Photography in the Microscopic

If you are looking for a time waster and want to see something cool at the same time, click here.

You might have to wait a while for the page to load, but it is well worth it in my opinion.

This Russian photographer made miniature landscapes and placed real ants into them. The ants seem to pose for him at times, but really the amazing part of these photographers is the wonderful talent displayed; not to mention the amazing amount of patience this must have taken.

In other news I'm really enjoying listening to Ingrid Michaelson right now, it's good background music to have on at all times. Easy listening.

Seagulls and Sandbars

I realized I have shared an art piece in a while.

Done.

On that note, it's about 80 degrees (F) here and I'm daydreaming of Santa Barbara beaches, ice cream, paddleboarding, and tanning. Is it too much to ask that summer would come already?

NYC: Further Musings Upon Art.

First off, so I don't get fined a ton of money, I did not take these photos, I stole them from here. 

Now that I have my disclaimer, we can move onto business. Rene Lynch, whose paintings are below, and Anne Appleby were by far the best galleries of the day for me. 

Lynch's paintings are fantastical and magical. They are giant and you feel as if you are stepping into a dream land, which, if you read her information, you kind of are. They are excellently executed and have a surreal, fairy tale quality to them, but they are provocative too - which I love about her work. Though I love 'pretty pictures' and masterpieces in art, it adds so much more depth to a piece when you actually have to stop and think about it - when you start to wonder why an artist did what they did. I think that this is also a mark of successful art. 

The two pieces below are my favorites of her latest collection, which I had the pleasure of seeing. Be forewarned however, if you click on the link above to her other work, it is significantly more graphic and provocative.

"Swan Prisoner"

"War of the Roses"

I still haven't quite 'figured' out "War of the Roses" but I love the contrast and the dramatic flare. This is a beautifully painted piece that has a great terribleness to it as well.

I also loved Anne Appleby's work. I am not putting her work on my site however because I do not think that photos of her work do her any justice, please do click on the link however so that you can know what I'm talking about. 

Appleby's work is hard to explain. When my art teacher was first describing it before we went into the gallery my thought's were, "What? Squares? I can do this. Why are we looking at this? This is going to be another boring one...." etc. I was wrong, happily. Her work seems to glow in person, as if illuminated from within. Though simple in concept it is worth seeing in person. Her paintings suck you in and hold your attention. Honestly, I could have sat in that gallery for a long, long while.

So there's more about my day in NYC. I hope that my further musings on the art world haven't bored you but if they have, fear not! I will blog about something else next time!

Have a good weekend and a relaxing Friday all! 

:)

Artsy, Artsy NYC

This time last week I was trying to sleep. But, let's be honest, I was lying in bed, unable to fall asleep, because I was so excited to be going to New York. That's right - the Big Apple. From 5am to 11pm I was on a whirlwind pace while my mind ran marathons trying to keep up. But it was worth it, I'll be the first to attest to that.

Just to give you a small taste of my nonstop day, here a just a FEW of the many photographic scenes and art I saw last Saturday.

Perhaps I should give you some background information, but before I do... pretty snazzy collage right? 

I finally had time to put effort into one of my blog posts, and I am pleased with how it came out. I am also pleased to announce that the process was simple enough that I can duplicate it - though perhaps with not so many photos. I do apologize if you cannot see each photo clearly, but there were just many that I wanted to share!

But back to the beginning. This NYC trip was not just a random trip where my friends and I decided to hop on a bus - and I do hope that if you are reading this, you would know me better than this than to expect that I would EVER do that - unplanned and on a whim - though I guess one can never say never. Anyways, this NYC venture was a trip through our art department. It is required of some Art Majors to go for their classes, however, it is open to the whole art department which, if you will recall, I am now a part of! My drawing teacher strongly encouraged our class to go on this yearly trip as the day promised adventures. I jumped at the opportunity to do something different for a weekend and, not having work, I signed up with a couple of friends. So that's the background information.

A (very brief) summary of the day then? Obviously the day started out as a very early morning. However, this was all rewarded. I chose to spend my time in the Chelsea Galleries - a tired looking part of town but thriving in art life. I can't even express how many galleries I saw last week, and we were only there for a few hours! Thankfully my art professor (and fantastic advisor!) was there to guide those of us in Chelsea and picked a great selection of post-modern art for us to view. While most of the group opted to go get lunch, I, and 3 other students stayed with Prof. Z and continued our whirlwind journey, after which we walked 5th avenue (and quickly stopped at Starbucks), to catch our bus at the MOMA, where the rest of our group was. 

In general sum, that was my day. I throughly enjoyed gallery hopping - as I have never done that to THIS extent before - and I came back inspired and ready to produce great works... kind of. If you have not experienced galleries before I do recommend doing it once in your life. It is a very different experience than museums and there is free stuff involved. Not to mention all galleries are free to get into, fantastic right?! 

I appologize for my verbose post, but perhaps it will make up for my lack of posting recently. :) Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Relearning Drawing. Again.

