Before the Sun

2010
Karthik Pandian

Walking into the Midway Contemporary Art Gallery, you would assume it was closed, that is, however, how Pandian's exhibit is set up. In the center of the room is a large stepped platform on which two building-like structures made of mirrors stand. The platform is made of dirt and shells and the mirrors are filled with it as well. The dirt in the mirrors holds up the projectors. The projectors are pointing at the corners, and playing film of the sun on a loop. It is immediately overwhelming, but after you get used to the dark, and the loud noises, it begins to make sense. The noise throughout the room was overwhelming, and hard to comprehend what exactly you are listening to, but knowing more about the subject, helps to shed light on the subject.

Splendid darkness by Pamela Suhkum

Pamela Sukhum is a painter living in the Twin Cities. Her paintings are characterized by bright colors, textures and warm energy. Sukhum uses delicate and intricate details that I think makes her work unique.

I think it’s interesting that Sukhum originally worked as a researcher in cardiovascular health, but she left that field to pursue painting. I try to find pieces of her medical background in her painting.

http://www.infinitevisionart.com/

Splendid darkness 5 “heart disciple”

Samantha Rei of Blasphmina's Closet

Me (left) Samantha Rei (right) photo credit: Tawnya Graham 

Samantha Rei is a local designer who's line is called: Blasphmina's Closet. She's been published many locally and nationally. In numerous publications of the English Gothic and Lolita Bible! She is my main inspiration to become a designer and to dress in lolita fashion. It started in 2008 where i went to Kakkoi|con and ran into her fashion show, and was able to attend workshops about gothic lolita fashion, what plays a deal in many of her designs. She also takes the victorian influence of older gothic lolita designs and combines them in an elegant manner that could make them steampunk as well. Image (left) features designs from her spring 2010 collection. 

Its important to explore other fashions. and i believe fashion is more than just whatever you can buy in a mall. its an identity that you associate yourself with. feel you want to feel beautiful and elegant? Want to dress as though your in another time period? most people think that fashion should move forward. But it shouldn't be forgotten but celebrated. Blasphmina's closet uses many colors that are feminin but not bright. and uses ruffles and lace in a unique way to pull a design in and reflects a time era in a mature way. 

So a friend who has changed my outlook and understanding of period fashion, is an inspiration to become a better seamstress and designer, catches my eye with each season piece and runway show. You should definitely look forward to what Samantha Rei is going to come up with next!

  all images (c) blasphmina's closet/Samantha Rei

to find out more about Samantha and her designs visit her

site by clicking HERE.

 

Storm Thorgerson

Pink Floyd
Wish You Were Here
(25th anniversary poster front)
2000 EMI

Pink Floyd
The Division Bell (CD front)
1994 EMI

Deepest Blue
Is it a Sin (CD single cover)
2004 Ministry of Sound

Biffy Clyro
Puzzle (CD album cover)
2007 14th Floor Records

http://www.stormthorgerson.com/window.html

I did not know about Storm Thorgerson until today. I've seen his artwork for years, but I never wondered who the artist was behind those album covers he designed. Pink Floyd album covers of course. He designed many album covers, box sets and posters for many other artists of course like 10cc, Dream Theater, The Mars Volta, Muse, and the Cranberries.

Thorgerson is a graphic designer and film maker. He does works like album covers, singles, labels, box sets, photos, illustration, design continuity, posters, logos, websites, DVDs, videos, concert films, documentaries, commercials, and books.

Thorgerson said "I like photography because it is a reality medium, unlike drawing which is unreal. I like to mess with reality...to bend reality. Some of my works beg the question of is it real or not?" In his designs he places objects out of their traditional contexts and putting them in large spacing like a landscape. He makes the objects look awkward, but also shows the beauty of that object.

I love his style of art. It's like his designs are from a dream. I couldn't imagine seeing something like that in real life.

