CELEBRATION TIME!!!!

OMG THIS THING IS DONE I'M GOING TO GET ME A SUNDAE AS A REWARD!! SEE YOU ALL ON MONDAY FOR CLASS!!

FIFTY!!!!! FINALLY!!!!

"Singing Ringing Tree" Tonkin Liu
galvanized steel pipes

this piece is awesome. it takes an abstract approach of a tree shape, but the cool thing about this piece is that when the wind blows the pipes catch it and create a low sing song! i love the idea of actually harnessing the power of nature to create something completely original like a song. i also really like this shape because you still get the idea of a tree without being obvious.

49

"Bacha Tree" Frederick B. Schell
1886-88 wood-engraving, printed in black ink, in one block

detail back in the day was awesome. but the real reason i like this piece is because of that tree!! look at those roots they are insane! its official i am doing a piece that is completely focusing on the roots. i need to find actual reference pictures of this type of tree for a better understanding of how it is put together. but <3!!

48

"Steampunk Tree House" Sean Orlando and others
mixed media

built "to explore the relationship between our rapidly changing natural world and the persistent human drive to connect with it." i love love love this!! one, steampunk stuff is awesome, because it explores an alternate universe where steam controls everything, not oil. and two, its a tree house! i like how this addresses the issue of how our world is changing and how industry is affecting our decisions about living situations. soon we may not be building our houses out of wood anymore, whether it is because of a lack of resources or an awareness of the depletion of said resources. either way this is cool so i shared!

47

"Apple Tree" Jordanka Yaretz
acrylic painting

i love this painting because of the shape and the way that the tree is off balance, but is still standing. that might be something to play with, gravity defying trees that look like they will topple over, but are solid as a rock. plus i'm seeing more of this green and yellow with splashes of read color theme that i love so much. i will definitely dye some of my paper with these colors.

46

"Bound Tree" Phillippa Lawrence
2007 dead tree wrapped in dyed material

i love this artist because she is giving new life to dead trees. another part of of my project is focusing on reincarnation and giving new life to materials. this woman has taken dead trees and dressed them up with vibrant colors of fabric, bring attention to them making them beautiful again. this is the same idea i want to introduce with my recycled paper.

45

"Tall Tree and the Eye" Anish Kapoor
2009 stainless steel and carbon steel

located at the royal academy of the arts in london this piece is pretty amazing. it does not represent a tree at all, but i can still see where the artist is coming from. i love the feeling of disorientation when you look into the orbs and find yourself feeling topsy-turvy. this distortion gives me an idea to play with the perspectives of my pieces. playing with the illusion of being extremely up close and far away from certain angles. hmmmmm... the possibilities...

44

"Traffic Light Tree" Pierre Vivant
traffic lights

this piece, located in London, is pretty cool. i really like the fact that this piece is made out of traffic lights, which simulate the natural colors that leave make during the different seasons. the lights reminded me of the leaves of trees with their shape and color and i wanted to share this sculpture with everyone. i really like how this piece, while completely technilogical and not natural looking whatsoever, can still take you back and connect with the natural aspects of the piece and the origins of the concept.

42

"Trinity Root" Steve Tobin
2005 bronze sculpture

this sculpture has a really neat story behind it so i thought i would share it. apparently, this sculpture was made in honor of a 70 year old tree stump that shielded St. Paul's Chapel in NYC from falling debris of the twin towers on 9/11. weighing 3 tons, this sculpture sits in the courtyard of the church, reminding patrons of the protection mother nature gave their church during that tragic event. i love the shape of this piece. i'm a sucker for tree roots so i automatically fell in love! plus its a really nice story of mother nature protecting humanity. :)

41

"Solar Tree Sculpture" artist unknown
mixed media

okay, so even though i don't know who the actual artist is because it is a mass produced marketable gadget, i thought i would share this anyway because i like it a lot. :P this little sculpture will harness the power of the sun and charge your electronics! awesome!! i like this piece because it communicates the relationship between man and nature very well. this man made object is mimicking nature with its appearance and is utilizing nature to preform a function that man needs done. plus i love the shape of this, and the branches are moveable so you can style your tree however you want!

40

"Caravan" Gia Chikvaidze
oil on canvas

this guy has a really awesome detailed style to his painting. i wish i could paint just so that i could be as awesome as this guy. kathy, if you're looking at this, look this dude up. :D he likes to paint surrealistic kind of fantasies. i like this painting because, to me, it shows that nature is the base of civilization, and without it our world would fall. i'm definitely going to look at more of his stuff in the future.

39

"Berkley Botanical Garden Oak" Claudia Wornum
2006 c-print

wornum is a photographer who primarily works with pinhole and holga cameras. she loves to expirement in her dark room and she takes pretty awesome pictures if you ask me. i like how she obtains the effects in her photographs. she likes the play with chemicals and how they cause a photo to react. i don't know much about photography and how everything works in a darkroom, but it is still cool to see what her experimenting can produce. i believe i mentioned sometime before that i really like the grunge kind of style to art, and her work really caught my eye as a dirty, messy, punky kind of thought process. her stuff was interesting so i thought i would share. oh, and she primarily works with landscapes and trees. :P

38

"Beech Tree" Dal Macon
oil on linen

Macon is a realist painter. he pays attention to every single detail in his work, and even works only when the lighting is perfectly right in his opinion, which can lead to a piece being worked on for years. i like this piece because of the realism to it. i know i've been saying i want to abstract my pieces, but i would also like to keep some sort of realism as well. he is inspirational because he likes to take his time with his work, which is something i need to learn. i will definitely try and take time to get all of my details exactly how i want them to be, even if i end up working on pieces for the entire semester.

