Prayer Piece by Margaret Garcia

San Francisco CA – Monday, November 30, 2015

On Saturday, December 5^th,  Prayers from Los Angeles will launch as a collaboration of artists aiming to cultivate positivism and healing within the communities of East L.A. and beyond. Though we usually associate prayers with religion, the concepts surrounding this event feel more closely related to political art. From the community, the organizers of Prayers are asking, “What weighs on your conscious?” And will you also share art pieces that deliver those ideas or concerns in a communal art exhibit? Primarily, this art exhibit and music benefit will focus on the universal ability of all people to foster hope and relieve the emotions that come from watching atrocities all across the world in addition to those that fall very close to home.

Artist Margaret Garcia lives, works, and teaches in Los Angeles. She has been aiding this initiative for four months and will also exhibit “Prayer Pieces” alongside works from other artists at Casa 0101 on the day of Prayers. Below, Garcia shares her insights, emotions, and the politics that inform her paintings.

Artiholics: Can we talk about the initial ideas that were discussed for the artwork in this exhibit?

Garcia: There was a show I did in which I created “Fire Paintings.” I was focusing on different fires while thinking about climate change, the drought, and ecology. I was painting fires for a while. And I then became a little more introspective. Started doing miniatures that I thought of as homages to Vermeer. I love the spiritual quality of his work. I wanted to create these little paintings that whisper to you. They felt more intimate, and more focused. At the same time, I started looking at images of all these children in the world. It can be hard for me to absorb, so sometimes, the only thing I feel I can do is to direct it into a painting. And I wanted to invite other people to bring their own prayers.  It’s similar to something we do in the Mexican Catholic Church, but I don’t want this event to be about one religion.

Fire Paintings by Margaret Garcia

Artiholics: When I read about your different projects, I came across the terms, “People of Culture.” I really liked it. It felt broad and opening.

Garcia: I’m not sure if I said that or if someone else did, but I agree with it too.

Margaret Garcia in front of her studio in L.A. Photo credit to Robert W. Middlebrook.

Artiholics: How did you begin to work with the other artists who will exhibit work at Casa 0101 on the day of Prayers?

Garcia: I met some of these artists through the Stamp Project, and I continued to work with them. Though we are not an organization, artists that were apart of this Stamp Project have much in common and are concerned with contributing to the welfare of the World. Sometimes we’re not always recognized, but we create and feed the positive side of what we want to expand. Some of these artists, like Ester Petschar, Bonnie Lambert, Stu Rappeport, Dolores Carlos joined me for a Bernie Sanders portrait show last weekend: These Artists Are Seriously ‘Feeling The Bern’

I got the idea from a stamp that was produced by the International Workers Association, The Apple of My Eye. Originally I did that piece as an embossment when I was in High School, because of the Vietnam War and the influences of Sister Corita Kent. It is a black & white image of an eye with a dove and a peace symbol.

In the Stamp Project, I asked artists to respond to the questions, “What are you about? What is your cultural contribution?” About 100 artists participated. They came all the way from New York, Israel, San Francisco, Texas, Sacramento, New Mexico … They produced small prints, all black and white.  And here’s what I intended and what I love and that I’d really like to advocate. In the Stamp Project, there were no fees, no donations, not even a non-profit involved –it was just artists. We can do our own work and we can own it.

Artiholics: How have people reacted to the artwork that you are showing on the day of the event, the Prayer Pieces?

Garcia: I was posting them on Facebook for a while, and people would say, “Oh they’re so strong, and they’re so beautiful.” I don’t think they’d be so strong if they were large pieces. I think that there’s this focused, concentrated energy because they are small. It gives the person the ability to hold it in your hand, or stand very close to it. You could be intimate with it. You could give it your energy. When working big, you have freedom and it can be expressive, but it’s harder to work small. If you’re working on a miniature, you have to paint on target.

Prayer for a Child on the Streets, Margaret Garcia

Artiholics:   When you have to bring a difficult subject into a piece, such as an image of suffering, you have to visualize it, edit, and just spend time working on the image—how does this affect you?

Garcia: I cry very easily. I have a memory of coming home one day and finding my father sitting in front of the TV, and he was weeping. He was inconsolably weeping. I asked what was wrong and he said, “They’re killing the children in Rwanda. How could they kill the children in Rwanda? Why are they killing the children in Rwanda?” We get to a point where we acknowledge how precious life is. The older you get, the more you recognize how precious it is.   And then you see all this egocentric, megalomaniac energy in the world that comes to no avail.

I don’t want to hear what you’re against. I want to hear what you’re in favor of. What’s your cultural contribution?   If you’re just against something, you’ll never defeat it. You can’t just be against war, you have to be in favor of peace. You have to provide the alternative. That’s what these ‘prayers’ are about.” It’s about the goodness of these children, of these people. I don’t want to give energy to these things I abhor.   If you can hold somebody up, you have hope—you have a chance.

Prayers from Los Angeles will debut on Saturday, December 5th, 2015.  The events will consist of a community art exhibit, a music concert, and a group art show involving Margaret Garcia, Heriberto Luna, Shea Stella, Rodrigo D. Manzano, Javier Herrera, Brett Doran Photography, & the Circle of Women Artists of the Stamp Project: Creating Cultural Currency.  Musical performances will include Latin Grammy nominated Demain Galvez of Centavrvs & Los Dorados, Sound Ministry Gurus music production collective w/ Derek O’Brien & Stan Dewitt, Extra Fancy (Acoustic Set) w/ Brian Grillo Songs by Corrina Carter, Nataasja, & glam folk songwriter Jellykka. Production & documentation by Loaded Bomb Records & Productions. 

Much thanks to Nataasja Saint-Satyr for coordinating this interview.

Written by: Audrey Tran

The post Margaret Garcia and the Politics of Prayers appeared first on Artiholics.

With just five days into the Kickstarter campaign, founders Maxwell Bogue, Daniel Cowen and Peter Dilworth got over $1.9 million in pledges and undoubtedly surpassed their goal of only $30,000… (you can see our initial report here).

