Objectified Rags to Riches or My 'Slumdog Millionaire' Art Piece Pick!

Since one aspect of my 'living an artful life' blog is to promote the eco-conscious in art making, I like to highlight artists/designers that use materials and resources in fresh, evocative ways. Sometimes that means recycling old objects to make something new, and sometimes it means using the material that is so plentifully available all around us to make something sustainable and usable - so this post I give you Stuart Haygarth whose chandeliers are my slumdog millionaire art piece pic of the day!

Stuart Haygarth's Optical Chandelier

In the movie Slumdog Millionaire, an over-wrought, inundated, economically-severed place (the slums of Mumbai India) give birth to two children who end up orphaned but not destitute- since they are filled with illuminating hope for a future destiny to love each other. Their brilliance of life becomes manifested through a "Who Wants to be a Millionaire televsion show" and a brutal accusation of cheating. Now this may seem as a stretch, but my artist eyes see that same story line when I see Stuart Haygarth's chandeliers...objects plentiful, disregarded, over-wrought, inundated give off such a spectacular shape, form and light.

Stuart Haygarth's Tide Chandelier

So seeing as Slum Dog Millionaire was the big winner at the Oscars last night - I only thought it fitting to find an artist who I think is the 'slumdog-millionaire-designer' of the day! Some of the objects that make up these chandeliers are objects that you would find a plenty in landfills, dollar stores or in your pantry.Mr. Haygarth collects, cleans and categorizes these objects (sometimes for years) before composing them into forms.

My work is about giving banal and overlooked objects a new significance. The finished piece of work takes various forms such as chandeliers, installations, functional and sculptural objects. - ^{excerpt from Stuart Haygarth's online posted profile.}

Detail of Stuart Haygarth's Selffridge Harpoon 321

So who is Stuart Haygarth? Well, I discovered this artist/designer/lighting designer through design sites and blogs such as the Design Museum and Moco Loco. Mr. Haygarth is an England born artist who for many projects and commissions uses objects that are debris found along the coastline of Dungeness Beach in Kent, UK, such as this Selffridge named Harpoon321 made of found rubber fisherman gloves that have changed in tints and tones as they have been used and worn. To see more and to learn more about Stuart Haygarth another good link is Icon Magazine Online<

As for Slum Dog Millionaire if you haven't seen it- you must! It will defy any preconceived notions you have, illuminate the forgotten joy you had in love and thrill you the way a great movie should. And, if you're a comment leaving type - let me know about the unexpected and unlikely places you find beauty!

Art House Co-op Sketchbook project vol. 3 - Artist and Student Colin Alexander

Colin Alexander has been a student of both my husband (Gregg Emery) and I for the last two years. He is one of our 'die-hard' visual artists at Dwight and yes we have a few however Gregg and I would not have been in the art house exhibit if not for Colin. Colin Alexander's Art House Co-Op Sketchbook Cover

I'm a big fan of Colin's paintings and with this sketchbook challenge he made use of his painterly style, in his illustrations. Often he prepared the page with a paint treatment prior to illustrating on it - however the image below is coffee stained! Each time I turned the page - I came upon a whole new world that he created - he's an artist with wanderlust which is certainly evoked through the imagery.

meant as a self portrait

Sketchbook excerpt by Colin Alexander sketchbook excerpt by Colin Alexander

I especially appreciate the fresh, raw and uninhibited use of materials, some of which include drawing over masking tape! Colin's sense of design with borders and framing of the picture plane also lend a sophisticated yet simple (therefore universal) quality to his imagery.

sketchbook excerpt by Colin Alexander

For the deer, the concept was to illustrate the idea conveyed in an Emerson poem,

"forbearance"
"Hast thou named all the birds without a gun? Loved the wood rose, and left it on its stalk? At rich men’s tables eaten bread and pulse? Unarmed, faced danger with a heart of trust? And loved so well a high behavior, In man or maid, that thou from speech refrained, Nobility more nobly to repay? O, be my friend, and teach me to be thine!"

