I’ve met Idiot the Wise, aka !Inspire! on Flickr, and came across a call for arts towards the Inspire Collective Art Show (to be shown in galleries and on the streets of Tel Aviv). Such a great concept. You could check out the Flickr gallery for the first show here.
Here’s a sketch I did a while back called Skull Mountain. It was inspired by a few horror films and a microbiology book. Random creativity.
This sketch was inspired by the Pacific Orchid Expo at Fort Mason. The pen/ink illustration was created in a couple of hours, during my commute.
Chinese Mountains is another exploration of style. It was created with a few different pens. The mixing of organic and geometric lines elude to a modernization of the chinese culture–traditional landscapes and modern skyscrapers.
What’s more fun than a musical turtle? View larger.
The MotionGrapher website posed an interesting poll about Shephard Fairey’s infamous Obama poster and Milton Glaser’s critical review. Another critique of Fairey’s work is on artist Mark Vallen’s blog. Earlier, the New York Times published an article, indicating that Fairey’s suing the Associated Press to combat copyright infringement. “The suit asks the judge to declare that Mr. Fairey’s work is protected under fair-use exceptions to copyright law, which allow limited use of copyrighted materials for purposes like criticism or comment.”
I think it depends upon the intention of the artist, whether or not the work is a commentary (falling under fine arts arena) or promotion/advertisement (commercial arts). Public figures are subject to scrutiny and critique–political cartoons and satire are evidence of this–but money always complicates matters. Andy Warhol displayed familiar faces and icons in his work–it was a social commentary on popular culture, but if you look at his commercial work, it was original. With Fairey’s work, he started out in graffiti/street art. Much like the tattoo realm, street arts sometimes take artwork from their original context and places it into a different medium, with or without the original artist’s consent. It’s the nature of the beast and hard to control. From one point of view, it is plagiarism, but in another view, it’s imitation and sometimes viewed as flattery. For fine arts, there shouldn’t be a limitation on creation/expression as it’s personal and an expression of one’s self, but with commercial arts, there should be greater sensitivity to copyrights.
Happy Valentine’s Day, AKA Singles Awareness Day! I view it as a day of love and thoughtfulness, not necessarily about couples, so have fun!
This illustration was a creative refresh of a Cupid skin in Photoshop and Illustrator. View larger image here.
Blind Nation is a great project for Child Abuse awareness. Its cover is designed by Flickr member and designer Elli Mayhem. She incorporated one of my photo textures for the cover of the industrial music CD by several artists who have suffered. I’m very excited and pleased to be part of this campaign.
Posted by Sherrie Thai of ShaireProductions.com
Chinese Lion Dance is in honor of the Chinese/Lunar New Year, so many happy thoughts going out!
Like many of my recent pieces, this was created initially by hand with pen/ink, then scanned and cleaned up in Photoshop. I created the elements, primarily the lion and ground, separately (see Chrysanthemum Floral Design post), then collaged them together and added slight color highlights. I wanted to keep the colors of the lion very subtle, so the viewer could concentrate on the details of the patterns, rather than be distracted by lots of color. Red is the Chinese color of luck and the symbol in the top right represents happiness.
I’ve been meaning to create an illustration of Chinese Lions and the Lunar New Year is a great opportunity. They’re always so fascinating, especially after performing with a troupe with some folks in Oakland (many moons ago). I never tire of the tradition nor the pageantry.
This $9 shirt is available at TeeFury.com for 01/15/09 only!
The original artwork was created a while back on clayboard, then scanned and cleaned up in Photoshop. View Larger.
This is my second turn at the TeeFury site. The folks there have been more than gracious, and while the first design (Dragon O) was a controversial one, this design is more traditional and may fare better. I love to work with different art styles, so it’s always an adventure!
