYLON). Anyway, I was immediately infatuated with her work and am super excited I can actually used RCL blogging as a gateway to actually sit down and research something awesome…

Alexa Meade is more than your average oil painter. Get this–she doesn’t paint people… She paints ON people. Legit! She paints on and around her models to create a picturesque scene, then snaps a photograph. The results are incredible. One would never guess by first impression that the images are actually OF her models. It’s only when you look deeply into the painted figure’s eyes that something seems to be up. It’s such a crazy process, I still don’t completely comprehend how she does it. Instead of making her painting look lifelike, she makes life look painting-like! 3D literally becomes 2D!

Alexa_aboutpage

^Self Portrait^

Blueprint

Blueprint_1

Concealed
Concealed

Nocturne
Nocturne

Power ExchangePower_Exchange

TransitTransit

Sorry these images are a bit small, but check out her website for larger photos and other cool works: http://alexameade.com/portfolio.html

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A Patch Made in Heaven!

Posted on March 27, 2013 | 4 comments

This week, since it’s still kind of chilly, all I want to do it roll up in a blanket and sleep on a cool, dry Old Main lawn. Because of this I decided to to choose an artist who I’ve actually met and works with quilts! How cozy!

Although her quilts aren’t for practical use, they are extraordinarily lovely and a make incredibly tapestries. Like I said I had the pleasure of working with Tina briefly through an AIU internship I had in high school visiting various artists in the Pittsburgh area… and legitimately she is awesome! She uses cloth from all over the world (almost every piece has a history) and she used them to create  unique flowing scenes unlike any quilt you’ve probably ever seen. She picks each fabric from her collection with care and designs a wonderful composition that tells a colorful, new story. She even occasionally superimposes photographs onto her works!

As for Tina herself, she’s a gem. So humble and willing to help anyone interested in such crafts. The AIU group of students I went with were allowed access to multiple bins of her own fabric–she let me use a snip from a trip to Africa! In addition she helped students add to and finalize original ideas and taught us new sewing techniques. She even gave us ample supplies to take home to either finish or begin another project… She was an avid believer on creating things that mean something to the artist personally, regardless of an audience. In case you’re wondering, the session I attended made pillows and I made a depiction of my hometown–Pittsburgh!

But anyway, here’s Tina Brewer:

Screen Shot 2013-03-27 at 11.31.50 PM

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Unfortunately, many of her image are copyright protected, but you can view them on her official website: http://tinawilliamsbrewer.com/quilts-2/

Thanks for reading!

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Made from Scratch

Posted on March 21, 2013 | 3 comments

Still have to compose my paragraphs for the WIP blog so I’m going to jump right in and be brief:

Vhrils is tag name of Portuguese graffiti/street artist Alexandre Farto. Although he experiences with a lot of different mixed media, the young artist’s most famous project was his 2009 Scratching the Surface in London. In these works, Vhils took old, mostly abandoned building façades and transformed them, using industrial drills and other tools, into incredible portraiture by chipping away layers in a technique/style similar to sgraffito. Likewise, his sketchbook includes built up surfaces (mostly magazines, ads, paper, paint, etc) that are then stripped away in layers to reveal an image. One source claims his overall mission is to focus on the human condition of so often sacrificing our needs for our desires. The outcome? Complex pieces with nearly poetic meaning. You can see the impressive emotions expressed in these works, specifically. His mastering of this large-scale carving technique is incredible. Take a gander!

streetartnews_vhils_brazil_part3 Vhils vhils urban art graffiti artist 10 Vhils_Berlin_Berlincat_June11_3_u_1000 vhils_moscow_4_u Vhils-and-+MasMenos-470x313 vhils-lazarides vhils-nicchia-giorno

That’s all folks! Seriously gotta get writing!! Ah!!

 

Thanks to Andrea McCullough for introducing me to Vhrils’ art.

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C’mon, Don’t Be Spineless!

Posted on March 13, 2013 | 4 comments

Here we go!

With the growing  Western fascination with the digital age, the number printed volumes of books are declining. More seem to be continually discarded or recycled with each coming year. Many artists have sought out this orphaned media in attempts to comment on our changing cultural state. One of these innovative creators is Robert The.

Born in New York in 1961, Robert The studied philosophy and mathematics and actually did not start creating the pieces for which he is most well known until 1991. He utilizes discarded books to make unique, and usually controversial, sculptures. In his own words, The explains that these forsaken books “are lovingly vandalized back to life so they can assert themselves against the culture which turned them into debris.” And if I do say so, he does a pretty darn good job!

Robert-The-5robert-the-book-art-8robert-the-kniga-05book-gun-03-curatedmag
robert-the-smallThe one below definitely got my emotions especially, as I am a huge Beatles and John Lennon fan.the_book_art_of_robert_the14
the_message

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, some of his work comments on heated topics such as religion and ethics. In these pieces, he definitely manipulates the emotion of the viewer to provoke a thought process, letting silent words tell his story. And his ideas definitely speak volumes!

vlamboyant-robert-the2

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Portraits!

