Sandy Skoglund

Got a new book today.



Fascinating collection of photographers. But the one that stuck out to me the most was Sandy Skoglund.

Sandy Skoglund was born in Quincy, Massachusetts in 1946.  Skoglund studied studio art and art history at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts from 1964-68. She went on to graduate school at the University of Iowa in 1969 where she studied filmmaking, intaglio printmaking, and multimedia art, receiving her M.A. in 1971 and her M.F.A. in painting in 1972.
Skoglund moved to New York City in 1972, where she started working as a conceptual artist, dealing with repetitive, process-oriented art production through the techniques of mark-making and photocopying. In the late seventies Skoglund’s desire to document conceptual ideas led her to teach herself photography. This developing interest in photographic technique became fused with her interest in popular culture and commercial picture making strategies, resulting in the directorial tableau work she is known for today. Skoglund currently lives in Jersey City, New Jersey. (Source)

Her works:

WOW. Just WOW!

Inspiring.

:)

Pop Art: Paul Frank + Bananas

Back when I was in fourth year high school, we were tasked to do a pop art painting for art class. I chose to do Paul Frank's mascot cause... well, I liked the monkey, looked fun and pop. I really enjoyed painting this and it's one of my favorites. I just wanted to post this because, well... I just wanted to share this with you guys. Christmas is a time of giving and sharing. Hahaha :))

(Poster color on 1 whole illustration board)

Speaking of Christmas, I did a little Christmas shopping with some friends today and was successful at it! Crossed at least half my list. Just a little more. So tired and drained, physically, mentally, and monetarily! Those unfit in all 3 aspects should really just consider staying at home where it is safe. But to those who dare, give it some serious thought before you do anything. Remember, there are risks involved and you could really get yourself hurt. It is a battle out there I tell you. (Christmas) shopping should seriously be considered an extreme sport. It's not as easy as it looks. HAHAHA!!! :))

Hope your Christmas shopping is going just as well or better yet, I hope you're done!
:D

Art Project #1: Painting of Elsa Benítez

In honor of my blog's half-birthday, I decided to paint something for "it" (lol). I have been longing to paint for so long now especially having seen the inspiring works of Danny Roberts. But I never found time/motivation/inspiration to do so. Well today, I finally sat down and painted, and it felt so good to be holding a brush again. I am no Da Vinci, Van Gogh, or Picasso, but I just enjoy painting. Back in my elementary and high school days, Art class was definitely one of my favorite subjects. HERE are some past works.

Today, I was wondering what/who to paint. Being very inspired by Danny Roberts, I thought why not paint a portrait of a model. But who? So many to choose from. I was thinking of all the models I knew, and trying to think of magazine covers/editorials they were in. Then a lightbulb switched on in my head. I decided to Google for a model whose birthday was also today being that it's my blog's half-birthday today. So I Googled and voila! Elsa Benítez from Mexico is the lucky winner. From what I read in her biography, she's not just a model but a SUPERmodel. She started her career after winning a model search competition in 1995 and has since appeared on various fashion magazines. She's been on the pages of Vogue, Cosmopolitan and Elle to name a few. Today, she turns 32.

I looked through her galleries to find a photo I would base my painting on. As you can see below I chose a simple black and white portrait of her. It was the best easy portrait I could do. I'm a little rusty from not painting for so long so... yeah.

Here's my painting:

Medium: Poster Color on Sketch Paper

I didn't follow it exactly as you can see. I just couldn't help it, I really wanted to use my gold paint. And yes, I realize I messed up her right cheek. But I think it works (or not). Did this in 1-2 hrs?. Anyways, I hope my next one will be better. I need more practice.  Hehehe :)

What ya guys think?

:)

Photo Project #1: DIY Strip Light

Aside from my "Movies I've Seen List" thing, this is another new thing I will be having in the blog, my Photo Projects (e.g. DIY Light Projects). Yesterday, I was going through some photography related sites and got really inspired to do a DIY. I had lots of time to kill and well, what do you know, I surprisingly had materials to do one of the DIY projects. I decided to make a Strip light since I wanted one and because that's what I had materials for. I based my strip light on this site. Such a helpful, informative, inspiring site. I'm thankful I found it. For without it... I would be bankcrupt by now because I would have never known DIY's could do the trick just as well at less than half the cost! Wait... I would have never even thought of doing DIY's!!! So to the creators and contributors of the site, THANK YOU SO SO MUCH!!! :D

Here's the strip light I made:

Note: I haven't attached barn doors to the strip light and my speed light was low on battery when I took this. That explains why the picture isn't very bright. And you can't really see the full effect of the strip light because I just covered the built in flash of my camera with an index card because I don't own a remote trigger as of now but I will get one real soon (maybe next week). So this isn't really accurate.

Here's my attempt at an artistic photograph using the new strip light I made + lots of Photoshop:
 (Ok, that's just an excuse, this was just a crappy test shot that I really wanted to salvage coz I loved the lighting. Hehehe ^_^)

"Always do what you are afraid to do." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

What ya guys think?

:)

ManilArt 09

**Sorry for the poor photo quality, these pictures were just shot using an iPhone. I brought my cam with me but forgot to put the memory card back in after transferring some files.

Two of my good friends and I (this was our only picture together)

went to the 1st Philippine International Art Fair entitled ManilArt 09 last July 18, 2009 (Saturday). It was held at the NBC Tent in Bonifacio Global City.

We wanted a change of setting from our usual (watch a movie at Greenbelt or Rockwell then dinner somewhere after), so we decided we wanted to be artsy and go to an Art Fair. We almost didn't push through with it but luckily we did. We have SO MUCH talent in this country and I was just AMAZED seeing all the artworks in the fair. I was amazed by their creativity, ingenuity, style, imagination, and patience to create such works of art.

Front View
Side ViewBoxed Up

This used so much paint (you can't see it in the picture but all those dots are doodies of paint)

Love the puzzle piece concept of this one

Some fun paintings

Believe it or not, these wire sculptures were made by using just one roll of wire each without any cutting. So if you take it apart and try to see if it is indeed just one continuous wire you will only see one wire going on and on. That takes a lot of foreseeing! That's a lot of talent right there!

Love the color of this one
Nice mix of paint and ink
Interesting take

Painted on a woven mat (Banig)

Sculpture

Close Up

This is MY FAVORITERelevant Topics
Crazy Beautiful Imagination
I'm loving this. Might do something like this with Isa :)
This painting gave me and idea for a shootCatwoman
AR likes this
Fish sculpture
Love this portrait
Tree ManSome woman
ART appreciating


Here's a picture to give you an idea of the scale of the Art FairAfter all that art, we were starving but despite our hunger we wanted to try eating somewhere new instead of eating in the usual places. So we went around searching. It took awhile until we decided on one.

We ended up at Numa, it's located somewhere in Bonifacio Global City
Their menuAR's order, their specialty: Shepherd's PieI got Binagoongan and that's AR's salad for startersTea for Jerome (he ate ahead)

And some Red Tea thing for me

So much for trying out something new, food wasn't anything WOW. It was just OK, nothing particularly special.
Oh well, hope we have better luck in choosing next time

:)

Rest of the pictures here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=94550&l=57320888ce&id=617308544

NOTE : I remember bringing my Masscom notes with me that night, exam was in 2 days and pages and pages to study. I can't believe I went out that night when I barely studied. I felt better when I saw my blockmate in Serendra who hasn't started studying as well. The exam was done in 2 parts, I'd like to think I made up for it on the 2nd part. Results aren't out yet. I hope I passed :|