Part 2 of my "When I Have My Own Home" segment (& self-reminder system), I'm not much of a fine art connoisseur. I know my da Vinci's 'Mona Lisa' from Munch's 'The Scream', but I don't really fawn over these kind of artwork. But what I
DO know how to appreciate are the more modern artworks...more urban if you may.
But before anyone starts thinking I'm the arty farty type that wears a beret & talks about impressionist ideas or what not, I definitely can understand the appeal of postmodern art. Or rather, the kind where you actually need the artist around to actually explain what in the world that piece of art is to begin with. There's a few on rotation at CitiLink Mall in the area linking to The Esplanade Theatre, nicely shielded behind display windows.
I've always been fascinated with urban or street art. Graffiti. I suppose stickers kind of fall under urban art too (as in self design/drawn stuff &
NOT those photo booth stickers where people pose silly poses & act cute). I also mean graffiti as in the stencil or spraypaint type & not someone's profession of "fuck you....." directed at someone that's scrawled on the lift walls or bus seat - that's plain vandalism.
And since discovering deviantART with some meddling around in Photoshop 7 (which I still use), coupled with a case of "getting and feeling old" crisis, I've some to like digital art. This includes pixel art. It's amazing what you can whip up on Photoshop beyond the usual photo airbrushing and tweaking. You can make a webcomic, or a forum signature...or just art. For pixel art, I'm amazed at the level of detail one can squeeze out of boxes the size of this dot inside the parenthesis ---> (.) with shietload of patience and imagination.
Famous artist wise from the world of contemporary art, I'd say the only one I've liked so far is Chiho Aoshima's work. I first heard of and encountered her work on a trip to London in 2006. She had a piece of art titled City Glow, Mountain Whisper featured at Gloucester Road tube station as part of the London Underground's "platform for art" program (which I think is a fantastic way to make art more accessible to the public, rather than confining artworks only to galleries or museums).
For urban art, I just like the grittiness about it. It's not arty farty or high brow. Though I'm sure it could be, if anyone wanted to give street art a chance...just that it wouldn't have that air of anarchy about the (usually) unknown artist and the chosen location - public property/spot. Street art also has a feel of spontaneity about it. Like someone saw the spot (the so-called "canvas" or "medium") and decided "this looks like a good spot for something..." and then he/she actually went on to create something in the spot, even if it's considered illegal to "vandalise" the spot. Like in this example from
Neatorama:
So my grand plan is that rather than having some boring generic picture/painting of, say, a flower or a print copy of some famous painting, I'd get prints of stuff done by the fantastic and creative people on deviantART. In addition, I'd get pieces done
by street/urban artists if they are available in transportable form and I can actually afford it. There are some truly awesome stuff on display at both deviantART and flickr. Finally, I'd get Chiho Aoshima's stuff...if I ever am able to realistically afford indulging in such a purchase (her stuff doesn't come cheap!).
On another note, I've been finding drawing and just getting creative rather hard to come by recently. What the hell has happened??? I used to draw almost all the time, make my own custom bookmarks, decorate my files my own way with magazine/newspaper cuttings...and now I can't seem to come up with any good creative stuff (by my own standards). Has being in the rat race all these years in a corporate environment really have stamped out what little creativity I once had??? O,o
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