The color control in the compositions is just as vital to the whole - look at the muted pink and babyblue figures (some of which represent police) juxtaposed against the colorless victim.

This police image is a response to:

"getting pulled over by the police the day after christmas; 3 days after i got my license. I'm making a turn at a corner where it's busy (friday night downtown burbs), but no one's about to cross. So the police pulled me over and then gave me a ticket for failing to yield to the "pedestrian" and for having too many kids in the car. I think the too many kids rule is bogus, as it shoots holes through carpooling, which a lot of kids are doing with out being wild and crashing through shop windows. So a night that was gonna be a good night of pizza became ruined cuz of rules that aren't thought through."-colin

sketchbook excerpt by Colin Alexander excerpt from Colin Alexanders Art House Sketchbook

Colin even made a pop-up house in his little moleskine sketchbook! These images show only a fraction of all the work and I encourage readers to check out Colin's Art House sketchbook vol.3 page to see more!

Hope you enjoyed this peek into another art house sketchbook project vol. 3 artist! Let me know, since I'm sure Colin would love to read your comments.

Art House Co-Op Sketchbook Complete-

all the images for the Art House Sketchbook project in a mosaic

Well here is a slightly zoomed in version of the completed sketchbook for the Art House Co-op Sketchbook volume 3 exhbit- just in time to run to the post office and have it postmarked by the deadline. The next time I do this I think I'll start well before two and half weeks (its easy to underestimate the amount of spreads -there were over thirty- in one of those little moleskines!)

If you would like to see the sketchbook in person (along with hundreds of other amazing sketchbooks) this is the list of cities the Sketchbook Volume 3 Exhibit will travel to around the US:

EVENT at Art House Gallery Feb 27th, 2009 Atlanta, GA The Sketchbook Project Tour - Atlanta Over 2,700 sketchbooks from around the globe.

EVENT at Museum of Contemporary Art DC March 3, 2009Washington, DC The Sketchbook Project Tour - Washington, DC Over 2,700 sketchbooks from around the globe.

EVENT at Chris' Jazz Cafe March 4, 2009Philadelphia, PA The Sketchbook Project Tour - Philadelphia Over 2,700 sketchbooks from around the globe.

EVENT at Laconia Gallery March 6, 2009Boston, MA The Sketchbook Project Tour - Boston Over 2,700 sketchbooks from around the globe.

EVENT at Antena Gallery March 8, 2009Chicago, IL The Sketchbook Project Tour - Chicago Over 2,700 sketchbooks from around the globe.

EVENT at Soulard Art Market March 11, 2009St. Louis, MO The Sketchbook Project Tour - St. Louis Over 2,700 sketchbooks from around the globe.

EVENT at 3rd Ward March 13, 2009Brooklyn, NY The Sketchbook Project Tour - Brooklyn Over 2,700 sketchbooks from around the globe.

EVENT at Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) April 2, 2009Atlanta, GA The Sketchbook Project Tour - Atlanta Over 2,700 sketchbooks from around the globe.

Art House Co-Op Sketchbook Exhibit -

Here I celebrate my grandma with 'abuela' sketch - for Animal Crossing: Manimals Sketchbook by marisol diaz abuela complete -for Animal Crossing: Manimals Sketchbook by marisol diaz

The theme/prompt for the up an coming Art House sketchbook exhibit is 'Everyone I know'.

My husband (Gregg Emery) who is also participating in the show has filled his sketchbook with line drawings and gesture drawings inspired by the social network Facebook. Our student, artist Colin Alexander has completed a very painterly sketchbook addressing people, places and things.

Artist and husband Gregg Emery, Student and Artist Colin Alexander, Me with our moleskine sketchbooks for the Art House Sketchbook exhibit

Since I have some very passionate and somewhat philosophical threads of thoughts regarding animals, I decided that I would do everyone I know (or think I know) as an animal. I designed my sketchbook so that the people intimate to me would be first and my social circle would open up to include friends, co-workers and students towards the end. I also made a visual narrative so that the female figure that represents my alter ego slowly goes through a transition of becoming an animal herself.

I didn't even realize (until I was almost done) that I'm also an Animal Crossing/City Folk Wii addict- hence the name of my sketchbook is Animal Crossing:Manimals.

So stayed tuned for the next post - when I will feature excerpts from Gregg and Colin's sketchboks!

ART & Art House Co-op, Opportunities for Visual Artist Nationally

The Sunday Scribbling post this weekend is the word ART.

In my life 'art' is one of two small three letter words (you can guess what the other is) that in its munificence and multiplicity of interpretations is as all encompassing and one of the anthropological enigmas and forces of a human being's existence. The human need to create, construct, design, document, communicate, exhibit and display emotive, aesthetic, visual, kinetic, auditory, sensory or political statements that infer reaction (even if silent) has been a point of great controversy when attempting to encapsulate and define the word 'art'. Though not to the same degree it is in that same way that wars are waged over defining the word God.

I carry an MFA - a Master's Degree of Fine Art and I have walked in that world of higher aspiring gallery-tooting artists for quite some time. The kind that dismiss lesser art-forms; crafts, instruction, function, accessible, non-toxic techniques and community - the kind that believe that the lofty studio is the only form of daily, noble occupation they should hold. However, I have found myself not prescribing to an elitist, high-brow definition of art-making either with food, word, song, color, line, form or performance. Therefore I do not distinguish (like many in my field) between Craft and Fine art.

Beauty Cage Sculpture by marisol diaz

That doesn't mean I don't wish my daily grind was facing my own rules in my own studio daily (who wouldn't), it means I do not believe it is my gift alone to have and I do believe that the joy of experiencing art is teachable. Affirmation is doable. It means I do not see function as lending a utilitarian, hand-evident and therefore neophyte quality to the art-piece. It means that I believe art is for everyone, in everyone and about everyone - whether you are in-tuned with it or not. The evident work of the laborer and hand in a piece of art is just as much a masterpiece as the art work whose maker masters at disguising there was ever a hand there.

In the visual arts those who say - 'I cannot draw' are denying themselves the lifting of a veil, since it begins with simply making a mark and ends with the practice of doing piano scales, because we do indeed admit that we can learn. What is it after all you are trying to draw? Sure there is something said about inherent talent, amazing innate gifts of skill and fluidity, but even the artist born with those abilities are making art hoping to touch the artist in others. To me its that simple connection that determines the extraordinary reach of the word art.

Art House Co-op Sketchbook Show Excerpt by marisol diaz

So I have a new self-imposed deadline, and here's why:

One of my visual art students (artist Colin Alexander) told me and my hub (fellow artist and teacher) about Art House and an exhibit opportunity that we should look into. So we did. Now our student, my hub and I are all submitting work for the sketchbook show and we will be exhibiting together! So what is ART HOUSE and how can we all benefit?

Art House creates massive, nationwide (and global) art projects that tie hundreds of artists together – and anyone can participate. We started two years ago with the goal of bringing art to the masses. Since we started, we have interacted with thousands of artists from around the world, all brought together with the common goal of creating art and sharing it with each other. We host many of the exhibitions for our projects at our gallery in Atlanta, Ga. In an attempt to give artists as much recognition as possible, as well as providing the opportunity to see the exhibition that they're a part of in person, we have started taking select projects to guest galleries around the country.

http://sundayscribblings.blogspot.com/

Sketchbook Sully Girls

sully girl 1 by marisol diazsully girl 2 by marisol diaz

I have a thing for making images out of what I perceive as 'staining' the watercolor paper; just letting large blots of color stain the paper first, then pushing the brush around to draw.

These are two little, sully girls from my old sketchbook. I hope they make you smile!

Sketchbook Samplings

Seeing as I'm participating in an up and coming sketchbook show (that I will soon be sharing with you all), I started to look through old sketchbooks. The sketchbook I'm currently working in for the show is thematic and is a little pocket moleskine, which is a great departure from the old stuff, which was done in my all time favorite kind of sketchbooks (pre-moleskine mania) a blue linen heavyweight sketchbook I used to get at Kate's Paperie in NYC.

