A Few More Strange
January 30, 2011 1:34 pm
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Did quick color and charcoal studies for Strange Little Girl. Ready to begin the large pastel piece now.
News
Strange Little Girl cont.
January 29, 2011 7:39 am
Did some different treatments of Strange Little Girl. Not sure how I will do the final pastel but I’m leaning towards the first one. Will think it over why I work on something else for a spell.
Strange Little Girl
January 28, 2011 3:36 pm
I have been working on this sketch on and off for a couple of years now. Think its finally to a point I’m happy with. I’ll do a few shaded treatments and if all goes well I will start on it as my next large pastel work sometime next week.
Maribelle and My Lazy Sundays cont.
January 27, 2011 4:16 pm
Maribelle and My Lazy Sundays
January 26, 2011 3:48 pm
Did some more work today on Maribelle. Like this one. Going to start shading it and see how it finishes out.
Monsters
January 13, 2011 11:27 amKanye West, Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj and Bon Iver are set to release a new video for their song titled “Monster”. The video shows images of women hanging in chains dead, dead on a table while Rick Ross dines on a plate of red meat and other degrading scenes. The song includes lyrics like “I kill a block I murder avenues Rape and pillage a village, women and children” and “I put the p-ssy in a sarcophagus Now she claiming I bruise her esophagus”
Its no secret that hip hop has had its problems with promoting healthy attitudes towards women. It has certainly and at times deservedly taken its share of heat for the attitudes which objectify and degrade women. It makes me somewhat sad since it is the music I grew up on. I have watched misogynistic attitudes permeate gradually and at times dominantly spread through the music and culture. As my love and respect for the women in my life has grown so has my distance from hip hop music and culture which I grew up loving so much.
Its certainly not all bad. I have seen people like Damon Dash through the use of his gallery, step up to promote healthier attitudes towards women and help to bring an end to violence against women. Others have also stepped up to address the issue of misogyny in hip hop. There is at least a dialogue today.
I’m no conservative. I certainly listen to music at times that contains language that would be considered foul or offensive to some people. I feel though there’s a very clear line between screaming out an obscenity because life has you frustrated and glorifying the murder and rape of women even if only for entertainment purposes.
Just watching the short 30 second preview of this video and the behind the scenes footage leads me to believe that Kanye, Jay-Z, and Rick Ross want you to think of them as ‘monsters’ who kill women. I’m sure they believe, and perhaps deservedly so, that it will sell albums.
I don’t understand why Nicki Minaj a female rapper would be a part of something like this. I am also puzzled by Bon Iver front man Justin Vernon’s participation in this. His folk albums Blood Bank & For Emma, Forever Ago have been a favorites of mine for some time now and I see nothing in his work that anyone would find offensive, certainly not degrading of women.
Music has a profound ability to affect and influence people. Most especially young people. Musicians have a responsibility for the attitudes they help to promote. Are we naive enough to think these attitudes aren’t contributing factors behind the high levels of rape and domestic abuse today? Is it so far out there to believe that the attitudes portrayed in videos such as this breed generations of young men who objectify women? Is it inconceivable that these attitudes and images also lead to low self esteem in women? How long are musicians going to go on making money off of unhealthy attitudes towards women? How long are people going to go on supporting them? Will you stand by and keep watching this go on?
Its time people start speaking out against attitudes in music that are damaging to women. Get involved sign the petition to help stop the release of this video.
(Update) Since the time of this posting the videos have been removed.
Mexican Angel Study
January 4, 2011 2:15 pm
Was adding this older sketch I did of my “Mexican Angel” painting to my portfolio and thought I’d throw up the image and some detail shots. It was one of the most fun drawings I have ever done. Its 48″ x 68″ graphite on paper. It flowed out effortlessly and has prompted me to do larger drawings more often.
My Quest for Whole Health
December 23, 2010 8:13 am
I have started a new blog. Its about my quest for whole health. Since I have enough material and experiences to write about, I’m considering it a whole separate topic from this blog which is centered around things affecting my art. I Will keep a link to both on the right. Enjoy!
First You Have to Learn to Draw Well
December 18, 2010 11:37 am
I was probably around 12 years old. One weekend while in K-Mart with my father we passed by the craft supplies. I was checking out a set of paints I really liked. I begged my father to buy them for me. My father said “If you want to paint well, first you have to learn to draw well” I was young and at the time thought of drawing as much less fun
than painting.
I probably had such fun memories of art classes in school where we would have the paints all out in those little plastic dishes. Such beautiful bright colors all at your disposal. We would have so much fun just recklessly applying them to large sheets of paper, getting paint all over the smocks we were forced to wear, the tables, and on our hands. Few school activities were more fun for me.
My father didn’t buy me the paint set I wanted that day. Instead he bought me a pencil set. A very nice one as I remember. Graphite pencils, colored pencils, pencils of different softness’s, big pencils, small pencils, sharpeners, erasers. A real deluxe set. I can say, I wasn’t very happy about not getting the paints but the pencil set was so nice I got over it pretty quickly and became very fond of those pencils.
My father, a talented artist who set aside his pursuit of arts for the honorable task of raising 3 children, knew more than a few things about art at that time. He told me that painting was just drawing with color and different materials. He told me that I should first learn the basics of drawing. He gave me simple drawing exercises. Shade a cube, shade it from different angles, shade cones, spheres, try blending, cross-hatching, 2 & 3 point perspective etc. At the time I didn’t see the value of these but I valued my fathers opinion and his art that I saw around the house, so I listened to him and did the exercises over and over.
As I grew older I heard phrases like “Drawing is the foundation for all art” As I explored other area’s of art I began to see the value of drawing and the principles which it taught me. I found Composition and lighting were essential tools in my exploration of photography, shape and mass were necessary concepts when I tried sculpting. I saw perspective in architecture, light color and composition in cinematography. I began to see the principles I learned in drawing everywhere.
Today I am very much in love with drawing. It is the starting point and foundation for all of my work. I realize I still have much to learn from it and many area’s in which I can improve my drawing and I work at it constantly. I can now see though, improvements in my ability to draw produce direct results in my ability to paint and I firmly believe “If you want to paint well, first you have to learn to draw well” I have my father to thank for this.
Modigliani Movie
December 16, 2010 12:46 pm
I love movies about art and artists. Modigliani staring Andy Garcia has been out for years now. I finally got around to seeing it recently. Can’t say I have seen too many movies with Andy Garcia I haven’t liked, he’s a top notch actor in my opinion. Though this wasn’t the greatest role I have ever seen him in, he certainly did an excellent job.
The film pays a great deal of attention exploring Modigliani and Picasso’s rivalry. It also highlights Modigliani’s struggle to make ends meet as an artist, something many artists can probably relate to.
I have always appreciated Modigliani’s work whenever I came across it but can’t say I have ever looked it in very much depth. Perhaps the movie has sparked some interest in taking a longer look into him and his work.
The film is well directed, well acted and the cinematography is good as well. I definitely recommend it!