Encounters, Part 8

Number One: I am a celebrity junky. I just love read Perez Hilton! So something I read today was that Justine Bieber and Selena Gomez are seeing each other…uhm nasty!!!!! First of all, she’s 18 and isn;t he 12? Totally nasty. And they both don’t have real talent. I mean Beiber can sing for sure, but his songs suck. Selena can’t sing at all. I heard her live and I just felt embarrassed. With that being said, they’re a match made in heaven. On the other hand…nasty. The age difference is just too big. AND SHE’S TALLER THAN HIM BY 7FT! Maybe I’m just picky, but boy oh boy, did Selena loose out when she broke up with TayLatuz.

Number Two: I love watching the dancers across the street. I feel like they have so much poise and grace-it’s just true beauty. I wish I was in ballet. My ma once asked me to join when I was younger but I wanted to be like my older sisters so I joined gymnastics and cheerleading. I’d do anything to take that all back because I think I would’ve been a great dancer. By no means would I be able to do it professionally because of my body type, but I think that I would love every second of it. I also love the way they interact with each other. It’s so passionate and more lustful than sexual. I just find every move that both the boys and girls make is just beyond spectacular.

Number Three: I feel like it’s not December. I mean the weather is more January. I miss seeing snow, plus it’s warmer when it snows too. I love the feeling of Christmas approaching, but I’m just not feeling it this year. I don’t know if its because the snow isn’t coming or whatever it is, but I’m just not feeling it this year. i hope I do soon!!! My sister comes home Tuesday and that is going to be the best gift I ever receive in my lifetime. My sister’s birthday is tomorrow, she’s going to be 21!!! I’m going out and getting her a cupcake from Sprinkles and I bought her a beautiful ring. And this Saturday is Nicki’s birthday and I think I might come back and make her a cake or something. I just want everyone to have a happy December 🙂

Caravaggio

 

Caravaggio was born in Milan where his father, Fermo Merisi, was a household administrator and architect-decorator to the Marchese of Caravaggio, a very small town. His mother, Lucia Aratori, came from a propertied family of the same district. In 1576 the family moved to Caravaggio to escape a plague which ravaged Milan.Caravaggio’s mother sadly died in 1584. This is the same year he was apprenticed for four years with Simone Peterzano, a painter from Milan. Caravaggio appears to have stayed in the Milan-Caravaggio area after his apprenticeship ended, but it is possible that he visited Venice and saw the works of of such artists like Giorgione, and was inspired.

In 1592 he left Milan and fled to Rome after getting into multiple fights with police officers. The realism seen in Caravaggio’s first paintings on religious and related themes, is considered brutal realism. The first of his “brutal realistic” paintings is titled the “Penitent Magdalene,” which shows Mary Magdalene at the moment when she has turned away from here life as a prostitute. It shows her sitting and crying on the floor, with her broken jewelry spread all around her. The works, while viewed by a comparatively limited circle, increased Caravaggio’s fame with both connoisseurs and his fellow artists. As stated before, it was evident in his paintings the intense realism and naturalism for which Caravaggio is now famous for. Instead of idealizing humans as most painters did during his time period, he painted his subjects showing all of their flaws, exactly how the eye saw them.  Not only was his realism a noteworthy feature of his paintings during this period, he also turned away from the time consuming preparation that many painters usually participated in. Instead, Caravaggio preferred the Venetian practice of working in oils directly from the subject. One of the paintings that directly portrays the way that he works is called Supper at Emamaus.

Caravaggio led a life filled with angry, drunken fights. He was notorious for fighting, which wasn’t uncommon for this time period and area. He literally has several pages filled with police records and trial hearings. For example, in 1606, he killed a young man named Ranuccio Tomassoni. Previously his high-placed patrons had protected him from the consequences of his escapades, but this time they could do nothing. Caravaggio again had to flee and found himself in Naples. In Naples, he was protected by the Colonna family and instead of being known as the most famous painter in Rome, he was now the most famous painter in Naples. His tight connections with the Colonna family led to a stream of important church commissions, including the Madonna of the Rosery, and The Seven Works of Mercy.

