Yayoi Kusama vs. Damien Hirst

I think this might be my last post. I have been busy for past days but no worries. 

For my fifth post, I have decided to focus on some famous artists that are recognized by lots of people. Their explicit styles of art have induced fascinations on the global arena.

The first artist I’m going to introduce is Yayoi Kusama. Some of you might have seen her works since they are well-known. She is both an artist and a writer. In addition to that she is currently one among the various influential artists in Japan who are still alive. Her works are based on conceptual art; she has worked with various isms of feminism, minimalism, surrealism, Art Brut, pop art and abstract expressionism. 

The piece of work that got me fascinated is called the “Dots Obsession”; it is an installation project of Dots everywhere in a room. When she was releasing this piece, she wrote, "Forget yourself. Become one with eternity. Become part of your environment. Make love."

Another installation called “Obliteration Room” (photos above) was exhibited on 2011. Kusama developed a popular interactive children’s project.

This is an interesting installation because at first, the whole room was painted in white depicting an Australian domestic environment. The white room may be a function of a blank canvas ready to be invigorated (or ‘obliterated’ in Kusama’s vocabulary). Children would visit this place and put colourful dot stickers around the room and eventually ending up with a room full of colour dots ‘obliterated.’

 There are also hundreds of famous works done by Kumasa. Surprisingly, she is 84 years-old and her passion in art will never subside.

Look now, See forever – Yayoi Kusama

Damien Hirst is also a very famous and loving artist globally. Just like Kumasa, he is a dot lover. He is a conceptual, installation and painting artist. Most of his recognized pieces of art are about death where he exhibits a dead shark, sheep and cow. But what I’m going to focus on today is about his paintings.

“To create that structure, to do those colours, and do nothing. I suddenly got what I wanted. It was just a way of pinning down the joy of colour,” (Damien Hirst).

Through 1986 to present days, he hires painting assistants to paint the perfect dots. It is amazing how those paintings cost approximately 0.5 million to 3.5 million dollars. 

There are 1,500 paintings of dots that he and his team of assistants have produced and they are currently working on a million dots, which will take about nine years to complete.

I remember, playing a game on my phone called ‘Dots,’ which looks very similar to Hirst’s paintings. That was before when I knew his game which is available in the appstore. It is really fun.

Kusama and Hirst are both famous artists, whose styles I can define clearly. Their refinements of dots have caught my attention, especially Kusama’s installments which have added some sort of elegance and beauty into her works. The simple rows of coloured dots also came to me as an inspiration. It is amazing how Hirst can work on his other works as well as dot paintings which are quite different from each other. Both artists have used dots to create their works; nevertheless, the results came out totally different despite using the same style. I absolutely love works by both artists. However I have to admit that Yayoi’s works have a more defined approach towards the world of dots. Moreover, Yayoi’s works were lot influenced by dots, turning out into her own world.

For doing this blog, I learned so much about the contemporary artists and read lots of articles. Finding artists with common traits was not the easiest thing, especially on this blog. Both artists are known globally and so there were so much to read. It was really fun researching and looking at their works. I appreciate what I have done and if I have time, I will consider doing this later when things are more settled following my preparation into post-secondary.

Thanks for everyone that has visited my blog! Love you all from my heart <3

References:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/20/yayoi-kusama-dots-obsession-norway_n_3306139.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yayoi_Kusama

http://interactive.qag.qld.gov.au/looknowseeforever/introduction/

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/jan/12/damien-hirst-spot-paintings-review

http://www.damienhirst.com/2-amino-5-bromobenzotrifluorid

Leonid Afremov vs. Iris Scott

Good day to start a blog! My morning started fresh with my hands getting dirty from ceramics which are without a doubt so much fun regardless.

Anyway, today’s artists are basically professional painters, whose works I have great passion for. Their paintings are remarkable and their similarities would be brush/finger marking.

The first artist, Leonid Afremov, is personally my favorite. Afremov was born in Belarus 1955 and currently lives in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. His paintings are collected all over the world. He asserts his passion towards art when he says, “I love to express the beauty, harmony and spirit of this world in my paintings. My heart is completely open to art.”(Leonid Afremov) His mediums are oil paint and pallet knife.  I guess he likes to mark on canvas.

