Friday, September 18, 2009

An Island of Dots

Seurat, Jatte, and Dots.  It's all about the dots.  Georges Seurat used a scientific method of using little dots to create this painting.  The brain does the rest. It is proof that we really see with our brain and not our eyes. The dots of color when seen together creates new colors and images. The brain does the work of putting the dots together and mixing the colors.  It took Seurat 2 years to create this painting of dots.  There is a modern commercial that imitates this painting.  Who can guess that commercial?

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Artists in the Workforce

A respectable report on artist in the workforce is reported on by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Artists Confuse Census Bureau

Click to enlarge


It sounds like the left brain trying to force the right brain into a box. Try googling 'characteristics of artist'. Here is another that is interesting. Artist was defined as an "Organism that presents art." Organism? http://books.google.com/books?id=cpc7CJH1-s8C&pg=RA2-PA119&lpg=RA2-PA119&dq=characteristics+of+artists&source=bl&ots=nJ6lAUxi8I&sig=rHhh4VkfDCAP6In38Pyzy8b7rYo&hl=en&ei=vWtKSqu

God...an Artist?


God is often referred to as the Father, but why do so many people call Him the Creator? Is God an artist? Being a part of this world is like living in a museum every day. It seems the Creator is constantly in His studio mixing colors, shaping, and sculpting. Every artist likes his art to be noticed. We always have a new painting hanging in the sky when we wake up. In this world there is always something beautiful, interesting, and unique to observe.

There are billions of people in the world, yet every single human being has their own distinct shape and color. Hands, eyes, feet, noses and other features of every single human seems to have been formed uniquely for them. The work of landscapers have really already been done. Landscapers are really workers in the museum of the world shifting art pieces around identifying what artwork looks best next to another. Witness the testament of autumn and spring or the songs of winter and summer. Make a point to visit a local botanical garden and observe a little more closely the intriguing creative quality of trees and mysterious beauty of flowers.

God the artist is really is in the full creative mode when He makes fish and things in the ocean. Have you seen just a piece of the coral reef or visited the local aquarium and witnessed the amazing shapes, colors, and patterns of things that live in the ocean? Kinetic sculpture is art that moves. The ocean is a beautifully choreographed song and dance of the kinetic art in the sea. Or what about animals? Whether at the zoo or on the Serengetti plains; observing animals are like going to another gallery in the museum. It is hard to ignore the grace of patterns, shapes and textures in animals.

We sit in the best art class everyday of our lives. All we have to do is use the gift of our own sight to what is really around us. If one refers to the Holy Scriptures, the very first scripture starts off with “In the beginning God created…” He was an artist in the studio before anything else. Art and creating are important to this world. Stop for a moment and imagine all this creativity gone and the world as a blank canvas of nothingness….. Or imagine you had no sight and were blind? Would creativity mean something then? Whether someone believes in God or not, anyone with sight can see there is no denying there is a great creative force among us or the importance of art in our world.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

What Makes People Remember Art

Art is a product of a human experience. When art captures the human condition, human struggle, human psyche, human nature, or human behavior, it is destined to become a classic. It's destiny is classic because it then becomes a record of a time in history. Artworks that are intriguing and pull the viewer into the world of another are never forgotten and help the observer to understand the experience, struggle or condition of another human. Artists are powerful people that help others to understand the behavior, nature, and the psyche of other human beings. In 1948 Picasso captured the tragedies of war in his painting "Guernica." Tupac Shakur is a loved artist because his music seizes the experience and the cultural war of growing up black and poor. Right now our world is at war. Artist Arabella Dorman courageously and eloquently captures the psyche and culture of soldiers in the Iraq war in her series of war paintings. http://www.artmarketmonitor.com/2009/05/27/war-paint/
(The Tupac postcard is a postcard secret from http://www.postsecret.com/)

Monday, May 11, 2009

The Artist With No Eyes. Yes. He Painted These.







Esref Armagan, taught himself to write and to paint. He was born with no eyes. Mr. Armagan also learned to draw perspective--something many artists with sight struggle with. This blind artist has helped artists learn depth in color. He has helped psychologists learn more about the brain and has opened new doors in helping neurologists understand how human beings really see. An amazing clip on You Tube of Esref Armagan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3AgO6H0H98

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

"Good Times" Artist Dies

Ernie Barnes, the artist known for his painting on the closing credits of the classic dramedy show "Good Times" has died at the age of 70. The painting entitled "Sugar Shack" was also used on the cover of a Marvin Gaye album.

Ernie Barnes was also a professional football player. His love of athletics and his understanding of the human form helped him to develop his classic moving figurative style. His interest in art was ignited when he would accompany his mother to her job. His mother was a maid for a prominent attorney. Ernie Barnes would stay occupied by looking at the art books on the attorney's shelves.

Ernie Barnes was also overweight and bullied as a child. He hid from bullies and spent his time drawing in a notebook until a teacher found him and recognized his talents.

Comedian Eddie Murphy is the owner of the orignal painting "Sugar Shack."