Recently found Mikey Artwork =]

So i did a post about Mike SS and his artwork, I was looking for this drawing and one of our good friends had it. I love this, its mikey at his best. I miss you so much my darling <3

The Darwin Martin House

I really enjoyed our last excursion to the Darwin Martin house, it was gorgeous and I may come back and take the two hour tour when the house is closer to being finished. The architecture was very planned out and Frank Loyd Wright put a lot of thought in exactly how he wanted his structure.

 With all the hidden things and the way he liked to make people feel uncomfortable in a space, to move or sit somewhere, it reminded me a bit of Rose Red. Rose Red was loosely based off a mansion called the Winchester House in which the wife continued to build the house to confuse the ghosts she believed were haunting her.
The Winchester Mansion contains 160 rooms and cost more the $5,500,000. There are miles of twisting hallways, with secret passage ways, staircases and doorways that lead to nowhere. A lot of it was designed by Sara Winchester herself. It was said that she asked helped with her design of the house with nightly seances and for protection from "bad" spirits. There was never any blue prints to the house and there also wasn't a building inspector.
"Mrs. Winchester’s elegant Grand Ballroom is built almost entirely without nails. It cost over $9,000 to complete at a time when an entire house could be built for less than $1,000! The silver chandelier is from Germany, and the walls and parquet floor are made of six hardwoods – mahogany, teak, maple, rosewood, oak, and white ash."
http://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/thehouse.cfm

 Rose Red on the other hand, was a mansion that was remodeled to be a hotel, actually named Thornewood Castle, when author Stephen King wanted to use it for his movie, he modeled it to its original structure. In the book, Ellen Rimbaur and her life at Rose Red, she had married a rich man from an oil company and the house was his gift to her. The story goes that the house had been build in the early 20th century, on an old indian burial ground, which Ellen was not aware of upon purchasing the property. Mr. Rimbaur intended to cover up this fact and burned the bones of the Indians, aggravating the spirits. Many people got lost in the house, men would turn up dead and women missing. As had Mrs. Winchester, Mrs. Rimbaur continued to build her house for the spirits. She had hallways that led to nowhere and hallways that got smaller, with hidden doors for the rooms. I believe even though this house is fiction, it still poses a certain art.

Western New York Book Arts Center

I enjoyed the excursion we went on a couple weeks ago to the printing press place called the Western New York Book Arts Center. I bought a print from there of a cupcake and a little buffalo post card. Not only did they have a workshop for printing but they had room to exhibit other artists pieces. I knew Buffalo was an artistic city but after this class I am really beginning to notice just how much this city does for art.
I also enjoyed the video we watched about Amos Kennedy and how he made printing a career. In the Book Arts Center, they explained how patient one has to be to make prints. I never realized how much work really goes into it. I enjoy looking at Amos's posters because they are different from any art I've ever seen.
Amos Kennedy makes posters with very opinionated thoughts that sometimes make people uncomfortable but I like the slogans he adds. These are probably my favorite ones I have seen of his work so far.

The Fire Chicken

I finally finished the oil painting I started 4 semesters ago, of my very good friend Michael. With a little help from Mr.Porter, I think it turned out pretty good. This is Mikey driving in Cali (though the picture was in Depew) in his Fire Bird, that he called the Fire Chicken.:)
<3

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