McQueen... and no not Lightening

alexander mcqueen...

fashion genius, incredible visionary, impeccable tailor... victim of suicide.

the worst part of mentioning mcqueen's name is the fact that 90% of you dont know who i am talking about... that other 10% of you; let's be friends.

lee alexander mcqueen is my hero and idol. his designs push the boundaries of fashion and art; having extreme

knowledge of both worlds, he manipulated both to form his incredible lines of clothing.

mcqueen, like myself, had an extreme obsession with the odd and different;

including lady gaga, whom is another extreme obsession of mine. but enough about

her... mcqueen rarely showed two lines that were similar

in any way shape or form, whereas many other artists use inspiration from previous pieces they have done, he was completely original every season.

many people see his designs as weird and unusual. to those people, i say, open your eyes and your mind and, if you are lucky enough to be in the same room as a mcqueen piece, see it for the unbelievable art it truly is.

mcqueen took his own life shortly after the death of his mother and 7 years prior, losing his long time mentor, who technically brought him up and gave him a name in the fashion world. he was a true tortured soul, and fashion was his escape. his death was a dark day in the world of fashion as well as in my life; losing an inspiration is never easy for anyone.

mcqueen will live on in his lines and as well as in the hearts of millions of fans.

(all images modelina.com & smvblog.com)

Edward Gorey

Edward Gorey was both an author and an illustrator. His work has the appearance of children's books, but are often too dark for kids. He is known for writing and illustrating his own stories, but he also illustrated books by other authors as well. He has a macabre style, very similar to Tim Burton. If you would like to read a short story follow the link below. The picture on the right is the cover of The Gashlycrumb Tinies, the title of the poem that is linked below.

The Gashlycrumb Tinies is a great example of Gorey's work; it is a dark, morbid, cautionary tale, that is almost (dare i say) comical. Each line comes with its own illustration, each done by Gorey himself. It is done in a children's book style, but as you can tell, it is for much older audiences.

http://ops.tamu.edu/x075bb/poems/gorey/

Ralph Steadman

Ralph Steadman is most widely known for his pen and ink drawings in the book "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." The reason i am so attracted to his drawings is his abstract view of reality. Ralph Steadman re-illustraded Alice in Wonderland, in this series of works he defiantly brought out the dark side of the novel. He displays a beautiful use of line, from the outline or the characters to the use of shading using line. Steadman brings out the personalities of each character perfectly. If you have never heard of this artist or seen any of his work i defiantly suggest you check him out!

where i got these photos:

http://www.welove-music.com/blog/index.php/art/ralph-steadman-alice-in-wonderland/

Animals, Colors, and Other Strange Things

Jay Ryan is an artist operating out of a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. His screen printing business called the Bird Machine (http://www.thebirdmachine.com/) has been in operation since 1999. He started out making posters for his band and his friends' bands. He now makes posters for various bands, clubs, festivals, and shows all over the world.

What draws me to Jay Ryan's art is his character style and narrative. Each piece seems to have its own background story behind it. His bold colored, darkly outlined animals and humans give off an energy all their own. His colors are bold and bright, adding to the fun lyrical style he gives each work. His ominous characters are placed in playful situations, some dangerous, some weird and confusing. He is a great artist and I hope you enjoy him as much as I do.

All images were taken from: http://www.thebirdmachine.com/gallery.php

Alex Ross

 

http://www.supermanhomepage.com/multimedia/Wallpaper-Images/alex-ross-mythology-tb.html

Alex Ross

by: Nick Love

Alex Ross is a strong artist in my opinion because he takes these comic book heroes that people have idolized since children and betrays them in such a way that it almost feels as if they are real. The creator of super heroes himself, he poses them in such a way that that they feel more "super". The vivid colors give a sense of realism, but at the same time making them feel as if they aren't. 

  His contrast from the characters to the normally black background makes his images feel more 3 dimensional. it allows for him to work with a field such as "comic book heroes" and still give such a realistic feel to it.

Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt was an Austrian painter who took abstraction and realism and combined the two. Most of the work he did represents attraction of the sexes and how that forms with abstraction. He was fascinated by the nude female body and he has many pieces that show it. My favorite piece from him is his Tree Of Life, which shows three people out in front of the tree, clothed in robes that have some abstraction to them. Two of them, one of each sex, are hugging each other, while the other, female, is looking at them. The tree behind them resembles an abstract form because its massive and it almost feels like your eyes are being dragged into the painting.

