While it's still July (and thus time for art and artists), I'd like to introduce you to Vladimir Kush, a Russian surrealist. Or, as he refers to himself, a metaphorical realist. He paints, mostly with oils, and sculpts based on those paintings. He's been compared to both Hieronymus Bosch and Salvador Dali. And maybe he's my hero, a little.
"To the Safe Haven"
Vladimir attended art school from a young age, and when conscripted by
the army at 18, spent most of his term painting propaganda murals. When
he left military service, he studied at the Surikov Moscow Art Institute
and spent several years in his native city before emigrating to These United States. To enrich us all with his mind-boggling art.
"City by the Sea"
Many of his pieces involve the sea, and if not the sea, then another wide open space. I've noticed he also likes butterflies rather a lot. Good thing, because I like them, too.
"Book of Books"
If you'd like to see more of his work, you can go here or here. Or maybe even his actual website. I recommend reading his credo.
Marina Abramovic, a Serbian
performance artist, is probably the edgiest person you’ll ever hear about.
She’s pushed so many boundaries and opened up new levels of performance. As
Lady Gaga put it in this interview, she is “limitless”. I would definitely agree
with that. In her performance "Rhythm 0" she set up a table with numerous
objects and let the audience do as they please with her. Included were some
pretty dangerous weapons, an audience member pointed a loaded gun to her head
before another took it away. For six
hours she allowed the audience to do anything, after the time was up she stood
up and walked towards the crowd. They all ran away.
In a more recent performance titled
“The Artist Is Present” she sat completely motionless at a table in the MOMA
across from museum goers and simply stared at them. It brought most participants
to tears.
Something about her is
poetically unsettling, and I love it. She’s so boundless it feels dangerous. I
think she’s a testament of just how much power and influence we hold inside
ourselves, if only we knew the change, we as individuals, can make. I don’t
know of any other artist who has accomplished what she has with human emotion. I recommend
reading more about her, it’s definitely worth the while.
Aesthetics is a whole chapter of it's own on the subject of "art." I like beautiful art, as do most people (whether it be visual, sounds, etc.) It's appealing, and usually makes me happier. (Though what is appealing to one may not be to another-- this is a very broad subject.). But, lack of aesthetics can also contribute to art. And, there can be ugly art that challenges societal norms, to shock people, to bring out emotion in human beings (maybe to bring up a controversial political view, for example? (Though that can be pretty, too)). In general, art that isn't as pretty has a harder time being appreciated. Some don't even consider it art. Maybe because it makes them feel emotion, but not an emotion they want to correlate with "art" itself, because I think that "art" has the connotation of being pretty. (But I'm only dipping into one layer on this subject.). There is a chapter in a book that goes more in detail on this subject.
I consider most things to be art; but there are lots of different kinds of art, like bad art, and some art I disagree with, and some art I love and can't get enough of. Is "bad art" art? The word is in itself, is my current thought. It's just a brand.... that I loathe. (And I know I say this now, but I bet that someone could change my mind easily because art is so broad that I'm probably missing some points to the definition of "art." Again, I'm only going over aesthetics.). Anyways, aesthetics are a huuuge contribution to art, whether it be full or lack of it, or somewhere in between. I like pretty art a lot-- but "pretty" can go into different levels I think. There's pretty art with no meaning, and pretty art with meaning. The meaning can be as little as the nail on my pinkie toe, or as full as jelly in a doughnut. Anyway, it all depends on my mood, really.
This is a piece by artist Damien Hirst. He is famous for putting dead animals in tanks of formaldehyde and putting it on display. Some consider him to be controversial-- he isn't a true artist-- that he is creating only for the purpose of money. A quote from him in the BBC article,
"As an artist, all I do is make an object for a single person to have a reaction to. ...Hopefully you make something that will excite people - things they won't forget, that will wake up parts of their brain.'" I'm still unsure of what my thoughts are on Damien Hirst. There's a relevant quote I found in an interview in the extra features in the documentary,My Kid Could Paint That.
“If that white canvas doesn’t speak to you, you may wish to try to find out what it’s doing there…. Or you can choose not to. It’s your choice. Art is not an obligation.”--Michael Kimmelman
Lack of beauty in his work is a big part of what makes his work controversial. Also, I think understanding the meaning of his art is harder to comprehend. It seems to appear for the majority of people, art is harder to accept if it's not pleasing to the eye. This is just a thought, but successful artists who create unpleasant art are considered by many "pretentious" and "scamming people for money," which I believe there are those kinds of people out there, but I also think that a lot of artists are misunderstood as well. I suppose it's all subjective, there's no "right" or "wrong" when it comes to opinionated things such as "beauty."
-Jess
1. Smells Like Content - The Books 2. Problem With Solutions - Jim Guthrie 3. Enough - Young Man 4. Tokyo - The Books 5. Buck And Judy - Deerhoof 6. Genesis - Grimes 7. Slow With Horns/Run For Your Life - Dan Deacon 8. Scenic World (Second Version) - Beirut
Jessi Dally is a 16 year old woman who is a local Provo artist. She likes drawing/ painting with many mediums, such as pen, watercolor, acrylic, micron pens, or a combination of such. She loves justice with a side of gelato.