He mostly paints landscape, cityscape, and figures. His unique paint markings are really easy to recognize and the colours of his paintings are relatively all similar.  He is greatly influenced by Michael Flohr, the impression artist, and people might argue that both artists have somewhat of a similar style. However I think Afremov’s paintings are rather bright and positive compared to Flohr’s.

I love his style and it brings me into the scene with all the fun colors. 

Iris Scott is our second artist who also has a strong and exemplary style in her paintings. She graduated in Washington State University from Fine Arts Bachelor and moved to Taiwan to dedicate her art skills at a low cost of living.

Unlike other paint artists that use paint brushes, she uses her fingers to paint. One of the reasons why she started to paint using her fingers is probably her laziness. She did not want to wash off her brushes every time she would use a dark or brighter color and so she decided to use fingers as she can simply wipe them off. 

I was a child when I heard of finger painting. I pressed my fingers on to various colours of stamp pads and stamped on clean sheet of papers while playing around. Like this!

For Iris Scott, it is not just about finger stamping; she has a fine finger movement, which dictates her thick and juicy texture on canvases. Her works are also concentrated on outdoors, landscape and figures. 

Conclusively, both artists use different styles as well as mediums. But one commonality in them is the marking on the canvas. They have such a unique style to be recognized and their works are colorful which are filled up with their specific impressions.

If you are interested to see more works of two artists, feel free to visit these sites!

http://leonidafremov.deviantart.com/

http://irisscottprints.com/about-iris-scott.html

References:

http://luckycompiler.com/index.php/art/item/609-the-fine-art-finger-painter-iris-scott 

Javier perez vs. Kari Herer

My third post, already! Today, I thought about artists that keep their works simple and creative.

First artist is from Ecuador named Javier Perez. He first started posting his works on Instagram (cintascotch) and started to get attention from people. His works are a mix of everyday objects and simple line drawings for instance he creates balloons out of grapes or dinosaur out of spiral notebook. They are easy to see and less difficult to understand. I think any age group would like these works, especially the kids. Although his chosen path of art does not constitute of something massive, the simplicity incorporated in his art just makes the work stand out. 

In one of the Huff post email, Perez said, "My main inspiration comes from daily objects, the most common appear as the most attractive to me."

Through his works, I was able to redefine everyday objects into different points of view.

Kari Herer is yet another artist with incredible works of art. She is somewhat different as her focus is specific; she combines line drawings with flowers.  She is known as a photographer for a longer period of time compared to when she started her works below. I fell in love with her works of animals and flowers. She has a background in fine art and graphic design and has strong love for nature. Currently, she is working as a professional fine art and portrait photographer. She lives in Portland, Maine, and works for a wide group of clientele. 

Her simple line drawings may seem empty, but as the fresh floral fills in the space, the colors brighten depicting her love for nature. Also, floral sometimes question me; what would be there if I removed the flowers?

Perez and Herer would be considered as the most creative artists as they cooperate with two mediums: pen and real objects. They both have similarities of drawing simple lines and attaching a real object such as grape and flower. On the other hand, two artists have different areas of interest; Perez gets inspired by objects around him and Herer is a nature lover. What makes two artists so famous and love by people is their creative thinking and the viewers are easy to approach the artworks.

If you are interested to see more works of two artists, feel free to visit these sites!

http://www.kariherer.com/about                                                                                                             

http://javierperez.ws/

References:

http://designtaxi.com/news/361752/Everyday-Objects-Cleverly-Incorporated-Into-Whimsical-Illustrations/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/30/javier-perez-instagram-cintascotch-everyday-art_n_4175434.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

Jordan matter vs. Natsumi Hayashi

Hi! This is my second blog post and today I have decided to talk about photographers. The two photographers today have strong characteristics depicted in their shots and some of them actually made me laugh.

