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GRIZZLY BEAR // ALLISON SCHULNIK
Check out the spectacular new music video for Grizzly Bear's "Ready, Able", animated by Allison Schulnik.
I'm pretty keen on Schulnik's work, especially her portraits of clowns and hobos (Take a look at this interview on Fecal Face for more)
Whether it's oil on canvas or claymation, Schulnik manipulates color and texture wonderfully to create works that inspire both a child-like wonder and a kind of sick to your stomach repulsion. Righteous!
I'm pretty keen on Schulnik's work, especially her portraits of clowns and hobos (Take a look at this interview on Fecal Face for more)
Whether it's oil on canvas or claymation, Schulnik manipulates color and texture wonderfully to create works that inspire both a child-like wonder and a kind of sick to your stomach repulsion. Righteous!
SKETCHBOOK SUNDAYS - PT. 1
Sorry for the lack of updates, just got back to school. Here are some things from my sketchbook for the art class I'm taking this semester.
NEW
(Click to view larger)Just finished this new piece. Sarah mailed me an awesome children's book from 1966 called "That's Our Cleo! And Other Stories About Cats". There are some rad illustrations in it so I made this new drawing based off one of 'em. Also, my scanner is a piece of shit, totally dulled the colors and made things less sharp, oh well.
SURFIN' - PT. 3
This and that.
JACOB ESCOBEDO
Jacob is the creative director for Adult Swim and just so happens to make some art of his own. What I'm really digging are these awesomely detailed drawings in which he interprets his friend's favorite animals. Right on!
Still a couple prints left here but get 'em while they're hot.
KAVEL RAFFERTY
Hilarious series called "Spam Head" -- Kavel took the totally bizarre names you get spam e-mails from and created faces to go along with them. Rad idea.
BLU
Finally, I will share with you breaking news on the Blu front -- here is one of his new murals! In Belgrade! Hooray!
(Found it out here)
I was also surprised to see that one of my favorite murals, Blu's collaboration with JR in Berlin, has had a bit of a facelift.
This is how it used to look:
And this is how it looks now:
(via flickr)
I guess the eyes JR pasted on didn't hold up.
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P.S.
Mute this video and play along with Sigur Rós' "Hoppípolla" for optimum viewing pleasure.
JACOB ESCOBEDO
Jacob is the creative director for Adult Swim and just so happens to make some art of his own. What I'm really digging are these awesomely detailed drawings in which he interprets his friend's favorite animals. Right on!
Still a couple prints left here but get 'em while they're hot.KAVEL RAFFERTY
Hilarious series called "Spam Head" -- Kavel took the totally bizarre names you get spam e-mails from and created faces to go along with them. Rad idea.
BLUFinally, I will share with you breaking news on the Blu front -- here is one of his new murals! In Belgrade! Hooray!
(Found it out here)I was also surprised to see that one of my favorite murals, Blu's collaboration with JR in Berlin, has had a bit of a facelift.
This is how it used to look:
And this is how it looks now:
(via flickr)I guess the eyes JR pasted on didn't hold up.
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P.S.
Mute this video and play along with Sigur Rós' "Hoppípolla" for optimum viewing pleasure.
SURFIN' - PT. 2
My eyes have recently been opened to the wonderful world of embroidery.
JANE MOUNT
Totally cute and cuddly. I mean, look at that precision, makes me wish I was even mildly competent with a needle and thread.
SASHA FOSTER
These are part of a Zodiac series and, once again, totally adorable. Love the tangled thread detail on the second boy's red sweater. I also think it's pretty cool that asides from the Zodiac "mittens", the embroidery looks more like line drawing then thread on canvas.
RICHARD SAJA
Saja wryly embroiders over the pastoral scenes on French Toile de Juoy to create unusual, often anachronistic, narratives. Really funny and wonderful use of color here.
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On another note, recently I have been ALL ABOUT this music video: Track is called "Gee Wiz" by Kindness, sooooo booty-shakin'. Unfortunately, the song is less than 2 minutes long and the info on this band and where to get more of their tunes is pretty scarce.
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Finally, I present to you my photos from the Kathryn Spence exhibit at 49 Geary. Could do with a little more light, but turned out pretty decently!
