Edward Ruscha, Pictures and Words

Edward Ruscha, Dare

According to Kit White, "Illustration is a visual aid to a text or an idea and is subservient to that primary agent.  Fine art, while it may illustrate an allegory or concept, has always attempted to maintain its role as primary vehicle; an autonomous form embodying the text...This is part of art's nonutilitarian identity."  Edward Ruscha uses pictures and words in such a way that they play off of each other, and neither is a slave to the other.  It is the selection of the picture and the word(s) that give it the context of fine art.  The picture alone or the words alone have a different meaning, then when bought together.  Ruscha's artwork challenges us to form new meanings for pictures and words.  Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=HoNePbo9DD0

Craig Thompson

Craig Thompson, Habibi

I am currently reading a graphic novel by Craig Thompson called Carnet De Voyage.  It is about Craig travelling for three months through France, Barcelona, Morocco and the Alps, where he spent time researching his next graphic novel.  This travel diary with words and pictures documents his adventures through these countries.  The artwork is done in ink, detailed and flowing.  Craig is a great storyteller and inspires me to tell my own stories through art.  So if you have a chance to read one of his graphic novels, take the plunge, you are sure to enjoy it.  Below is a video link to an interview of Craig Thompson.  Enjoy!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oumak4EW37c&feature=player_detailpage

Jeff Koons and Illusions

Jeff Koons, Puppy

According to Guy Debord, "The whole of life of those societies in which modern conditions of production prevail presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles.  All that once was directly lived has become mere representation."  Technology has given us life on a screen.  Some people only see artwork on a screen, instead of in 3D, in a direct experience of the artwork.  There is something to standing in front of a painting or walking around a sculpture that cannot be experienced through a 2D screen.  For me, art is meant to create an experience and that experience is greatly diminished through its other representation on a screen.  Enjoy!

http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/p9ejfs/jeff-koons

Shout Out to Swoon



Caledonia Dance Curry, commonly known as Swoon, is a United States based street artist.  Swoon’s street art embraces the themes of fragility and community.  It is her desire to have stories emerge from her artwork and create a community spirit around her images.  She chose the street to work in because she wants her work to “participate in the world, that seeks context within our daily lives, and that is not dependent solely upon art institutions,”.   Her work is created with recycled paper and glued to the wall with wheat paste, which is intended to decay over time and eventually vanish.   This fragility that is present in the medium is used to represent the lives of those around us.  We all live within a physical environment, and it is that interweaving in her work of both humans and the physical environment that inspires Swoon in her street art.  Enjoy!

 

Banksy and Bomb Hugger

Banksy, Bomb Hugger, 2003

Banksy, is a United Kingdom based street artist, who uses his art to express his own political opinion and to question the establishment.  According to Banksy, in his book, Wall and Piece, “They say graffiti frightens people and is symbolic of the decline in society, but graffiti is only dangerous in the mind of three types of people; politicians, advertising executives and graffiti writers” (8).  And it is only dangerous for the graffiti writer or street artist because they may be arrested.  Whether his piece is anti-war, anti-capitalist, or anti-establishment, he often uses everyday subjects and people.  His main technique involves the use of stencils, where the image is drawn and cut out of paper.  Once the stencil is attached to the wall, spray paint is used, and then the stencil is removed revealing the image. Enjoy!

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