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Jane Zhang - Dust My Shoulders Off (Official Video)

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Sketcho Frenzy: The Basics of Visual Note-taking

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Follow the PROKO series on YouTube to watch really great drawing technique videos

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Follow the PROKO series on YouTube to watch really great drawing technique videos

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Hey there! My name is Stan Prokopenko, I’m an artist and teacher. Proko is a resource for artists to get good art instruction videos. When you watch Proko tutorials you’ll notice that I try to make them entertaining while keeping them educational. I feel that if you’re having fun and enjoying the learning process, you learn better. You retain more information, you pay more attention, you’re much more likely to continue learning and more likely to go back and re-watch tutorials. And it will leave you more inspired and motivated to go practice. I’ll be your host for most of the videos, but there will be other instructors that will appear on this channel as well. If you’re an artist interested in doing a collab feel free to email me :) Get Premium Drawing Courses: https://proko.com/store Become a Proko Affiliate: https://www.proko.com/affiliates

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Living a surreal life

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This ten minute clip is drawn from the famous 1950s game show, and it's quite surreal. I don't use the word surreal loosely: the special guest is Salvador Dali.

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https://www.khanacademy.org/

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/

https://www.bl.uk/

https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/project/gigapixels

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/about/british-museum-objects/

Bowdoin.edu

tate.org

http://lemeridienunlockart.starwoodpromos.com/

https://www.360cities.net/

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Nova - Building the Great Cathedrals (PBS Documentary)

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Nova - Building the Great Cathedrals (PBS Documentary) Nova - Building the Great Cathedrals Nova (PBS Documentary) PBS Nova Our YouTube channel features full documentary films as well as educational television series. We are dedicated to bringing our viewers amazing stories and experiences from the world of science, history, anthropology, finance, geography, and engineering.

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Here's my contact stuff! Prof. Kenney Mencher Department of Art and Art History Director Louie Meager Art Gallery Ohlone College, 43600 Mission Blvd. Fremont, California 94539 Phone: Office (510) 979-7916 Cell (510) 390-3952 KMencher@ohlone.edu http://www.kenney-mencher.com/ http://kenney-mencher.blogspot.com/ http://www.etsy.com/shop/kmencher http://www.youtube.com/user/kmencher

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Georgia O'Keeffe is not on the AP Art History Curriculum but she is great to know 

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Georgia O'Keeffe is not on the AP Art History Curriculum but she is great to know 

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http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160705-georgia-okeeffe-pictures

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art, i.e. The Met Museum

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Xu Bing | Book from the Sky | China | The Met

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This set of four books forms part of an eponymous installation first displayed in Beijing in 1988. The books contain four thousand invented characters that cannot be decoded, raising fundamental questions about the Chinese identity and its relationship to the written word

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When family tales are passed from generation to generation with no single point of origin, when history fails to document years of pain and struggle, when personal identity becomes too complex to describe in a single sitting, when memory and imagination mingle in the land of dreams, this is where art comes in very handy.

For young Latina artists, art is an invaluable tool to archive the past, understand the present and activate change in the future. Yet, as with many underrepresented populations, Latina artists and the work they produce are often silenced and overlooked. An exhibition entitled "Y, Qué? (And What!)" is here to change that.

Composed entirely of Latin artists under the age of 35, "Y, Qué?" presents a diverse array of multimedia artworks through which to navigate the past, archive the intangible, occupy multiple spaces and personas and unabashedly declare one's existence. Exploring themes of race, class, gender, sexuality and cultural identity, the selected emerging artists don't just tell us their stories, they show us.

"Y, Qué?" is the 19th edition of the "Young Latino Artists Exhibition," a highly anticipated exhibition series at the Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin, Texas. Guest curated by Más Rudas Chicana Collective, this year's stunning exhibition showcases the bold future of female artists and the unrelenting power of art to make sense of the world around us. Behold, 13 young Latina artists changing the landscape of contemporary art.

"Young Latina Artists 19: Y, Qué?" runs until September 7, 2014 at Mexic-Arte in Austin, Texas.

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13 Latina Artists Under 35 You Should Know

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When family tales are passed from generation to generation with no single point of origin, when history fails to document years of pain and struggle, when personal identity becomes too complex to describe in a single sitting, when memory and imagination mingle in the land of dreams, this is where art comes in very handy.

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These are a selection of works and commentaries from Ratthamnoon Prakitpong, a graduate from Thai Chinese International School in Bangkok, Thailand. Ratthamnoon was one of sixteen students worldwide to receive a score of 100% for his AP Studio Art Drawing Portfolio in 2015, earning every point possible on each portion of his portfolio. His portfolio scored a perfect six.

AP Studio Art: Breadth

The Breadth section of the AP Studio Art portfolio is a great chance to brush up on skills and experiment. The Breadth section of the portfolio consists of 12 works of art that demonstrate a mastery of skills whilst showing the artistic range of a student. Here are some examples of what I did to make my work better and more personal:

The importance of a good composition

For this class project, we had to work on transparent textures. Having strong painting skills is important; having a strong composition to work from equally so. The first batch of preliminary images I did were indoors with two wine glasses. I felt like the contrast and depth were sufficient, but my teacher, Elizabeth Jendek, asked me to try other kinds of glass to make the composition more interesting. I took loads of photos to find compositions that worked. On the second and third preliminary compositions I presented to my teacher, the light was indoors and the glass didn't have reflective areas. The third composition was better because of the outdoor light, but it still wasn't great.

Then my teacher suggested I photograph outside in sunset. Being outside made the still life look more natural and lively; these effects were emphasized by the striped cloth, which increased movement. In addition, the sunset's orange light really heightened the glasses' shine and contrast. With the table's directional line, I got the depth back from the first composition that was lost during the second and third tries. My composition was strong because my focal point was to the side, which follows the rule of thirds: there were size relationships showing depth and perspective. There also was variation by color and shape, making the composition more stimulating. A strong composition illuminated my skill of painting. Although this is a drawing portfolio, a good composition is as important as your great skill of painting in and of itself. To get the best compositions, I questioned myself; I didn't expect things to work out the very first time, listened to my peers and teacher's advice, and kept working on it until I got the best composition.

Revisiting work makes a big difference

As my skills improved, I found that some of my work looked a little uneven. I had a portrait that I did earlier, which no longer matched the skill level of my other work. Since the face was working fine, the teacher and I discussed the idea of cutting and pasting the head onto a new image. I took a few photos and did a new composition in Photoshop and came up with a new image. Once I was confident with my new idea, I sketched out my new composition on fresh paper, cut out the face and glued it to the new composition. My new version was much better and it evened up my skill level throughout the portfolio in my final submission.

I took calculated risks with time and composition. I scheduled my time well and used all the good guidance and technology available to finish this drawing. It turned out to be one of my favorites.

Sometimes abandoning a work of art is better than to keep fighting it

While I was doing my portfolio, I had a few compositions that needed reworking - one in particular really just wasn't working out. I tried adding more to the composition; I did loads of preliminary sketches, and finally decided I was getting nowhere. After discussing and problem-solving with my teacher, we decided it would be better to start a fresh new artwork based off an alternative lesson. It's true that it was hard to let go of so much work already done, and the new project was equally challenging, but it worked much better than if I would've continued beating a dead horse.

To compensate for lost efforts, I tried to add my own personal touches to this art piece. Even though the green plate can be seen just as a nice contrast to the orange shrimp, it's also the same plate my family uses when we go out picnicking. We usually lay old newspapers underneath our seafood so that mess won't spill anywhere. I took direct inspiration from that, and glued newspaper onto my work for texture; to finish, I copied Thai letters onto the composition. By adding my own personal touch, this simple project became more unique, and much richer. They were my shrimp, and this is how I eat them.

Look for inspiration around you, in unlikely places

Friends and I went on a hiking trip to Phu Kradueng. In this area of Thailand, automated services aren't available, so local couriers offer their services by carrying huge loads to the top of the mountain area. Watching these men lift such enormous amounts was inspirational, and I took this great photo capturing their strength and beauty - it reminded me of Greek Gods. Although this wasn't a class project, I painted it on my own anyway for two reasons: the tourist sight was so unique, and it was also an important memory for my friends and I. To further the personal nature of this image, I glued my train ticket to the composition to further add to that feeling of a snap in time, fully enclosing the character of the place and to add additional texture.

AP Studio Art: Concentration

Concentration is a section where I focused on a specific topic and many art skills. It's very intense and pressuring. Here I commented on a few skills that I focused on to make my Concentration more successful:
Picking the right Concentration topic is incredibly important
Since the Concentration section needed twelve pieces based on a single topic, my teacher advised the class to look long and hard for a topic that had room for development and exploration, yet remained accessible. It took me a few months, but I settled on a Concentration topic about different perspective-based portraits in the kitchen.

Thematically, I picked this topic because I was already a hobbyist cook, and wanted to combine and explore the two things that I liked - art and cooking. I feel, in my country, there's a cultural stigma about men in the kitchen that I wanted to both question and eradicate by demonstrating that men can cook as well as anyone else.

I decided to pursue portraits and create variation using different perspectives and color schemes. For my take on perspective, I used a selfie stick to find new perspective and angles. Where my hands were holding the camera, I superimposed kitchen tools - spoons, forks, spatulas - to hide the selfie stick in the drawing. As for the kitchen itself, I found inspiration from my personal exploration in using new kitchen tools, like cooking noodles for my lunch box or eggs in the morning. These were additional considerations I made when selecting this topic:

My exploration was not only visual, but personal too. It showed my development as an artist and a thinker. I only had around 5 ideas at the beginning because I wasn't familiar with the kitchen, but as I personally explored the kitchen more, inspiration came naturally.

I cared about my topic. I was exploring my hobby and my culture. If I wasn't passionate about my topic, by the 8th or 9th image I would've hated my work. Artwork without passion is apparent.

It was visually appealing. Even though my personal story and passion were there, my Concentration wouldn't be as strong if I did not play with perspectives and color schemes. I was really experimental about it too, and when the compositions didn't work, they still served as a springboard for the next idea.

My topic was versatile enough to have twelve different ideas united under it. The kitchen has interesting tools, objects and angles I could use to experiment. That kept my idea fresh, yet united.

My topic was flexible. Choosing my kitchen as a basis for my topic might seem simple, but it provided enough room for experimenting with techniques that weren't necessarily kitchen-related, like superimposition or collage.

My topic was accessible. I could go back easily to the kitchen and photograph some more, or look for other inspirations. This made a huge difference when some compositions needed more reworking than others.

(If you are struggling to come up with your own AP Studio Art Concentration ideas, please read: Art Project Ideas: a guide to subject matter selection).

Here are some examples of how I problem-solved composition concerns, increased depth, and manipulated my imagery.

