Collection #12 Salvador Dali

I know Salvador Dali is very well known and probably defeats the purpose but I like the surrealism of his paintings and wanted to look him up. He was born in 1904 and died in 1989 living as a Spanish painter, graphic artist and designer.
I chose a couple painting I like of his the most to talk about.
I really like butterflies and some of his paintings have butterflies with a surrealist approach which I find very inspiring. I couldn't find the name of this first painting but I love how the flower's leaves are the wings of a butterfly. There are also little people walking around the flower, there's a lot that can be interpreted in this painting.

Salvador Dali is best known for his paintings of the melting clocks. I like these because time to me is such a mystery and there is never enough of it. Time can heal and hurt, time is not infinite and one day time will catch up to us all. Time is scary.

Collection #11 Jasmine Becket-Griffith

Jasmine is a full time artist who lives with her husband who works for her in shipping out her pieces. She paints, makes sculptures and t-shirts. She paints all the time, she is now 30 and has been painting since 1997. She has many different galleries from fairies and gothic to alice in wonderland.

The first is in the fairy collection and can be bought in many sizes and are all acrylic.
"The Three Fates - in Greek Mythology known as The Moirae - of destiny  - as a universe of galaxies swirls behind them.  Clotho is on the viewer's left - a portrait of innocence in angel wings as she spins the thread of life on her spinning wheel.  Lachesis is in the center, measuring the length of the thread of life between her careful hands.  Atropos glares out from the viewer's right hand side - with her "abhorred shears" - scissors snipping the thread of life with a final cut."
I chose this one because it has a good story behind it. I'm very into mythical things and spirituality of things that cannot be seen. 

 "Darling Dragonling 2"
I like this one because it's Halloween like but also has a cute quality.

I chose this next one because it's bright and cute =] 
"Snow Bunny"

I love this next one because she put Alice in a salvador Dali painting. 
"Alice in a Dali Dream"

"Winged Seer"

Collection #10 Mark Ryden

Today in my drawing class this one girl I talk to told me about this artist after we were talking about Tim Burton and his art. She suggested I look up this artist and I have to say I do love his stuff, more morbid art. :)
Currently working in Los Angeles, Ryden has paintings exhibited in museums around the world, including a retrospective "Wondertoonel" at the Frye Museum of Art in Seattle and Pasadena Museum of California Art.
http://www.markryden.com/index.html

To me his artwork renders a type of fantasy and morbid nightmarish quality, with some political and religious views makes one think about the meaning behind it all. There seems to be a lot of meaning behind what he paints and is trying to portray in his works.

This work is called "Incarnation" and was also the inspiration for the meat dress worn by lady Gaga at the MTV music awards.

 This piece is entitled "Christina" in the collection "the meat show" and I chose this just because I love Christina Ricci. This collection, also involving the one above this, involves slabs of meat in random places which could have a political view of how meat is used, but I'm not sure. I guess every piece of art is open to interpenetration.

For instance, in the next couple paintings, Ryden portrays things like the devil holding meat and the girl in the photo is holding a cross. It may be the struggle between good and evil with innocence of the young. He uses alot about pop culture and the dark side of things.
"Slayer" Oil on panel 13x15

This painting has a little girl going into a butcher shop and she is holding the hand of Abraham Lincoln, who shows up in a lot of Ryden's paintings.
"The Butcher Bunny" Oil on panel  16x16 1999

 I like this next painting because it's more peaceful and my kind of scene.
"Just the girls" 21x21 1998

Morbid stuff is my thing, so I found one of his collections called "Blood" The painting seem like they were set back in older times with a type of elegance about them. The detail is amazing and with such simplicity shows a certain story of hurt maybe with the subjects.
I like this painting because the little girl seems to be at great peace as she stands bleeding to death, her eyes are closed tight but she shows no pain.
"Fountain" 12x6.25 oil on panel 2003 

Here's another one with Lincolns head in it, not sure why the significances but it's pretty morbid how it's sitting on this little girls bed. We also disgust in class that the frames can also be part of an art piece, I think this is true with his paintings also.
"Lincolns head" 4.5x6.5 oil on panel.

 I just think this painting is cute, there isn't anything creepy about it per say and Christmas is always a magical time. I like the way he captures the snow and the sky.

