Ben Wilson

Ben Wilson takes street art to a whole 'nother level.

From HERE (Wikipedia)

Ben Wilson (born 1963) is an English wood carver and outside artist. The son of an artist, Wilson grew up in a creative environment and attended art school. His distaste for industrial waste, cars and rubbish eventually turned into an art form. He creates tiny works of art by painting chewing gum stuck to the pavement. Initially, his work garnered him unwanted attention from the authorities, but because he is not defacing private property but merely painting rubbish, he was found to be breaking no law. In addition to the chewing gum art, Wilson paints and sculpts. He has exhibited his paintings and sculptures in England, the United States, Germany, Ireland, Finland and France.

This innovation in art is so creative, I believe. I even heard that he was commissioned to do a bubble-gum artwork that would contribute to the proposal of a man to his girlfriend.

To see a collection of Wilson's mini-paintings, click THIS


An article about Wilson and his methods for painting the gum, as well as accounts of his work by people in his community, and    why he does it, HERE


For some high quality close-ups of Wilson and his gum canvases, go HERE






I don't recommend trying that gum.

But I do recommend trying to find Wilson art !!!

A man so dedicated to his art, so dedicated to painting. And able to make use of ugly black splotches on the street. Makes people look twice  now, don't it?

Let's hope that Wilson has encouraged others to make the world prettier with a paint and brush.

Malibu Beach Art

On November 15, I went with my sculpture class, the CAS Art (Crossroads Advanced Studies) class, and the Studio Art III class to Malibu beach for two hours of beach art.

While the CAS Art and Studio Art classes got paper and boards from their teachers and were given free rein to sketch what they wanted, wherever on the beach, my sculpture class had come off the bus armed with sculptures we had made in class.

We had used wood, plastic, styrofoam cups and bowls, bamboo, wire, rope, hot glue, and jigsaws to create out sculptures. Here's mine:

Then we painted them with concoctions of acrylic we had mixed to look sand-colored. After, we spray painted them with these cool spray paints that ranged from salt-and-pepper to dark brown, that were textured. They felt like sand after they had dried.

Then we mixed the sand-colored paint we had made with glue, and dabbed that on the sculptures. Then, the teacher presented us with a huge bag of store-bought sand, and we threw handfuls of that on the gluey sculptures.

Now, at the beach. Our mission was to photograph the pieces in an environment (the beach) that it would blend in/ look natural in.

Result: (of my piece)

It was a really fun day, and I really encourage this project :)

Crossroads School

Some cool outdoor art appears at Crossroads School, whose students paint murals on the sides of the art's building, as well as the middle school lockers. 

Unfortunately, for lack of space most likely, the  paintings are painted over every few years, with some exceptions. 

This one, for example, is my favorite (in the above picture it is one the far left of the middle row), and has been here since I began Crossroads around six years ago. 

It would be heart-breaking if this particular painting disappeared. 

I think the painting is awesome. And I really want to find out who did it. I have to say I think a really cute part of the painting is the fact that Batmans' ears bend back. 

She Accepts the Proposition

"The mid sixties to the late seventies marked a particularly fertile, experimental period in which several new art movements rapidly emerged to challenge customary notions of audience reception. While early dealers such as Irving Blum and Henry Hopkins have been canonized for promoting innovative artists, the role of other galleries and dealers in the Los Angeles scene of that era is less well known. With She Accepts the Proposition, we examine the critical contribution of Los Angeles women art dealers in particular to the advancement of nontraditional art practices, in the period from 1967 to 1977"

- Quote from  HERE

Find more information and pictures HERE

The exhibit is being displayed at Crossroads School's Sam Francis Gallery.

Here are some images:

 


One of the artists whose work was displayed in the gallery was Dorit Cypis, THIS is her website.
Her piece, A man is in Buffalo, is one that seems to be up for interpretation. It is a hole that has been carved in the wall, with a brick pattern etched around it. The image in the hole appears to be a night view of a city (and one would assume the city is Buffalo, New York) through a window.

Questions:

1. She grounded her piece in the the environment of the person looking at it. Why?
2. Are we the ones (or the so-called 'man') looking through the window at the city?
3. What is the significance of the brick. Or rather, why are we viewing the city through a hole?

                

To the right of the hole, Cypis hand-wrote this poem:

I really like it. Especially the line: "His ship shoes buoyed". Dismissing the fact that I am unable to pronounce 'buoyed', i really enjoy this line because it is so simple, yet so incredibly visual. I picture shoes floating above a wide expanse of ocean. A feeling of weightlessness, of happiness.

The whole poem is very compact and very clever, in my opinion. I like the use of homophones in the first and last lines. Sea..see...sea..see.. (not exactly in that order). I like when people play with language. It's very Gertrude Stein, who wrote "I like the feeling of words doing as they want to do and as they have to do".  You can find the excerpt of her writing from which this line stems HERE

Anyways, I enjoyed this exhibit because of the large array of work, that all differed from each other, but all went together. All the art was in the color scheme black and white, mostly. Save the video on the far left of a man paining a room six different colors.

I recommend checking this one out if you are in the area.

more pictures for your viewing pleasures:

These LIFE pieces are by: