Episode 2: Art Movement (Works)

So apparently Blogger hates .gif files and keeps effing mine up.  Click on the image above to see the moving file as intended.

Artist: Lindsey Smolensky
"If I'm to take inspiration from Parkour and the bustling of New York City, I think of a swirling mass of multiple movements, not particularly any singular motion.  Whenever I see anything that creates the "oil and water" effect I think of dance.  The fluidity of the constantly changing and evolving movement that dance provides.  I'm completely mesmerized by it.  To me it's the perfect example of a contained chaos, which, is exactly what the movement of Parkour simulates.  So I shot some time lapse photos of food coloring being added to swirling water and pieced them together.  Additionally, I wanted my background to give a slight nod to a brick wall: showcasing the relationship between the urban inspiration for the art."

 

 Artist: Marika Christian

"Dash is a dog that is always in motion.  You're thinking, "DUH, he's a Jack Russell..." But his "motion" is much more then that.  He loves to play catch with his Baa Baa, he is always ready to  shake his booty with a little doggie dancin'  - and our walks are fabulous.  Losing weight is hard for me,  I have food issues, but lately  it's been easier because of this guy -- we're both a little dedicated  and since I've started longer walks, and taking them in different locations I've lost 13 pounds.  So his motion keeps me in motion. His motion makes me lead a better life.  So thanks, Little Man ! "

Artist: Becky Cochrane 

"Title: Movement: Finding the Balance 

Explanation: I superimposed words over some of my older paintings. Using the shifting words and colors and the seesawing of the toy, I wanted to show how we constantly try to strike a balance with the competing emotions, stimuli, external forces, and experiences that keep our lives in flux. The song used in the video is Randy Newman's "He Gives Us All His Love.""

 

Artist: Kathryn Read

"Of course, I decided my inspiration for this week would have to be my daughter twirling baton. After taking some action shots of her at practice, the verse that popped out at me at Bible study that night was Philippians 4:9, which speaks of actually practicing the positive words I used in last week's project. I played with 4 of the pictures I took of Brooke and the baton in motion to come up with a poster.  You can catch a video of her twirling at the International Cup this past August on my blog."

Episode 2: Art Movement (Challenge)

From Bravo: "For their second challenge, the artists must use Parkour, a discipline where participants overcome obstacles using only their bodies to move from point A to point B in the most creative and inventive way possible, as their inspiration."

[See the full recap and extras on the Bravo site Here]

Our Challenge: Same challenge!  And let's PLEASE do better than the artists on the show.  They completely missed the mark on this one.  Even Simon de Pury was all, "WTF?!" 
Get inspired by Parkour type movement and make something explosive!  It's all about the movement.

Remember, submissions (1 or 2 photos or a video (link to your video hosted elsewhere like Vimeo or Youtube)) with a small blurb about your final piece are due by 11:00am Monday to lindseysmo(at)gmail(dot)com.

Episode 1: Kitsch Me If You Can (Works)

Original "Kitsch" Piece: Jousting

Final Piece: Knights Carousel

Artist: Kathryn Read

"I decided to only give myself a few minutes to decide from any artwork I could find at only one trip to the Salvation Army.  The picture I chose reminded me of a carousel, and of course jousting knights. That night at Bible Study, it occurred to me that the Knights of the Round Table probably took their motto of how a knight should live from that's nights Bible Verse: Philippians 4:8--- ...whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. I decided to make a carousel of 8 knights; one for each word to live by.  A (poor quality) video of the carousel spinning can be found at my blog."

Finel Piece: "Variations
*Click HERE to listen to composition*

Artist/Composer: Josh Newton

"In classical music the Theme and Variations form has always been around.  And it is perfect for this challenge - take a melody everyone knows (opera aria, chorale tunes, religious chants, etc) and vary it a bunch of times.  After watching the episode, and seeing some of the choices, I settled on THE PERFECT tune.  I don't want to give it away, but here it is with five variations, and a reprise (there is a short introduction - I am sure when the tune comes in you will recognize it).  I am not sure if the minor variation, or the really weird variation is my favorite."

Original "Kitsch" Piece

Final Piece: "It's the Child Who Suffers"
Materials: paper, glue, ink on 16x20-inch stretched canvas

Artist: Becky Cochrane

"As little as I can tolerate it when people say "Think of the children!" as a knee-jerk reaction to things they don't like or agree with, lately, "thinking of the children" is something I can't avoid. I can't visit an online news site or watch a news show on TV without hearing a lurid story of children abused, abandoned, or killed.
I took what I assume is meant to be a playful illustration for a nursery and altered it with real headlines or excerpts from news articles and essays relating to child violence. Sadly, such accounts weren't at all difficult to find."



**More works to come**

Episode 1: Kitsch Me If You Can (Challenge)

From Bravo: "For their first challenge, the artists must use pieces of "bad" art, such as a painting of dogs playing checkers, a velvet cowboy, and a sculptural golden peacock as their canvas. Mentor Simon de Pury explains that in order to reach the top of the art world, they have to start at the bottom. Series judges China Chow, Jerry Saltz, and Bill Powers will be looking for the artist that distinguishes themselves from the group by turning their abomination into a masterpiece."

