Cory Doctorow shared an awesome piece today on Boing Boing about an open education photography course that is conducted under the creative commons license. I think it is fantastic. Go here to sign up for the 2013 courses. Learn more about the project from the original BBC article.
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I’m really digging this series by Swedish artist Linn Olofsdotter. I love the colors, and the way that they pop against the grayscale backdrops. Her work reminds me of a cleaner timeless version of a lot of the psychedelic neon art from the 60’s. View additional images from Olofsdotter’s ‘World in Bloom’ on Juxtapoz.
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Vhils has been a regular globe trotter, lately. Last month he was putting up in Brazilian favelas. He has already turned around an put up the piece above in London for an exhibition that he opened there this week. I love the unique way that he transforms existing media (usually stucco or plaster on a wall) into these intricate large scale portraits. There was also some work that he did a few years ago where he used flame to scorch a portrait onto a wall in a dilapidated building. Click through to complex to see the rest of the photos of the new London piece.
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UK Based illustrator Ed Fairburn combines two of my favorite things: maps and portraits. I came across an entire set of his portraits created on maps, that Laughing Squid posted today. It isn’t the first time that I have seen this done. But I definitely appreciate Fairburn’s spin on the idea. Click through to check out the full set.
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Yesterday I came across a collection of the 38 known self-portraits by Vincent Van Gogh. The portraits include sketches and paintings by the Dutch master. It is pretty incredible if you know any of his back story at all, to flip through all of these works and try to imagine what was going on in his life at the time each was created. Click through here for the full set.
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El Mac is back at it with this new commissioned piece in the Adobe Campus located in Utah. It is so new that it isn’t even showing up on Mac’s site yet. I came across this Image, and several others on Arrested Motion, courtesy of Wes Colton. I had the pleasure of Meeting Mac and shooting him at work when he showed at Liner, back in 2010. I am a huge fan of his work, and of him as a person. I am hoping to check out this new piece in person next time I find myself in SLC.
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Ana Teresa Barboza has created an amusing set of embroidery art with the theme of animals turning on humans. The piece above was the one that I liked the most. I actually thought it was kind of hilarious. Check out the rest of the set on Laughing Squid.
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I first discovered Tiffany Bozic during Armory Week, a couple of years ago. I am a huge fan of her work. She is currently showing at Joshua Liner until December 1. I previously mentioned what a sucker I am for art involving birds. Bozic heavily incorporates birds in her work. She describes herself as having grown up observing the intricacies of nature. In her paintings she juxtaposes those intricacies in a way that is extremely interesting and has a very unique aesthetic quality (in my opinion). If you can’t make it over to Liner to see in person, check out the set here.
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I came across these fresh new pieces by Ethos on Boooooom!, the other day. There are a few things that I really like about Claudio Ethos. I really like the scale of his outdoor work. He goes reaaaallly big. I also like the aesthetic that the he creates by distorting reality. I once heard beauty described as a strangeness in proportion. I think that Ethos accomplishes that in his work.
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I absolutely love these scribble drawing portraits by Akaya Ito. I’m not 100% sure how this was done. I just know that the images are are composites of photographic portraits and scribble lines merged with some sort of 3D Flash program. I think that the work is both genius and beautiful. I see so much art that has been digitally modified to the point that it is no longer appealing to me. In this instance, my opinion is that Ito found the perfect balance of digital manipulation of the subject without losing the integrity of the final work.
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Earlier this week, Jux turned me onto the illustrations of Madrid based Gabriel Moreno. I also loved the description that Juxtapoz gave of Moreno’s work:
psychedelic figural images almost read like streams of consciousness. With drastic color gradients and multi-layered imagery that both emerge from and envelop his figures, Moreno creates dreamlike scenes in which his subjects’ thoughts seem to bleed through their skin.
After pouring over his website, I discovered that even his commercial illustrations are right up my alley. Definitely worth checking out.
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Corrie White‘s work it appealing to me for reasons beyond just its aesthetics. It is a great mixture of photography, and nerdiness (two things I love). White’s has an entire series of work consists of high shutter speed shots of drops and liquid. In a recent set, she explored milk dripping into coffee. I’m a fan.
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One of my favorite contemporary artists, Josh Keyes, just opened a show in Seattle last week. The name of the show is ‘Circus and the Sea.’ His paintings incorporate realistic looking images of wildlife, with surrealist environments. Here is how the press release describes his style:
Keyes’ style is reminiscent of the diagrammatic vocabulary found in scientific textbook illustrations that often express, through a detached and clinical viewpoint, an empirical representation of the natural world. Assembled into this virtual stage set are references to contemporary events along with images and themes from his personal mythology. Josh Keyes’ work is a hybrid of eco-surrealism and dystopian folktales that express a concern for our time and the Earth’s future.
If I was in Seattle I would definitely check it out.
