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A game of one-upmanship gets out of hand in a rivalry between two painters. You can see the end coming, but that doesn’t detract from the charm of this animation by Giant Creative. -via Tastefully Offensive
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Grant Woolard (previously at Neatorama) dreamed he was in the world of famous paintings. How many do you recognize? But you don’t really have to know your Monets from your Manets to enjoy this animation. -Thanks, Grant!
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I recently came across artist James Hance’s website and I have to say, I’m impressed with what he calls his “Relentlessly Cheery Art.” Just look at this piece titled “Chester Copperpot’s Goonie Clubhouse Band” and you’ll see how fun his work really is. See more over at his website and if you like his paintings, go ahead and indulge -the prints are only $10 each.
Artist Jason Freeny isn’t content with viewing the exterior of some of our favorite toy characters, he wants to know what the insides of Care Bears and My Little Ponies look like. His depictions of the creation’s innards are delightful for biology-loving geeks and terrifying for children.
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Flavorwire has assembled a cool slideshow of people with artist-inspired tattoos, from the pop art of Andy Warhol to Banksy’s graffiti work. Other artists represented include Joan Miro, Salvador Dali, Gustav Klimt, Georgia O’Keeffe and Frida Kahlo. I think the colors in the Starry Night-inspired sleeve above are just gorgeous.
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but is seems to me that creating an inspired dedication is much more flattering than just copying it. That’s why artistic takes on classic movie posters are so cool, they combine true creativity and adoration to the original. We even sell some of these posters in the Neatoshop (like the one seen above), The Zombie Wars posters by Matt Busch. Here are some more excellent artist renditions of classic movies and television shows.
In anticipation of the Star Wars 25th Anniversary, the same Matt Busch responsible for the brilliant Zombie Wars poster also created a poster that depicts only those fighting for the Dark Side.
You’ve gotta admit, an epic battle between Anakin and his master, Obi Wan Kenobi would be completely worth a $49.95 Pay Per View fee. The guys over at Old Red Jalopy did a great job at capturing the spirit of a classic boxing poster while incorporating plenty of Star Wars touches.
Like our earth armies, the Empire needs to constantly advertise in order to keep recruitment numbers high. Especially while the rebels are busy destroying whole Death Stars full of troops. These posters by Feng Zhu are sure to help get the enrollment numbers rising.
These minimalist planet posters by Justin Van Genderen are beyond cool both for their travel-style designs and the art deco inspired images used for each planet.
I adore Steve Thomas’ art and his delightful travel posters were one of the biggest inspirations for me to do this post. While this Rebel Transport poster is my favorite of his Star Wars works, there are plenty more on his site, so please view the rest at the link.
If you like the artwork from Steve’s Rebel Transport, Inc., but prefer Tolkien over Lucas, then be sure to check out his website anyway to enjoy travel posters for The Shire and other wonderful places from the Lord of the Rings universe.
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Comments Off This month’s birthday article is a little belated because I had some personal projects I had to take care of, but Salvador Dali is a May baby and his creations just make him too great to pass up, even if his birthday was back on the 11. So without further ado, I bring you a brief history of Dali and his infinite weirdness in celebration of his much belated birthday.
The Dali we all recognize was actually the third Salvador Dali in his family. His father also had the name and his parents had another son that was also named Salvador, but he died nine months before Dali was born. For this reason, Dali’s parents always believed that he was the reincarnation of his brother, a belief the artist also held throughout his life. In many of his writings, he claimed that he felt deep stress from the pressures of living as both himself and his dead brother.
Dali’s family was decidedly middle class and his mother was incredibly supportive of his work…until she died when he was only 16. The next year, he moved to the student housing at an arts school in Madrid and he immediately started to stand out through his eccentric methods of dress. The young student enjoyed wearing knee breeches with sideburns and long hair, similar to something Oscar Wilde would have worn forty years earlier.
While he made friends with a number of students at the school, he was not an ideal student and was expelled shortly before he completed his courses after he refused to be tested by anyone in the faculty, saying, “I am very sorry, but I am infinitely more intelligent than these three professors, and I therefore refuse to be examined by them.”
It wasn’t long after this that his unique painting style, which seamlessly blended classic influences like Raphael with modern avant garde styles like those of Joan Miro, started to garner him quite a bit of attention in the art community. Not to be outdone by his own artwork, Dali promptly started to grow his trademark moustache, which was influenced by the seventeenth-century painter Diego Velazquez.
When Dali met his future wife, Gala, in 1929, she was already married to a prominent French poet. She soon left this artist for Dali, who was ten years her junior, but after their 1934 marriage, she continued to have many other affairs with young artists and even a rockstar in the 70s –all with Dali’s permission of course. While Dali was said to have a terrible fear of the female genitalia (part of the reason he was so accepting of her affairs was because he preferred to watch, but not partake in the activities), he was still unquestionably in love with Gala all the way up until his death. “Without Gala,” he said, “Divine Dalí would be insane.”
Dali was a prominent player in the surrealist movement, but many of the surrealists actually disliked him. This was for a number of reasons, but one of the biggest issues was the fact that surrealists did not believe that anyone should ever apologize for their art.
To some extent, Dali did agree with this sentiment and when his father demanded an apology for a painting the young artist made that bore the words “Sometimes, I spit with pleasure on my mother’s portrait.” While it seems unlikely that Dali actually even meant it about his own mother because he adored her, he still refused to tell his father he was sorry, which resulted in his being thrown out of his childhood home, written out of his father’s will and being threatened by his pop that he should never step foot in Cadaquès again.
When Dali and Gala caused a serious scandal in America, shortly after his work was introduced into the country, though, he quickly changed his tune. The incident in question involved the couple showing up to a masquerade party in New York dressed as the Lindbergh baby and his kidnapper. After facing great outrage on the part of the American press, he apologized, but he only ended up facing more outrage from the surrealist group he was a member of when he returned home. Of course, they were furious about the apology, not the act.
Around this same time, the majority of surrealists began to lean to leftist politics, but Dali further incensed them by always maintaining an ambiguous position on the matters. Dali disagreed with the idea that surrealism should involve politics and at the same time that he refused to support fascism, he also refused to denounce it. Eventually he was subject to a mock trial in his surrealist group and was expelled largely for his absence of political beliefs.
His politics didn’t just bother the surrealists. Dali moved to France at the outbreak of war and only moved back after World War II ended. George Orwell denounced him for this, stating, “When the European War approaches he has one preoccupation only: how to find a place which has good cookery and from which he can make a quick bolt if danger comes too near.”
Another major problem the surrealists had with Dali was his apparent willingness to sell his soul for money. As some started referring to him in the past tense, although he was dead, others preferred the nickname “Avida Dollars,” which is more than just an anagram for his name, it also sounds the same as avide à dollar, which can be translated as “eager for dollars.”
More Surreal Than The Surreal
Dali is famous for quipping, “the only difference between me and the surrealists is that I am a surrealist,” but perhaps even that was a bit of an understatement, as he developed many of his best known works by connecting with his subconscious not through drugs, but through sleep manipulation. He claims he would sit in a chair with a metal spoon in his hand, directly above a metal pan. When he started to fall into deep sleep, he would drop the spoon, the clang of the spoon hitting the pan would wake him up. Perhaps this method is what he used to create his most enduring surrealist works, the lobster telephone and the Mae West Lips Sofa.
The surreal nature of his works should never be taken as a sign that Dali’s work was without meaning though. In fact, Dali was a huge fan of Freud and believed in a much deeper meaning of dreams, which is widely demonstrated in his artwork. Here are a few interesting symbolisms to look for next time you enjoy some of his artworks:
Image via Kaneda99 [Flickr]
Throughout his life, Dali painted over 1,500 works. This number is on top of the many illustrations, lithographs, theater sets, costumes, drawings, photographs, sculptures, films, holographs, and other works he helped to create. He loved to experiment with new mediums and even stepped into the world of high fashion, designing a few outfits for Elsa Schiaparelli and Christian Dior. He also created the rainbow-colored Chupa Chups logo.
Even more amazing is the fact that his portfolio only recently expanded to include his completed Disney animation, Destino. While he started it with Walt in 1946, the pair soon found themselves out of money for the project. It was instead completed in 2003 by Roy Disney and Baker Bloodworth.
That wasn’t his only film contribution though. He also worked on the famous surreal art piece Un Chien Andalou, worked on a dream sequence for Hitchcock’s Spellbound, and narrated about a search for magic mushrooms in Impressions of Upper Mongolia.
Image via pecaenrique [Flickr]
As a matter of fact, Dali was one of only a few artists to actually play an active role in the museum dedicated to his works. His Theater and Museum in Figueres goes beyond showcasing his paintings, it is in its own way, another work of his. It’s hardly surprising that a self-obsessed creator like Dali would make a museum for himself, after all, he was famous for once saying, “every morning upon awakening, I experience a supreme pleasure: that of being Salvador Dalí.”
He started working on the building in 1960 and he continued adding to it all the way through the mid-80’s.These days, it houses the largest collection of his works, followed by the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. The most interesting place for his work to be displayed though was the Rikers Island jail in New York. Dali donated a crucifixion drawing to the warden and it was hung in the dining room for years before officials decided to move it into the lobby so it could be kept safe. Humorously, after spending 16 years in a jail dining room, the painting wasn’t lost or damaged until it was moved to the lobby, where it was stolen in 2003. It is still missing to this day.
When Dali went on 60 Minutes in the 70’s, he told Mike Wallace that, “Dalí is immortal and will not die.” Unfortunately, like all self-proclaimed immortals, he was wrong. In 1980, his health started to fade and when Gala started dosing him with unprescribed medicine, it only made things worse as her drug cocktail damaged his nervous system.
In 1982, Gala passed away and this made Dali’s health fade away even faster as he lost his will to live. He started dehydrating himself and a few years later a fire broke out in his bedroom. Both acts may have been accidents or he may have been trying to commit suicide, no one knows for sure. After the fire though, he started living in his museum until the end of his life.
In 1989, Dali died of a heart failure, shortly after King Juan Carlos visited him on his deathbed and confessed his lifelong adoration of Dali’s works. Dali quickly sketched a drawing for the king and it turned out to be the last artwork ever done by the artist.
I love Dali, so I was really excited to write this article, but I must admit, he was a bit of a freak. There is so much information about him, particularly his crazy stunts, that I couldn’t even begin to describe them all here. So, instead I leave them to you. What are your favorite Dali tales?
Sources: Wikipedia #1, #2, Artcyclopedia, Smithsonian Magazine, BBC News, Salvador Dali Museum, and Neatorama
This might be the only time you’ll ever want to put carpet padding on top of your carpet. The beautiful rug was constructed by artist Carolyn Salas.
One of my favourite blogs “Smashing Magazine” has a fascinating post filled with awesome video clips all about amazing art presented through video. When an artist wants to show off their portfolio some of them go about creating a show reel to show their art, experience and skill.
This can be in various aspects such as editing, directing, animation and so forth. One that really caught my eye from their 20 clips posted has to be this one which blew my mind with the dazzling use of live projection mapping. The creator himself explains, “This is an experimental film made up of over 35,000 photographs. It combines an innovative mix of stop motion and live projection mapping techniques.”
Hit the link to check out the other 19 neat clips up there. Some of them I’m pretty sure we’ve already seen here on Neatorama!
Smashing Magazine – Link
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