So, what is the 3Doodler you might ask?

The 3Doodler is a pen which heats up plastic sticks and releases them.  Once the plastic comes out of the pen, it cools really quickly and solidifies into wherever you lead the pen!  This allows you to “draw in 3D”.

Brilliant!

To develop such creative technology, it undeniably takes minds that are programmed to think outside of a box.

So, I got to ask the founders Maxwell, Daniel and Peter exactly how they did it:

What inspired you with the idea to create the 3Doodler pen?  How was it birthed?

The idea came about as we frequently use our own 3D printers for rapid prototyping.  We wanted to see if the process could be sped up and made “freer” by placing the parts of the 3D printer in a pen form.  The first iteration was called the teacup, basically an extruder with a handle.  It worked horribly, but it did work.  The team then added to this, creating a unique cooling mechanism and evolving to the 3Doodler you see today.

Are you developing any new products?  If so, how do you find time to develop them?

Yes, we recently announced some new products at CES.  The first is a holder for the pen, which makes storing the 3Doodler in between doodling easier, while also doubling as a moveable platform to allow you to create larger structures with far less hassle.  3Doodler will also be launching the first in a series of changeable nozzles, allowing users to extrude plastic in different shapes and sizes; as well as DoodleBlocks™; silicon molds that can be easily “filled in” with the ABS or PLA plastic from the pen.  The molds come in various shapes including stars, numbers, and letters, making it effortless to create perfectly shaped objects.

What were your biggest challenges leading up to the launch of the 3Doodler?  And any advice to our readers with product ideas of their own?

Prepare, prepare, prepare.  If you think you have something that could get very big, I’d recommend reaching out to media before the launch.  The idea that you can just throw it up there and see how it does might work for smaller projects, but for something really big, you need to reach out.  Logistics are important as well – you need an idea or a basic plan for how you’re going to deal with the craziness.  If you’re thinking of launching on Kickstarter, talking to a Kickstarter veteran is helpful as well.  I spoke to Joe Schlesinger (of Arcbotics) a lot about the pitfalls he hit with Kickstarter. You’re going to get a ton of emails.  My girlfriend took a few weeks off from work, just to help us answer them.  We had some amazing help to strategize and execute the whole campaign.  In short: it’s really important to prepare completely – have exactly the right hands and brains on deck.  There aren’t really any negative points about our Kickstarter experience – but if we were to give advice for those considering it, we’d say be prepared for the amount of emails and publicity, and try and get back to all enquiries if you can!

Thank you all for sharing your knowledge and process with us!  If you would like to purchase your own 3Doodler, check it out here:  www.the3doodler.com

Written by Laura West

The post Into The Minds of the Creators: 3Doodler appeared first on Artiholics.

Castle Fitzjohns Gallery, Lower East Side, New York, NY – Gabriel Gimenez, an artist born and raised in Miami, has invented his own icon: Fado. Fado is the character he connects with the most personally among all the characters he has generated over his career as an artist. He uses Fado to convey his different themes, and he uses this character as a way of telling a story.

In one of his paintings Gabriel had references to Jeff Koons, Keith Haring, Banksys, Basquiat, and Andy Warhol. He creates connections with these major artists by referencing their recognizable appearances. Keith Haring for instance, was standing above the “radiant baby,” his iconic symbol representing his work. Keith Haring created a plethora of line drawings that symbolized a multitude of characters with different implications of nuclear holocaust, sexuality, AIDS, and commercialism. Gabriel seemed to be influenced by Haring’s large overtones with simple line drawings. Gabriel’s work created an extension of line work’s powerful ability to convey big meaning that Haring had generated, except Gimenez supplemented Fado.“Fado,” as Gimenez states, implies a character of “curiosity and confusion,” with one eye bulging large, and one eye small. Gabriel drew upon Haring’s and Warhol’s implications of commercialism by referencing the dollar symbol within many of his works, suggesting  the commercialistic society we currently abide by.

Gimenez, in his pull to engage the audience with pressing contemporary issues references Steve Jobs and  Mac computers, and how they echo Warhol’s concept of the Campbell’s soup can. Mac computers are mass produced, often to break down within an agitating short amount of time. A Mac computer, which consumers wish to love and cherish, becomes another perishable consumer product, just like a Campbell’s soup can. An image that we see repeatedly, that we in turn worship as an object that will bring function and happiness to our lives, is yet another material possession produced by a corporation that essentially wants to take our money, and does not truly care about our satisfaction. 

He is a self taught artist, he didn’t go to school for art, which explains the sense of raw urgency behind his work. His style has not been filtered and watered down by academia. Gabriel produces an extraordinary amount of paintings, all clearly generated by him. Gabriel samples different artists’ work, as he says, as a “hip hop artist.” He aims to create “new ways of how society sees things.”.

The most pivotal point in his work is a “personal expression.” He aims to express spontaneous things. He filled the entire downstairs of Castle Fitzjohns Gallery with paintings all of a consistent visual icon. Fado took over the paintings, and marked Gabriel’s signature character within different themes of cultural iconography, whether it be Fado as Darth Fader, or Fado as the Beatles, or Fado as any of the many artists icons that Gimenez is influenced by. Fado is Gimenez’s way of creating a footing within society, generating a new symbol that society is faced with. Fado is a defiant expression of an artist who competes with domineering figures and symbols that we cannot escape, by supplementing its own face amongst the chaos of a money driven society.

I asked him if his work will evolve over time, and he responded that for the past 2 years, his work has become more conceptual, in that it targets concepts more than aesthetics. It has changed from graphics into work that has become more idea-based. He feels that he is expressing things at their essence.

I asked him if he believed in a higher power, or in a soul. He responded that as far as a spirituality, he is still trying to chase that idea, and he is trying to comprehend spirituality, and his work suggests that search. He is primarily sharing ideas for other people. He feels that any artist sharing his/her work is a spiritual practice.

