This is the second post (the first one is here)about Accademia del Giglio’s friends on MySpace. This time I would like to introduce you some artists and their works. I hope that this post will be also be of interest for the students enrolled in our art classes.
while searching for artists on MySpace I was captured by the image of this little elephant crying, that reminded me Walt Disney’s Dumbo, but at the same time the disturbing Indian God Ganesh. This is the Art style by Craola, who shows us his corrupted cartoon images, religion reminiscences, funny animals living in Dalì’s spaces, funny monsters, flying SupermarioBros, dying Snoopies… You can see more artworks by Craola (whose real name is Greg Simkins – CA, USA), on his webpage where you can also buy his drawings and paintings. Greg has also a personal blog with news about his artistic experiences and private life (good news in the last months!).
You can appreciate a different way of Art expression if you have a look at the page of the muralist 
Caleb Aero. According to Caleb’s words “its not what you spray, but how you spray it” and also “willing to paint a picture is worth more than a thousands words and risk more than a thousands days of freedom for it”. The love for colours and subjects are not so different from Craola. Nevertheless, the main difference lies in the media: Caleb, as you can see from his pictures, works actually in the streets, trying to show his Art to as many people as possible and in the most impressive way.
The last artist I would like present on this post is Chantal “BONE*AMIE” Menard, an artist from California. Chantal is not a conventional painter but rather a body artist specialized in tattoos and piercings. She also assembles objects such as mirrors, laces, bones, dolls, shoes, a lot of things in order to create Baroque/pop/grotesque altars. After entering her site you can see more collages, assemblages, and also some “tough” pictures about herself and about her works as a piercer. Her biography says that “Chantal finds inspiration in folk art, religious iconography, the works of Kahlo, Keinholz and Cornell as well as induced images from the writings of Poe, Plath, and Dickinson”. Chantal writes a blog on my space, which is rich of unpretentious photos and spontaneous thoughts.
[…] Our MySpace’s friends are multiplying day by day. At the moment I am counting 315 friends, 100 more since last week post! One of the most interesting new friends is definitely the Canadian photographer Melissa Mercier, a camera professional. Her pictures mostly tell us about space and buildings. Her main subjects are immersed in a cold environment of white/grey air, such as the smoke of a chimney or a cloud. Sometimes in the deep blue of the sky you can see suspended geometrical perspectives of bridges. Rarely you may find the natural green of the grass or of a tree behind a metal net or beside the concrete. Human shapes are hardly retraceable. Some pictures are on her MySpace page and some other on her webpage where you can buy it. It is also possible to buy them on IPN. Moreover, do not miss her blog where she frequently add new photos. A biography of Melissa can be found here. Another interesting photographer is Stef De La Vega. Unlike Melissa Stef’s favourite subject is the human body. He prefers to work in the studio instead of outdoor and he uses mainly female models. He takes deep portraits and shots of bodies in different positions (but very few nudes) with an accurate study of the lights and shadows. His pictures on MySpace and on his website. After these two photographers you then may find worth a visit the space of [déclencheur souple] a French association (from Aquitaine), whose aim is the “use of the pictures in a cultural, educative or artistic project”. The page is quite recent so you can see few but interesting pictures. In addition to that you can also read news and updates about the association and its plans and ideas on their blog. Finally I would like to introduce you to nophotography, an Irish stock photography agency. On their myspace page there are not many shots but if you visit their site you can enter their image library store with a large stock of pictures, which have been classified according to different thems such as towns, plants and flowers, landscapes and seascapes, objects and lots more. The downloading as well as the use of these pictures is not free. The picture on the top is by Melissa Mercier, the one on the right is by Stef De La Vega. « Sagre e feste di paese vere e taroccate Sur les ponts de Florence: Pont San Niccolò » […]
[…] It’s May and so far we have over 400 friends on MySpace! Everyday new interesting friends join us and it’s great to discover all this people from all over the world. all of them are so rich of creativity and most of them very talented. I wrote my previous two posts about MySpace on artists and photographers, selecting them according to my preferences. This time I want to make a random selection and I start with a brand new friend from Italy: the Dorothy Circus Gallery. This Gallery doesn’t actually exist yet, it is going to open in Rome on October 2007 in Via Nuoro, 17 in the frame of the ancient aqueduct. The aim of the creators of this gallery, Alexandra Mazzanti and Jonathan Pannacciò, is to spread the new art tendencies called “Lowbrow” or “Pop Surrealism” through the exposition of artworks by well known artists and less known ones, who are operating in the underground artistic area, connected to the street art as well as to the illustration experience. Such artists take their inspiration also by the pop and post-pop culture. Let’s keep an eye on them, it may be interesting. Marjorie Labille is a young French artist. She writes intriguing poems and she paints too. She has won her first prize in 1994 and since then she has started to expose her paintings in France and in Germany. Last year she went to Laos to enrich her inspiration. Her subjects are female nudes, dancers and portraits of children: have a look at her paintings in her picture’s page. Kovalesku is a Polish journalist: she writes about contemporary art and culture in Polish daily newspapers. On her page she shows us some beautiful pictures of herself and her favourite street artworks. Here you can also see some music photographies. A good place to make friends is definitelyItalian Americans, a page whose aim is to unite Italians and Americans on MySpace. There you can meet many funny and strange people as well associations, musical groups and a lot more from Italy and the US. If you are interested in this subject have a look at this site with the same name: italianamericans. I don’t know if it’s the same thing but the aim of this site is quite similar. Although the site may seem not updated, the forum is still working and you may find some useful or funny discussions. And last but not least I’m proud to introduce you a really famous friend, the Indian novelist Arundhati Roy: Booker Prize in 1997 for her first novel The God of Small Things and Sydney Peace Prize in May 2004 for her work in social campaigns and advocacy of non-violence. The official site of Arundathi where you can find a detailed bio-bibliography, writings, audio/video and lot more is here. For the news keep in touch with the MySpace blog. « Esercizio di comprensione metalinguistica – livello B2 […]