my love for you is a stampede of horses.

Mario Hugo

I LOVE MARIO HUGO...there I said it and the internet knows it! I think his work is prolific and breath taking. Hugo has a very diverse, face melting portfolio. (I do grow impatient waiting for the images to load, but it's well worth the brief wait...they're so large and tasty! Please click on the images to view them larger on his site)

His spec work for Beck has been blazed across the web and every single time I see it I'm blown away. (Some of my favorites of the series.)

With Great Ceremony

Severed Heads & the Celestial Sea

Reverie & Trouble Making: Magnificent Minolta Monsters

Zune Treatments

Make sure to check out his hand embriodered typography for Nowhere Again (Vallery Exhibition/Personal Project).

Interview with Ms. Stephanie Brown

Ms. Stephanie Brown is an incredibly talented artist. She is very skilled technically, metaphysically, and her compositions are righteous. Just recently (like today), Ms. Stephanie Brown quickly zapped over some snazzy responses to a few questions. Check out her work and what she has to say!

-- Where/What did you study art?

I grew up drawing dragons, airplanes, bad Sailormoon comics and generally living inside my head...I started at Arizona State University in 2005, where the art program is very technical and assignment-based.  It was hard to keep any interest, I was involved with other things and would much rather paint at home than trace rocks (seriously) in my Drawing I class.  After some coaxing I applied to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and have since uprooted myself from the southwest and now study at SAIC.  It's a very conceptually based school, is strangely esoteric at times, and can sometimes be a bit unfriendly to illustrator-types like myself. But the opportunity to work in the museum and have this amazing archive at your disposal is pretty indispensable...I joke about the school often but it has been a good grounding point since moving.  Another year, and then off into the wild blue yonder.

-- What's your favorite place on the internet?

Favorite e-haunts... the Shorpy Photo Archive is a blog I check often, some of these people in these antique photos have the greatest expressions (case in point) -- they also have a great collection of photos of kitchens, and industrial factories.  Also: Nico Muhly has one of the best blogs I've ever read. I really respect the way that boy can segue between the topics of "Make Me a Supermodel" and David Lang's compositional style.

-- What is your favorite animal?

Are you really going to make me pick?  I love certain animals for their aesthetics, and others for their allegorical properties.   I've always been drawn to the ocean, birds of prey, muscular, long-limbed mammals...I'm obsessed with this video  at the moment, maybe that will answer some questions.

I told you she was rad!

 

-- What are you working on now?

I should be working on working on more artwork -- I'm in this strange lull in projects, and the spring weather is seducing me into riding bikes and sitting on porches. There are a few paintings and drawings that I am slowly finishing -- In a few weeks I am going on this insane cross-country road trip, which will be laboriously documented in a few different ways, and hopefully something *really good* is going to come from it.

Thanks Stephanie! (I hardly had to write anything.)

to mass a crowd.

 
As my last post as a guest blogger, I wanted to share a sneak preview of my studio mate Vanessa Irzyk's solo show to mass a crowd opening at the Colo-Colo Gallery in New Bedford MA tonight from 6-8 p.m.  Meighan posted about Vanessa's work previously after checking out our studio.  The show consists of 79 2"x2" paintings on wood, each placed on their own shelf.  It should be pretty awesome.

 

 

 

Thanks for checking out the posts! 

anthony sobiech.

Today I wanted to share some images from my buddy Anthony Sobiech.  Anthony's work was featured in the experimental publication Apenest Volume 2 last year, and he'll be showing work this May along with Laura Makinen and I at the FPAC Gallery.  He often works from photographs and creates haunting images steeped in memory.  I love how he's really able to show the passage of time using paint.  Anthony's website is in the works but he can be reached at soulkane13@aol.com.

kevin hooyman.

Kevin Hooyman’s labyrinthine website is one of my favorite artist's sites.  I have run into his work in real life a few times, and I am always stopped in my tracks and really refreshed by what he is doing.  This fall, he had a show at Proof Gallery, which is down the hall from my studio.  It included delicately colored works on paper, pencil drawings, and some larger-than-life personified animal sculptures. Looking at his work, I can’t help but think of William Steig who was one of my favorite children’s illustrators growing up.  Steig's characters always seemed so dignified and wise.  Kevin’s creatures have a similar gravity and serenity alongside the humor and fantasy he incorporates in the work (not to mention the crazy-detailed landscapes).

 

clayton brothers.

 

If I had pick out my biggest inspiration at the moment, it would have to be the work of Christian and Rob Clayton.  Their paintings contain all of my favorite things: insanely layered picture planes, high voltage color, sickly children, and biological imagery.  I love how their paintings buzz with intricate systems of energy and powerful forces, yet the figures are so static and detached.  Looking at their work makes me consider limitations - real and imagined, scientific and cultural – of living today.

bryan crow

 

I recently came across the work of Arizona artist Bryan Crow via the art blog The Lumper.  I really dig his layered, expressive mixed media pieces.  According to his statement, an important aspect of his process is creating everyday, and it's refreshing to find an artist for whom the process isn't just the means to an end.  These are roll-up-your sleeves and take risks paintings, and I can't help wanting to grab a paintbrush and get to work whenever I look them over.

