Distortions

Dan DeCarlo was best known for his wonderful renditions of Betty and Veronica in the Archie comics…. I can honestly say that Dan DeCarlo specifically and Archie comics generally are responsible for a lot of my images of beauty, my sexuality and a lot of my dress sense and behavior as well!This painting didn’t start out to be a tribute to Dan DeCarlo, it evolved this way when I picked a pose I wanted to paint…. I feel it works with this series because of the relation between DeCarlo’s images and my own body image and perception of Beauty.I bet you didn’t know I was an Archie fan right?

Shag at Outre Gallery

Dr Scorpio’s Lair Image by Shag (c). I went to see a wonderful opening last night at Outre Gallery in Melbourne. Shag is a wonderful artist who has really hit it off in the last few years. His work is typified by pop-art imagery, highly geometric, strong composition and evocative of all that wonderful imagery…

Arnold Newman

1“ Newman worked as a Freelance photographer for many of New York’s most notable magazines before becoming one of the most recognized portrait photographers of the 20th Centuries most renowned Photographers.Although he dislikes the phrase, Newman pioneered the style ”environmental portraiture.“ This style captures the personality of the subject by placing them in a setting that shows their personality and profession.Newman uses very carefully planned portraiture with strong lighting, his portraits appear to highlight the character of his subjects…. An excellent example of this is his Marilyn Monroe portrait.Newman’s attitude to portraiture and art in general is summed up in this quote from his book ”A Life in Photography“ ”The truly innovative artists create ideas and images unrelated to anything we have experienced or seen before, new ways of seeing and thinking about our own familiar worlds.

Arnold Newman

I am writing an essay on a internationally reknowned photographer that I admire and I have chosen Arnold Newman (cue Seinfeld reference – I hate the show and yet it gets in my brain…Newman…) and I have come across this quote that I find particularly inspiring:“The truly innovative artists create ideas and images unrelated to anything we have experienced or seen before, new ways of seeing and thinking about our own familiar worlds…. I chose this artist because I like his portraits of artists but I am really getting into him after reading some of his thoughts and looking through lots of his works.Its a short essay so I may put it up here…

Metal Men

Wired News: Mingling With Metal Men BROOKLYN, New York — Francisco “Chico” MacMurtrie may have every geek’s dream job — he tools around in his Brooklyn workshop, making robot sculptures that are displayed around the world. But as is evident from his work and philosophy, blending art and technology isn’t always a walk in the park…. more power to him and his group – what fun!

UNSW – Jeffrey Smart

I personally love Smart because his treatment of everyday and frequently ugly objects turn them into interesting objects with his use of whimsical color…. In response to people who read too much into his cloudy skies and grim looking people, Jeffrey Smart stated that cloudy skies were “better for the composition” and the grim faces were “easier to paint”…. His use of color and the luminescence of his light as well as the delicate brushstrokes have been a constant inspiration to me as well as his constant reevaluation of his urban subject matter.

Shark Pickler Hirst Admits He’s Had Silly Ideas

Don’t get me wrong, I admire someone who can sell paintings for 2mil and I am not one to comment on the nature of the art itself (in fact his latest exhibition sounds fascinating) but one comment particularly got to me: “I don’t like the idea that it has to be done by the artist, I think it’s quite an old fashioned thing,” he said…. I grant that the concept is a lot of the nature of art but I tend to think that skill and technique comes into it and that if you are releasing a selection of paintings with your name on it, you should have painted the majority of it…. Don’t get me wrong, I can bullsh*t with the rest of them and make up whatever (look at some of my previous posts for my musings on possible meanings of my art) rest assured I have made it all up.