Hello world, I am learning how to draw. Again. And again and again, and I feel like I'll never be quite finished learning how to draw and develop my talents. Ha, talents for drawing. I'd rather be painting. But it's really nice to have an art class again and it's better than nothing.

Here was our first 'larger' assignment - one that I'm not completely happy with but am pleasantly surprised with the results. This was from our first section, contour drawing. Apparently I draw like Matisse, and perhaps I'm even a distant relative. I have my doubts, and I'm not quite sure if I should be offended or pleased. I think I'll be pleasantly confused for the moment.

This is a quick sketch done in charcoal. I don't know how I feel about charcoal. It is very forgiving but also hard to control, and very hard to indicate detail. However, out of all the drawing that I've done, this feels the most natural to me, not that drawing will ever come natural to me. However, this gesture drawing is relatable to painting and, for now, is in first place for me.

P.S. Notice the plant theme? I like it, though I believe that we're moving on next week. Sad, I could be very happy just drawing the organic lines in plants. 

Art: Underwater Scape

I haven't done an art update in a while. Let's fix that. Here's a piece that took me the better part of a semester. It's really not that big - but the starfish was a really big challenge. I still feel as if I didn't do this piece justice, but it ended up okay. It also looks a lot better in person. That's ok. It was completed about a year ago, just in time for my Dad's Christmas present. 

Art: Self Portrait

Not quite sure where this sprung up out of but it was a side project that I did at home one night. Originally there was supposed to be more in the background but I liked how this came out so much that I just left it. Done in acrylic paints.

a PS: sorry I have been so MIA lately... lest you forget that it is finals week here let me remind you. It's finals week here. Thankfully no exams today but, as evidence of this timestamp at 4:30 am, I am fully awake and studying for Tuesday and Wednesday. Can I please just be home and can I please just stay there and be an artist for the rest of my life? Okay, kind of a joke, but I am missing being creative here and crocheting can only take you so far...

Nail Art

Really, should I just quit college and go to beautician school?

Okay that's kind of a joke. Regardless, I've been experimenting with some really cool nail designs inspired by youtube. 

Introducing... newspaper nails!

... and water marbling....

... the only downside is the clean up afterwards ....

But they look cool right? Here on E1E we're still experimenting to find the perfect technique but we've all decided that the process it quite fun.

College Art

Sometime last week Mckenzie and I got the pictures that we had been waiting for. 

We were super excited when they came.

Mostly because they were pictures of our faces. TONS of pictures of our faces.

Backstory: A while ago Mckenzie apparently did a cool art project with her church group or something and, seeing as how she also had 75 free prints from Shutterfly, we decided to recreate this project.

It's called modern art people. Get some culture.

It's also called not doing homework for the day.

Pretty cool right? I thought so. This still isn't the full project by the way, I added some more. And guess where we hung them up? Our window. Guess what floor we're on? The 1st floor aka EVERYONE who walks by our can see this. It is awesome. We were going to hang it in our hall but really, how boring would that be? And we're all about excitement here at Gordon.

Art: Watercolor

I love (most of) this piece. I think that the owl came out really well - not just saying that to brag. This was one of my first art pieces and definitely the first real one in watercolor that I have done. It was the first painting, in an art class, where I got to choose my subject matter. Regardless of lack of instruction, I'm really happy with how this turned out. I never knew that water colors could turn out so well or detailed and I would love to experiment more.

And I am officially back at the GC - talk about being thrown into the real world again. That's a joke, it has really been nothing but fun and games here. Last night we watched Letters to Juliet (me for the first time) and this morning I slept in until 10:15. Good start and only 2 and 1/2 weeks until I'm home again.

 :) Just have to make it through finals!

Art: Triptic II

A more recent piece to switch it up a little. I did this triptic last year out of inspiration of my Asian heritage. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it, definitely could have been better. At the same time I like the simplicity of it and, in particular, the blue painting to the right.

This is the finished piece as of now. As happy as I am with it I still feel like it might need something more, but we'll see.

Art: Triptic

I did this a while back for a friend and I really liked how it turned out, especially since it is acrylic. Kind of wish that I would have held on to it though.

Pretty Cool Stuff

Okay, so remember this thing called reblogging that I've talked about before? Throwing a reblog at y'all. But this is so amazing! Watch it, you definitely won't regret it. Oh, and, by the way? This video is made up entirely of photos. Not a camera. P-H-O-T-O-S.... Okay, now you just think I'm weird, but you'll understand when you watch it. 

PS: the real thing is on vimeo. Oh, and this was all done by photographer Dustin Farrell in Arizona and Utah.

Art Update II

In other news I've officially been excepted as an art minor. This was my portfolio that I used to get in - 2 drawings, 1 painting, and 1 photograph.

Art: Scratchboard

I did this art piece in my first legitimate art class. Even though this piece is old and I have painted more impressive things, I loved doing this piece and seeing it evolve. Time providing, I would like to do another animal scratch-piece in even great detail. Enjoy.