art – Page 45

The Little Shop of Horrors art

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A friend and I were driving through Coral Gables the other day and we came upon this. Far be it from me to criticize another’s art, but come on, this is art? We had a tropical system passing through the area and I almost thought this was something that fell from a building or was destroyed in the storm, only one thing – the storm hadn’t arrived yet!

Then I found out that the City of Coral Gables paid almost $1 million for this piece that looks like it’s out of Little Shop of Horrors, we were afraid to get too close fearing that it would start singing, “Feed Me,” and eat us alive.

It almost appears to eat the building.

Looks like a pile of scrap metal from this angle.

Reaching for the sky.

Coral Gables chose an artist from New York, Alice Aycock to create the commissioned piece. I don’t think I’ve seen anything this ugly even in New York. Is she punking us? She was chosen out of 181 other artists, I shudder to think what they came up with if this was the winning piece. There are actually two of them, a big one and a little one. At first I thought they were multiplying, but there are only the two.

In all fairness, Alice does a wonderful job with sculptures, you can see her work at her website here: www.aaycock.com. But are these flowers a good example of her work and are they worth $1 million?

They are sort of in a back area of the Gables, off Biltmore Way and Coral Way, near the traffic circle on Segovia, where the business area meets the residential area, near the Grenada Golf Course. Check it out if you get a chance, don’t get too close, and let me know what you think.

There’s a petition to get rid of them, so not sure how long they will last. It may just end up being expensive scrap metal.

Am I bored by high culture?

I was asked today to be a judge at a local Film Festival. I turned them down. I can’t sit through all those movies in one day, it would drive me insane. I’ve also turned down judging arts events, as they take a day or two of looking at non-stop art and then making decisions on who and who wouldn’t be part of arts festivals and shows. Guess I just don’t have the patience.

But Breaking Bad, Real Housewives, Naked and Afraid. I’m in. I’ll sit for hours on end watching these shows and their marathons. Not sure what it says about me but the high culture events bore me. TV doesn’t.

She sculpts Lucy

I’m sure you’ve seen the news lately about the Scary Lucy statue in Celoron, NY. You’ll remember that a sculptor made a sculpture to honor Lucille Ball, which was placed Lucille Ball Memorial Park, in her hometown, only the sculpture was scary and ugly. Lucy fans were upset, there was even a Facebook page created to push the cause of replacing the statue with new one with Lucy’s actual likeness.

Finally, “New Lucy” was unveiled earlier this month on Lucy’s 105th birthday.
New Jersey sculptor Carolyn Palmer was chosen by the town to make a “better” version of Lucy and the rest is history. I kept seeing Carolyn in the news regarding the statue and it was all about the statue and Lucy and I thought, “Let’s learn more about Carolyn,” so I asked here my 10 With Tom questions. Here they are: (that’s Carolyn with Lucy below)

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TOM: Did you watch I Love Lucy or any of the Lucy shows before you decided to create the statue?

CAROLYN: Yes, I grew up watching, “I love Lucy.” After winning the competition, I immediately subscribed to “CBS – All Access” for reruns and watched countless episodes. She was fun to sculpt because I never laughed so much while creating a piece of art. I actually had to turn off the sound at one point so I could just focus on the visuals. When I found poses or expressions of Lucy’s spirit that I liked, I’d screen capture the images, enlarging them onto big computer screens. I also hired 5’7″ models that were Lucy’s actual height and enlarged “head to toe” reference photos for my studio walls.

TOM: Do you know Lucy Ricardo’s address in Manhattan without looking?
CAROLYN: No, I don’t and that’s a great trivia question. I can’t recall a time when their address was mentioned on the show.

TOM: Gotcha!- it’s 623 E. 68 St., NYC.

TOM: Where was Ricky from?
CAROLYN: Ricky was from Cuba. Speaking of Ricky, fans have contacted me wondering if I was going to make a sculpture of him too. They feel Ricky was a part of Lucy’s success and should be honored as well.

TOM: I agree, a Ricky statue would be great next to Lucy!

TOM: Name 3 things in nature you find most beautiful.
CAROLYN: It’s so difficult to choose just three because nature is filled with abounding beauty. For one, I love gazing at starlit skies and watching the phases of the moon as it waxes and wanes. Another joy is witnessing how the play of light changes with the seasons and influences all the warm and cool colors dancing around the landscapes. And my third choice is watching animals in their natural habitat. Right now we have a surplus of deer around our property. They are so gentle and graceful in how they interact. I wish all humans were that way.

TOM: Starry Night, Mona Lisa or Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by Picasso?
CAROLYN: Les Demoiselles d’Avignon is a powerful painting by Picasso; one of my favorites at the Moma.

TOM: What do you usually order at Starbucks?
CAROLYN: My daily addiction: Venti Mocha Frappuccino Light with only one shot of frap roast (instead of 4)

TOM: Which tv show would you like to crawl into and spend the day ?
CAROLYN: Downton Abbey – I love the era but only for a day. I’ve grown to enjoy the vast information available today by computer and social media.