JANE MOUNT
Totally cute and cuddly. I mean, look at that precision, makes me wish I was even mildly competent with a needle and thread.SASHA FOSTER
These are part of a Zodiac series and, once again, totally adorable. Love the tangled thread detail on the second boy's red sweater. I also think it's pretty cool that asides from the Zodiac "mittens", the embroidery looks more like line drawing then thread on canvas.RICHARD SAJA
Saja wryly embroiders over the pastoral scenes on French Toile de Juoy to create unusual, often anachronistic, narratives. Really funny and wonderful use of color here.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On another note, recently I have been ALL ABOUT this music video: Track is called "Gee Wiz" by Kindness, sooooo booty-shakin'. Unfortunately, the song is less than 2 minutes long and the info on this band and where to get more of their tunes is pretty scarce.
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Finally, I present to you my photos from the Kathryn Spence exhibit at 49 Geary. Could do with a little more light, but turned out pretty decently!
SURFIN' - PT. 1
Here is some cool art I've come across surfin' the net these past few days.
LIU BOLIN
Bolin explores humanity's fundamental alienation from the animal instinct that equips other organisms with the ability to survive.
ROBERT HUNTER
Sweet UK-based illustrator with a really nice, whimsical eye.
I especially recommend checking out what he's scanned from his sketchbook, so lovely.
STACEY ROZICH
Rad stuff coming from this SF/Seattle illustrator, striking images of a strange folktale past.
JOHN KENN
I'm really digging this guy's most recent drawings-- monochromatic little renderings finely wrought on Post-It notes. They're very Edward Gorey-esque, not quite as unsettling but still a bit dark and certainly just as peculiar.
LIU BOLIN
Bolin explores humanity's fundamental alienation from the animal instinct that equips other organisms with the ability to survive.
ROBERT HUNTER
Sweet UK-based illustrator with a really nice, whimsical eye.
I especially recommend checking out what he's scanned from his sketchbook, so lovely.STACEY ROZICH
Rad stuff coming from this SF/Seattle illustrator, striking images of a strange folktale past.
JOHN KENN
I'm really digging this guy's most recent drawings-- monochromatic little renderings finely wrought on Post-It notes. They're very Edward Gorey-esque, not quite as unsettling but still a bit dark and certainly just as peculiar.
NEW WORK
Finally got around to scanning some new art.
My first piece in a while, "Samson's Revenge". Kindly refer to the Biblical myth of Samson and Delilah:
(Click image to view larger)
Stained the paper with coffee and tea, used some Prismacolor pencils for the hand, and got to experiment with a nice Staedler pencil set, my first time working with a wide variety of degrees in terms of my pencil use. I wish I hadn't used that inky black pen to line the hand, or that I'd at least used one with a finer point, but overall I'm happy with it.
Otherwise, I've been experimenting with watercolor in my moleskine, just painting random images and then going over them with a Micron pen.
This one's vaguely based on an old comic book panel I found online, it's alright.
Here's one I did looking at an old shot of Sylvie Vartan, all about the summer vibes.
This is my favorite of the bunch. Just a couple of choir boys. I was listening to Department of Eagles while I made it, which I thought was rather appropriate.
Anyways, many apologies for the shitty scan quality, the colors aren't quite as vibrant on a screen as they are in person. There are one or two other old, oooold sketches from my moleskine that I scanned as well -- you can see them on my flickr.
My first piece in a while, "Samson's Revenge". Kindly refer to the Biblical myth of Samson and Delilah:
(Click image to view larger)Stained the paper with coffee and tea, used some Prismacolor pencils for the hand, and got to experiment with a nice Staedler pencil set, my first time working with a wide variety of degrees in terms of my pencil use. I wish I hadn't used that inky black pen to line the hand, or that I'd at least used one with a finer point, but overall I'm happy with it.
Otherwise, I've been experimenting with watercolor in my moleskine, just painting random images and then going over them with a Micron pen.
This one's vaguely based on an old comic book panel I found online, it's alright.Here's one I did looking at an old shot of Sylvie Vartan, all about the summer vibes.This is my favorite of the bunch. Just a couple of choir boys. I was listening to Department of Eagles while I made it, which I thought was rather appropriate.Anyways, many apologies for the shitty scan quality, the colors aren't quite as vibrant on a screen as they are in person. There are one or two other old, oooold sketches from my moleskine that I scanned as well -- you can see them on my flickr.
RECENT GALLERY VISITS
Within the past couple weeks I've seen a lot of neat art.
Ever impressive are the newest works by the terrific Alexis McKenzie, which I had the pleasure of viewing up close and personal at Park Life Gallery (where I also happen to intern). I've been a big fan of Alexis' work ever since coming across her artist interview on Fecal Face.
Alexis' collage pieces serve a curious blend of images of Victorian restraint and those of unfettered flora and fauna, creating these wonderfully fantastical surrealist dreamscapes where lovely women grow fish tails and seashells sprout from their skulls. This show was especially interesting in that it was almost entirely text-reliant. Save for one larger piece, all of the collages spelled out different phrases -- "Never Be Sad", "True Love", "Just This Once"... Not only were the works a marvel to look at just in terms of the precision and attention of detail used to clip out each image, but it was super fun to try and decipher what the words spelled out.
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I also stopped by 49 Geary Galleries a little over a week ago.
Fraenkel Gallery has usually got some pretty great work but I was more impressed by the photos in the backroom, namely a couple of Diane Arbus shots and 3 E.J. Bellocq prints that were so interesting to see in person. Having those scratched out faces but a few inches away from my own was really powerful.
Jack Fischer Gallery was showing some interesting work by Lora Fosberg. I was especially intrigued by her colorful sound wave spectrums, full of idioms and expressions familiar and alien, sad and funny, contrived and painfully sincere. Lora states in her artist's statement that "The work is attempting to bring the viewer into a place where I am able to disarm them with imagery allowing them to regress back to a particular memory; a specific moment forever embedded in the brain......whether it be truth or a complete fabrication of the subconscious, the memory has created it nonetheless."
My favorite work currently being shown at 49 Geary would have to be Kathryn Spence's wonderful installations at the Stephen Wirtz Gallery.
Kathryn makes these incredible models of animals out of random found materials -- things like newspaper, beanie baby bits, and fabric scraps from used clothing. Her pieces raise interesting questions about the relation between the man-made and the organic. They are also adorable. I took some photos of them on my Olympus which I hope will turn out well.
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Finally, I visited SFMOMA to check out the recently opened Richard Avedon retrospective as well as Robert Frank's "The Americans".
Avedon's work is outstanding. He had a magical way of using the portrait to capture both artifice and frankness. Even the most posed of his portraits can be totally telling of the subject's character, the way he or she wanted to construct his or her image saying just as much as a more candid shot would.
As much as I love Avedon, however, I left the exhibit feeling slightly underwhelmed. My main problem was not so much with Avedon's work as it was with MOMA's presentation of it. I'd already seen the grand majority of the photos in person during a visit to another Avedon exhibit in Paris last summer, and I feel the Parisian curators definitely had a keener sense of how to present the images powerfully. For instance, in Paris, Avedon's photos of working class Americans were shown in a room painted completely black from floor to ceiling, these massive, striking, black-and-white images illuminated on the walls surrounding, totally spellbinding you, whereas the MOMA exhibit just sort of had a winding labyrinth of overall white-wall gallery space. In any case, the MOMA visit was beneficial in that I did see a handful of shots I'd never seen before, and I was happy to give second thought to some of the images previously viewed in Paris. The image below in particular struck a new chord with me, James Story, coal miner, looking to me almost like a blue-collar Jesus -- the way coal had mixed with sweat to form blood-like trickles on his forehead, all he was missing was a barbed-wire crown.
While I may have had a few misgivings about the Avedon exhibit, I was completely floored by Frank's "Americans".
Frank did a brilliant job at organizing his sprawling photo essay on Americana into several pointed critiques on contemporary America's icons and values, unmasking the disparities in American society and the hypocrisy of its leaders. I can only imagine what kind of uproar this would've caused at the time of the book's release, and I'm totally tickled at the thought of it. The sequencing of the exhibit was super powerful, juxtapositions of images often producing more compelling results than the singular photos themselves. I highly recommend a visit.
