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Pop Art Icon and Other Icons

Artsz — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:00:29 +0000

“Life is full of dead spots. Art gives it life”

This quote was said by Irwin Edman, a 20th century philosopher. He mentioned that artists have a way of making life come alive and have been able to do so through time. Art history is full of icons of every type and nature. They can come in the form of images of Christ or the Virgin Mary or even an icon like “Campbells Tomato Soup Cans” by Andy Warhol. Icons let us connect with culture, nature, our own humanity, our inner self, and our religion.

When an artist gives meaning to a symbol or an image (an icon) then it acquires a certain value to society and to history and mankind. To an artist the icons he takes on represent a part of himself or of the world he lives in, just as Jesus was a part of the world El Greco lived in and “Campbells Soup” was an icon of the world of Andy Warhol. What makes an icon up to a society depends on the societies beliefs, their tradition, and what they find value in, and these will differ depending on age group and on country.

Painting Interpretation Through the Years

Artsz — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 06:00:02 +0000

Images have had different meanings throughout time. In any culture images have a certain meaning and they produce certain feelings such as peace, tranquility, and even hope. Throughout history these images have changed and the meaning or feelings those images inspire has also changed.

Let’s take for example the painting of “The Marriage Giovanni Arnolfini and Giovanna Cenami” by Jan van Eyck, which was painted in 1434. This visual image was well understood in the 15th century, but it is not interpreted similarly today.

At the time, this painting was a type of “wedding certificate.” Their grave faces indicate the responsibility of marriage. The green dress that the bride is wearing indicates fertility, and was the traditional wedding dress color of the time. She is not pregnant as may be thought in this day and age, but the swelling of her abdomen suggests great female beauty for the 15th century.

The lack of shoes was a religious symbol that indicated the standing on holy ground, and the burning candle symbolizes the presence of Christ. Now unless we knew about these images and what they presented in the 15th century, people would have no idea of what this painting represented in today’s time. The same is probably true, if we took a painting of Andy Warhol’s “Soup can” back to the 15th century. Do you think they would understand that it is a representation of Modern day life.

Nature Inspires Artists

Artsz — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 06:00:18 +0000

Marc Shagall was a Russian born French painter (1887-1985), who painted with vivid colors and was influenced by Cubism, Surrealism and Fauvism. He once said:

Art is the unceasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers and never succeeding.

What the artist is referring to in this quote is the beauty of Nature and how Nature is often a great source of inspiration for artists. And when you really look at nature and think about it, it really is inspirational. Maybe artists are able to see and express their wonder at nature better than most of the rest of us.

Take a moment, and really look at a tree, a flower or the simplest plant in the world. Don’t think of it’s name, just look at this object in nature as if you had never seen it before. Isn’t it the most amazing thing you have ever seen, and not even the best artist in the world can recreate its magnificence, and yet a very good artist who acquires his inspiration from nature or from just about everything and anything can recreate the feelings we get when we truly look at objects in nature and let ourselves just FEEL.

The Aging Artist

Artsz — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 06:00:55 +0000

Most people fear aging, and once they hit a certain age, they believe that there is nothing else they can do in their life and that they are too old to learn something new, but this is not necessarily true when it comes to art.

Some people do not even begin to create art at least not seriously until they become older in life. Many wonderful and very good artists find themselves returning to school, taking courses in art and photography well in their 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. But it seems that Art is the realm where you are never to old to start, and in many cases lifes experiences help the older artist be even more creative.

Now there is even scientific research that has established that creative people improve with time. Their productivity may reach its highest even when they reach their 60’s, but most artist in their 70’s and 80’s still produce quality work.

Why is this important? Well many artists find themselves having to give up their creative work early in life for various different reasons, family, work, other interests, etc. But based on this new research, these artists may decide to pick up their art careers again much later in life. Take a look at the work by Sue Smith who is an older artist and the article she wrote to better understand this truth.

Photo: Courtesy of Igilmour

Inspiration from music

Artsz — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 05:00:35 +0000

We all love music, but some of us more than others, and some of us use music to inspire our lives and in the case of artists, this music inspires them to create their art.

Where do artists get their inspiration from? You might be surprised to learn that they are inspired everyday events, by other art, movies and music. Most artists are very emotional, sensitive people and everything in their environment influences the way they see things. Take the blog The Modern Artist. She expresses the deep emotional feelings she gets when listening to a U2 song. Angel Turner Dyke is a professional modern artist, who takes images she finds in nature and adds her own feelings, person, and creativity to them. Her work stands out because, she takes what would otherwise be stark images, and creates color within them. In a way this artist focuses on modern abstract art, and yet her work is not all abstract, but a combination of modern illustration, some abstract, and there are even some hints of impressionism (color) in her work. You can tell from her work that this artist’s fills her world and her artwork with passion, love and color.

