Art Moves Us

Street Art! (via The Urchins)

Heather — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 17:43:02 +0000

This is a really amazing post about Chalk Art!! You should read it and look at the pictures. There aren’t too many pictures, but it is still really nice. What do you think? Could we have a local street art festival? Maybe in the college parking lot?

Words and images by Laura Ann Klein Last week, we had the ideal summer Sunday in Denver; it was hot, sunny, and there was a street festival. Every weekend from Memorial Day to Labor Day you can count on a festival in a specific neighbourhood or a street fest downtown. Years ago a friend quipped about Denverites and doing: 'Plan it and they will come.' Truer words never spoken. We have the Peoples Fair, the Chalk Art Festival, Pearl Street Festiva … Read More

via The Urchins

To Lose Yourself in Colors

Heather — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 13:16:55 +0000

Click the image to see where I found it

So I have always been a fan of this artists very clean watercolors. Part of what draws me into their work is how they always manage to get lost in the colors and patterns of their work. This allows me to get lost as well, and I love that feeling. The way that I seek out little details like fish, swirls, gradients, twinkling stars, birds, pillows, pocky, or other slightly unexpected things in every painting by this artist makes me feel like a child playing hide and seek in a fantasy world of art. The unique style always catches my eye.

This image in particular entices me because the character looks void of emotion, if not a little irritated. The background though is so rich with color and feeling, it’s like a flood of happiness. I want to be listening to whatever song this character is listening to. I want a slice of this happiness! I feel it just seeing this painting. It is almost as if the character is creating her own escape from whatever problems she is dealing with. I can relate to that.

What does this image make you think of? Do you like the style? Do you think it is happy or sad? Are you able to lose yourself in images? Would you mind sharing those images, or one of them?

Here is another image by the same artist, that I also love.

Click the image to see where I found it

The Myth Of Tomorrow – Taro Okamoto (via Tokyobling’s Blog)

Heather — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 16:06:41 +0000

Contemplating art when it is somewhere other than a museum or gallery is something so important, but so few people actually do it. I even find myself slacking in this area from time to time, and before my History of Art classes I was even worse. I still loved looking at the art, but I wasn’t always letting it teach me something, or tell me a story.

I had no idea that art has been stripped of it’s moral-building and society-building status, since for me that is exactly what art is and will be. If it has, at least in some parts of the world, I am glad that they ignore it and still hang art, or display it if it is not something to be hung. I don’t think it has been stripped fully of that status. I mean, people are still so affected by art — half of the time, they don’t even REALIZE it. That is how powerful of a moral-building, society-building (especially), or potentially society/moral-crumbling tool art still is.

Either way, this piece of art is INCREDIBLE and you should definitely have a look. The article is interesting, and it made me think a little. Take a look!

Sometimes the thing about art in public places is that you just don't think about it. Even though art has long since been stripped of it's moral-building and society-building status (Duchamp and his art-antics took care of that back in 1917) public officials still feel it necessary to enrichen our public spaces with what they consider to be worthwhile art. Here's one I have managed to miss for a very long time indeed: Taro Okamoto's "The Myth of … Read More

via Tokyobling's Blog

What about Wabi-sabi?

Heather — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 10:11:44 +0000

In today’s Japan, the meaning of wabi sabi is often condensed to ″wisdom in natural simplicity.″ In art books, it is typically defined as ″flawed beauty.″ …

FLAWED BEAUTY. …

Wabi-sabi (侘寂^?) represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience. …

The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is “imperfect, impermanent and incomplete”. …

Characteristics of the wabi-sabi aesthetic include asymmetry, asperity (roughness or irregularity), simplicity, economy, austerity, modesty, intimacy and appreciation of the ingenuous integrity of natural objects and processes. …

Simon Brown notes that wabi sabi describes a means where students can learn to live life through the senses and better engage in life as it happens rather than caught up in unnecessary thoughts. …

The idea being that being surrounded by natural, changing, unique objects helps us connect to our real world and escape potentially stressful distractions. …

These are some things that I pulled quickly from Wikipedia about Wabi-sabi. Ever since Eric introduced Wabi-sabi to the classroom when discussing his project, I haven’t been able to keep my mind off of it. I have already been spending time trying to live in a Wabi-sabi style, I just didn’t know what to call it. What sorts of things are Wabi-sabi in my opinion? For one, human beings are very Wabi-sabi. There is also a lot of Wabi-sabi art, particularly in pottery. I think my art is rather Wabi-sabi, but maybe that’s just another reflection of myself.

For a long time I struggled with perfectionism, and I am still fighting that battle sometimes. I don’t want to spend my life chasing this idea of perfection that I will never reach. This [perfect] plagues me, leaves me as an empty target for the world. Then I remember that I am beautiful, flawed maybe, but beautiful. I am wabi-sabi.

Here are some of my favorite results when I images searched wabi-sabi art on Google.

Click the image to see where I found it.

Click the image to visit where I found it.

Click the image to go where I found it.

Click to visit where I found this!

Presentation

Heather — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 20:42:29 +0000

I did not think that I could learn anything else from my project than I already have been (when am I going to figure out that I am always learning new things in so many different ways?). It turns out that presenting my project helped give me even more insight toward it. I am an emotional sort of person, and it has been very busy lately, so while I was presenting my project to the class I cried. I really did not think I would cry, but I did. There is something about opening up like that in a room full of people. People who don’t know enough about me to really embrace who I am, but also people who know enough about me that they could hurt me if they wanted to. That’s always the scariest part about relationships with people for me. I love meeting new people, being in large groups of strangers, and having one-on-one conversations with strangers or really close friends. Group or one-on-one conversations with people that I sort of know is a little intimidating for me.