TOM: What scares you the most, and why?
CAROLYN: The current crisis with the human condition. History reports that evil always existed and probably always will but our weapons are no longer just bows and arrows or rifles. Today we have advanced machine guns, chemical warfare and other methods of mass destruction. There are now ways to destroy the entire planet ….and all of this frightens me.

TOM: Where would you like to live?
CAROLYN: I love living near NYC but would like to be bi-coastal and have a home in California too.

TOM: What talent would you most like to have?
CAROLYN: I’d like the talent to be a playwright because not a week goes by that I don’t think of writing a play. It’s like background noise in everything I do. I’m always thinking, Wow, that person would be the perfect character or this scenario would convey a powerful message, or the lighting over there would highlight a dramatic backdrop. These kind of thoughts haunt me. So, if my hands ever give out from sculpting, I just may take a try at it!

Thanks, Carolyn!

Check out my other 10 With Tom interviews here.

And you can subscribe to Tomversation here free so you don’t miss the next one!

Suction cups in the news

Who did this? Randomly saw it on social media.

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And the New York Daily News’ front page is really funny, too.This guy climbed Trump Tower today. The whole country was glued to their tv’s and social media, watching it all happen live.

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Draw it; don’t Snapchat it

starynight — Starry Night at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.

Such a great idea – the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is asking people to sketch the art they see in the museum, rather than take photos of it! Love this.

I’m at museums often and there are different policies, many allow you to take photos if you don’t use the flash, others are strict about you not taking photos, but this idea of recreating the art by drawing it yourself is really cool in that you can appreciate the art even more so when you get into every detail of the subject.

I see many people taking photos of themselves in front of the art and I can understand that, years ago, when I saw Starry Night for the first time, I was in a trance, I just stared at it and one time I had my cousin take a photo of me in front of it. Back then it wasn’t behind glass, I can’t remember if it was framed or not, but the fact that it wasn’t behind glass and you could get right up close to it and almost smell the paint was special.

Next time I’m at MOMA, in NY, I’ll be sure to sketch Van Gogh’s Starry Night, which is my favorite work of art. Maybe.

Probably not, but it’s a great idea.

Jack Davis; you know his work

On the same day that Richard Thompson passed away, Jack Davis also passed. You may not know the name but if you read Mad magazine you have seen his work and his art graced TV Guide for many years. Just looking at the covers from TV Guide brings back my childhood. These images were seared in my head at the time and just looking at them brings back so many memories. He was the master of crowd scenes.

Here are a few. For so many more, check out Drew Friedman’s blog here.

Become your dream

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Saw this on Twitter, I think it was taken by Jason Kvinna, a comic book artist.

It reminds me of a story I did for the Huffington Post called “A Cause to Pause,” where I shared some uplifting messages I saw at a construction site once in New York City.

I like Jason’s work, I may try to interview him (with his permission, of course, well, how can I do it without his permission, actually) for a new series I’m contemplating for the Huffingon Post. I’m thinking of starting this interview series called “Tea with Tom” or something like that, where I interview up and coming artists similar to Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee show, only we’ll get tea and it won’t be comedians, it will be artists and we won’t film it, it will be published online and possibly print.

But the questions will be silly and not even pertain to their art or art at all.

I have some people in mind for this already.

Maybe “Ten With Tom” for the title, it could mean ten minutes or 10 questions.

Sticking with Max

Miami Art Week during Art Basel can be daunting, hell, just the fact that I have to leave the Grove is a chore in itself. It’s a lot to digest – the noise, the art, the people, it’s a non-stop week that is a lot for the senses. Most of the art begins to look the same after a bit, there is a lot of pop art and a lot of classic, there are sculptures as well as collages and paintings and they all get jumbled together, but this year, one art style and one artist stuck out to me. Literally. That’s Max Zorn, Tape Artist, shown here.

Max’s work appears to be photographs, but the whole image is made from brown masking tape on acrylic glass sheets with light behind it! As I passed by his booth at the Spectrum Art Fair, I noticed that there was tape on one of the images he was working on, I couldn’t figure out what was going on at first, I thought he was putting tape on various areas of a photograph, then it dawned on me that the whole image was made from masking tape!

Max got the idea one night when he put tape on top of a street light, he then stared playing with the tape and as he added more layers, it changed coloring, getting darker as he added tape on top of tape. And his Tape Art was born from that.

“The European tape is different than American tape and I find it interesting and challenging at first when I change tapes in the different countries. The thickness is different,” said Max, who lives in Amsterdam and shows his work around the world.

One big tipping point for Max was when the famed artist Bansky shared a video of Max on his social media sites. The video went viral. It shows Max using the masking tape and a scalpel to create his art, as shown below. He calls it “street art,” but to me it is fine art that belongs in galleries.

Max will be at the Spectrum Art Show all weekend, until December 6, which is at 1700 NE 2nd Avenue (new location this year, along with the Red Dot Fair). There is parking across the street, it’s easy to get to and park.

A gallery of Max’s art can be seen here at his website.