A fire hydrant as wall art? Yes please!

Last friday I was introduced to a new Artist from some co workers of mine. His name is Kenton Nelson and you should really check him out.

He has a knack for painting the every day object or activity and makes it look interesting. He also plays with focus much as a photographer would, and that to me is what makes his paintings SO spectacular. Look at the trees or bushes in the background of the fire hydrant or lawn chair. both items are sharply in focus, but the tree behind the hydrant are completely out of focus.  The lawn chair shows a great depth of field, as you see the chair clearly, and then the pool, and the bushes and wall are a shy out of focus and lacking detail, and then the trees in the background have no details and are just specks of color, playing with lighting and shadows. LOVE IT. I want the Lawn Chair framed in my house. There is something calming about it. Not to mention all of these photos have a mid-century vintage style to them, which is a time period I get excited about.

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He also dabbles in human subjects. But he does two very different and very interesting styles. The first being that he will show a subject up close, but cut them off at the eyes. They are usually in a very common or typical setting or are being caught in an every day action, but having them cut off at the eyes adds an extra level of mystery. It also makes it more subjective, because you can't connect with the person without seeing the emotion in their eyes. There are many things going on in these scenarios.

The man in the first picture doesn't look all that pleased. At first glance, it is a man in a suit checking his watch. Is he an executive waiting on someone? Is it late to an appointment or a job interview? I feel like this book he is holding is important. This entire painting is very neutral in color, but the book is a deep red. I love the depth of field, again, in this picture.
The woman in the second painting appears to be what I would assume a young lady on the beach. She looks to be dressed trendy enough, but she is apart from the crowd. And isn't smiling. Maybe she's an outsider. Maybe she's just getting to the party, and the look on her face is a seductive, teasing face. Her posture leads me to think that could be the case.
The bottom painting of a woman lounging on a diving board is just lovely with its bright colors, and again, no emotional connection to the subject, but maybe you can invision that it is you yourself on that diving board, soaking in the sun. Ahh, a nice mental vacation.

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The second style is portraits of people caught in the middle of an ordinary act, and feels very natural and organic.

A girl, feeling the heat of the sun on her hand and face, or maybe talking to someone in a window? I thought this painting was BEAUTIFUL, not only is the girl cute as hell, but the colors are magnificent and she looks so content.

A girl fixing the hem of her dress, or playing with her fingers and pulling down her skirt while sitting in a waiting room. 

A girl, curious, listening in to something that is going on downstairs.  This one is interesting because this is something you would be embarrassed to be caught doing, so it almost feels uncomfortable or anxious.

AGAIN WITH THE AWESOME PLAY WITH FOCUS!!!

If you enjoyed these, there are many more on his website (and the one that I first saw that caught my eye in my co workers office ISN'T on his website, which only alludes to the fact that there must be more to be found) you should absolutely check out his website: http://kentonnelson.com/

In and out of focus,

DML

Abandonment Issues

I have a real fascination with things that are abandoned. Things that otherwise would be so full of life, and motion and presence. Like houses, theme parks, and these cars. It feels sad, sometimes. It feels spooky 99% of the time. In this case, I think it is beautiful.

I found these on the photographers website: http://www.peterlippmann.com/

These images blew me away. The color of the vehicles themselves, the style of each car, the level of decomposition and rust is different in each, and beautiful. The contrast between earth/life and the industrial metal and glass is neat. The color contrast in the photos with the red and blue cars is just brilliant. The photography itself is very interesting, the composition almost feels posed, like these cars were modeling, and the editing on the photos makes them feel fantastical - like they were part of a fairy tale. The time period of these cars and the amount of growth on them tells a story I think. But what is that story? How long have they been there? Where were these cars going when they were abandoned by their passengers? Why were they abandoned, or were they abandoned at all? Maybe there was a house there once, and that too was taken over by ivy. What will happen to them over more time? What lives inside of them now?

I'd like to imagine something as mystical and fantasized as a little world of fairies making their kingdom inside of these, not unlike FernGully, or the more widely known remake of FernGully, Avatar. 

Or maybe a wonderful family of forest creatures, maybe animals of all different species who rebelled from their clans and found a misfit family life style within the crevices of one of these cars. I'm picturing puppets.

Maybe its a thriller, and the passengers were hi-jacked, or kidnapped, and these cars are the last proof of their existence, and even that is starting to be eaten up by the wild. Maybe the horror story takes place within the car, and the car is then left as it will be part of evidence.

Could be a love story between a man and a woman who meet driving on a long winding road in the middle of no where and when they eventually pull over to meet, they take off together in one car, the other left behind.

Or perhaps its a tragedy between a car and a man, and when the man sold her or was gone for any reason, the car went to find him and never did.

They always say a picture is worth a thousand words. What would those 1,000 words be to you? It astonishes me how many different ideas can come from the same source when multiple people are looking at it from their point of view. What inspires you to imagine, create, write, design, draw, express?

Considering new ideas,

DML

Walk on Walls

In an article on Colossal today, they featured an exhibit by artist Leandro Erlich that is currently displayed at Le 104 in Paris. 


This. Is. BRILLiant. I love street art, specifically the type that plays with perspective, you know they kind that appears like you are standing at the edge of a pit to hell in the middle of Time Square. This is just an enormous scale version of that with a massive mirror. Still. It rocks. And I want to visit just to get a visual of me hanging from a third story window. The details in the facade is superb. I can't tell how thick it is, but the fact that there is light coming from the windows just helps pull off the reality of this illusion. The window design, and the iron in the window treatments are lovely. I love the door choice. I would live in this building.


Things like this are so interesting, and innovative and smart. Yet, also, kind of simple.  It makes me wonder why I haven't gone through with all my random creative ideas that I think are just a little silly, or slightly out of my reach so why bother? Because thats Lazy Bones talking. I used to LOVE to problem solve. I don't know where I turned that corner to Easy Town, but it's a short cut that leads NO WHERE. So I'm making a U-Turn. At the next light, though, because I'm tired and want to take a nap. 


Cutting the wheel,


DML