Gabriel feels that he is always pushing himself.  Marcel Duchamp is the artist that is pushing him the most, and although none of Duchamp’s concepts directly influences Gimenez’s work, understanding how theoretical Duchamp’s work goes, pushes Gabriel to extend his boundaries, and dig deeper with his visions.

written and photographed by Andrew Kaminski

The post Castle Fitzjohns exhibits Gabriel Gimenez appeared first on Artiholics.

When proposing a building design, an architect will draft a realistic architectural rendering.  This is a fiction, the illusion of a 3-D concept model of a building which only exists on paper.  This sort of rendering makes it easier for a client to “picture it” as a finished structure in relation to the existing architecture and being a physical fixture in the world around it as very little is left to the imagination.

If you are an entrepreneurial mogul such as Jay Z setting out to launch and brand a previously unknown Cognac, you find yourself with a unique challenge. How do you go about giving something that didn’t previously exist in the marketplace a chance to compete with other high-end alcohols, all of which already have a strong foothold on the nightclub’s coveted top shelves?

Aside from paying top dollar for that shelf placement, you can also skew your advertising with some fantasy. You realistically render it into reality.  Place the liquor in an atmosphere in which your product “should” exist.  A beautiful photograph of the largest musician in the world sitting in his massive Tribeca penthouse with a $6,850,000.00 view, wearing a $4,000 Tom Ford suit, smoking a $45 cigar, while admiring his print of Basquiat Untitled (1983).

This “Insta-cred” elevates the alcohol to the level of all that is around it, as we (as well as products) are judged by the company we keep. It’s validated as an intrinsically high status liquor because of its dominant placement in a world of previously validated status symbols.

So with this in mind, let’s come up with a further proposition. You are Jay Z.  You love the fine art world, are a collector of the arts, and seek acceptance by the upper crust fine art elite as an artist.  You feel like the modern day Basquiat, like the modern day Picasso, yet you aren’t garnering any fine art respect.

You would like to be dually embraced as an entity that exists outside of the “Mtv Rap World” as well as continue to be looked upon by rap fans as somewhat of a god among men.  How do you bridge the gap between a hip hop performance and performance art?

By using the business model of selling an unknown Cognac to a high-end consumer. The key would be to craft a narrative that places you into a position of power as a reputable performance artist.  A lot of art world players would have to be precisely aligned “in the same picture” to give the illusion of uniformity, so that your product — in this case “Jay Z” himself — is not only integrated into the fine art performance art world as a supporting element, but as a powerful entity with dominant placement (the glowing bottle in the foreground).

Throughout this new album Magna Carta Holy Grail Jay Z sings about the various art pieces he wants to own, or currently owns.  If you want to build an art collection of that scale, it would total slightly less than $500 Million dollars, which if he had his heart set on it, he could buy up all the pieces he mentions and still have $500 Million left in the bank.  There are some things money can’t buy, and apparently art world Insta-cred isn’t one of them.  Let’s examine in detail.

Because this song is so fine-art-centric, Picasso Baby director Mark Romanek is quoted as saying he was directly inspired by the documentary The Artist Is Present. The film chronicles Marina Abramović ‘s retrospective at MoMA which was highlighted by her daily “duration performance piece” whereupon she would sit facing members of the public one-by-one, making a lot of them cry.  The artist was present, and you were eye level, an equal.

To “sample” this performance (with a few tweaks) and jump into duration performance art piece without having previously existed in the fine art performance world takes balls, but if you have a nice warm glowing bottle- it’s part skill, part psychology, part who you know, and a lot of creative fine tuned editing.

A few months ago the Internet blew up because Jay Z was in Chelsea secretly filming (not so secret to the art world twitter heads) a six hour performance art piece at a small white wall gallery reminiscent of the Marina piece- and Marina was invited. This was edited down to a 7-minute (11 minute with credits) “Performance Art Film” aka Music Video which “isn’t a video.” Watch the HBO film Picasso Baby (above), and as you do, think about Jay Z’s positioning, posturing, and the way it’s cut.

As the performance was going on in real time, the internet buzz from people watching the vines and reading the live tweets were mixed between “this is an amazing piece of performance art” and “this isn’t art.”

A musician on a stage in front of an audience is performing, and Jay Z is a hip hop artist, so yes, this is performance art… if you do it in front of 60,000 people (his normal audience size) or 60, it doesn’t detract from the art of performing, so I don’t see what the beef is.

You might have thought you were coming to view or participate in a performance art piece, but you were also unwittingly invited to a sparring match. A shootout at high noon.

A Matrix duel in a white dojo, and tough luck, you are Morphius- oh, and you have to sit on a bench……against Bruce Lee…

…with slight of hand skills.

I’ve got 99 Problems and Marina ain’t one.

and fists……forming invisible guns… you are no match.  Because you aren’t the cowboy in the white hat, he is, and you also don’t have a voice. There are a lot of people with pure white shirts in the crowd, but he never squares off with any of them. There is a lot of subliminal shit happening here.

A one-sided rap battle in which you have literally no chance of winning or even anything close to looking superior.  Not because you are an inferior artist, but because you don’t get a chance to defend yourself.

If you have ever seen 8 mile, or watched any Rap Battles on Youtube, you will have noticed that the protocol is very much the same as this performance.  One rapper gets the opportunity to get up in the other rapper’s face, tearing them down with rhymes as an audience reacts.

They have to just stand there silently and take it… but the beauty of the rap battle is that the person taking the punishment gets a chance to retaliate with their own rhymes, while the initial rapper takes his turn remaining silent as the audience reacts.  Not so in this case, as the only one with a mic is Jay Z.

Was this a duration performance?  Yes.  Was it one where the artist stands above you, yelling down at you from a white pedestal, directly into your face,  in an all white room, wearing white, while you sit there and have your reaction filmed from multiple angles and by dozens of smart phones? Yes again.

I wondered about how Marina might have felt in accepting the invitation to be upstaged at a performance which would be ripping off her own performance, knowing it would be edited.

There was a lot of subliminal psychological stuff going on in this film, to position Jay Z as an authority figure in the fine art high-brow performance art world.

