Human Condition: Guernica

Pablo Picasso's Guernica displays the human condition by demonstarting war and it's negative effects on people and their lives.

Human Behavior: Rebellion.

Specifically teenage rebellion. Specifically as seen in the movie Thirteen, the movie The Breakfast Club and the book The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger.

My photographic eye.

Like the song from The Sound of Music... These are a few of my favorite things. :)

Going to the beach with my husband.


Sunsets.


Mascara.


Catching my kittens do silly things.


Giving blood.

Violet.

This pretty little flower was growing out of a tree trunk in my back yard.

I love this blog.

Wish jar! Explorations of the familiar.
Written by Keri Smith.

She's an artist and blogs her art, which is all pretty unique. She also has interesting and random opinions about everything. She has this neat list of 100 things to do everyday, especially if you have an art journal.

I like:
27. Read a story out loud to a friend. Cause even though I'm grown and in college, sometimes I and my best friend since elementary school tell each other bedtime stories.

Click!
http://www.kerismith.com/blog/

Ugh. Catharsis. Now.

I'm feeling ridiculously overwhelmed this semester! It's like no matter how I manage my time, I still don't have enough time to do anything to completion. I'll be glad when Christmas break rolls around!

AH!

*yells really loud*

<---- How I feel almost every day.

Cold Mountain is definitely a work of art.

A father and a daughter arrive in Cold Mountain, a small town in North Carolina. Inman meets Ada and they instantly like each other, though they speak little. At his first chance to fight in the war between the North and the South, Inman kisses Ada and leaves. The war lasts for 3 long years. The South has lost, and the soldiers who try to return are considered traitors and are ordered to be killed. Inman tries his hardest to return to Ada, but he is considered a traitor and is killed almost immediately after he is reunited with Ada.

Coupled with the love story is the beautiful soundtrack and the setting of the Blue Ridge mountains.

poetry is written art

I adore poetry. It's so expressive and lyrical. I love how a poet can paint a picture for me with his words.

The Summer I Was Sixteen
Geraldine Connolly

The turquoise pool rose up to meet us,
its slide a silver afterthought down which
we plunged, screaming, into a mirage of bubbles.
We did not exist beyond the gaze of a boy.

Shaking water off our limbs, we lifted
up from ladder rungs across the fern-cool
lip of rim. Afternoon. Oiled and sated,
we sunbathed, rose and paraded the concrete,

danced to the low beat of "Duke of Earl".
Past cherry colas, hot-dogs, Dreamsicles,
we came to the counter where bees staggered
into root beer cups and drowned. We gobbled

cotton candy torches, sweet as furtive kisses,
shared on benches beneath summer shadows.
Cherry. Elm. Sycamore. We spread our chenille
blankets across grass, pressed radios to our ears,

mouthing the old words, then loosened
thin bikini straps and rubbed baby oil with iodine
across sunburned shoulders, tossing a glance
through the chain link at an improbable world.

keep art in schools

Today more than ever the arts are needed by students as a means for expression, communication, exploration, imagination, and cultural and historical understanding.

Art is essential to learning. It shouldn't be deemed superfluous. Learning about the visual arts gives students a window into the rich and interesting world around them, teaching them about their own history and culture, as well as those of others.

It cultivates self-expression, imagination and creativity.

Regular participation in the arts develops self-confidence, self-discipline, persistence, and the knowledge of how to make multiple revisions to create high quality work.

Not to mention, art is just plain awesome fun!

Braille by Regina Spektor

A soul-filled narrative by a woman with a beautifullllll voice.

"She was lying on the floor and counting stretch marks
She hadn't been a virgin and he hadn't been a god
so she named the baby Elvis
to make up for the royalty he lacked

And from then on it was turpentine and patches
From then on it was cold Campbell's from the can
They were just two jerks playing with matches
'Cause that's all they knew how to play

And it was raining cats and dogs outside of her window
And she knew they'd be destined to become
sacred roadkill on the way
And she was listening to the sound of heaven shaking
thinking about puddles, puddles and mistakes

'Cause it's been turpentine and patches
It's been cold, cold Campbell's from the can
And they were just two jerks playing with matches
'Cause that's all they knew how to play
What they knew how to play

Elvis never could carry a tune
and she thought about this irony as she stared back at the moon
She was tracing her years with her fingers on her skin saying,
Well, why don't I begin again
with turpentine and patches
with cold, cold Campbell's from the can
After all I'm still a jerk playing with matches
It's just that he's not around to play along
yeah, I'm still an asshole playing with candles
Blowing out wishes, blowing out dreams
Just sitting here and trying to decipher what's written in Braille upon my skin..."