I experimented with depth

I increased depth with my selfie stick; it gave me more options with regards to angles. The first composition in which I used the stick didn't quite capture what I wanted, so I added an additional shelf at the top of my composition to increase depth. I used a fisheye lens to make the composition more interesting, and changed the hands that held the selfie stick altogether. I also manipulated color from the originally bland white into a triad color scheme to make it more visually dynamic.

Combining multiple skills enriches your art

I had already used bird's eye and worm's eye of view, so I had to come up with something unique for this one. When I looked at the oven, I remembered when my mother baked and thought of her delighted face when she pulled out her baking. So I decided to render some freshly baked food and the serenity on someone's face when they first see the food. This gave my image more personal meaning. I also added pieces of a hand written recipe for texture and to increase movement. Additionally, I superimposed a meat fork where my selfie stick had been.

Final thoughts

In hindsight, I made many gutsy moves, and I failed - a lot. However, I succeeded a lot too. It really came down to commitment, to practice, to having many chances to fail and, in turn, to succeed. I made more than 24 art pieces, but I got to choose the ones I was actually proud of for a trimmed version of my portfolio. Most importantly, I'm just another person, and what I did may not apply to you. Listen to the people who know you, who are close to you - your teacher, your peers, and yourself. There's no point in making anything unless you will be proud of it. That means sometimes an unyielding stance, or sometimes blind faith in advice.

This AP Studio Art Drawing course was taught by Elizabeth Jendek. Work from her students is used by Alison Youkilis, an AP Art teacher trainer, to teach other educators around the world. You can see additional outstanding artworks by Elizabeth Jendek's students in the article: 50+ Still life drawing ideas for art students.

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AP Studio Art Drawing Portfolio: tips from a student who gained 100%

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These are a selection of works and commentaries from Ratthamnoon Prakitpong, a graduate from Thai Chinese International School in Bangkok, Thailand. Ratthamnoon was one of sixteen students worldwide to receive a score of 100% for his AP Studio Art Drawing Portfolio in 2015, earning every point possible on each portion of his portfolio.

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There are multiple videos located here:

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El Anatsui Exhibition El Anatsui Old Man's Cloth Workinf Togehter El Anatsui El Anatsui Fold Crumple El Anatsui the Cucifix El Anatsui Working El Anatsui Crumbling Wall El Anatsui Help El Anatsui Artwork Book El Anatsui El Anatsui YouTube El Anatsui Gravity Grace El Anatsui Community El Anatsui Brooklyn Museum El Anatsui Biography

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this says 2013 on it but when you click on it, it says 2018.  Lets get people to participate!

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2018 Theme: Our Oceans in a Changing Climate

Climate change is the biggest issue of your lifetime. Your whole life will be lived as the impacts of global climate change are taking place. Our Contest is a call for young artists, thinkers, and activists who are concerned about the future of our human and natural communities to use their creative voices to explore, express, and advocate for issues related to climate change and our oceans.

Our health is tied to ocean health, whether we live on the coast or 500 miles inland.

Human systems - social, economic, political, and cultural - are interdependent on the ocean; however, human-caused global warming is already producing substantial changes to our coastal and marine ecosystems and the communities that depend on them, including: rising sea surface temperatures, ocean acidification, coral bleaching, melting land ice, dead zones, sea level rise, fishery declines, coastal erosion, and extreme weather events such as hurricanes.

We believe that creativity is power.

You play an important role in shaping the future world. Your creative voice has the ability to: expose what is happening to our oceans and what may, or will, happen; question the societal norms that have brought us to this point; reflect and reshape what it means to be a human in the 21st century; discover and advocate for solutions; and persuade others to take action.

The Ocean Awareness Contest is open to students aged 11-18 worldwide.

Your work should explore the relationship between human systems, climate change, and our oceans. We challenge you to create a piece that not only presents issues and challenges, but also communicates a message that inspires others to act. We encourage you to connect your submission to your own life, your local community, or something else that motivates you.

How do human systems affect the ocean? How do oceans affect life on land? How are ocean health and human health connected?

What responsibilities do humans have to the natural world and its inhabitants?

What will the planet look like in 2100 if we continue with "business as usual"?

How do oceans play a role in mitigating climate change?

Who is responsible for climate change?

How large is your carbon footprint? How do you play a role in causing - and preventing - the impact of climate change on our oceans?

Will climate change affect everyone equally? How will your community have to adapt?

How does mass media play a role in shaping the stories we hear about climate change?

What innovative solutions have been created or proposed to address the impacts of climate change on our oceans? What challenges do these solutions face to widespread implementation?

How does meaningful change happen?

How should scientists, designers, and policy-makers work together to address climate change issues?

How can we communicate stories about our oceans and climate change that make an impact on others and compel them to act?

What strategies do artists use to help us understand the impacts of climate change as well as to move us to feel something about it?

Submissions are accepted in:

The deadline to submit is June 18, 2018.

Contest Details

Awards

Awards will be given in each of the categories at both the Junior and Senior divisions:

Additional Awards Available in 2018

Over the course of the Contest, other awards may become available and will be listed here. The winners of these awards will be chosen and announced at the same time as the category awards.

Making Waves Award

The Making Waves Award will be awarded to one submission in each age division that demonstrates a powerful, engaging, and original voice of ocean activism. Winners receive a $250 cash prize.

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2018 Theme: Our Oceans in a Changing Climate Climate change is the biggest issue of your lifetime. Your whole life will be lived as the impacts of global climate change are taking place.

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Magdalena Abakanowicz Abakan's Magdalena Abakanowicz Backs Magdalena Abakanowicz Artwork Magdalena Abakanowicz Sculpture Abakanowicz Seated Figure Magdalena Abakanowicz YouTube Artist Magdalena Magdalena Abakanowicz the Flock 2 Burlap Figures Magdalena Abakanowicz Backs Meaning Henry Moore Magdalena Abakanowicz Quotes Nam June Paik

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One of the most important and wide-ranging paradigm shifts to arise out of the social, political, and aesthetic upheavals of the 20th century is a sustained, visible challenge to the outdated notion of a hard and fast gender binary. As usual, artists have been at the forefront of these changes, creating works that question the normative assumptions of what our bodies should look like or do while drawing from a variety of perspectives on the subject. These divergent representations are far from a modern development, however-as these excerpts from Phaidon's Body of Art show, inquiries into the complexities of sex and gender transcend both time and place, making this a vital if sadly under-theorized facet of art history.
The sexual ambivalence of the Sleeping Hermaphroditos is more disquieting today than it would have been to ancient viewers, who knew the history of this son of Hermes and Aphrodite. For Hermaphroditos had rejected the advances of the nymph Salmacis, and she, in her distress, asked Zeus to merge their two bodies into one forever, hence the strange union of voluptuous female curves with male genitalia. The late Hellenistic date for the original work from which this Roman copy was made is based on the theatricality of the work: a first impression of a sensuous female nude, and then a surprise on the other side, rendered in realistic detail. The sculpture was discovered in Rome in 1608 and immediately became part of the Borghese collection. Its intrinsic eroticism was intensified in 1619 when Cardinal Scipione Borghese commissioned Gianlorenzo Bernini to sculpt the tufted mattress on which Hermaphroditos sleeps. The torsion of the figure's body and the slightly raised left foot suggest an impression of restless dreaming, however, rather than deep sleep; the art historian Kenneth Clark saw this work as the direct inspiration for Velázquez's decidedly alert Rokeby Venus.

One of the most revered deities in Chinese Buddhism, Guanyin (the Chinese version of the Sanskrit Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara) is a goddess of mercy, compassion and unconditional love. Like all Bodhisattvas, she has postponed her own entry into nirvana until all beings have achieved enlightenment, but she in particular is seen as a savior, taking on any form necessary to assist those in need. This magnificent polychrome representation dates from the turn of the first millennium ad - the moment at which the male god began to turn into a goddess. Before the Song period (960-1279), Guanyin was portrayed with a moustache and distinctively male features, but around the time of the carving of this sculpture, the moustache disappeared and such feminine features as breasts and a softer, rounder face were assumed. This figure is still demonstrably male in posture and bearing, but the soft folds of the neck and the curving flesh of the chest exemplify the transition. In the figure's relaxed, confident position, a female receptiveness is combined with male self-assurance, open to the entreaties of those in need. Apart from the right forearm and a small outcrop of the rockery, the sculpture is carved from a single piece of wood.

THE BEARDED WOMAN (MAGDALENA VENTURA WITH HER HUSBAND)
Jusepe de Ribera
1631

Two full-length figures, lit from the side in an otherwise darkened space, face us directly. Both are bearded; one, positioned slightly in front of the other, has a bare breast exposed and is suckling a child. Ribera (1591-1652) painted this work on commission to the Duke of Alcalá, who collected images of bizarre subjects for his own amusement. The female subject, Magdalena Ventura, was in her early fifties at the time, and was well known for her masculine features and long beard. The Latin inscription on the plinth to the right describes her as "a great wonder of nature." Ventura bore three sons, although all were grown by the time this painting was made; the baby at her breast is perhaps symbolic of her maternity, as are the bobbin and the shell lying on top of the plinth. Despite the Duke's perhaps puerile interest in the ostensibly abnormal subject, Ribera's depiction of the sitters is both grave and sympathetic. The air of solemnity, generated by the somber, murky palette, is anything but mocking. The direct gazes, serious expressions, and forceful presence of the figures lend them a rare dignity.
UNTITLED (DOUBLE-SIDED), ILLUSTRATION FOR IN THE REALMS OF THE UNREAL
Henry Darger
Mid-20th Century
Despite accusations to the contrary, Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957) insisted that Princess X was a portrayal of a feminine ideal: a gently inclined oval face and graceful neck above a pert and generous bosom. Nonetheless, the sculpture was removed from the Salon des Indépendants in 1920 on the grounds of obscenity. Outraged by the suggestion that the work could be interpreted as anything else, the artist identified it as a portrait of a voluptuous ex-lover, with the highly polished bronze surface intended as a literal refection of female vanity and her habit of frequently checking her appearance in a mirror. Artist protestations aside, the sculpture undeniably presents a duality of gender, and depending on the angle from which it is viewed, different masculine or feminine attributes push their way to the fore. From the left front the form appears more upright and the breasts more prominent, while viewed from the right the piece appears more C-shaped and takes on the semblance of an erect penis and testicles. Curators have noted that Brancusi's own photographic records of the work in the studio almost always show it from the left. It has also been suggested that Brancusi incorporated, consciously or otherwise, his own vigorous desire for the female form into his representation.