What I think of this piece is that the one lone woman is jealous of the two others who are in love because her face has this sort of weird unwanted look to her. and they are standing in front of this tree that may resemble spiritual wholeness or something. The tree is so big it takes up the whole backround of the painting, which means its the most important thing in the painting, I gathered. Also, all the little abstract forms by the trunk of the tree almost look like a little town or people around the tree, which gives you a sense of wonder, which I like.

Artist of your choice

The one artist that was my inspiration throughout my last senior year in highschool was Takashi Murakami. He is a japanase pop artist and the piece that had a big influence on my work was his Kaikai series. I am going to talk about his piece titled., “Tan Tan Bo.” No matter how he uses color and the contrast in his work, this piece is t

he only one that I remember besides the kaikai series, it has a lot of dark colors and it pretty much protray the modern japanese culture of their pop art. I am fond of his work because he

wants to make a point about modern japanese art and to do that he has this theory about making art “flat” which is like a two-dimensional piece.

Takashi Murakami, "Kaikai and Kiki" (picture to right)

Takashi's work are an essential to get his messge out in the world that otaku just isn't about being into a subject of a

n anime fan but he sees it as a way of art form and that is something he could achieve, at least it was his goal when he started his work. What makes me like his art is the way he not only

make animate characters as an icon but he let’s his veiwer’s wonder about his piece like why his character have three eyes like the kaikai character.

Takashi Murakami, "Tan Tan Bo, 2001" (picture above)

Betsey Johnson: My Idol: Fashion Designer

I found these pictures here!

In 2007, Betsey Johnson created a collection of prom dresses that were totally inspired by the 1980's. It was called Prom Queen, and it was awesome. If you do not know anything about this collection, or anything about Betsey Johnson for that matter, I really think that you should take a few minutes to check some of her stuff out! A good place to start is her website.

Why should you care? Well, you don’t have to, but I do. I was actually really inspired by this collection. Sometimes I feel like I was born in the wrong decade. I would have loved to live in the 1980’s; I would wear tutu dresses and tease my hair really big every single day. I also love that in everything she does, she’s fearless. I really admire that in a designer, and hope to be that way myself. So, you can’t say I didn’t warn you!

Life Through a Camera Lens

One of the things I love about photography is the ability to capture a moment without taking the time to recreate it. Hold down the shutter and bam- it's saved forever. Well, it is however long you decide to keep the film or digital file alive. I'm not saying that just anyone can be a great photographer, there's obviously a lot of things that need to be learned. But it definitely grabs the subject a lot faster than a pencil can.

Taken by myloveletter with a LOMO LCA+ loaded with lomography 200 xpro film in St. Augustine, United States. 

My dad was a wedding photographer before he headed towards engineering, and his idea of a good photo is very technical. If there's one thing I've learned from being his daughter, it's that there are people who measure their work with numbers and megapixles, there are people who claim a photo is artistic from the emotion it captures, and then there are those who grab a little of both. Dad might raise an eyebrow at my blurry photo that I so proudly show him ("I swear I didn't mean to take a picture yet it's so full of excitement, isn't it?!"), but that's okay. The crazy-sharp quality of a sexy SLR is much appreciated, though I don't dismiss the idea of shooting with a leaky plastic camera for the sake of whoa! images.

A concept that is all about capturing this moment in time, this second, this very feeling right now, is that of a kind of underground society (I hate that label) called Lomography. The name is from an old plastic Russian camera called the Lomo LC-A, which full name's way too long and honestly, this keyboard doesn't have the right alphabet to type with. Anyway, people became fascinated with the flaws that the camera contributed to these contrasting, color exploding, awesome photos. It's a film camera and a little hassling for such a digitally acquainted age, but it's worth a look. No Photoshop business here, folks. Other plastic cameras such as the Diana F+ (my baby) produce similar photos.

