New York City – Monday, April 21, 2014

Under the Skin, starring Scarlett Johansson, immediately caught my attention with its entrancing, artistic trailer. I was drawn to Johansson’s gaze, and the comparison of director, Jonathan Glazer to Stanley Kubrick.

Artiholics gives the perspective of culture as told from an artist’s perspective, therefore I aim to do exactly that with this film that employed an artist’s eye to so many frames of the film [SPOILERS TO COME].

If you’re looking to see a film that doesn’t have a conventional Hollywood plot with predictable punchlines, but rather disturbing and at times uncomfortable dialogue between bizarre characters, ‘Under the Skin’ delivers that and leaves you feeling like you transported to some strange place that only an off kilter story and captivating cinematography can bring you.

The film offers a full spectrum of rich landscapes. A vast beach, rocks on the shore, violent waves, with a crying infant in its vastness and threatening tides. An urban environment, architecture surrounding busy crowds of civilians, with faces and interactions overlaid on top of one another in an orange luminescent glow suggesting the seemingly infinite layers of personalities and entanglement of connections immersed in a metropolis.

A forest dense with green towering pine trees bending and swaying in powerful gusts of wind that Johansson loses herself in as she is swallowed in bright scorching flames to contrast with the vegetation. The film concludes with the billowing clouds of grey smoke exuding into the abysmal sky Johansson’s extraterrestrial host descended from.

The chilling serenity of the natural settings is mirrored by the haunting scenes of the house Johansson lures her male victims in to harvest their skin and essence. The house is entered through a cellar door, and the unsuspecting and sexually hungry men are immersed in darkness with a stark light on them and Johansson, as she takes off her clothes. “Come to me,” she tells them seductively. They walk with a masculine strut, and as they inch closer, they start to submerge into a reflective black liquid.

One after another, men are lured into her deadly residence, and only after multiple men, does the camera reveal what occurs under the black surface the men have walked into.

In astonishment, the male character moves his limbs with a tinted blue glow on his skin. He spots another being submerged near him. The other has wrinkled flesh, as if he had instantly lost half his weight in a few hours. The two males, facing their surreal predicament, grasp hands, revealing the difference between the wrist of one and the deflated elastic appearance of the other. In a sudden and shocking moment, the wrinkled character is sharply sucked down into the depths of the abysmal darkness. The scene cuts to the bottom of a rectangular tunnel, flowing with sparkling blood pulled towards a vanishing point.

Although it is utterly horrifying, the liquid the characters are submerged within has a solitude and a silence that we can only barely reach in a deep meditation.

Under the Skin takes us through layers of human experience, and as we follow Johansson through cityscape, humans cape, forests, stillness, sexuality, fire, and snow, I considered how we travel from youth until death, searching for something or someone to fill our days, but the only quality that will take us away from our pain, lies beneath us, within us, under the skin.

Written by Andrew Kaminski

The post Layer by Layer ‘Under the Skin’ Artistically Takes Us… [SPOILERS] appeared first on Artiholics.

Santa Claus or “Saint Nick” has had many different representations as a visual image. The following list is a collection of 7 different depictions of Santa Claus at different times throughout the tradition of Christmas.

1. “Saint Nicholas” is depicted above; a Greek archbishop of Myra (which today, is Turkey) who lived around the 4th century AD, who was known to be charitable, especially loved by the youth. This is a Roman Catholic depiction of Saint Nicholas done in oil painting.

2. Illustrator, Thomas Nast’s depiction of “Merry Old Santa Claus,” from Harper’s Weekly, January 1, 1881.

 3. Andres Serrano, the artist who became infamous for popularizing an image of Jesus Christ submerged in a glowing container of yellow urine. Andres Serrano in a lecture he gave at City College (CCNY), described this photograph, suggesting the irony behind the image of a black man who is homeless, wearing a Santa Claus suit. This man was very poor, and he had virtually nothing to give, yet he ironically is dressed as an iconic giver.

