Bernard Pras

To have the time and the vision to put together pieces like these with found art is incredible! It just makes me want to dumpster dive and hoard. The world is full of useless trash that can be converted into beautiful works of art! And it's all free!

Also- notice how many of his pieces have an almost imperceptible depth to them- many objects sit a few feet or more back from the rest of the image. The artist must have kept his visual frame on a tripod or some fixed spot or he could have very easily lost track of where things should go...

Check out more of his stuff here: http://www.bernardpras.fr/  There's a great version of Picasso's Guernica.

For those of you following along at home, not much progress was made today. I've made some minimal changes to the previous work, with more to come. In the meantime, I tossed this one together- the same idea as the previous, a convergence of line suggesting shape with the colors suggesting entirely different shapes. I gave this one a more topographical feel, by way of the color relationships, grades and curvature of the lines. I just don't know what to do next. 

Nina Katchadourian

http://www.ninakatchadourian.com/maps/worldmap.php

Another hidden map-series by well-known artist, Nina Katchadourian. She is known for these compositions of book titles:

 I think her map compositions are less well-known, but fascinating and very innovative. It seems like such a simple change, one of the first things you think about when considering rearranging the world- but Katchadourian makes it visible and accessible. It really is a whole new way of looking at things. Take a look: 

Katchadourian has this to say about her process: 

I made this map in college in response to an assignment, and it marks the beginning of my work with maps. Using a blade, I took apart a paper map, moving pieces over to a large piece of paper which I watercolored the same blue as the ocean in the original map. Gradually, the world was reconfigured. I often reconstructed words using presstype in places where the names of countries had gotten truncated. There were switches based on historical or geopological factors (Western Europe inserted into West Africa); others were based on formal correspondences or quirks of the map itself. Australia and Alaska had the same green border color, for example, and fit perfectly together due to the distortion of scale that occurs towards the poles.

I love this one- what's the Midwest good for anyway? Just kidding, I'm an Oklahoman, after all...

Banksy Spotting!

Banksy has been spotted in LA!

Fortunately for our hero, you can't really see his face at all.

Does any one have a clue as to how he got those letters up there? Very tall ladder?

The evidence suggesting that this photo is of Banksy is only that a.) it is believed to be his work on the tank, and b.) the guy has a camera. Banksy is known to return to his work to photograph it...is it a strong case? meh. Bigfoot sightings have more substantial proof than this. 

Jules de Balincourt

I did not until recently really take a closer look at the painting on the cover of Katharine Harmon's "The Map as Art". I've been toying with the idea of doing a map of the U.S. and I finally really took notice of this painting:

I have been, throughout this process of studying and painting maps, struggled to justify creating 'representations' of the world map. I feel like I have to over-emphasize the aesthetic qualities of the boundaries and the shapes, otherwise why wouldn't I just have made it accurate, or to scale? Frankly, besides being tedious, I think it would be a boring image to create. We are all aware of what an accurate projection of a map looks like- I want to take the image and appreciate it for it's visual qualities, rather than always it's symbolic or political qualities. I think De Balincourt achieves that, in that his works are visually stunning- however he does accrue some criticism and question as to their ultimate meaning. 

Megan Ratner praises De Balincourt's colors:  

De Balincourt’s Crayola-by-way-of-Vegas palette (created by taping off sections, spray-painting or stencilling, scraping and scratching) flaunt protean surfaces, highlighting a mastery of colour and shape. He thrives on detail, embedding his compositions with partially obscured figures and objects, the game-board proportions evocative of Lego and electric train sets.

She ends with a bit of a scathing criticism of the artist's stated purpose:

Simply making reference to survival, or showing ‘us’ and ‘them’ as a questionable construct, is hardly startling. Such repeated literalness keeps De Balincourt’s work bobbing well above the sinister depths he seeks to plumb. The question as to whether his ideas will catch up with his sophisticated process remains open.

Robert Mars makes a stab at the artist's contextual reasons for stylizing maps:

 De Balincourt uses American maps reinvented for his own comical New World Order. States are represented by bright planes of color but without any real context. His maps have political intention and commentary. Some of the maps act as graphs for imaginary data of financial and political party affiliation. In the end, his visual sense is perfect. His color palette and compositions add to his story.

Here are some more of his maps: 

I don't know why he flipped China on it's eastern border, but it sure had me confused the first time I looked at it. 


I feel like I've stumbled across someone who has already done what I was setting out to do to a degree. It's a funny feeling. Affirming in one way, disappointing in another.  It might be less of a thrill for me now. De Balincourt's work is simply beautiful; his pallet and shapes. I can use this as an aspiration of sorts.

the latest

Here is what I'm working on now. I'm shifting away from the representational maps and returning to the previous line and shape studies. This time, I want to take it in a different direction. Instead of using 2 or 3 lines throughout the canvas to create the design, I chose to make many small shapes intersecting and overlapping each other- in order to use shapes that resemble the free-form, lumpy and sometimes straight-edged shapes that make up country border lines... I hadn't planned to fill in the shapes, but rather use various patterns to delineate spacial relationships, districts, if you will...i think having background color will add to the interest and variation, though. It adds another layer to the overall idea....literally....^^

Pour painting

This is sweeeet! Watching it develop over time gives it a 4-dimensional quality as well.

Hat tip to K. G-zinger