Blog 4: My Art Piece

For this painting, I was pretty excited for the topic, because I have always had a grudge against twitter. That form of social media is taking over the world, from seeing hashtags in the corner of TV shows, to commercials actually saying the word “hashtag” in the add. Kids these days are way too wrapped up in their phones, trying to stay up to date on the latest social media, trying to see what everyone else is making memories of, instead of going out and making memories of their own. So when I was brain storming  how to portray my feelings, I wanted to really capture a powerful image. I started by tweaking the twitter bird to a more evil look. once I got that where I liked, I laid down the blueprints for a globe. As I started painting it under the bird, I wanted to show more control by the bird, so I had the top that he was standing on red with black water, and as it went down, it faded into the normal world. That showed that it’s gaining control, but is not fully in charge yet. So the wording at the bottom is #losingcontrol, because it seems like it won’t end until it’s too late. I was happy with how it turned out.

Blog 3: Bev Doolittle

Bev Doolittle is another artist that I love, because I am Native American, and she does a lot of works including indians and horses. She makes you do a double take at her work, because there are usually people or animals hidden and camouflaged throughout the picture plane. She was born and raised in Los Angeles where she received a weekend scholarship to the School of Art in Los Angeles. That is where she met her husband who was also a painter. She is a world renown artist because collectors are always intrigued by her work of camouflage integrated within the art. Her paintings can sell for close to $10,000 for a larger, more complex work. That to me says that she has made a comfortable living purely from her art skills. The painting on the left is called, “The Forest Has Eyes,” see if you can find all 13 faces hidden throughout.

More works here: http://www.bevdoolittle.net/

Tree Street Art

I made this in class when we were challenged to design a piece of street art. I made a tree with its roots extending to the sidewalk because I wanted to create something that incorporated more than just the wall. I have a great interest in pixel-based art, so the tree looks like something that you would find in Minecraft. I drew a tree specifically because I feel like a lot of places on campus look “dead,” and street art featuring a tree would liven things up quite a bit.

John Cage

John Cage is a sound artist. He composes many “different” pieces than one would normally expect. For example, is piece 4’33” is comprised of four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence. It is intended for the audience to hear the noises around them. It bears a striking resemblance to John Denver’s “The Ballad of Richard Nixon.”

blog 2: Yvonne Jacquette

Yvonne Jacquette is an artist that I admire, because her drawings can be basic, but so complex at the same time, like her piece, “Into the Night,” which i posted below, is just a black background with a bunch of small white shapes that make up a complex cityscape. Her drawings really just draw me in, like the other photo posted is of farm fields, and it reminds me of the drive to and from Pullman in the summers. Jacquette was born in Pittsburgh in 1934, but after her schooling at the Rhode Island School of Design, she moved to New York where she continued her artwork. her love of drawings from an aerial view all started when she was looking out the window on a flight to San Diego in 1969. She started flying commercial to study cloud patterns, and started to like the idea of bright lights set against darkness. The city of New York was usually her focus for drawings, where she would take different perspectives, including the top of the empire state building. To see more of her art, you can go to this website. http://www.artnet.com/artists/yvonne-jacquette/

Blog 1: Robyn Oneil

Robyn Oneil is one of my favorite artists, because her drawings are similar to what i like drawing, but she takes a more abstract approach to her work than me. She was born in 1977 in Omaha, Nebraska but now lives and works in Los Angeles. she studied in numerous places including Texas A&M and King’s College London. Her drawings usually contain a man or men dressed in all black sweatsuits doing things ranging from murdering to embracing. she investigates human condition and emotionalism  through her works and it really gives her pieces a feeling when you look at them. Oneil’s work is shown in galleries located in New York, Dallas, Chicago, Paris, and Berlin, giving her work international fame. The photos that I included are a couple that are very powerful to me. If you are interested in seeing more of what she can do, here is a link to her website. http://robynoneil.com/drawings/

Final Post – My work

I couldn’t find any photos I had from work I did for this class, so I’ll talk about some of my photography work.  I love photography and have been constantly taking photos of pretty much everything in my life and doing shoots with models for a few years now.  However, recently I have been obsessed in shooting with film.  Here are some film shots I’ve taken recently.  My work can be viewed at chasezalewski.com  

Blog Post #4

I came across Henrik Purienne’s work while browsing on Tumblr.  His portfolio consists of high-grain, sun-soaked film shots of models on the beach and in various tropical areas around the world.  By that description, his work does not sound all that great, but he is one of my favorites at the moment.  He has worked closely with American Apparel, producing some of the brand’s most well-known photos.  Looking at Purienne’s photos, it seems as though you wouldn’t consider the man who took them to be an actual photographer.  I believe that’s the genius about it.  The models in his photographs are not wearing any harsh makeup or acting out dramatic poses.  He shoots them more from a filmmaker/documentary eye and I find that to be genius.  He has also published a self-titled book called “Purienne” and is the founder and creative producer of his own magazine called Mirage.  His work can be viewed at purienne.com

Blog Post #3

Annie Leibovitz is considered by many to be the most famous celebrity photographer.  Leibovitz was the chief photographer of The Rolling Stone magazine, where she strongly influenced their image.  She has also  taken many of what are considered to be the most iconic photos ever taken.  Some of work has stirred up controversy in the media.  Some of these works include her shoot with the Queen of England and her topless photo of Miley Cyrus when she was around 13 years old.  Leibovitz had photographed Yoko Ono and John Lennon hours before Lennon was assassinated.  My personal favorite are the portraits she did of Kate Moss and Johnny Depp along with a portrait taken of Kate Winslet, embodying her character in Titanic.  She also created a series of photos for Disney where celebrities were photographed as iconic Disney characters.

Blog Post #2

I found this artist while browsing through instagram a while ago and was in awe at her work.  The artist’s name is Charmaine Olivia and she is based in San Francisco.  She specializes mainly in oil painting portraits of female iconic models and celebrities.  I found her style to be very refreshing because I don’t think I’ve ever seen any other artist’s work similar to hers.  She quite often utilizes a naturalistic theme in her paintings.  I’ve seen seahorses, starfishes, birds, dolphins, lingering eyes, and tons and tons of flowers and flower petals.  I also found her technique of doodling various patterns/little designs around the subject of the painting to reflect an unwillingess to limit her creativity.  Her work can be viewed at http://www.charmaineolivia.com