This is one of my favorite buildings in Brooklyn, right by my house.

Stumbled upon this artist’s website by way of Illustration blog, Drawn.  Took children’s drawings and turned them into photographs–amazing idea and really fantastic results: Yondoo Jung.

Read this article in Art on Paper a few weeks ago and wanted to share it because the concept is so cool.  It’s about Isidro Blasco, an artist from Madrid who is building ‘photo constructions’ by creating structures made of wood and then collaging his photos onto them, creating fractured cityscapes.  It’s pretty sweet.

Here’s the link to the article: Shanghai Cubism.

Check it out if you live in or are ever in New York.  Though five or so floors, the exhibits are small, so even if you only have a couple hours you can still get through it.  Plus it’s only $12 which is less than most museums and is equal to the price of a movie ticket. There were some great artists on display when I went such as:

Tomma Abts (probably my favorite exhibit):

:  

Daniel Guzman:

(pic from artknowledgenews.com)

Paul Chan:

I went to the museum with my friend Danny who was visiting for a few days, and who is a great artist in his own right.  Two of his sites are to the right: Dannyprose and I’ve only been wrong twice, so check him out as well.  Does some nice photography and graphic design work.  Here’s a theater poster he did a little while ago–it’s in the running for an award, so good luck to him!

Sorry about the lack of blogging–a lot has been going on lately and I haven’t had much time to be on the computer.  But now I’m back–you’ll notice that the last couple and this and quite possibly the next few are all about art–for some reason I’ve been seeing a lot lately and have been thinking about it a lot, so this blog is definitely reflecting that.  And it’s great because seeing all of this art is making me feel very inspired to create things–it’s helping ideas flow.  So.  I went to a ‘Studio Stroll’ in Brooklyn a couple weeks back where studios (private homes, galleries, professional studio spaces) opened up their doors and let the public come in and view work and meet the various artists.  There were about 33 spots–a friend and I went to 15 or so of them and it was incredible.  First off, a lot of the art was great and it was cool (and sometimes awkward) to meet the artists.  One of the most interesting things though, was seeing the incredible houses/studios/apartments that people lived and worked in.  The stroll was mainly in the neighborhoods of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill; the former an up and coming neighborhood, the second, a slightly run down neighborhood (maybe ‘up and coming’ in the next few years).  Taking the tour though, really showed us how amazing the neighborhoods are if you just look a little deeper into what they have to offer.  A lot of great art and other things are happening in these places and I’m guessing that one of the goals of the studio stroll was to show that to the public.  Anyway, I thought I’d do a post about some of the artists I saw and give you links to check them out further.  Most images are copyrighted, so I’m mainly giving you links instead of putting images on here. So here you go:

1. Ramona Candy: “choreographer on canvas” , A former dancer, Ramona uses beautiful colors in all of her work and you can tell that dance is definitely a major influence on her work.  Here’s a link to her site: Ramona Candy.

2. Carol Foy: She talked to us a little bit about the influence of jazz on her work which was evident in the paintings I saw.  Didn’t hurt that she had some of the greats blaring on her radio in the background. Here’s a link to one of my favorite paintings of hers: The Immortals.

3. Company Standard: a small company started by Melissa Gorman as a vehicle for her design work.  They’ve done a lot of cool stuff from album covers to branding. Check out the website, Company Standard, especially the first three categories under Art & Illustration.  Many of the pieces were the ones we saw in the studio space.

4.Tatiana Arocha: A Columbian artist who shared her work in the same space as Company Standard.  She’s really interested in flora and fauna, and has done some beautiful prints/collages on the subject.  Here’s a link to her website.  Look under Personal and go to Rainforest Sanctuary 1 to see the same works we did.

5. 35 Claver Place: An affordable live/work space for artists.  Apparently, they have to go through a pretty intense portfolio application process to live there, but it defintely seems worth it.  The two artists above showed their stuff in this space as did Kennis Baptiste who had some beautiful paintings of Senegalese life, Cedar Mannan who played with pieces of neon lights/tubing, Ju-Yeon Kim whose paintings/collages were light, airy, and complex, and Steven Samet who had a series intitled ‘42 Refrigerators’ showing the insides of, you guessed it, refrigerators. The studio website: 35 Claver Place.

The Heatherwick Effect, The New Yorker

The Rolling Bridge by Thomas Heatherwick

 Not only is this book by Salvador Plascencia really good, it’s also awesome to just flip through and look at.  The pages are composed of columns running in all different directions, giving each character a very distinct voice narratively and visually.  There are parts of the novel that are covered with large black squares and there is one character’s name who is literally cut out of each page that contains it.  It follows in the tradition of magical realism (think Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Jose Rivera) which always means you’re in for a slightly trippy ride, but it also employs a little metafiction as well (And no, I didn’t know what the term metafiction meant until I looked up a little blurb on this book).  Metafiction is:

“a type of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction. It is the literary term describing fictional writing that self-consciously and systematically draws attention to its status as an artifact in posing questions about the relationship between fiction and reality, usually, irony, and self-reflection. In a sense, it can be compared to presentational theatre, that does not let the audience forget they are viewing a play; metafiction does not let the reader forget he or she is reading a fictional work (Wikipedia)” 

This is definitely one of the most exciting aspects of this book.  The author uses his own name as the main character of the book and while we get to see Salvador’s story played out throughout the novel, he is also an outside commentator on the events that happen.  Like the quote said, this reminds me of some theater I’ve seen; most recently Rapunzel, put on by KneeHigh Theater of Cornwall.  A modern take on the old fairy tale, the fact that the characters were in a fairy tale was often mentioned and used for sections of comic relief and audience interaction.

This book exemplifies one of my favorite things about literature (and really any sort of narrative art form).  It so often leads me to make connections to other areas of my life and turns me on to new books or films, etc., that I haven’t known of before.  This book references The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, a book which I finally picked up and am now reading.  It also reminded me again of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, so I read Love in the Time of Cholera.  So yeah.  Read this book.  Anything that makes you interested in experiencing more new things, is worth the read.

A hilarious ‘genre-fuck’ movie I saw at the Tribeca Film Festival–go see it if it comes out near you or get it on Netflix as soon as you have a chance!  Here’s the trailer:

Baghead – Movie Trailer

As someone who likes to have things that are a little bit different than what other people have, the idea of ’steampunking’ really appeals to me.  The basic idea of steampunking is taking new electronic technology and revamping it with an Old Victorian twist to make it unique—-taking customization to a new level, beyond the customization that you can already do when you order your wares online.  If I only I had the knowhow….