Carol Barton, Tunnel Map 1988

This tunnel book is a little unusual because of its circular shape depicting the shape of our Earth. The book art is known already from 1800 hundreds when the books were popular as toys for children. What I like about the book art is that you don't necessary need to have drawing or painting talent. Book art is more about mechanical skills. Instead of pencil drawing you can use other technique like cutting and putting pieces together to form a book. With many cut outs and special tools available in craft store it can be easier than ever. To me its very similar to card making or scrapbooking.

Tunnel Art

I know this will be repetitive of me since I talked of him once before, but this 'Chapel of Sacred Mirrors' which I believe is located in NYC is a form of 'tunnel' art because you are experiencing it when you are in this place.





Here is a traditional tunnel book artist... (click it to see it full size)




Ann Stinner, titled "Drift" about life in the prairie. The materials she used are painted papers, stencil, collage, paste paper, and machine-perforated treatments; acrylic paint, gesso, and wheat paste were used in the colouring of the papers; laser printed written texts. I think her own statement about her work says it best.

Artist's Statement: What impresses me most about life on the prairies is the powerful influence of the natural elements. In spite of differences in ethnic background or daily routines, all of us who live here must adapt to the climate and the weather. Nature is a great equalizer, and a key determinant of prairie culture. These ideas interest me as an artist. In the midst of the beauty and vastness of the landscape, and in the face of wind, snow, and floods, our human presence often seems vulnerable and temporary. Even if we live in cities, we all pay attention to the rhythms of the seasons and try to anticipate the natural events which occasionally surprise us. This book work suggests, through both visual and verbal means, some aspects of the uneasy yet respectful relationship human beings have with their prairie environment.

More Book Artists

Remember, you have a post due Tuesday on book arts. If you're stumped, try looking at some of the artists I've posted in the last few days. Here are a few more book artists / artists that use the book format to look at:

-Keith Smith
-Art Spiegelman
-John Baldessari
-Columbia College Center for Book and Paper Arts
-Tom Phillips, The Humument
-Ron King, Turn Over Darling
-Scott McCarney, In Case of Emergency
-Martine Aballea, Triangle
-Conrad Gleber, Meat Book
-Allison Cooke Brown
-Emily Martin, Eight Slices of Pie
-Johanna Drucker
-Pamela Spitzmueller
-Maddy Rosenberg, Shadow of Descent
-Lois Morrison
-Sandra Jackman, On a Darkling Plain
-Mary Bennett, German Egypt
-Jan Owen
-Meret Oppenheim
-Audrey Niffenegger

The above links don't all contain images, but are rather a place to start in searching for books by these artists.

Also, there is a wonderful, fcomic book called "The Pop-Up Book of Phobias" by Gary Greenberg. I've included some images below. This is a wonderful example of what I have been talking to many of you about-- namely the importance of playing with perspective (how is your viewer entering the scene? are they in the middle of the action or on the sidelines?). Pay special attention to the way the viewer is implicated in the scenes below; the viewer is in the dentist 's chair, looking down at a dirty toilet, looking up from the bottom of a grave, standing on the ledge of a tall building. Because of this shift in point of view, the viewer is drawn into the scene and experiences it more viscerally.

Artist Books

http://www.donnaseagergallery.com/art_of_the_book/artists/Howard_Munson/images/Valle%20del%20Mais%20400.jpg

This is one of the many artist books that really liked. This book is by Howard Munson, and the reason I like it is, because he doesn't focus on only figures, he focuses on many different things. Munson is well known for his pop ups, and the "naked" prints and drawings, enclosed within these crafted casings make the book arts the best medium for Munson's talents.

Kara Walker

The artist I really liked was Kara walker. I love the fact that she can make anything she wants out of a piece of paper. I also like her ideas. When her exhibitions are displayed the illusions are strong and visible. Her focus on black cut outs also make me wonder, why the option of black? Her work is pretty amazing.

figure drawing- julie

http://www.jenniferklemp.com/show-image/69606/Jennifer-Klemp/figure-drawing--julie.jpg

The reason I picked this drawing is, because I like how the basics are layed out on the paper. I also like how the artist worked around the basics and created the basic drawing of Julie's body. Even though this drawing is not specifically detailed, it looks really professional.

Ribbons of Color

http://fineartamerica.com/images-medium/ribbons-of-color-brenda-adams.jpg


This abstract colored drawing by Brenda Adams is one of my favorites for two reasons. One is an abstract drawing, and two the blending of colors is awesome. The movement of the color makes a statement and I personally believe that any art piece has to make a statement in order to be strong. I also like the fact that she doesn't try to match the colors together, but tries to organize them so that either way they would interact with each other.

As You Work, Consider the Following Artists

Hello all,

We talked about Andrea Dezso's work in class, but I never gave you her website. Click here to see more of her work.


Andrea Dezso, Living Inside, 2009, tunnel book series


Andrea Dezso, Living Inside, 2009, tunnel book series


Also, as I was researching papercutting online, I found Peter Callesen, also working in paper. Click here to see more of his work.




