Damien Hirst: Entomology

          Damien Hirst has distinct style in art and creates all types of art. In 1984, Hirst earned his BA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths college and was awarded the Turner Prize in 1995. Hirst focuses on many types of art including installation, sculpture, painting and drawing to examine the concepts of art, life and death in relation to each other. He likes to explore the complexity of emotions in humans and he began work on the Entomology Paintings in 2009. This artwork is made by placing many different insects, butterflies and beetle species into Hammerite gloss paint in the form of geometric patterns. Furthermore, this artwork displays Hirst's interest in natural history, which really intrigues me because of the similarity of interests in the complexity of life and beauty of animals and nature.

          I like the patterns, colors, and uniqueness of this artwork Hirst has created.  He likes to show life in death because of the grandeur of beauty in insects like the butterfly for instance, after death. Hirst has creative concepts and thoughts that the normal person doesn't think about which also interests me. His work is full of designs and patterns that are unique in small detail, but display small parts that when looked at from far away show unity and a artwork as a whole that is interesting. I have changed my ideal and I am thinking about doing a blanket showing coexistence between humans and nature. I think that it will look somewhat like a quilt, but will be made of wire and this pattern in Hirst's artwork shown gives me inspiration from a very creative standpoint.

Chadwick Gray and Laura Spector: Cleopatras Feast, after Jordeans, Detail Eyes Open Detail

Artists Chadwick Gray and Laura Spector paint historic artworks on the human body which create the body of work titled, Museum Anatomy. Gray and Spector have a very unique place in art and have amazing talent with Gray painting the canvas and Spector, the painting on the person.  The human body is very intriguing when you look at it with all of these paintings on it because it adds another element of interest to viewers.  I am inspired to create a project that is as cohesive as this painting on a human by Chadwick and Spector. In essence, the photographs of their work reveals a unification of art combining history and technology in modern way.

It is very fascinating at first when looking at this painting on a person because your eye travels everywhere it is drawn.  Also, it feels like a puzzle and every little painting has significance and relevance to something in history. The most amazing thing I see when looking at this painting on a human is whether the human body parts painted are an artwork or if artwork is on a human body parts. Overall, the multiple themes, abstraction of painting, and visual creativity of this painting on a human by Chadwick and Spector is astounding and inspires me to be more creative and look at combining concepts in a cohesive way.

Nathan Sawaya

Nathan Sawaya is a LEGO artist that has an upcoming solo show called, Art of the Brick, at the Discovery Times Square museum.  Sawaya is an amazing artist and many say that his LEGO sculptures are the world’s biggest display of LEGO art ever, which is very interesting to me.  Nathan Sawaya displays character in his LEGO sculptures by doing portraits of the human structure in fascinating ways that make the viewer think there is some back story to the sculpture.  Also, Nathan Sawaya’s LEGO sculptures evoke a strong emotion from the viewer.  This particular piece appears to display a man pulling his chest apart and his insides falling out.  I can also see this piece as a man displaying his heartbreak from a good relationship gone bad and he is letting his heart fall out into pieces from his chest.  That’s what is so interesting with Nathan Sawaya’s artwork is that he focuses on defined concept of his and he has a skill level that is extraordinary.  I am interested in the way Nathan can use LEGO pieces, which are basically tiny pieces of plastic, to create a big structure that forms the human body in a creatively, sensual way. 

Diana Beltran Herrera

Diana Beltran Herrera is an inspiring artist to me because of her ability to craft the fine details of birds using only paper.  Her ability to portray a moment when a bird is flying is really extraordinary to me.  She has had exhibitions around the world in Art and Soul of Paper and Beers. Lambert Contemporary.  It is obvious that she loves birds and that she has an exceptional talent in making birds from paper.  The colors of the birds are vibrant and make the birds look like their full of life, even abstract because some of the birds are really bright colored.  However, the birds look very precise and the craftsmanship Diana displays is well planned. 

               The birds show movement that is realistic and they appear to be weightless, which helps me to think about how I can make my senior seminar project for idealized. I would like to create a self-portrait that is realistic, but has qualities that are not typical of a normal human structure to portray a concept.  I am intrigued by the way Diana Beltran Herrera can do this with her birds made of paper.  In essence, Diana makes these birds that look like their modeled after real birds, but they have a touch of non-realistic color which adds to the immediate visual excitement I get when I see them.

Michael Aaron Williams

This is a series done by Michael Aaron Williams that encompasses portraits painted with coffee on old ledger paper from the 1920s and 30s.  This is only two of the portraits in his series, but they both give you an idea of the range of talent this artist has.  I like the fact he uses a medium not typically used by artists and that Michael uses a type of paper that is very old and interesting in its self. Michael Aaron Williams is an artist that inspires me because of his sheer creative capacity and willingness to look for objects that could be used for art.

            What really intrigues me is how coffee can be used to show a portrait with emotion and sensual form.  Michael Aaron Williams is a good artist at this in this series and I would like to also be able to display a portrait in my project, but of myself.  My project will be a mixture of abstraction techniques, but also have realistic qualities.  Williams executes this with perfection by displaying naturalistic portraits with abstract vertical lines. This series by Williams proves to me that there are ways to successfully display visually interesting portraits and art with mediums not normally seen in the art world. 

 

Fabian Oefner: Liquid Jewel

Liquid Jewel is a new project and creative design done by a Swiss photographer, Fabian Oefner.  The series of photos that Oefner is working on defines a unique artistic approach that displays a balloon covered in layers of acrylic paint being popped.  A high speed photograph is used to capture the fleeing moment that is accompanied by manipulative shape and color of the balloon popping set up by the artist, Fabian Oefner.  This unique and direct approach in art is very inspiring to me and I picked this artist and artwork because it displays the creative use of photograph to capture an action scene.

               After contemplating how I could use photography in my project with sculpture, I realized that action involving light, color, and the use of movement would make my project better.  In essence, I want to photograph my talents, hobbies, and renaissance character. Fabian Oefner’s ability to capture these balloons in a way that would not normally be captured immediately grabbed my attention because people do not typically take high speed photographs of balloons covered in acrylic paint popping.  The fact that the balloons are covered in layers of acrylic paint appearing to have been layed out in a order manipulated to show a intended design displays an art form that is unique and it motivates me to think outside of the box in designing my project.

Shintaro Ohata

Shintaro Ohata, born in Hiroshima, Japan, is a very unique artist focusing on two mediums, painting and sculpture together in a cohesive manner.  I really like how he is able to blend  sculpture with painting to make a scene with movement that comes to life.  In this piece, Ohata is displaying a girl having fun playing in a busy city at night.  At least, this is the ideal I receive from this artwork.  I want to try to blend my project together with multiple mediums and painting or drawing combined with wire and wood, etc, seems to be a ideal path to take to create my project.

               Shintaro Ohata inspires me to be more dynamic in my process of creating my project because of the way he displays his unique style of bringing a scene to life by placing sculptures in front of paintings. However, I may take a different approach by using many mediums together abstractly on one structure without a background like Ohata displays here.  Furthermore, Shintaro Ohata’s style is definitely one of my favorite I have observed out of the artists I have researched because of his ability to portray movement with figures that have realistic qualities.