Artist: David Cole

We are big Lego fans in this house.  The boys have tons of Lego, much of it mine from when I was a kid or from my cousins who are now both in college.  It is a monthly event to take photos and submit them to Lego Magazine for consideration.  The monkeys have yet to be featured but we'll keep on trying.

These taxidermy animal Lego kits by artist Davide Cole are a clever and inevitable art medium for modern artist. I have featured Lego as an art medium before, most notably with the Lego Concentration Camp kits by a Polish artist Zbigniew Libera.   Check out David Cole's blog and work where he gives an honest account of his creative process.  

Here is the NYT article about David Cole and his Lego Kits.

Click to read more about Zbigniew Libera and his controversial Lego Concentration Camp Kits

Check out this post about Occupy Lego Land- We want to be a Nation NOT a land

Do you think that Lego is an valid art medium? 

Do you still play with Lego? 

Artist: Jennifer Collier

Jennifer Collier is an artist whose degree in textiles, at Manchester Metropolitan University gave her a solid foundation to branch out in different mediums.  Her studies led her to experiment with various materials and she creates 3-D paper sculptures using a variety of techniques including weaving, layering, lamination, stitching, waxing, embedding and fusing, often with found materials.  

Artist Statement:

The papers are treated as if cloth, with the main technique employed being stitch; a contemporary twist on traditional textiles.

The papers themselves serve as both the inspiration and the media for my work, with the narrative of the books and papers suggesting the forms.

I tend to find items then investigate a way in which they can be reused and transformed; giving new life to things that would otherwise go unloved or be thrown away.

Click to see Jennifer Colliers Website

What are some of your favorite uses for recycled paper? 

Artist: Bryan Christiansen- Trophy Hunter

The idea of our ancestors being hunter gatherers, re-created in a modern urban context, is what inspired Bryan Christiansen to create his found object trophies.
As a fan of found object art, I appreciate the metamorphosis of an item. The more complex the transformation from its original state, the more it inspires the viewer.  

Christiansen takes discarded furniture and household items such as: mattress, couches and La-Z-Boy recliners and reconstructs them into mementos that a hunter might display.  
Essentially he skins a couch and pins the fabric creating an eerily similar effect to that of a skinned animal pelt.  

His deer and doe sculptures are made from mattresses and couches, a wink towards taxidermy.  They remind me of Jared Pankin's works- another artist who creates animal trophy art using synthetic materials.

Christiansen employs a careful and deliberate process when making his sculptural animals and wall- mounted pelts.  After 'hunting' for just the right piece of furniture, Christiansen returns to his studio where he proceeds to skin and gut the object as though it were a fresh kill.  In acknowledgment of Native American traditions [] Christiansen makes sure that nothing goes to waste, saving and bottling everything down to the last bit of sawdust and string. 

I like the idea of a modern day hunter gatherer. Fundamentally that is what a thrifter or vintage shopper is.  The main difference of course being that the average scavenger does not deconstruct their finds but often revers them.  

Are you a sidewalk scavenger? 

Do you have pieces of furniture in your home you've found? 

Too Occupied To Care About Occupy

My time is too occupied to take the time to chit chat about the Occupy movement.  I did get into a discussion on FB and then I quickly backed down- I just don't really care that much.

Here is the thing- the only Occupy Protest I've seen, live, is the one in San Francisco.

I took my monkeys to hang out as it was across the street from where we were meeting Dr. J after his medical conference.  We were there in the heart of 'tent city' for about an hour.  It was my observation that the media practically outnumbered the Occupiers and that there were way more tents than people to occupy them.  My sympathies are with the countless small business that are having to lay off workers due to Occupy Protest camps taking over where there used to be paying customers.  

I like the juxtaposition of the corporate logos on the monkeys clothes against the tent background 

I saw these photos today for Occupy Legoland- 

'We want to be referred to as a Nation not a a Land!'

(source)

Now that is funny!

Moab and Arches National Park

Moab is the closets town to Arches National park located 236 miles south of Salt Lake City, Utah and 360 miles southwest of Denver, Colorado.

Arches National Park has the largest concentration of natural stone arches in the world.  

A stone arch is a hole in rock that in order to qualify as such must have an opening of at least three feet in one direction. 

My favorite rock formation at Arches is Landscape Arch- this amazing thin arch spans longer than a football field in length.  This is a natural phenomenon that because of it's precariousness could be lost and crumble at any time.  The monkeys really enjoyed this arch and were struck by the thought that they might never be able to take their own children there. 

