Mandy Lee Studio

Art:21 a non-profit attempting to bring contemporary artists and art into the forefront of a broader audience. They have joined with PBS to produce documentaries that explores contemporary visual Art and Artists in the United States. Each season of art:21 is short, 4 or 5 episodes, but brilliant. The episodes have a theme -Identity, Play, Power, Time, etc.- which are explored in context with 4 or 5 contemporary Masters. What makes this show so unique and powerful is that the artists are still alive. This isn’t a dry, celebrity voice-over filled, what were the artists thinking and feeling show. The artists themselves talk and explain in their own words the importance of the episode’s theme to their work, their process of thinking and their lives. Having lived in a bumble for going on six years, I didn’t know about this show. But I’m glad I found it.

An interesting article about a new academic program exploring crime in the art world.

A Master’s in Art Crime (No Cloak and Dagger)
By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO
Published: July 21, 2009

AMELIA, Italy — “What’s the resemblance between the illegal art trade, the funding of terrorism by charities and smoking pot in a Dutch coffee bar?” Edgar Tijhuis, a criminologist who teaches at VU University in Amsterdam, paused and looked expectantly at a dozen students listening raptly. There was silence. “I hoped you wouldn’t say anything or else I wouldn’t have much to teach you,” he said.

Edgar Tijhuis, a criminologist, lecturing students enrolled in a summer program in Amelia, Italy, in international art crime studies.

Intaglio, or etching, is a form of printmaking where the ink is pushed below the surface of  the matrix. Relief printing, on the other hand, the ink is laid on top of the martix- like in stamping. (more…)

A couple days ago, I signed up for an online workshop with Suzi Blu. You may not know who she is, you may find her annoying, but her message is always wonderful and inspiring. I’m taking her class for a bit of a jump start after 2 years of oppression from a rather regimented and bureaucratic art school- and if you visit her blog, you’ll know she’s anything but an elitist.

The workshop is called “The Goddess and The Poet.” It’s an art journaling class where we’ll be working on more realistic looking portraits and incorporating poetry with the images. She’s calling for a halt of the mundane when we create something beautiful in our journals. You know: When a drawing “clicks” and it looks and feels perfect, transcendent, even otherworldly – and then we go add a grocery list off to the side. She’s encouraging folks to add beautiful words beyond the endless list of Most Quoted Quotes and inspirational phrases. Words that come from within ourselves. I’m excited about the information I should learn from her. I enjoy the various methods and techniques she includes in her work, so I hope it will rub off on my creative process.

Inspired by the idea behind her workshop, I googled around and found a brilliant quarterly magazine called Poets and Artists. The website has online archives with some amazing contemporary artists’ work and interviews. Not only is full of thought-provoking poetry and both technically and conceptually fascinating paintings, it’s also a way to see what other artists are making right now. This is important for artists who are aspiring to join the gallery and art show world. You need to see where you fit in, and how you stand out from the crowd. So look, learn and be inspired. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
http://www.poetsandartists.com/

A brief quote from Stacie Boschma’s poem “North of Moab”:

In 48 hours, you’ll pull away from Denver for a

1300 mile express spectacular through Kansas, Oklahoma,

Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama. You’ll make

this trip alone and friendless and it’ll be months

before you remember how it feels to be you.

Just free-flowing words that aptly describe my state of mind and how I feel right now. So check out Poets and Artists. You’ll find something good there to be inspired by.

The continuation of my long winded- yet hopefully informational article. Part one can be found here.

The second set of five things you need to know are in regards to supplies. We all get caught up in the blog world of how-to’s and, consequently, begin to wonder if we can even do art if we don’t have Golden’s Gel Medium, or PrismaColor colored pencils, or acid-free and ph balanced paper, or archival glue. And the truth of the matter is, Yes, we can! (more…)

What does every artist need to make art? Free images! Of course it’s more fun to go out and fin your own from antique stores and garage sales. But let’s be honest: The sellers are catching on to our need for nice vintage photos and they’ve jacked up the prices! Five dollars for a photo from the 50′s? Good Lord, that’s alotta money! So here are some links to good, and even some high-quality digital vintage photos that are free for you to use.

http://www.art-e-zine.co.uk/vintageresources.html
http://antiqueclipart.com/category.php/people.html
http://www.flickr.com/groups/46226460@N00/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrysti/collections/72157604015855618/
http://karenswhimsy.com/public-domain-images/

People often stumble when they first start making mixed media art. There are many reasons they feel they have two left hands. (No offense meant to the lefties out there!) Hell, who doesn’t have excuses when starting something new? For instance, they don’t feel ready, they don’t have the right supplies, they feel they can’t draw, they think they sense of color is atrocious- The list of insecurities and excuses goes on and on. But the bottom line is this: mixed media art has no right or wrong way of doing it. There are no rules in this field. Unless you end goal is to submit into the the high-brow art world, then you do have some rules you need to follow, but that’s for another article.

There are 10 things you need to know in order to start working in mixed media. The first five are affirmations. You already know the first one. But I’ll go over it again.The second five are supplies, which I’ll talk about in depth on Friday. So without further ado… The first five! (more…)

While perusing the interwebs of artsy people earlier today, I found images of one of the coolest sculptures I’ve ever seen. It took 4 years, and probably thousands of pounds of paper. Has a moving train and lots of lights. And is something I wish I could live in! It’s a Disneysque Castle made from folded and cut paper. The college student made it in his apartment, and it takes up the whole room!

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