Oct 10, 2013 | street art
Usually when I use “meet” in a things worth post title, it’s because the post is an interview and I like to feel like I’m introducing the people who were nice enough to answer my questions. But this one’s about me and a crazy goal I have to get everyone, everywhere talking about art. That’s also the reason why the posts here have been so nonexistent for the past few weeks.
I’ve been documenting San Francisco’s public art since August in a project I call WanderArt — something that will eventually grow into an art map, detailing every public artwork, gallery, and business that features the work of local artists on their walls. Basically, it’s a location-oriented database of art in the public space, and it’ll track our changing opinions of it — something that’s now possible thanks to social technology that can lead people to every artwork outside at any given time.
There is a lot of public art in SF, and I’ve barely even started.
But I have to document all of it because this art is so important; it belongs to all of us and could brighten any one’s day at any given time if they just stopped and looked. Which is why you’ll only be able to comment or vote on works in the database if you’ve ‘checked-in’ to the work’s location. You have to be standing right in front of it, so that every comment you see is from someone who was actually there, creating a physical (but not creepy) connection between people who have shared the experience of considering the work before them.
The photos in each database entry will be shown in order according to the number of votes they have (yay democracy!), and to balance the scales, you’ll only be able to vote on these photos while you’re online, or not checked-in — because you can’t really judge how well the photos give you a sense of an artwork when it’s right there in front of you.
Basically, I just want people to see the art around them — the works they pass everyday, and I want them to be able to find more right around the corner if they ever felt the urge. Because it’s beautiful and it’s free to see.
Everything I’ve ever written, especially here on this blog, has gradually led me to this idea, and I could not be more determined to make it happen. I’m starting in San Francisco, and it’s turned out to be the perfect place because everything is just so freaking scenic all the time. Want to join? Email me to get started wandering in the Bay Area or start your town’s art documentation movement.
If you’re a fan of public or street art, please do any (or all!) of the following:
Check out the website // Like the Facebook page // Follow WanderArt on Twitter // Follow our Tumblr journal
Sep 19, 2013 | apropos//ts, art about, news, painting
My eternal love for Breaking Bad has seeped into every part of my life. This is the final stage – blogging about Breaking Bad art.
I spend enough time on Reddit to know that there are some incredibly talented fans of the show. Each character depicted has so much emotion seeping out of them as we remember every tragic/insane event along the Walter White timeline to Heisenberg. And then whatever that guy from New Hampshire’s name is. Every work drawing from the power of the most intense show that’s ever existed, so that bright colors and sharp edges can get in your face, ASAC Schrader-style.
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2. Brian DeYoung‘s “The Heisenbergs,” 2012
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5. Joshua Ariza’s “Mike“
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12. Season 4, Episode 6: “Cornered,” by Redditor jlo2006
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17. unknown
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21. “Tio Salamanca” by Tom Whalen
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23. “Jesse Pinkman” by Rhys Cooper
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Many of these works come from LA-based Gallery 1988’s August 2012 show, “The Breaking Bad Art Project.”
For more Breaking Bad, these GIFs should trip you out a little and there’s some incredible BB-inspired street art out there.
If you know any of the “unknowns” above, or if you know someone who’s made AMAZING Breaking Bad art, email me and I’ll add ’em to this post. 🙂
Aug 7, 2013 | sculpture, street art
German artist Peter Pink uses vegetables as a medium, turning a sack of potatoes into a tiny conceptual army that takes on stereotypes in a way that’s flippant and funny. More than stereotypes though, more like popular thought and going along with the program because of how easy it is to blend in and give up and believe what they tell you. Pink positions the miniature crowds on the streets of Berlin, the short round potatoes forever the enemy of every tall skinny cucumber.
Which is why the little protesting potatoes are the best – they hold pink flags that match their glasses and the ticket tape that separates them from the sidewalk. Last year Peter Pink even organized a potato flash mob, posting the instructions and images needed to make your own little potato people, and asking people to leave them on the sidewalk in front of a McDonald’s branch in Berlin.
For more of Peter Pink’s work, see his website.
Aug 6, 2013 | painting
She leans forward laughing, and her hair streams behind her head like the tail of a shooting star. Dan McDermott’s paintings put the scene in fast forward, including present and almost-present scenes together in a way that makes the action look like it’s happening at light speed.
In the stiller scenes, the paint casts the image through a 1950s television screen – almost clear but with slightly distorted colors and fuzzy details. McDermott’s paintings shows the past as we would remember it if we’d lived through it ourselves – fleeting happy memories and faces frozen in time.
Good Times I, 2010
Oil on canvas
McDermott is represented by the Mark Jason Gallery in London, which writes,
“His extensive body of work is derived from an ever expanding archive of images that for him have an emotional resonance, frozen frames from film and television that are trapped within the decades from which they were born.
The final choice of image will have gone through several layers of processed visual media which McDermott is somehow able to capture in the fast and energetic application of paint.”
Red Dress, 2007
Oil On Canvas
Model, 2008
Oil on canvas
For more of Dan McDermott’s work, see his website.
Aug 5, 2013 | sculpture
Jeffro Uitto scours the Washington coast for perfect pieces of driftwood, then spends years combining and carving them into wondrous works of art. He makes functional pieces like extravagant chairs, benches and tables, and his animal sculptures have garnered a lot of press lately, but I think his conceptual sculpture is where it’s at.
The wood is so polished and smooth, it’s like nature’s been brought to perfection, especially since a lot of the works stand tall just like trees would. He photographs the works on the beach too, taking them back to the place where he first found the wood to begin with and making his whole artistic process cyclical and complete.
His website reads,
“Wherever he might be, Tokeland, WA is where Jeffro’s heart is. While enjoying the sound of the waves, Jeff will be working away at his next creation… Visitors are surprised to see that many of Jeffro’s tools are hand made by the artist himself. After you get to know him this isn’t surpising at all. Jeffro has a creative fire that burns hot and it keeps him going full speed when he’s working (and playing). ”
“See Life”
detail, “Andromeda” (6 feet tall)
“Andromeda” (6 feet tall)
To see more of Jeffro Uitto’s work, see his website and Facebook page.
