Lead Pencil Meet Architecture 'Non-Sign II'

Lead Pencil Studio, a Seattle based art collective, created a sculpture from small stainless steel rods that are assembled together to create the shape of billboards. The idea for billboards is to defeat our attention away from the landscape. 'Non'-Sign II' has a different motive, using the frame to focus our attention on the landscape as well as the area of the billboard.

The Cost of Vegetarianism

Okay, I'll hastily admit that I'm a broke, starving artist, college sopohmore, almost living in a library, constantly writing 15 page essays every other night. I get distracted by Facebook or catch up on current events, sometimes movies or television show reruns on Hulu.

In the midst of this everyday habit, I always get hungry working through an essay. Ignored, I'll write another four pages and it'll drive the stomach growling away from my mind. Nope, the growling comes back far more fierce and stronger than before. And this always occur before I reached my four pages. What did I eat tonight lingers in my head long enough to question reality. This becomes a mystery being so that I had no recollection of what I ate that night. To add to the complexity, I am a full-time vegetarian, maybe 65% vegan and the remaining is spent on eating the high end cheese from France and Italy, but who can resist that?!

I always do get perplexed at how I manage to get by with no money and yet, make these extravagant small dinners, prepared with the freshest and organic vegetables. I may be an extreme picky eater, but eating this way fuels my energy at school and work. It can be pricey, and I cannot stress the fact that I always have a choice to spend my rent money on a really healthy, decent meal and cut the rest of my living expenses to a small minimum. For a normal college student, a diet could only consist of fast food fried in unnecessary fats, alcohol, and cigarettes. Even before I converted into a vegetarian, none of those options appealed to me, and price wasn't even an issue.

Most peers my age, who thrive off of Jack In The Box, Taco Bell, etc. question my vegetarian restriction. "No restriction, just simplicity."

Now that I think about it, it was a change that can benefit my own well being as well as the environment. Certainly, my wallet didn't benefit much from it. Despite my own poverty (I'm being more dramatic), I certainly enjoy the hefty costs of being a vegetarian.

Censor Study

Wednesday was a dragging day, with all the student loans and paper work to deal with. That was just as stressful. The majority of the day spent at studying new artist and their work, particularly Albert Oehlen. It is irrelevant compared to the style and aesthetic of my work, but I'm focusing on a new element in each artist, using that as a base for new studies.

The other day, I was in my life drawing class, reading an article about a German artist who has been the center of attention because of the raw theme of his work. I cannot remember his name, but that inspired me to work on a quick sketch of a model in our class. I finally grappled my energy to photograph a (unfinished) piece of my work. This is one of several studies that I did in that particularly class that day.


The Understudy, red pencil on newsprint, 2010.

B-Side Spring Projects: Hussein Chalayan

Take this into consideration: Chalayan, a British designer probing into the political satire and emotionally pertinent of his runway collection, streamlined into a higher category of art. It occurs to me that Chalayan is one of those artists that goes unnoticed, flying under the radar of mainstream industry, ignoring the 'rules.' This is the work of true artist. He is brilliant, visually visceral in every way, he certainly deserves more attention.

But to get to the point, for his Spring/Summer '09 collection, he decided to take it up a notch by displaying automobile accidents as a revolving theme. "It's about the speed in our lives and how it can only result in a crash," Chalayan explained, adding that the prints, which included number plates, car handles, and fenders, were "This collection taken from pictures of car graves." Each dress was hand-painted with images of crushed cars. Less than two years later, B-Side at Spring Projects decided to host an exhibition to highlight his explorations with body movements, form, and the anatomy of human body. You can check out more of his work here.




'inertial negative - 1, 2 and 3', 2010
fiberglass MDF, LED lights


'inertia positive - 3', 2010
fibreglass, stainless steel pole
88 x 40 x 52 (form)




'anaesthetics - 2', 2010
red cotton dress, paper
perspex, LED lights, MDF

'anaesthetics - 2', 2010 (detail)


installation view of 'anaesthetics - 1 and 2', 2010


'anaesthetics - 1', 2010
geisha wig, cotteon veil, wig stand, paper, perspex, LED lights, MDF

'anaesthetics - 1', 2010 (detail)

'anaesthetics - 3', 2010
blue cotton & silk chiffon dress, paper, perspex, LED lights, MDF
150 x 100 x 35 cm

Broken Apple

There are two people in this world: those who are repulsed by the sight of this project, while the other half adhere to the 'evil, philosophy' that Apple is built upon. Maybe it was in our best interest to see some destroyed Apple products overall.. Surely, Michael Tompert and Paul Fairchild were up to the task. See it here at Fubiz

Acne Paper

I came across these photographs from Fashiontography. Beautiful with grace.

