Ned Kahn

Ned Kahn is what is called an environmental artist. No he is not about trying to save the enviroment through art. His work is about expressing the enviroment. About revealing things that cannot been seen and doing so in a artistic way. This would include making things that move when wind or water hit them. Changing the patterns of smoke through hair currents. Even revealing light in a new way through the effects of wind or rain. He would probably classify himself as part scientist part artist. Much of his work involves complex calculations and figuring out how to make the invisible environment visible. I am a very big fan of his work because of how he's trying to connect people into what cannot be controlled. Yes much of his work does have patterns but they are patterns that are uncontrollable. In a way, through his work he is trying to show the acts of the divine. How there is some supernatural force out there and it influences us in the same way that the unpredictable wind influences his pieces.

Pepón Osorio

Pepón Osorio is a large installation artist from Puerto Rico. His work has been influenced by his dealings with the people and and his experience as a social worker in the Bronx. The main goal of much of his work seems to be to bring artwork back to the people. He does this in several different ways. One of his big ones is the live in where he actually has family's live with his artwork for a week. Its difficult to describe his work. Much of his pieces seem to be a 3d collage of different objects. Some are very flashy and represent art styles of the past while others are dull and appear as if they were taken from a garage. I think this is what makes his work so unique. Its a blend of other artwork to create new work. His work seems also to be about exaggeration. He takes a simple object or an idea that someone might be interested in and exaggerates the obsession of that object. In many of his pieces the walls and floors are covered with pictures all relating to the same subject matter. The purpose behind this is probably to emphasize how we are all interested in something and how it takes over a part of our lives.

My opinion about graffiti artists.

So after writing about a couple of graffiti artist I decided it was high time that I gave my opinion about them. I'm going to be very blunt about it and say I'm not impressed. In fact I don't like you at all. The reason why is because I see you as lazy people who force other people to pay attention to you and this crap you come up with. I'm all for making new and interesting art. I love seeing sculptures that are fifty feet high and stand out in the middle of the sidewalk. But the difference between those and what graffiti artists do is the commission. Those strange fifty foot tall sculptures being put in the middle of the city were asked to be put there by the people. Either people, or an organization, collected money to higher an artist to create something that is unique and expressive. It was asked for by the people. Graffiti artists don't ask the people or owners of a building to paint. They just go. They assume that people won't mind if they paint wherever they damn well please, and if they do mind then they must be idiots. Not everyone wants to see weird ass pictures and names everywhere they look. I mean how would you like it if I went to your house and painted whatever I wanted on your walls. I think you would be pretty damn pissed. And the excuse that artist have a right to express themselves is the worst excuse ever. If that were true then serial killers should be able to keep on killing because allot of them see themselves as artists. So what this all sums up to be is not everyone likes to have crap painted onto their house. Not everyone likes a bit of weird color in the middle of their nice white wall. If you want to paint go buy a canvas like everyone one else. If you cant afford a canvas then get a job and stop depending on other people. I mean if you really want to paint on walls start with the ones in your house first. Then when those are all filled up you can either paint over them or just buy an abandoned building to paint on. And for all those graffiti artists out there. If I see you painting on something just so you can "express yourself" I'm calling the cops on you.

Another graffiti artist.

Yay another graffiti artist. This goes by the nme of Barry McGee. Before I go into the details on this gentleman's work I would like to point out that its late and I really don't give a rats ass. I'm sorry if your reading this Barry McGee but the only reason I'm writing about you on my blog is for a grade in one of my classes. Granted I'm sure your a fairly interesting person in real life its just I've written about so many artists at this point and I'm so tired of school that I just really don't care. That being said I shall go onto describing Mr. McGee's artwork.
As I mentioned before Mr. McGee is another graffiti artist. Some people are thoroughly impressed by this but I'm not. Why some of you may ask. Well Ill talk about that in my next blog. This blog is just about Mr. McGee. Anyways, back on topic, Mr. McGee is another graffiti artist who seems to like the 1920's jazz style. Allot of his work reminds me of stuff that would be out right before the depression. You know. The kind of stuff that would represent musicians that flappers would dance to. Anyways allot of his work contains the qualities of the old style jazz pictures. Big faces with big broad lines that are slightly distorted so as to make one part of the musicians body stand out more. So although he did his own thing with it its still been done to death and I'm therefore not very impressed. Some of his other work I might classify as plaid art. I mean it honestly looks like he took some crazy pop quilt and copied it onto a wall. I get the whole idea of everything can be art I just don't like it when the artwork comes out looking like something my grandma could have sewn.
To end this long rant I'm just going to say that I'm not very impressed by Barry McGee. I think that he found a way to make money off of copying older styles of art work. Sorry if your reading this McGee but come up with something creative and branch out. Fame is not an excuse for laziness and an artist that makes money off of one style will so be broke unless he expresses himself in new ways.

Margaret Kilgallen

Margaret Kilgallen is a very well know artist who blended folk art with contemporary art. The major influences of her work are old signs and old folk culture. She was well know for her creation of signs which she made the old fashion way instead of using modern methods. Many of her pieces were created on found object and paper, such as books. She wall also well know for her graffiti with which she tagged under various names. Her artwork is very traditional in that it seems to focus on objects and pictures carefully made by hand. Calling her a purist would probably be going to far but her work seemed to emphasize the amount of effort it took to make old signs and pictures. It is this emphasis on the old that mad her work stand out. Looking at it now it looks like stuff made during the 1920's and 30's.

Tim Hawkinson

Time Hawkinson is a sculptural artist from San Fransisco California. He is best know for pieces like "Bear" and "emoter". Many of his pieces include themes from his own body. However, this being said, his work is not self portrait in the traditional style. Many of his pieces are mechanized and often include some kind of sound or device that asks the viewer to engage with the piece. This characteristic of his art makes it unique and interesting. Rather then having the viewer just look at the piece he is asking them to use other sense. He is asking them to experience the piece rather then observe it.

Framing

So a few days ago I went down to visit the Boise art museum. At the time the art being shown was by Mardsen Hartley. Although he did have interesting pieces I was more interested in how he framed his work. It was interesting to see the wide variety of both frames and framing techniques he used in order to show his pictures. The frames ranged in every color, size, style, and material. There was almost no consistency with his prints. As for how he mounted them he did seem consistent in his use of window mounting. However, that being said, he did change the amount of space between the glass and the picture. I'm not sure if this assortment of frames is suppose to add to the flavor of the pieces or just the result of laziness. In the end though I don't think it really matters because they seemed to go well with his work. They just seemed to add to the overall vibrant colors seen in all his images. So I guess what matters when it comes to mounting and framing is that it goes with the work and the message being conveyed rather then the decor of the room.