For one, the constant battle for height with Marina.  We reduce our height to show subordination to others and increase height to gain status.

Shaking a finger “no” at her, and laughing when she pushed her face on his… very weird shit happening.  I’m really breaking this down, probably too much, but 6 hours was edited to 7 minutes. These exact seven in this exact way. Pretty sure they thought about every second of footage.

In editing this tight, there are no accidents or misplaced frames.

I’d imagined Marina might have felt something like the former The Police front man Sting to P.Diddy.

Do you remember when P.Diddy and Faith Evans did a tribute song to the Notorious B.I.G. and they “sampled” Sting’s I’ll be watching you, with “I’ll be Missing You?”

Later, after there was no signs of this going away, Sting showed up on stage in a (If you can’t beat em’ join em’) appearance to sing the hook underneath Puffy literally talking over what was once his song. Although it appeared as though Sting refused to change the lyrics from I’ll be Watching You to I’ll Be Missing You, it still seemed to be giving P.Diddy the OK, even if it was reluctantly.

Marina looks like Sting.  This is her world, but Jay Z is more famous.

It seems like people were kind of enamored.  Some people danced and played along, others were being beat down by shadowboxing and words being thrown in their face.

You know when you are on the subway and those groups of 3 kids with a boombox get on, and they start the music super loud and then start spinning around the poles, doing flips and stuff very close to you, where they almost hit people?  It’s the proximity that makes it uncomfortable, and if you embrace it and let yourself be impressed, you will be part of the show, but if you bury your head in your phone and don’t want to participate, it becomes more awkward.  And when you look awkward, you get dominated.

Jay Z came off looking like Jesus Christ walking into the room giving out gold bars.  Yes, if he wasn’t famous nobody would give a shit about a guy talking in rhyme about what art pieces he “wants to line his castle” with.

Yeah, the discomfiture is probably what sets it apart from being a rap concert. Plus having all those alpha art-world personalities in the room and basically making them sit on a bench.
The balls behind the concept: I’m going to rhyme talk at your face, about how I want to own artwork – really loud, and you will sit there awkwardly, and this is art.

Were they swept up in the moment? They felt like they were special, because they were invited to be there, and in the room with one of the most famous musicians currently on the planet.  Like the Marina piece, they got to look into his eyes and connect.  They got to be performed to one-on-one.

Actors, film makers, painters, gallerists, art critics etc..

It is a very strange little art video, and there is a lot to be learned behind the psychology at play here. To put it in the rap musician mindset… If I sign with a record label that already has a lot of big named acts on their label, that makes me legit, and makes me on their level, a big name act – so when Jay Z throws these big performance artists into his video and they dance around with him, it’s fake legitimacy. But since they are into it, do they in fact make it legit?

I did like that there is a line in the song about him being the next Jean-Michel, and that’s one of the only lines where you don’t actually see him saying it. That would be too pompous a line to come out of his mouth on camera, and he felt that, and edited appropriately.

All this said, I think Jay Z is a genius.  To say he isn’t  an artist is absurd.  When it comes to marketing, making hit music,  and the business of art – he is on par with Andy Warhol.  Andy once said:

“Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.” – Andy Warhol

Jay Z has got that part of the art game on lock.

The post Jay Z’s Empire State Of Mind: The Hip Hop Picasso is Present Baby appeared first on Artiholics.

George Zimmerman  (yes, that George Zimmerman) is dabbling in a new hobby standing  other people’s ground…painting.   This 18 x 24 canvas is his first.  It’s the artist’s blue period. He has put it up on eBay, and in a night the bidding war has gotten it up to over 110 K.  I posted a link to this brietbart article about it last night on my facebook page when the bidding was still 99K and change and the reaction from the art community was as you could imagine:

“I’ll hang it next to my Dubya puppies.” – Cartoonist, Kyle Baker

“exit through the gun shop” – Artist, Dave Tree

“SO officially the Movie Art School Confidential was right.” – Painter, Ashli Sisk

What Ashli said was so true.  Watch this scene (above) from the movie Art School Confidential based on the comic by Daniel Clowes

There is a real life question and answer section on eBay which Zimmerman is selectivley responding to. Of the 892 inquiries he has answered 11 (at the time this post was written)

Written by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

(via brietbart via eBay)

The post George Zimmerman eBay Painting Nets Over $110,000 appeared first on Artiholics.

I met Noah Fischer when he was a grad student, creating immersive multimedia sculpture experiences in geodesic domes. He is one of my favorite artists, and an inspiring friend to be around. Noah’s work is unique, he handles subject matters in intelligent and thought provoking ways, through innovative and hard-hitting themes, and yet it’s all enjoyable. He works with many artists and activists of similar nature. This year, I’ve had the honor of attending a few of this season’s Performa 13 events.

Over the course of two weeks Polish collaborative artist Pawel Althamer and Zen Buddhist activist artist Noah Fischer held an open live painting jam, a community event with live music and savory meals. The participatory performance happening was held in homage to Queen Mother Dr. Delois Blakely, bringing to light the struggles of gentrification, fair housing, and human rights. It was a work of art of activism by candlelight catered with gourmet meals by Bruno Althamer.

Althamer and Fischer built a fifty foot long sculpture of Queen Mother of Reality. She is reclining on her side, inhabiting the scenic Williamsburg Waterfront park, looking out for all her children. She rests in the position of “The Sleeping Lion,” the posture in which Buddha passed into his next incarnation.

A sense of ritual, intimacy, loving poetry was enacted for the closing Gala ceremony on November 19th. Queen mother isn’t a title, it’s a responsibility. She says she stands for all African people, all Mothers. She is a goodwill ambassador to Africa, with ivy-league doctorates, yet she wants to approach everyday people and help with their struggles and insights. Her experiences in Zuccotti park during Occupy exposed a young generation of activists to march in solidarity to her home in Harlem, to experience what many have only heard of in musicals like Rent. This is what it is to live without heat, without electricity, with real estate developers preying upon your land, your home.

Life is a work of art, all your experiences, all your actions, all your thoughts take shape. This is the root of Noah’s work, the Zen of everything. It isn’t a philosophy, or a guide book to follow when others are watching, it’s an actual way of being. I have had the honor to experience and watch Noah’s body of work grow through the years. From his time as grad student at Columbia, to his world travels, to his creation of Occupy Museums. Soft spoken, but very active Pawel Althamer, creates these delicate moments with massive elements.

Late into the night Blakely and Althamer enacted a ritual with a very small audience of five, an intimate gathering away from the crowd, as many had left for the night. Poetry and blessings were spoken by Blakely. A two foot long wire framework fire pit sculpture, mirroring the fifty foot structure, was set afire with orated blessing to the the four directions of the World. Althamer spilled it’s contents to the ground and shaped the wood and plant material into a circle as Blakely closed out her prayers.

As I spoke to Althamer, thanking him for letting me into this world where I painted with him over the course of two weeks, as we were immersed in music and treated with a splendor of world foods by Biba, I told him I would write about this experience. He smiled and said “Yes. Let this work continue”, a document of the self-less act of dedication for something he believes in. I am honored to see and experience these moments of artists creating works of change and love.

Written and photographed by Betty T. Kao

The post Ritual, Blessings, Activism: Intentional Community as Art @ Performa 13 appeared first on Artiholics.

Written by Laura West

The post Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary appeared first on Artiholics.

On the Vatican’s website there is an amazing page with a 360 degree view of the interior art of the Sistine Chapel.  Using your keyboard arrows you can maneuver all around the room, zoom in and out on the individual paintings that make up the most famous ceiling paint job in the world.

Having never been to Vatican City, I have never looked upon this piece in 3D- so this 3D simulation is the closest thing thus far I have experienced shy of being there.

I noticed a few things when seeing the work all back to back rather than individual pictures isolated on pages of a book.  This is a kind of insight that you get from watching an entire episodic TV series on Netflix back to back, rather than the way it was originally presented (one a week and broken up by commercials), a phenomenon which doesn’t yet have a name, let’s call it a “play-all revelation.”

Although it is kind of cool that these are paintings in a church featuring nudity of all sorts, it becomes apparent that all the dudes are really ripped, and all the women are really dudes.

Michelangelo SUCKS at drawing women.  I hadn’t really realized it before, because I don’t know of many of his pieces that depict women, but the few you see in this painting look just like muscular men, with some bolted on conically shaped cartoonish boobs.  Look at that arm on the woman in a green dress.  Now look at this photo of a female body builder someone on deviantart tinted to look like She-Hulk.

The Michelangelo woman has larger biceps and forearms than this female body builder.  Michaelangelo’s women also have massive adams apples, and most likely cocks.

Austin Powers said it well.

My best guess is that he didn’t hire female models to pose nude for him.  If anything he had his already buff team of male models throw on a dress and pose, and either painted a female face from memory, or just had females pose for the face only.

And check out this other weirdness, he sucked at drawing old people too.  Even the old guys depicted in these sprawling gay brawls are chiseled like brick shit houses. You want to know what the pumped athlete looks like when they get old?  Look to Jack Lalanne- who never stopped working out.  There is a point were your 8-pack goes south.

It’s funny that these old painting masters are so highly regarded.  Today Michelangelo would be looked at as a mediocre teenage comic book artist.  A guy who is able to draw muscular dudes really well, but has never seen a real woman naked, so he draws them in really bizarre proportions.

This is a prime example of why in art school you draw female nudes, male nudes, super strong people, super skinny people, overweight people, as well as old, and ugly art models.  You need to see how the structures work without clothes, how aging, weight, and musculature effects the human form in order to understand how to paint them.  Otherwise you end up with a ceiling that looks like what we have here, a less-tattooed naked version of a WWE Royal Rumble.

Written by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

The post New Sistine Chapel 360 View Michelangelo Art Revelations appeared first on Artiholics.

There are probably a lot of reasons all of those who would-have-been this generation’s greatest landscape painters are designing video games instead of putting brush to canvas.  The technology has gotten to the level where not only does the painting come to life, but you can walk, ride, and fly around in it…as well as kill the occasional hooker.   This is Grand Theft Auto V I’m talking about after all.

I watched the trailer for the new edition of this game which comes out mid September, and I am reminded of as a kid with an Atari 2600 trying to win at combat, or joust, and if that little kid would have gone directly from that 8 bit shit, to being handed this game, I would most likely have slipped into coma from mental overload.

Written by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

[via theinterrobang]

The post Video Games Now Look Like Landscape Paintings GTA V Trailer appeared first on Artiholics.

Have you ever thought about how cool it would be to stay in a hotel room that was designed around the work of your favorite artist? How about a hand painted room that immerses you in the world of your favorite film, cartoon, or TV Show?  In Europe, across Asia, and even in South Africa there is a really cool trend happening now: Boutique Art Hotels.  For people who are sick of staying in drab, beige, hotel rooms while traveling abroad, you now have an entirely new and revolutionary option.

Luckily for us, it’s starting to catch on in the states. I decided to make it a mission to find cool Art Hotels either in the five boroughs, or within driving distance of Manhattan.  I will travel to these hotels, stay in them, take pictures, meet the locals, and check out the area’s art scene.

This is the first in a series of articles I’m going to write about East Coast American Art Hotels you can actually drive to, have a fun art-themed weekend get away, and make it home before work on Monday (all without breaking the bank).

The Roxbury Motel
2258 County Road 41,
Roxbury, NY 12474
607-326-7200

At about a two and a half hour drive from the city, this is a perfect weekend getaway.   The Roxbury Motel is an unexpected slice of contemporary art and design, boasting dozens of uniquely themed custom painted and or sculpted rooms, all discreetly housed in two large spired white and chartreuse buildings nestled on the side of a babbling brook in the sleepy mountain town.

Roxbury, NY is a small out of the way village hamlet in the Catskills, one of the few places still somewhat “off the grid.”  The GPS can’t find the hotel on the map, and the entire township of Roxbury (as of the time of this writing) has no cell reception.  Molly & I both have 4gLTE smart phones (Verizon + AT&T), and neither worked.

It really is a place to relax, check out of reality and the daily grind, becoming intentionally technologically incommunicado is more freeing than you might imagine.

Located just forty minutes from Woodstock, Roxbury has an interesting art community of its own, as well as the overlap of artists showing work in the neighboring small artsy towns of Margaretville and Fleischmanns which each have more art galleries and thrift stores than banks, supermarkets, or restaurants.  Do you remember a simpler time when there were no chain stores?  I don’t, but that still exists here.  Roxbury itself is the home to The Orphic Gallery and the Eight Track Museum, the Roxbury Arts Group, and WROX, Roxbury’s eclectic radio station, and The Public Lounge.  All of these are within a five minute or less walk from the motel.

View From The Top  Of Roxbury Mountain.

With various ski resorts just short drives away (the nearest is Plattekill 10 minutes away), you’ll have a huge variety of things to do.  It’s no wonder artsy celebs like Alan Cummings, Edie Falco, Kelsey Grammer, and Yoko Ono all have been rumored by the locals to have vacation homes in Roxbury.

But if you are like me, you will take the time to get some good rest, pampering, take in the views, breathe some mountain air, and discover the local art scene.  Also if you are like me, and you want to live inside a Mondrian Painting, you will be checking in to room 15,  The Partridge Nest.  It’s based on the Partridge Family Bus…
Which any art student will know, is based on the Neo-plasticism paintings of Dutch artist Piet Mondrain.

Mondrian Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow.

Let me give you a tour of the room.

Although the sink wasn’t linear, the color scheme and translucent natural patterns worked with the overall design of the room.

The  bath tub / shower is right next to the bed, but the tiling and large rectangular semi-opaque frosted windows make it seem like part of the painting. Here Molly demonstrates it’s opacity.

The interior of the tub was just as wild.

Hope you are a fan of primary colors, because Mondrian was.

We were surprised to find that some of the color fields on the wall at the head of the bed had dimension to them.

Molly painted her nails bright blue in honor of the colors.

They really thought of everything here, the custom placard is printed with the Mondrian theme framing the type.  I assume they probably do this for every theme room, matching it’s individual theme.  Brilliant!

As you can see from the clock, we checked in a little late on Friday afternoon.  We stayed till Sunday so we could get an honest, insider review of what it’s like to stay here, as well as be able to tour some of the other themed rooms after the rest of the guests had checked out.

 Never a dull moment in the Mondrian room.

If you are staying at The Roxbury Motel, for $20 more per person you get an all access pass to The Shimmer Spa for your entire stay.There are two spas, one in the older building, and one in the newer.  Both are part of The Shimmer Spa, and are accessed with the same swipe card.  White Robes and shower slippers are provided.

From the top of the stairs by check-in looking down on the spa entrance.

We did the initial photoshoot of the room when we arrived (before it would get lived in) and then headed over to The Shimmer Spa in our building which has a Jacuzzi, sauna, and shower lined with river rocks.  The Jacuzzi as you can see has two of it’s walls looking out to the yard.  We went from Jacuzzi to shower, to sauna, back to shower, to Jacuzzi, to Sauna over an over for about two hours without any other guests coming in.  Had the place to ourselves, even though the hotel was booked up.  Maybe everyone else was out skiing.

We were going to stop in at the check-in lounge to browse their DVD selection, they do have the entire AFI Top 100 Films in available to borrow for free, and all the rooms have DVD players, as well as cable & flat screens, but we were too content to make the walk over.  After it got dark, we headed back to the room I opened the back door to see the gazebo lit up beautifully in the middle of the snow covered field, it had been snowing steadily since we arrived.

The next morning we woke rested and headed up to the check-in building for continental breakfast. I had a few conversations with some of the other guests.  Some were there with their entire family, there was a guy and his son on a skiing trip, a lot of couples.  One funny thing I found when talking to them is that all of us had lived within 10 blocks of one another in Park Slope at one time in our lives, yet none of us live in Park Slope now, very odd.

What a spread!  Jams of many flavors, and multiple styles of chocolate spread.  To Nutella and beyond!

Fresh fruit, croissants, pastries, granola, cereal, yogurt, muffins, coffee, fresh juice, you name it.

We headed over to The Shimmer Spa North, in the other building.  Self serve carafes of lemon water were in every room of the spa, and not counting lemonade, I drank more lemon flavored water in one weekend in Roxbury than I have in my entire life.  There were also little dishes of almonds and pomegranate cookies, as well as some mixed nuts.  Be careful of the wasabi peas in the mixed nuts, they are green, and will explode fire in your mouth. I checked out the library and relaxation room.  It is robes and bare feet (or flip flops) in the spas; they are clearly marked as shoe free zones.

Their library looked a lot like any artist’s book collection, or the SVA school library.  I decided on a book.

Considering we were staying in the room, it only made sense to read up on him a bit.  I got the full docent led tour of MoMA’s Mondrian Retrospective back in 1995, so I had some background already, but that was almost 15 years ago, and since I was in full immersion, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to bone up.

If you’ve ever seen pictures of Piet Mondrian’s Paris Studio, he was already taking color fields from his paintings and incorporating them onto his walls.  Basically living and working within one of his own paintings.  Which is exactly how room 15 feels.  You feel like you are living inside a Mondrian piece.

Molly had booked a massage. She got her intense rub down, while I hit the Green Steam. The Green Steam is a steam room made of 100% recycled car windshield glass. There is also a cold shower in the steam room so when the heat was overwhelming you could stand in the cold shower while fully surrounded by steam. A sensation I have been trying to replicate in my own bathroom shower my entire life, but could never pull it off like this.

One thing I have never seen in a spa before is they have consistent music throughout. It’s the Sirius XM Spa Channel, which somehow in an environment like this it puts you in a meditative state. Like a mild buzz. There was a speaker somehow built into the wall of the steam room. I’ve never seen that before, and makes a world of difference. I always have loved steam rooms, but they do get a little boring, because unlike a sauna, it’s too steamy to read in there, but the music made a world of difference and relaxation.

Everywhere you turn there is art in this place. Whether it’s decorative windows, or large murals. This one was a spoof of a Lichtenstein by an artist who signs his name WISH with a little star before “Wish”…try googling that.

Outdoor seating outside the spa, a lot of this caters to the non-winter crowds. The hunters, fisherman, hikers, golfers, mountain bikers, horseback riders, atv rides, paint ball , ziplines, canoeing, tubing, and kayaking crowds (Roxbury Attractions). We took a day trip to an art opening in Woodstock, and upon everyone’s recommendations had delicious dinner at Peekamoose Restaurant & Tap Room in Big Indian, NY on the way back to Roxbury.

Look how beautiful  The Roxbury Motel lights up at night.

Co-Founder & Co-Owner of The Roxbury Motel, Greg Henderson stands in front of a piece by artist Laura DiNello.

After our final Night in The Roxbury (I titled it “A Night At The Roxbury” based on this crappy SNL flop, but we were actually graciously accommodated by the owners Greg Henderson and Joe Massa for two nights ).  We were given the grand tour of the rooms as well as led around to some of the fine art that decorates the common areas of the motel.

In a former life, the owners lived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (pre-hipsters). Both were involved in theatre, and in 1999 they moved to Roxbury, opened the motel, and made it into a destination resort from scratch.

The lounge looks into the kitchen through these circular cubbyholes.

Some of the art in the lounge is from artists and photographers who have work in museums around the world.

Elton John In San Francisco,  photograph by legendary rock photographer Peter Stupar.

A piece by artist Harry Folsom.

The Roxbury Motel is becoming internationally famous so you have to book in advance, as the rooms are almost always occupied, so we were only given access to the rooms of people who were recently checked out (some were staying through to Monday, so we couldn’t see those).  It is weird going into recently lived in rooms, they aren’t set up in the full presentation mode, beer and wine bottles are strewn about, money is left on the table for the cleaning staff.  The door is open so bright light reflecting off the snow is coming in, the beds aren’t made, in some cases the cleaning staff were in the rooms and I had to shoot around them.  Not as glossy as the photos you will find on The Roxbury Motel’s facebook page when the rooms are clean.

Here is a gallery I put together of the quick walk throughs we got to quickly take in and enjoy, of some of the various themed rooms at The Roxbury Motel.

Artiholics Pro Tips:

Get Passes To The Shimmer Spa: Well worth it, but bring your own flip flops. Crossing the street (not that there are many cars) in the disposable flip flops can get messy.  Also go barefoot in The Green Steam, wearing the flip flops on that glass floor is asking for trouble.

Go Mid-Week or off Season:  Cheaper room rates, and more likelihood that you will have at least one of the spas all to yourselves.

Buy Groceries Ahead of Time: If you have any specific items you want to eat, which you would need to get at a grocery store, you will be out of luck if you haven’t planned ahead of time. The nearest small store is 30 minute drive, and the nearest actual grocery store is about 50 minutes away.

Plan Your Dinners Ahead Of Time: Restaurants in the area are few, and will book-up fast.  Make sure to know where you will be eating each night, and if the restaurant is open. The AteoAte gourmet food truck will usually park by The Roxbury so you can buy food from them but they open at 4pm and do close down at 8:08 pm, so don’t miss the bus, er, truck. They post their daily menu and where they will be online. Breakfast is covered at The Roxbury Motel, but lunch and dinner are up to you.

Bar / Dinner:  The Public Lounge is literally the next door down from The Roxbury Motel.  You can get a $30 for $50 deal on YELP- RIGHT HERE, this will save you some cash on your bar tab, but make sure you show them ahead of time.  We used this, and the entire wait staff was confused and had to refer us to the manager, as we were only the second people to ever use the deal.  I would also say that the food is OK.  If I were to go there again I would sit at the bar, as the table seating isn’t romantic, and this seems to me more a bar than a classy night out.  They do have an interesting selection of mixed drinks.  Make your romantic night out at Peekamoose.which seemed to have a 99% NYC clientele.  If you do go there though, oddly enough, you think you are in the mountains and it would be OK to drink their water, DON’T.  The tap water at Peekamoose literally tastes horrible.  It will ruin your meal.  Also, be wary that the food is delicious but savory.  Things you may generally eat in Manhattan, which would be on the sweet side, are cooked amazingly well there, but are not sweet, they are savory.

Cell Service: The spa, lounge, and certain rooms in the hotel have signal boosters and wifi, so you should be able to get reception in the common areas and spas. Some rooms are close enough to those boosters to get reception, but it is a crapshoot. The best bet is to just accept you will be out of touch, and check your messages and texts every so often in a lounge or while you are relaxing in the spa.

Getting To The Roxbury Motel: Take the Directions on Roxbury’s Website:  Here is a link to their directions page.  Your car’s GPS will not know where the hell this place is, and the website warns you that ahead of time not to follow it.  If WANT to let your GPS get you lost, and you enjoy a long scenic trip up a mountain full of Indian clay splattered roads, then follow the GPS. We did it on the way in, just typed Roxbury, NY in rather than an address (it’s a small town, so it’s not hard to find the motel once you get there) but it does send you a long way up a mountain that you later realize you didn’t have to take, it covers your car in Indian Clay, but we did see a covered bridge, which is something I’ve only seen in movies and pictures. Also, you will want to either print out the directions, or email the directions from the website to yourself, or paste them to a note within your smart phone. When you get close and lose your signal, you will want that hard copy, because you will no longer be able to just hit the web and pull them up.

Written and Photographed by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

DO YOU OWN, OR KNOW OF A GREAT HOTEL WITH ART THEMED ROOMS, OR HAND PAINTED ROOMS WHICH ARE IN DRIVING DISTANCE OF NYC?  CONTACT COJO, AND HE MAY BE COMING TO YOUR TOWN!

The post Ever Wished You Could Live Inside A Painting? Wish Granted! appeared first on Artiholics.

Tonight I’m heading down. . . to Chinatown, for “I Walk The Line.” Painter Mark DeMaio‘s 20-Piece solo show, (his first ever done principally in Black & White) opens at Sacred Gallery tonight (Thursday April 4, 2013 from 8pm to 11pm – facebook event page) and runs until April 30th.

Mark DeMaio, at his studio.

I first met Mark in 2011 when his last big controversial line art solo show “Pop Goes The Bible” had recently opened.  I had been out of town for the actual opening, and I will be sure not to make that mistake again, as his openings are over-the-top.

When he called me in early March, he asked me to swing by his studio to check out his new work.  As my focus has always been line art.  I managed to squeeze a trip over the the West Village at the end of one of the Armory week nights.  After having been on my feet all day for 5 days in a row, it was nice to kick back, drink some wine, and eat some pasta on the couch while Mark pulled out and displayed piece after piece for me.

The lighting was dim, and I don’t want to “give away” the entire show before it is unveiled tonight, so I will just show a few pieces.Large faces and silhouettes composed of tons of little faces, iconography, scenes, clowns, and ink drips.  These are all oil on canvas with some mixed media thrown in on a few of the pieces.

Playing a lot into what I had seen over Armory week where the big image is made up of lots of little images, although, in this case the little images are not uniform, not collage, not multiples.  They are a giant smorgasbord of drawings all on on canvas balancing on one another, mushing together,and piling up to make a larger image.

There are a few drawings mixed in with the paintings, this is a very detailed ink drawing of an ice cream cone.

They do have a little bit of an Underground comics vibe to them.  Like some R.Crumb Zap Comix from the late 60s where all the artists were dropping acid and drawing crazy shit.

These are just the tip of the ice berg.  I hope to see you all tonight at the opening!

Mark DeMaio: I Walk The Line
April 4-April 30, 2013
Opening Reception: April 4, 2013 8PM-11PM

Sacred Gallery
424 Broadway 2nd Floor Rear (Between Canal and Howard)
New York, NY 10013
https://www.sacredgallerynyc.com/

The post Studio Visit: Preview For Mark DeMaio’s “I Walk The Line” appeared first on Artiholics.

New York, NY – Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Last week on my way back from Upstate NY I stopped in a supermarket to pick up some groceries and noticed these abominations.  Pre-painted Easter eggs (so I had to take a picture).  For any parents out there who bought these pieces-of-shit for their children this year, I sympathize with your not wanting to get your hands dirty / stained painting eggs, or spending quality time with your children. I’m sure they are a pain in the ass, and would probably mess up a good smock.  Time is money, and painting eggs takes time, and this gives you an easy out to not waste that time.  Let me break down for you why these pre-painted eggs made me want to grab that entire rack and topple it to the floor, making a glistening rainbow of broken eggshells.

One thing I love about holidays in America (as well as growing up poor in America) is that there is a lot of creativity involved with each holiday.  Each holiday has it’s own little art projects that are interactive between parents and their kids…In fact, it seems the less money your family has as a kid in America, the more creative your parents and you will have to get with each holiday.

With both of my parents being artists, my Halloween costumes were all made by hand, from the Robot, to the Pharaoh, nothing was store bought, and all were assembled from scraps, old parts, and salvation army trips.  They were put together with hot glue, duct tape, and spray paint, and they always beat the shit out of the rich kid’s store bought pre-fab costumes.  Half of the fun was putting the costume together, and the time spent on them made them unique, and original.  Pumpkin picking is very much like the poor man’s version of buying a sculpture as you and your family would decide together which pumpkins look best.  The best color, shape, large enough surface area to make a good face.  As a family you would hollow them out and cut jack-o’-lantern faces into them.  You can now buy pre-cut jack-o’-lanterns with battery powered simulated candles.

At Christmas the family can go and pick out a tree together, again, like buying a sculpture.  You and your parents would be visually sizing up a tree for it’s color, volume, symmetry, as well as price, and the next giant mental leap- how it will look in your home.  The other way around this- devoid of creative thought is having a store-bought plastic tree you just unpack each year.  No creative deductive reasoning, group critique, and family bonding.  Making ornaments, hand making Christmas cards, decorating a house or yard with a Holiday theme, building a gingerbread house, making pastries, and even making presents.  All of these things can be store bought- and for lack of time usually are.

But Easter…I never thought they would take away Easter.  Easter is a shit holiday for kids, except for two things.  Painting / Coloring eggs, and THE EASTER EGG HUNT, where you find the eggs you painted which have been hidden by The Easter Bunny.   Decorating eggs the night before Easter is half of the fucking fun.  You practice painting all year in your stupid school, and now you can actually put your skills on a physical 3D object, which a MYTHICAL CREATURE will presumably be impressed by (The Easter Bunny is the original art critic) and will hide for you to find.  With these shitty pre-painted eggs, half of the holiday, the creative “making shit” half, is divorced from the equation.  And you as a parent are actually paying a few dollars more for this privilege!

The theme to holidays – let’s forget the giving, loving, thankfulness, or religious elements, and take this from a child’s creativity perspective.  You both independently, or with your family build something, you prepare, you make the things that lead up to making the holiday special, then the day comes, and you enjoy the things you worked hard to creatively make.

As time is money, money can save you time if you have it.  Buying your way out of having to be creative is always an option when it comes to the holidays.  The odd irony is, by spending the extra dollars to save you time, you are actually robbing your child of some of their artistic family bonding time.  Time they and you can’t get back.  It also chips away piece-by-piece at their overall creativity and sense of wonder.  Do yourself and your kids a fucking favor which will effect their psyche for the rest of their life, take the extra 30 minutes to paint the eggs with your kids.  Memories don’t come pre-painted for $4.99 a dozen.

Written by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

The post Are American Parents Getting Richer, Less Creative, Or Just Lazier? appeared first on Artiholics.

LONDON, Thursday February 14, 2013

The post Basquiat Bidding Auction Bungle appeared first on Artiholics.