I have to extend myself and allow myself to trust that they will not hurt me, even if I don’t know them as well as I would like to yet either. Everyone in this class has been amazing, and some of us are really building strong foundations for friendship, but we have only had a handful of opportunities to get to know each other personally. Each of you are so incredible in your own ways, and sometimes I feel like you allow me to see these glimpses of WHO YOU ARE. I don’t just mean “oh, this person likes the color green,” — I mean, “this person believes anything is possible” or “this person loves to help others” or “this person is embracing imperfection.”

Yesterday I learned that absolutely none of you are the sort of people who would kick someone while they’re down, when you know they’re down. You might be up for a fight, some of you, but you would fight fair to the best of your knowledge and ability.

I was a little upset that I cried my face paint off. ;P

Thank you for letting me be a blubbering fool in front of you all. Thank you for not laughing at me.

Museums and Cemeteries

Heather — Tue, 31 May 2011 00:36:00 +0000

“some of which weren’t meant to ever be seen, or are just pieces of the larger picture”

A really intriguing blog post with some quotes from Tim Burton, about his exhibit. Some cool photos of the exhibit too! The section I put here is from my favorite part.

Captive & Bound

Heather — Sun, 29 May 2011 01:18:24 +0000

Click the image to visit where I got it from.

An amazing piece of art that absolutely moves me. I just have to wonder what was going through the artist’s mind as she sketched and painted this series. What do you think when you see this? I think of the suffering that women go through when they are bound by something. It doesn’t matter if they are bound by an outward source or an inward source, when something is holding a woman captive it is traumatic. It could be all sorts of little things, it could be secrets, it could be imperfections, or she could be bound by society’s expectations of her. This image, to me, serves as a reminder to actively pursue my freedom so that no one (including myself) can trick me into becoming bound. This is a modern piece of art, and I really recommend that you follow the link below to view some of the photographs of the artist creating these and of the live model.

See pictures from this live artist performance here.

Interesting Thoughts about Education vs. Intuition (via Life and Art)

Heather — Sun, 29 May 2011 00:45:39 +0000

Catching up on some reading yesterday, I came across an interesting item published in the Guardian a couple of weeks ago about whether you can teach creative writing. Unsurprisingly, it prompted mixed views. But I found it of interest because over the last few years I have found myself wondering about precisely that question in relat … Read More

via Life and Art

Midnight Humor and Reflective Writings About a Painting

Heather — Fri, 27 May 2011 04:20:57 +0000

Currently art is physically moving me to sleep in my computer chair because the only place I have room for my paintings is on my bed.

Now that I got that horrible joke out of me, I must say I am exhausted. I am exhausted from all of this learning and growing and moving and shifting and changing that I have been doing lately. I’m like a life experience mover & shaker, or something… ha ha… I don’t even know what a “mover and shaker” is, really. Do you know? Would you care to enlighten me? 12:00 AM is not the appropriate hour for me to be doing research like this. Maybe I would be more likely to be sleeping if my own art wasn’t taking up all of the space on my bed.

After sitting in on an “extra” class tonight and eavesdropping on a conversation about writing something about an art piece after you finish it, I couldn’t help but think of what I wrote after I painted “Storms of Life“. I wrote it in my journal, and I decided I would share it with you. It’s really just a bunch of poetic mumbo jumbo, but it is what I felt flowing out of me and I needed to write it down. I even paraphrased it and added some of the words to the painting itself. You could say that I was writing and creating my art at the same time, and bouncing them off of each other.

Anyway, here is what I wrote:

5-23-2011 Rattling

In the lonely shelter of my basement I can hear the storm howling outside, trying to break in. All of my material possessions are rattling upstairs. Alone like me, but they are unprotected. I shiver. Thank goodness for friends and family. A kind warning, a caring hand.

Chaos is the word rushing around in my brain. The back door sounds like it will come undone any minute now. Maybe I am being dramatic. I am not really scared though, because I love storms. Maybe I will read a book because my painting was interrupted. I LOVE TO PAINT!!

Oh my, I hear more sirens now, cop cars and ambulances. Rain, pouring. In my mind I see imagery of glass shattering. I am desperate to go up and see what is going on out there. Maybe even in my house.

Maybe now I will be able to get some sleep. I feel as restless as a summer storm, waiting for my time to strike.

Inspiration does not have to come from the typical source of “beauty”. Oh wait, did I type that and forget to hit backspace? Yeah, I guess I did. GOOD NIGHT.

(P.S. I want another singing assignment… -wink, wink, nudge, nudge-) Ha ha ha ha ha… oh sheesh, I just need to turn this giant mechanical beast OFF.

Storms of Life (A Painting) (via A Girl Undiscovered)

Heather — Wed, 25 May 2011 02:02:25 +0000

Last night while the storm was raging outside, I contemplated storms raging on the inside. Ultimately I ended up with this combination of color and text to round out my craze over storms and how powerful they are. They can do incredible things, and bring forth rewarding change after difficult struggles.

I was partly inspired by the Turner video that we watched, and his art, but I have another painting about THAT… ;D

Some storms are harder to face than others, but the faster we learn to dance through them the stronger we will become.

I just felt like sharing it here, because I am definitely applying things I learn in class to my own art…

… Read More

via A Girl Undiscovered