A New Year, A (Kind Of) New Style

Just as I was starting to think about experimenting with my watercolor style, I stumble across an artist who is already doing exactly what I wanted to try. Figures. Anyway, he's in France so I'm gonna do it anyway.

His name is Nicolas Weis, from Paris, recently relocated to California. While Google Translate is not the most high-quality translation service, he seems very passionate about his personal work. And with good reason, it's lovely.

He has worked on the concept art for both "How To Train Your Dragon" and "The Croods", but I think I like some of his personal work the best:

George Lucas May Give Us A New Museum

George Lucas has submitted a proposal to open a museum featuring comic art, illustration, animation, and concept design in San Francisco. Awesome, right?


...Let's just hope it's not filled with images of Jar Jar Binks.

Lucas described the proposed museum as "dedication to cultural fantasy"...  equipped to teach storytelling and the means of executing ideas. 
-Article

^ Which I think is a fantastic idea! Storytelling is a way to bring people together, and it's what gives all these different art mediums their meaning and appeal. 


"I’m a storyteller at heart, and I understand the power of a visual image to tell a story. I know how works of art can ignite children’s imaginations and even change their lives. They changed mine. Even before I could verbalize what I was feeling, I was drawn in by Norman Rockwell’s ability to tell a 

complete story in a single image. And so much of that imagery captured American cultural truths and 

aspirations. It was then that I began to learn the art of visual storytelling. As my career as a filmmaker 

grew, so did my love of art and passion for collecting."

Apparently Lucas has collected enough art over the years to stock the museum himself for 6 years of rotating exhibits. I imagine much of that is Star Wars and other movie-related items. So jealous.

You can even view his official proposal here: George Lucas' Museum Proposal

Catapult Magazine

Everyone should absolutely check out Catapult Magazine. It's a fantastic magazine that always has a fantastic spread of new and upcoming artists showcased. There is really some quality work here. Also, I absolutely love their mission:

Catapult is showcasing this untapped talent along side others that share the same passion, the artist we know, admire and love, that are willing to stand for  the purpose and mission of Catapult…LOVE OF ART ABOVE ALL.

Catapult is about the mechanic that has a stack of drawings that are mind blowing that lay stacked up in the closet because after all they don’t pay the bills. WE SEE YOU.

  Catapult is about the single mom that doodles on the napkin on her lunch break to gather herself in her thoughts. WE  SEE YOU.

  Catapult is the teenager that escapes to his bedroom to draw away all the stress of the day…of life. WE SEE YOU.

  Catapult is the older lady that finally has time to lay the brush to the canvas after years of dedicating her life to her family. WE SEE YOU.

WE SEE YOU.
 
Let us all encourage, inspire and recognize each other in our shared love of imagination, creativity and talents, to every degree.

They are even so generous as to allow you to read the current version online for free (I'm featured in issue 16, but you have to purchase back issues). I always see some really cool and interesting stuff. Check out the mag here:

Read the current issue here


And if you've got some art to share, you can submit your work online as well. I don't know if there is necessarily a theme for art submissions, but they do seem to favor a trend of surreal/realism, high quality style and detail, and highly conceptual images. But if they like it, I don't think it matters what the style is. And the openness of the magazine is part of what I like so much about it. Anyway, it's great and you should check it out.

 

Die By The Social Media Sword

Christopher Burdett has written an interesting post on social media that I wanted to highlight. I am always trying to grasp the next advancement in social media, battling my inner voice that says "Is anyone actually paying attention to this stuff?". Sometimes, no one pays attention when you want them to. However, it is still easy to commit a social gaffe in front of your thousands (or, in my case, dozens) of followers and instantly sink your social media ship. Try not to be a jerk, in person or online.

Christopher details his 8-step method as to how not to be a jerk when you're managing your online network (9 steps once you add the protein shake): 


1. Remain Professional
 2. Ask First
3. Anticipate NO
4. NO TAGS
5. Do NOT Thread-jack
6. No Mass ANYTHING 
7. Invite ONCE
 8. Don't stalk 

For more details, hit up the blog link below.

