Artistic All Over

leslieseuffert: Umberto Dattola “EVNI is a collection of giant...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:51:00 -0400

Umberto Dattola

“EVNI is a collection of giant furniture developed by Italian designer Umberto Dattola. The artist creates all kinds of woodwork that blends carpentry and design. For this project, he took old pieces of furniture and transformed them into these unique, lively pieces. The oversized furniture was first revealed at Milan Design Week and is reminiscent of a fantasy scene, like something directly out of Alice in Wonderland.

EVNI is a project that gives life and expression to otherwise inanimate objects. Through the work, Dattola explores the possibility that everyday objects absorb emotions and carry those feelings throughout the course of existence. Dattola explains: “What, of our passions, remain in the object during our life? Can we consider that some objects follow us during our entire life, absorbing our passions, moments of happiness, and moments of sadness? The question is: are we sure that all our sentiments pass without any influence around us?” The final product certainly seems to have a life of its own. With their long, wavy legs, the surreal pieces look like they might get up and scurry away at any moment.”

These are so excellently wonderful. They kind of remind me of Dali’s elephant figures on stilt-like legs.

SPLIT SELF: This is an etching plate I’ve been working on...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:37:00 -0400

SPLIT SELF:

This is an etching plate I’ve been working on on steel, not copper. This is my first time working with steel, and I’ve gotta say, it’s great! The first two show the initial stage of the plate, the rest show the second stage. I also went back into some and experimented with reworking them by hand using charcoal or ink.

MY YOUNGER SELF: This is an etching with aquatint (a few of...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:34:00 -0400

MY YOUNGER SELF:

This is an etching with aquatint (a few of which have a viscosity roll on top) of a portrait of myself on my fifth or sixth birthday. This was my first ever etching, my new love!

THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN: This is a two plate etching using...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:31:00 -0400

THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN:

This is a two plate etching using marble-ing and sugar lift (both of which I’m not the biggest fan). Made in the fall of my sophomore year at KCAI. This depicts my interpretation of the struggle between emotion and reason.

RUDE NEIGHBORS: This is a two stage dry point copper plate I did...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:29:00 -0400

RUDE NEIGHBORS:

This is a two stage dry point copper plate I did in my first semester of my sophomore year at KCAI. At the time I did this, I was dealing with a family of squirrels living INSIDE my walls for TWO. MONTHS. It was a waking nightmare (waking mostly due to the fact that they never let us sleep!).

The Hound of the Baskervilles This is the first of a series of...

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 21:11:05 -0500

The Hound of the Baskervilles

This is the first of a series of three prints I am making based on one of my favorite books, The Hound of the Baskervilles, a Sherlock Holmes novel. I will post the other prints when they are finished (as well as the rest of my work from the last eight months!)

As a visual artist, I am often drawn to natural patterns that...

Sun, 06 May 2012 01:02:00 -0400

As a visual artist, I am often drawn to natural patterns that can sometimes go overlooked. I have always felt pulled towards organic beauty and simplicity, and was inspired when looking through a collection of National Geographic photography in a beautiful book a friend lent me. While flipping through page after page of incredibly breathtaking images, I felt a strong desire to exaggerate and emphasize some of the beautiful patterns that I saw within some of the nature photographs. A lot of my favorite pieces in my body of work include my photo-realistic cut-work and screen printing stencils, so naturally I wanted to replicate the patterns using this technique. Because the photographs were printed on both sides of the image, I wanted each side of the page to be visible, which led to the decision to suspend the pieces from the light source hanging from the ceiling. This way, the viewer would be able to get a completely different interpretation of the piece from whichever way they chose to look at it.

The last and final piece of the final project.

Sun, 06 May 2012 00:54:00 -0400

The last and final piece of the final project.

And the appropriation continues!

Sun, 06 May 2012 00:52:00 -0400

And the appropriation continues!

This is the second piece in the final. Also appropriated by the...

Sun, 06 May 2012 00:51:00 -0400

This is the second piece in the final. Also appropriated by the insanely talented NG photographers.

This is the first piece in a series of nature studies I...

Sun, 06 May 2012 00:48:31 -0400

This is the first piece in a series of nature studies I completed for my final studio piece. Each piece was appropriated from photographs taken by the INCREDIBLE photographers working with National Geographic. I can only take credit for the cut-work.

This work depicts the second of the collage portraits of my...

Sun, 06 May 2012 00:42:20 -0400

This work depicts the second of the collage portraits of my loved ones. I realize that making portraits of loved ones may seem a little cheesy, but seeing as they are so crucial to who I’ve become and how my life has turned out, I’m O.K. with a little cheese!

Since the first half of my week had been so focused on friends...

Sun, 06 May 2012 00:39:35 -0400

Since the first half of my week had been so focused on friends and relationships I find important, I felt like I would continue the series by doing collage works of two of the most important people in my life. After drawing a graphite portrait of my friends face, I searched through photos and magazines until I found the right image that perfectly portrays a unique something that we share in order to let them know how much they matter to me.

For this color study, I chose the color periwinkle. This color...

Sun, 06 May 2012 00:35:00 -0400

For this color study, I chose the color periwinkle. This color has always filled me with intense feelings of happiness and peace of mind. My periwinkle friend has become incredibly close to me over the course of the last few months, and while they have been incredibly difficult months to go through, she has been there through it all and has filled me with these feelings. It is for these reasons that she always appears periwinkle.

In my studio this week, I was assigned a master artists to be...

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 00:42:11 -0400

In my studio this week, I was assigned a master artists to be inspired by and create a work of art from. I was given the artist Jasper Johns. I was drawn to his multiple brightly colored paintings of letters and numbers. I chose to mimic his number paintings and chose to paint numbers that represented the numbers of my home. While I’ve lived in the same house as long as I can remember, our house number has changed twice. 714 represents the present, while 627 represents the past.

This shadow box was one part of a four person collaborative...

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 00:38:11 -0400

This shadow box was one part of a four person collaborative piece inspired around the words “expensive” “virtual” “garden”. From these terms, we were able to come up with the abstracted concept of our own personal oasis’s. Growing up in a very small town in Iowa, my natural surroundings and my farming community were a very important part of my lifestyle growing up. As an adult, my life is now focused around my love for and new life in the big city of KCMO. This piece represents my own personal oasis: a combination of the two.

This is the finished series addressing my pursuit of the things...

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 00:31:00 -0400

This is the finished series addressing my pursuit of the things I want in life, represented by symbolic objects.

This is a miniature version of my home in Iowa. It is the third...

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 13:24:00 -0400

This is a miniature version of my home in Iowa. It is the third piece in my series about pursuing the things we want in life. The dimensions of the house are 6 X 12 X 3.5 inches.

INCREDIBLE artworks by PHENOMENAL artists!!!

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 21:22:08 -0400

INCREDIBLE artworks by PHENOMENAL artists!!!

This is a replication of a gift given to me by a dear friend in...

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:38:00 -0400

This is a replication of a gift given to me by a dear friend in honor of my best friend who passed away after losing his battle against cancer. This represents my search for inner peace.