Imitation is the best form of flattery.

So we had to pick out a favorite artist and paint on of their works. I picked Van Gogh Cafe Terrace At Night to Paint. It has taken me forever to paint and I like it but I am also sick of looking at it since we have been working on it so long. :P
But here it is: An internet picture and my "version".

Irony.

I love irony.
This is a piece of art named "bulletproof vest". yeah, it's made out of bullets.

doesn't it remind you of the crusader vests?
Check out the other appropriation art at this website. It has some interesting artwork. There are chairs with pistols for legs.

Patterns

Recently I had to write an essay over my personal development socially, mentally, and physically. In my essay I wrote about school and some of my favorite subjects. I have also semi decided that I want to major/minor in art. Looking back that I can remember enjoying art even when I was really young. When I went to school in Malaysia, I remember drawing and coloring a really great picture with durians and mangosteins in it and showing it off to my art teacher.
In third grade I remember being really into my art class at school as well. My art classroom had this huge painting of Van Gogh's Starry Night one whole wall and I was in love with it. I also remember being so excited to be in art club because they were doing this cool project where they fixed up old wooden chairs by painting famous works on it. (kitsch art right there).
I have also always gotten along with my art teachers too! In middle school I had a crazy art teacher who was wild and always encouraged my overachievement in her class and really helped me gain interest in art. Also in middle school I wanted to be a fashion designer....so I remember having this notebook with lots of interesting clothes ideas. Who knows, maybe that is still a possibility with my psych/art majors. :)
 High school also introduced me to cool teachers. I took art classes all four years of high school and I had three different ones when I was at VHS and I loved them all.
Sadly, I was not very good at saving my artwork. I have kept most of my paintings since they were easier to keep track of while we moved but most of the time if it got wrinkled or dirty I threw it away. yeah, I should probably break that habit. I think my favorite medians so far are oil pastels and paint. I haven't really decided on what kind of paint I like best though....I have only worked with oil once. My professor now says that he thinks I would enjoy printmaking, I think he's probably right. I am excited to take it next fall!

Thrift Shop Art

Here is the final result of my thrift shop painting.

This is the painting after I added this eye...

I don't know if you can see it well, but there is a face withing the huge eye. I talked with my art professor and we both agreed that this piece would be stronger if the bright blue and orange aren't competing with each other.






So this is the final piece in its frame. I repainted some of the scenery over the eye again so that it would put things into perspective.



I'm not sure if it is cool as an artist to tell what the theme/message behind the painting or if they are supposed to leave it up to the viewer. But my message is about the misconceptions of the western world on Asian cultures.
Hopefully, I will come up with a fitting title for this soon!

Those Russian Folks

Recently I've become closer friends with fellow art student who introduced me to her favorite artist. He is a famous Russian painter and he paints using oil paints and a palette knife. His name is Leonid Afremov.
I find his works interesting, but also somewhat repetitious. Normally, I would be the kind of person to love bright colors and pretty scenery but I feel like there is something missing from the overall look of his artwork. I think of rainbow art when I see his work but I thought it would be cool to blog about him.



Many of his street scenes and landscapes involve studies of light and reflections in water. Additionally he has a lot of paintings of people with umbrellas. Although the landscape may be more dominate than the person in it, they usually are holding umbrellas. I tried to find out what the umbrellas might have meant to him but I didn't find anything.

He also does some interesting works on dancers and musicians.....check him out sometime!

Andy Goldsworthy Shrine

For some reason I totally forgot how obsessed I am with Andy Goldsworthy's work. I was first introduced to his artwork last year in my art intro class and I loved it from the start. Maybe it's because his artwork is so complex and peaceful but there is something about how I can imagine him meticulously creating each piece that I absolutely love. Also I think that it's cool that he only takes pictures of his work and then leaves it in nature!

He is obsessed with circular patterns with holes. But it totally works! Each piece always bring you back to the center where there are no colors and no objects. 

       

This was the very first Andy Goldsworthy picture I ever saw "Japanes Maple Leaves"

  

Then he also has these other works that I think are focused on the concept of lines. It makes me wonder how he got these things to stay like that!

       

 

  This is the second picture I saw of his and I could totally see him just shaping this around the tree with his hands even though it was super cold!

He also has balls! (haha)

   (wouldn't want to get too close to this one!) 

He  works with reeds, rocks, and leaves too!

      

EGGS!

    

Arches!

 

Here is his official website!I will definitely be creeping on him in my spare time...when I'm not writing essays. :P

Stop! It's toilet time

Like any other college student I hate writing essays. Recently though we were assigned in class  to write a short paper on appropriation and kitsch much like what we  had to blog about. Anyways, although I found some really neat stuff to blog about already, I found even more cool stuff!!!!

Toilet Art

Okay so one of the main guys that started appropriation art was this guy named Marcel and he basically took a urinal off a wall and laid it horizontally and called it art. Well I found some more cool toilet-y things that are kind of a response to it. 

This is a huge toilet waterfall!!! Isn't that crazy? They did this exhibition somewhere in China and the installed each toilet individually and then they hooked up water to it and let the magic flow-literally. 

They also did one for kitchen appliances/sinks.

And they also did one for jugs. 

I think the jug one is my favorite even though the other two are really interesting as well. Check out my link at the top of this post to go to the website with all the different pictures of the different walls. It even shows the installation progress!

Here is another type of toilet related thing I found while google-ing.

Toilet paper roll art!

Weird huh? 

This picture reminds me of the artist that uses nails and yarn to create her artwork on walls. 

I'

I don't really consider this picture art cause I'm not really sure what is going on here, but I think the concept is interesting to take toilet paper (which we probably/should use everyday) to say something about the way we live. 

This is cool

too bad I can't chop up my painting!

Decisions, Decisions.

Here is my thrift shop painting! After a couple of hours searching through a creepy flea market I finally found this painting from the 70's for only TEN bucks. It also has a pretty cool frame but you can't really see it in the picture.

I have no idea what to do with this picture. I honestly thought about just buying another one so I wouldn't have to paint on this cause I'm afraid that I'll make it look even worse. Right now all I can think about adding is this  [the sun part] or some other warm colored planet. But I find that digustingly cheesy.

First off, let me explain in pictures what this painting makes me think of.

  

My painting very strongly reminds me of East Asia and of the country Malaysia. The type of shack/house that is pictured above is called a "kampong". There are various types that people still live in today. I got to see a lot of these when I lived in Malaysia.

 The land based ones.....

 and the water ones.

I'm not sure if the artist was painting trying to represent another area besides Eastern Asia, but I thought it was weird that he painted a regular tree instead of a palm tree.

Anyways, I talked to my art teacher about stuff paint into my painting and he recommended that I brainstorm about things I am interested in or a cause that I could draw attention to. I will let keep this updated when I come up with something exciting!