The cover of one of my old sketchbooks I realized some of these older whimsical little colorful entries were from way back before I ever had a blog.

Sketchbooks are visual diaries for artists and one of my favorite past-times is to surf the internet and find sketchbook pages of varying artists to show my students. Final, polished illustrations are always great, but the process of artistic and creative cognition in a sketchbook is priceless. So with that said I wanted to share some of my sketchbook samplings with you...

sketchbook page - marisol diaz

These are a couple of non-representational entries from back when I was inspired by the decorations on cakes - dreaming of Mai sweetshop before it ever existed!

sketchbook page by marisol diaz I laughed when I saw this entry, since I remember doing it in a car as a passenger on a road-trip - why is that funny? I now spend so much God-forsaken-time commuting in the car and am always seeing this kind of road, that these days this is the LAST thing I would place in my sketchbook!sketchbook page by marisol diaz

This next one was a sketchbook page that I worked on in layers (there are some napkin prints glued on and drawn over), I remember working on this during a family gathering with my little cousins around and helping me glue and stamp.

sketchbook page by marisol diaz sketchbook by maisol diaz

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little blast from my artistic past. Please let me know what you think! And tell me please! Are you 'moleskine-wild' or do you have a different, favorite kind of paper/sketchbook to document the camera in your heart?

El Anatsui at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Since I find one of my overall passions as an artist and a blogger is to blur the line between fine art and craft, I like to feature both artist and art that walks this fine line. This past summer I was surprised to find Ghanian born artist El Anatsui featured as part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's recent acquisitions. And for those of you who are lovers of art made from recycled materials you will be sure to love this find as well!

Dusasa II by El Anatsui @ the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The piece you see featured above is made from thousands and thousands of found aluminum and copper wire (flattened and discarded aluminum caps) that are weaved together. It is a wall-hanging and is quite large (full wall scale) I was craning my neck and having to step far back in the gallery to photograph it. El Anatsui is considered the foremost African contemporary sculptor.

detail of Dusasa II 2007 by El Anatsui

The community based Ghanian kente cloth construction of this piece can also be compared to mosaic work, folk art, and even the patterning that has been treasured in Gustav Klimt's paintings. The following images truly show the majesty and mastery of the piece.

detail shot of El Anatsui's DusasaII, 2007 piece

According to the artist (as I read on the title card)

the term Dusasa can be translated as 'a patchwork made by a team of towns people'

However another beautifully poignant quote from the artist that I found at another site states:

Art grows out of each particular situation, and I believe that artists are better off working with whatever their environment throws up.

- El Anatsui, 2003 super detail of El Anatsui's DesasaII wall hanging

On a side note - if you enjoy seeing El Anatsui's work, I recommend the National Museum of African Art site, which has a specially designated section on El Anatsui and three of his major works with podcasts of the artist talking. In addition, if you just google 'El Anatsui' amazing articles and images of his work come up!

Furthermore, if you love this kind of eco-conscious art-making you will really enjoy the Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. When I lived there I got to go often and it was indeed one of my all time favorite places to be! Please let me know what you think!

Adobe Illustrator and Kawaii Madness!

As I have grown to love ALL things Japanese, I wanted to share in the Kawaii (and the Kawaii not) madness!

Definition of Kawaii: Since the 1970s, cuteness|可愛さ|kawaisa has become a prominent aspect of Japanese popular culture, entertainment, clothing, food, toys ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawaii

Kawaii Not: Cute Gone Bad by Meghan Murphy Buy It! You'll Like it!

Last Spring I was perusing through a bookstore (like I usually do) and I found the strangest little book, it was so cute (or according to the title, not) entitled - Kawaii Not Cute Gone Bad. It's a desktop flip-book with vector graphics by Meghan Murphy. I then found out the book is a compilation of a web-comic by Ms. Murphy and you just have to check out the Kawaii Not: the webcomic for cute gone bad site -its a delight! Ms. Murphy's designs are witty, punchy, fun and often very humorous. Through the preparing to write this post I found Ms. Murphy's online illustration portfolio entitled- Murhypop which is also a real treat - she is a fresh, sophisticated, freelance illustrator with some great clients already under her belt! To see her amazing vector illustrations go to www.murphypop.com.