"Santa Worm" 14x10 oil on panel 2000

I like paintings that show a type of religious view because I'm not particularly religious and theres a lot of different things one could say about "God" and the way life should be lived. I do believe in a higher power, a life after death but I also think religion has been twisted so many ways that people have lost the sense of simply being a good person.
"Piano Player" framed 29x39x3inches 2010

  

Collection #9 Greg "Craola" Simkins

Let me just start off saying that I am a BIG fan of Blink 182, probably my favorite band I grew up with, I think all their albums are great. I have their page on my facebook and they posted about their friend's next showing to be taken place at Merry Karnowsky Gallery in Los Angeles, CA.

This is the website to the gallery he is showing his work :
http://mkgallery.com/index.php

I chose to write about this artist because his work is of the morbid side, which I love but also because there is a lot of detail in all his pieces. I believe he did some work for Blink but I'm not exactly sure what. The collection he did for the Merry Karnowsky Gallery was written about in the American Art Collector Magazine: 
http://www.americanartcollector.com/
Doing a little snooping, I found his Facebook page :

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Greg-Craola-Simkins/126782594001871?__adt=3&__att=iframe
Which then led me to his website :
http://www.imscared.com/
Simkins started drawing when he was as young as three years old with crayons and pencils which turned into using pen and other ink forms, and is now into acrylic paints. Movies which bring about the outside world is mostly where his inspiration comes from, the "falling down the rabbit hole" effect of imaginative and alternative realities. His art incorporates these worlds and different aspects of nature which until he has painted it so, could never interact with each other. He describes how certain land animals would never be able to live alongside the ecosystem of the sea and brings them together in his work. By the age of 18 he began creating graffiti art under the name "craola" which gave him the opportunity to experiment with large spaces for canvases. He then moved on to working at Treyarch/ Activision and did work on Tony Hawk 2X, spiderman 2 and ultimate Spiderman.

After looking through the extensive gallery on Simkins page, I am blown away, utterly inspired because i havnt done much painting lately, and he is now my new favorite artist!

This is the first painting that really caught my eye, yet after that they just kept getting better. I love the originality of his work and the morbid type of quality, theres so much in one painting if you look close enough there are a lot of different creatures. It's beautiful, how they're sitting on a cloud yet they're head stones in it. He did do some work for AFI and this painting reminds me of some of their albums.
"Elil and Fu Inle"-36x30 in Acrylic canvas. 2011

Everyone knows South Park and how Kenny dies in every episode, here's a rendition of Kenny being an angel. I love the detail and shading in this one, in all of them.
"Kenny Angel"-18x12 in- Acrylic on canvas, 2011

The last painting I want to show, I love because they way he painted the pumpkins just give it a morbid but beautiful quality. I really love Halloween and you can see closely different symbols he was trying to make like how the crayon says "escape", in other words that he is implying how art is an escape.
"Join Me"-20x30in Acrylic on canvas, 2011

On his website he has an abundance of drawings, paintings and graffiti work that he has done, I left his website at the top so you should definitely check him out. Simkins has generated a lot of fan bass and many of his fans have went as far as getting his art tattooed on them.
This one is pretty sweet, it kinda looks like a more morbid Blink bunny coming out of this guys chest.

Looking at his work, makes me have better ideas for what I want tatted on my back. hmmm this is a thought now.

Had to add this one! Rendition of Edward Scissor Hands!

PUNK Magazine Collection # 8

So I LOVE the Punk scene! I had my phase of being in that scene though it is behind me I still have this obsession I guess, with the way Punk use to be when it came out in the 70's. The bands were definitely a big part of it but it was more the image, the art of it all. The Punk life style is what interested me the most, how it was free and rebellious. In one of my Punk history books; "Punk: The Whole Story", I came across a section about the magazine, it's creators and artists.
The magazine was originally suppose to be a rock n' roll comic book,explains editor and writer John Holmstrom. The magazine, published in New York between 1976-1979 sparked the punk "fanzine" crazyness.
The first issue had Lou Reed on the cover. January 1976- Illustration by John Holmstrom

Issue 8: The Sex Pistols, March 1977. This cover was done by a guy called Steve Taylor. Holmstrom states: "Instead of drawing with a pen, he'd use an ink dropper or a broken quill and scribble withe that and get ink everywhere, he didn't want firm control over the ink."