That's about it for this long-winded blog entry. Go check out these galleries and exhibits for yourself!
Ever impressive are the newest works by the terrific Alexis McKenzie, which I had the pleasure of viewing up close and personal at Park Life Gallery (where I also happen to intern). I've been a big fan of Alexis' work ever since coming across her artist interview on Fecal Face.
Alexis' collage pieces serve a curious blend of images of Victorian restraint and those of unfettered flora and fauna, creating these wonderfully fantastical surrealist dreamscapes where lovely women grow fish tails and seashells sprout from their skulls. This show was especially interesting in that it was almost entirely text-reliant. Save for one larger piece, all of the collages spelled out different phrases -- "Never Be Sad", "True Love", "Just This Once"... Not only were the works a marvel to look at just in terms of the precision and attention of detail used to clip out each image, but it was super fun to try and decipher what the words spelled out.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I also stopped by 49 Geary Galleries a little over a week ago.
Fraenkel Gallery has usually got some pretty great work but I was more impressed by the photos in the backroom, namely a couple of Diane Arbus shots and 3 E.J. Bellocq prints that were so interesting to see in person. Having those scratched out faces but a few inches away from my own was really powerful.
Jack Fischer Gallery was showing some interesting work by Lora Fosberg. I was especially intrigued by her colorful sound wave spectrums, full of idioms and expressions familiar and alien, sad and funny, contrived and painfully sincere. Lora states in her artist's statement that "The work is attempting to bring the viewer into a place where I am able to disarm them with imagery allowing them to regress back to a particular memory; a specific moment forever embedded in the brain......whether it be truth or a complete fabrication of the subconscious, the memory has created it nonetheless."
My favorite work currently being shown at 49 Geary would have to be Kathryn Spence's wonderful installations at the Stephen Wirtz Gallery.
Kathryn makes these incredible models of animals out of random found materials -- things like newspaper, beanie baby bits, and fabric scraps from used clothing. Her pieces raise interesting questions about the relation between the man-made and the organic. They are also adorable. I took some photos of them on my Olympus which I hope will turn out well.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Finally, I visited SFMOMA to check out the recently opened Richard Avedon retrospective as well as Robert Frank's "The Americans".
Avedon's work is outstanding. He had a magical way of using the portrait to capture both artifice and frankness. Even the most posed of his portraits can be totally telling of the subject's character, the way he or she wanted to construct his or her image saying just as much as a more candid shot would.As much as I love Avedon, however, I left the exhibit feeling slightly underwhelmed. My main problem was not so much with Avedon's work as it was with MOMA's presentation of it. I'd already seen the grand majority of the photos in person during a visit to another Avedon exhibit in Paris last summer, and I feel the Parisian curators definitely had a keener sense of how to present the images powerfully. For instance, in Paris, Avedon's photos of working class Americans were shown in a room painted completely black from floor to ceiling, these massive, striking, black-and-white images illuminated on the walls surrounding, totally spellbinding you, whereas the MOMA exhibit just sort of had a winding labyrinth of overall white-wall gallery space. In any case, the MOMA visit was beneficial in that I did see a handful of shots I'd never seen before, and I was happy to give second thought to some of the images previously viewed in Paris. The image below in particular struck a new chord with me, James Story, coal miner, looking to me almost like a blue-collar Jesus -- the way coal had mixed with sweat to form blood-like trickles on his forehead, all he was missing was a barbed-wire crown.
While I may have had a few misgivings about the Avedon exhibit, I was completely floored by Frank's "Americans".
Frank did a brilliant job at organizing his sprawling photo essay on Americana into several pointed critiques on contemporary America's icons and values, unmasking the disparities in American society and the hypocrisy of its leaders. I can only imagine what kind of uproar this would've caused at the time of the book's release, and I'm totally tickled at the thought of it. The sequencing of the exhibit was super powerful, juxtapositions of images often producing more compelling results than the singular photos themselves. I highly recommend a visit.That's about it for this long-winded blog entry. Go check out these galleries and exhibits for yourself!
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