Creative Wonderments

Kitamura's "Hidra" - Photos Inspired by Brazilian Prostitutes

2012-01-26T11:52:00.000-08:00

Te vejo no parque, 2011

Japanese/Brazilian Photographer Hirosuke Kitamura has picked low-priced Brazilian prostitutes and the world they live in as the de facto subject matter for his new body of work, now showing in NYC.

The merging of Japanese artist, photography, and prostitutes interested me enough to keep looking, and to look around the web for more images from the show.

It was this slide show from Huffpo that initially got my attention - if you like internet slide shows, take a look. If you prefer going to the gallery website, see the link in the paragraph above.

Death, danger, sin, darkness, sex, and so forth aside, these are incredibly beautiful images. Kitamura has a wonderfully sensitive, refined eye for beauty in every shot. He manages the very difficult feat of making it possible to experience a scene and subject that would ordinarily cause you to shut down and look away. Bravo! He makes me want to go deeper with my own work.

Makeup Magic - Art from all those groovy tubes and bottles

2011-12-31T16:34:00.000-08:00

Here's a permalink to the three layers of makeup that went into this abstract painting by LAURENCE HOVART and ERIC MAILLET

I always wanted to play with the makeup at the makeup counter instead of putting it on my face. So glad to see someone is actually living my dream.

Always Something New In Figurative Art - Take a Look

2011-12-19T13:52:00.000-08:00

This fascinating digital manipulation is the creation of two artists, Ayaka Ito and Randall Church, and I found it by checking into Andrew Sullivan's "Dish" column at The Daily Beast, a digression which never fails to be worth the time I've wasted. Take a look here at the big version and a non-secrets-revealing description of process that may leave you, as it did me, burning with a combination of curiosity and envy.

Want more? Check out this Spanish blog with a slew of pictures and some very interesting text which I am not understanding. Thank goodness the art speaks for itself.

Art Made By Real People - Just What We Need to Finish the Year.

2011-12-14T17:28:00.000-08:00

Don't just love this elegant, one-of-a-kind, handmade wooden tricycle, visit the amazing museum website, Just Folk, physically located in Summerland, California, to feast your eyes on more beautiful, ALIVE things people made.

PS: It has the only flash intro I didn't skip in all the hours I've wasted on the computer. Enjoy!

Video: Edward Sorel, Political Satirist and Guy Who Can Draw

2011-11-21T14:52:00.000-08:00

From a Vanity Fair series entitled "Hell in Crisis"

Take a side trip to the School of Visual Arts website and take a look at this fascinating video of Edward Sorel talking about his journey through the worlds of art school, design, illustration, and ultimately political satirical drawings - drawings which have graced major magazine covers for many decades now. The video gives us glimpses of those, of course, but the real treasure is Edward himself. If you wonder why you can't draw the way you want to, watch this....

PS: The link takes you just to the video. If you want some background on Sorel, here's the appropriate School of Visual Arts website page. I wonder why they didn't configure the video so it could go full screen? Seeing as how it's a display of a visual artist's work and all. Oh well.

Marimekko Slide Show: 60 Years of Fabric and Design

2011-11-12T10:44:00.000-08:00

Armi Ratia, founder and designer at Marimekko Fabrics in the late 1950s, was not only profoundly creative, she was breaking ground as a female executive in an all-male business. Take a look at this slide show from Huff Post's Stylist Home Section for a quick review of the fabrics we grew up with, the fabrics that fueled the Hippie generation, and pushed toile and gingham into the back of our closets.

For me, Marimekko fabrics on bodies, as tableclothes, pillows, and curtains, made the connection that fabric comes on big long rolls and the designs on the fabric can be just as big, just as dramatic. Marimekko was never afraid of the white space, and it was left up to you to use their fabrics in amazing combinations or to position pattern pieces to create new graphics from the big bold bolt.

If you can remember back that far, Marimekko designs were an incredible leap from what fabric was up until they came along. Thank you, Armi, and thank you, Finland. We still owe you...

Here's a link to their primary website (Marimekko-designed items are available in lots of places). I love the option in the upper right of selecting what you want to see by color.

Jen Collins - Simple and Beautiful

2011-11-10T09:53:00.000-08:00

I'm quite taken with Scottish artist and designer Jen Collins' directly engaging and pared down drawings. See her stuff at Hello Jenuine. She also has an Etsy shop.

I also like this "window filler". Jen has no problem thinking out of the box. Maybe being in Scotland is a positive benefit to her creativity. I'm imagining she has a less busy, stressful life than mine (I need an excuse at this point NOT to be doing clean work like Jen's), but that's probably not true.

Happy, Scary, Delicious Halloween to You All!

2011-10-30T17:09:00.000-07:00

In aeons past a prophet lies,

It’s time - not death, that slowly dies.

(Thank you, Cozach, for this fabulous Halloween animation!)