4. Oh the childhood nostalgia of the Coca Cola Santa Claus. The way Coca Cola represents him gives me that Christmas feeling so quickly. What about this Santa Claus is so iconic? Look closely at the image- it seems to be done in oil painting, and especially on the boot, it has that Van Gogh “painter’s touch.” On the belt you can see where the artist’s brush was dragged down to create that white highlight. The red cheeks are reminiscent of Norman Rockwell. It’s the painting aspect that we cherish so much. On a side note, thanks to images like this, Coca Cola has created a bridge between rotting tooth decay and obesity to good old Saint Nicholas, the Christian archbishop that warmly gives. Santa Claus has become the giver of 65 grams of sugar per 20 ounce bottle. What’s that in your bag Santa Claus? Diabetes? Where’s the iPad that I asked for?

5. Santa Claus as illustrated by Frank A. Nankivell in Puck, v. 52, no. 1344 (December 3 1902). This Santa Claus is quite the lady’s man is Nankivell’s illustration, which seems to be done in water color and ink.

6. Santa seems to have a deep contemplative pause as he has a moment with two dolls in this Japanese illustration by an unknown artist. Notice the boots- the defined lines show the differentiating shadow- the darker areas have more condensed areas of lines, while the lighter shades have lines spaced farther apart. The shadow that Santa casts is done in a wash of water and red ink. This illustration is done on a slightly yellow tinted paper, with red and blue washes, conveying a primary color scheme. It is definitively Japanese with the inscriptions to the lower right hand corner.

7. Good jolly Santa Claus is off to war in this poster from the Office for Emergency Management, from the War Production Board, circa. 1942. This postcard was printed around a year after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Santa is a valuable image, used to promote Coca Cola, and our country’s propaganda to defend itself.

Written by Andrew Kaminski

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New York, NY – Wednesday, June 26, 2013

There are a few choices we don’t make for ourselves.  We can’t choose our parents, we can’t choose our race, we can’t choose where we are born, and we also can’t choose which corporately registered trademark wielding demagogue controls the money and political sway in our home state.

This viral infographic dubbed “The Corporate States of America”(SEE LARGER IMAGE) was created by designer Steve Lovelace and distinguishes each state by the brand that best represents it (most likely the brand is headquartered there and has deep money roots in local economics).

Just because you were born in Pennsylvania doesn’t guarantee 100% that you would prefer Hershey’s chocolate over another brand, but that “preference” would have been ingrained into your prenatal brain from before you could talk.  Using Fermi logic, a lot can be inferred from something as simple as the town or state where you were born, and which corporate entity dominates that area.

If you’ve seen documentaries like Detropia, or Roger and Me (add them to your que) you know that mid to large cities are built around industry, usually centering on one or two major corporations.  If those factories shut down or go over seas, the city goes to hell in a hand basket.

Even if this map is part tongue and cheek, there is truth behind it, the wizard behind the curtain pulling strings is a logo.  Something tells me we’re not in Garmin® anymore.

And in a way (and you will know this if you have ever put together your resumé), aren’t we all a product of our past logos?  The bigger the better?

If you like this, you may enjoy: America Divided By Where We Summer: Infographic – Artiholics

Written by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

[via FastCompany via FastCoCreate]

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Today Groupon posted this map on their facebook page.  I love Groupon, and I love maps, hand drawn typography, and infographics, so you figure win, win, win, win… well, sorta.  This map is pretty good, but it leaves a lot out and has some inaccuracies. Everyone in NJ and Eastern PA go to “THE SHORE” not the ocean, not the New Jersey Shore, and especially not BOARDWALK, just “The Shore” which means Jersey Shore (we also would go to lakes and rivers btw)

Manhattan should say “the Hamptons” or Long Island, and Brooklyn / Queens should say “The Rockaways,” AC (Atlantic City), or “Coney Island.” Most of New England could say Cape Cod, Nantucket, or Martha’s Vineyard.  And from taking summer trips to Tennessee with Molly’s family and having never once been to Dollywood, I know for fact that’s bogus.  They vacation in Panama City, Florida (also known as “The Redneck Rivera.”

I’m pretty sure anyone who lives around the great lakes, don’t go to Florida (it’s the one time a year they can swim in their lakes).  I assume Hawaiians might want a break from time to time and when they go on vacation it’s to “the mainland” and when the do, they go to VEGAS.

