“Art can be overwhelming when you try to take it all in. Every artist inhabits their own limb and there is no cohesiveness today. There’s no way to see the whole elephant in this particular time. It’s too much to take in, the information overload. You just become an expert in your little area. The birds in this picture become the little experts within the frame they inhabit. They know only that frame, or at least they think they do.” Walton Ford

Walton Ford has practically made a career of imitating the style of John James Audoban. In his satirical depictions of wildlife, Ford mocks things like industrialism, politics, and the effect of mankind on the natural environment.

In Walton Fords painting Nila, an elephant being flocked by masses of different types of bird. The elephant is missing a segment of his tusk and has a massive erection. Comprised of twenty two different canvas’, Nila is rather large in scale – 144” x 216”. Ford uses varying media within his work, including the work at hand -Watercolor, gouache, ink, and pencil on paper.

I feel that Walton Ford’s Nila is amazing. Not only is Ford’s aesthetic style masterful, but the satirical nature of his work, and this piece in specific, is both comical and thought provoking. Nila conveys many hidden messages. The effects of mankind are especially evident within the severed tusk. Elephant poaching and capturing to attain the highly valuable ivory tusk is both devastating and enraging…as well as illegal. The undeniably large elephant sized erection puts a comical spin on Audobon’s classical style.

http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/ford/art_nila.html#

Third eye visioning at the Walker.

I took my first EVER trip to the Walker Art Center in Mpls with my Orientation to Art and Design class last week. As a Minnesotan, and an art enthusiast, the fact that this was my first and only Walker experience is shameful… Anyway, a group of my classmates and I were taken on a brief tour of a very limited amount of the Walker’s art collection. Although Chris Ofili’s Third Eye Vision was not a stop on our tour, it did not fail to catch my attention. This is probably because Ofili’s VERY colorful and VERY intricate visual style is recognizable almost immediately. I was excited to get the chance to see this piece as it has been my favorite Ofili for quite some time. Third Eye Vision is a fairly new piece of art – created in 1999. This giant kaleidoscope that was once a canvas demands attention. Ofili is prone to creating work that is very meaningful, political, and culturally driven. I feel that Ofili creates an aesthetic as bold and complicated as the meaning behind his work. This Ofili work in specific focuses on culture and heritage, pulling iconography from many around the globe. The third eye placed in the center of the work (comprised of elegantly decorated elephant dung, might I add) pulls from Asian iconography. The third eye is also common to African cultures, including Ofili’s own Nigerian heritage. As far as spiritual symbolism, the third eye has sort of assumed an international stance. I believe that the elephant dung pulls from culture and heritage as well. I know that Ofili often uses elephant dung and it has before in his works been used as a statement or as reference to nature, culture, and heritage. Hidden very discretely within the composition are magazine cut-outs of popular entertainers from the current day. Or at least current to the time in which this piece was made, 1999. I feel as if Ofili chose to incorporate the cut-outs of faces who are immediately linked to popular culture as a mockery of what culture is compared to what it was or should be. Pairing something like the face of a celebrity and a historically spiritually iconographic symbol such as the third eye in itself is sort of a mockery of culture.

Chris Ofili, self proclaimed “hip-hop artist”, created a visually dynamic piece with Third Eye Vision. Using a range of artistic techniques such as pointillism and collage, Ofili created a piece that revolves around culture and heritage.

Photo source: http://www.artsconnected.org/resource/87199/1/third-eye-vision

Two weeks ago, my Orientation to Art and Design class visited Midway Contemporary Art. MCA is a "not-for-profit" art gallery based in Minneapolis which often displays the work of emerging and underrepresented artists. With a diverse range of pieces created by international and diverse artists that have yet to have been brought to my attention, Midway Contemporary Art has easily become one of the most intriguing galleries I have ever visited.

Among the collection of works that were displayed during our visit, a piece entitled "Lonesome Boogie Rattler" by Cameron Jamie was one of the only works to immortalize itself in my memory bank - regardless of the fact that I do appreciate every work on display. Jamie's "Lonesome Boogie Rattler" is comprised of ink on paper. The artist utilizes this medium to very near if not entirely its fullest potential. The paper seems to bleed ink from its pores, oozing blackness to create a composition that is both aesthetically beautiful and full of unanswered questions - left to be answered in the thoughts of the viewer. At first I was drawn to the dynamics of the presentation (the inky paper is mounted on a wooden board that stands about four and half feet tall). Something about the way the organic and natural beauty of wood can never be taken from the material no matter how many times or ways it is cut, glued, fractured, burned, sawed, carved, or sculpted always leaves me in awe and wonderment. Eventually my thoughts drifted toward the subject matter. The piece depicts a man...or two men...or just one man with more than one head with an inky, black mass that stains his chest. In this mass, I think, is represented a plethora of emotions (all negative, but my mind ponders negative subject matter more than the glory of a happy composition anyway). Sadness, discontentment, jealousy, rage, depression, contempt...all of these things in a black, chaotic bundle placed where this mans heart should be. He, or they, wear an emotion of aloofness...helpless to their sadness, as if there is no way to escape the pollution of the black inky matter. I don't know whether or not this piece was meant to mask a narrative of a sad and pathetic existence, or if I am over just over analyzing the work, but the story behind the image was what kept me looking. The entire piece is a mess of inky drippings, scattered lines, and thoughtful scribbles. Through the chaos, something beautiful lives and, thanks to Jamie, will be known to many for years to come.

Cameron Jamie, a native of Los Angeles, is a very dynamic and VERY underrepresented artist. Collaborating with street-portrait artists, musicians and many more artists of differing mediums, Jamie has built up a very diverse portfolio. As he is a very talented painter, he does not limit himself to the media. Jamie has created and helped in the creation of many small film projects. His work has been featured in many contemporary art galleries and film festivals and is represented in The Walker Art Center's collection.

Check him out, you won't be disappointed. Well...I'd hope not, at least:

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