Episode 4: Back to School (Works)

Child's piece serving as inspiration: "Flowers" by Jared Kim, found here.

"Porcelain"
Graphite, pen, ink, acrylic, & water color on 140lb water color paper.

 Artist: Lindsey Smolensky
"The moment I saw Jared's piece I knew I wanted to use it.  I instantly fell in love with his color palette and his playful, less traditional depiction of a still life.  I'm not typically one to enjoy still life paintings, but this one I love.  Instead of a literal translation, I went with a porcelain face instead of a porcelain vase (with my own spin on it) and a more abstract use of florals.  Additionally, I really wanted to stick with (and honor) Jared's color palette."

Child's piece serving as inspiration: "For Mommy" by Kathryn's daughter, Brooke Read

"Love"

 Artist: Kathryn Read
"Even though I do art projects with elementary school kids, I chose to do something a little more personal and use a piece of artwork that my daughter Brooke had given me many years ago for Mother's Day. The piece is quite abstract and reminds me of blowing wind, flowing water, and flowing lava. I tried to think of those things as I was painting with the same color pallet she had used. The heart was a nod to the love shared between child and parent, with the thought in mind of the verse for this week: --And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.--Colossians 3:14."

Child's piece serving as inspiration: A collaborative piece by two 1st grade classes (tackling a concentric circle mosaic inspired by Russian abstract painter Wassily Kandinsky) found over at Studio-Kids: A Place for Kids and Art.

"The Kids Are All Right"
Acrylics and bottle caps on twelve 2x2-in canvases mounted on one 8x10-in
canvas

 Artist: Becky Cochrane
"This is the newest addition to my Bottle Caps and Friends pop art series. I think that we're born innately creative. Children's creativity is encouraged and rewarded, often until they reach a certain age, when they're directed to more 'practical' pursuits. I think if creativity continued to be nurtured into adulthood, we'd be more fulfilled as individuals and as societies."

Child's piece serving as inspiration: Artwork from an Easter Seals 2012 calendar.  You can purchase the calendar HERE.  Proceeds will help Easter Seals provide support to children and adults living with autism and other disabilities and the families who love them.

 Artist: Brad Dumm
"I found this art, done by a child of a sun with sunglasses and painted hands as the sun rays. It was used for an Easter Seals 2012 Calendar. I took the concept and used my Photoshop skills to create my own version of the Easter Seals art."

 

Episode 4: Back to School (Challenge)

From Bravo: "In the spirit of youthful imagination, the artists are challenged to create a piece of art inspired by the original artwork of the child they are paired with."

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

Our Challenge: Find an original piece of artwork created by a child.  If you have kids in your life, get something from them, or you can Google image search "children's artwork" for a plethora of images.  And Rhonda came up with an excellent idea of using Methodist Hospital greeting cards, all created by child patients.  Make sure that whatever children's artwork you choose, you're able to site your source and give credit to the kid's work.  I will not post your piece if you cannot credit the child's piece.

Once you have your child's artwork to serve as inspiration, create a work of art that is inspired by and compliments your child's masterpiece.  Submit a photo of the child's artwork as well as one or two images of your final piece (and a small blurb about it) to lindseysmo(at)gmail(dot)com by 11:00am Monday.

I'm really excited about this one and I hope all of you are, too!  Have fun!

Sidenote:

I know last week was a rough one for a lot of us, and I hope everyone gets past their sicknesses and stresses much sooner than later.  I just want to say that if any of you do decide that you'd like to make a POP art piece or if anyone new would like to come in and rock out any of the previous challenges:  Go for it!  Feel free to submit any of the previous weeks' works to me any time.  I'll be sure to update the site with the new material.  I don't want anyone to feel discouraged from submitting works after the fact.  That being said, have fun watching the show tonight and I can't wait for this week's challenge!

XO,
~Lindsey

Episode 3: Make it Pop (Works)

"The Created vs. The Creator"

 Artist: Kathryn Read
"This week I combined the styles of Pop Art artists Andy Warhol, Jim Dine, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Indiana, and Wayne Thiebaud.  The scripture passage focus in my Bible Study group for this week was Psalm 139. With this week's Work of Art challenge, I tried to make the statement that "Pop Culture" places the focus of life on the people and things that are CREATED... entertainment, celebs, food, money, even nature and our own bodies, instead of focusing on the CREATOR...GOD."

"The Three R Movement"

 Artist: Lindsey Smolensky
"One of the biggest movements going on in popular culture today is "going green."  More and more people are getting passionate about reducing/reusing/recycling.  People are being encouraged every day to find innovative ways to reuse materials instead of creating more waste.  And in the process of doing so, many of these people are finding that they have a real passion for it.  This illustration is my commentary on that growing passion for preserving our planet."

"Before and After"
Mixed media on 8x10-inch stretched canvas

 Artist: Becky Cochrane
"There are events or moments in our lives which we recognize as "before and after" points. As a girl, I really did want to teach the world to sing and live in perfect harmony, and Coke gave my generation one of our first points of visibility in the advertising world with that song.

As part of my Bottle Caps pop art series, I show that most American icon, the Coca Cola logo, as a cluster of balloons floating away against the sky. What replaces them in my life is a different visual: white balloons released at AIDS memorial services and funerals. These five white balloons are goodbyes to my friends Steve R, Jeff C, John M, Tim R, and Pete M."

Episode 3: Make it Pop (Challenge)

From Bravo: "Andy Warhol summed up a generation of consumerism and launched the POP art movement with a painting of a Campbell's soup can. For this challenge, the contestants must create a piece of POP art that captures the popular culture of their time as effectively as Warhol did."

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

Our Challenge: Same challenge!  Take inspiration from Warhol's great works but create your own unique, current, relevant POP art masterpiece.

Submissions (one or two photos of and a short blurb about your work) due to lindseysmo(at)gmail(dot)com by 11:00am Monday.  Have fun and be bold!  Be amazing!

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.