Josh Keyes
The Circus and The Sea
November 9 – December 1 2012
Roq La Rue Gallery
Seattle, Washington
Here is one of my favorite pieces by Keyes that he painted and sold prints of to raise money for the gulf oil spill (not a part of his current show). I mean, sharks and fire? Not sure how that could be topped–
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This is one of the many videos that I have watched featuring footage of NYC when the power was out in hurricane Sandy’s aftermath. It was produced by an outfit called “We are Already Alive.” I like the combination of timelapse and slow shutter stills. The soundtrack consists of commentary by the videographer. If you want to enhance the experience put on some dark electronica of the top of it. If you have 20 more minutes and want to see another good hurricane film, check this one.
I think that this idea is pretty amazing. Benz Thanachart, Thai photographer shouts nonsensical phrases on public transpo, then records the reaction of the other passengers with a photo. He created an entire series of these photos entitled “Smartphone.”
I’m a pretty big fan of art that involves social experiments. There was a period in the late 90’s and early 2000’s that my brother would amuse himself (and others) by feigning a Tourette attack in a crowded space just to see people react. I’m not trying to make light of Tourette Syndrome or anything. But I remember a few instances, particularly on the Vegas strip and in Times Square NY, that my brother pulled this stunt. I wish that I would have had the presence of mind to document the reactions of people.
My additional two cents is that this project would never work on the NYC subway. Maybe one or two ppl would look (if they didn’t have headphones on).
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How do we feel about the recent photo shoot that our newly re-elected president of the USA did with Terry Richardson? I understand the value of Obama doing the talk shows and all of that other crap that was traditionally thought to be uncouth for the commander in chief. But, Terry Richardson? It’s almost like Bam is trying to create controversy or allude to a scandalous side of his personality.
Is he trying to purposely provide fodder for the extreme right wing? Okay, you want to score points with the edgy art/fashion crowd. Really? First of all, aren’t those the people that you can already bank on to support you? They already think you are cool. Second, why not shoot with someone like Scott Schuman or any other semi-boring yet prevalent fashion photog? Better yet, why not get portraits by an photog instead, like Annie Leibovitz? Then you get edgy but artsy instead of pervy and gross.
I mean, I’m not trying to get all political. I’m also not going to opine on the artistic value of Terry Richardson’s work. I’m just saying that anyone who knows anything about Terry Richardson would think twice about associating him or herself with the guy, if they are trying to maintain a sqeaky clean public image. If W mag won’t shoot with him anymore, that says a lot, in itself. I had always heard that TR was shady, but when the Jezebel article came out, I have to say that I was a bit shocked. It made me think differently of him as a person. It also cast a bit of a shadow on all of his work, from my perspective. Would Bam let his daughters shoot with the guy?
For Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Kate Moss, etc., sure. But the Prez? Idk, man. It just feels weird to me.
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I hope that the image of the owl in this post doesn’t end up becoming ironic. I say that because, as everyone knows, the owl is traditionally associated with wisdom; and, as I’m dusting the mothballs off of this blog, I am questioning the wisdom of doing so. Even though the issues that caused me to initially put it on hiatus have been resolved to a large degree, there are still a lot of items that are potentially in flux. Because there are still so many unknowns, I have decided to make a compromise and keep things extremely impersonal.
There are a few reasons that I have decided to fire this page up again. One reason is because I feel like it kind of grounds me in a way that other things cannot. That reason might not make a lot of sense. Beyond that, I have found that in the past months, I have been spamming the bejeebus out of my friends with email messages full of links to items that I find inspiring, aesthetically valuable, etc.. In particular, over the past month I have been sending one of my friends a “daily art link.” It is generally a link to something that I liked on boooooom! or Complex with a caption like “so dope” or “I love the colors.” I decided that if I’m going to go through the trouble to paste the link into an email or onto g+, what is the harm in reposting that stuff to Jake’s Mag with some light commentary? Right? I have to admit that the idea of posting images that aren’t my own seems a bit weird. But when things mellow out a bit more, I’m hoping to get back to full speed.
So even though this might be a bad idea, or even worse (boring), Here I go: I was flipping through Jux this morning and came across this set of owl paintings by John Pusateri. I am really into this set. I’m a sucker for art involving birds, anyway. So, I’m kind of an easy sell on any photos or paintings of birds that are even marginally well done. Pusateri’s work is definitely worth clicking through and checking out the set on Juxtapoz.
If you are into bird art, and you didn’t see the Edun campaign that Ryan McGinley shot earlier this year, you should definitely check that out too.
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I continue to be blown away by the imagery that comes from the ISS. In this latest vid (that I have seen), a timelapse of night shots have been stitched together from interval stills. Knate Myers put them together and posted the vid below. Like Tron, but real.
View from the ISS at Night from Knate Myers on Vimeo.
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The last round of Banksy work that cropped up had me a little bit disenchanted. But I have to say that I’m a fan of the Olympic commentary that popped up this week. I love the mattress placement in the one below.
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