Tuesday January 26th, 2010

Sappho had it right, and I can't wait for the day when a man says Poem #28 to me:

"Nor do I think there will be at any time again

a maiden who looks upon the light of sun

with wisdom as great as yours."

Thursday January 21st, 2010

Artist: Oskar Kokoschka

Title: Two Nudes (Lovers)

Year: 1913

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Thursday January 21st, 2010

Oswaldo Guayasamín

Oswaldo Guayasamín is one of my favorite artists. He worked mostly out of Ecuador, and there is a museum dedicated to his art in Quito. Not only did he paint, Guayasamín was a sculptor, although I would like to share his paintings with you. His works are some of the most emotionally charged works I have seen from any painter of any background, I have not seen every artist of every culture, but just look at these works and see what I mean!

Title: El Grito #2

Year: 1983

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Title: El Grito #3

Year: 1983

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Title: Napalm

Year: 1976

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Thursday January 21st, 2010

Julio Valdez

Here are a few works by Julio Valdez. I saw some works by Julio at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, CA, and I really enjoyed his use of color and texture in his pieces. More work can be found at his website.

Title: Rooted

Year: 2004-2005

Medium: Mixed Media on Linen

Title: I Give You A Rose/ Te Regalo Una Rosa

Year: 1998

Medium: Acrylic, Collage and Pigment Dispersion on Canvas

Title: Adrift II

Year: 2007

Medium: Oil on Gatorboard

Dear Steve Melcher...

Dear Steve Melcher,

Normally I wouldn't rat on someone who was trying to spread art out to the people because for some it is hard to go to museums, even if you live in a city bustling of them like Los Angeles or San Francisco, and art blogs are a good resort for those people. But you are not spreading art in the right manner

I saw the article in the Los Angeles Times this morning written by David Ng, and frankly I was unimpressed. My gut reaction was "no, that's just silly and pointless." But I thought before I decided to think that your blog wasn't good at all, I would look at it for myself. I started scrolling down, seeing artists that I know and some that I maybe hadn't heard of too much before, but I did see one thing that wasn't right. Your titles aren't clever. Sorry.

I did try, quite hard, to look at your blog with an open mind, but "Auguste Renoir Gets Punk'd"? Seriously? You think that's clever. I think that you could come up with more interesting titles that don't revolve around the media and pop culture of today. I'll admit, the New Year's one mentioned in the article is a bit better than some of your others, it does look like an awkward situation and I'll give you kudos for that piece.

In the article you said you like Dutch art, that's great... but don't reference Tiger Woods when you do so... or text messaging. If you really look at Dutch art, there are so many humorous aspects of paintings that don't include modern updates, and don't need "captions" to make people laugh at them.

I, myself, had thought (before starting an art blog) that I would put up pieces and rant about them, in a sort of humorous way. There are many paintings where the subjects are just being outright stupid, and that made me want to write about them, but I decided to just do an art blog, which you can trash if you'd like, but there's not much there for the trashing.

My final problem with your blog is that, although you mention the artist, country of origin and the date, you don't include the original title. If you want people to think you're doing a clever update, then don't you think you should include all of the original information about the piece?

I'd like you to think about this Mr. Melcher, and maybe reconsider some aspects of your blog.

Thank you,

Aves