UAL Extended Diploma L3 : October 2014

Wednesday 22 October 2014

Amara Por Dios

Amara Por Dios is a Swedish artist but she is based in London. She has been doing street art since 2010. She said that she loves “to paint big, it’s a feeling of freedom and not to be limited”. As well as doing street art she also does graphic designing and canvas painting. In her work she has a mixture of “ancient, ethnic imagery with a modern palette and animated, graffiti application that is reminiscent of a more vibrant version of the tribal art left behind by the Aztec and Incan peoples”. She uses a lot of bright colours in her work. Her interest in graffiti art stared as a child in her grandmother’s studio. She continued to draw and paint until she graduated in 2007. After this she enhanced her graffiti skills.

She has done a few collaborations including the finish street wear brand KSRHU originals. In 2010 she designed a t-shirt for Flying Lotus, an American producer. The t-shirts got sold in Japan on Tour and on online stores. In 2012, she designed the album comer “Martian Xmas” for Moka Only, a Canadian rap artist. She has had exhibitions in many cities in Sweden. But in 2013 she finally had her first solo international exhibition which was located in London at the Great Easter Bear Gallery. She currently has her own t-shirt brand,is working on larger scales of area and I doing graffiti in the streets of London.

I very much like Amara Por Dios’s work. The reason for this is that her work is very original. Her work has a consistent theme. If you were to walk down the street and you saw her graffiti you would be able to recognise that it is her work. I also like how she uses a black outline to show the features of the characters or cartoons that she creates but at the same time she makes them look realistic.

Here are a few pictures of her work:

Here are some of the links that I used:

Si Scott

Si Scott is a graphic designer from the United Kingdom. He was born in 1977. He left school at the age of 16 to do a BTEC in design in collage in order to study graphic design at Buckinghamshire University College for two years.

Si Scott specialises in typography. This is the different types of fonts that words can be written in. He has done work for famous brands such as; Vogue, Adidas, Coca-Cola, etc. His work, compared to other artists, is different and unique. His work is a mixture of handcrafted work and hand drawn work. Some of the materials that he uses includes; fine liners and paint. “I’d say my work is ninety percent hand and ten percent other methods, such as the computer for colouring, etc. I also use paint quite lot, or am starting to again anyway”. “I really like looking at designs and thinking: that attention to detain must have taken absolutely ages”. Once he has created the illustration on paper, he would then scan it at 125% so that when the size is decreased to the actual size so the work looks clearer. As well as typography he also does illustrations using the same techniques and materials. He uses swirls and circles to create the image. He does not normally use colour in his work as he usually uses fine liners but a few of his drawing do have colour. His inspiration comes from music as he likes to listen to music when he works. His work is often compared to Alfred Mucha and Aubrey Beardsley`s work.

I think that his work is really good. It make the words have a different meaning. I also like how he uses mainly fine liner pens to create all those swirls to make the words look more exciting.

Here are a few of his pictures of his work:

Here are a few links that I have used:

· http://siscottstudio.com/

· http://siscottstudio.com/portfolio/bio/#

· http://www.typeforyou.org/2006/08/30/si-scott-interview/

· http://bonexpose.com/featured/si-scott/

· http://news.gestalten.com/news/si-scott-0

· http://quotesondesign.com/si-scott/

http://www.formatmag.com/art/si-scott/

Ben Eine

Ben Eine is a well-known graffiti artist. He was originally inspired to be a graffiti artist when a New York City subway car caught his eyes. The subway car was transformed into a canvas for graffiti, which really amazed him. He is now into typography. He believes that the core essence of graffiti is “the study and stretching of letters”. Eine then became frustrated with graffiti because he got “bored by the rules that graffiti writers put upon themselves”. To Eine, graffiti was always about exploring the different forms of letters and words. He said that he liked to do this because he likes “how letters can change when put next to other letters”. A famous graffiti artist that Ben Eine worked with was Banksy. He is known for his stencil art. They have done much collaboration over the years. Some of the places where they have done this includes; Australia, Berlin and Palestine. Street art, according to Ben Eine, should not last long. “Street art isn’t made to last”. When he said that when he was young he painted over others work and most of the art gets cleaned off at a point.

I like Ben Eine’s wok because it’s something different and it looks good. Also the fact that he does everything free handed makes you look at the work a bit differently. It makes you think that a lot of work has gone in and makes the work look better.

Here are a few pictures of his work:

“Exit through the gift shop” written review

After witching the full documentary think that the “Exit through the gift shop” is not a real documentary. It is just a hoax. I think that the message of the documentary is that doing art is good and that artists are people who can at least draw or create something unlike Mr BW. Watching the documentary it did not seem that documentary was real. An example of this would be when people were trying to break into the exhibition. Mr Brainwash seemed a bit to calm for that situation. Also it was also a bit like a movie. What I mean by this is when in a movie something big is going to happen and then something bad happens. Similarly in the documentary, Mr Brainwash was going to have an exhibition and be just happens to injure himself. But it doesn't matter whether or not the documentary was real or not. The main point that Banksy was trying to get across to us through the documentary is that street art is meant to be expressive and it is meant to original. It also raises questions like is vandalism art? What make a person an artist? This may be the reason why he named to documentary, “Exit through the gift shop”. The exit in a museum is normally through the gift shop. This encourages people to buy something on their way out. He used these word because to sums up what the documentary is about (Terry selling street art when in fact it should only stay on the streets and not be sold).

If Mr Brainwash is a real person and not made up, then I think that he is not a real artist. This is because he doesn't do his work himself. He has people who do it for him. An artist is a person who has great ideas and who does the work themselves. Also his work is not original. It is like he has copied other artist`s styles and techniques. An example of an artist, which Mr Brainwash has done similar work to is Andy Warhol. In addition to this real street artists do not sell their work. Were as, Mr Brainwash seemed to be doing it for the fame and money.

