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Free Hazel Dooney Photograph

Australian artist Hazel Dooney is giving away 500 limited edition photographs from her Lake Eyre series to celebrate her 500th post at her Self Vs. Self blog.

The image size is around 2" x 3" on 4" x 6" paper. It is titled "Study for Modern Strategies Of Survival: Resized For Mass Consumption." Each photograph will be stamped, signed, dated and numbered on verso.

See her post here to learn how to receive one for free.

Previously Hazel has given away prints that had to be downloaded and printed using your own printer, but this offer is signed and sent from her actual studio. Just the logistics of preparing 500 works to be delivered would be enough to scare me off being so generous.

Hazel has also started using Twitter. I still don't get Twitter and I have no idea how it has become so popular. I like brevity but how much can you say in one sentence? I'm probably missing something though as a lot of people are now using Twitter. I would be interested in seeing how much traffic artists are getting from Twitter.

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Radiology Art

I found out about the "radiology art" of Satre Stuelke from a NY Times article called "The Inner Beauty of a McNugget" but I would have called it something like "Scary, Toxic Looking Chicken McNuggets."

Stuelke has also done a few McDonalds burgers for his Radiology Art project and they look just as scarily toxic as the McNuggets. Sure, they're beautiful to look at but they're probably not something that should be put into your mouth.

The New York City artist's statement for the project says it is "Dedicated to the deeper visualization of various objects that hold unique cultural importance in modern society, this project intends to plant a seed of scientific creativity in the minds of all those inclined to participate"

He has photographed/scanned toys, food and electronics. My favorites are the toys, especially the wild looking barbie doll and the toy elephant. See them on his Website here.

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Search Art Keywords

I never know what to expect when I browse through the keywords that people use to find Art News Blog. They range from the funny, to the disgusting, to just stupid.

• Tit hanging - To be hung by your tits? Sounds painful.
• Do art galleries make money - Probably not at the moment.
• Designer vagina - That rhymes.
• Spam Funny - It can be.
• Shit art - That's a matter of opinion.
• Propaganda advertising - It is.
• Jussst Porn - Wrong blog.
• Bare bums - Cold bare bums in this case.
• Sexy free - Many good things are free.
• Sleep artists - Masters of sleeping?
• Penis artists - I think there's just one of them.
• Strange artists - Aren't we all?
• Rich artists - They're a rare breed but they do exist.
• Art collegia delenda est - That's your term Donald.

Here's some earlier search terms from 2006, 2007 and some stupid Banksy searches.

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Paper in the Wind

Simple, everyday things amuse me. For example, a piece of paper blowing in the wind..

It was made by Sydney based artist Gary Deirmendjian.

ingredients:
1. a wondering through city fringe laneways;
2. a scrap of paper torn from a nearby skip;
3. a breeze; and
4. a pocket camera aimed with the hope of catching something interesting.

Gary says "It was all inspired and spurred on by the moment, as in there was no preconceived idea or intent to begin with - it took form as I began the filming. The breathing was added in editing."

It made me think of the plastic bag in the wind scene from the American Beauty movie (I love that scene).
"Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it, like my heart's going to cave in."

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Gone Walkabout

I have been on the road for the past week exploring a few places that I thought I might like to move to (see earlier post), which has slowed posting down. Friends were renting a massive holiday apartment on the Gold Coast so I invited myself around to stay. It was on the 70th floor of a building which claims to be the tallest residential building in the world. It was like living on a plane without all the turbulence and flight attendants offering coffee and bad food.

Here's some storm clouds rolling in..

Here's a painting that I couldn't stand looking at in the apartment, so I turned it around as it would have ruined my week. Friends thought I was crazy but I didn't want it to influence me in any way.

People looked like ants on the beach.

I have a few more places to explore, but I'm starting to think I will just travel around Europe and America for the next year or two.

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Pig Skin Portraits by Heide Hatry

I knew there was something strange about these portraits when I first looked at them but I just couldn't figure out what it was. I thought the eyes had a realness about them that is hard to create, which turned out to be partly correct.

The artist Heide Hatry created these weird little creations with animal skin and body parts. So the eyes are real, but they're real pigs eyes. The lips are raw flesh and the skin is from a pig.

In her statement from here website here, Heide Hatry says.. "My intention with the work was to make it as life-like as possible, vivid and sometimes disposed in positions suggesting movement. I used untreated pigskin to cover a sculpture I had made out of clay, with raw meat for the lips and fresh pig eyes in order that the resulting portrait would appear as if it were looking at the viewer with a vital expression which the photographer had just captured at that moment. In fact, a photographer taking a picture of a model does more or less what I've done with my sculptures: the model will be made up, its hair will be done, appropriate lighting and pose will be chosen, etc. Or, if you prefer, what I am doing is reminiscent of what a mortician does in preparing a corpse for viewing: creating the illusion of life where there is none."

She is currently showing at the Pierre Menard Gallery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "Heads and Tales" finishes on the 17th of March. View more of the portraits at the artist's website here or see a slideshow of images on the Phoenix newspaper.

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Portrait Prizes

Two of Australia's best known art prizes recently announced their winners. The Archibald prize is best known for creating controversies and receiving lots of mainstream media coverage, even if there isn't a controversy, and the Doug Moran portrait prize is known for having a first prize booty of 0,000.

The 2009 Archibald prize winner was Guy Maestri with his portrait of the singer Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu. I can't say I was very impressed with the portrait but the Gurrumul CD is amazing. He's a blind indiginous artist that plays the guitar upside down and sings like an angel. There's some videos of him on Youtube.

The 2009 Doug Moran portrait prize winner is Ben Quilty for his portrait of the singer Jimmy Barnes, titled There But For The Grace Of God Go I No. 2. Quilty collected 0,000 for his entry.

The Archibald finalists can be seen here and the Doug Moran finalists can be found here.

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Expressionist Matt Sesow

Here's an interesting interview with a working artist, meaning an artist that makes a living from painting. He's humble about his work and he hasn't been tempted to add too many zeros to the price of his paintings. Most works can bought from his website for a few hundred dollars which means almost anyone can afford to buy a painting. He seems to be a prolific painting machine with tens of paintings added to his site each month, so there's always something new to look at.

See more paintings by Matt Sesow at his website here. One thing that I love about his website is that he isn't afraid to use good size images of his paintings online. I have been visiting his website for at least five years because he doesn't try to frustrate the viewer with minuscule image sizes covered with ridiculous copyright notices.

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Netdiver’s - Artists and their Apps by Doc Woohoo!

Netdiver’s 10yr Special Issue #1. Part of their anniversary bash, they invited special content scouts to contribute 10 project reviews on the topic of their choice and do a 3 question based mini-interview.

Presenting the first in the series: Artists and their Apps by Doc Woohoo!

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Inhouse updates

Site updates for NZ design studio INHOUSE

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