I love her metaphors. They were just two kids playing with matches--they never knew they were going to start a fire. "Lying on the floor and counting stretch marks" reminds me of counting the rings of a tree to find it's age. Also, braille is written via raised bumps that form patterns. So, wrinkles and scars and stretch marks can be "braille" marked on her skin, reminding her of all she's been through.

human nature: madonna

Madonna has a song called Human Nature written in response to a public backlash to a previous album.



Throughout the song she repeats a mantra "Express yourself, don't repress yourself." She also says that "She's not sorry, It's human nature." She says that they tried to "silence her with bitterness and lies" and "punished her for telling them her fantasies."

At points she is blatantly sarcastic about not being about to have an opinion in her music and that once again, she's not sorry, it's human nature.

graffiti: art... or not?

I think that some graffiti has the potential to be artist, while other pieces just looks like a messy scribble scrawled on some urban city alley.

Example 1: NOT art. Any 5 year old can draw bubble letters on a wall.


Example two: Art. I actually like this a lot.


Now, regardless of how beautiful the art created may be... by law, it's still vandalism. I think graffiti wouldn't be graffiti if it was in a nice, clean museum, but it's still wrong somehow to deface property. I'm torn.

human struggle: Frida Kahlo

I think Frida Kahlo struggled with life herself and translated all of her pain and suffering into her works of art. Kahlo’s life experiences and emotions are best expressed in her artwork. This is especially depicted in her painting The Two Fridas.

The Frida on the left is European, but the Frida on the right is Mexican. However different, they share a common bond. Pain. The Fridas hearts are cut out.

I loveeeee public art.

Public art is art in any media that has been planned and executed with the specific intention of being put in the public, usually outside and accessible to all. Carrollton had an "industrial park" which is big pieces of assemblage art that you can play on. Love it!

My then boyfriend, now husband.


My best friend.

this music video is a work of art.

Feel Good Inc by Gorillaz

It's a cartoon! Think about all the digital editing and graphic design that went into this. Awesome!

I love the...

Taj Mahal. I always have. I love how the emperor built it for his favorite wife. I love how it contrasts against the horizon. I love the white marble and the reflecting pool.

Favorite artist(s)

I don't think I have a single favorite artist.

I love Edward Hopper.


And Edgar Degas.



Basically, I love painters. Especially ones who paint people and use light and shadow in interesting ways.

rightbrain/leftbrain

I feel that I'm incredibly balanced when it comes to left-right brains. Part of a painting that I did a few years ago. It's of a dogwood blooming in my yard. And the periodic table! Because I love chemistry.

fashion as art

Fashion is just art you wear.

I love the blog yellow orange wonderland. It has tons of pictures like this.

Jackson pollock dot org = AMAZING

jacksonpollock.org is this AWESOME little website I came across the other day when I was browsing through the web. You just move your mouse around and create digital artwork that looks just like Pollocks. Isn't mine nifty?

art on youtube

I love coffee. And I love YouTube.

diorama drama

my diorama.

All the dioramas I saw today were I awesome!
:)

I agreed VERY much with the Broke College Kid diorama.
I learned something I didn't know from the TOMS diorama.
I thought the No Child Left Behind/No Soldier Left Behind diorama was really creative.
The Protesting War at the Funeral of a Fallen Soldier diorama made me think deeply.
I didn't like the Mike Vick diorama.
And I didn't like the Lakers diorama, but I could understand where the artist was coming from.
And I thought the Child Abuse diorama was really bold.

It was a little empowering to create something about an issue. And it was fun to see what people's comments were.

Such a cool dance

My best friend showed me this.
This guy is basically transforming her into his zombie mistress.



Neat, huh?