art – Page 44

The logo game

When I was in my teens and maybe early 20s, I used to design logos. I think I charged $89.00 for a logo. I worked at a community newspaper and they would run the ad for me in the classified section. It was a small black box, about an inch square and it said “Logos” very large and then my phone number. This is before email or I would have put the email address in the ad.

I would prepare a few designs and the person would buy one and I would make it into a black and white contact sheet and that was there logo. No EPS files or PDF files or vector files, just a black and white piece to work from.

In the village where I live, there was a shoe store that had my logo on their window, for so many years. It was called “Coconuts” and the “T” was a palm tree. And every time I passed I was proud to say, “I did that.” That was years ago, ironically, I just ate at that location, it’s a restaurant now.

pepsi

The whole subject comes up because I read that Pepsi changed their logo from the one on the left to the one on the right. And guess what? They paid $1 million to Arnell Associates to create the new logo for them.

I would say I’m in the wrong business, maybe I should go back to it. It’s like you create logos and if you’re fortunate, you get one huge account, do the job and retire.

The art bazaar in NOLA

I’m in New Orleans for the weekend. Always love it here and I’m always finding something new. Yesterday I came across this art bazaar or bizarre as they call it there. It’s an empty lot in the middle of the block, on 1200 block of Decauter Street. For some reason, it looks like something you would see in Brooklyn, but I’m sure this is all originally NOLA.

There was an artist named Jason working on something and during weekends, there is more than one artists present and it’s like a little flea market then. It’s funny, with one artist it feels like a gallery, with more, a flea market.

I like the dinosaur, but how would I get it home?

Shattered sculptures thanks to FedEx

glass1

If you’re planning on sending something made of glass via FedEx or UPS, beware, your item may not end up in one piece, but this is the hopes of one artist. Los Angeles-based Walead Beshty has sent glass pieces for nine years, from 2005 to 2014, via FedEx, using their standard shipping boxes and the pieces of glass invariably crack in transit.

This is his goal. The cracked pieces are now art to Walead. It was his goal for the pieces to break. He calls them “FedEx Works.” The pieces are the size and shape of the boxes.

glass2

The pieces that are delivered to the galleries, are then taken out, pieces back together and displayed on top of their shipping boxes. This is the art.

From Wikipedia: “Beshty earned a Bachelor of Arts from Bard College in 1999, and a Master of Fine Arts from Yale University School of Art in 2002. He is an Associate Professor in the Graduate Art Department at Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, and has taught at numerous schools including University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, Irvine; the California Institute of the Arts; School of the Art Institute of Chicago; and the MFA Program at Bard College. Beshty has exhibited widely in numerous institutions and galleries around the world.”

Walead discusses his art here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WffqBKryxk

glass3 glass4 glass5

George Herriman and the Southwest

wetherill — A piece that George Herriman drew for his friends the Wetherills with that incredible Southwestern background.

I’m enjoying the George Herriman biography. It’s draggy in parts but quite good. He had an interesting life and was right at the height of cartooning when newspapers were basically the only source of news and read by everyone daily. He was a humble man and a rich one. He made a lot of money producing Krazy Kat.

I enjoy the parts where he visits Arizona, which is often. That landscape became such a big part of the Krazy Kat comic strip as he played with the vistas and the light in each comic. He loved it there, even though he lived in New York and Los Angeles for most of his life. He was born in New Orleans.

There was a couple near Flagstaff, Arizona, the Wetherills, John and Louisa, who hosted George and friends in the real Coconino County. They sort of ran a guest house, something like that. George enjoyed visiting them and spending long dinners at a long table at their house with fellow cartoonists who traveled with him including Rudolph Dirks, originator of the Katzenjammer Kids, and cartoonist and artist Jimmy Swinnerton, who moved to Arizona with his wife in 1906 for health reasons.

George Herriman would do a few Krazy Kat comics and submit them and then take the train to Arizona. He would also draw there between day trips around Arizona with the others and mail in the strips to King Features Syndicate. He visited New Mexico and Utah, too.

I like so much of his lifestyle. I enjoy the aspect of traveling and cartooning along the way, that’s one reason I gave up my Wacom Cintiq for a Surface Pro, so that I could draw on my travels.