Posted on February 27, 2013 | 3 comments

All right. So this week, I’m going to switch it up a little bit on behalf of a project that is very dear to me: The Memory Project. If you have never heard of this organization, it is a program that allows artists from the U.S. to create portraits of orphans to be hand-delivered to children around the globe, especially in developing nations. It is designed to give these kids something tangible and personal to memorialize their childhood. In high school, the upper two levels of studio art had the option to participate and of course everyone who could jumped at the opportunity. I was fortunate to be a part of this great cause for 2 years, but once I came to Penn State I was hit with the hard realization that I wouldn’t be able to continue my involvement with the project… Until I had an idea… Even after only a few weeks of school, I had already met a handful girls who were extremely talented artists with a positive global perspective. I asked them if they would want to participate (they all agreed) and was able to order 5 photos from the founder Ben Schumaker. Here are the results:

SAM_2217

Andrea, Haley, me, Caroline
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…and May!
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2012

I have drawn portraits of kids in Peru, Honduras, and most recently Rwanda, but the reaction is always the same. The most rewarding part of this experience is receiving photos back of the children, always ecstatic, holding your portrait. The feeling you get from seeing your kid’s smiling expression is indescribable. If you ever want to get involved with this awesome program, visit: www.memoryproject.org

Photo on 2-27-13 at 11.47 PM

2011
IMG_4301

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A Date for Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 14, 2013 | 1 comment

Lolz at my title for this week… It will make sense hopefully by the end of the post…

But actually, if you’re seriously STOKED for THON (who isn’t?!) I suggest you read last week’s artist of the week post instead of (or before) this one. I think you’ll really like it. 😉

Anyway, back to dates… I don’t know why I remembered this artist today, but I thought it’s interesting enough, but also simple enough to squeeze into this week’s blogging even with our intense “deliberation.” hah. But anyway, I’ve actually seen this artist’s works in person at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh and, to me, his was a refreshingly unique concept.

This is On Kawara.

on kawara48_On Kawara_2 JUIN 2000Clipboard-1kawara-1978-apr_27_1978kawara3

On  January 4, 1966 On Kawara of Japan commenced his project appropriately titled Today. In this series, which he still continues today at age 80, he paints the date (in whichever standards of the country the painting takes place in, hence “Juin”) everyday by using by-hand calculations and his own painting precision–YEAH THAT’S ALL DONE BY HAND! And not only does he create these seemingly flawless pieces, but he then packs them into special storage boxes, carefully wrapped in the daily newspaper of his current location. As you can see, he prefers  small-scale, dark-hued works with the exception of a period in the late 70s when he experienced with warmer colors. Also, for most, if not all, he actually paints around the white canvas to create the words and numbers in negative space. Oh, and if he doesn’t finish a painting by the end of the day, he destroys it. Badass old man, huh?

But even more than his incredible skill to create images that resemble those of digital processing,  his conviction to continue until his death never ceases to amaze me. Such dedication is inspiring–to be so committed to something for so long… I wonder if he still loves the project as much as when he started it?? Hmm….

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Even If You Don’t UnderSAND Ukrainian

Posted on February 6, 2013 | 1 comment

Hello again! (привіт!)

So this week’s artist is one I’ve wanted to showcase for awhile, but kept forgetting and/or finding other equally sweet talent. I chose Kseniya Simonova not only for her incredible skill and artistic finesse (which you will soon witness), but also the unbelievable emotion she draws from her viewers, especially during the piece I have chosen. All of her pieces are a journey in themselves as their production is usually planned, recorded, and put to beautiful music, highlighting many aspects of Ukrainian tradition, daily life, and past hardships. And how does she do it? All with sand!! It’s absolutely amazing.

At first, I was going to show you one of my favorites, a piece about the Holocaust that she did for Ukraine’s Got Talent (she won!)… but after a little more perusing on her website, I found something I think will speak to all of you a bit more: a video she uploaded on Feb. 4th for World Cancer Day appropriately titled: “Never Give Up!” It’s so wonderful and one of her best works for sure… She even uses colored sand in this one! But with THON right around the corner, I figured everyone could appreciate this one together as next weekend (and as long as it takes) we fight to put an end to pediatric cancer. FTK!

Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_fltrV5L38

Here is her website. I REALLY think you should check out more of her videos  if and when you have a little more time… http://simonova.tv/en/

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This May Be a Stretch, But…

Posted on January 31, 2013 | 5 comments

Hailing originally from Lithuania, this week’s artist of the week still feels deep roots from his homeland, even after a lifetime of migration and hardship. Growing up, Jonty Hurwitz immigrated to a South Africa still under the apartheid . There, he had issues coping with his white status and decided to move the UK during his adulthood. His art, though diverse, reflects who his is… a man of many interests, skills, and ideas.

Although he experiments with a wide variety of mixed media, 3-dimensional concepts and projects, his fantastic abstract and anamorphic sculptures from his “Generation Pi” series are the most breathtaking to me. Using a technique similar to artists who I’ve seen put this idea to paper, Hurwitz takes it to a whole new level of insanity! If you’re slightly confused by this point, I’m sorry, I will try to elaborate. To create a piece, Hurwitz (and other 2-D artists) partake in a long process starting with a glass cylinder in the center of a work. This cylinder absorbs the image of the page around it, but also distorts it. The artist abides by the glass’ rules, drawing and/or sculpting his/her idea around its set standards, using a series of algorithms. The final image is an elaborately stretched piece that is nearly indecipherable… That is… Until you look in the glass, where it is perfectly identifiable and proportional!! Here’s a more comprehensible description (photos!):

jontyhurwitz1 jontyhurwitz2 jontyhurwitz3

Augh! So amazing! I’m not sure to what extent digital imaging/processing is done to create these pieces, but I ain’t even mad haha. Still so unbelievably outstanding!

Hope you enjoyed!
Here’s his website, SERIOUSLY you need to see his other works (and accompanying thoughts and meanings):
http://www.jontyhurwitz.com

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