No one really understands how Caravaggio died. He was on his way back to Rome to pardon his earlier affairs, and never returned. It is believed that he died from some sort of plague or fever going around in Tuscany in July of 1610. Sadly, only about 80 works by Caravaggio survived. But his reputation lived on, even after his death, as one of the best painters in history.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

 

 

Toulouse-Lautrec was a very well-known French painter, printmaker, illustrator, and draughtsman. He was the first born son in an aristocrat family, but his family soon split up after the death of his younger brother. At first his nanny took care of him, but then at 8 he moved to Paris to live with his mother. This is when Henri first started to paint and draw, and his family recognized his talents at his young age. Although in 1867, Henri moved back to Albi once his mother found out about his serious health conditions. Since his mother and father were cousins, he suffered from numerous congenital health problems due to inbreeding. At 13 he fractured his right thigh bone and at 14 his left. He never healed properly, and never grew again. As an adult, he stood at 5 feet tall because of the breaks. Because he could not participate in any male activities, he immersed himself in art and became a well-known post-impressionist painter, art nouveau illustrator, and lithographer.

After a stay in Nice, Henri was able to impress Princeteau. Although his mother was worried because of his health conditions, they were able to persuade her to let him study in Paris. After arriving there, Henri’s wealthy family was able to get him to study at Bonnat’s studio. After Bonnat moved away, he transferred to Fernands Cormon’s studio, and studied alongside with who would his best friend for life, van Gogh and Emile Bernard.

Through out his 20 year career, he created around 737 canvases, 275 watercolors, 363 posters and prints, 5,080 drawings, and some ceramic and stained glass works. His style was greatly influenced by the Japanese  wood prints and Impressionist painters such as Manet and Degas. One of his most interesting qualities as a painter is his ability to capture the individuality of each person in a crowd.Toulouse-Lautrec’s skilled depiction of people relied on his painterly style which is highly linear and gives great emphasis to contour. He often applied the paint in long, thin brushstrokes which would often leave much of the board on which they are painted showing through. Many of his works may best be described as drawings in coloured paint

Vincent van Gogh : My Hero.

 

 

SOOOO I have always been in love with Vincent Van Gogh. His work personally amazes me, and so does his life. He was born on March 30, 1853 in the southern region of the Netherlands, and was born into a ministry family. As a child, he was first taught a school with one Catholic teacher and 200 pupils. He moved onto being home-schooled by a governess, and later went away to boarding school. The school of 20 miles away from his family, which distressed him as a child. Even in his adulthood, he recalls and often painted these emotions.Constantijn C. Huysmans, who was a famous painter in Paris, taught van Gogh at the Willem II College. He abruptly dropped out of school, and the reason is unknown. Upon returning home, van Gogh’s life shifted for the better. His uncle set him up as an art dealer with Goupil and Cie. At 20, he was making more money than his father and fell in love with his a landlady’s daughter. Sadly though, when he professed his love for her, she rejected him and said that she was already engaged. After this he moved on and worked in Paris, but later stopped working as an art dealer because he was upset that art was treated as a commodity.

During 1884, Paris first took an interest in what van Gogh was painting. That spring he finished his first major work titles, “The Potato Eaters.” During his two year stay in Nuenen, he completed numerous masterful drawings, 200 oil paintings, and watercolors. He moved to Paris in 1886 and studied at the Fernand Cormon’s Studio.  He remained there for several years, and lived with his brother.

Towards the end of his life, van Gogh was suffering from smoker’s cough an excessively drinking. He was also suffering from mental illnesses, and was getting worse through out the years. On July 27, 1890, van Gogh’s depression took over him and he walked into a field and shot himself in the chest. Somehow he survived the gun wound and walked back to the Ravoux Inn. Theo, his brother, went there immediately, and recorded his last words as, “The sadness will last forever.”

