Holy crazy acrylic colour batman!

The awesome alarm went off as soon as my eyes hit Winston Chmielinksi’s art. I am loving the rough brush strokes and vibrant hues – hence – this is Artful Friday worthy.

While browsing through Winston’s site - I found a little something that I want to share with you:

I apply pigment to dust and people still ask why the paint’s falling apart. The intention was never to create something solid, but built upon my own body I guess it misled; one can imagine these, then, as the quilted skins of others, a slick parachuted sheen against a picture perfect sky, set afire simply for yellows and reds and ash-rimmed circles of blue.

This was found in his About page and the 1st line caught my eye “the intention was never to create something solid” – I think he might be onto something. The more we get attached to our work the more we suffer when it’s gone and in this case, it was meant to be gone.

Being stuck on one idea or style doesn’t really help you – you need to explore new terrains. You need to test and fail. You need to produce different things – some will decay, some will last – and we have to embrace both! I think that’s the spice of life. Think of it as guacamole for creativity; it adds that little unexpected zest.

Obviously, it is easier said than done, but I think it’s pretty good food for though for the weekend. What about you? Do you create things and get attached to them or do you “divorce” your work once you finish it?

Enjoy the rest of the Winston’s work and have a marvelous weekend!

PS – I am currently on vacay so posts may come a bit delayed :) Lots of love. G.

all images: Winston Chmielinski 

image: Markus Linnenbrink

Desperados!

TGIF (every time I say that I feel I’m about to eat burgers and fries). Yes, the weekend has finally arrived. The post comes a bit late today (sorry!) but it comes with a colourful BANG!

Say hello to Markus Linnenbrink, a Brooklyn-based German artist (seriously, Brooklyn and Germany, what a cool combo) who is all about dripping colours, everywhere.

As soon as I saw Markus’ Photodrips collection my eyes popped out like canned spinach in Popeye’s hands. There’s always something magical about photo manipulation – especially when you saturate the image with tons of amazing colours. In this particular collection, I like the way Markus uses “paint drips” as a veil of sorts to hide the image in the back – he doesn’t hide it completely – you just have to step back to see the whole thing (try it! look closely to the colorful lines, then step back and focus on the background – tada!)

I think I am going to add this technique to my “art to-do list” (right after collages, photography, embroidery and artful chimichangas – oh dear, better get crackin’)

Alright, enough rambling. Go get some color!

Happy weekend :)

all images: Markus Linnenbrink

via: Cordisre

I don’t know about you but I love getting mail – the good ol’ style. There’s just something utterly romantic about it; the texture, stamps, envelope…such a sensory pleasure – except when you get bills, pizza coupons, the false promises of a politician and the latest Shina-Gel discounted nail polish  from the parlor around the corner (now, I don’t know if Shina-Gel is actually a real product so bear with me).

Not long ago I wanted to give a purpose to all of these paper skeletons – aka junk mail – so I went ahead and purchased the Junk Mail Origami Book. That didn’t go well. With the amount of credit card bills I had I would’ve created a paper version of the Titanic – chubby Rose and girly Leo included.

Thank god someone out there has the tenacity and natural talent to tackle this mailbox plague – cue Amanda Nelsen and her incredible Kinkade Recycled installation; a collection of 40,000 junk mail pieces folded and string bundled into 2 inch cubes that resemble colored pixels. At first I thought I was looking at a giant painting, maybe a rug – then I read about it and I couldn’t resist making it the feature for today’s Artful Friday.

Amanda, is because of people like you that this world is so wonderful.

So, are you guys going to give it a try? How about creating a sculpture with your student loan statements? If you are on the same boat as some of my friends – by the end of your project your sculpture could look like the Eiffel tower. Very artful!

Amanda Nelsen