Artistic collaborators, lovers, stepsisters, and French Resistance fighters, Claude Cahun (1854-1954) and Marcel Moore (1892-1972) created works that investigated gender and identity politics in Europe between the wars. Born Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe respectively, the women adopted male pseudonyms. Cahun, who began experimenting with self-portraiture in 1911, is the subject of most of their photographs, which were never exhibited during their lifetimes and only came to light in the 1980s. These performative portraits explore the fluidity of gender. In some Cahun is hyper-feminine in exaggerated make-up and kiss curls, while in others she is hyper-masculine in a sailor suit or with a shaved head (something extremely rare for a woman in the 1920s) and a dandy's evening finery. Here, Cahun, wearing a cravat and velvet jacket with a pocket-handkerchief looks out at the viewer with a defiant expression. She was interested in upending conventional notions of gender not only in her dress and her art but also her writing. When translating Havelock Ellis's groundbreaking texts on gender and transgender identity she asserted: "Shuffle the cards. Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation. Neutral is the only gender that always suits me."

When Henry Darger (1892-1973) died in 1973 he left behind a lifetime of work in his one-bedroom Chicago apartment. Darger, who had worked as a janitor in a hospital for most of his adult life, was a man immersed in his own radical imagination. In isolation he labored at a 5,000-page manuscript titled The History of My Life; kept a journal that fastidiously tracked weather conditions over a ten-year period; and, most significantly, created a fantastical 15,145-page illustrated tale, In the Realms of the Unreal. The heroines of this epic story are the Vivian Girls - seven child princesses and sisters fighting in a conflict that was inspired, in part, by news reports, the American Civil War and Darger's personal life. The girls' evil enemies, the Glandelinians, are adults who enslave, gruesomely torture, and massacre children. Darger, who had suffered a traumatic childhood, wrote himself into the story as the children's protector. Subject to many interpretations and much debate is his depiction of children as transgendered, often showing young girls naked with prepubescent penises. Blending watercolor, magazine cutouts, Catholic references, and other imagery, his pictures can be both disturbing and magnificently lyrical. Preceding late-twentieth century movements such as Pop art but at the same time defying categories, Darger's art is brimming with vibrant obsessions and imaginative totality.

Better known for her large-scale, post-Minimalist sculptures of poured polyurethane foam, Lynda Benglis (b.1941) also created a series of photographs parodying stereotypical gender roles, such as this work, photographed by Arthur Gordon, in which she poses as a tanned and oiled pin-up. Such an image might normally feed a consuming heterosexual male gaze, but Benglis intervenes by holding an outsized dildo as if it were her penis. The dildo, like her large-scale sculptures, challenged the implicit male chauvinism of the contemporary art world by mocking symbols of male power. Benglis said of the then-dominant Abstract Expressionist movement, "I saw it was a big, macho game, a big, heroic Abstract Expressionist, macho, sexist game. It's all about territory. How big?" Part of that territory included the commercial infrastructure of art (such as galleries and trade magazines) to which she ultimately draws attention in this work. Benglis tried publishing this photograph in Artforum as an "artist's statement", but the editor refused. So instead she and the Paula Cooper Gallery purchased advertising space in the magazine. The provocative double-page spread advert consisted of her bold photograph and a page and a third of stark black with the gallery's name inconspicuously printed in the upper left.

Slumped on the gallery floor as though abandoned, this sculpture has the initial appearance of a heavy sack. It also bears the identifying marks of the human body, both female and male: a breast on one side, a man's hairy pectoral on the other. Gober's (b.1954) untitled sculpture operates on the fault line between the real and the illusory. Here, he has created a beeswax torso the color of pale flesh, cast in a real bag, with real human hair that seems to sprout naturalistically. Limbless and headless, it resembles a classical torso displayed in a museum, a fragment of its former self. Yet by aligning the gravitational pull of the wax cast and the signifiers of the human body, Gober's work acquires a poignant sense of frailty far from the classical ideal. Much of the artist's work was made in the context of the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 90s, and his images of abandoned, weakened bodies' take on additional pathos in this light. By depicting the torso as hermaphrodite, Gober suggests the fluidity of gender categories. Sidestepping attempts to categorize the body as either male or female, the work occupies an awkward spot, both in the room and in assumptions about bodies in general.

Crouching on a plinth is a headless, dog-like creature with a human back and multiple protruding breasts. Its sharp claws and muscular physique suggest power and aggression, yet its smooth, hair- less surface bestows a sense of vulnerability. Not only is this strange beast part-animal and part- human, but it is also part male and part female, as indicated by the conspicuous phallus between its splayed hind legs. Bourgeois' sculpture was inspired by an eighteenth-century marble in the Louvre by F.A. Franzoni ( Trone of a Priestess of Ceres), in which two winged sphinxes sit guarding a throne. Doing away with the head, arms and wings, Bourgeois (1911-2010) draws attention to the ambiguous sexuality of her creature, which she claimed was a symbolic self-portrait. The six breasts represent her nurturing role as a mother and wife, providing for her husband and three sons. While the claws symbolize the defensive matriarch, guarding those she loves, Bourgeois described the phallus as "the subject of my tender- ness ... after all, I lived with four men ... I was the protector." Although the work is highly personal to the artist, its themes of desire, sexuality, nurturing and protection are universal.

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The Art of Gender Fluidity: 9 Works That Show How Sexual Identity Has Evolved Over Art History

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One of the most important and wide-ranging paradigm shifts to arise out of the social, political, and aesthetic upheavals of the 20th century is a sustained, visible challenge to the outdated notion of a hard and fast gender binary.

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http://youtu.be/6aZFEffTaP0 Music video for Laoma Tihua by Ai Weiwei. Song by Ai Weiwei with music by Zuoxiao Zuzhou. Video by Ai Weiwei Studio. © 2013 Ai

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"Because we are denied knowledge of our history, we are deprived of standing upon each other's shoulders and building upon each other's hard earned accomplishments. Instead we are condemned to repeat what others have done before us and thus we continually reinvent the wheel."

Synopsis

The Feminist art movement emerged in the late 1960s amidst the fervor of anti-war demonstrations and civil and queer rights movements. Hearkening back to the utopian ideals of early twentieth-century modernist movements, Feminist artists sought to rewrite a falsely male-dominated art history as well as change the contemporary world around them through their art, focusing on intervening in the established art world and the art canon's legacy, as well as in everyday social interactions. As artist Suzanne Lacy declared, the goal of Feminist art was to "influence cultural attitudes and transform stereotypes." Feminist art created opportunities and spaces that previously did not exist for women and minority artists, as well as paved the path for the Identity art and Activist art of the 1980s.

Key Ideas

Feminist artists sought to create a dialogue between the viewer and the artwork through the inclusion of women's perspective. Art was not merely an object for aesthetic admiration, but could also incite the viewer to question the social and political landscape, and through this questioning, possibly affect the world and bring change toward equality.

Before feminism, the majority of women artists were invisible to the public eye. They were oftentimes denied exhibitions and gallery representation based on the sole fact of their gender. The art world was largely known, or promoted as, a boy's club, of which sects like the hard drinking, womanizing members of Abstract Expressionism were glamorized. To combat this, Feminist artists created alternative venues as well as worked to change established institutions' policies to promote women artists' visibility within the market.

Feminist artists often embraced alternative materials that were connected to the female gender to create their work, such as textiles, or other media previously littled used by men such as performance and video, which did not have the same historically male-dominated precedent that painting and sculpture carried. By expressing themselves through these non-traditional means, women sought to expand the definition of fine art, and to incorporate a wider variety of artistic perspectives.

Most Important Art

Feminist Art Artworks in Focus:

Beginnings

Feminist art production began in the late 1960s, during the "second-wave" of feminism in the United States and England, but was preceded by a long history of feminist activism. The "first wave" of feminism began in the mid-nineteenth century with the women's suffrage movements and continued until women received the right to vote, in 1920. No feminist art was produced during this early period, but it laid the groundwork for the activism, and thus the art, of the 1960s and 1970s. Organized feminist activism effectively ceased between 1920 and the late 1960s, but women's concern about their role in society remained.

Some artists expressed this in their work and have been posthumously identified as proto-feminist. For example, Eva Hesse and Louise Bourgeois created works that contained imagery dealing with the female body, personal experience, and ideas of domesticity, even if the artists did not explicitly identify with feminism. These subjects were later embraced by the Feminist art movement that began producing work during the resurgence of the larger women's movement in the late 1960s, also referred to as the "second-wave" of feminism. The Feminist artists of the "second-wave" expanded on the themes of the proto-feminist artists by linking their artwork explicitly to the fight for gender equality and including a wider visual vocabulary to help describe their goals.

The 1970s

In New York City, which had a firmly established gallery and museum system, women artists were largely concerned with equal representation in art institutions. They formed a variety of women's art organizations, like the Art Worker's Coalition, Women Artists in Revolution (WAR) and the AIR Gallery, to specifically address Feminist artists' rights and issues in the art community. These organizations protested museums like The Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney, which exhibited few, if any, women artists. Protests of the Whitney Annual led to a rise in the number of women artists presented, from ten percent in 1969 to twenty-three percent in 1970.

In California, women artists focused on creating a new and separate space for women's art, rather than fighting an established system. In 1972, artists Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro, who were co-founders of the California Institute of the Arts' Feminist Art Program, organized the project Womanhouse, which encompassed an entire property in Los Angeles at which various female artists contributed on-site installations. In 1973, Chicago along with graphic designer Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, and art historian Arlene Raven created the Feminist Studio Workshop (FSW) - a two-year program for women in the arts that covered Feminist studio practice as well as theory and criticism. The FSW was a part of the Woman's Building in Los Angeles, which was created by Feminist artists as an inclusive space for all women in the community, and contained gallery space, a cafe, a bookstore, and offices for a feminist magazine, among other resources.

Art critics also played a large role in the 1970s Feminist art movement by calling attention to the fact that women artists had been completely omitted from the canon of Western art. They were important advocates who sought to rewrite male-established criteria of art criticism and aesthetics. In 1971, ARTnews published critic Linda Nochlin's provocatively titled an essay, "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" The essay critically examined the category of "greatness" (as it had largely been defined in male-dominated terms) and initiated the Feminist revision of art history that led to the inclusion of more women artists in art history books. In 1973, England's art critics Rozsika Parker and Griselda Pollock founded the Women's Art History Collective to further address the omission of women from the Western art historical canon. In 1976, Nochlin and fellow art historian Ann Sutherland Harris organized the first international female-only exhibition "Women Artists: 1550-1950" to familiarize the public with 400 years worth of work that had gone largely unrecognized.

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Feminist Art Overview Continues

The 1980s

With the end of the 1970s, an era of radical idealism in the arts came to a close with the new conservatism of the Reagan and Thatcher administrations. The Feminist artists of the 1980s focused more on psychoanalysis and Postmodern theory, which examined the body in a more intellectually removed manner than the embodied female experience that dominated the art of the 1970s. Artists continued to expand the definition of feminist art and although they were not always aligned with a coherent social movement, their works still expressed the need for women's equality. The Feminist artists of the 1970s made many advances, but women were still not close to equal representation.