Doodling - It's Not A Time Waster!

2011-10-20T20:09:00.000-07:00

Sunni Brown’s TED talk about the importance of doodling and sketching. I promise to get back to doodling. I confess I fell for the anti-doodle propaganda.

The Oldest Signs of Art Discovered in South Africa

2011-10-15T07:13:00.000-07:00

Samples of ocher were collected in large abalone shells, where the first known paint was liquefied, stirred and scooped out with a bone spatula. (Science/AAAS)

100,000-year-old South African workshop where early humans made paint to decorate themselves and their surroundings - how exciting is that!

To put the 100,000 number in some kind of context, the NYT kindly includes this explanation:

"The discovery dials back the date when the modern Homo sapiens population was known to have started using paint. Previously, no workshop older than 60,000 years had come to light, and the earliest cave and rock art began appearing about 40,000 years ago. The exuberant flowering among the Cro-Magnon artists in the caves of Europe would come even later; the parade of animals on the walls of Lascaux in France, for example, was executed 17,000 years ago."

The article also explains the importance and significance of ocher, which is clay colored by various iron oxides to make it mustard yellow, brown, or a rich brownish red. The red version was apparently much valued for its visual connection with blood, life, fertility, and birth.

Here's a lovely image of a woman preparing for a ceremony by covering herself with red ocher, and from the looks of her paint pots, she's going to add white designs on top.

(Photo copied from Paleoplanet, but don't know the original source.)

Thank you, South African archeologists, for this find. It renews my fragile connection with the hundreds of generations of artists who have come before me, exploring, decorating, making marks, filling a very important universal human need.

Not Your Local Museum's Bronze Sculpture

2011-10-05T17:24:00.000-07:00

I was completely fascinated by the account and accompanying slide show of the making of sculptor Frank Benson's "Human Sculpture (Jesse)".

The text describes Benson's process like this: "He started with a photo of a model (who also happens to be a close friend), spent months working with a technician to “sculpt” a 3-D rendering and then created 3-D prints through a relatively new process called rapid prototyping. These prints were then cast in bronze at foundry in Upstate New York. “I liked the image because it is at once very classical, totally contemporary and a little ’80s, making it very hard to place chronologically,” he explained."

The result is an amazing supersmooth, super realistic bronze that has nothing in common with the usual bronze sculpture. Take a look at the process photos and see for yourself.

(Thank you, New York Times Visiting Artists Series for this Creative Wonderment.)

"Crazy Horse", Documentary by Frederick Wiseman

2011-10-01T15:53:00.000-07:00

Here's the trailer for Frederick Wiseman's new documentary, "Crazy Horse," which goes backstage at Le Crazy Horse de Paris, “a landmark that has prided itself as the best nude dancing show in the world since 1951” so we can wander with his eyes as the girls, choreography, costuming, and staging come together for a new show, "Desirs."

Don't look for this on Netflix yet; it is still making the rounds of the film festivals. Cinema horizon offers an early review, if you are into reviews. I usually pay attention to reviews, but Wiseman's reputation as a documentary filmmaker, and my own interest in women, body image, and women's bodies as art and performance art, ensures I'll be looking for a chance to see it in a theater no matter what anybody says.

If you are lucky enough to see "Crazy Horse," stop by Creative Wonderments and let me know what you thought of it.

Anne Emond Shows Me How to Draw a Comic

2011-09-30T08:51:00.000-07:00

See more of her funny stuff at Comiques, which she updates "semiregularly." Hey, that's my schedule!

PS: Cat lovers - she includes fat kitties in many of her cartoons. And in case you don't already know about it, "Futurama" (on ComedyCentral) is genius.

Let Kumeyaay Indian Women's Voices Settle Your Soul

2011-09-29T07:48:00.000-07:00

Beatriz Carrillo, 58, collects rush that she uses to weave baskets. Anthropologist Mike Wilken has encouraged the Kumeyaay to revive basket weaving and has helped find markets for their wares. (Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times)

From the LA Times, this wonderful story about and, better yet, video of the remaining members of the Kumeyaay Indian tribe, holding onto their culture in a small outpost town in Baja California.

In the 4-minute video watch and listen to 90-year-old Teodora Cuero visit a sacred rock/cave formation where her people have gathered since time began to pay her respects.

If this doesn't center you as a woman, nothing will.

Tattoos - All Kinds, Around the World

2011-09-27T15:43:00.000-07:00

French writer Tristane Banon takes part in the TV show "Le Grand Journal" at the French TV Canal+ in Paris on September 19, 2011. Banon, who has accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of attempting to rape her in 2003 recently showed her new tattoo, which reads in part "never flee, always pursue". (Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images)

This photo is #11 in a 36-photo collection of amazing tattoo art at The Atlantic Monthly. I'm betting you will be blown away by what humans are saying with their skin these days. Here's another taste:

Off with you! Go and soak up the amazing inspiration.