The World:: May 2011

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Play

While practicing painting with a squeeze bottle, I came up with this. I call it Broken Guitar. Maybe it is just me, but something about it reminds me of a guitar.

Rearranging

While rearranging our living room today, I came across two more pieces hidden behind our couch. (Both used to be on display, but honestly, there is only so much art you can hang in a house).

I was messing around with paints and stuff in a high school class and this was the result. It is funny how the stuff I do on the side, for fun, is the stuff I end up loving the most.

I believe I made this in 7th or 8th grade

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Today, I have begun to question if I should even keep this blog. I originally posted it so people could view my art. I know that I am not selling anything, but after reading these two articles about Urban Outfitters stealing ideas from independent artists, it makes me question if I should even post my jewelry and other art ideas for a huge company to potentially rip off. These huge corporations are ruining local business. Jewelry made by Urban Outfitters is mass produced whereas local artists, make everything by hand (usually). Yeah, I understand their work is more expensive but once you understand and appreciate all the hard work that goes into making a piece of jewelry or art, you will realize it is worth it. I just think we need to think about things before we buy them... is it worth destroying small local companies and creating a monopoly for huge corporations for the cheaper price?
Are Brooklyn Fashion Designers Being Ripped Off by Urban Outfitters?
I Make Shiny Things: Not Cool Urban Outfitters, Not Cool

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Halloween

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays of the year. I am sure you are wondering why I included this in my art blog but I love decorating my face and body in ways that I wouldn't normally be accepted. I consider the make up done to transform oneself on halloween to be a form of art. Here are two of my favorite (and most artistic) costumes:

Dead School Girl (2009)

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Kat Von D (2010): If you aren't familiar with her, I posted a picture below.

The night before halloween I used a sharpie to duplicate almost all of her tattoos. Here is a close up of my left arm as I began the "transformation" process. My right arm was almost impossible (since I am right handed) and I finally gave up about half way up my arm.

German Art

Aside from the mural, we did had to fill sketch books in our art class in Germany. Below are some of the sketchbook entries that I made:

Bonn, Germany

Some of you might be interested where the photo to the right is from (of me painting on a wall with a bunch of people). Well, during the summer of 2009, I studied mathematics and art in Bonn, Germany. Toward the end of our studies, in the art class the whole class got together and made a mural. Each of us assigned to our own section.

The whole wall

If you can't tell my favorite style by all the other art I have posted... mine is this one

Boredom

You know I am bored when I start doodling. And you know I am REALLY bored when my doodles take over full sheets of paper, or notebooks, or walls. Haha. Below is a binder that I covered during high school. Every inch of it was covered with sharpie. Sorry about the horrible flash reflecting off of the binder, as I said before... I am not much of a photographer.

Outside

Inside

"I Spy"

In high school I created this mural on my friend's wall in his bedroom. Although many of our friends signed the wall, I drew a bunch of designs around the signatures. It basically became an "I Spy" after the "I Spy" books because I hid so many things within the designs. See what you can find. There is definitely more than I listed.

The whole mural

I spy: an eye, a bowling pin, flames, a heart, a lily, a ying yang, a hershey kiss, lips

I spy: an eight ball, a hand, a mountain, bubbles, an olive, a butter fly, a clover, a dragon, a diamond, a dollar sign, a hot dog

I spy: a sombrero, a paint can, a four leaf clover, an umbrella, an eye, music notes

I spy: a pokemon, a basketball, a crown, a hair pick, a smiley face, a martini, a fish, a candy cane, a spade, a traffic cone, a badminton birdie

I spy: a magnet, a rabbit, a rose

I spy: a helmet, a shooting star

I spy: a vespa, a snowflake

Monday, May 23, 2011

Greetings

Pull into my driveway and you will be greeted by this little lady. I made this hippo in my ceramics high school class as well as all the other ceramics pieces I have posted. Originally, I thought her feet could be the home to some flowers but I didn't make them deep enough to plant anything. Regardless, she makes a pretty decent greeter.

Ceramics

Aside from jewelry, 3D art isn't really my forte. But I did take a ceramics class or two in high school. Here are a few of the pieces that my mom has displayed in my kitchen.

Gallery

Sorry this photo is taken at an angle... the reflection of the flash and window were too bad straight on.

