visit from sari

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local portrait artist and all-around awesome lady sari gaby came to do a workshop for my drawing 1 class yesterday. as always, it was informative, fun, and inspiring for my students and myself. if you are interested in finding out more about sari or her workshops, contact me or check out her website.

here are some pictures of the workshop, as well as the most recent works of my junior student hannah as well as the display board with work on it from all my current classes. 
great stuff happening in the art room right now.

artist of the week :: guy denning

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check out the painting of british artist guy denning.

i think he describes his work (and the process of painting) the best:
I think that painting is a focusing; a process of exaggeration and editing of a suggestion of reality. I can start with a skeleton, like a foundation illustration, perhaps taken from a life study or a photograph and then I start to manipulate that framework. All the time I am hoping for accidents with the paint as the accidents are usually the source of greatest productivity. Perhaps the accidents of paint give me a similar perspective as the viewer to the finished painting: the surprise at something fresh or something that is not immediately understood in its construction. This aspect of painting is like, perhaps, finding the uncontrolled intention. 
I know when it’s right or, at least, tending towards right but I don’t know how to do it. If I knew how to do it, that there was a predetermined and guaranteed method, then it wouldn’t be the challenge that forces me to paint continually. 

check out his: 
website
drawing-a-day blog
writing blog

thanks to amy bonner for the heads up on this great artist

artist of the week :: carne griffiths

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carne griffiths' paintings and illustrations are energetic and controlled all at once.
he drips and controls ink washes and applies marks with pen and pencil - all creating atmospheric portraits full of emotion - specifically strength and poise. the women he paints are typically juxtaposed with natural elements (leaves, feathers, tree branches, etc), showing woman's communion and connection with nature.
check out more about him and his art here.
(thanks to brienna wirley for the heads up on this great artist)

studio in art :: reference for sculpture

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here are images of the 3 artists we are referencing for our new sculpture project, as well as an image of my exemplar.
look below each picture for more links on each artist.

frank gehry
wikipedia
new york times
artcyclopedia

frank stella
wikipedia
artcyclopedia
artnet (works for sale)

pablo picasso
wikipedia
abc gallery
artcyclopedia

my example

artist of the week :: kris lewis

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kris lewis says, "as i begin a painting the subject physically, emotionally and spiritually reveals itself to me. each brushstroke speaks to the subsequent stroke, carrying out a dialogue, linking my subject and me as if we were meeting for the first time. i find this uncertainty exciting and embrace the indecisive nature of my work."

his work although contemporary in theme is classical in composition and style. this interaction and dialog with the history of art is inspiring, and reminds us that we dont live in an artistic bubble. lewis' latvian heritage is evident in the works, as is the influence of artists like albrecht durer, hieronymus bosch, gustav klimt, and hans holbein. they also have a strong motion picture/hollywood quality to them in my opinion - again showing that what we digest informs what we create.

find out more at his website.




artist of the week :: dan witz

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painting the night is hard. the subtlety of the light is really challenging to represent... especially because getting a camera to capture it accurately is tough.
dan witz is able to show us the mood of the night - whether its a hot and sticky august one or one of those wonderful cool early summer nights. these paintings transport me there.

he also has done a cool series of portraits where the only light source is a cell phone... and another of mosh pits. this guy can pick cool topics for paintings.
maybe more on those later... for now, the elegant, lonely urban landscapes:

so its obvious he is interested in the play of light and how it describes objects. they remind me of my favorite painting from rochester's memorial art gallery, by winslow homer:


artsits of the week :: robert parkeharrison

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here is a sampling of the photography of robert and shana parkeharrison. i am absolutely in awe of this work. first off, i dont even understand how they are staged. secondly, and more importantly, i am amazed by the imagination and conceptual depth behind the work. its like that moment when you are having vivid strange dreams right before you wake up.

robert has described his work as ‘stories of loss, human struggle, and personal exploration within landscapes scarred by technology and over-use’.

if you want to find out more about the parkeharrison's other projects, visit their website. or visit this digital gallery of their show "the architect's brother"

artist of the week :: asbestos

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asbestos is a street artist hailing from dublin, ireland.
he specializes in mixed media artwork, combining mediums like photography and painting onto found objects (often wood).
he then installs these pieces either back onto the streets, or hangs them on gallery wall spaces.
it is obvious why i am drawn and inspired by his work.

find out more on his website



artist of the week :: ben tour

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im loving ben tour's expressive portraits. the subtle non-paint elements add a little something extra to the pieces.

from his website: Canadian-born artist Ben Tour (b. 1977) channels a dark, often haunting sense of humanism in his work. His observations deftly inform his paintings, enabling him to capture the essence of a character, and then distort that view any way he desires. Frenetic lines, swaths of color, and intimate angles all convey a sense that Tour may not only be drawing inspiration from the lives of strangers he observes, but manifesting his own personal experiences as well. Ben Tour lives on the Sunshine Coast, British Columbia with his Wife and two children.

artist of the week :: angela grossmann

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collage, charcoal, paint. lots of textures, balance of detail and gesture, and a wonderful open space. sometimes, less is more.
the ap class is currently doing a piece based on her work and andy warhol's. we'll see how it all turns out.

from her website:
"Grossmann collages faces together from photocopies of old photographs in a way that is subtle and coherently representational, playing at transparency. “I collage the figures from a million different sources. What acts as a leg in one is not a leg; I put in boys bits for girls. If you look at collage of the earlier practitioners – whom I love – they used it for a strange, shattering effect, with say a huge head and tiny body, that kind of thing. I wanted to use my collage so that it appeared to make sense, but actually didn’t. I found it much more exciting to have it look real.” She calls this process ‘painting with photography’, I draw and paint with the photograph, and then re-photograph, then I blow it up, and I keep drawing and painting.”'

see more of her interesting and unique work here

artist of the week :: jane maxwell

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we are all products of our consumer culture.





we talked in drawing 2 last week about this a good amount during our contemporary artist presentation. i thought this artist further represented the ideas we talked about regarding body image and consumer culture.

this is jane maxwell's artist statement, taken from her website:

Feminine silhouettes are central icons in this work examining contemporary women and body image.

From movies and television, to magazines and billboards, we are inundated with representations of the perfect figure. This art deconstructs the ideal, by depicting women who have been stripped of fashion and airbrushing--and are shaped instead from a layering of vintage produce crate labels, Hollywood posters, and related ephemera.

This work often depicts women in conversation, comparison or repetition, underscoring the role female camaraderie and competition play in the ideal body quest, and making a statement about our culture's insistence on uniformity.

Each canvas is the result of many hours of labor--layering, sanding, building up and scraping back. Layers are created using a special technique with hot melted beeswax. The most recent work is finished with layers of high-gloss resin.

community arts day 2010.

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last saturday, webster hosted the 33rd annual community arts day at webster schroeder high school.
...thats right, community arts day will always be older than me.

as always, the artwork on display 1st-12th grade was amazing. it is great to see the progression that our webster students follow during their years with us. i am proud of my students, and look forward to my son's progression during these years as well...

so, here's some pictures of my students' work from saturday. enjoy!