The first photographer is Jordan Matter from New York. He captures the “moment of aliveness, celebrating all aspects and emotions of everyday life.” (Jordan Matter). Moreover, he had a thought about taking pictures of dancers. Since dancers are storytellers they display passion with their bodies. One of his quotes about dancers was, “They often create a fantasy world or offer us as deeper look into familiar settings. They bring to life what we feel but what most of us, lacking their artistry and athleticism, are unable to express physically.”

His photographs constitute of a variety movements of the dancers and their rather extraordinary performances.

 January 2011. She takes pictures of herself and mentioned, “The most difficult part is perfectly timing my jump and the shutter’s release. To get one photograph, I sometimes take more than 200 shots,” (Hayashi). Her photographs are simply photo shots; she does make use of computer graphics by inserting herself. Her purpose of these works is to express someone free from Earth’s gravitational pull. “I feel as though I am not tied to many things and able to be my true self… It is clear that such my feeling is only an illusion, but I hope that the illusion can be converted into reality and fixed in the photographs piled up as a diary open to the public.”

I was mesmerized by her works especially the mood inside the photos. By looking at the photographs it felt like she was actually floating around and sometimes I had a dream where I would float around the room as I could go up higher and higher, no limits would stop me.

Two amazing artists have similarities by telling a story through the pictures, but completely different styles. Matter displays passion and expressive body movements of dancers, whereas Hayashi demonstrates herself in the photos floating around rather than jumping. Another thing I felt was that Matter’s photos showed time flowing, such as rain drops, jumping, but in Hayashi’s works, time seemed to stop.

As my personal choice, Hayashi’s photographs caught my first sight. Her works fascinated my eyes questioning, how was she able to have such a natural pose on air?

If you are interested to see more works of two artists, feel free to visit these sites!

https://www.facebook.com/JordanMatterPhotography

http://yowayowacamera.com/

http://mem-inc.jp/artists_e/hayashi_e

References:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/25/levitating-photos-natsumi-hayashi-first-exhibition-japan_n_2948097.html#slide=2251695

https://www.facebook.com/JordanMatterPhotography/info

Slinkachu vs. Christopher Boffoli

With my supreme interest in art, my main aim is to search for unique artists that are captivating to my eyes. One day, I was searching for an artist called Slinkachu and when I did more research, I found out that there was also another artist that did similar work as him.

Slinkachu is from United Kingdom and his works are concentrated on installation and photography. He uses certain situations in daily life objects and adds little fun by installing miniature people.

Here are some works of Slinkachu: 

\

Most of the works are set in the streets and common objects, such as milk box, broken glass; these are often seen in our daily lives. In addition, I also noticed that he likes to work from outside of the building.  His project is called the “Little People – a selection of street installations.” What I like most about his work is that he creates his own worlds that are not prevailed. He uses spaces that people do not pay much attention to create interesting scene.

Christopher Buffoli is from Seattle, United States and he also works with miniature figures, but has a different style compared to Slinkachu. If you see his works, you will know the differences.

Here are some of his works:

As you can see, Buffoli also uses miniature figures to create different scenes. However, his works are much different compared to Slinkachu. If you see works from both artists, they have commonality with milk spilled on the ground. In Slinkachu’s piece of art, it is a milk box that is much dominant in people’s eye rather than Buffoli who uses a glass milk bottle. His works are rather stylish and modern. Buffoli chooses to work inside the studio, since all of his works have chosen objects. His concept of these works is called “Big Appetites: Tiny People in a World of Big Food,” showing creative uses on traits that each food has. 

It is interesting to see two artists, using miniature figures, but whose works are completely opposite at the same time. Slinkachu is an outside person, while Buffoli works inside the studio and has sets. Comparing the two artists, Buffoli comes out as a planned out and organized artist who thinks about how to make each objects fun. On the other hand, Slinkachu thinks about the mediums first so as to figure out how to create a scene with his little people.  In my personal style, I like Buffoli’s choice of style better because I have a liking for food and desserts. His choice of colours fascinates me and especially the desserts make my mouth-watering!!!

If you are interested to see more works of two artists, feel free to visit these sites!

http://slinkachu.com/little-people

http://bigappetites.net/