Laurie Lipton

Laurie Lipton was born in New York but now draws in London. Like Schween, Lipton plays on our hopes and fears in her work. Lipton is not notable just because her drawings are exceptional renderings. The power of her work comes from the fact that it somehow creates conflicting feelings in the viewer of both personal jeopardy and something more soothing, maybe contentment. Death and the Maiden at first glance might seem horrifying, but upon closer examination, it look as if the little girl is comforting the skeleton who cradles her. The image is actually quite peaceful. It's hard to look away. I can't get enough.

Asya Schween

My Own Self is the online portfolio of Russian-born photographer Asya Schween. Her photographs are heavily manipulated, heavily costumed self-portraits which often create an effect of eerie desperation. There is a certain playful creepiness to her work which offsets the disturbing nature of her photographs. See "Werde der du bist" for an example of the juxtaposition of humor (the Mickey ears) with the angst apparent on artist's face. The artist describes herself (circa 2002):

I'm an ambidextrous, color-blind math grad student, 22. I have two master degrees and I'm two years away from my Ph.D. in Bioinformatics. From time to time I want to ditch my college and do photography but I'm afraid I appear to be a coward and of course such attitude doesn't lead to anything except mediocrity, to be generous.

She also has a portfolio on Deviant Art. Read a full (I believe reprinted) interview on Digital Photography Review.

Claude Cormier

Claude Cormier is a landscape architect. If you think it's a little odd that I am including a glorified gardener in this list, then go look at his glorious gardens. This is a type of art too easily dismissed: installation art. It isn't permanent, but I hardly think that is the reason many people can look at this and say things like, "That's not art," or "I could do that." Art is not an ability, and it's not a skill. It's an idea acted upon. It is making something exist for no other reason than its own existence. Cormier's work is an exploration of public spaces. Picasso explored the two dimensional space with Cubism. These installations makes us reexamine our ideas of what gardens are. Sure his "Fantasy Landscapes are strange, but they are also beautiful. They could not exist in nature, so they have to exist in art.

A footnote

Dirty Car Art Gallery Think about this the next time you start to write on your friend's dirty car window. And then realize that you cannot do anything this good, so just write "Wash me," and be done with it.

Last Week's Posts

Labels: Arty

This entry was posted by Power Rambling, on Monday, March 12, 2007. You can leave your response.