'A Brooklyn artist visits the garbage dumps of Rio de Janeiro to paint the ragpickers. On the face of it, the project might seem to reek of exploitation. But what if the artist were to involve the locals, auction off the works and donate the proceeds back to the ragpicker community? Then it would become a novel philanthropic strategy, closing the loop between an artist and the people who inspired him. This is the story of Waste Land, the new documentary about Brooklyn's Vik Muniz and residents of the Jardim Gramacho. Muniz's work is valuable, not just as an act of charity or an art project, but as a model for humanitarian intervention.'

WASTE LAND Official Trailer from Almega Projects.

CocoRosie - 'Lemonade'

I absolutely love the piano in the song, adding to an eerie and moody vibe. The video does this song a lot of justice.

Fashion as Art: When the Line is Drawn.

On the account of all designers that work endlessly and tirelessly creating collections two times a year at fashion week, I'm curious what number of these designers who focus art as the common theme in fashion. I'm even intrigued myself at this.

In recent years, I've seen many designers pull the plug on artistic creativity in lieu of the slumping economy. Many of my admired designers cooled on the heels of creativity. Everything seem to have fallen into the'safe and recession friendly' categories, even those that dared to push the envelope. This is when the line becomes drawn at commercial and artistic.

There are remaining number of the hard-driven, independent artists that still continue to produce fashion as performance art, but in declining numbers. Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo(most admired) are some of the artists that continue to survive off their avant-garde driven collections. Black, white, and grey are some of the topical color scheme that is seen every season. They show no sign of letting up, even as the economy continues to dwindle. Even the once reclusive Maison Martin Margiela who shyed away from commercialism, is feeling the pinch. The past couple seasons, the clothes have a commercial vibe; I assume this is a good thing to jump up the sales. However, there is still an artistic trait among the collection.

I'm waiting for these artists to come through and offend us. Maybe I can finally own that blond wig coat from Margiela's Spring/Summer '09 collection. I shouldn't hold my breath.

Beauté

After four months of reeling in of what ma have been some 'meltdown,' I'm finally getting back on track the next couple of months. I have another semester coming up with a full schedule of art and philosophy classes, a new, but less hours job, I'm sure I'll be busy on my feet again. New art will definitely be posted very soon on my website I'm currently in the midst of.

I have a screenplay (or short story if you will) that I have been inspired by the events of this year. It is turning out great as I will get more inspiration in the following months. Oh, and I'm hugely inspired behind the plot of Black Swan, out December 3rd with Natalie Portman, turning the base premises and somewhat generating a new story for me.

I will definitely resume my drawing and paintings in a couple more days. Everything that I have been saving will be all on my website very soon.

Stay Tuned.

Galeria Plan B

Installation View Kunsthalle Fridericianum Kassel, December 2009 - David Nurr


Installation View Kunsthalle Fridericianum Kassel, December 2009





TENTACLE THOUGHT NR. 5 (HOCUSFOCUS)', 2004-2008, wire and TL tubes




“Let us meet inside you” (detail), 2007-2008, water cooler, handwritten text on paper, artist’s belt


'TENTACLE THOUGHT NR: 4', 2008

Galeria Plan B

Winter

It is finally great that the cold season is already here. But who are we joking around here, it does not get much cold out here in the scorching heat of Tucson.

Calligraffiti: The New Graffiti/Caligraphy

By mixing beautiful and traditional calligraphy with the rawness and grittiness of graffiti, Niels Meulman gives a whole new way of appreciating both art forms. Meulman, also known as Shoe, is an artist, designer and art director who was born in Amsterdam and who's worked at international ad agencies like BBDO and television networks like MTV (where he was their creative director for a short period of time).


Little Bang


Keep Your Eye on the Tiger



Crime Time Kings. Spray paint on a wall at the Tivoli Jam in Dublin. Vulture by Adele Renault.


Shoe Gate: Spray painted mural in Altamura, Italy. Rats by Adele Renault.