37

"Tree of Obsessions" Cinzia Bacilieri
acrylic painting

bacilieri's art draws inspiration from reality and fantasy, Renaissance and surrealist art, and gothic themes. i like this piece because of all the shapes involved. the twists and turns in the branches are fun, exciting and dynamic. i'm definitely going to keep note of this picture while i'm working so i can reference back to all of her interesting shapes and directions.

lesson of the day:

don't procrastinate. haha!

and now a quote then bedtime.

"a king should attend to all urgent business; he should not put it off, for what has been thus put off becomes either difficult or altogether impossible to accomplish." --The Arthasastra

good night fellow procrastinators, i'll be back tomorrow with the last 14 artists!

36

"The Dance Round the Golden Calf" Emil Nolde
1910 oil on canvas

okay, so this is the last of the expressionists i promise. haha again, we're seeing those figures just wanting to act like trees again! i'm enjoying all the color as well, and like i said before that is definitely going to be incorporated with my pieces now. i can't wait for figure drawing to start so that i can get these figures to turn into trees already!!

35

"Three Nudes in the Forest" Otto Mueller
1911 distemper on meissan

alright, here is another work that i'm seeing figures easily turning into trees. not to mention the trees in the background are good references as well. i'm still really loving this green and yellow color combination so that is definitely going into my works now. the solid brush strokes are also striking. man, i'm starting to see a pattern with these brush strokes...

34

"Green Morning" Max Peechstein
1911 oil on canvas

i really like the curvy figure in this piece and incorporating curves into my pieces would be a good idea. if everything is just harsh corners and edges it wouldn't be very fun. i especially like the colors in this piece. maybe while i'm making my paper i can dye it with food coloring or something to get some nice colors to work with as well. i'm thinking that just having white paper all over will be a bit boring so i'll spice things up with some yellows and greens. and splashes of red just like this painting! oh color theory....

33

"The Glass Day" Erich Heckle
1913 oil on canvas

what really caught my eye is the figure and the harsh brush strokes. i love the way that she is standing, it reminds me of a tree. maybe i can play with incorporating figural poses into making my trees. i will be taking figure drawing this semester so i might as well be working on my senior sem stuff while i'm in class, right? haha. again, i'm drawn to harsh angles, so those will definitely have to be added into my works.

32

"Three Nudes in the Woods" Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
1934-35 oil on canvas

i picked this piece because i really loved to flow of it. the composition really makes the eye flow in a fluid motion around this piece. the bold solid lines catch the eye. hard edges are something that i really want to work on with my pieces so this is an inspiration. i also like the curves, which add a more organic feel to the figures. combining bold edges and nice flowing curves in my sculptures may be difficult but i would like to try at least to see what i come up with.

31

okay so i couldn't mention Masahiro Chatani without writing about him! he is the creator of origamic architecture. as an architect professor he was looking for a fun way to create cards for his family and friends. he then started to create these really elaborate pieces of art using the precision of architecture, and the grace of origami. he has written several books, like this one, giving instructions on how to create origamic architecture. i love his stuff because it is so meticulously constructed. i want to be able to have my pieces look pristine as well.

30

"Terra Cotta" Ingrid Siliakus
2009 origamic architecture

ummm... wow! Siliakus learned how to do this amazing craft from Masahiro Chatani, the creator of origamic archtecture. this combines the precision of origami and the precision of architecture into one awesome form of art. i love this because its a) paper, and b) its a really awesome looking building. i need to start looking at architecture as well for my project. i want to incorporate buildings into my pieces as well, but i am by no means an architect so i need to do my research!! and again, wow.

29

"Tapumes" Henrique Oliveira
2009 thin pieces of old fencing and boarding

at first i thought that all of this was paper and i thought that that was crazy. but then i did a little snooping and found out that this is all fence boarding! crazier!! Oliveira bends and forms these thin sheets of board to create these wall filling works of art. i love this because i was blown away to find out that this was board. paper is easy to bend, but boards? i was extremely impressed and had to share.

28

"Corner Forest" Yuken Teruya
2006 toilet paper rolls

love love love this guy! thanks prof. harris for showing him to me. Teruya takes simple objects, such as toilet paper rolls and paper bags, and just using an exacto knife cuts out these extremely intricate tree designs and folds them into shape. he doesn't bring in any outside materials to help form these little trees. i like how his pieces address the issue of human consumption on nature. Teruya also says that not only is he addressing these social issues, but he is also creating these pieces for the simple enjoyment of people. i would like people to want to look at my pieces simply because they want to, and not only because it addresses an issue that they find important.

