Five Awesome Artists (with websites)
Bloggers are always making lame Top-n lists. I’ve always thought it was a cop-out to writing actual content, but I decided I’d try my hand at it. So here goes nothing! This is the list of my five favorite artists (well, the one’s with nice websites at least).
This list is written in no particular order. I guess if you want to be technical, it’s more of a set than a list. Also, I’m no art critic or anything and I’m not trying to be. I’ll just try and explain why I like each artist as best as I can.
Alex Pardee – EYESUCK INK
I first encountered Alex Pardee when I was in Portland. After me and Alix were swindled for two dollars by a large black man, we were left with a card advertisement for a gallery Alex Pardee put together titled “Self Portraits of Other People That I Drew by Myself Pretty Much. “ The idea to me seemed interesting, but we had missed the exhibit, so we went to the website instead.
I find his art absolutely exhilarating. It’s surreal, colorful, and at times a little scary. A lot of the work he does involves taking those cute little characters you always see graffiti artists working on, and putting them in grotesque situations. The color choices alone are worth a look.
Eduardo Recife – Misprinted Type
Misprinted Type is the personal portfolio website of Eduardo Recife. He also has a commercial portfolio, which was actually the original way I found out about his works. I discovered his art as I discover most things, on StumbleUpon.
Apparently, he originally created the website to publish his fonts, but it has since blossomed into something truly amazing. Most of his work seems to be these seriously awesome collages, which have a pretty vintage feel to them. Reminds me of the kind of stuff produced by dada artists, and we all know how much I love dada.
I originally found her work floating around on some other website, with a link to her portfolio at the bottom of the page. To this day, I can’t remember what the original website was, but I really liked her art, so I checked it out, and was amazed.
Her art is extremely colorful, and I am a fan of colors. Conceptually, the paintings she does are simply incredible. She really has a mastery for laying elements together. She incorporates a lot of faces into her paintings, and even in the paintings without faces, brings life to almost everything. Her style is something I would really like to pick up on a little in my own painting.
Mary Capan – Mary’s Art Gallery
Mary appears to operate an art gallery as a self-represented artist. She sells her paintings through the website and also on eBay. Many of her pieces span multiple canvases. If I had the money, I feel like I would definitely want one of these pieces hanging in my living room. It would really set the mood a little better than our current decor.
Anyways, her art is rather abstract, incorporating some pretty mellow color choices. I think that her main focus is on textures, as the textures in some of the paintings seem really exciting. Again, she is an artist that I would really like to see influence my work.
Blu’s identity is rather obscured. I am not sure exactly who, or what Blu is, but it is my understanding that Blu is some kind of prolific German graffiti artist. I first encountered Blu a couple years ago, when I saw Muto, which is a video done entirely in graffiti. It’s something really very awesome.
I recommend exploring the Blu website, and especially take a look at the drawings. Blu’s style of drawing is very intriguing to me. It’s a little awkward, but at the same time, the way everything is put together and the conceptual elements of the drawings intrigue me. Check ‘em out.
I approve.