I’m heading to AC this weekend for a first dip in the Atlantic of the summer, and yes, I will walk on the boardwalk.  Where are you from and where did you go in the summer on vacation.  I’ll draw a new map and do this shit up right.  Please post below!

Written by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

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New York, NY – Tuesday, May 28, 2013

If you are a “content creator” aka a creative person who posts your work to the web for public ingestion, you already know that the internet can be a cruel and unforgiving mistress.

My girlfriend turned me on to an online cartoonist called The Oatmeal which if you’ve never seen it, is a funny read, and a wormhole you might fall into for a few hours, so clear your schedule before venturing forward. The online comics are in the form of giant top-down scrolling viral infographics.  The art is very basic (detailed stick figures really) but the simplicity works well with the writing, which is funny.  Much in the same way that South Park works in spite of it’s crudeness.

If you are an artist, writer, blogger, or vlogger who creates content for the web (especially if you have a significant other who doesn’t), you should read this comic by The Oatmeal: Some thoughts and musings about making things for the web.

I identified with a lot of it, and even if you aren’t creating original web content, this and the other strips on the site are fun reads.

[via TheOatmeal]

Written by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

The post The Trials And Tribulations Of Being Creative For The Web: The Oatmeal appeared first on Artiholics.

New York, NY  – Monday, April 29, 2013

This week a viral infographic began doing the rounds (click above to view large- designed by Jack Hagley) which breaks the world’s population down to 100 people. These are staggering figures, and a real eye opener, and if you were online and had a fast enough internet connection seven years ago, you may remember the revolutionary video that first brought these figures to light on a viral scale.

Back in September 2006  The Miniature Earth Project asked the question via a YouTube video, what would the planet earth look like if you broke it down to one village of 100 people representing the world’s entire population?  This video was based on a published report on May 29, 1990 titled “State of the Village Report” written by Donella Meadows.

Earth seems for some reason to be a much harsher, rougher place when shown at the micro level.

It’s hard for most of our brains to grasp figures when they are in macro scale, and to relate to living conditions of people on other ends of the globe. What would Billions of people even look like? It’s a lot easier to imagine your self as part of a small community,  living in a small town, or on a suburban block of 100 people than one out of 7 billion.  The socioeconomic strata is more glaringly evident and defined in a smaller group when the differences and discrepancies are shockingly vast.

It’s also easier mentally to grasp how well you have it compared to the bulk of the planet, and see to see visually (in your mind’s eye) where you fit in.

Raw data is enough for some, but beyond figures and numbers, when you bring art and design into what would otherwise be economics and statistical spreadsheets, the numbers become faces.  The figures take shape and color.  The art and design give these facts shape.  They cast a wider net and  and speak to a broader audience.

In December 2011 TheDiversitySpeaker Created An Updated Version Based On The Original Using More Current Statistics And Covering A Broader Range Of Issues.

Considering this infographic is written in English, and only five percent speak English and 7 percent of the people would have internet access only about 5 – 7 people in the village would be able to read this post. Not to mention the percentage of people with bad vision, people too young to read or understand graphs and people who don’t have access to computers or know how to operate them enough to zoom in.

Some more statistics that might fuck with you.  Of the 7 people with internet access and the 12 people without internet access…ALL OF THEM would be on Facebook (there are 1 billion facebook members worldwide), and none of them would have any facebook friends or followers.

4 of the people with internet in the village would have watched Psy – Gangnam Style, and one person in the village would own a copy of Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

Humans are very visual animals.  We are lucky to be one of the few (if not only) creatures on earth who are able to analytically process data and crunch numbers, and most certainly the only species who can take raw written data and convert that into mental pictures, but when that conversion step is cut out and the visuals are already presented for us, it creates a more clean pipeline to an emotional response.

I’m an artist, not a scientist or statistician. These are the reactions of a visual human being reacting on visceral and aesthetic levels, so I could just be full of shit.

Written by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

[Videos via The Miniature Earth Project + The Diversity Speaker,  Infographic via Jack Hagley &  Upworthy & 100 people]

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