This continued discrepancy spawned the Guerrilla Girls, a group formed in 1985, best known for fighting against sexism and racism in the art world by protesting, speaking, and performing at various venues while wearing gorilla masks and adopting pseudonyms to hide their identity to avoid real-world repercussions for speaking out against powerful institutions. The Guerrilla Girls took Feminist art in a new direction by plastering posters all over New York and eventually buying advertising space for their images. Their posters used humor and clean design to express a pointed, political message. Other 1980s Feminist artists such as Jenny Holzer and Barbara Kruger also focused on mass communication that drew on the visual vocabulary of advertising in both use of graphics and the distillation of complex political statements into catchy slogans. These artists sought the destruction of male-dominant social precepts, and focused less on the differences between men and women associated with 1970s Feminist art.

Concepts and Styles

A Multi-Disciplinary Movement

There is no singular medium or style that unites Feminist artists, as they often combined aspects from various movements including Conceptual art, Body art, and Video art into works that presented a message about women's experience and the need for gender equality.

Feminist art and Performance art often crossed paths during the 1970s and beyond, as performance was a direct way for women artists to communicate a physical, visceral message. It had the impact of being face-to-face with the viewer, which made it more difficult to disregard. Performance kept the work on a highly personal level, as there was no separation between the artists and the work itself.

Body art was another medium that was conducive to Feminist artistic concerns, as it provided a means to convey an immediate message to the viewer that was unequivocally connected to the personal space of the artist. Often Body and Performance art overlapped in Feminist art.

Video art emerged in the art world just a few years before Feminist art, and provided a medium, unlike painting or sculpture, that did not have a historic precedent set by male artists. Video was viewed as a catalyst that could initiate a media revolution, placing the tools for television broadcasting in the hands of the public, and thus providing the Feminist art movement with vast potential to reach a broader audience. The Woman's Building housed the Los Angeles Women's Video Center (LAWVC), which provided women artists with unprecedented access to the expensive new equipment required for making video art.

Gender Performance

Mierle Laderman Ukeles explored the idea of women's work with her Maintenance Work series (1973), in which she eliminated the separation between art and life by performing typical household chores within the museum. Viewers had to walk around her while she cleaned the steps of the entrance, and common tasks were made into art that could not be ignored. Carolee Schneemann pulled a scroll from her vagina in public, a shocking attempt to reclaim the vagina to its rightful place as sacred source and birth passage. Yoko Ono revealed her own vulnerability in a performance where she sat submissively on stage as audience members were invited to cut off her clothes. By sharing gender specific experiences with audiences, these artists were using the "knowledge is power" model to influence new ways of thinking about traditional female stereotypes and to inspire empathy and compassion for the female condition.

Performance Art Movement Page

Body as Medium

Artists often distorted images of their bodies, changed their bodies with other materials or performed self-mutilation not only to shock, but to convey a deeply felt experience in the most visceral manner. Artist Ana Mendieta used blood and her own body in her performances, creating a primal, but not violent, connection between the artist's body, blood, and the audience (and nature). Mendieta and many other Feminist artists saw blood as an important symbol of life and fertility directly connected to women's bodies.

Body Art Movement Page

Sexual Equality and De-Objectification

Many Feminist artists illuminated an imperative to end sexism and oppression with works that went against the traditional ideas of women as merely beautiful objects to be visually enjoyed. As Lucy Lippard stated, "When women use their own bodies in their art work, they are using their selves; a significant psychological factor converts these bodies or faces from object to subject." These works compelled viewers to question society's social and political norms.

For example, Dara Birnbaum used video art to deconstruct women's representation in mass media by appropriating images from television broadcasts into her video-collages, re-presenting them in a new context. In her most prominent piece, the 1978-79 video Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman, she used images from the popular hit television show to expose its sexist subtexts. Birnbaum's peer Judith Bernstein was known for using sexually explicit images, many drawing reference from the male phallus and reminiscent of signs that might be found in a graffiti-scrawled men's restroom. Her monumental drawing Horizontal (1973) consists of a domineering, swirling screw - a metaphorical jab at male domination.

Domesticity and Family Life

Miriam Schapiro coined the term "femmage" to describe works she began to make in the 1970s that combined fabric, paint, and other materials through "traditional women's techniques - sewing, piercing, hooking, cutting, appliqueing, cooking and the like..." This put a spotlight on "women's work" as a viable contribution to the category of traditional "high art." Artists Faith Wilding and Harmony Hammond, among others, used fabric in their work to interrogate the deletion of feminine crafts from the arts.

Martha Rosler explored the various facets of female and domestic life. In her A Budding Gourmet (1974), we see a video of a woman describing efforts to improve herself and her family through gourmet cooking. Her dialogue is randomly interrupted with slides showing glossy images from food and travel magazines meant to depict consumerism's baiting of the everyday housewife.

Making and Reshaping Art History

Many feminist artists made work intended to show the inequity in the absence of women from historical cultural texts and documentation. In Judy Chicago's seminal Dinner Party, 1974-1979, credit is given toward the influence of women such as Frida Kahlo, Lee Krasner, Gertrude Stein, and many others on contemporary female artists. One artist particularly concerned with toppling unfair male domination was Nancy Spero. Her Notes in Time (1979) is a long scroll-like work that explores the place of women throughout history, traveling across epochs, continents, time and space, lending them overdue documentation and significance.

Later Developments

Perhaps Kiki Smith said it best, when describing the major impact the Feminist art movement had on the art world of its time: "I would say that without the feminist movement I wouldn't exist; and an enormous amount of the artwork that we take for granted wouldn't exist; and a lot of the subject matter that we assume can be encompassed by art wouldn't exist. The feminist movement exponentially expanded what art is, and how we look at art, and who is considered to be included in the discourse of art making. I think that it caused a tremendous, radical change. You don't want to have a cultural notion that one specific gender embodies creativity. All humanity - and all aspects of gender and sexuality and how people define themselves -are inherently creative. It's against the interests of the culture at large not to embrace feminism as a model, just like many other models of liberation, because they don't only liberate women, they liberate everybody."

Because of the progress made by previous generations of Feminist artists, many contemporary female artists no longer necessarily feel the responsibility to identify as "women artists" or to explicitly address the "women's perspective." Building on the precedent of the 1980s, many women artists began to produce work that focused on their individual concerns and less on a general feminist message.

Cindy Sherman, for instance, photographed herself in the roles of different iconic stereotypes portrayed in film and history and by doing so she reclaimed those stereotypes while at the same time questioning the male gaze so prevalent in cinematic theory and popular culture. In the 1990s artists such as Tracey Emin showed the influence of Feminist art by focusing on personal narratives and using non-traditional materials, such as the famous piece My Bed (1998), which consisted of her own slept-in bed strewn with used condoms and blood-stained underwear. These varied practices, even if not directly identified as feminist, grew from and are connected to the first and second generation Feminist artists and critics in the variety of materials, roles, and perspectives they exhibit.

In 2008, the Feminist art movement was given its proper due in the annals of art history through its first major retrospective titled WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution. The seminal exhibition, which originated at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles featured works from 120 artists and artists' groups from around the world.

The representation of the woman's body and of female sexuality continues to be politically charged and to express the tension between personal and public identity. Today's generation of women artists, like Kara Walker and Jennifer Linton, continue to speak directly about sexism and equality in their works. The topic persistently shows up in works as diverse as Mary Schelpsi's Beauty Interrupted, 2001, which shows a model walking down a runway covered in a blur of the artist's white brush strokes that obscure both her eyes and her rail thin ideal, and Mickalene Thomas' paintings that reframe the identity of African American women while dismantling historical beauty memes. Whereas the Feminist Art movement opened doors for these very important dialogues, female artists continue to pinpoint the exhaustive and never-ending presence of its issues.

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Feminist Art Movement, Artists and Major Works

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"Because we are denied knowledge of our history, we are deprived of standing upon each other's shoulders and building upon each other's hard earned accomplishments. Instead we are condemned to repeat what others have done before us and thus we continually reinvent the wheel."

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Baltimore Rising Exhibit Call for Entry Survey

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Web survey powered by SurveyMonkey.com. Create your own online survey now with SurveyMonkey's expert certified FREE templates.

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All Opportunities - CBCF Leadership Institute - Online Applications

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Overview The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF) Leadership Institute will select 18 participants for the 2018 CBCF Emerging Leaders:...

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North American Marine Environment Protection Association

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The 2018 Maritime Art Contest, sponsored by NAMEPA, USCG, and CIP-OAS, has officially opened! This year's theme reflects the IMO World Maritime Day focus on "Better Shipping for a Better Future", and is open to students in Kindergarten-12th grade. Every year, millions of children have the opportun

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A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS!

Annual Poster Contest for Maryland Students in Grades 1 through 8.

The Maryland Council on Economic Educations annual poster contest for Maryland students in grades 1 through 8 was developed to help teachers stimulate interest in learning basic economic & personal finance concepts by giving students an opportunity to creatively demonstrate their understanding of one of the following economic concepts: scarcity; natural, human and capital resources; opportunity cost; producers and consumers; or goods and services; or personal finance concepts: savings & Investing, taxes, markets, sources of income and philanthropy.

The 2017 winning posters will be made into a September, 2017-December, 2018 calendar available in Fall of 2017.

Tomoka Ogawa

Crofton Middle, Anne Arundel County

Juliette Troxell

Matapeake Middle, Queen Anne's County

Janine Beall

Sykesville Middle, Carroll County

Mandy Chau

Princess Anne Elementary, Somerset County

Madeline Plank

Sykesville Middle, Carroll County

Trisha Sayal

Cabin John Middle, Montgomery County

Areeba Bakht

Princess Anne Elementary, Somerset County

Madeline Rippeon

Liberty Elementary, Frederick County

Audrey Lewandowski

Catonsville Elementary, Baltimore County

Latrell Cook

Patapsco Middle, Howard County

Lucy Chen

Takoma Park Middle, Montgomery County

Ben Grabia

Forest Hill Elementary, Harford County

Logan Sabo

Broadneck Elementary, Anne Arundel County

Karin Barrett

Patapsco Middle, Howard County

Jazmine Teran

Sykesville Middle, Carroll County

Morgan Vandre

Middletown Middle, Frederick County

Miley Smith

Princess Anne Elementary, Somerset County

In 2016-17, over 1,200 students from 26 elementary and middle schools in 11 Maryland school systems submitted posters to visually demonstrate their understanding of fundamental economic and personal finance concepts.
17 posters were selected for inclusion in a 2016-2017 calendar for distribution to teachers, schools and Council supporters.