A peek inside the Kawaii Not bk by Meghan Murphy

So as my readers know I have been re-teaching myself Adobe Illustrator since back when I knew the program (in the days when Macs were rectangular cubes and I bought an upgrade behemoth with a wacom tablet) which was a while ago. Since then I've fallen out of the computer art loop and the program Adobe illustrator turned fancy and it morphed into the 'creative suite', needless to say I forgot much.

Well thankfully Ms. Murphy's book came along and it offered me great inspiration to getting back into it. I highly recommend this four panel comic strip book to anyone in need of some daily humor and interested in vector illustrations. And so in honor of her, here is one of my 'cute gone bad' illos done to practice with Adobe tools - in true Meghan Murphy style it's a bit cheeky so, I hope no one is offended:

my Adobe Illustrator 'cute gone bad' illo inspired by meghan murphy

Artist Workspace - Vignettes of my space

After seeing the publication Where Women Create, I started to look at my own space differently. First of all, growing up I never had a room (nor did anyone I know) that served solely as a space to create/work/build-in. In the US I grew up in apartments and there was never even a nook for tools or workspaces of any kind. In Puerto Rico my family had homes, but most of the tools were for construction and often out about the grounds, scattered wherever they were needed. It was my artist cousin (Adalberto) in Puerto Rico that loved to paint like me, but also work with wood and he started to develop a large passageway in his parent's home dedicated to where he placed a band-saw, table-saw and other tools. Of course by then I had seen basement and garage workshops a plenty in friends homes - still I never conceived of my own studio. I simply worked in my room, in a kitchen, on the floor or wherever I found some 'spreadability' space.

supply shelves in my studio

It was in college, my junior year that all Visual Art department students received their own studios, with movable walls and no door. Of course some complained about who did or did not have the most space, but I couldn't have been more thrilled. Just to have a space in which I could hang research, inspiration, and leave projects in half completion was a delight.

The corkboard that hangs over my drawing table

In grad school, at the beginning of the Master's program studio's were given on a first come first serve basis (I had arrived early enough) and yes we had doors! Now as a read and look at so many inspiring artist rooms, I realize looking at others studio's is just as inspiring as having a room of your own. I wish I would have taken more pictures of those early studios. I will try to scan the images I do have and post them for you to see...they were so much more serious spaces than the light-heartedness you see in these current ones.

A little country pig that hangs from my drawing table lamp

Before I was married I lived in a one room studio apartment in Manhattan and even there I was sure to have a 'studio corner'. Thankfully I married a fellow artist and in all of our living spaces (two) we have been sure to get one room (above the number of bedrooms that we actually need for a studio space. So today I thought I would share glimpses/vignettes/niches of my little studio 0(since my husbands studio tends to be the outdoors). Though its not anywhere as awe-inspiring or 'high' end as the remarkable spaces featured in Where Women Create, I still hope my colorful tidbits give you a little inspiration.

A corner of my drawing table with 'house' rings waiting to be completedTwo rabbits and a little wooden pig hand-carved by grandpa George

I find it interesting as I look at these how mentally I am always attracted to clean minimal, organized spaces but for the life of me I CAN'T seem to create that in my own space- instead my studio is cluttered with visual noise - all be it 'pleasing' and 'purposeful' visual noise but 'clutter' all the same. It may be a result of never having had the ability to saturate a space so much in the past or it may simply be a reflection of me?

My 'Innocence Lost' drawing on the wall above my printerEvery artist studio needs a rainbow.My Pullips and Blythes...I'm into the Sixties and their Twiggy big-eyed girlsMy very special friend, my embroidery machine.My 'for everything-else' sewing machine - My old Sue singer died.

I hope you enjoyed these little snippets I'll be sure to do more as I get more courageous!