Renew

On a personal note: I am sitting in my apartment, alone, listening to the Gene Harris quartet on Pandora. This is nice. I have been working nonstop since school has let out (which is good for my wallet, but fairly exhausting). My room is chilly, and strangely enough it is June. It has been so chilly here in Seattle, people have been referring to the month as Juneuary. I am thankful for the opportunity to relax, chat with friends, and clean (my room is pristine), but if I had one summertime complaint, it would be that I really miss the sunshine...

I need vitamin D! I need some amount of warmth! I need to wear my sundress and go picnic in it! Is this so much to ask for? The Solstice is this weekend, please Mr. Sun, pull through for me, and all of Seattle really. I specifically took work off on Saturday so I could attend the Solstice parade in Fremont. I've been waiting for it for nine months. The clouds better not ruin it for me. Also I know that I have been lagging in blog posts, sorry. Simply put, school is really exhausting. But I will catch up in blogging! If anything, I MUST write about the upcoming Solstice parade. It will be unlike anything I have experienced.

Now, for art:
While mulling through the internet a couple months ago, I came across Baptiste Debombourg's stapled wall art. These installations are created entirely out of staples, applied to the wall in various patterns in order to create depth and shadow.

When I came across these, I was instantly impressed and showed a friend. For some reason, he had a hard time determining that the images were human figures. He didn't realize that they were bodies until I told him, actually, and then he appreciated the technique. Do you have the same problem? Do these images translate as human form or just an interesting texture?

I love how the subject is kind of mysterious, how there is no hint to the reason why the figures are suspended in space. The overall effect is soft when viewed as a whole, which is appropriate when handing the human form, but a close inspection reveals the hard, metallic texture used. I really enjoy these.

Kim McCarty

For my first addition/critique/commentary/whatever, I decided to filter through some names that my art teacher mentioned to me last week. In preparation for this blog, I have been jotting down any names that sound interesting. I went through a few...and they weren't as stimulating as I thought they would be. I guess that is the purpose of this blog though, to find out what I dislike in addition to what I like.

Anyway, the fourth artist that I researched seems to strike my fancy. Her name is Kim McCarty, and she works in watercolor (my first love).

Her style seems very loose, uncontrolled, and delicate. This, according to my watercolor teacher, is how watercolor is "supposed" to be handled. She argued that the paint must be allowed to mingle and flow with the water, and react as each pigment uniquely does. While this point can be debated, its obvious that this is one unique aspect to watercolor and should probably be experimented with.

While I love her pieces, especially the nudes, upon reading her "about me" I discovered that:

"...Kim McCarty's watercolors depicting adolescent and preadolescent children..."

Wait. What? These nudes were gorgeous and tastefully done, not too graphic, and yes, they have a childlike innocence to them, but I never thought that they were, in fact, of children. I thought they were just stylized.

Is this ok? Or is this a form of child pornography? I don't know. I still like the paintings though. Tell me your thoughts.

http://www.kimmccarty.net/

Now, on a personal note:

If God had wanted to be a big secret, He would not have created babbling brooks and whispering pines.  ~Robert Brault