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The Maryland Council on Economic Educations annual poster contest for Maryland students in grades 1 through 8 was developed to help teachers stimulate interest in learning basic economic & personal finance concepts by giving students an opportunity to creatively demonstrate their understanding of one of the following economic concepts: scarcity; natural, human and capital resources; opportunity cost; producers and consumers; or goods and services; or personal finance concepts: savings & Investing, taxes, markets, sources of income and philanthropy.

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Now accepting submissions for the 2018 BCPS Film Expo. Please click the button to fill out the form for your submission. Submit Video As a reminder, there are two parts to the submission process, one that requires a YouTube link and the other that you will share the larger film file via Microsoft 365 (free for all BCPS employees and students with unlimited storage space).

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Celebrating artists who explore the intersection of arts & climate change.

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Mikael Owunna met and photographed more than 50 L.G.B.T.Q. Africans in 10 countries across Europe and North America. His project quickly became an act of radical self-love and community building....

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Post by nytimesphoto.

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In early 2016, Dayton Regional Stem School art teacher Jenny Montgomery and history teacher Kevin Lydy challenged their ninth-graders to create artwork about racism and sexism in a class on social justice.

The "U.S. History Through a Black Lens" portion was shown at the Dayton Convention Center in February 2016. It was taken down due to objections by some tenants and guests after just two days.

Those works are now part of a broader exhibit at the Dayton Visual Arts Center.

"Breathing Deeply, Pushing Back" not only includes the students' works, but also installations by three nationally-recognized guest artists in response to their art: Carris Adams, Juan-Si Gonzalez and Christina Springer. In addition, 14 local/regional artists' pieces and works from Stivers School for the Arts are being shown.

"DVAC is thrilled to present this incredibly powerful show. The student work alone is impressive, but when shown side-by-side with works created specifically in response to the students' works by Adams, Gonzalez, and Springer, the show takes on an entirely new and vibrant energy," said DVAC executive director Eva Buttacavoli. "With undertones of race, gender, and inequality, these works present a visual conversation about the role of art and the artist in social activism. They not only speak to the viewer, but lure the viewer in to be a part of the dialogue."

The DRSS students created collages done in the silhouette style of contemporary mixed media artist Kara Walker. One is "Same People, Different Stereotypes," a 36 x 48" black and gray collage of four people with a superimposed "Labels" sword.

Guest artists Adams of Chicago, Gonzalez of Dayton, and Springer of Pittsburgh are known for pushing political, gender, and racial boundaries. Adams creates signs that point to inequality and resilience. One of her works presented is "King's Mile," an oil and acrylic diptych of King's Town and Mile High Baptist Church signs.

"I appropriate markers in the landscape that many people take to symbolize 'otherness' and 'whiteness,'" stated Adams. "Oftentimes these objects and language found in the landscape are not overt. However, once they are paired or grouped with other works... the viewer is made to confront an assumption about race, gender or class."

Gonzalez is showing a mixed-media installation that includes a rocking chair, drums, objects and photographs representing hate and racism.

"This mental landscape explores how the physical, social, political and economic forces shape and reflect its culture and way of life," stated Gonzalez.

Springer is showing relics from a future date, 3017, in which she imagines a non-white society.

"My work is a conjuring. It is a conversation examining our many layers. It is a marine archaeology expedition determined to excavate the wisdom and resilience of our saltwater African ancestors," stated Springer.

The juried portion includes works from Stivers and from 14 local/regional artists: Heidi Arnold, Luisa Bieri, Cynthia Bornhorst, Claire Bowman, Bing Davis, Mikayla Garberich, Morris Howard, Geno Luketic, Bethany Pelle, Christina Pereyma, Teddy Pierson, Katelyn Turner, Jennifer Wenker and Mary Beth Whitley.

"In selecting work for this exhibition, I was especially interested in works that challenge the viewer to slow down and think about what the work is saying," stated guest curator Michael Casselli, Antioch College asst. professor. "While some choices are more obvious and accessible, I also chose pieces that don't allow an immediate read within the context of the show. This is intentional and I hope that people who visit this exhibition take the time to consider how each piece is connected to the title of the exhibition 'Breathing Deeply, Pushing Back.'"

WANT TO GO?

What: "Breathing Deeply, Pushing Back"

Where: Dayton Visual Arts Center, 118 N. Jefferson St.

Opening Reception: 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25

Welcome Dayton Roundtable: 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26

When: Continues through Sept. 22

Hours: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday and Saturday

Gallery Talk: 5:30 to 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 1

More Info: 937-224-3822 | daytonvisualarts.org

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Censored student art inspires this art gallery's latest exhibit

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In early 2016, Dayton Regional Stem School art teacher Jenny Montgomery and history teacher Kevin Lydy challenged their ninth-graders to create artwork about racism and sexism in a class on social justice. The "U.S. History Through a Black Lens" portion was shown at the Dayton Convention Center in February 2016.

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Artist Portfolio, Art Blogs Digital Art, Drawing Ideas

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"Pride Heart" is part of an original LGBT pride drawings series representing the beauty of gay pride. Own the pride heart art piece today. The following heart illustration was created as a part of a heart drawing series. Entitled the "Pride Heart" I made this heart to represent something creative, original and symbolic for the LGBT community.

My name is Kenal Louis. I am a digital illustrator and traditional visual artist. Art is my passion. I create something by either drawing or painting every day. I've been drawing since I was 4 years old.

"Pride Heart" is the first of a series of LGBT pride drawings I am developing. Follow me on Instagram to stay updated with daily artworks that I create. Through the Instagram page I share stories and posts whenever I update this page or the Kenalsworld blog.

The artwork can be classified as Rainbow Art, Rainbow Digital ﻿Art, Pride Art, LGBT Pride Art, Heart Art or an Abstract Art.

Creating The Pride Heart Drawing

Standing for what you believe in is one of the most courageous and bold things you can do as a person. Growing up as a child in Haiti, I was brought up in a household with a mother and a father.

This was the picture or image I always had in my head of what a relationship should be. My parents are also Christians and raised me to love everyone. Even with these things embeded in me as a child I found it difficult to accept certain changes culture wise.

It wasn't until we came to the United States that I truly had been exposed to homosexuality. My point of view on someone being gay was judgmental because of a religion and the environment I was raised in. Over the years I came to accept people as they are. I came to see love as not something reserved for one and not another.

All people should have the freedom to love whoever they want to love. If you are attracted to the same sex it really doesn't matter what other people think. Other people may judge you but they are not the creator of your life.

"I believe through my art, people will see my thoughts.
Through my art people will see my heart."

The pride heart resembles something deep, truth, love, openness, and beauty. Love itself is beautiful for those who find it. I'm not just talking about encounters or a month long interaction. I am talking about a deep connection to another being. This is the representation of the "Pride Heart" for me and as a part of my extended heart drawings, it's one of my favorite artworks.

Following Pride

One of the publications I follow online is Pride.com. On their site I recently discovered this post where they featured some of the coolest LGBT bloggers online.

As an artist I am always challenging myself to create something different or unique. I once heard the following phrase when I was a teenager "there is nothing new underneath the sun." This phrase stuck with me growing up. Through my own personal development as a man as an artist I kept this idea close to heart.

The First of The LGBT Pride Drawings

The First Pride Heart Drawing

The human heart drawing is available for purchase as a print of the heart on canvas, paper, metal and various other merchandises.

The Rainbow Pride Heart Clock

From clocks, throw pillows, and phone cases. The heart can be purchased on Redbubble.

About The First Piece of The LGBT Pride Drawings Series

I realized that with the wide amount of technology, tools, software, and resources available now; artists can bring any vision they have to life visually. The "Pride Heart" was created using an Indian ink pen and digitally painted as well as colored through Abobe Photoshop. A while back the heart went viral on Pinterest. The pin has over 1,500+ repins and still counting. The lgbt drawings on this page are also available on t shirts and more.

The "Pride Heart" illustration is available for purchase as a collective artwork. If interested in ordering a framed piece, artwork on canvas or wood, visit my Fine Art America store page.

Pride Heart Art On Canvas

A Unique Point of View About The Heart

Sometimes I wish I was an artist I was the first to create a style or a visual idea. I've come to realize that There are very few ideas that I truly original. Almost everything one thinks of another person has thought about before them. Now, whether the person that first thought of that idea I had the skill to bring the idea to Life that is a different story. However as an artist I do not limit myself or allow myself to be limited by fear.

With this I can say I am not the first person to draw the h﻿﻿uman heart in a creative way but I do believe the stuff that I create a man and my point of you visually is unique. A photographer I followed when I first embarked on a journey to create fashion photography said this. "As a photographer people hire you for your point of view". This is also true for visual artists. When a viewer sees an artwork you create they want to feel connected to it or want to know what inspired the thought behind it.

I've learned through personal experience in encounters with other artists that most are not articulate with their art. Meaning they don't describe or share why they create their art.

The LGBT Pride Merchandise

Own These Beautiful Pride Merchandise

Pride For Her Graphic Top

Wear the Lesbian Pride Graphics and Tops.

Pride Heart Throw Pillow

Own your Pride Heart throw pillow.

The Second of The LGBT Pride Drawings

This next heart drawing is the second drawing created to illustrate pride. In the past I've done some fashion and editorial beauty photography. I've worked with the best makeup and hairstylists in Omaha, Nebraska to create some amazing shoots.

Collaborating with gay and lesbian stylists was no different than collaborating with straight ones. Truth be told, they were all creative.

Illustrating Art ﻿With ﻿Emotion

Me personally as an artist I create art based on how I feel. A good majority of my art if you look at them long enough and try to analyze them you can sense where I am at that moment in my life.

I could have been in a very experimental phase, joyful, down or sad at that moment. You can tell emotion based on line movement, color tones, and many other elements.

My art tells a story and they are all relate-able. The "Pride Heart" artwork is another piece which represents these ideas. The year the illustration was created was 2016. 2016 is also the year former President Barrack Obama left the White House. With him leaving much changed.

Visit The Fine Art America Store To Purchase This Artwork

Some will argue about his contribution as a leader during his two terms. I am an artist who doesn't get into politics with other people. I just create art to express how I feel about certain issues. I am not a propaganda or political artist, but I do believe hat through my art people will hear my voice. Also, I believe through my art, people will see my thoughts. Through my art people will see my heart.

Fashion and ﻿Beauty

Here is a link to some of my photography on Behance of the Avant Garde Geisha shoot I did with Omar Rodriguez.

Here is a link to some of my photography on Behance with a beautiful African American model T﻿﻿﻿﻿ia Dawson.

Beauty Model: Tia Dawson (Tia Miara)

Am I Creating Gay Drawings?

