Tag Archives: artist

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

 

Jul17

‘if you can dream it, you can do it.’ -walt disney

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Today, the “Happiest Place on Earth” turns 69 years old. After a year of construction and a $17 million investment  (the equivalent of nearly $200 million today), Disneyland welcomed its first visitors, inviting thousands of studio staffers, construction workers, members of the press, and company sponsors to preview the Anaheim, California, park before it opened to the public the following day. At the time, tickets to explore Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, and Main Street USA cost $1 for adults and 50 cents for kids.

American movie producer, artist, and animator Walt Disney (1901 – 1966) at the end of opening day, as he sits on a bench in his Disneyland amusement park, Anaheim, California, USA. 
“To all who come to this happy place: Welcome. Disneyland is your land,” Walt Disney once said.

 

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‘it’s kind of fun to do the impossible.’

-walt disney

 

 

 

 

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source/image credits: travel and leisure, getty images, gene lester

 

 

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

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

Mar26

the arts of peace.

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not me, nor my garden

but he and i have similar attitudes

and this warmer weather

really has me wanting to get my garden going

then just stand back

and take it all in. 

(hello to claude monet, at giverny gardens in 1923, perhaps thinking about painting it)

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“to plant a garden is the chief of the arts of peace.”

~ mary stewart

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

Jan27

white on white.

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the kinder painted

using play feathers and real fingers

and colors they mixed and made

 one

chose to paint

only white on white paper

 to see what it would look like

 it was a beautiful painting

all nuance and shade and texture.

“renoir said once that nothing was so difficult, and at the same time so exciting, to paint, as white on white.”
– ambroise vollard

Jan13

snowflake.

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2500 hours across 5 years – “The Snowflake,”

featuring more than 400 snowflakes, all in relative size to one another.

photography by *don komarechka

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*Don Komarechka is a nature & landscape photographer located in Barrie, Ontario, Canada. Born and raised in Sudbury, Ontario, Don is no stranger to cold winters. From auroras to pollen, insects to infrared, much of Don’s photographic adventures reveal a deeper understanding of how the universe works. Snowflakes are no exception.

Don began studying the science of snowflakes the same day he first photographed them, nearly four years prior to the publication of this book. Since then, snowflakes have been a non-stop passion.

Each one of Don’s snowflake images is photographed on an old black mitten at his home. Barrie, Ontario is known for higher levels of winter precipitation, making it a great location to capture hundreds of beautiful specimens.

Always science-minded but never formally trained, Don uses photography as a way to explore and understand the world around him. Photographing something unusual or unknown is the perfect excuse to learn something new.

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“nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.”
-henry david thoreau

Sep29

coffee art.

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on international coffee day

Meet the Italian Artist who creates Incredible Works of Art From Spilled Coffee

Italians are known for their love of coffee, but while most enjoy espresso for its taste, artist  Giulia Bernardell appreciates it for its creative potential. She turns spilled coffee into works of art that look like detailed watercolor paintings.

Many of us start our day with a cup of joe, but Bernardelli indulges in a dose of inspiration, too. Her bio reads, “My future starts when I wake up every morning. Every day I find something creative to do with my life.” Bernardelli’s journey to creating coffee art began by chance. One day, the artist accidentally spilled coffee over her canvas as she was working. But rather than clean it up, Bernardelli grabbed a spoon and used it to guide the brown liquid around the white space.

Today, Bernardelli continues to use spoons in lieu of a paint brush, but she also uses matchsticks to achieve intricate details. From architectural sketches to studies of the human face, Bernardelli takes inspiration from everywhere. She even recreates Italian Renaissance masterpieces in her coffee art style. She’s “painted” the  Mona Lisa and The Creation of Adam,  using spilled coffee as pigment.

Since making a name for herself as a respected “coffee artist,” Bernardelli has branched out into new, edible mediums. She also creates art from melted ice cream, fruit, vegetables, and much more.

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“coffee is the best thing to douse the sunrise with.”

-terri guillemets

 

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art credit: spilled coffee art, guilia bernadelli

source credit: mymet, emma taggart

My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by Giulia Bernardelli