Things To Look At

Image from thingstolookat.blogspot.com

I like surfing the web looking at websites that discuss about art and design related things. It occupies my free time and I wish I were able to surf around more often. Yet, sometimes we don't get to do that...instead, we find sites that do it for us or, at least, use a feed application.
Nevertheless, I recently found a site called thingstolookat.blogspot.com and let me tell you, there surely is a hec of a lot of things to see... that is relevant to design. Mainly discussing magazines and editorial designs, Thingstolookat.blogspot.com is a good place to read about older publications and design work. Having 9 contributors to ramble about design is a sure plus to the site. Anyway, when I get the chance which I usually don't, I like to look at Thingstolookat. So, you should probably too!

thingstolookat.blogspot.com

But do please continue reading this blog.

Post It Note Reading

Post-it notes. Ah, yes, you know what I'm talking about. Those little square colored pieces of paper that are used... well as notes--a reminder tool used to help us remember what we're suppose to do or just a piece of paper to write things on. They're extremely useful but at times when we've got post it notes hanging everywhere even on our foreheads... we wonder what else on earth can we do with this office supply.

Well, Arthur Jones knew what else he could do with Post-It notes. Being stuck in a cubicle for a day job, Jones occupied his time by creating "artwork" out of his office supplies. From a rubber band ball to a mouse made out of masking tape, Jones eventually found himself drawing pictures on post-it notes with a sharpie.

Five years later, Jones has transformed his favorite time-kill activity into a full-fledged obsession. He has created the Post-It Note Reading series, where writers read their original stories, while corresponding illustrations drawn entirely on Post-It Notes are projected behind them.

Interesting hey? Well, you can check out more of this wonderful post-it story at www.postitnotestories.com.

David Bray: Drawing Emotions

My incapacity to draw intricate pictures has always been a frustration to me. I do not have a lack of images, but I guess just a lack of genes to actually put those ideas on paper. The good news is there are actually artists like David Bray, who seem to relay images similar to what I have in mind. His creations, I believe, are amazing because he is able to project simplicity and sophistication at the same time. One look at some of his work and you would see how he meshes the plainness of uncolored and sketched drawings with rather complex designs. On top of that, he is also able to channel emotions and "sensuality" without falling into the trap of being too mushy and overly rococo.

Bray was born in 1970 in Dartford Kent and had always had a fascination for the surreal, drawing "images of space travel, where he would depict himself and his friends visiting other planets and universes." Bray still shows his "out of his world" side in his works to this day. His talent has brought him a wonderful career as a freelance illustrator who clients include "Harvey Nichols, H&M, Canon, Vodafone, BBC Television, Nokia, Puma, Virgin, Sony, Kickers and Charles Worthington and magazines have included Carlos, Elle, Flaunt, The Sunday Times and Time Out."

ARTICLE AND PHOTO

Singapore Art Museum Presents Masriadi: Black is My Last Weapon

Singapore Art Museum (SAM) is proud to present Masriadi: Black is My Last Weapon, the celebrated contemporary Indonesian artist I Nyoman Masriadi’s first regional and international solo exhibition. This show forms part of SAM's exhibition programme in showcasing works of key modern and contemporary Southeast Asian artists, continuing on from solo exhibitions such as Affandi and Widayat in 2007. This new exhibition highlights Masriadi’s unique visual language of painting – striking visual vocabulary and visual imageries strongly influenced by anime, cyber-gaming and comics. The exhibition features over 30 selected works from private collections in Indonesia, Singapore and Hong Kong, including early works from 1998 to latest works. The exhibition opening will be officiated by Guest of Honour, Mr Kwee Liong Keng, Honorary Chairman of Singapore Art Museum, on 22 August 2008, Friday, 7pm, at 8Q sam. Media preview led by the curators will be held on the same day at 11am at 8Q sam. Born in Bali in 1973, I Nyoman Masriadi is one of the most influential and acclaimed artists to have emerged from Southeast Asia in the last decade. Having studied at the Indonesian Institute of Art from 1993 to 1998, Masriadi’s distinction as an artist lies in his choice of medium – painting. In the 1990s, Indonesian artists began to work in ephemeral medium such as installation and performance art, as part of their resistance against the commodification of art. With paintings being sold at high prices in the art market, the practice of painting was viewed as an exemplar of the commodification of art. Masriadi is an artist who holds the firm belief that painting is a form of visual language which speaks beyond the high prices. This forms part of his own resistance to expand his art practice and focuses on the practice of painting.

Original Article

Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) announces Major Gift to Acquire Renowned Photo Collection

I think its about time that the LACMA get a little credit for what they do for Los Angeles and art. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) announces that it has received a groundbreaking gift from Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation in support of photography. A substantial portion of the gift will support the acquisition of The Marjorie and Leonard Vernon Collection, a group of more than 3,500 prints that forms one of the finest histories of photography and collections of masterworks from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Highlights, including seminal photographs by Ansel Adams, Julia Margaret Cameron, Edward Steichen, W.H. Fox Talbot, and Edward Weston, will be presented in LACMA’s exhibition, A Story of Photography: The Marjorie and Leonard Vernon Collection, opening October 5 in the Ahmanson Building. Through the largesse of Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation, this collection becomes the most significant and valuable gift of photography in the museum’s history. Wallis Annenberg’s tremendous support of LACMA includes not only the acquisition of The Marjorie and Leonard Vernon Collection, but also a contribution to a new study room, opening in early 2011, that will allow for access to the entire photography collection at LACMA. Head of the newly named Wallis Annenberg Photography Department, Charlotte Cotton, said, “This staggering acquisition will enable LACMA to present multiple narratives of nineteenth and twentieth-century photography to its actual and virtual visitors, and to enhance the appreciation of photography, as Marjorie and Leonard always hoped the collection would. Wallis Annenberg, who shares the same vision, has been incredibly thoughtful about what it takes to create a world-class, accessible photography department at LACMA.”

Original Article

Recently, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) recieved 3,500 photographs thanks to the financial support of Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation, LACMA's trustee. The art works were from Marjorie and Leonard Vernon, collectors who surveys the history of photography "in the works of 700 artists, including leaidng 19th and 20th century figures".

Now, LACMA has 12,000 images in their hands and they will be showing their new additions in "A Story of Photography: The Marjorie and Leonard Vernon Collection" this October. The Annenberg fund had paid a hefty sum for these photographs and the rest was donated by the Vernon couple's daughter, Carol Vernon and her husband Robert Turbin.

Information gathered from the original article.

Community: Camp North

After wandering around the web, I came across an Artist Community that I have never heard of before. It is called Camp North, it's been up for only less than a Year. Camp North was founded and created by Nathaniel Milburn, who is in his second year as Broadcast Design and Motion Graphics maor at Savannah College of Art & Design, and also Corey Griffin, who helped Milburn develop Camp North and is only 15-years-old and is a junior at Palisades High School. The website is a free online community for all types of artists and allows members to upload their works and use the site as an online portfolio.

Milburns original idea of Camp North was to be an art & culture magazine; however, he decided to make the site to become also an online community for artists. He has not abandoned his original idea of creating magazines, so watch for it.

Browsing around the website, I found that the general design isn't that bad. The neon colors create a cohesive look and the type treatment for the logo is also easy on the eye. I'm not too hot with the navigational bar/tabs... but that's a small glitch. Anyway, check them out here

www.campnorth.tv!