Technology Inspires Artists

Artsz — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 05:00:40 +0000

What creates passion in People? Inspiration may create passion or passion may create inspiration. At any rate we know that people are inspired to create art and art inspires people to look, listen, and enjoy more art.

For many the enjoyment of art, music, literature, even film is not enough in itself, but they also look for other people that enjoy the same type of art and creation. Although, true that we are each individuals, we are also a whole, and as such we look for people with like interests whether we are artists ourselves, or just enjoy art.

The web has changed the way we enjoy and create art, giving us a medium in which we can either share our creativity with other creative beings or in which we can enjoy the same styles and types of art and talk about it with other people who also like the same things we do, and this creates both a marketing tool for those of us that are creative, a support system for artists, and a way of recommending art to friends and family when we enjoy certain types of art.

Photo Courtesy of: MyUtopian

Many Artists are very Self Conscious

Artsz — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 05:00:14 +0000

Most artists are very self conscious about their art work. Artists sometimes judge their own work more harshly than others, that’s why they seem to glow with praise of their work and most even throughout history have become severely depressed when they are critiqued harshly. They have already found their own work to be wanting, and feel that somehow what they have created falls just a tad short of what their inner eye visualized.

For many of today’s truly gifted artist this lack of confidence is what causes their downfall as artists. The art world is a business just as any other business, but because artists are so emotional and very self conscious about their art work, even more so than the uncomfortable feeling you get when you are in a gallery. For them, their work is their very soul, so when they receive a lot of negative criticism regarding their work, many fall to pieces, and decide that the art world is just not for them, even though they may be fabulous artists. So the next time you go to an art show and meet the self confident artist, remember he may be quaking in his shoes.

Photo Courtesy of: Phantom Galleries LA

Rembrandt - Great Baroque Artist

Artsz — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 06:00:08 +0000

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijin, is one of the greatest painters in art history and probably the most important painter in Dutch history. He was an artist that stylized to perfection the Baroque art movement. He became especially well know for his portrait work.

In his religious and portrait work he uses every aspect to portray his classic style and Baroque realism, which was the popular movement of the time. But his religious work is noted for the humanity and empathy he showed all human beings. This emotional empathy showed through in all of his biblical themed work. During his lifetime as a painter, he not only produced some of the most important pieces we have of the period, but he also taught every important Dutch painter during his twenty year height as a painter.

He was born in 1606, the ninth child to a miller and a baker’s daughter. As a youth he became apprenticed to a Leiden history painter and later with Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam. After he left his apprenticeship, he opened his own studio in 1624 and in 1627 he began to accept students.

Big commissions did not begin to come in for him until 1629, when he was discovered by a statesman named Constantijn Huygens, who began to bring him important commissions in portraiture. In 1631 he moved to Amsterdam, and quickly became well known. Among one of his most moving works was the painting he did of his wife, on her death bed in 1642.

Why Aren’t Modern Artists Inspired by Biblical Themes?

Artsz — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 06:01:57 +0000

It appears that many artists don’t feel inspired by biblical scenes anymore, although I don’t see why. It would appear that the Bible has many inspirational elements, and many that artists can draw on.

Artists that still work with biblical scenes find ways of reaching all of us through the subjects they paint, even though the subject has been painted by others thousands of times before. The point is that artists can inspire through biblical paintings, or any other thing that inspires them. It is important that the artist feel inspired by anything and whatever it is that he finds inspiring he will be able to transpose those feelings into his work.

There are few modern day artists that have been inspired by biblical related themes, after the government and Church separated and most religious churches stopped supporting artists, they began to take on themes that were more secular. But there is one modern artist that was inspired much by religious themes, even though there are paintings, where it is difficult to distinguish this influence. He is well known by admirers for his biblical inspiration and Paris has even dedicated an entire museum to his work. It is Marc Chagall that I am talking about.

Artists Who Are Inspired by Nature

Artsz — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 06:00:27 +0000

Artists find their inspiration from many different places. Some from other artists, some from modern day life and some from nature. But just because they take their inspiration from nature does not necesarily mean that they paint or portray exactly what they see in nature in their work. Lets take as an example the work of Jaison Cianelli. In his work he portrays a squirrel in boots, eating a sandwich.

The artist has created a type of whimsical self portrait, where he represents a connection with the spiritual and the mundane world. The antlers represent spirituality and nature, the boots, a tired and resting person, and the sandwich is the enjoyment of life.

It is truly amazing how an artist can find inspiration in things that we would never think of, things we may not even see until an artist, shows it to us.