Who did this? Randomly saw it on social media.
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.
Category: art
Draw it; don’t Snapchat it
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
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.
tomversation.com 