Some people may come across this page and think it's "gay art", but that is their point of view whether it is good or bad. As an artist I've come to understand that not everyone will like the artworks that I create. This if perfectly fine, but this doesn't keep me from expressing myself and bringing my visions to life.

I would rather not limit my art by categories, but understand that people always want to categorize almost everything. I do have to mention that I create all kinds of art not just gay drawings or gay art.

Complex Pride Heart Merchandise

Complex Pride Heart T-shirt For Him

Gay pride merch - T-shirt

Complex Pride Heart Throw Pillow

Gay pride merch - Throw Pillow

Complex Pride Heart T-shirt For Her

Lesbian Pride Graphics Tee

The Third Piece From The LGBT Pride Drawings

What does pride mean to you?

For me pride is simply being proud. It is a state of confidence in the boldness you have regarding something you care about. However, pride in some cases could be a symptom of having a big ego. With the direction of the artwork I have created, I see pride in the way much more of boldness. I believe everyone should be free to express themselves and their belief anyway they so choose. Even though I believe this is not everyone share the same mindset or belief about pride. If you then add gay, lesbian, and transgender to this topic it still makes a lot of people feel uneasy.

An Artist's Belief

As I mentioned earlier at the beginning of this page leading into the first illustration; I grew up in a Christian home where I learned about Christian faith. I was brought up was in a very religious manner, but through my adulthood I learn to be more spiritual than religious. Some people find it difficult to distinguish the difference between the two, but there is a difference.

No, I am going to sound crazy but I also believe there is life in space. You can call them and aliens or whatever you want to call them, but I believe it is naïve to think that we as human beings are the only creatures and a universe that is so big we can't even fully measure.

I believe a man can love another man and a woman can love another woman. Not that my belief matters to any other person other than myself, I just know I cannot judge another person for who they choose to love. Our environments and past experiences in life affect who we are and who we become in the life that we live.

The LGBT pride heart is my visual series in artistic impression as well as expression of these thoughts.

"Pride Awareness Heart" is the third and last artwork from the three piece sub-art series. Inspiration for this heart concept came from a previous cancer awareness heart I created in 2016. I thought of illustrating the ribbon in the heart in gold. I proceeded to add a bit more detail in the digital painting of the heart.

All of the hearts I draw are created with a Faber-Castell pitt pen in their first stage. After the drawings are completed I digitize them through either photographing the artwork or scanning them.

Pride Awareness Heart Art Prints

Pride Awareness Heart On Canvas

Brie f history in art

I was never fortunate to attend art schools when I was younger. Much of everything I've learned as an artist has been through experience and self development. Around the age of 14 I begin to develop this zeal and eagerness to learn. I always come across people who say they can't draw or could never create the art that I do.

Whenever I came across them and they said such things to me, I got a little aggravated. The reason being is I see art as an expression and something that is learnable. I always say that I was not born out of my mother's womb painting and drawing the way that I do. Over time in years and after much practice I got better. Ask any artist who you admire or you Cedar work in our marvel by what they do and they will tell you the same thing.

So if you think you can't draw or can't paint. You are limiting yourself by saying in believing that you can't do something. The moment you decide to take action and do your best to develop yourself, you will come to realize there is nothing in life that you want to achieve that you cannot do.

Pride Awareness Heart Tank Top

A Unique and Cool LGBT Pride Tank Top

Get this coold pride heart tank top. Sport it with some almost any dark denim jeans and maybe a white or tan cardigan layering the top. Stand apart and rock something not everyone is wearing yet.

Pride Awareness Heart Prints

The Complete Heart Illustration

The "Pride Awareness Heart" was the last completed artworks from the series. The elements of gold was added to illustration to provide a slight visual effect of elegance.

Pride Awareness Heart Phone Cases

The LGBT Pride Drawings on Phone Cases

Own a phone case with the "Pride Awareness Heart". Available for both iPhones and Android phones. There are phone cases that are wallets as well as have extra protection if needed. Visit the store to view more options for the artwork.

Pride Artworks and Pride Merchandise For Sale

All of the heart drawings are available for sale on Fine Art America as prints on Canvas, metal, canvas and more.

Merchandise like clothing apparel, accessories, and others are available of my Redbubble page of these three heart illustrations.

Share The Pride ﻿﻿﻿Heart﻿﻿﻿ Art

Enjoyed these heart illustrations? Take a look at some of the other cool heart drawings I've created on Kenalsworld.

Support my art shared on Kenalsworld by purchasing the artwork or at least by sharing this page through Pinterest, Facebook, or Twitter. However, you can help spread the word about the "Pride Heart" drawing is appreciated.

Thank you for visiting the page about the illustrations and drawings of Pride in human heart art series.
Kenalsworld artist portfolio .

Do You Like The Hearts?

I am always drawing new hearts.
Subscribe below to know when I have new art like these on Kenalsworld.

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Beautiful LGBT Pride Drawings You'll Love

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"Pride Heart" is part of an original LGBT pride drawings series representing the beauty of gay pride. Own the pride heart art piece today. The following heart illustration was created as a part of a heart drawing series. Entitled the "Pride Heart" I made this heart to represent something creative, original and symbolic for the LGBT community.

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Daniel Arzola is an artist and activist from Venezuela, who's tackling LGBTQ prejudice in the best way he can.

In his series of illustrations, titled 'No Soy Tu Chiste' ('I'm Not Your Joke'), Arzola smacks down common stereotypes and messages of intolerance, using striking colour and portraits of people from the LGBTQ community along with written statements of LGBTQ pride.

'When you turn the TV on, being gay is just a joke,' Daniel told . He says he wants to use his artwork 'as a method of nonviolent action to change mentalities, to empathize, to create visibility'.

He says: 'It's a different way of confronting social issues, because you handle a different structure where you can appeal to feelings before reason, in this way, emotions allow you to connect to the cause.

'I think we all have something to say, and we all can change something through nonviolent action.'
'If diversity bothers you, you were born on the wrong planet.'
'Drag is art. Trans is life.'
'Those who are insulted by femininity must believe being a woman is offensive.'
'Homosexuality is documented in over 500 species. Homophobia only in one.'
'If I won't define myself, you won't define me.'
'My sexuality is not a trend. Your ignorance seems to be.'
You can see more of Daniel's artwork over on his Tumblr.

MORE: LGBT people in anti-gay countries are sharing their stories with the #WhereLoveIsIllegal hashtag

MORE: Artist honours late granddad by drawing 100,000 items from his tool shed

MORE: 7 illustrations people who love their bed will understand

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These brilliant illustrations are tackling LGBTQ prejudice, one stereotype at a time

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Daniel Arzola is an artist and activist from Venezuela, who's tackling LGBTQ prejudice in the best way he can. In his series of illustrations, titled 'No Soy Tu Chiste' ('I'm Not Your Joke'), Arzola smacks down common stereotypes and messages of intolerance, using striking colour and portraits of people from the LGBTQ community along with written statements of LGBTQ pride.

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This article is about the boy in blue not baseball.  I'm not sure why baseball is pictured

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This article is about the boy in blue not baseball.  I'm not sure why baseball is pictured

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With the Major League Baseball season getting underway, here's the breakdown of how the league's 30 teams got their names.

Arizona Diamondbacks

In 1995, the expansion franchise's ownership group asked fans to vote from among a list of nicknames that included Coyotes, Diamondbacks, Phoenix, Rattlers, and Scorpions. Diamondbacks, a type of desert rattlesnake, was the winner, sparing everyone the mindboggling possibility of a team located in Phoenix, Arizona, called the Arizona Phoenix.

Atlanta Braves

The Braves, who played in Boston and Milwaukee before moving to Atlanta in 1966, trace their nickname to the symbol of a corrupt political machine. James Gaffney, who became president of Boston's National League franchise in 1911, was a member of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party machine that controlled New York City politics throughout the 19th century. The Tammany name was derived from Tammamend, a Delaware Valley Indian chief. The society adopted an Indian headdress as its emblem and its members became known as Braves. Sportswriter Leonard Koppett described Gaffney's decision to rename his team, which had been known as the Doves, in a 1993 letter to the New York Times: "Wouldn't it be neat to call the team the 'Braves,' waving this symbol of the Democrats under the aristocratic Bostonians? It wouldn't bother the fans." And it didn't, especially after the Braves swept the Philadelphia Athletics in the 1914 World Series.

Baltimore Orioles

When the St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore in 1954, the franchise was rebranded with the same nickname of the Baltimore team that dominated the old National League in the late 1890s. That team, which featured the likes of Wee Willie Keeler and John McGraw, was named after the state bird of Maryland. The orange and black colors of the male Oriole bird resembled the colors on the coat of arms of Lord Baltimore.

Boston Red Sox

The team that became known as the Red Sox began play "" wearing dark blue socks, no less "" as a charter member of the American League in 1901. With no official nickname, the team was referred to by a variety of monikers, including Bostons and Americans, as in American League. In 1907, Americans owner John Taylor announced that his team was adopting red as its new color after Boston's National League outfit switched to all-white uniforms. Taylor's team became known as the Red Sox, a name popularized by the Cincinnati Red Stockings from 1867-1870 and used by Boston's National League franchise from 1871-1876.

Chicago Cubs

Chicago's first professional baseball team was known as the Chicago White Stockings. When the team began to sell off its experienced players in the late 1880s, local newspapers began to refer to the club as Anson's Colts, a reference to player-manager Cap Anson's roster of youngsters. By 1890, Colts had caught on and Chicago's team had a new nickname. When Anson left the team in 1897, the Colts became known as the Orphans, a depressing nickname if there ever was one. When Frank Selee took over managerial duties of Chicago's youthful roster in 1902, a local newspaper dubbed the team the Cubs and the name stuck.

Chicago White Sox

In 1900, Charles Comiskey moved the St. Paul Saints to the South Side of Chicago. The team adopted the former nickname of its future rivals (the Cubs) and became the White Stockings, which was shortened to White Sox a few years after the club joined the American League in 1901.

Cincinnati Reds

The Cincinnati Red Stockings, so named because they wore red socks, were baseball's first openly all-professional team. In 1882, Cincinnati's entry in the newly formed American Association took the same name and retained it after moving to the National League in 1890. Red Stockings eventually became Redlegs, and Redlegs was shortened to Reds. Before the 1953 season, club officials announced that the team would once again officially be known as the Cincinnati Redlegs. Around the same time, the team temporarily removed "Reds" from its uniforms. As the AP reported in 1953, "The political significance of the word 'Reds' these days and its effect on the change was not discussed by management."

Cleveland Indians

Cleveland's baseball team was originally nicknamed the Naps after star player-manager Napoleon Lajoie, so when the team cut ties with Lajoie after the 1914 season, it was in the market for a new name. Club officials and sportswriters agreed on Indians in January 1915. The Boston Braves' miraculous World Series triumph may have been part of the inspiration behind Cleveland's new moniker.

