Another WIP

This was a photograph gone terribly wrong.. I sucked it into Adobe Illustrator and then conceived fabulous appropriate palette knife techniques to operate with.

Explosive Grapefruits

So today, while in traffic (as usual), I came up with another great, although admittedly whimsical, concept. It entails somewhat less violence than my usual spark during such inspiration as rush hour, but if manifested, it will totally cure my road rage! The concept: Explosive Grapefruits.

I mean really, if the venus fly trap can entice prey with a toxic beauty until it latches and traps them, all prior to suffocating the victim in an internally secreted poison.. Then why the heck can't grapefruits have sharpened seeds that explode? Arrowhead seeds would optimize the destructive effect on the target.. duh... I'm sure we have all wished, one time or another, to have had some better sense of arms than the noise pollution of a horn and ineffective flipping of fingers out of windows to truly and rightly bestow that which is deserved upon those who so badly abuse the privilege of getting behind a wheel...

So, instead of trying to hunt some exploding grapefruits down (Amazon here I come!), or take out my tools and get to sharpening some seeds... I created this digital piece of work.

It is layers of a photograph focusing on a whole and sliced grapefruit, which I altered to appear as colored pencil. I layered this image atop an old drawing/chart of how exploding bullets function, amidst a splatter of original shapes I created and then filled with tones I grabbed off of the grapefruits themselves.

Someone with a sound mind would probably tell me to get a real job after seeing this.. but Hey.. I'm just gonna keep driving and conceiving weird concepts...

Only a designer from Thailand...

...could successfully "Zen" a pencil.

Need a moss covered fuzzy writing utensil pronto?

Luck can be found at DesignBoom's Souvenir Shop

Photography Series focused on "Miami Beach bathing culture".. WE LOVE THAT!

Sun Stroke Stimulus

The Wolfsonian commissioned New York-based photographer Miles Ladin to create a contemporary 

portrait of Miami Beach bathing culture to complement the historical images on view in Beauty on the Beach.  In his installation, wryly titled Sun Stroke Stimulus, Ladin’s photographs reveal, in his words, 

“both the raw beauty found in bathing culture as well as the aspirational desires presented in the 

display of flesh.  Sun, surf, fabric stretched against buttocks, cleavage, and biceps are all tactile 

elements that give our eyes pleasure. The acquisition of the tan, the physique, the lifestyle, is all meant 

to entice the viewer to desire what they see.”  

 

Ladin’s provocative installation is on view in the museum’s entrance lobby, and is free to the public. His 

photography has been featured in The New York Times Style section, W magazine, and Harper’s Bazaar. 

Ladin views his work as being about human consciousness. “My images are also a subjective document 

of the human condition as it is reflected through contemporary times.  I’m interested in man’s foibles  

and vulnerabilities,” explains Ladin. “I also think that our existence is fraught with humor as well as 

challenges. Making pictures with intelligence and formal complexity, my desire is to open the viewer’s 

eyes to society’s excesses as well as the possibility for redemption in unvarnished beauty.”

See the Wolfosonian's site for more......

How About, The Color BLUE!

Take me to Basel, to Venice Biennale!

Normally, my heart whimpers when it is fashion week in Milan or Paris and I am stuck in some cubicle hundreds of thousands of miles away, with both eyes peeled to fashion blogs and online streams of "who's wearing what" at the latest show.

However, never before have I thought so much about all affairs missed in the motherland of all art fairs! It is not only the artists featured in the galleries that tempt my tenacious craze, no, it is far more.

It is the energy in the air, the thriving angst of all engaged. Angst is the word to describe my observations of the city and people during Art Basel | Miami Beach. There is a certain thrill to achieve: opportunities seem infinite, eyelids open wider, movement is fast to and fro, it is not all just some frantic disarray.

Some are purely taking it all in without any necessary schedule. Others like myself, have specific itineraries marked down to the hour with documented openings and shows to make. Many also appear to be money driven, the 'self-proclaimed connoisseur' types. If you ask me, in this economy, big spenders like Brangelina don't necessarily need to make annoying PR boasts about their million dollar expenditures.

Speaking of big money for the angst of achieving:

Do you recall that specific mix of blue pigment and resin mounted on a wooden board that can be yours to keep for the low price of all titles to your house, car, boat, and plane combined?

You probably guessed it! International Klein Blue (IKB) as you can see here was recently made into quite the spectacle by artist Sherrie Levine. Levine composed an array of monochromatic canvas's as an ever so clever punch-line to the identity of a man existing in one color.

To YK's defense, "Klein adopted this hue as a means of evoking the immateriality and boundlessness of his own particular utopian vision of the world."

I always enjoy stepping out of reality and dipping into abstract perspectives. Thanks to Art Fag City for tipping me onto this enlightening path.

All in all, Basel abroad is an extravaganza of sorts that I someday wish to partake in!