Tag Archives: masks
Artists To Know: ArtPrize 2016 Edition
I almost thought I wasn’t going to make it to Artprize this year with everything going on, but in the end I knew I’d deeply regret it if I didn’t just make the time. I mean, even Donald Trump turned up for Artprize this year, albeit on different weekends. Apparently I went one week too early and missed him, oh darn ;).
Though my boyfriend and I missed meeting an actual candidate, the election still haunted us in the form of getting semi-lost by missing an exit due to a sociopolitical argument that escalated on the car ride over. I think election time makes all Americans go a little psycho. Otherwise, the day went off without a hitch…
Good food, good beer,
silly photo ops,
a sighting of my favorite Pantone color,
and a chance to live as my favorite Peanuts character for a hot second (Lucy forever!!!).
Granted, walking around town for one day you only end up seeing a fraction of the art that is available, but I wanted to share with you my favorites of what I was able to see.
Kathy Weaver – War Devours Us
Weaver’s intricate charcoal and mixed media pieces have so much detail, incorporating collage and stitched elements as you zoom in closer. Weaver aims to show the strength and courage of the refugee community amidst horrifying circumstances, and often less than a warm welcome when they attempt to find peace and safety.
Saya Woofalk – Pose System
This piece, featuring collaged bodies and colorful details (and skulls, have to love skulls), grabbed my attention right away for it’s dynamic composition and unique style. It was so different from anything else I would see during the day, and there was so much visual movement in both the contortions of the figures and even the psychedelic dotted background.
Chadwick and Spector – Museum Anatomy
These pieces are painted on human bodies – enough said. The concept statement said that the artists used female portraits from the Renaissance that had been either hidden, lost, or destroyed. To recreate these paintings on paper alone would be a challenge. Can you spot the eye in the second photo?
Scott Leipski – 10 Thoughts On Tuesday
This artist challenged himself to create a new piece every Tuesday for 10 weeks, and this is the end result. I loved how different each piece was from the other, like an eccentric cast of characters. I had a soft spot for the Alice In Wonderland inspired piece, of course.
Joao Paulo Goncalves – Portraits of Light and Shadow
This artist created portraits of Martin Luther King Jr., Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, and Vermeer’s Girl with the Pearl Earring using pixel art. But, this was no ordinary pixel art. The pixels are actually wooden blocks that protrude from the surface in varying degrees, and the different shades that you see are created by light and shadow from the light from the fixtures above hitting the blocks. I honestly can’t even quite wrap my head around how the artist figured all of this out to get such a rich gradation. It gives me a headache, so I think I will stop trying to figure it out and just enjoy the masterpiece :).
Zhao na – Isomorphic Interpretation of the Four Seasons
These stunning paintings do one of my favorite things in art – merge living things in their environment. The detail is stunning, and the use of white space, absolutely perfect. These works incorporated a lot of symbolism, outlined by the artist on her Artprize profile, which I would encourage you to read for further insight.
Hope Network Neuro Rehabilitation – Unmasking Brain Injury
I love love love the concept of this project. I work with a program that provides opportunities for expression through art for individuals with physical and mental challenges, so this was right up my alley. Using masks to create a visual representation of each artist’s personal story, 28 artists who attend the Hope Network’s rehabilitation program joined together to express how brain injury has affected them personally, and how they have triumphed. This project, featuring not only the mask itself but each individual’s accompanying personal story, was one of the most meaningful and powerful pieces I saw. I love art that visually represents personal stories. I have previously talked about the power of telling people’s stories through art, and also about shining light on the truth through telling your personal story. Stories are a powerful force for both recording history, erasing prejudices and misconceptions, and personal therapy, letting go of the burden of things you cannot change.
Has anyone else gone to Artprize this year? What were some of your favorites?
Art Discussion – Legacy
Legacy, 11×14 Prismacolor Pencil
Today, I wanted to unpack a piece from my conceptual portraits series I’ve been working on since beginning of last year, titled “Legacy”.
The script scrolling from her head at the top right reads “I fear being ordinary most of all”. For this piece, I had been thinking a lot about how many decisions we make are rooted in a fear of mortality. We fear that once we are gone it won’t matter… we will have left nothing behind to be remembered by. We long to be KNOWN for something, to be successful at something, for others to know our name. Sometimes we don’t even care if what we are noted for is positive or not, just as long as our existence is eye-catching and out of the ordinary and commands fame and astonishment for good reasons or for terrible. LIke Oscar Wilde said, “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about”. Everything we do, in the relationships we build, the work and pleasure we choose, is leading towards a legacy we hope to build and the perception by which we will be remembered. I used the repeated pattern of the skull and grave markers on her clothing as a motif symbolizing mortality. You will also notice the burning city in the background at the bottom of the composition, which she turns away from smiling, so inwardly focused that she takes no notice of the external destruction.
I have always been interested in masks, mainly because I am interested in almost any form of art that involves faces. Masks can also symbolize so many different things. They can symbolize falseness, pretense, anonymity, invisibility, the concealment of sins. But, they can also symbolize celebration, personal expression, the fact that human beings are flexible and multi-faceted and shades of grey – not black and white, and the power we have over who we want to be in our own story. I am especially drawn to the aesthetic of Japanese Kabuki and Noh masks, two forms of classical Japanese musical drama that involve masks and elaborate costumes to aid in telling the story. In Noh, each mask symbolizes a different type of character. For the background of this piece, I chose to tile the demon character mask (destructive, powerful) alternating with the traditional woman mask (usually symbolizing a character who is beautiful, refined, elegant, and demure). This symbolizes the interplay between a person’s two choices (or more accurately, what we perceive as our only two options). Too often we think that the only way to get ahead, be noticed, be outstanding, is to forgo our ideals and do what is best for ourselves and ourselves only. Those who make history do tend to have an awful lot of skeletons in their closet. But does doing what is right condemn us to having to play the role of the mouse smiling and curtsying in the corner? I’d ask you to also look to history (Think of Martin Luther King Jr., the most well known example!) and see that no, that is certainly not the case.
It is always interesting to hear others’ thoughts. Who are some of your favorite notable figures who broke the societal assumption of power and success being inseparable from selfishness and violence? What kind of legacy do you want your existence to build?
Allise Nicole's Artistic Explorations 