Colorado Rockies

When team officials announced that Denver's expansion team would begin play in 1993 as the Colorado Rockies, some fans couldn't help but question why the team was adopting the same nickname as the city's former NHL franchise, which averaged an abysmal 19 wins per season from 1976 to 1982. "I think for us to compare a failed hockey franchise 10 years ago is nonsense," Rockies CEO John Antonucci said. "We feel very strongly that Colorado Rockies might be one of the strongest names in all of professional sports." According to surveys conducted by Denver's daily newspapers, fans preferred the nickname Bears, which had been used by Denver's most famous minor league team. "The name we picked-it's strong, enduring, majestic," Antonucci said.

Detroit Tigers

Detroit's original minor league baseball team was officially known as the Wolverines. The club was also referred to as the Tigers, the nickname for the members of Michigan's oldest military unit, the 425th National Guard infantry regiment, which fought in the Civil War and Spanish-American War. When Detroit joined the newly formed American League in 1901, the team received formal permission from the regiment, which was known as the Detroit Light Guard, to use its symbol and nickname.

Houston Astros

Houston's baseball team was originally known as the Colt .45's, but team president Judge Roy Hofheinz made a change "in keeping with the times" in 1965. Citing Houston's status as "the space age capital of the world," Hofheinz settled on Astros. "With our new domed stadium, we think it will also make Houston the sports capital of the world," Hofheinz said. The change was likely also motivated by pressure from the Colt Firearms Company, which objected to the use of the Colt .45 nickname.

Kansas City Royals

When Kansas City was awarded an expansion franchise in 1969, club officials chose Royals from more than 17,000 entries in a name-the-team contest. Sanford Porte, one of 547 fans who submitted Royals, was awarded an all-expenses-paid trip to the All-Star Game. Porte submitted the name because of "Kansas City's position as the nation's leading stocker and feeder market and the nationally known American Royal Livestock and Horse Show. Royalty stands for the best-that's another reason." Coincidentally, Kansas City's Negro League team was nicknamed the Monarchs.

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Los Angeles gained a second major league team in 1961 when the Los Angeles Angels entered the American League. The nickname had been used by Los Angeles' Pacific Coast League team from 1903-1957. The team was renamed the California Angels in 1965 and became the Anaheim Angels after the Walt Disney Company took control of the team in 1997. While the team's lease with the city requires that Anaheim be a part of the team name, owner Arte Moreno changed the team's name to include Los Angeles in 2005 in hopes of tapping into the L.A. media market. The result is one of the most absurd names in all of professional sports.

Los Angeles Dodgers

The Dodgers trace their roots to Brooklyn, where the team was known as the Bridegrooms, Superbas, and, beginning in 1911, the Trolley Dodgers. The Dodgers nickname referenced the pedestrians who dodged the trolleys that carried passengers through the streets of Brooklyn. While the team was known as the Robins from 1914 to 1931, in honor of legendary manager Wilbert Robinson, the nickname switched back to Dodgers when Robinson retired. When Walter O'Malley moved the franchise to Los Angeles after the 1957 season, he elected to keep the name.

Miami Marlins

The Marlins take their name from the minor league Miami Marlins that called South Florida home from 1956-1960, 1962-1970, and 1972-1988. Owner Wayne Huizenga hoped to give his expansion team, which entered the league in 1993, more regional appeal by including Florida in the name. However, when the Marlins moved into their new baseball-only stadium in 2012, they became the Miami Marlins.

Milwaukee Brewers

The Brewers nickname, a nod to Milwaukee's beer industry, was used off and on by various Milwaukee baseball teams during the late 19th century. When the expansion Seattle Pilots relocated to Milwaukee after one failed season in 1969, the team adopted the traditional Brewers nickname under the ownership of Bud Selig.

Minnesota Twins

Minneapolis and St. Paul, which are separated by the Mississippi River and collectively known as the Twin Cities, argued for years over where an expansion team in Minnesota, should one arrive, would call home. When the Washington Senators moved to Minneapolis in 1961, club officials settled on Twins as the team nickname and unveiled an emblem showing two baseball players with hands clasped in front of a huge baseball.

New York Mets

Team officials asked fans to choose a nickname from among 10 finalists when New York was awarded an expansion National League franchise in 1961. The finalists were Avengers, Bees, Burros, Continentals, Jets, Mets, NYBS, Rebels, Skyliners, and Skyscrapers. The team received 2,563 mailed entries, which included 9,613 suggestions, and 644 different names. Mets was the resounding winner, followed by two nicknames that weren't among the team's 10 suggestions-Empires and Islanders. As the New York Times noted, "what the fans will call the team when it begins play, of course, will depend in part on how it performs." One of the reasons that team officials chose Mets was because "it has a brevity that will delight headline writers." Another reason was the nickname's historical baseball association. The New York Metropolitans, often called the Mets, played in the American Association from 1883 to 1888.

New York Yankees

In 1903, the original Baltimore Orioles moved to New York, where they became the Highlanders. As was common at the time, the team, which played in the American League, was also known as the New York Americans. New York Press editor Jim Price coined the nickname Yanks, or Yankees, in 1904 because it was easier to fit in headlines.

Oakland Athletics

The Athletics nickname is one of the oldest in baseball, dating to the early 1860s and the Athletic Baseball Club of Philadelphia. In 1902, New York Giants manager John McGraw referred to Philadelphia's American League team as a "white elephant." The slight was picked up by a Philadelphia reporter and the white elephant was adopted as the team's primary logo. The nickname and the elephant logo were retained when the team moved to Kansas City in 1955 and to Oakland in 1968.

Philadelphia Phillies

Founded in 1883 as the Quakers, the franchise changed its nickname to the Philadelphias, which soon became Phillies. New owner Robert Carpenter held a contest to rename the team in 1943 and Blue Jays was selected as the winner. While the team wore a Blue Jay patch on its uniforms for a couple of seasons, the nickname failed to catch on.

Pittsburgh Pirates

After the Players' League collapsed in 1890, the National League's Pittsburgh club signed two players, including Lou Bierbauer, whom the Philadelphia Athletics had forgotten to place on their reserve list. A Philadelphia sportswriter claimed that Pittsburgh "pirated away Bierbauer" and the Pirates nickname was born.

San Diego Padres

When San Diego was awarded an expansion team in 1969, the club adopted the nickname of the city's Pacific Coast League team, the Padres. The nickname, which is Spanish for father or priest, was a reference to San Diego's status as the first Spanish Mission in California.

San Francisco Giants

The New York Giants moved to San Francisco in 1957 and retained their nickname, which dates back to 1885. It was during that season, according to legend, that New York Gothams manager Jim Mutrie referred to his players as his "giants" after a rousing win over Philadelphia.

Seattle Mariners

Mariners was the winning entry among more than 600 suggestions in a name-the-team contest for Seattle's expansion franchise in 1976. Multiple fans submitted the nickname Mariners, but the team determined that Roger Szmodis of Bellevue provided the best reason. "I've selected Mariners because of the natural association between the sea and Seattle and her people, who have been challenged and rewarded by it," said Szmodis, who received two season tickets and an all-expenses-paid trip to an American League city on the West Coast.

St. Louis Cardinals

In 1899, the St. Louis Browns became the St. Louis Perfectos. That season, Willie McHale, a columnist for the St. Louis Republic reportedly heard a woman refer to the team's red stockings as a "lovely shade of Cardinal." McHale included the nickname in his column and it was an instant hit among fans. The team officially changed its nickname in 1900.

Tampa Bay Rays

Vince Naimoli, owner of Tampa Bay's expansion team, chose Devil Rays out of more than 7,000 suggestions submitted by the public in 1995. The reaction was not positive. "So far, I've fielded about 20 phone calls protesting Devil Rays, and most of the callers have described themselves as Christians who are upset about the word devil," a Tampa Tribune columnist told a reporter less than a week after the nickname was announced. Naimoli reportedly wanted to nickname his team the Sting Rays, but it was trademarked by a team in the Hawaiian Winter League. The team dropped the "Devil" after the 2007 season and the curse that had plagued the franchise for the previous decade was apparently lifted, as Tampa Bay made a surprising run to the World Series the following season.

Texas Rangers

A second franchise named the Senators left Washington in 1972, this time for Arlington, Texas. Owner Robert Short renamed the team the Rangers after the Texas law enforcement agency that was formed under Stephen F. Austin in the 1820s.

Toronto Blue Jays

More than 30,000 entries were received during a five-week name-the-team contest. A panel of 14 judges, including 10 Toronto media members, selected 10 finalists. From that list, the club's board of directors settled on Blue Jays. "The Blue Jays was felt to be the most appropriate of the final 10 names submitted," according to a statement issued by the board's chairman, R. Howard Webster. "The blue jay is a North American bird, bright blue in color, with white undercovering and a black neck ring. It is strong, aggressive and inquisitive. It dares to take on all comers, yet it is down-to-earth, gutsy and good-looking."

Washington Nationals

Washington's original baseball team was interchangeably referred to as the Senators and Nationals, or Nats for short, for most of its time in the District before relocating to Minnesota in 1960. Washington's 1961 expansion franchise was known almost exclusively as the Senators until it moved to Texas after the 1971 season. When the Montreal Expos relocated to the nation's capital in 2005, the team revived the Nationals nickname.
This post originally appeared in 2010.

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15 Things You Might Not Know About The Blue Boy

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The Blue Boy has been using his defiant stare and unique fashion sense to transfix viewers for centuries. But even art fans may not know the story of Thomas Gainsborough's most iconic work is nearly as rich as the fabric of his subject's blue britches.

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Daniel Edwards was scrolling through his Facebook feed in the summer of 2016, when he came upon a viral video of Diamond Reynolds who, in a calm panic was recounting how a police officer in St. Anthony, Minn., shot and killed her boyfriend, Philando Castile, during a routine traffic stop.

As Mr. Edwards processed what he saw, he had a realization: Although his parents, Arby Hurd and C.C. Edwards, had lifelong careers in law enforcement, he had developed a general distrust of police officers. It was an uneasy tension. "I had developed this attitude around the police, but at the same time I love my parents," he said."How could those two feelings share the same space? I set out to work that out."

The contradictions between the good policing his parents exemplified and the anger stirred up by the steady stream of cellphone and dashcam footage that exposed police brutality, became the cornerstone of "Black Outlined Blue," a series of 4 x 5-inch large-format black-and-white double portraits of African-American officers.

The year-old photo project is continuing, currently being shot in Atlanta, where Mr. Edwards is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in photography at Savannah College of Art and Design. It features 10 diptychs of members of the Atlanta Police Department in uniform and in their street clothes. Mr. Edwards mostly captured the officers gazing directly at the camera against backdrops of "significance" - places where something happened that personally defined the job for them.