 

 

 

olivia lundberg

Olivia Lundberg's visceral paintings are some of my favorite.  Her work consists primarily of two series both sprung from vintage National Geographic source material.  Her monochromatic ink drawings lift figures and compositions from the photographs in a direct way, and her gestural oils on panels investigate the alien and sexual undercurrents of such documents.  Both series are definitely worth checking out as well as her interview with neotericART.

 

 

 

ryan crowley

To be honest, I cannot wrap my head around what it would take to make a sculpture.  Not only are there two dimensional issues to address, artists must also then grapple with gravity and the tricky disconnect between the materials used and the larger representation in space.  An artist who is way too successful at meeting these challenges is my buddy Ryan Crowley.  His sculptures are like pop culture regurgitations.  Cartoon clichés, corny logos, and American food products are processed into perverse ideological hybrids.  I like Ryan’s work because it’s like encountering an inside joke you didn’t realize you were part of.  They’re nostalgic, critical, and a bit loony all at once.

 

Ryan’s in the process of cooking up a website, but he can be reached at ryan.crowley@massart.edu.  His sculpture, Boot, can also be found in the Tower Lobby at Massachusetts College of Art and Design.  Check it out!

 

 

maya bloch

Hello!  This is Corey Corcoran and first off, I'd like to say how cool it is to be guest blogging here for the next couple of days.  Although I do a fair share of internet art gazing, having to sit down and figure out some of my biggest art crushes has definitely put some new brain muscles to work. The artists I've come up with whether I know them or not are people who I think are making crazy important things.  Let me know what you think...

First up is Maya Bloch out of Tel Aviv.  Her flickr page is like a force of nature and worth constant checking-in.  To me, her work is that hit-you-over-the-head kind of art that makes you wonder why this artist's name isn't always on the tip of your tongue.  One of the most appealing aspects to her work are the dreamy, timeless spaces they inhabit.  Many of her pieces feel like memories or old photographs but the figures engage with the viewer in what feels like very contemporary ways.  Maya is able to produce an astounding range of effects with few materials.  As someone who is guilty of using the whole box of crayons whenever making a picture, I look to her work for a reminder that complex, resonate imagery can be made with just a pencil and eraser.

erika somogyi.

Erika Somogyi paints wonderous often psychedelic dreamscapes. Lady Somogyi often collides the human figure with nature resulting tasty compositions. She has a exhibition coming up at Philadelphia's Space 1026 and a painting featured in the new issue of Beautiful Decay.

 

You like her don't you?! Send her an e-mail, she is sooper nice and will probably share something interesting.

the high five revolution / pix(elated).

The Mississippi State art department is the badonkadonk! This under the radar graphic design program is not only my alma mater, but a wellspring of amazing professors, designers, artists, and overall "grade A" quality people. 

It is also the home of "THE HIGH FIVE REVOLUTION"

The High Five Revolution began when graphic design students, Carl Carbonell and Stevie Boudreaux, when to New York City with the art department. They gave 200 successful high fives to 200 different people in NYC.

Carl and Stevie returned to Mississippi with a new outlook on life. They never forgot the lessons they learned from seeing the joy that high fives brought to their new New York friends.

Now every friday afternoon between 12 a.m. - 1 p.m. they dedicate their time to slappin' hands on campus.

Join the revolution!  Carl & Stevie say "whether you go to Mississippi State, whether you listen to Metallica, Sufjan Stevens, Three Six Mafia, or Dave Matthews Band, whether you drink water, protein shakes, whiskey, soy milk, or coffee, whether you love Jesus, Buddha, Jah, or Joseph Smith, we want you to love people."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also note: the MSU AIGA is hosting it's 4th Annual Student Invitational entitled PIX(elated!). This year's judges are the amazing Damien Correll, the lovely Jill Bliss, and the rightous RED design studio. 

PIX(elated!) is a design competition open to all students everywhere! Talk about fancy pants, eh? If you look hard enough through last year's winners you might find some retina blasting work by yours truly. The deadline to enter is March 4. (TOMORROW!) 

team macho.

i've raved long and often about ruby mag. if you still haven't signed up for their email list, then i am breaking up w/ you right now. cereal. this insanity has gone on long enough. run along and sign up! run don't walk. because if you do, you'll start seeing loads of great art. and if you like what you see here, then i promise you, you will like what you see in ruby. you'll discover such great collectives like team macho. i instanly fell for this five man group of artists. their humor is rife and wicked. just get a load of that group shot of them below, how could you not love them?  the pieces i have here are from a recent show the boys so graciously sent over to me. ummm, baby dyke? team macho is killing me. keep an eye on their site, they should be updating in august.

when you canoe at night, you canoe w/ satan.

jane mount.

i love my books. especially my art books. i have them stacked nice and neat in plain site in my home. i love them. i like to believe they say a lot about who i am. how interesting i am. i think a lot of people think this way, there is a pride that surrounds book shelves. jane mount felt the same, and began painting books because she was inspired by how proud people were of displaying them. referring to books as 'rows of inspiration', she wanted to record the specific books that have shaped and inspired people's lives. check out her etsy store to purchase original paintings, or contact her to commission her for your own books.