Recording specificity: So Yoon Lym's "The Dreamtime"

While we tend to ascribe the image of a happy-to-be-nappy-chick with a slew of implications about political and social statements, particularly in light of the now not-as-recently mainstream natural hair movement, cornrows are another traditional style that instead is often viewed simply as a means for looking fresh, no more ideologically significant than rocking the newest pair of Jordans.

"The Dreamtime," a series of portraits by a NJ artist/high school teacher, takes a second look at that assumption, and draws out the frequently forgotten rich tradition behind what happens to be currently trendy. She photographed all of these styles during her time teaching in Paterson, and makes deliberate choices to depict them in ways that revive the colorful cultural history they embody even in a contemporary context.

read more about the series here, and see the rest of the images on her site.

Creative Frustration

Pascal Campion on creating art

Inspirational Artists: Pascal Campion from Onyx Cinema, Inc. on Vimeo.

Illustrator Pascal Campion speaks about the process and insight of creating art.

Art by fairie

         

Some great mixed-media pieces by fairie. She achieves amazing composition and an outlining technique that is effective without looking cartoonish, using colored pencils and marker, among other media.

Body Ink

I am something of a body modification enthusiast. In this area I'm most into something less conventional; scarification. I admire the complexity that it carries in its history and also its contemporary form.

Tattoos, though, are a different horse all together. Or, you could say, scarification is the horse and tattoos are its embellished cousin [read: zebra]. I find that among tattoos, the ones that impress me the most are those that catch me by surprise because they take the art form in a new direction. The examples that follow are some of my all time favorites.

Monochromatic Tattoos:
The use of bold, solid black can make much bigger impact than color, which gets busy. It takes skill to impress through minimalist simplicity, and these kinds of tattoos are much sleeker looking. This approach contradicts the sailor inspired tradition of overly busy, carnival-esque tattoos.

Nostalgia

Nostalgia, Nicol 2010

This came from my messing around on good old Photoshop. Scanned sketch + Photoshop. It had been forever, but it is such good fun :D !

Commotion at the MoMA?

Visitors have reportedly been overly handsy with performers in an art piece currently on exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art.

Eva Wylie paper sculptures

Beautiful installation pieces by Eva Wylie, an artist that works primarily in paper. Unfortunately, found out about her exhibition at the Gallery Joe only just today, on the last day.

Arlequine

Art by Emmanuel Malin

The Eyewriter from Evan Roth on Vimeo.