 

Gorgeous natural sculpture

 

Another favorite- again due to it's sheer awe  factor is Balanced Rock

Moab is a cute touristy town- we ate dinner at a Pizza buffet restaurant called Zax's and had wicked iced coffee at this drive-through coffee 'shack'.

 

Really stunning part of our country-

  Have you ever been to Moab or Arches National Park?

Meghan Finkel- Recycled Wood, Fallen Branches, Lamp Art

Meghan Finkel started making lamps in 2004 from fallen tree branches.  

After storms she goes out along rivers and beaches and collects the perfect branches to create her recycled functional art work.  

These upcycled pieces go through a process of bark stripping, wire brush scraping, sand papering, several layers of primer and finally a powder coat of oil based paint to create a lacquered finish. 

The recent storms that have swept across the US make this process of rebuilding and creating something new out of something which is no more- particularly touching.

I love the contemporary sculpture style

 and find both the vibrant colors as well as the natural bare branches to be beautiful. 

Would you use these lamps in your home decor?

Click to see other
Recycle Art, Found Art, Reused Art, Upcycled Art 

featured here on Lady of The Arts

Visit here for purchase information

Inspirational Art

I am still riding the high from our trip to Europe.  

I am slowly trying to absorb everything.

We saw some great works of art and architectural wonder. 

In an effort to showcase amazing art I bring you these two pieces displayed at the National Gallery in Prague.

Called Toys (2007) they are described as:

Toys purchased by a deserted road in Zimbabwe

I was slow to realize what the protruding rounded wire was but it is (of course) to push the toy

These are the only works of art that I have ever seen displayed in a world renown National Gallery with the price tags still on.

I find the innovation, engineering and detail incredible.

The belief in creation is inspirational.

The minuscule likelihood that these toys would end up where they are, is amazing.

If the purpose of art is to awe and inspire these works have stayed with me.

Art and the desire to create is an amazing thing.

I am so grateful to the person or persons who created these toys.

Try to be inspired by something every day. Try to inspire at least one person every day.

Earth Day

Recycle Art: Puppies Made Of Plastic

Trash People And A Garbage Hotel

Book-Cycle Making Art Out Of Books

Book-Cycle Making Furniture Out Of Books

Trees As Art

Living Forest Art

Beer Crate Architecture

Beer Cap Art

Trash Island

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.  

~Native American Proverb

Everyday should be earth day.  Everyday we should do our part to reduce our carbon foot print, use something more than once and MOST importantly teach our children the importance of all the little things we can do to live consciously, mindfully and meaningfully. 

Forest Art, Music and Awe

This amazing kinetic art in Japan’s woodlands of Kyushu is a commercial for- well, you’ll see... but suffice to say it is amazing and you’ll want to watch it twice and if your monkeys are anything like mine- maybe thrice.

Done by Drill Inc, a Japanese advertising agency it features a wooden ball going down a marimba.  The sound that you hear is not superimposed but rather naturally produced. 

I love that the product is made from only discarded wood, I love that the beauty of the forest is enhanced with the natural marimba and I love the melody of Bach’s Cantata 147: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.  

The instrument was made by Kenjiro Matsuo at Invisible Design Lab.

Dare you to watch it once!

Artist: Andreana Donahue

Last week I went to see an exhibit by Andreana Donahue called Getting Closer To The Event Horizon.  After reciving her BFA at the School of The Art Institue of Chicago and furthering her studies at Temple Univesity in Rome, Italy- Donahue settled in Las Vegas.  Her primary medium is paper which she uses to create sculptures and cut outs that create the effect of shadow and movement art.

These pieces called Shrinking To Zero Size are made using a hand cut, with the use of an x-acto knife and have an illustrious sheen thanks to the use of enamel spray paint.

I really liked the piece titled The Year Without Summer- a sculpture made by stacking meticulously cut paper to create the form of a glacier.  This piece took about 40 hours to make.

In the corner of the studio on the floor is Lawn Fail.

Made out of paper- made to look like grass, in the center of the piece is a yellow patch.

I thought this was a comical piece as it reminds me of the imperfections on our lawn that Dr. J is always putzing around. 

The better part of the studio is encompassed with a wave like piece titled:

When Matter Meets Antimatter

The impact by size alone of this work is enhanced with the fold of black within the overall white work.

Getting Close To The Event Horizon is a reference to the surface of a black hole.

Donahue says: At a certain point, there is no way to control the force of it's gravitational pull, beyond which there is no return- People have an illusion of controlling what happens in their lives.

I personally feel that the older I get and by virtue of being a parent, the illusion of control lessens.