When did you start drawing?
Jessi: Probably age 3ish. I drew birds, I loved birds, and I still have pictures of those birds.
What's your favorite medium to use?
Jessi: Your mom. [laughs]I really like pencil and watercolor and micron pens... 'cause those are fun.
What drives you to make art?
Jessi: Usually after I see like a movie, or a play, or really cool videogame, or watch anime... that's usually how I get inspired. It's how it happens.
Are you looking towards a career in art?
Jessi: Hopefully in, like, I don't know, I kind of want to do videogame design art 'cause that'd be really fun. So, a career in somewhere with videogames and doing art in the videogame area. Graphic design art, 3D model design, that would be cool.
What does being an artist mean/ what does art mean to you?
Jessi: Being an artist to me means to express yourself in any way possible, be it poetry or visual arts or cooking, it's just any form of expressing yourself and showing what you have to the world.
Joshua Faulkner, Rion Buhler, and Daniel Romero are the trio that makes up the electronic-experimental band: Conquer Monster. They are a local band that mainly perform in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Their most recent performance was at The House Of Cattitude, opening for another band.
Located in a garage, the set up consisted of Christmas lights, dim lamps and lanterns, couches, a mini bar, and two t.v.'s playing in the background, giving it a laid back vibe.
After their performance, the members of CM were oh so kind enough to let us interview them on their art.
When did you start writing music?
Daniel: In general, I started writing music when I was a young one.
Rion: Me and Josh started playing music together in... what grade?
Josh: 11th grade.
Rion: 11th grade, and it was nothing like this music, but...
Daniel: Josh and Rion wrote punk-rock music to begin with, and then they've always had this dream of writing electronic music. Really, these guys have been writing music for a while, and I just joined the band a few months ago, four months ago.
Rion: So now it's a trio.
Who are your main influences?
Josh: Bill Cosby. [laughs]
Daniel: I've really liked electronic music for a while, I like Neon Indian a lot, he's a main influence on me.
Josh:The Books, for me. In this band, anyways.
Daniel: I can answer for Rion, he likes New Order a lot.
Do you want to tell us about your unique instruments?
Rion: Josh does.
Josh: Uh, I have... Two... Telephones*
Daniel: Haha, so we have a major, like, older instrument influence, we like to use analogue instruments, stuff from the 80's. Also Josh does make the majority of his instruments. He uses a commodore 64 and...
Josh: gameboy.
Daniel: A gameboy. He hooks everything up himself.
Rion: And it's always broken.
Josh: Yeah. We always have problems with it. [laughs]
Daniel: All of my synths, aside from one, are from the 80's. And, Rion, he's the frontman, he likes to lay on the floor and scream stuff into the mic cause he programs all his synths. [laughs]
Rion: It's true.
What's the craziest show you've played? (Within/ or not within Conquer Monster)
Rion: Remember that show we played at Sylvester's?
Josh: Yeah, with Loiter Cognition.
Rion: That was awesome.
Me: What happened...?
Josh: It was just jam packed.
Rion: Oh oh! And we played a show with this kid, he like, got maced, right? And he had a knife and he couldn't see anything, he was blind and was like, "I'm gonna stab you!"
Daniel: It's a natural "fight or flight" kind of reflex...
Josh: Also in Seattle when we played New Years Eve?
Rion: Yeah...
Josh: With Loiter Cognition? There was that band, I can't remember what they're called, but they were throwing cinder blocks through their own walls.
Rion: And there was like, bullet holes everywhere!
Josh: Yeah!
Daniel: I'd say other than that, tonight was the craziest Conquer Monster show.
What does being an artist mean/ what does art mean to you?
Daniel: For me personally, I like to influence emotion and convey a certain picture when I'm playing music that people relate to and can kind of feel when they're listening.
*Two rotary telephones: the black one is an analogue synthesizer, and the white one is an analogue ten-step sequencer. The white one plays the black one.
It’s easy, as an artist, to turn
relating to the world into an unhealthy obsession with being represented. It’s
much easier now with the tool of the Internet. You can literally plaster
yourself all over it, and it becomes addicting. Getting some symbol of
acceptance such as a “like” on Facebook boosts your self-esteem, so why wouldn’t
you want more? The problem with this is it becomes less about quality content,
and more about pleasing a large number of people. Getting more and more
acceptance and attention. It’s really hard not to become a part of it,
especially when something you’ve poured your heart into gets little or no
notice, and something you felt little connection to gets more. Many artists’
favorite pieces are far from their most popular. So what’s an artist to do?
Especially if their income depends on it, can you blame someone for trying to
earn a little more cash? Does it make it less artistic if the purpose is to
make money?
If other artists are like me,
anything other than art as a living feels soul crushing. But it’s far from
practical or profitable in most cases, and most people will tell you that. So
there must be something that drives people to live in poverty for the sake of
art: what is it? What drives people to create? Recognition? Hope of change?
Desire to start a revolution? Perhaps it’s a lot more complicated than that,
but we hope to dissect it a little bit in this theme with interviews and discussion.