Here are some examples from the website, where lots of people submit their work:

http://www.lomography.com/photos

These are some of my favorites.

Taken by herrspecht with a Diana+ loaded with Fuji Superia 400 film in New York City, United States.

 

      Taken by lavisionmd with a Lomo LC-A+  loaded with Kodak 400TX film in La Baule, France. 

Taken by jeabzz with a Diana F + loaded with Fuji sensia 200 expired film in Abondance, France. 

Iain Crawford = pure creative individualist

Iain Crawford has an interesting collection of unique photographs, I admire his style of capturing the motion of objects. For example, the shots of hair in motion and water I find to be mystical, the way you see the instant of that second, how you never realize that that's what actually happened because time moves too fast. sometimes I try to imagine, 'what if every second was actually as long as a minute?' how different everything would be and how, much more details would be noticed.

I also adore the wayhis photographs not only represent these women and their beautiful hair and make-up, but also them in the art form, like the pictures with the paint all over their face, I think is a very interesting way of highlighting the bone structure of the faces of the women. Iain Crawford is awesome and brilliant!

Cordially,

Madeline Harr 

Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt was an Austrian painter who took abstraction and realism and combined the two. Most of the work he did represents attraction of the sexes and how that forms with abstraction. He was fascinated by the nude female body and he has many pieces that show it. My favorite piece from him is his Tree Of Life, which shows three people out in front of the tree, clothed in robes that have some abstraction to them. Two of them, one of each sex, are hugging each other, while the other, female, is looking at them. The tree behind them resembles an abstract form because its massive and it almost feels like your eyes are being dragged into the painting.

What I think of this piece is that the one lone woman is jealous of the two others who are in love because her face has this sort of weird unwanted look to her. and they are standing in front of this tree that may resemble spiritual wholeness or something. The tree is so big it takes up the whole backround of the painting, which means its the most important thing in the painting, I gathered. Also, all the little abstract forms by the trunk of the tree almost look like a little town or people around the tree, which gives you a sense of wonder, which I like.

THE KING

On August 29, 1958 in the small city of Gary ,Indiana a prince was born. the young prince whom rampaged his way to the top to later be known as KING. The king I speak of in my opinion is one of the greatest most powerful spoken, creative, genuine performer to ever walk on the face of the Earth. I speak of the legendary King of Pop Michael Joseph Jackson.

Michael began to sing when his four older brothers: Jermaine, Marlon, Jackie, and the eldest Tito Jackson from the support of their father Joseph (Joe) jackson formed a singing group. At a point in time MiChael wanted to be in the group, but his father claimed that he was too young and would only get in the way of his brothers. That thought was short lived when Michael decided to enter a school talent show and won first place at the tender age of 10 years old. From that day forth they were known as the Jackson 5 with Michael becoming the lead singer in the group.

TAMIKA GARSCIA

TAMIKA GARSCIA IS (IN MY OPINION) ONE OF THE CUTEST PHOTOGRAPHERS I HAVE EVER SEEN/KNOWN.

SHE TRULY ENJOYS PHOTOGRAPHY. YOU CAN HONESTLY TELL SHE ENJOYS WHAT SHE IS DOING- TAMIKA TAKES HER KIDS OUT AND DOES MINI PHOTO SESSIONS WITH THEM, HOW PRESH. WHO TAKES THEIR CHILDREN OUT FOR MINI POTO SESSIONS, AND DOESN'T ENJOY WHAT THEY DO? (RHETORICAL QUESTION.....)

ANOTHER REASON WHY I LOVE HER-IS BECAUSE SHE IS MY SISTER. YES TAMIKA GARSCIA IS INFACT MY SISTER. SO OF COURSE THIS MAKES ME BIASED, BUT I CLEARLY DON'T CARE. SURE THERE ARE PLENTY OF WONDERFUL PHOTOGRAPHERS, BUT TAMIKA IS BY FAR THE BEST. LIKE I SAID I'M BIASED.....

SO CHECK OUT HER BLOG!

XOXO KP (AND RO)