Tag Archives: art

Aug25

totally kid.

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 totally kid carousel

A Carousel Of Visions;Artist Brings the Fantasies Of Children to Magical Life

Artistic acclaim came early to Milo Mottola. When he was 8, his drawing of menacing tooth film with the slogan “Plaque is mean, so keep teeth clean” was such a hit it won him a $50 savings bond from a dental group and was made into a poster. Nearly 25 years later, Mr. Mottola, an artist who lives in Long Island City, Queens, NY, decided to try to find a way to give other children that same dizzy excitement and spark of confidence, without all those dentists.

What could be better, he thought, than asking children to draw the animals they would like to ride on a carousel — and then to make that carousel, carving the animals exactly as the children drew them? I wanted it to be as magical as the children who ride it,” said Mr. Mottola, who, in an echo of his own past, gave each child whose animal was chosen a $50 savings bond, and a lifetime of free rides on the carousel.

Above each animal, Mr. Mottola displayed the child’s original drawing, and on the floor beneath each animal, he carved the child’s signature. “I wanted the winners to have something that will last forever, where they can someday take their husbands and wives and say ‘I did this.’ “

The carousel is on permanent display in Riverbank State Park, the 28-acre park built three years ago atop a sewage treatment plant between West 137th and West 145th Streets in Harlem.

“improvisation, writing, painting, invention—all creative acts—are forms of play,

the starting place of creativity in the human growth cycle, one of the great primal life functions.”

— stephen nachmanovitch, Free Play

 

 

 

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Source Credits: Pam Belluck, Milo Mottola, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Percent for Art Program

Material: steel (alloy), wood, fiberglass

Address:679 Riverside Dr, New York, 10031, USA

 

Jul18

the artists have landed.

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setup began yesterday

streets closing 

unloading, building, signage, displays

artists on task

townies abuzz

beautiful skies

everything in full swing

high excitement in the air

can’t wait to visit.

‘an artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one.’

-charles horton cooley

 

Jul7

‘what you see before you, my friend, is the result of a lifetime of chocolate. ‘-Katharine Hepburn

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Vik Muniz. Action Photo, after Hans Namuth from Pictures of Chocolate. 1997. Chromogenic color print. The Museum of Modern Art. Gift of Patricia Phelps de Cisneros in honor of Adriana Cisneros de Griffin through the Latin American and Caribbean Fund. © The Estate of Hans Namuth and Vik Muniz/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

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‘As part of the Artist’s Choice exhibition series at the Museum of Modern Art, Muniz curated a show drawn from the Museum’s collection, and MoMA has recently added to the collection a key picture by Muniz, Action Photo, after Hans Namuth from Pictures of Chocolate, and we hope to continue our exploration and appreciation of this leading artist’s work.’ -MoMa

To make his work, Muniz renders familiar images drawn from pop culture and art history in a variety of materials, and then photographs them. He has fashioned the Mona Lisa from peanut butter and jelly, Elizabeth Taylor from diamonds, Caravaggio’s Narcissus from junk, iconic news images from wet ink, and his self-portrait from dice. Muniz has referred to himself as an “illusionist,” and, with characteristic humor and ingenuity, explores the nature of representation in an image-saturated world.

One of Muniz’s most well-known bodies of work is a series of pictures rendered in chocolate sauce. Action Photo, after Hans Namuth (1997) is made after a 1950 photograph taken by Hans Namuth of Jackson Pollock frozen in mid-dance as he was making one of his paintings, Autumn Rhythm.  Muniz’s subsequent appropriation and translation of this image into chocolate is a perfect marriage of subject and material. The viscous chocolate syrup (incidentally, he used the brand Bosco) is a perfect stand-in for Pollock’s wet, shiny paint drips. This new acquisition not only strengthens the Museum’s Muniz holdings, but is a welcome complement to MoMA’s rich Pollock collection .

Vik Muniz is a Brazilian artist and photographer. His work has been met with both commercial success and critical acclaim, and has been exhibited worldwide. In 1998, he participated in the 24th International Biennale in São Paulo, and in 2001, he represented Brazil at the 49th Biennale in Venice, Italy. He currently works in New York City and Rio de Janerio.

 while this is not me,

this is my exact style of painting with chocolate

while not quite as celebrated as vic’s

they are not as in demand 

and have not yet been exhibited in public.

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on world chocolate day

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‘i’las cosas claras y el chocolate espeso.’

(ideas should be clear and chocolate thick.)

-spanish proverb

 

 

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source credits:MoMa, Inside/Out

Jul2

an instant out of time.

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The first candid photograph of a person was taken in 1838.