Issue 10: Blondie. Cover art done by: Bobby London

Issue 3 April, 1976, Joey Ramone. Cover by: John Holmstrom

There many more issues of PUNK though the magazine declined in 1979, there were anniversary additions. Here is a couple of websites I came across on my search for the pictures of the magazine.
http://www.punkmagazine.com/vault/vault-main.html

http://www.98bowery.com/punkyears/punk-art-catalogue-section-two.php

There is also a lot to be said about the image of punk, the way they dress, their life style and music set them in a scene of rebelling against society and their ideals. Much opposite of the hippie culture witch came just years before it. Punks believed in Anarchy and creating a imagine to shock the public. These are a few photos I came across that have a certain poetic feel to the whole scene, it is, I think, art in itself. Punk came out of London in the 1970s and spread to New York city in underground clubs such as CBGB and Max's.

The Sex Pistols

The Ramones

Punk Romeo And Juliet. Sid and Nancy

Random Punks from the 70's

Patti Smith, Poetic genius

 I feel there is something artistic about Punk all together, there's a certain poetic undertone about it all that I just love. I always say I was born in the wrong era.

The art of Hula Hooping. Collection #7

I'm not sure if this could be considered an actual collection but the art of Hula Hooping is fascinating to me. I discovered it this summer when I went to my first festival, Camp Bisco. I met this girl that amazed me and I bought a hoop shortly after that. The heavier hoops are for beginners and when you get better you move to a thinner hoop but still with some weight to it to dance with. The designs on the hoops are pretty artistic themselves, I do plan on making some this summer also.
Hooping came to Britain around 1300 using homemade hoops. In the 1800s british sailors witnessed hula dancing in the Hawaiian Islands, and as this looked similar to hooping, the name "hula hoop" originated.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1134416

I found a couple videos of hooping online, these were my favorite and inspiring to me. This first one is Lisa Lotti, I'm not sure of the location, she uses up to 8 hoops at a time! 

 The next video is of the girl who inspired me to start hooping, her name is Arielle Cravatta I met her at camp and was amazed! she's also one of the sweetest girls I've ever met. =]

At the end of Camp, on the last morning I saw this girl with a fire hoop and I was so amazed! I hope one day I get good enough to get one. This isn't the chick from Bisco but she's pretty good too.

Hoops come in all sizes and patterns, they're fire hoops and collapsible hoops for easy transportation, also they're L.E.D hoops with lights in them. You can usually find hoopers at festivals, concerts and Raves.

Hoops have been around for thousands of years but usually we would think of a hoop as a child's toy, now it seems to have become a great art form. I love it because hooping becomes a type of meditation as well as exercise that helps one become centered, with only, you, your hoop and the music <3

Collection #6 My own Art Scarlet Evann

I do consider myself an artist, it's really the only thing in my life that helps me keep going to express myself and the things i have been through. It's the one thing I'm really good at an I hope one day I can start selling my paintings and become well known for them. But on the other hand I know when I die they will be worth more. Isn't that always the way! HA! Anyways, I started drawing for fun and took classes all throughout high school, I have many sketch books which have my early work in them but I paint more then I can draw. I started painting with acrylic and discovered Oil in my freshman year at ECC north. I had Mr. Porter, who I am also taking a drawing two class with this semester. (awesome teacher i must say) Anyways! I'll Start with my favorite pieces and add more once i get them on my computer.

My first piece is my favorite oil piece iv done, the canvas is 18x 20 Camaro SS 1969 my favorite car! I believe this is from 2010

This next piece I did a couple weeks ago. I love Sid and Nancy, and the whole punk movement. I've read about Nancy Spungen and her mental disorders and the true romance between her and SId Vicious that I kind of have a little obsession with them. This first painting is an oil paining i think it is 18x 20 maybe a little bigger.

The next is a drawing I did in high school in a sketch book of Sid and Nancy. pencil drawing

I have had a phase in my art where I drew alot of mushrooms. I guess it was my hippie phase.
This is something I drew just in pen on regular sheet of notebook paper. I think this was done in 2010

This next picture I think was also done in 2010 with pastels

More pastel artwork done in my sketch book "Dont fear the Reaper"

This next one is a painting i did for my Niece, she is now 11 months old. I did this before she was born for her room. The theme was purple butterflies.

I also enjoy a bit of photography. These are my two favorite pictures I took.
The first one is of my friend Kerensa on the train tracks in depew last summer. I love black an white, it's more real I think it captures more emotion in a photo.

 I did take some pictures of Mike's tree but I can't find the original ones, this is one I edited on my computer, I think it looks really cool.