My house has basically become a gallery for my artwork. This morning I stumbled upon another piece of my artwork in my parent's bathroom. I believe there is only one room in the house now that does not have a piece of my work in it... the guest bedroom. Above is a watercolor painting of a light house. I made it in high school, in the same painting class in which I made the design in the bag (in the previous post). I can't say it is my best but it isn't horrible.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Bags

When I was in high school, I took a few painting classes. One taught me how to screen images on fabric. I sketched up this design quick and painted it onto a gold bag. Clearly, the bag looks a little bit worn. I didn't think to take a picture of it right after making it, only about 5 years after I had given the bag a great deal of use. Nonetheless, an image is all I have left of this bag. I donated it to goodwill this past year, maybe one of y'all will stumble upon it again some day.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

3rd Grade

I made this piece in third grade. I had a spectacular art teacher who had supplies to make our bamboo paintings look as official as possible (the paper and the red stamp). When I dug this piece out of storage, I asked my mom if she bought it over seas (she has a lot of art from korea and japan) and only then did I notice my barely legible name scribbled in the lower right hand corner. So, it's not the greatest piece I have ever done, but it is pretty damn good for a third grader.

Regrets... I guess

I am quite picky about paintings. I have learned that if I see one I REALLY like, I should purchase it because currently, I am short two paintings that I think about almost daily. I have never been much of a supporter for material possessions but art is different. Yes, my life has continued perfectly fine without the painting by Larry Gray (in my previous post) and the one I am about to speak of, but I have a great appreciation for art* and seeing such beautiful works are really inspiring. As my blog title says, "The World: As Seen Through My Eyes," I love seeing how others interpret the world.

Anyways, in 2005, I travelled to Russia. While in St. Petersburg, I saw the most gorgeous painting ever. I am sure you are all familiar with this image from the cover of National Geographic:

National Geographic

Well, the painting I saw in Russia was similar, very similar. It was of a girl wrapped in a scarf painted in brilliant reds. Her eyes were a bright azure blue and wisps of her dark brown hair were blowing in the wind. I wanted it so badly. I bartered with the seller to drop the price down from the steep $140 dollars he was trying to charge for a painting that was not much bigger (if any) than an 8 x 10 sheet of paper. He wouldn't budge. In fact, all of my friends tried for me. I found this painting at the very beginning of my trip, so I figured I would find something better and turned my back on that painting. If you can't tell by this post, I didn't find anything better. I guess, for lack of better word, I regret not purchasing it but no one should live life with regrets... it's more like a lesson learned.

Although, I didn't leave Russia with the painting I really wanted, I left with some pretty splendid photographs, memories, and a pretty decent replacement painting:

*When I say "great appreciation for art" I mean "good" art. I understand that is relative and despite the fact that most of my art is very abstract, I mainly only enjoy art by others, that falls into the realism genres (most likely because it is something I am not the greatest at). And then there is the contemporary, I have no idea what this drawing is supposed to be like Picasso's art; it makes my eyes bleed. Eww

Larry Gray

So I have been searching day and night to find an image of my ALL TIME favorite painting by Larry Gray. Guess what? I can't find it. I saw it many years ago in an art museum in Seattle. I promised myself, "someday, when I am rich, I will buy it." It looks like that will never happen considering I can't even find it.

While searching for an image of this painting online (I believe it goes by the name "Doll House"), I stumbled across a bunch of Gray's more recent paintings. Here is one:

Paintings by Larry Gray

The thumbnails of these oil paintings don't really do them justice though. When you get up close and personal with his paintings, you can see that there is more to them than originally meets the eye. Right along the bottom edge he has painted little towns and landscapes to go with the massive sky. From what I remember of "Doll House," it appeared to be a dark stormy sky (possibly a tornado?) and along the bottom, he painted a little town, prepping for the storm.

Someday I will find it. *Fingers Crossed*

Photography

I took a photography class (well, it was at a summer camp) back in the day and I had some rickety old camera, that I had NO IDEA how to use. Basically every picture came out horribly blurry... From that day on, I kind of gave up on taking "artsy" photographs but every once and a while one of the photos I take turns out well. So the photos below are my "if you didn't see any of my other photographs, you'd think I was a semi-decent photographer" pictures: