Come check out some sweet images from home-town-artist turned bay-area-bad-ass Forest Stearns and get your dance on to DJ and electronic sets by NISIS, LURV & DJ ILL TONES. I know I will be there.
Death in Le Style Mucha
Many people would argue that Alphonse Mucha is one of the most definitive artists of the art nouveau movement. Mucha was a Czech artist whose work for the Paris theatre gained him world wide notoriety. His bold yet beautiful illustration style held great influence over much of the art created in the early 1900s. His stylized floral patterns and intricate border elements are imitated by illustrators, printmakers & designers to this day. Although I didn’t know much of the artist until recently I have been a fan of his heavy outlined figures, bold color fills and ornate organic imagery. Take a peek at these images I found online:
Being a admirer of Mucha’s and modern day metal head I could not help but take great notice in the work of John Dyer Baizley. Baizley is an artist who’s work can be found on many of today’s prominent hardcore, grindcore and heavy metal albums including those of his own band Baroness. I bought a Pig Destroyer album on sight alone because of his work. To view his work is to gaze into beautiful death. It is as though Baizley has taken the essence of Mucha’s illustrations and threw them in a blender with the decaying corpses of prom queens. The similarities are obvious, but the differences are startling. Baizley does a fantastic job a nodding to Mucha while creating his own dark path to travel down. If you can’t quite imagine it take a look at these:
UTLTRN vs. Wood
Here are some new pieces I am working on. On the left is a woodcut in the works. My first concept was the black marker. I didn’t feel that it filled the page well enough so I added the banner, but I already started the relief work on the skull so I couldn’t make the banner intertwine as much as I would like. I felt that the black flower was to cartoony so I changed it to some California Poppies. I might as some text to the banner and some more flowers and plant life as I feel its needed. I will post the resulting print when the time comes. On the right is another recycled chair back piece, this one is a carving of a happy cyclops. My girlfriend, Kim, and I came up with this while discussing what to do with the piece I broke in accidently half. I think this is a much better idea than burning it. I am carving with gouges instead of chisles which makes this very time consuming, but fun.
Stay tuned.
ProArts
(Dignidad Rebelde activist printmakers/mixed media artists)
The ProArts Gallery of the East Bay Area is putting out a call for entry for artists in the Greater Bay Area. I believe “Greater” being a loose term for most places in Northern California. If you go to their Call for Entry page you can get the info and applications for their latest annual events. Check out the ProArts site and and see what they are all about. They might be something you are interested in participating in. Here are some or the artists that caught my eye while browsing their members:
(Anthony Holdsworth painter)
Here is what they are saying about one of their events:
Show your art to the largest and most diverse art audience in the region. The Directory of East Bay Arts and East Bay OPEN STUDIOS is a straightforward way for artists at any stage in their career to get their work seen by art patrons, curators, other artists, business leaders, community leaders, and art enthusiasts. After nearly 30 years, the annual East Bay Open Studios (EBOS) continues to bring visitors from all over the Bay Area to local artists’ studios for the opportunity to see the best art made in the East Bay today, likewise, the publication, Directory of East Bay Art extends the reach of the event and provides a year-long reference, a Who’s Who guide for artists.