Oddly enough, I’ve always been drawn to the Southwest even though I have never been. I like the idea of being in Arizona and New Mexico and when I was a child I used to pretend that my bedroom was a trailer out in the desert somewhere. I don’t know why, but that always intrigued me. I used to like the tv show “Alice” because it took place in Phoenix and I got hooked on “Breaking Bad” right away when I saw the trailer out in the desert for the first time. Did I live there in another life? Who knows, but I like that I have that in common with George Herriman.

George Herriman

krazykat I’ve been reading this new book on George Herriman, the creator and cartoonist of Krazy Kat. I always wondered what the early days of cartooning were like and this is set in that time period. When George Herriman first started drawing for newspapers, for ads and things like that, the whole idea of newspaper drawings was new and at the turn of the century (1900) comic strips started.

It was the time of Pulitzer and Hearst and the New York World and New York Journal and Park Row in NYC.

I sort of wish I lived at that time, when anyone with talent could get a job cartooning because there were so many newspapers and syndicates that there was room for everybody.

I saw this image of New York City from the snowy winter of 1905, which is frozen moment in time (no pun intended), the period I’m now reading about in the book. These people in the photo read the World, Journal and all the other New York papers and they saw George Herriman’s work when it was new and fresh.

oldny

krazy_kat

Criminals on Canvas

The Riddler – $3000.

Batdog – $3500.

Penguin – $5000.

Mad Hatter – $6500.

Joker – $7000.

Batman!

December 22, is the last day of a three-day “Criminals on Canvas”exhibit in Sun Valley, Idaho. The great part is that the art is by TV’s 1960s Batman, Adam West, who lives in Idaho. The exhibit is at the Gilman Contemporary Gallery, where they describe the exhibit: “Gilman Contemporary is thrilled to present “Criminals on Canvas” and other works by Adam West. This three-day guest exhibition will feature original works along with newly created prints of the villains and characters from the original classic Batman Television show that rose to popularity in the 60s. Join us for an artist reception with the man himself December 21st.”

Love the work, this should possibly be a traveling show, maybe at ComicCons’ things like that. I think it would be cool to have certain characters, say from Star Trek, draw Star Trek criminals or characters from the show, same with other shows like Game Of Thrones, etc.

88-year-old Adam West’s work goes from about $6000 up to $10,000 per piece.

Andy Warhol sculpture

15369050_1283554348386343_8990520168532082350_o This cool Andy Warhol sculpture is in a remote area northeastern Slovakia at the Warhol Family Museum of Modern Art, founded in 1991. Love the hair.

More here.

Art Miami

It’s Art Basel week in Miami, or Miami Art Week – the difference is that the “real” Basel is in the convention center in South Beach and the satellite shows, dubbed Art Miami, are all over downtown and midtown, and the Wynwood area in huge tents. I prefer the satellite shows, but as Wynwood and midtown Miami get more and more gentrified, many of the tented shows have moved around and they aren’t all in a row on one street anymore. That hopefully will change next year, when a big part of the shows move to one location – the former Miami Herald site on Biscayne Bay in downtown Miami.

Anyway, here are some things I saw at Miami Art Week, I always love Chinese artist Li Hongbo‘s paper sculptures you see in the video above. Amazing work. The hidden element of surprise of course, is the best part.

And here is a collage of just a few things I noticed while wandering around.

Holiday time in Union Square

It’s not the holidays without a visit to Union Square in NYC. It’s one of my favorite places in the city – during any season. My favorite thing in the summer is a Mr. Softee truck on almost every corner surrounding the square. I’ve counted as many as seven trucks at one time.

But during October and November, Union Square comes alive. It starts in October with pumpkins and fall colors popping up all over. And in November, it turns red with all the Christmas stuff.

There is always a green market and in November, that is joined by a holiday craft bazaar, with the best hot chocolate. Mix that with chess players, Hare Krishnas, a fortune teller or two, art on the sidewalks and some odd protest or two and it’s all a perfect mix.

Christmas trees right on the spot.

Love the Christmas colors.

Winter flowers.

Hot pepper wreath.

Cranberries

More cranberries.

He likes it.

Holiday Bazaar.

Holiday bazaar

Music in the parks

Enjoyed ice skating in Brant Park in NYC recently. There’s a holiday bazaar, an indoor restaurant to get food and hot drinks and lots of music and ice skating in the center of the city.

Also came upon this piano player in Washington Square Park one Saturday. The piano was just there and he was just playing. Such a beautiful moment.