REMEMBERING 9/11: Trough the art of children
As we near the the 10 year anniversary of 9/11, we reflect on how this tragic event as inspired art; more specifically how it has influenced the art of the youth. The images in this blog all come from a book titles The Day Our World Changed: Children’s Art of 9/11 featuring paintings by nearly 200 children (toddlers to teens) who lost a loved one in the attacks on New York City’s World Trade Center on February 26, 1993, and September 11, 2001. Thus book is was put together thanks to Robin Goodmen the author of this inspiring book. In many way the results of this attack not only effected the adult population as well as created a life changing the feature of the chi...Read more
The Dark World of Allison Schulnik
Upon loading Allison Schulnik's website, the first four headings emblazoned in highlighter yellow capital letters read "paint", "film", "thing" and "paper". The "thing" heading is surely an attention grabber, inviting fantasies of a direct link to a human-animal hybrid breeder's website. Sadly, clicking said link will not lead to the loving flippers of a half-man half-shark friend. But fortunately, it will unveil an exciting menagerie of other-worldly ceramic creations. These brilliantly textured figures all share the same haunting, hollow eyes that characterize most of Schulnik's work. Schulnik's portfolio features a cast of disturbing clowns, hobos a...Read more
MCA Denver Adopts Orphan Paintings: Unknown and Accepted
Today I want to write about the role museums play in society. There are many kinds of museums: Art, History, Science, etcetera. For a long time I did not know there were museums that collect and ones that do not. Take for instance the Denver Art Museum, it is a collecting institution whereas the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver is not. Both exhibit certain kinds of artwork, yet one has a body of work to draw upon where the other relies upon a steady stream of new material. With that in mind it is not so hard to jump to the realization that these places have different goals. Each would like to educate the public on the role Art plays in society, but the way that lesson is conveyed by both is...Read more
Scot Lefavor's Got Wood at Crema
Artist/Designer Scot Lefavor graced Larimer's Crema Coffee House with Driftwood this past Saturday. The work on display has a definite air of sarcasm mixed with a graphic, cartoony, 1960's aesthetic. Scot uses invented characters along with a creamy, muted palette on pieces of found wood ranging from two by fours to cabinet doors. Crema's semi-plastered brick and plywood walls are the perfect compliment to Scot's edgy depictions. Each painting is unique, spanning just a few inches to several feet in dimension with a plethora of aspect ratios thrown in. Formally, Scot has taken this hurdle in stride working text and image into stable imagery on the given picture plane. There are lot...Read more
Jen Lobo and the '90s
Moms love to collect things. Actually correction, moms love to collect weird things. Thinking back to the early ‘90s, I remember an array of strange maternal collections (and everyone’s mom had at least one odd collection); ancient dolls, fairies, porcelain angels – you know, creepy junk housed up in glass cabinets near the dining room table. Heaven forbid you had the mom with the Precious Moments figurines stacked on shelves far from your dads Bronco’s gear and model car collection. My mom was a particularly strange breed of collector though; she liked unicorns. Well not just unicorns, but mythical creatures in general (although it did appear that unicorns were he...Read more
Alvin Gregorio is a Homesick Gypsy
Alvin Gregorio is a “homesick gypsy” who also happens to be an Assistant Professor of Painting at the University of Colorado at Boulder. His work seems to have popped straight out of a children’s TV show. The characters in his paintings remind me of human-faced Teletubbies on acid, surrounded by freaky Barney-like animals floating in a spraypaint dreamspace. Children with numb expressions in furry animal costumes exist in worlds of acid-bright color, tiny helicopters, and furbie owls. His canvases are full of geometric shapes , child-like markings, stencils, intricate patterning, life and color from top to bottom... His work is not only...Read more