Ben Heine: Mixed Media

It's time to feature another artist. While I'm blogging about the use of photography in art, let me introduce Ben Heine. Ben Heine is a Belgian artist and photographer who grew up in Ivory Coast and has a degree in journalism. Combining disparate things seems to run deep in his consciousness, because his photographs contain drawings, or are morphed with digital circles, or are combines with acrylics.
A whole new 'take' on 'mixed media. Enjoy his website.

Camera Practice!

Most of us use a camera in our artwork. Some of us carry a camera to capture reference photos. Some of us use a camera to make a record of our artworks. Some of us capture and upload our images to a website to present our work to potential galleries. For some of us photography is the very medium of  our creativity.
These days, using a camera can be confusing. Even the more basic 'point and click' cameras, as soon as you take yourself off the 'automatic' setting, require you to know something about aperture (how open or closed the lens is), focal length (the distance from the center of the lens to the point where an object can be seen clearly), shutter speed (how long the lens is open to expose the sensor to the image and light), and sensitivity (ISO setting--formerly called ASA setting). Short of taking a camera course, it's hard to know what effect will be achieved by changing settings.
As usual, the internet has a rescue plan! There's a website...! How often do I write that?!! Actually, there is more than one website, but this one is free and it's easy to use. It's called Camera Sim: SLR Photography Demystified. When you get into it, you'll see the image I've copied here. Below it are sliding bars and radio buttons that let you fiddle with the aperture and see what changing an F-stop from, say, F4 to F 22 will do to the depth of focus ('depth of field') in that image. You can make that background fuzzy and you can make it clear. You can change the ISO setting and see what happens. You can zoom in and out; adjust the focal length; change priority settings, play with the shutter speed and the lighting and even pretend you're shooting with or without a tripod. It's a place to play and learn. Again, here's the web address ('url'): http://camerasim.com/camera-simulator/  

Marshall Stephens opens at the Jung Center this weekend

Remember that the opening reception to the Transcendence show at the Jung Center is Saturday, June 16 from 5-8 p.m. Our very own Marshall Stephens will have his work hanging . Congratulations, Marshall!

Thanks to all of you who contributed suggestions to add to the Tomball branch's magazine collection. I've been able to suggest both Cloth, Paper, Scissors, which is a magazine for mixed media buffs and Watercolor Artist.

Next blog I am going to post a few free and handy online tools for photography.

Ephemeral Art...

This article was posted on my Facebook page this morning. I had to pass it on. Those 'illuminated manuscripts' are cookies. Here's the link: http://boingboing.net/2012/05/24/illuminated-manuscript-cookies.html

Myself, if I'm putting in all this work to create something, I want to be able to look at it for awhile. Unless it's sandcastles. I enjoy watching the waves dissolve the sharp-edged walls of my constructions and carry them away.

What about you?  What kinds of ephemeral art would you work hard to make, then enjoy watching disappear?

'Back at you!

On a recent trip to Norway, my daughter was struck by the sophisticated street art. She discovered that it is the work of an artist who goes by the name of Pobel. From his Facebook page, I discovered that
"Pøbel is a pseudonymous Norwegian street artist based in Stavanger. He is best known for the Getto spedalsk (Ghetto leperous) project, decorating abandoned buildings in...the Lofoten Islands in the north of Norway, along with notable collaborator "Dolk". Both were later commissioned to decorate the central railway stations in both Oslo and Trondheim. One of Norway's foremost street artists, his work all over Europe has been documented in a number of books on the subject. His stencil paintings are mostly sight gags. One series, for example, portrays superheroes such as Superman and Batman in decrepit old age. His age and real name is not officially known.

I thought it would appeal to certain senses of humor...
 Here's the link to Pobel's other 'street' art. 

Art as That Which Extends our Consciousness

I thought this was a thought-provoking addition to the city landscape: "With a background in architecture and an avid interest in street art, web development, and DIY culture, Berlin-based artist Aram Bartholl explores the relationship between the online and offline worlds, continually questioning the impact on our lives of the digital age...Currently in residence at New York’s Eyebeam Art and Technology Center, his most recent excursion into public space is the Dead Drop project, a set of USB drives cemented into the physical fabric of the city."Here's the link

The Jung Center

If you happen to be looking for places to exhibit your work you might consider the Jung Center at 5200 Montrose, right around the corner from the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. The center extends the work and philosophy of Carl Jung, the twentieth century Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytic psychology who was one of the greatest researchers in dream analysis and symbolization, and who considered the arts to be a window into the soul.
The guidelines for submitting a portfolio to be reviewed by their art committee can be found on their website. Briefly, you submit a CD of your work by April 30th to be reviewed for one of nine exhibitions that will be launched the following year. It costs you nothing to exhibit but traditionally artists donate 20% of their sales back to the Center.

If you're interested you might want to check out the space during April when Woodlands artist Liz Hill will be exhibiting her work "Le Quattro Artists" there. It opens Saturday, April 14.

Images courtesy of the Jung Center and Gonzalez Studios  and Liz Hill's blog.