[See the full recap and extras on the Bravo site Here]

Our Challenge: Use a piece of "bad" art, such as a painting of dogs playing checkers, a velvet cowboy, or a sculptural golden peacock as your canvas (just examples from the show, but really, go find ANY piece of "bad" art (may I suggest flea markets and dollar stores...)).  Transform that abomination into a masterpiece.  Make sure you take "before" and "after" shots of your piece. 

Submit one "before" photo and one or two "after" photos with a small blurb about your piece to lindseysmo(at)gmail(dot)com no later than Monday, 10/17, 11:00AM.  And if you haven't already done so, please submit a link to where you'd like to be credited for your work.

Have some fun, guys!  I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Introductory Refresher for Season II:

Okay, here's the deal. Bravo is in its second season of "Work of Art," searching for the next great American artist. It airs on Wednesday nights. Set your DVRs!

What this blog is all about is watching the show, and then taking on the challenges posed to the artists on the show each week. Any artist is welcome to participate. This is how it's all going to go down:

1.) Watch "Work of Art" on Bravo every Wednesday night.

2.) After the show (either really late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning) read this blog for the adapted challenge. *Sometimes the challenges posed on the show are not directly transferable to us viewers at home. We'll be doing the same challenges as the contestants on the show, but we may have to adapt a little to the fact that WE'RE not on the show.

3.) Do the challenge! This is a chance for some seriously creative homework. A chance to work outside of your comfort zone or usual medium. A chance to expand upon your work as well as your work ethic, as there is a deadline!

4.) Each week, submit 1-2 photos of your finished work as well as a short blurb describing your work to: lindseysmo(at)gmail(dot)com NO LATER THAN 11:00AM EVERY MONDAY!

5.) By Monday night (Tuesday morning at the latest), see everyone's work from each week's challenge RIGHT HERE!

6.) Feel free to leave comments, spark discussions, or just browse the amazing work we're all putting into the world.

This is a chance to take on an amazing challenge and really inspire your work. And all submissions will be credited to the artist.

If you're interested, shoot an email to Lindsey at: lindseysmo(at)gmail(dot)com with the title, "I'm Interested!" In the body of the email, leave your full name and a link to a website where you'd like to be credited. That's it! You'll receive an email confirming your interest and probably a couple of emails here and there with updates about your participation on this site.

Thanks for checking us out, and we hope to see you participating!

Final Episode: The Big Show (Nikie Brown)

From the artist: "This is my Doll Series.  I've had this idea in my head for a long time and am glad for the opportunity to bring it to its fruition. Thanks Linds!  I've attempted to place young girls in mature looks and turning them into mannequins or "dolls" with a goth, emo or "broken" look. Throughout our life we strive to have so many material things that, more often than not, are left by the wayside like broken dolls no longer loved."

"This came about by accident, but I ended up taking a series of these to use in a triptych as an abstract look."

" I wanted to play on light and dark, good and evil while still keeping the doll effect."

" I wanted to play on light and dark, good and evil while still keeping the doll effect."

Nikie Brown is a self taught commercial photographer. She has been taking photographs since the age of 10 as she followed her grandfather around with his still and movie cameras.
Although a Kodak Instamatic was her first, her love has been her Canons. In her menagerie is her Canon T-70, EOS Rebel G, EOS Rebel XTI, Canon 7D, as well as one of her grandfather's Yashica Instamatic cameras.

Always with an eye for the abstract, Nikie enjoys sharing her creative and imaginative finesse through her photographic art.  You can follow Nikie's photography as well as purchase prints HERE.

Final Episode: The Big Show (Timothy Forry)

From the artist: "The theme I chose for my final collection is Loss. At first, I chose this theme because one of my biggest fears is losing people that are close to me. So my first few pieces deal directly with that particular aspect of loss. However, I started thinking about all of the ways we "lose" things, ie: weight, keys, our clothes, virginity, etc... so I plan on expanding and exploring some of those aspects of Loss as well. To unify the collection, I plan on sticking to monochromatic or very limited color for each piece.

Then I had a radical departure from where I started, but that's all part of the process.  As I was working on what would become "What Have We Done", which started out as a still life, I had a divinity moment and knew where I wanted to take my theme of loss and how I wanted to express it.  I began to focus my thoughts on loss of resources and then let my subconscious take over.  I was only able to complete the painting and most of the drawing before and I have started another painting.  I plan to keep going with this theme for as long as I can ride it."

Temporarily titled Loss 1

Medium: Charcoal on watercolor paper

Size: 30" x 22" (Unframed)

Temporarily titled Loss 2

Medium: Pastel on archival paper

Size: 25.5" x 19.5" (Unframed)

What Have We Done

30"H x 24W"

Acrylic on Canvas

The Spill (a work in progress)

32"W x 26"H

Charcoal, Pastel, Watercolor & Ink on watercolor paper

 Timothy Forry is a writer.  He co-authored It Had to Be You, He's the One, I'm Your Man & Someone Like You--writing with the fabulous partners who make up Timothy James Beck.  He also writes under the pseudonym Timothy Ridge and wrote a sexy little novella titled The Vampire Stone which appears in a collection called Midnight Thirsts.  When he's not writing, he sells rare children's books, owns a design firm and creates paintings.  You can keep up with Timothy HERE.