Ryan McGinness and the graphic image

Using graphics that you might find anywhere from on a bathroom door to the instructions for putting together an IKEA furniture piece, McGinness composes paintings using screen printed prints from home-made stencils and home-made graphic images.

McGinness is not conservative with his paints, or his color schemes, creating a vibrant array of images, shapes and lines on the canvas, overlapping, interlocking and positively exploding with color. Although they may at first glance appear messy and disjointed, a closer look reveals the deliberation with which McGinness balances form, contrast and hue within each work.

His latest series focuses on the female nude. A provocative and intimate subject, McGinness reduces the powerful images to the bare minimum shapes- a conservative rendering of positive and negative space that leaves the viewer with some work of the imagination. He held a recent exhibit, "Women: The Blacklight Paintings", at Club Madonna in Miami, using live nude models painted to reflect the blacklight as part of the show. An innovate draw if I ever heard one, and a way to appeal to the less "artsy" crowd...

Bruno Munari

The famous Italian graphic designer and children's book writer was a ubiquitous presence in the bookstores and art shops I visited back in April. I believe he is most famous for his book that uses forks to represent different Italian hand gestures (apparently, there are more than just a few!)

Were it not for the "cigarette?" one, I would buy the book for my 4 year old class next year! I guess it's not like they've never seen cigarettes before...although they would be more familiar with a fork gesture representing stuffing a betel nut into one's cheeks:)

Zhang Xiaogang

These haunting, somewhat cartoon-like portraits hearken back to official family photographs taken during the Cultural Revolution. The faces that stare back at you from the canvas have a surreal quality, both alien and familiar, officially sanctioned, yet private and vulnerable. Xiaogang achieves such an array of emotions and provocations through his surreal and intimate portraits.

A more detailed take on his inspiration and work can be found here. 

The artist in his studio

'Friend' for the cover of Artzine

'A Big Family'

'Identity Portrait 2'

from Bloodlines: Big Family series

Speaking of surfaces...

Leonardo Drew gives the act of studying a surface renewed depth and meaning. Drew creates large rectangular sculptures by filling tiny wooden boxes with various forms of refuse- paper, plastic, rusting metal and other roting things. 

Of his works, critics refer to the implications of suffering and enslavement based on the type of materials he uses and how he manipulates them, saying:  "forcing his materials to decay, subjecting them to heat and soaking them in rusty water, he is commenting on life, death and rebirth".(http://www.leonardodrew.com/PDF/NewYorkTimes2000.pdf)

The similarities between Drew's massive constructions and the micro-cosmic surface photos I've been taking makes me feel justified in my entrancement by their composition. Dark, earthy color schemes, the sense of random order, of natural environmental change carving away a landscape or a surface the way an artist does, painstakingly and intentionally... although these are not themes that may cross through Drew's mind as he stuffs raw cotton into a new sculpture, his process draws a likeness to that of decay and transformation in the wilderness. 

More surfaces, Yosemite Nat'l Park

Part of this is just enjoying the special macro-mode on my camera, but there's also so much more to see when you look very closely at surfaces in nature and in your everyday environment. Taking small swatches like these even show so much variation, texture and interest as to form very viable compositions in their own right. 

Granite with bits of lichen

Lichen overtaking rock

Granite fading in and out

Bisected cedar cross-section

Cedar cross-section with chasm

It's easy to imagine the microscopic worlds that exist when we can see the environment they exist in as vast, varied and complex. These images could even lend themselves to a smaller version of Slinkachu's world of diminutive dudes in Little People in the City.

Beautiful brick walls

Sure, you've heard about Tuscany. Beautiful rolling hills, vineyards, peaceful countryside, etc. etc. It's true, but what you don't hear (as often, at least) is how beautiful the brick walls are that make up the villages doting each hillside. Buildings in Tuscany were made to last, many of them remain from as early as medieval times, and give particular charm to an already beautiful part of the world. Best viewed CLOSE up: