Pixel Realm

by See-ming Lee 李思明 SML Define Abstract Art The literal meaning of the word abstract means something that can not define it. Abstract art uses a.

As the exhibition didn’t allow photo taking, thus I tried to search on the web for the photos and put here. These are the works that trigger my thinking an…

Art – community of artists and those devoted to art. Digital art, skin art, themes, wallpaper art, traditional art, photography, poetry / prose. Art prints. (source); do you like the wolves’ recent deals so far? startribune com …

Seattle exudes a personality of a bubbly individual who enjoys taking life in big strides. There is more than meets the eye of this place they call the ‘Emerald City’. Home to one of the world’s richest and famous men, Bill Gates, the city is known to produce some innovators and free thinkers. Yet another famous personality that revolutionised the genre of ‘rock’ and lived in Seattle is Jimi Hendrix. Panoramic views await the visitor who sojourns to the city, and opportunities to hike, kayak, ski and camp will delight the nature enthuse. Whilst those who enjoy urban pleasures such as nightlife, dining, entertainment and shopping will find that Seattle has just the right mix for a memorable stay.

The visitor who appreciates art and its development over time will need to put the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) down as a must visit attraction. Investigating the connection between the past and present, the SAM is divided in to 3 unique locations. SAM Downtown offers an exiting and extensive list of permanent collections, international exhibits and a line up of programs. The Seattle Asian Art Museum is located in Volunteer Park and offers insight in to the world of Asian and Oriental art. Spread across 9 acres of land on Seattle’s waterfront is the Olympic Sculpture Park that features a stunning array of sculptures in the open air. Admission to the Olympic Sculpture Park is free, and on given days it is the same for SAM Downtown and the Seattle Asian Art Museum.

With a collection that spreads through many cultures of the world, SAM comes from a humble beginning in 1906 with a 1,926 pieces and has amassed a collection which now reaches over 23,000 pieces. The permanent exhibitions that a visitor can expect to see will cover such areas as Chinese art, Australian Aboriginal & Oceanic art, American art,  Southeast Asian art, African art, native and Mesoamerican art, Ancient Mediterranean & Islamic art, decorative art, European art, Japanese art, Korean art, modern and contemporary art, northwest art and textiles.

Explore the three venues of Seattle Art Museum and the many other museums that can be found across the city to your hearts content. Discount Seattle hotels near the SAM and other attractions in the city can be easily found by visiting SeattleHotelsEye.com. Make a selection from luxury to budget hotels in Seattle when visiting this portal that ensures, fast, safe and convenient bookings.

Come December and Delhi will witness an art event so grand in scale and extraordinary in concept that it’s bound to redefine the scope of visual arts. Blurring the defining lines between real and unreal, Gallery Espace chooses famous German art critic Franz Roh’s depiction of reality in art as the theme for its 20th anniversary celebration event titled Lo Real Maravilloso: Marvelous Reality to be held at Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi from December 9-18, 2009.

Hosted by Renu Modi (Director, Gallery Espace), curated by Sunil Mehra & show designed by Mark Prime, Lo Real Maravilloso: Marvelous Reality is rooted in the theme of magic realism and draws inspiration from sources as diverse as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Laura Esquivel, Salman Rushdie, Joanne Harrism, Mikhail Bulgakov, Milan Kundera and Louis de Bernieres and includes in its gamut video art, painting, photography, site-specific installations and sculpture.

Thirty-six artists from all over the world – including painters, sculptors, video artists and photographers – set out to discover a magical world in which the real and the imagined, the mythical and the metaphorical, fact and fantasy merge seamlessly together. In the process, they create an extraordinary “Other World”, that Louis Carroll once evoked so beautifully in – “And what did they draw?” said Alice.

“Treacle… All manner of things- everything that begins with an M -… such as mousetraps, and the moon, and memory, and muchness….”

The exhibition include works by Amit Ambalal, Anandajit Ray, Anila Rubiku, Bandeep Singh, Baptist Coelho, Barbara Ellmerer, Bharti Kher, Bhupen Khakhar, Chintan Upadhyay, Desmond Lazaro, Dhruvi Acharya, Ebenezer Sunder Singh, Gargi Raina, Gigi Scaria, Iranna GR, Ishan Tankha, Jagannath Panda, Lavanya Mani, Louise Gardiner, Manjunath Kamath, Maxine Henryson, Michael Müller, Nikhil Chopra, Parvaneh Etemadi, Pushpamala N, Ranbir Kaleka, Rina Banerjee, S. D. Hari Prasad Achari, Sheba Chhachhi, Shilpa Gupta, Sohrab Hura, Sonia Mehra Chawla, Sutapa Biswas, Tanmoy Samanta, Tara Sabharwal and Waswo X. Waswo.

Renu Modi, Director, Gallery Espace says: “Since the time the gallery started in 1989, our USP has always been to put together highly specialized, medium based shows. Time and again, Espace has cut across boundaries by exhibiting works of different nationalities, genders and cultures. Espace has always treaded the unconventional path and introduced to the Indian art market new genres like sculptures and drawings when they were relatively unknown mediums. It is apt, therefore, that Magic Realism is the theme of our 20th anniversary show and I am excited to show such a wide array of disciplines all under one roof.”

According to curator Sunil Mehra: “There seemed no room left for romance and imagination, for myth, memory and metaphor in art. Somewhere in the process of chasing concepts and making art that conforms to current fashionable cultural theorists’ constructs, we are losing out the critical ingredient of art, which is Magic, which is the untrammeled mind that inhabits multiple universes at the same time.”

Brief Summary on the participating artists’ works:-

AMIT AMBALAL (INDIA) – His paintings Pan India, Chandra Chor and Cheat Chor are influenced by his recent trips to South East Asia- particularly Bali. ANILA RUBIKU (ITALY) – Her installation Houses of the rising sun consist of 30 small house sculptures that celebrates domestic life while her paintings Daily Life, Being Afraid and Wishing the telephone rings are based on the mundane rituals of daily life. BANDEEP SINGH (INDIA) – His photographs range from documentary photography, conceptual landscape and nature studies to portraiture and eroticism. The photographs Mythical Bull, The Pot Bearer, Untitled 10 & Untitled 15 are deeply influenced by his cultural leanings and deep interest in mysticism, Sufi poetry and music. BARBARA ELLMERER (ZURICH) – Her oil paintings Boy girl, Irene, Indian Bride and Tabea under the title Rainbow Vision series is about the hypnopompic (the state of consciousness leading out of sleep). BHARTI KHER (INDIA) – Her sculpture Warrior with cloak and shield portrays the domestic space that can be viewed as a place fraught with negotiations of emotions and placement. DESMOND LAZARO (INDIA) – His paintings Promenade I, II & III have been created in traditional pichhvai (a traditional technique of Indian miniature painting). DHRUVI ACHARYA (INDIA) – The paintings Mumbai City, Attack II, Crowd II, Elephanta II, Hump, Loadbearer, Morphosis I & II focuses on the current world environment – on pollution, violence and discord. EBENEZER SUNDER SINGH (INDIA) – His photograph Narshimha Avatar depicts the slaying of the demon king Hiranyakashipu by Vishnu. LOUISE GARDINER (UK) – For her seven embroidery works, she has created figurative and floral artwork using a combination of rhythmic drawing, intense and intricate free machine stitches, paints, appliqué and inks. MAXINE HENRYSON (USA) – Her photographs Table Set, Early Morning Light, Ghetto’s Gate, Dancer against cave wall, Two People, Monk Emerging and Marlene Dumas Exhibit use simple and archetypal characters like clotheslines, women, children, temples, gardens, vessels, bedspreads etc. MICHAEL MÜLLER (BERLIN AND J&K, INDIA) – He will be displaying three paper works titled Hellsehen Selbstaufnahme von Rangoon (Fortune teller), Science Fiction (Sakura) and Nordziege. NIKHIL CHOPRA (INDIA) – The character in his two photographs under the titled Untitled – From the series Yog Raj Chitrakar: Memory Drawing II and a video film titled Sir Raja III is loosely based on the artist’s grandfather, Yog Raj Chopra, a landscape painter. PARVANEH ETEMADI (IRAN) – Her nine collages under the title Untitled are loosely based on late Manjit Bawa’s artworks. PUSHPAMALA N (INDIA) – Her photographs The Pond, Flight and The Cloud Battle under Apaharana (Abduction) series is about a Rakshasa (demon) abducting a princess. The drama takes place in mist and billowing cloud in a far away time and the magical pond reflects the pensive heroine. RANBIR KALEKA (INDIA) – His sculpture suggests multiple metaphors like self-reflexivity, the ancient Ouroboros symbol of Serpent swallowing its own tail, the failure of systems etc. SHILPA GUPTA (INDIA) – Her interactive video projection Shadow 2 has been created using interactive video, websites, objects, photographs, sound and public performances to probe and examine themes as desire, religion, and notions of security on the street and on the imagined border. SOHRAB HURA (INDIA) – His collage of twenty three photographs titled Oasis is about his visit to the red light area of Siem Reap, Cambodia. SUTAPA BISWAS (UK) – Her film Birdsong is based on a conversation between her son and herself, who at eighteen months had expressed his desire to have a horse living in their living room! Her paintings include Night Sky-Dark Sky and Storm. TARA SABHARWAL (INDIA) – Her ten paintings in watercolour on paper stem from the time/reality flux as well as the collective unconscious where dreams, memory, imagination, myth and culture overlap and co-exist. Her paintings include Pleasures of rootlessness, pause; Pleasures of rootlessness, balance; Behind the scene; Treehouse, barsati; Changeling; Childhood home with roots; Choices; Night beast; Mythical; Mountain snake; Red hair and Birdwaters WASWO X. WASWO (INDIA) - Under the title All I Want, he shows video and hand-painted black and white digital photographs.

Some other works which will be on display are Stye by Anandajit Ray; Re (Wind) by Baptist Coelho; He watered the banyan tree on his head which became fruit bearing after four years, After Mohanlal, His brother also has black teeth, In a small village of Kheda a farmer bought a papaya 7ft x 10ft to a competition. He won the first prize, Jiwanlal decided to misbehave by throwing utensils in the kitchen, My heart bleeds as I chant her name day & night and When she smiled real pearls came out of her mouth. When he spoke black stones came out of his mouth by late Bhupen Khakhar are all from private collections; Catastrophic Collabra by Chintan Upadhyay; Water & Question and answers by Gargi Raina; Political Realism by Gigi Scaria; Performing Art I & II by GR Iranna; Superhero Junkyard & Superhero Junkyard 2 by Ishan Tankha; Democracy in the Neighborhood – I (Private Collection) and The Invisible Man 1 by Jagannath Panda; Second hand car goes to heaven and How come he is here by Manjunath Kamath; In the canopy of the stars life was made. Between flora and fauna our DNA was sent. Now Life and Death too shall mate and make haste to split thrice the mice in our DNA that nibbles at life to make death by Rina Banerjee; My Fish by SD Hari Prasad Achari; Some roots grow upwards I, II & III by Sonia Mehra Chawla; The Wings, Vessel, Hello Love, The Ivory Comb, The Red Sofa, Lost Sanctuary, Armour & The Beast by Tanmoy Samanta.

Image taken on 2010-07-28 17:40:26 by Joaquin Villaverde.

Sometimes it can be difficult to create a family portrait that is unique or different. The standard portrait with the family standing in front of some fake, fabricated scene can feel drab and boring. Taking the photo yourself may be impossible, and you probably don’t have a professional photographer in the family. The following are a few ideas for some unique and meaningful family portraits that could easily become a family heirloom for many years to come.

Add a Pet Portrait to the Family Photo Wall

When putting together a family portrait wall filled with individual photos of members of the family, don’t forget to include the member of the family who often goes overlooked – the family pet! While taking a photo yourself, framing it, and putting it up on the wall will do the trick – nothing is quite as eye-catching as a painted portrait created of your much-loved family pet. This is becoming a very popular method of capturing the character and personality of the family pet in a format that is often breathtaking.

You can find the best style of pet portraits from Nikky Hughes of Los Angeles. The great thing about these pet portraits is that they can be done from a photograph – so it is possible to purchase artwork like this from skilled artists like Nikky regardless of distance.

Nikky was classically trained at the Mission Renaissance art school. Her art is soft and romantic – with a dreamy quality to them. They are lifelike and impressive representations of everything that makes a pet beautiful in the eyes of its owner. The aspect of her paintings that truly make Nikky’s art stand out from the crowd is the setting in which she places the animals. The surroundings are sometimes whimsical, other times wonderfully surreal, but always intriguing. Nikky’s art represents the work of a rising artist, so purchasing one of these portraits would be an excellent investment, and a wonderful addition to your home décor.

Make a Video Family Portrait

If you, or someone in the family, are somewhat savvy with the digital camcorder – creating a family video may be an option. Digital recording technology has advanced to the point where regular folks can generate some impressive movie content. Additionally, video editing software has made it so that anyone with even general computer knowledge can create some of the most intricate movies – complete with video, audio, and voiceover streams that would impress even amateur movie-makers.

There are also a number of video professionals, such as teleportraits.com who can capture memories and testimonials from your family that can become a timeless record of the personalities and memories for many years. A professional videographer will typically record all of the raw video, edit all of the video and produce a high quality DVD for you that you can enjoy anytime you choose, or at events such as family gatherings. Using video is one of the most fascinating and non-conventional ways to create a family portrait.

Have an Outdoor Portrait Done

If you are going to have a standard photo portrait done of the family, the best option to create an authentic and inspirational photo is to use a natural background outdoors. If you don’t live in a place where there is a large backyard, then have the photo taken at a park where a beautiful backdrop of a field, lake, or if you are lucky enough, a mountain. Sometimes other outdoor settings can work very well, such as a city skyline or the large span of an architecturally beautiful bridge. The possibilities are endless, but if standard photo portraits are preferred, natural backdrops can turn a boring photo into an exciting one.

A Brief History of Art – The Foundation of Photography on Canvas

A quick tour through the Art of Ages leads nicely into the contemporary art form of photography on canvas. It is a journey through time that illustrates advances in technology and how it is that photography on canvas is the next logical step in the revolution of art and culture.

Ancient art is scare and far between to locate, mostly because so much of it has been destroyed over time. That which has been found is spectacular in its precision and the use of unexpected materials. As far back as the Bronze Age in Greece, the Minoans were already creating beautiful ceramics and stone carvings, a practice that is very much used today. Typical ceramic patterns included simply geometric, pictures of wildlife and flowers. The Minoans were also very skilled goldsmiths, creating gorgeous jewellery and masks for royalty, temples and the nobility. Clearly, art in the ancient Minoan culture involved much more than simply drawings and paintings.

In the Middle Ages, Indian Islamic art covered a wide variety of crafts including illustrated manuscripts, ceramics, metal-works and glass. The earliest known Indian paintings are called petroglyph’s. A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface through pecking and carving. The word comes from the Greek petros (stone) and glyphein meaning to carve. Consider that every manuscript ever written and illustrated, every stone carving and every piece of art in that time was done by hand and took days, weeks, even months and years to complete! It was an astronomical amount of work that, although integral to the culture of the time, paid insignificant monies. As always in history, the Islamic artists of the
day barely eked out a living.

The rise of Romanesque art refers to the period from 1000 to the onset of Gothic art in the 12Th century. Gothic art, also known as religious Christian art, developed alongside the rise of monasticism in Western Europe. Its architectural design is dominated by thick walls, and round-headed windows and arches. The name Romanesque comes from the 19Th century art historians, since it was the first time since ancient Rome that Roman architectural forms were used in both art and architecture. Stained glass was popular at this time. All of the figures in stained glass are religious and Christian in origin. They are colorful and highly proficient in design.

Modern art is a term that applies to artwork produced during the mid-1800s until the 1970s. Like all historical artwork it reflects a very distinct cultural style and attitude. Modern artists experimented with different ways of seeing the world. Andy Warhol made his mark in New York City with his expression of pop culture. His first exhibition opened November 6Th, 1962. It ran for one month and received mixed reviews from critics and the public. The drawback to modern or contemporary art as it is also called is the public perception of what is art? Warhol included moving video in his art exhibitions and rightly so. Is film not an expressive art form?

Contemporary art also includes new technologies that are being developed and refined more and more every year. Photography on canvas has recently gained great credibility on the art scene, although there are still mixed public opinions about it, just as there are mixed opinions about modern art to this day. Warhol experimented with silk screen paintings. Had he been alive today no doubt he would have helped to initiate the movement toward photography on canvas.

Some of the concerns about photography on canvas are how long it takes to complete the procedure, the quality of the artwork, the durability and whether or not it truly is a tasteful piece of art. The answers are very reassuring. It takes a matter of days to produce the gorgeous canvases and the quality is incredibly remarkable. Not only is the artwork tasteful it is a spectacular tribute to color, design and technology that belongs in every art collectors’ home or business. Detailing and aesthetic appeal are superb and rival the talents of an artist who sketches or paints by hand.

Black Medieval Art

A Filipino martial art that focuses on armed combat with a stick, a sword, or a machete, eskrima is characterized by its battle-proven techniques. It is also known as “escrima,” “kali”-particularly in the United States and Europe-and “amis de mano” (meaning “harness of the hand” in Spanish).

Although many eskrima schools can trace their lineage back to different tribes and regions of the Philippines, little is known of the art’s origins because it was passed on in an oral tradition. Some people suggest it was influenced by early Indian and Malay martial arts, as well as by silat from the Malay Archipelago. What is known, however, is that the Spanish conquistadors, after arriving in the Philippines in the 16th century, engaged in skirmishes with tribesmen who used indigenous weapons and techniques.

Order out of chaos

During the country’s conflict-wrought history, martial arts developed into highly efficient systems, and recent systemization of the arts has enabled them to be passed on to students in an easily absorbable curriculum. The art is also taught to Filipino military organizations.

Eskrima has many different forms and most emphasize weapons-based training followed by empty-hand movements. The stick is the most common weapon. Students initially train with a padded stick and also a slightly thicker wooden training stick. Then they train with a rattan cane, which is about 2 ft (0.6 m) in length and which has been fire-hardened and varnished; employed swiftly, it can easily crack a coconut with a flick of the wrist. Students also train with blades-the most common weapon employed in street crime in the Philippines.

Keeping it simple

Eskrima is taught en masse and in a simplified manner. Flashy and spectacular movements are often refined during sparring matches, in which practitioners wear padded body armor, helmets, and hand mitts. However, while simplicity is favored for teaching purposes, the system also has a deeper and more complex methodology that can take decades to master.

Experienced practitioners can fight with either weapons or with empty hands. The system uses any method that might work in a fight, and includes hand and foot strikes, some grappling and throwing moves, biting, and gouging. Practitioners may also include gouging, punching, throwing, or shoving when using weapons.

Common training techniques include the use of the solo stick, double stick, sword and stick, or stick and dagger (known as “espada y daga”). Some systems specialize in other weapons, such as the whip, staff, and a projectile-based weapon that resembles a 9 in (23 cm) nail. It is common to see the latter being thrown into bamboo trees as a way of developing accuracy. When used in combat it is unlikely to kill, but it will distract an opponent long enough to either escape or to draw another weapon.

Diverse beginnings

Eskrima is practiced as a sport in some parts of the Philippines, although there is little standardization of rules. Traditional practitioners claim the set of rules promoted by the World Eskrima Kali Arnis Federation-in which practitioners fight according to a 10-point system-tends to overemphasize offensive techniques rather than deflective and defensive ones.

Critics also point out the disorganized appearance of the fights, with participants bashing each other as quickly as they can with a stick, as opposed to applying good, solid techniques.

Varying techniques

In combat, a player must study his body alignment in relation to his opponent and ensure that the tip of the weapon strikes vulnerable spots of an opponent’s body. In competition, however, points are more likely to be awarded for reasonably effective touches.

Weapons are considered to be an extension of the body, and footwork generally follows a triangular pattern. Thus, when a participant moves in any direction, his two feet always occupy the two corners of an imaginary triangle on the floor. If he steps forward, he steps onto the triangle’s imaginary third corner so that no leg ever crosses the other at any time. This ensures a degree of stability and allows the player to use good leverage in his techniques and throw physical force from the ground into his hand or weapon.

If you enjoyed this article on Eskrima: Sourthern Asian Martial Arts and would like to read more please go to www.themmazone.net.