The Junk Drawer

You could have fooled me (and you did)... by fleur_de_lis

One day, as I was walking through the gallery of an art museum, I noticed a guy sitting on a bench, staring at the painting on the wall in front of him. Not to be rude, I carefully walked behind him and proceeded around the rest of the gallery, enjoying and absorbing everything. When I reached the front of the gallery again I noticed the guy once more--and he hadn't moved a hair. Upon closer inspection I realized it was a sculpture so carefully and realistically done that it was almost impossible to tell it from the real thing. The artist/sculptor responsible was Duane Hanson, a hyper-realist sculptor known for his exact replicas of everyday people. Football Player Duane Hanson made his life castings from polyester resin and fiberglass which he painted in exacting detail and accessorized with wigs, clothing and any and all necessary props. He sculpted working class citizens, unremarkable people, the average American posing naturally with all of their frustrations, disappointments,...

The Magnificent Pieta by fleur_de_lis

The most magnificent, moving, spiritual, beautiful sculpture ever created is Michelangelo's Pieta in St. Peter's Bascilica. The Pieta in general is a work showing Mary mourning over the body of Jesus. Many artists through the centuries have depicted this emotional scene in many different materials...in fact Michelangelo did four different versions during his lifetime. This version is hands down the best, and he carved it in his early twenties! It took Michelangelo almost two years to complete this sculpture out of white carrara marble he personally selected at the quarry. In spite of the hardness of the stone, Michelangelo was able to create graceful folds in his draperies and fine almost transparent details in his figures and cloth. Michelangelo used some interesting artistic license to make his sculpture believable. Look at Mary's body compared to Jesus....she is quite large in proportion, too large to be normally sized! Yet Michelangelo's sculpture does not make this...

I am a waa-waa... by fleur_de_lis

Yes, I am going to be a waa-waa...And I blame it on those bloggers to the north of me on this blog page for sending their vile germs my way! I just spent 4 days in the hospital with pneumonia after being in perfect health for over a year, and I didn't like it. Waaaa! So it may take me awhile to catch up with what everyone has been doing and to get blogging again. Missed you one and all. Fleur (no longer wheezing, hacking, and coughing)

Handimals! by fleur_de_lis

These are so amazing! They are painted by an Italian artist named Guido Daniele. He is classified as a hyper-realist, and expresses himself on the human body. Enjoy! Here is a link you can go to to see more examples: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ8c4W3Ovx0

It's been a Dada Day.... by fleur_de_lis

Yeah, every once in awhile you have one of those days that make you go "What in the heck is going on here"? You never expect for the life of you to be killing possums, getting a power of attorney so you can 'encumber real estate', or drawing chickens on neon yellow poster paper...and that was my Friday strangely enough. In the early part of the 20th century as a protest to the horrors of war, a loosely formed art movement called Dada grew up as a more or less anti-art statement to protest "against this world of mutual destruction". The name came from a randomly selected word in a dictionary, the philosophy from a disillusioned, cranky assortment of artists who wanted nothing to do with the current academically accepted practices and traditional aesthetics. Embrace chaos, reject logic, destroy instead of create....these were some of the practices the Dada's sought to achieve with their 'artwork'. At the time it was horrifying, sickening, and offensive...