First off, I must say what an amazing last name...Villafane! Sounds so devious, and eeeevil mwahahaha. This sculptor, Ray Villafane, started to carve pumpkins for his art students, and I suppose he finally realized he was really good because then it turned into something more than just a hobby. I've seen some really good pumpkin carvings before, but I think he has got some pretty ridiculously detailed insane ones. Yay for pumpkin sculptures, especially the ones that look like they're gonna eat you, I like those the best because they're very unnerving and ones you probably don't really want in your house...To see Ray's process and the tools he uses, click here. I should try this intense carving sometime, pumpkins are such a fleshy medium...
Pumpkin Artist: Ray Villafane
Sculptor: Kate MacDowell
As I was browsing one of my favorite art magazines I enjoy from time to time, Hi-Fructose, I came across Kate MacDowell and her sculptures caught me off guard, I loved it. Here's an excerpt from MacDowell's statement:
I chose porcelain for its luminous and ghostly qualities as well as its strength and ability to show fine texture. It highlights both the impermanence and fragility of natural forms in a dying ecosystem, while paradoxically, being a material that can last for thousands of years and is historically associated with high status and value. I see each piece as a captured and preserved specimen, a painstaking record of endangered natural forms and a commentary on our own culpability.
Check out more of her thought provoking work, here.
Artist: Kmye Chan
If you're wondering how to pronounce the nickname of this French illustrator, it's Ka-mee-ye. Don't worry, I would have never guessed, closest I got was Cammy or Kimmy...Anyways, born in France, Kmye finds inspiration from comics and surrealist artists among others, and I too find inspiration from her. She creates this dreamy, dark, but strangely beautiful world that I'm addicted to. Many of her characters also seem to be influenced from the world of lolita goth that also provokes other artists such as Nicole West who recently created a sculpture, using polymer clay. Kmye Chan's Artwork.
If the World Was Made of Scotch Tape...
Nothing would really be fixed...and it'd be sticky.
I enjoy how artist Tara Donovan creates beautiful pieces using objects most of us would never even consider using for art. These bland, unnatural, man made pieces are put together so it looks natural and organic. I wonder if that's what the future will be like. There will be no such thing as nature; everything will be man made, and what people come to know as nature in the future is what people now know as paper plates and styrofoam cups. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. It might still be beautiful and pleasing, but distant and possibly unable to relate to even though man made it himself...
Tara Donovan's Art here.