Peter Callesen, Snowballs, 2005


Peter Callesen, In the Short Distance Between Time and Shadow (detail), 2006

Video

I like Kiki Smith’s works. I think her works are very delicate and pretty in a way. As she said that the art is “movement from inside to physical world” and “a way to think”, I can see her thoughts. Her arts seem expressing vain and death. Works were beautiful but those were definitely different from Kara Walker’s which have strong claims. I mean, Kara Walker have more energetic feeling to the world, may be anger? Those differences are on the arts. I kind of like the fact that Kiki Smith’s ‘deaths’ were not ‘fear’ but more beautiful in a way.
-Han

I thought the work done by artist Kara Walker was both creepy and delightful. I liked how she made her cut-outs powerful using just silhouettes and and lighting. I especially liked the exhibit where she used the lighting to, quite literally, bring the audience into the work. The subject of her work is usually slavery and is very moving. The images, while not detailed, are extremely violent sometimes. It was surprising to find that such a powerful artist wasn't well-known. I couldn't find a lot of the pieces from the video in any sort of decent size online.

I saw this image as it caught my eye when searching through google. I believe that this can also be included as tunnel art as it is located right in Santa Barbara California. The vast differentiation of colors make the tunnel very appealing to look at. As well every time a person looks through that tunnel there is a different story being told. So basically the artist leaves it to the eye of person looking through it.

I really like this figure drawing done by picasso. The image looks very real and the colors are mixed together very well. The different shades of blue make you feel the picture. Not only does the blue show sadness but the persons head is also in her knees and she looks upset.

I really enjoyed kara walkers work. The cutting out of the potraits of actual people had a lot of meaning to it. Not only was it art but the art had a distinct meaning to it. She was telling a story through her art which made it that much more interesting. There were several examples of the civil war south with slavery and it didnt give colors to people everything was in just black and white. I just found her work very detailed but at the same time very simple. The peoples edges were cut in great detail but the overall person does not contain eyes and the shading you would see in a normal person, therefore making everyone look the same.

I particularly enjoyed watching Kara Walker's artistic process. The provocative nature of her work really woke me up that morning. At first glance i saw these silhouettes and thought nothing of it until I realized one of the ladies was eating someones head. Listening to her explanation of the other-worldly south and how it inspired a lot of her work was pretty captivating and insightful. I also thought casting the audience's shadows on the pieces on display was a great way to really get the viewers to think about the content.

I liked both Do -Ho Suh and Kiki Smith in the video. The first had a little different approach and used a lot of sewing in order to bring his parents house to life. He had to have a very strong feelings towards the house since he wanted to carry it with him where ever he had to move. I think it is pretty cool to be able to carry a replica of the house in a suitcase and feel a little less homesick in any new country.
About Kiki Smith I felt like whatever crazy idea she got she transferred it into an interesting piece of art. She could work with any material or use any technique, and the final product would be amazing. Also I have to give credit to her large amount of people working in her atelier.

Kara Walker was such an interesting artist to look at. She had such solid intent with each thing that she did, which is not true for many artists. She would think of a scene or figure in her head and bring it perfectly to life. That is something that is extremely difficult to do and she must get frustrated easily. The way that she cut those pieces of paper perfectly just kept me in awe, especially after cutting out pieces of the map after watching the movie. It takes such patience and skill and I really give her credit for that.

Rene Magritte was known for his surrealist paintings. This piece, "Black Magic" is a great example of a great piece of his and also of figure drawing. I will never be able to express the amount of appreciation I have for this and most of the rest of his work. The body is practically perfect and looks almost like a picture; everything is proportional and looks so real and beautiful. The shadows are all in the right places and the woman looks real.

Hanging Woman

I admire all the artists for their need for self-identity that differs largely from anyone else. They all had their reasons for their artwork, whether it was to feel more at home, tell history thru art, or just to express yourself and whatever may be tugging at the corners of your mind. Kiki Smith's work had a lot to do with still, quiet death images. Most of her work may seem rather disturbing, but whose work isn't? Looking into someone's mind and heart takes guts and to lay yourself bare for all teh world to see is even more courageous. This may be a portrait of death, but it could also be telling something about herself. Maybe she is trying to draw a connection between herself and the unaccepted Wiccans during that Salem Witch Trials, maybe she's trying to show her shyness thru the hair that's covering the woman's head, the position of the feet, the light and slightly dark colors. All in all, I find what she does beautiful.

i really loved both, kiki smith, and kara walker. Both seemed to have this confidence about there work, and know why they do it. The meaning behind both artists work is very interesting. Kara has this internal and external struggle that she portrays with these cutouts, and to have such a "simple" medium convey such an enormous response is to me the main reason for being an artist. Kiki Smith on the other hand is great, one, because she says that it doesnt just take talent to become what she has become but hard work, from her self, and the many people she has on staff with her. She really concentraits on the feministic view of the world and old world myths and takes her art into that realm of untouchable, but really speaking to us directly. i loved both of them.

Review of Art 21

When I was watching this video, it gave me lots of inspirations of what we are going to do for the next project. There were four artists in this video and each artists had their own style and characteristics but Kiki Smith gave me deep impression. Unlike other artists, she seemed to have passion about dead animals such as birds and cats. She also used herself by putting gypsum on top of her. This showed that she showed hard work on her work.Also, she had passion of her artwork because most artists do not deal with death/dead but Kiki Smith was dealing with it.

art 21 response

Even though we only watched a couple of minutes of Do-Ho-Suh's section in the show, "Art 21" i still liked his ideas of recreating his home, down to the dimension, in a totally different place. I thought it was very creative and original, as well as a very smart way to avoid becoming homesick. some people put up pictures or posters or arrange their furniture a certain way while Suh tries to copy every exact detail that he can as best he could. i liked the idea he had with the fabric, i thought it was a neat touch.
i thought that this piece of suh's works best represented what we watched during class. this piece is called "Fallen Star" http://exhibitioninquisition.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/do-ho-suh-fallen-star-1sq.jpg