Depending on what the subjects are wearing, the closely cropped images conjure complicated representations that are not unlike his own views of modern policing. The side-by-side frames of Officer Eric King show him in uniform wearing his badge, handcuffs and firearm - all symbols of state-sanctioned power long regarded suspiciously in many black communities. The second image is a portrait of Mr. King wearing a black hoodie - an article of clothing that often results in black men and boys being seen as suspects on the streets of their communities.

"I approached this project from the lens of what W.E.B. Du Bois called 'double consciousness': the idea of having to fraction yourself in a space to survive," said Mr. Edwards, 29, of the project that is featured on his social justice oriented multimedia website, BlackVign. "What is it like to have to navigate that as a black person in America? What is it like when you end up putting on this uniform that represents danger to a lot of people and can represent danger to you when you're out of the uniform and you're just wearing your black or brown skin?"

To answer those questions, Mr. Edwards asked the officers to jot down reflections that add another layer to his portraiture. His subjects explain why they serve; the difficulties and insights they have being both African-American and law enforcement officers; and their impressions of their profession in the aftermath of the Movement for Black Lives.

"I found myself working a Black Lives Matter protest and several protesters were yelling at me, calling me a [traitor] and a sellout," wrote Officer Phyllis White, who noted her only professional aspiration as wanting to join the Atlanta Police Department. "Well, little did they know just because I am a police officer doesn't mean I don't have my own mind. We share some of the same views."

Ultimately, "Black Outlined Blue" is about the peculiar duality of African-American identity - what the history of service and prejudice that defines American policing means for communal trust, as well as a black officer's sense of personal and professional duty in an era of blatant misconduct and heightened public scrutiny.

"People often have to do a double take to realize that it's the same person in the diptych portraits," Mr. Edwards said. "At first, all they see is a broken and dangerous system personified. This project is about challenging people and the police to avoid the danger of the single story."

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Daniel Edwards was scrolling through his Facebook feed in the summer of 2016, when he came upon a viral video of Diamond Reynolds who, in a calm panic was recounting how a police officer in St. Anthony, Minn., shot and killed her boyfriend, Philando Castile, during a routine traffic stop.

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'Hidden Identity' Final Foundation Project outcomes

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These are my final outcomes for my 'Hidden Identity' part 3 art and design Foundation Course project. I explored the theme of hidden identity and how people can lose their identity if they become part of a crowd or, in this case a riot.

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Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

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Last Updated on April 2, 2023

Are you struggling to get your Art projects done on time? Some students - even those who are dedicated and hard-working - find it challenging to work at the pace required in a Visual Art course. The skilful, perfectionist student usually falls into this category; those who produce meticulous, highly-detailed observational drawings or paintings. Parents and teachers can be unsure how to provide practical, positive strategies for improvement. This article lists fifteen ways that a high school Art student can work faster, without compromising the quality of their work.

1. Use a ground

There are many benefits to working on a ground. One of these is increased painting or drawing speed. A ground covers a painting or drawing surface from the outset. It can act as mid-tone, with only black and white used to apply dark and light areas (as in the examples below) or be left partially visible in the final work. This results in an artwork that is much faster to complete (see our article about painting on grounds for more information).
An A Level Art portrait by Mariam Shafei-Sabett from Dame Alice Owen's School, Hertfordshire, England and a teaching exemplar from Amiria Robinson:
2. Incorporate mixed media /patterned surfaces / textural elements

As with using a ground, patterned, decorative or textural items can cover areas of an artwork quickly. Although this strategy should be used with care, selecting only materials which support or enhance your project (usually with reference to a relevant artist model) this can be a great way to speed up your project and introduce creative use of mixed media.
Two AP Studio Art (Concentration) pieces by Alyssa Church from Bingham High School, South Jordan, Utah, United States: Domestic Violence series by artist Scott Waters:
Please read this article for more exciting ideas about how to use mixed media within your work.

3. Work on several pieces at once

Working in series - completing several paintings or drawings at one time - is a very helpful strategy for Art students. This speeds work up for a number of reasons:

A single colour can be used throughout a number of works, without needing to stop for remixing / washing brushes

While one work is drying, another one can be worked on

Similar processes or techniques can be mastered quickly and repeated on subsequent works

In addition, when working on several pieces at once, 'preciousness' about the work tends to be lost, leading to more experimentation and greater work speed.
The studio of artist Willem de Kooning:
4. Paint things in the right order - background areas first

Painting things in an illogical order is surprisingly common amongst high school Art students. In almost all cases, the background should be completed first, followed by the middle-ground, ending with the foreground. This is easily understood when considering a tree in front of a cloudy sky. If you make the mistake of painting the tree first, the sky has to be meticulously painted around every leaf and branch: an irritating task that takes hours (and ends up looking a little shabby). Painting the sky first, however, means that a large brush can quickly be used to paint the sky, with the tree then easily added over the top. Painting in the correct order also results in a painting that has layers (which gives it a richness and lustre, as with using a ground). If you find that subsequent layers of paint do not adequately cover earlier ones, you have an inferior brand of paint. (We will detail our paint and art supply recommendations in an upcoming article - stay tuned)!

Note: Once you understand how to build up a painting in layers, you will realise that often this involves drawing items in stages also.
Paintings by artist Susan Danko:
5. Use masking tape to create straight edges

Some students are concerned that it might be necessary to 'prove' that a straight line can be painted by hand. This is not the case. Your control of a paint brush can be ascertained immediately by looking at the remainder of your painting. Masking tape creates straight edges in seconds. Once mastered, this trick can save you hours - and make your paintings sharper, cleaner and more professional in the process. If you haven't used masking tape before, buy some now!
This painting is by Amiria Robinson (me):
6. Leave artwork purposefully incomplete

Artist work is sometimes purposefully 'unfinished'. Art students shouldn't feel obliged to 'complete' every item. There are many occasions when a fully rendered drawing is not necessary. Drawings, especially those in sketchbooks, can be left with edges trailing away and tone only applied to some areas. Leaving work unfinished is particularly useful when conducting visual research, exploring ideas and experimenting with media. Depending on your artist influences, this may even be appropriate in final works - as a way to draw attention to focal points and direct attention within an artwork.

Note: This should not be used as justification for avoiding homework tasks set by your teacher!

7. Omit parts of a scene

Deliberately picking out certain parts of a scene to draw has a strong impact on the final work and must be used with care to ensure that the resulting image supports the ideas explored in your project. As with the previous option, this allows you to demonstrate strong observational drawing skills, while saving time by omitting part of the scene.

8. Selectively flatten tone

Another option that students have is to flatten tone - to remove the smooth blending gradations from dark to light. This strategy should be used with caution - and usually only in certain areas - as unintentionally flattening tone can be the hallmark of a weak student. As indicated by the artist examples below, however, there are times when all or parts of the tonal variation within an artwork can be omitted with great success.

Self portraits from Annemarie Busschers ' 'Beyond Grief' series:

9. Focus on Line

There are many occasions where it may be appropriate for a high school student to draw using only line (it is often the application of tone that is time-consuming for students, so working exclusively with line can provide a welcome relief). Blind drawings, contour drawings, cross contour drawings and other hatched drawings (please see our collection of beautiful line drawings for ideas) can form an important part of your project.

Note: It is usually necessary to demonstrate an ability to apply tone at some point to examiner, so it is not wise to exclude tone from your project altogether.

10. Include your own photographs

While there is a certain quantity of painting and drawing that must take place within a Painting or Fine Art portfolio, photography can provide an excellent mechanism for moving a project forward at a faster pace.

In addition to helping with composition planning, original photography can be collaged into artworks or used as background. (This should not be used as a mechanism for avoiding observational drawing - this is perceived by examiners as cheating. For example, do not paint a realistic portrait directly onto a photograph of that person). If the photograph remains visible in the final work, less paint needs to be applied, thus speeding up the art-making process.

11. Develop towards abstract (or semi-abstract) pieces

Producing abstract work is often the first solution that comes to mind for those who work slowly; students can be fearful that this will not allow them the opportunity to demonstrate strong observational skills. The solution is to produce abstract work that is derived from earlier realistic works, as in the A* A Level example below by Hania Cho:

Another equally successful strategy is to incorporate realistic elements with abstract works, creating a work that is part realistic, part abstract.

12. Use a bigger brush

There is something surprisingly liberating about painting with a bigger brush - especially if you have previously worked at a microscopic scale, picking out detail the size of a pin prick. You will soon discover that it is just as easy to achieve clean edges with a larger brush and that an unexpected level of detail can be achieved. Most enjoy picking up a larger brush - even if this just becomes a way for creating grounds and applying background layers.

13. Be more gestural

Instead of artwork being a laborious process that grinds away for days, images can be created quickly, using rich, expressive mark-making. Those who have only produced realist, tightly controlled drawings usually take some time to adapt to this approach and not all students find it easy; selection of the right drawing tools and mediums can help. Charcoal, chunky 5mm wide graphite leads, Indian ink, big brushes and paint applied with pieces of card all lend themselves to gestural mark-making (please read Beyond the Brush: Inventive Mixed Media Techniques if you are looking for more ideas). Even if this style of working is not your preference and not something you wish to pursue, it can be useful to practise, particularly when planning compositions and drawing from life.

14. Trace or photocopy your own drawings

Tracing is frowned upon in almost all circumstances (see our article about observational drawing for more on this), however there are occasions when tracing your own drawings is a valuable strategy in a high school Art project. For example, a compositional plan could be quickly enlarged on a photocopier and traced/modified as required, instead of being redrawn at a larger scale; or your own drawing could be traced or photocopied in order to trial application of a different medium or technique ( this should be kept to a minimum, however, to ensure that your work doesn't become too repetitive); repeat patterns could be traced; or different drawings could be overlaid and arranged together, tracing the composite work.

NOTE: Students should NOT, in any circumstances, trace from photographs (even when the photographs are their own). Almost all high school art programmes assess a student's ability to replicate shape, proportion and form. Tracing photographs offers an unfair advantage (and is hence a form of cheating), disadvantaging students who take the time to produce accurate observational drawings by hand. Although adult artists sometimes do sometimes trace from photographs, these adult artists are not being assessed on the accuracy of their observational drawings as part of a qualification in which they are competing against others.

15. Use digital manipulation

Scanning existing artworks and editing and combining these with other artworks holds exciting promise for Painting / Fine Art students. Once a student has practised using image manipulation software (such as Adobe Photoshop) creating new digital images and then printing them can be a very fast way to create amazing artworks. Students should be careful not to overuse this strategy, however, and must ensure that all digitally manipulated material is their own original work.

Digitally manipulated images from Nikau Hindin's A Level Art Coursework Project:

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