27

"The Paper Tree" Heidi Hove Pederson
2005 stainless chromium steel, glue, wood, a base of stone (sunshade base), white paper and board.

this piece is really simple, but it is still fun. Pederson simply wrapped a frame with paper and voila! a tree. the shape is what i like about this piece. the base does not suggest anything about a tree, being too straight to be natural, while the branches give a more accurate representation of a tree. i like the mix between natural and unnatural shapes. i have been thinking about abstracting some of my pieces, and this is giving me that little push i need to want to follow through with that idea.

26

"Portfolio Package" Changzi Lee
2009 recycled paper sculpture

this is a really cool idea that Lee had. he took old papers that he didn't need anymore from school and created this totally awesome pop-up paper tree that he put in his portfolio that he used to find jobs after school! i think this is brilliant and will have to remember this for my portfolio when i graduate. haha i really like this because Lee took some old paper and gave it new life which actually landed him a job! awesome.

25

"Paper Tree" Amanda Arcuri
2008 chromogenic print

i really like Arcuri's idea. she's taken a man-made paper tree, and has put it among natural trees that are shaped just like it and takes pictures. this paper tree appears in several of her works. i think that the idea of inserting a foreign object into a natural setting is an interesting idea. this plays with the relationship of man-made objects and natural ones. this goes along with my theme. maybe i will bring in natural materials into my pieces to further the relationship i want to address. i'll have to start gathering twigs and leaves!!

24 and they're gonna keep comin'!!

Weeping Willow tree drawing-- Tim Knowles
2006 ink on paper on panel

alright, so Knowles is a kooky guy. i refer to him as the mad scientist artist whenever i think about him. he focuses on movement creating an image. i really like his stuff, not because of what a tree can draw, but because of the process that he takes to get his end results. he feels that the process of his work is just as important as the work itself and makes sure to include that process in his gallery shows, whether it is with a video or with the actual apparatus that he set up. i'm going to make sure to chronicle my processes with my paper making and sculpture building so that people will know what i did to get from 'a' to 'z'. i think that knowing how much time and effort is put into a piece is just as important as the work of art itself.

23

"Lonely Tree, Lonely People" Agieszka Gradzik and Wiktor Szostalo
2008 twigs, branches, sticks, vines and other natural materials

this piece makes me smile whenever i see it. these two artists make installation pieces and this one, located in Poland, really invites people to stand in line with these stick people to hug this tree. these two artists wanted this piece to create the feeling of this tree being the only one left in the world and what the public's reaction would be. it really brings the awareness to what we are really doing to our trees. hopefully we will never have to stand in line to hug the last tree on earth, but with the way that things are going now, i don't think that this idea is so far fetched unfortunately.

22

"Banyan Tree" Trisha Keiman
acrylic painting
50"x50"

okay, i figured i should probably include a tree in this upchuck of artist posts. haha Trisha Keiman is a traditional painter, nothing recycled here. i liked her work because she uses eye popping vibrant color that i couldn't turn away from and i absolutely adore the shape of this tree that she painted. i'm going to have to look up some banyan trees as reference pictures because i like this painting so much. the extended root system is what really interests me the most. i want a couple of my pieces to have gigantic roots that are super long and awesome looking. i absolutely love tree roots so hopefully that idea will work!!

21

"Lion 2" Yong Ho Ji
2008 stainless steel and used tired

at first glance i thought that this was some giant sculpture made out of clay and then i read the description for it and its all tires!! crazy huh? Ho Ji works with old tires and creates these really awesome fantastical creatures. his other work includes animals of prey, herbivores, and he even did a unicorn. all of his work is pieced together tire. i really like his stuff because it is different. its certainly not classical looking and has a really grungy edge to it, which is the stuff that i tend to like more. now, with that all being said i also like his stuff because he is really using his resources to the best of their ability. plus its all recycled with is what my project is all about!! mostly. haha.

i believe this is artist #20

"Uncle Sam" Mark Langan
corrugated cardboard sculpture

Langan is also one of those guys who has taken something that you wouldn't normally think of as an art material and uses it like a champ! all of his cardboard sculpture reliefs that he does are simply amazing and it just goes to show that if you just look around you are able to find all kinds of stuff to work with. so forget the paints and go play with cardboard!! haha. he really caught my eye because of his attitude more than anything else. Langan knows that he is using recycled materials, and trys to use them as much as possible with his works, but he also does not have an extremest kind of attitude when it comes to recycling. in his opinion, he does not think that one person can change the habits of a whole population, especially with art along, but he does feel that if it raises an awareness then that is good enough for him.

and again

“Self Portrait as Revealed by Trash: 365 days of photographing everything I threw out” Tim Gaudreau
photography 2003-2004

Gaudreau took a picture of all the trash that he threw out for an entire year. now, that is dedication if you ask me. i really liked him because of his attention to how much waste one person can create in just a year. his photos covered several walls of the gallery that he presented at. it really makes you think about what you are consuming and throwing away. he said that as he continued on with this project he was more conscious of what he was using and wasting. i think this is inspirational because it really opens your eyes to how much waste one person can create. just think about all of this, times 100. time 1000. thats a lot of trash!