Being superior to others is nothing other than having people talk about your affairs and listening to their opinions. -Hagakure


Interview:

You've coined the term Calligraffiti. When did you start merging graffiti with calligraphy? What has the response been like?
Shoe: I got into both at a fairly young age. I started writing SHOE in the school's bicycle parking at the age of eleven and did my first calligraphic sketches at sixteen with an older friend of mine who was working at an ad agency. A year later, I also got a few classes of calligraphy in art school but that didn't last because I dropped out and started my first company. After that, I did all kinds of jobs in design, media and advertising.

Until 2007. I was forty years old and decided to be an artist. It was only natural that I would go back to my early loves; graffiti and calligraphy. And I just didn't want to choose. It's like Yankees catcher Yogi Berra once said: "If you come to a fork in the road, take it."

Do most of your works have deeper, social meanings?
Shoe: My works are usually sparked by personal observations. Something that I see, hear or read in my direct surroundings, and then connect to the really big things like nature, the human condition and all the stuff that we don't understand. This line from Hagakure explains it very well: "Matters of great concern should be treated lightly. Matters of small concern should be treated seriously."

I am a very logical person and I therefore understand that the inexplicable can only be approached intuitively. To me, that is what art is.

Which is your favorite piece and why?
Shoe: This I can not answer, it's like if you would ask me which is your favorite child. I don't have any children but I suspect that I couldn't answer that either. Then again, if you are forced to choose, you know deep down what your choice would be. A friend of mine once asked me to write down my 10 favorite movies. You can only do that without really thinking. It is like the difference between looking and seeing. And it reminds me of that line from The Matrix: "You didn't come here to make the choice. You've already made it. You're here to try to understand why you made it."

Anyway, when I read/heard the question, the first piece that came to mind was 'Unanswered Question' from the recent Throw-Ups exhibition in LA. That's probably also why I priced it higher than the others, at $7,000.

How has working for MTV helped or changed your creative process?
Shoe: In 2007, I organized the first Calligraffiti exhibition. In Amsterdam. This got a lot of international attention and I got a call from MTV Networks. They knew about my years in advertising and offered me a job as Creative Director for all their channels (MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and TMF). Even though I had just decided to be a full time artist, I tried to combine the two. But I really didn't fit in the corporate world anymore with all its meetings and internal politics, so I didn't last. What I did pick up in the advertising and media business is how to spot a good idea. Everybody is looking for ideas with directness but that also have mileage. That goes for design, art, advertising, architecture, even politics and science.

Who are some other graffiti artists that you admire?
Shoe: Dondi White 1961-1998, Rammellzee 1960-2010, Dr. Rat 1960-1981, Keith Haring 1958-1990. It's ironic that the artist from Amsterdam is the only one I never got to know.

Where do you think the street art/graffiti movement is headed?
Shoe: These are exciting times. First there was the internet bubble that exploded, than we had the banking system that collapsed and now I feel that post modernist bullshit artists and their elitist galleries and museums are being taken at face value. And there are so many great artists with roots in the urban asphalt emerging at the moment, it's not even funny!

Are there any tips you'd give to aspiring artists?
Shoe: Make sure that other people don't value your work more than you do.

Shoe is currently showing a new series of work called Throw-Ups at Project Space in Los Angeles. It is inspired by his love for baseball, mayhem and cosmic unconsciousness. Make sure you catch it before it ends on November 21st.

Patrick Figaj
Ceremony.


Toni Frissell
In her legendary photos Toni Frissell impresses with a strong trend toward surrealism or realism. The photo presented below, although in black and white, is both extremely sharp and clear. To achieve such level of clarity in black and white is extremely hard.


Sally Mann
This photo, titled Candy Cigarette, not just displays something, it tells a story. It is both emotional and beautiful. This is what the originality of black-and-white-photography is all about.


Birds
Unfortunately, the photographer is unknown. The photo seems to be taken at exact the right moment from exactly the right angle with a perfect lighting. Black and white can be powerful as well.

Lanvin: The New Black

Alber Elbaz, one of fashion's current geniuses, just released the collection for H&M. I suppose that there is a connection between releasing a collection that is nothing short of perhaps, cheap and inexpensive? Maybe I'm wrong. There is a lot of strong emotion that seems to be coming from this collection that is hard to say if I truly love it or if I'm just kidding myself. In the spirit of this economy, it seems to me that designers are resorting to smaller brands to collaborate on new collection to jump up sales. There are a lot of pieces that are very luxurious. Grab it while you can.