Jun Kaneko : Cool Sculptor

 

Jun Kaneko is a ceramics artists that was born in Japan in 1942. He grew up studying as a painter during his high school years. In 1963 when he moved to the United States, he studied at the Chouinard Institute of Art, and this is when his focus was drawn to ceramics. During what is known as the Contemporary Ceramics Movement, Kaneko was in California studying with famous sculptors such as Jerry Rothman, Peter Voulkos, and Paul Soldner. A decade later, he started to pass in his love of ceramics and taught at various U.S. schools such as Scripps College, Cranbrook Academy of Art,  and Rhode Island School of Design.

Jun Kaneko, who know lives in Omaha, Nebraska, established his third studio there. From 1982-1983, he created a series of large-scape ceramics pieces called the “Omaha Project.” Other projects include his Fremont Project, located in California, and his Mission Clay Project, which is located in Kansas. One of his most interesting pieces of work was when he designed the set of Madama Butterfly in Omaha.

Kaneko has been shown in over forty mesuems throughout the United States. His most recent work called the “Water Plaza” is presently at the Bartle Hall in Kansas City. He has realized over twenty-five public art commissions around the world. He has been honored with national, state and organization fellowships and an honorary doctorate from the Royal College of Art in London.

 

Check out more of his work! http://junkaneko.com/

My New Lover: Banksy

As the whole class knows, I have a huge love for Banksy. He is a British graffiti artist who identity is still unknown to the public. Although there is no solid information, it is believe that Banksy was born in Bristol, England, and was taught to be a butcher. In the big graffiti boom during the 1980’s, Banksy supposedly started his work.

Banksy’s work has such a satirical view on politics has such a dark and twisted humor to it, that you can’t help but to fall in love. He uses  specific and very detailed stencils that he creates himself, and uses spray paint to keep it up forever. His works are everywhere from walls, to bridges, and to buildings. In his book Wall and Street, he has explained that when he first started, he was very slow and often got caught. The way he is able to get all his work done now is a series of hand-cut stencils that are overlapped in order to maximize color and efficiency.

One quote from Banksy that I love is ,”I use whatever it takes. Sometimes that just means drawing a moustache on a girl’s face on some billboard, sometimes that means sweating for days over an intricate drawing. Efficiency is the key.” The reason why I love this quote is because it really shows his mind set on his work. I think it’s inspiring, as an artist, to see that even people who do graffiti art also put in a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. It also shows his true dedication to his art and technique.

I definitely recommend seeing his first film, Exit Through the Gift Shop!!!!

Ivan Albright-Death, Life, Materialistic Humans, and Time.

Ivan Albright has won over my heart time after time. He was born close to Chicago, Illinois in a town called Harvey. His father was a landscape painter, which is where he gained most of his knowledge. Ivan and his twin brother, Malvin, both attended the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, where he majored in painting and his brother in sculpting. Ivan Albright is considered a “magic realist” in the world of painting.

Albright strayed away from his father’s way of painting the world. Instead, he focused on themes such as death, life, the materialistic nature of human, and the effects of time. For example, in his piece titled, Into the World Came a Soul Called Ida (above), this work is about a once beautiful model that is now facing the reality of what time does to your body. This also shows the materialistic side of women, because she still looks in the mirror praying to look like the beautiful women she once was. The vanity, makeup and mirror all play along in his idea that beauty is the only thing that matters when it comes to people. In this painting, he includes amazing detail in the way that he forms the body and face, such as adding in mass amounts of cellulite, wrinkles, and gothic colors.

Some of Albright’s influences are his father, Rembrandt, and El Greco. Also when times were tough during WWI, he took up a job as a medical drawer for a hospital in France, which some historians believe was also a big influence on his morbid body of work. He was also very anal about detail. He would spend hours setting up a scene for a painting, meticulously creating as much detail work as possible. For some of his wood work and facial work, he would use a brush constructed of one hair. He even went as far as painting his whole studio black and wearing only black while painting, in order to keep out as much glare as possible.

Ivan Albright would spend up to 10 years on some of his work, such as The Door. Such works are found at the Art Institute of Chicago, so check him out soon!!!!