Archive for September 11, 2013

Artist of the moment…..Paris Street artist Jerome Mesnager

{ September 11, 2013 @ 6:02 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Jerome Mesnager has been producing wonderful street art in Paris, France for decades. Mesnager was born in 1961 in the city of Colmar, France. The artist  is renown for his “Man in White” figure. For those art lovers it mind remind you to a wooden figure mannequin that you might draw when beginning to work with drawing the figure.

Mesnager is sometimes mistaken for Parisian street artist Nemo. Nemo is famous for making a black silhouette character that usually has a raincoat. Sometimes the two figures are combined, the white and black figure, as in the last picture of the gallery.

Some works are removed quickly, but the artist is so prolific and he has been doing his style of urban art for more than thirty years you are more than likely to see his art many locations in the streets of Paris.

For his artistic education Mesnager attended the Ecole Boulle. This school is a mixture of art such as painting and drawing in addition to teaching interior architecture and design skills.  Mesnager went on to teach at this school.

In this clip we view the artist at work!

Another clip showing the artist at work:

Another great clip showing the artist at work:

And here we have another great example of street art moving into the gallery. Mesnager has sold works at Christie’s Auction House.

price range information: Works range from $3,000 to $40,000.

D

My Art………

{ September 11, 2013 @ 2:23 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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My goal is to become a commercial artist. I would like to have some print editions out there, making money for me every month.  In the same manner the Inuit peoples have done.

I feel a great artist can make something boring spectacular.

For this work I looked at art from artists specializing in the drawing and painting of shoes.

I first go to http://www.allposters.com and http://www.art.com, type “shoes” in the keyword and then proceed. Some artists that inspired me to work with shoes as a subject would be Nelson Boren. Famous for his paintings of cowboys, cowgirls, and the western lifestyle. Of course I also referenced Andy Warhol and his many drawings and paintings of womens shoes.

Two other artists that inspire me to work with shoes are the Dutch artist Diederick Kraajeveld. This artist makes large sized wall hangings from found wood. And of course Vincent Van Gogh. At the show at the Denver Art Museum earlier this year I was able to see some wonderful paintings of the traditional dutch  shoe, the clog.

For my materials I work with I enjoy doing collage and painting in both oils and acrylics.

Whilst most professional artists I have followed paint for 4 to 5 hours per day, I LOVE to work and envision myself as a professional artist painting and doing collage for 4 to 6 hours per day, I decided to add 2 to 3 hours a day in basic research, and now my style has evolved to an extremely satisfying level.

This work is titled the shoe rack. Its done entirely with paper you can buy at Hobby Lobby or Michael’s Art Supply Stores.

I will post more pictures as soon as my new commercial portfolio is complete.

I am technologically slow and was very frustrated when I tried to crop this picture using microsoft paint program. But I wanted to post a work of mine. I love to  work in a small size 12 by 12 or less. This work is 9 by 12 inches.

myshoes

Thanks for looking at my work!

Dan

Artist of the moment……Malangatana-Valente-Ngwenya

{ September 11, 2013 @ 12:21 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Malangatana Valente- Ngwenya is perhaps the best and most internationally renown painter to come from the country of Mozambique. Malangatana Valente- Ngwenya was born in the year 1936 in Matalana, Mozambique. The artist enjoys working with the human figure and exaggerating facial expressions and body language to make very large paintings that have a great emotional range of the subjects involved. The artist works in many mediums including ceramics and sculpture in addition to his paintings.

He came to fall in love with art as a teen. He moved away from his family and found work as a ball boy at a tennis club. A woman who was a member of the club would buy supplies for him and also help him to make sales to fellow members.

Spent one year and half in jail for supporting an anti-government movement. After his jail time he would go on to win a scholarship to study art in Portugal.

Included in the collection of the National Gallery of African Art located in Washington D.C.

I don’t know what language this clip is in, but some great examples of the artist’s style:

A quick visit to the studio of the artist. Again, I am unsure of the language but love the visual pictures!

The artist passed away in 2011 at the age of 74 years of age.

D

Artist of the moment…..Stan Douglas

{ September 11, 2013 @ 12:00 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Stan Douglas is a contemporary photographer born in Vancouver, British Columbia in the year 1960. Douglas works in many mediums including photography, film, and installations. Douglas has won prizes for his photography and video work. For his collegiate studies Douglas attended the Emily Carr University of Art and Design located in Vancouver, British Columbia.

A major theme for the artist is the modern world. What are expectations might have been years or decades ago, to what they are now.  Race is a sometimes a focus, as he is a black Canadian. I would call him the opposite of Kara Walker and her work with people of color.

 

Whereas Walker concentrates on feelings like sex and racism, Douglas tries to emphasize a feeling of isolation. He was one of few people of color in a mainly white Vancouver area. In this clip a great example of this as the artist films himself being mistaken for another person of color. Sometimes he felt invisible in his society, not the anger or rage that a Kara Walker personality might feel:

In this clip a brief interview the artist gives thanks for winning an award for best photography in 2013:

Three time participant in the Venice Biennale.

The artist lives and works out of Vancouver, British Columbia.

Winner of a grant from the International Center of Photography.

In 2008 Douglas won the Bell award for best video artist.

In the late 1980s the artist made several short films less than one minute long that were shown on television in place of commercials. People couldn’t figure out what was going on and actually called the station to ask what was being offered for sale. This clip has many of these short segments:

Douglas enjoys taking a box office movie, then updating the interior and slowing it down. In many ways the artist has similar ideas to Andy Warhol. One video short had two films going at the same time. One the edited version, the other side showed what was cut out. This is a similar format to what many critics say was Warhol’s best movie, The Chelsea Girls. In this movie two films are shown side by side, with one in color and one in black and white.

Another idea Douglas uses that is similar to Warhol is his idea to stop time or at least slow it down.

price range information: Photographs range from $3,000 to $30,000.

D

Artist of the moment……Perlagia Mutyavaviri

{ September 11, 2013 @ 2:41 am } · { Uncategorized }
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Perlagia Mutyavaviri was born in Harare, Zimbabwe in the year 1978.

She enjoys working in a very abstract method as it makes her free to express herself.

One of few women sculptors in Zimbabwe.

In this clip we see the artist at work as she is finishing a piece:

In this clip a brief interview with Perlagia and a gallery owner.

price range information: Sorry none available.

D

Artist of the moment…Chiu Ya-Tsai

{ September 11, 2013 @ 2:10 am } · { Uncategorized }
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Chiu Ya-Tsai was a modernist artist born in Yi-lan , Taiwan. A city that lies on the east coast of Taiwan. The artist painted the figure for the most part. His work was a great blend of Eastern and Western painting. Ya-Tsai was fourteen years when he began his interest in art.

Chiu joined the military where he began to read and began to paint.

The artist had his first exhibition in 1979.

A large influence was the painter who lived from 344 to 406 before the Tang dynasty named Ku K’ai-chich. No original works of the artist survive to this day but he is often mentioned and the oldest known Chinese scrolls are said to be copies of his works.

It is from the Tang dynasty that the artist discovered the way he would paint eyes and elongated faces.

price range information: Works range from $50,000 to the low six figures.

D