Mandy Lee Studio

Ever since I moved to Fort Collins, I’ve heard about Michael deMeng. Well, really read about him through workshops he has taught at the Artist’s Nook. I’ve drooled and dreamed that I too, would some day be able to make art that is inspired by his assemblages and techniques, without appearing as though they were inspired by his work.

The biggest fear for all people who create art- be it visual, written, musical, etc,- is that their work will be labeled as “copycat.” I know this fear affects and effects my decisions while making art. Hell, I’ve even not made art because I felt the idea was too similar to another artist’s work.

But Michael (I don’t think he’d mind me being so informal with his name) wrote an post on his blog last week that really hit home an obvious fact.

We don’t make art in a bubble.

Whether we realize it or not, our creations stem from our personal knowledge, which is influenced by everything we’ve ever touched, smelled, saw or heard. Throughout history, artists have inspired each other, and through that inspiration created new ideas, ways of thinking and techniques which helped evolve the arts. There’s no way we can create something that can’t, in some way, be tied or connected to someone’s style, idea or technique.

So go a head and make something that looks like a deMeng, because it’s not going to be a deMeng. It’s going to be YOURS, as it was created from YOUR hands and YOUR brain. Use this time to explore and build upon the technique and styles- and pass it along to other artists.

To Paraphrase Michael: Continue the chain of art evolution! Art Historians of the future will be glad you did.

You can read Michael’s post at this blog.

A site-specific project opened earlier this month in Beijing, and it looks awesome. Danish artist Olafur Eilasson and Chinese architect Ma Yangsong collaborated on a massive piece that explores the way the environment effects our spatial orientation. They built a Wonderlandesque environment of floors that gently slope up and down, with heavy fog machines and colored fluorescent lights to change the perspective of the person interacting with the environment. The fog hides just enough to make one feel insecure and unsteady, triggering the body to move differently through the space.

The work is very intriguing; I hope it will travel closer to home so I can experience it.

Image from Feelings Are Facts show in Beijin - image © designboom

http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/9745/olafur-eliasson-and-ma-yansong-feelings-are-facts.html

If, in the last post, you looked at Alfred Molina as Mark Rothko and thought he looked familiar, you aren’t going crazy! He is not a newcomer to art scene, having played Diego Rivera in 2002′s Frida. He plays a  larger-than-life, high energy, opinionated, womanizer, who also happens to be Mexico’s most prominent artist at the time. In fact, Diego was commissioned to paint a mural in the Rockerfella Building in NYC, but was halted before he could complete it due to communistic symbols and anti-democracy images.

Alfred Molina as Diega Rivera in Miramax's Frida

Stygian shades ... Alfred Molina as Mark Rothko in John Logan's Red. Photograph: Johan Perrson

Just got word that Alfred Molina is playing Mark Rothko on Broadway.  The play, titled Red, is supposedly happier than the tales of Rothko’s demons would deem, according to a Rothko historian. Molina shaved his head and spent long periods of time looking at and absorbing Rothko’s massive, experimental paintings in order to be better prepared for the role. Many are saying Molina is bringing a fresh, “wry humanity” to the part of the tortured-artist- transcending the cliché.

I can’t wait to see it!

MARK ROTHKO, OCHRE AND RED ON RED (1954)

http://www.usatoday.com/life/theater/reviews/2010-04-02-red02_ST_N.htm

I’ve always enjoyed mixing art with other disciplines. I’m a full believer in interdisciplinary arts as a method of learning and comprehending the world and environment in which we live. Thus, I love reading, or seeing how other artists intertwine art with other areas of study such as science, math and music. Tom Shannon mixes art and science within his work in beautiful ways.

From the website:
About this talk

TED visits Tom Shannon in his Manhattan studio for an intimate look at his science-inspired art. An eye-opening, personal conversation with John Hockenberry reveals how nature’s forces — and the onset of Parkinson’s tremors — interact in his life and craft.
About Tom Shannon

Tom Shannon’s mixed-material sculpture seems to levitate — often it actually does — thanks to powerful magnets and clever arrangements of suspension wire. He designed the TED Prize trophy. Full bio and more links

http://www.ted.com/talks/tom_shannon_the_painter_and_the_pendulum.html

J.M.W. Turner's painting, "The Fifth Plague of Egypt"

A bit of hometown rivalry between New Orleans Museum of Art Director E. John Bullard and Indianapolis Museum of Art CEO Maxwell Anderson is causing waves in the art world as we get closer to the Super Bowl. Friendly teasing soon escalated to online trash talking through Twitter and a little wager over the outcome of the big game.  If the Colts win, NOMA will be sending “Ideal View of Tivoli,” a 1644 work by Claude Lorrain to Indianapolis for three months. If the Saints march it in, IMA will be forfeiting  “The Fifth Plague of Egypt”a landscape painted by J.M.W. Turner in 1800 for three months. Each painting encapsulates the best of each museusm’s collections, so lending them out will be h

Claude Lorrain's "Ideal View of Tivoli"

ard. We’ll find out on Sunday who will be eating crow!

http://www.indystar.com/article/20100128/SPORTS03/1280468/1112/NEWS10/Fifth-Plague-of-Egypt-Ideal-View-of-Tivoli-make-for-Super-bet

Picasso's "The Actor"

And sorry isn’t going to make it all better either.

A couple days ago, while on an arts-education class at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, a lady lost her footing and fell  into a Pablo Picasso painting.  Her trip left an approximately 6 inch long tear in Picasso’s The Actor, worth somewhere around $130 million. The woman, whom the Met is not identifying right now, is physically unharmed, but I’m wondering if the “you break it, you bought it” rule will be called.

Kiki Smith installing a piece from Sojourn

One of my favorite artists of all time, Kiki Smith, is installing a site-specific show at the Brooklyn Museum. This new work explores the cycle of life and creative inspiration from the feminine perspective. Kiki Smith: Sojourn draws on a variety of universal experiences, from the milestones of birth and death to quotidian experiences such as the daily chores of domestic life.

Kiki Smith: Sojourn
February 12–September 12, 2010
Brooklyn Museum