i know a lot of us have trouble coming up with ideas that we feel (& we feel our professors will feel...) are original. so i wanted to share this site Blaine shared with me that made me feel a whole hell of a lot better...
Constantin Brâncuși Sleeping Muse :: Roy Lichtenstein Sleeping Muse
Jeff Wall A Sudden Gust of Wind :: Katsushika Hokusai Travellers Caught in a Sudden Breeze at Ejiri
a lot of them are directly commenting on the other piece (like the two above) while some appear to be nothing more than coincidence.
a few years ago while in New Orleans we visited the studio of a guy named Steve Martin. he showed us these figurative wire sculptures he had displayed. then a time later, came to find out that Alexander Calder had basically already done that exact same thing years ago. & i decided that i no longer liked Steve Martin. it was all way too derivative of Calder, (& also Picasso in his other work) right? but in reality like Mr. Dickey always says "art is not made in a vacuum". everyones work is influenced by the past, some artists are just a lot more upfront about it.
i also made a playlist of covers i like that surely nobody will ever watch.
I remember when Kanye was just a cool guy making music. I still love him though his ego has grown tremendously. I ran across some of his older videos & decided to post the ones that have illustration & typography.
Then there's this fancy video that's also informative (If you're curious about what it means)
so
we just talked about Bauhaus a bit in 20th century this week. It's
something i was a bit familiar with after a presentation i did in my
literature class (not entirely sure how i got away w/ that topic but
anyways...) it was such an influential school & so many great things
came of it, things that are still so present & relevant today. I
found this cute little video to sum things up for anyone unfamiliar.
the following pieces are just a couple random ones i saw on my tumblr & wanted to share by Josef Albers & Paul Klee respectively. (both of whom taught at Bauhaus) Josef Albers is someone i think i personally could benefit from reading up on. I never really thought his work was "exciting" so i never really sought it out but looking at it now it feels much more important & special than i initially realized.
Albers also went on to teach at Black Mountain College which has always seemed to me this like... mythological playground for talented people.
Albers teaching at Black Mountain College
anyway! all that to say... so many notable artists attended school at Bauhaus & at Black Mountain College & so many have studied together at places like Yale (where Albers ALSO taught). I just find it endlessly fascinating the connections you can draw between successful artists from way back whether it be through their muses (like Joanna Hiffernan w/ Whistler & Courbet), locations (like Provence), educational institutions or through personal relationships (the list goes on).
i think the whole synthesis thing has been a bit of an abrupt challenge for some of us (myself included), trying to figure out what our voice is especially as we're exploring all these different disciplines, but we're lucky to be in a place where we're able to get so much one-on-one feedback from professors & i think these two schools provide a very good, healthy example of how interacting with not only your teachers but your peers can create an environment that just... swirls with artistic energy. like, i know some of us were iffy last semester (again, myself included) about these collaborative projects the newbies are being allowed to execute but i think the faculty may be onto something in getting us to bounce ideas off one another & have a hand in something that's kind of bigger than ourselves. ...if that makes any sense but i also think there has to be a certain amount of freedom in it & willingness and energy on our part to learn & share knowledge, and feed off one another to create things. okay. end rant. sorry.
here's a little playlist i made of a few related videos
i knew anybody scrolling the blog probably won't watch unless they care enough to click this link.
Ok, so I ran across a couple of videos this week. It has nothing to do with Legos or music. One is a guy who paints in 3D. The other is a dance routine.
This one is a dance routine done with light. Now imagine how awesome a dance routine has to be to catch my attention. I can only provide the link. You will have to log in to Facebook to watch it, as I can find no other way to link it, and I cannot find it on Youtube.
Whew, I haven't posted anything in forever. Y'all are doing a great job! I've totally been slacking though. Well, here's my contribution for this week. I've been wanting to post it for a while now, but I just kept forgetting. Before you watch it, be warned that it could be offensive to some. It's a fantastically clever French commercial that promotes safe sex practices. It's just as funny now as it was when I first found it years ago. The animation is hilarious! Just watch....
i figure anyone in 20th century like me could probably use some inspiration for their installation & i really loved the idea of this piece so i thought i'd share.
“In 2003 a building housing the Massachusetts Mental
Health Center (MMHC) was slated for demolition to make way for updated
facilities. The closure was a time for reflection & remembrance as the
MMHC had been in operation for over 9 decades and had touched countless
thousands of patients and employees alike, & the pending demolition
presented a unique problem. How does one memorialize a building
impossibly rich with a history of both hope & sadness, and do it in a
way that reflects not only the past but also the future? And could this
memorial be open to the public, not as a speech, or series of
informational plaques, but as an experience worthy of they building’s
unique story? To answer that question artist Anna Schuleit
was commissioned to do the impossible. After an initial tour of the
facility she was struck not with what she saw but with what she didn’t
see: the presence of life & color. While historically a place of
healing, the drab interior, worn hallways, & dull paint needed a
respectful infusion of hope. With a limited budget & only three months
of planning Schuleit & an enormous team of volunteers executed a
massive public art installation called Bloom. The concept was simple but
absolutely immense in scale. Nearly 28,000 potted flowers would fill
almost every square foot of the MMHC including corridors, stairwells,
offices & even a swimming pool, all of it brought to life with a sea
of blooms. The public was then invited for a limited 4-day viewing as a
time for needed reflection & rebirth.”
here's a video of the progression of the project if you are interested, but it is lengthy. Bloom by Anna Schuleit if not i recommend at least this link to more photographs & an interview with the artist. Colossal Interview.
so this is Out Getting Ribs by a kid named Archy (how fitting) Marshall, also known as King Krule. the first time i heard this song, it gave me chills. i love his voice. also the name must be a Basquiat reference which of course catches my attention. anyway he's been getting pretty popular lately & i wanted to share. & here is Portrait in Black & Blue, another song of his that cemented his awesomeness in my mind.
also speaking of Basquiat, thanks to Bobby i recently watched the movie about him (in which non other than David Bowie plays Warhol) & of course, it was so interesting to get a look into the life of an artist, especially one of young fame who struggled with so many things. here's a clip of the real Basquiat. (sorry the quality only like 2 pixels)
Warhol & Basquiat from the shoot.
& because now i'm feeling a little jazzy. here is one of my favorite pieces of jazz. ENJOY!