Before the 19th century, photography did not exist, so people who wanted a lasting image of their home, their family, or themselves had to have one painted, sculpted, or drawn. In the early 1800s, inventors in France and England were at the center of the effort to create photographic representations of objects and people. In France, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce stunned the world in 1827 when he released what is believed to be the first photograph ever taken, titled “View from the Window at Le Gras.” Niépce rendered the image using a camera obscura combined with a light-sensitive metal plate, a process he called heliography. Despite its success, the heliograph required several days of exposure to capture the scene, eliminating the opportunity to photograph any people who may have been on the street

In 1829, Niépce met artist and printmaker Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre. Each man was familiar with the other’s work. Niépce admired Daguerre’s rotating diorama that had captivated Parisian audiences in 1822. Daguerre, like Niépce, saw the potential of improving upon the camera obscura to create clear and permanent images. They entered into a business partnership that resulted in the creation of the daguerreotype, an innovative photographic process that required only four to five minutes of exposure.  The quicker shutter speed allowed Daguerre’s camera to capture an image never seen before: a photo of a human being. In 1838, he debuted a daguerreotype of a street scene on the Boulevard du Temple in Paris. In the lower left corner of the photo we can see a man having his shoes shined; remaining stationary allowed him to be included in the photo, something that would have been impossible using the multiple-day exposure that heliographs required. This anonymous stranger on Boulevard du Temple was not simply the subject of the world’s first candid photograph— he’s also believed to be the first human being ever photographed.

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“photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.”
– dorothea lange

 

 

 

 

 

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source credit: historyfacts

 

 

Jun11

expression and nourishing.

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“man needs spiritual expression and nourishing….

even in the prehistoric era, people would scrawl pictures of bison on the walls of caves.”

*-fernando botero

*Fernando Botero Angulo was a Colombian figurative artist and sculptor. His signature style, also known as “Boterismo”, depicts people and figures in large, exaggerated volume, which can represent political criticism or humor, depending on the piece.

 

Apr15

like a holiday.

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Paul Klee, Forest Architecture, 1925, pen and watercolour on paper mounted on card

swiss painter, draftsman, and printmaker 1879-1940

 

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“art should be like a holiday;

something to give a man the opportunity to see things differently, 

and to change his point of view.”

-paul klee

Apr10

a noble thing.

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the dandelions have returned, and i couldn’t be happier.

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“Every year,” said Grandfather. “They run amuck; I let them.

Pride of lions in the yard. Stare, and they burn a hole in your retina.

A common flower, a weed that no one sees, yes.

But for us, a noble thing, the dandelion.”

-Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine

 

 

 

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art credit: garth williams, (the rabbit’s wedding) –  rabbit basking in the moonlight

Mar22

rock piles or cathedrals?

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visiting this beautiful sacred space

stories within each brick, step, piece of wood, marble, and work of art

moving and powerful

 st. cecelia cathedral

 named for

the patron saint of musicians, composers, instrument makers, and poets in the middle ages.

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“a rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it,

bearing within him the image of a cathedral.”

-antoine de saint-exupery, author of the little price

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To find the extraordinary within the ordinary, you have to see it. And to see it, you have to look for it. And to look for it, you have to have your eyes open. You have to be open.  You have to believe that within every rock pile there is a cathedral. Or, at least, the possibility of one. Are you someone who sees rock piles, or do you see cathedrals?

Begun in 1905 and consecrated in 1959, St. Cecelia was designed by architect Thomas Rogers Kimball and is ranked among the ten largest cathedrals in the United States when it was completed. It is now ranked in the National Registry. The architectural style of the building is Spanish Renaissance Revival, rather than the European Gothic architecture popular in the early 20th century. Kimball justified his choice because of the early influence of Spain and Mexico on the region. (located in Omaha, Nebraska, USA)

Mar18

‘trash has given us an appetite for art.’- pauline kael

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A New York garbage depot holds a secret collection of weird and wonderful refuse.

The Treasures in the Trash Collection

On the second floor of a nondescript warehouse owned by New York City’s Sanitation Department in East Harlem is a treasure trove—filled with other people’s trash.

Titanic. The Exhibition

– DMV

Titanic. The Exhibition

Most of the building is used as a depot for garbage trucks, but there’s a secret collection that takes over an entire floor. The space is populated by a mind-bogglingly wide array of items: a bestiary of Tamagotchis, Furbies; dozens of Pez dispensers; female weight lifting trophies; 8-track tapes; plates, paintings, sporting equipment and much more.

The Treasures in the Trash collection, was created entirely out of objects found by Nelson Molina, a now-retired sanitation worker, who began by decorating his locker. Collected over 30 years, it is a visual explosion, organized by type, color, and size. Atlas Obscura had the chance to visit the collection with the New York Adventure Club, take some photos, and revel in the vast creative possibilities of trash. Unfortunately, this isn’t a collection that keeps regular hours; drop-ins are not allowed. For more information on the occasional organized tours, email tours@dsny.nyc.gov. Sanitation workers are welcome anytime.

“uncommon thinkers reuse what common thinkers refuse.”

-j.r.d. tata

 

 

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source credits: atlas obscura, dylan thuras, new york adventure club

collection location: 343 East 99th St., New York, New York, 10029 usa

 

 

Feb22

the language of hands.

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“look, i made a map! and it goes right to my house!”

 

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‘the most expressive part of the body when it comes to art. 

for a child, their hands often become their voice.’

-the art of creativity