Live by the social media sword… Die by the social media sword

(And to see some awesome art)

Racist?

I've got an interesting moral art dilemma for you: there is a recent cover of Bloomberg Businessweek that is causing a lot of controversy in the media. Is it racist? Is it stylized? Is it harmless/offensive/overblown/unbelievable? I would personally need to see some examples of the artists other works to start with, before coming to an opinion. If that style of distortion is just the artist's style, then I have no problem with the visuals of the cover.

The main argument is that the cover insinuates that minorities are responsible for a housing bubble by flipping houses and other such irresponsible practices that my non-economist brain doesn't understand. To that argument, I would need to read the article. If this article targets minority groups unfairly for irresponsible practices, without statistical data to back it up, then we have an argument. If the article is about the housing market in general, and the artist just happened to use non-white people in his cover, I don't see a problem with that. America is made up of a ton of people from a ton of different races, and all might be equally responsible for any looming housing bubble. There does appear to be a white girl in the cover, but it's hard to tell at such a low resolution. This might be just a good cross-section of the American public.

One thing you keep hearing about in children's publishing is that there are too many books about white kids and not enough books showing black kids, Asian kids, Hispanic kids, redheads, etc. If (and remember I haven't read the article) this cover just shows a variety of races as a seeming coincidence, it might be just that. We as artists often come upon requests to use more "minority races" in our artwork, to make it more accessible to the entire American public. And forgive me, but such depictions can't always be favorable, if we're treating everyone equally. I am reminded of an article I read about children with Down Syndrome (which my sister has). The article was from a mother who wished others to stop calling her child a "little angel", to stop idealizing and stereotyping her child, even in a favorable way. Yes, her child was special, could be an angel at times, but could also be a little devil when she felt like it.

My post turned out to be less about this particular cover, and more about art and stereotypes in general. Remember, I haven't read the article, I don't know the specifics, I'm just judging this book based on it's cover. What do you think?

Bloomberg Businessweek Cover

The Desert of Forbidden Art

I have another political art rebel in my sights (PBS is on a roll, apparently). This one is about Igor Savitsky, who smuggled something in the ballpark of 40,000 pieces of art away from Soviet-era censors in Uzbekistan. He rescued these paintings and other works of art from being destroyed, though they are still not in the clear even with the communists out of power. 

"The irony is that the art Savitsky saved — beginning with traditional Uzbek folk art and textiles and blossoming to comprise art by ethnic Russian avant-garde artists — was at the time under fire for not being Soviet enough. Now it seems, 20 years after Uzbekistan won its independence — it is being targeted by the new regime for not being Uzbek enough."

Desert of Forbidden Art Museum Threatened in Uzbekistan

Ai Weiwei- China's Political Artist

 You probably don't know the name, but Ai Weiwei was one of the designers of the Bird's Nest stadium for the  2008 Summer Olympics. He's kind of a big deal. He's also very outspoken about the Chinese government.



From this NY Times Article:

"In April 2011,  Mr. Ai was detained by the authorities at Beijing International Airport just before he was to board a plane for Hong Kong. He was taken to a secret detention center on the city’s outskirts and spent the next 81 days watched round the clock by rotating pairs of young soldiers. He was released in June of 2011" but has continued to be subjected to beatings, harrassment, fines, and has had his passport taken away. He is not allowed to leave the country and is constantly watched.

I found the following interview question really interesting:

Q. The movie shows you approaching state security surveillance agents assigned to tail you and trying to talk with them. Why do that?

A. I always think we have nothing to hide, so I want them to know that. Normally people, when they are being followed, are being intimidated or they are scared. So I always say: “If you are looking for me, we can sit down to talk. You can even come to my office, I’ll just give you a table. You’ll see whoever I see, and if I travel, I will name you as my assistant, so whoever I meet, you will also meet. So tell your boss that this is an opportunity to get a close look at this very dangerous guy named as a subversive of state power.

PBS and Alison Klayman recently made a video that looks closely into his life and how an outspoken dissident survives in modern China. You can watch it at the link below:
Never Sorry








Also, this is him

;)