This film did change my view. But not of street art but of street artists. I have always thought that street art was amazing and that the artists put a lot of hard work. But it changed my view on street artists because I didn't know that they take what they do extremely seriously. Also the film show how much work can be put into street art. Additionally, it shoes how a person can think that they are a street artist but they are not and how upset the real street artists can get due to that.

It is hard to draw a line between street art and vandalism. This is because everyone has different opinions. It is not necessary that a piece of art that one person likes, another person will too. But I think that vandalism is when for example someone just gets spray paint and sprays it over everything in a big mess. Street art normally has a meaning and a form. A person is only a street artist because of their work and ideas behind the work. It is no goo having an idea but some else does the work because then the person doing the work is the artist. Also the work of the person should be unique and original or else it is copying another artist.

I like street art because is different and it is exiting to know what different things are going to be on the walls, building, floors etc. I think that in the film, the time that the artist when to far was when they went to Disney land and they put up a human (prisoner) shaped air bag. People go to Disney land with children to have a fun time not to have a bad time. Seeing something like that ruins people’s mood and stops them from enjoying themselves which they has gone to do.

The public own the streets and public spaces because if you think about it, it is government land and the government works for the public. So I think that it is fine to do art where you please. Businesses get to advertise their messages, but it someone paints over it, then I think that it’s fine because either way the businesses logo or sign would probably be up and they would be advertised. Also if they art on the advert is good or bad, it shows something about what the public think of them. I think that it is bad that money determines what gets advertised. However it is the only efficient and easy way to advertise.

Kara Walker

Kara Walker was born in 1969 in America. She is well-known for her large scale paper silhouettes. Her silhouettes are based upon America`s gender and racial tensions. Her work always shows history race, sexuality, power and sometimes violence. She was inspired to be an artist by her dad. She said “One of my earliest memories involves sitting on my dad’s lap in his studio in the garage of our house and watching him draw. I remember thinking: ‘I want to do that, too,’ and I pretty much decided then and there at age 2½ or 3 that I was an artist just like Dad.” She is currently a visual arts professor at Columbia University in the MFA program. Her work with silhouettes began in 1993 as a student at Rhode Island School of Design. She thought that simplified parts of a human in the black cut outs, seemed a bit cartoonish. “I’m reducing things down a lot, but I’m also characterizing everything and everyone as a black thing, and it comes from a way of viewing the world, looking for blackness, in its good and nefarious forms.” As you may realise the black paper cut-out’s that she makes are stereo typical. For example to show a black woman, she made the silhouette of a woman have big lips and a big bottom. Similarly for a rich white man she would make the man have a top hat, long coat and good shoes. Walker was in one way pulled towards the topic of racial tension because of what she had gone through herself. This was when she lived in California. She said that she “just didn't get the rules," she says. "I didn't know what the story was that made people behave in very particular ways that I thought were pre-scripted and unnatural. I started looking for my own point of origin: maybe the point of origin was being American, or being black, or being a woman. I thought, 'I'll start with the foundation of this idea of a place, of America, and then work my way forward.'" The scale of her work is always large. The cut outs or silhouettes are stuck on to the walls in rooms (gallery rooms). They are the size of the wall.

I think that her work is really good. This is because as well as it being art, it has a history linked with it. Her work is very strong. This may be because the work she does is linked to her. I also like the way that she uses stereotypes to portray the silhouettes because that way she can show and tell us a story behind the art that she has created. In addition, I like how she uses the cut out (silhouettes) to create an illusion and leaves the audience guessing the story behind the art).

Here are a few images of her work:

Here are the URLs that I have used:

Michael Craig-Martin

Michael Craig Martin is a well-known Irish painter and sculptor. He was born on the 28^th August 1941. He studied Fine Art at Yale University School of art and architecture. He currently lives in London. Michael`s work is mainly based on ordinary or everyday objects. This includes objects like; laptops, chairs, tables and etc. He stopped painting in the 60s. He started to do drawings on wall. Then in the 90s he started painting walls and it then “became obvious that painting rooms was like turning the room itself into a painting. There was a strong sense of creating a pictorial space out of the 3D space.” He then wondered if he could “make paintings that were similar to what I had achieved in the room” and so moved to painting. Michael has now been painting for the last 10-15 years. His work is like a collage of different object at different scales. What I mean by this is, for example; a chair and a pin are different sizes. One is small land the other is not. He enlarges the pin to make it a different scale or he may choose to shrink the chair. He said that he thinks of his “paintings as flat sculptures.” Some of the materials he uses includes paint, tape and computer. He uses the tape to get the clean and crisp edge and uses 4 inch rollers to paint with. He has “almost eliminated the brush”. He uses rollers because it gives an even coverage and since it takes many layers of paint it is better to use a roller. There are approximately five to six coats of paint for every colour used and there are normally 20-30 colours used in one painting. Once the painting is done he would then remove the tape to show the colour under (black) and getting a clean outline. The reason why he layers the colour is to get a brighter and richer colour. But to begin with he would pain the whole canvas the colour he would want the outline to be so that when he removes the tape that colour is shown. He believes that “as soon as you make a piece of art, you're an artist,”

Even though Michael Craig Martins work is very simple (has to shad or tone and is just in block colours) I still think that his work is good. The reason for this is that it is unique, no one has painted everyday object. I also think that his work is good because you need to be accurate even with tape so that the object doesn't look disproportionate.
Here is a few paintings of his:

Here are the URL`s for the information I have on Michael Craig Martin esearch page: