Simon Tofield by Catherine Lewanski

If you have spent any amount of time surfing the internet, chances are you have come across a histerical series of short films called "Simon's Cat". These quaint anecdotes of the mischief cats somehow seem to get themselves into started a craze quite by accident. The first film (avaliable for viewing below), titled "Cat Man Do" was "...just a personal film I made while trying to teach myself Flash...it was never meant to be seen by other people. But I put it on my animation showreel, and next thiing I knew, someone had taken the video without asking me and put it on YouTube. By the time I found out, Cat Man do had been viewed millions of times." (from an interview, found on http://lovemeow.com/2009/12/special-interview-with-simons-cat-simon-tofield/)

Now a full out career, Simon Tofield has created a small army of these films and has published several books with more of the nameless cat's various adventures. His website can be found at http://www.simonscat.com/

Now for the film. It'll be just this one this time, I promise:

Cris Ortega by Catherine Lewanski

One artist I greatly admire I found during another, very similar art project for an online digital arts class. Cris Ortega, born in Valladolid, Spain, is a published comic book author, whose ditigal art pieces are entrancing to look at with their almost blurry dreamlike quality to them.

She began her writing/drawing career at 19, when she drew a comic for one of the short stories she had written. Realizing this was the profession she wanted (not the aeronautics or astronomy career she had been persuing at the time) she began seriously working on her art.

Cris Ortega has had a wide variety of experience, ranging from graphic design to advertising to game figure design to comics and even photography. But her strong suit will always remain her digital pictures, two examples of which are provided below.

Gate of Destinies

Ice Maiden

Ex Machina

Lady of the Rhine

Queen of Shame

Till death do us part

Wheel of Time

Oops. That's a lot more than two. Sorry. Got carried away. And in case anyone is interested, the first work I found while doing the aforementioned project was the one at the bottom of the list, titled "Wheel of Time".

If you are interested in seeing more of her artwork, her website is: http://crisortega.com/index.html . I highly recomend it.

Mr. Brainwash- Chris Collins

The Anti-Bansky, as I have come to know him. Mr. Brainwash was the main subject of Bansky's film "Exit Through the Gift Shop" which described how he was an artist that uses others to spread his art, where as others copy Bansky, but he his goal is to just make art. Mr. Brainwash began as an owner of a clothing store and videographer who started to be a street artist and gallery artist after being influenced by the street artists he documented through videos over the years.

Bansky- By Chris Collins

Parented by an English photocopier, Bansky's roots as a artist started at home when he was born 1974 in Bristol, England. He's an enigma of sorts, no one has ever seen his face or heard his voice, people only know him by his quotes and street graffiti that are literally all over the world. "Imagine a city where graffiti wasn't illegal, a city where everybody draw whatever they liked. Where every street was awash with a million colours and little phrases. Where standing at a bus stop was never boring. A city that felt like a party where everyone was invited, not just the estate agents and barons of big business. Imagine a city like that and stop leaning against the wall - it's wet. " - Banksy.   He inspires me because he does art in spray paint, wherever and whenever, which helped me to start making my own spray art.

Carved Leaf Art By Aes

Have you ever seen a leaf on the ground and thought the design was cool? Well you haven't seen anything till you see the striking colors of carved leaf art. The patterns and shapes are amazing! When you see them u can hardly tell your looking at an actual leaf, the shading and colors make it appear to be a painting. I love these pieces; however, I wasn't able to find a specific artist for this awestruck medium. 

         

Tiziano Vecellio - jordan gross

Tiziano Vecellio was a painter in the High Renaissance movement. my favorite piece by him is the flaying of marsyas i just really like the way everythings put together in that painting
http://totallyhistory.com/titian/

Lou Bunin - Jordan gross

lou Bunin did allot of stop-motion animation. he had a version of Disney's Alice in wounder land.. that Disney blocked. http://www.loubunin.com

J.W. Fiske by Jared Tschoepe

J.W. Fiske is a sculpture artist that makes very cool sculptures, such as a bird bath or water fall with soldiers on it and protecting it.
http://www.jennmaur.com/scsubjectindex/scartistspages/FISKEfeaturedartistpage.htm

 - Jared Tschoepe

M.C. Escher by Jared Tschoepe

M.C. Escher is famous for doing so called impossible drawings and puts a lot of details into every single one of his drawings.
 

http://mcescher.com/

  - Jared Tschoepe

Rajacenna by Audra Margritz

Rajacenna is born on 24th January 1993 in The Netherlands. In the summer of 2009 she started with pencil portrait drawing. She instantly was discovered and approached by an American publisher with a request to publish her work in 'Amazing pencil portraits 2'. This book contains realistic pencil portrait drawings created by some of the most gifted artists in the world. Rajacenna never took any drawing lessons and is a natural drawing artist; she quited school at the age of 14 and became a professional artist at 17. According to experts, there is nobody at such a young age with such a talent for drawing realistic portraits like she does. She is an inspiration to me because of her beautiful pieces and i aspire to be this good one day.

Dale Chihuly by Brandi Berger

Dale Chihuly is an incredible glass artist, and even co founded the Pilchuck Glass School in Washington State. Chihuly has created dozens of well known series such as Cylinders, Chandeliers, and Fiori. His works include 200 different museum collections worldwide. His pieces are not only visually appealing and interesting, but they are also amazing considering how they were made.

Chris's post about Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon was an Irish painter who was well knows for his bold, graphic and emotionally raw imagery. Bacon began his carrier as a painter late in his life because in is early years to about his 20's he could not decide on what he really wanted to do for the rest of his life. He had his breakthrough when he saw the 1944 triptych Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion. My favorite piece of art done by him is his Study after Velazquez’s Portrait of Innocent X. This is probably his most famous painting, and it sums up his type of painting which involves abstract figures that typically appear isolated in glass or steel geometric cages set against flat, nondescript backgrounds. 

John S. Gibb by Audra Margritz

 John Stephen Gibb was born in 1939 at Dalton-in-Furness on the edge of the English Lake District. It was there that he developed his love of the outdoors and mountaineering.Gibb does many pieces of outdoor landscapes and this caught my eye. He is somewhat of a modern artist and his pieces are so detailed its amazing how realistic they look. He is an inspiration to my partly because he is so detailed and his pieces look so real!! I like his work and hope mine ca one day look as great as his.
<http://www.johnsgibb.com/artist.php> 

Marina Abramovic by Mary Glatt

Marina Abramovic was born in 1946 in Yugoslavia. Growing up during the end of World War II greatly impacted her, especially in her art. She is mostly known for her performances of art, which involve self-mutilation and testing her bodily limits. Her first performance, Rhythm 10, involved her stabbing twenty knives rapidly between her fingers, switching knives when she cut herself, and using the recording of the sound to replicate the performance multiple times. One of her best known performances, Rhythm 0, she devised to test the limits of the relationship between artist and audience. In Rhythm 0, Abramovic sat for six hours beside a table covered in objects (feather, rose, whip, scissors, gun, and others), which she allowed the audience to use on her.

Information:
http://marinafilm.com/

David Rokeby by Brandi Berger

David Rokeby uses many different mediums in his artwork, but this is one of his installation pieces, Long Wave. Roekby has been exhibiting his art since 1982 all across the world, including Canada, the United States, Europe, and Asia. The first half of his career was more installation, but he has grown to include other forms of art such as video and sculpture. This piece appealed to me because of the pac-man installation piece I did and it is just really cool in general.

Andrew Mrotek By: Lindsay Mechtel

Andrew Mrotek does a variety of art he has drawing and also wood burning on his website. He is not a famous artist though he is known for being the drummer in The Academy Is... and did all their tour art. I admire the colors he uses and the way his people are drawn.http://THEANIMALUPSTAIRS.COM/section/75556_Handwork.html

Martin O'Donnell By Daniel Martinez, signed :)

Martin O'Donnell is a modern music composer who writes soundtracks and scores for video games. His most famous work, of course, is the Halo trilogy. His style of ancient, unusual, and modern with a touch of classical is inspiring as well as captivating. He truly sets the bar high for video game music, which usually only consists of heavy metal or swear filled vulgar rap by other not so great artists. Just take a listen to these pieces by him. I promise you won't be disappointed.

These are three other pieces that were inspired by his work, but are not by him. These pieces are by Stephen Rippy.

Michelangelo By: Lindsay Mechtel

Michelangelo is an artist from the Renaissance period. He created the Statue of David. I admire how he could make a slab of stone look like a real human being with so much detail. I took inspiration from the Statue of David this semester when making my classical work.

Blek Le Rat by Jacob Sorgi

Graffiti art is huge in popularity across the nation, as well as other countries. Since it's mostly illegal, many of the artists go unnamed so that they aren't charged with defacing public property. In this instance, illegal or not, the French artist Blek Le Rat turns a gang related tagging into art. In my opinion, it would be really cool to just see some of this art on random parts of buildings on a street, so i think it should be made legal because of artists like Blek Le Rat. Here is a link to his website:

http://bleklerat.free.fr/stencil%20graffiti.html

THEO Van DOESBURG by TRISTAN MONSISVAIS

Theo van Doesburg was one of the leaders of the De Stijl movement, and pioneered with Mondrian the abstract art movement. His paintings also made you think, but they were almost exclusively cubes and geometric shapes. His paintings make people search for a meaning, and has inspired me to use that concept in my art.

Here is "Arithmetic Compostion":

Here is the "Counter-Composition XVI":

Chris's post about Vikky :)

Vikky Alexander is a Canadian artist who is mainly known for her works in photo-conceptualism, but she is also well known for her instillation pieces. She is renown all around the world, her works that include mirrors, photographic landscape murals, postcards collected on her travels, and her own photography and video. Her art inspires me because here work is unique especially her mirror pieces, they really grab my attention and i would like to use them in a piece of my own in one of the upcoming projects if possible. 

By: Chris Laskowski

PIET MONDRIAN by TRISTAN MONSISVAIS

Piet Mondrian is a huge inspiration for me, because he was one of the few artists who strayed from the path of normality. His "Grey Tree" and "Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue" were experiments in what people could make without creating a realistic picture. His paintings made people think as to why its so abnormal, and I like making people think.

Here is the "Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue":

Here is the "Grey Tree":

Thmas Kinkade by: Aline Blasizzo

Thomas Kinkade is known as the painter of light. He specializes in landscapes with bright colors and buildings emitting light from them. He has painted over 1000 masterpieces all showing some source of light being emitted, thus giving him the title: The painter of light. 

 

I am inspired by his art work, not because of the colors, but because of the illumination he created with the paint. Currently I am creating a landscape with a sunrise, and I am often looking at Kinkade’s work to guide me so I can create an image showing the hope of day after the darkest of nights.

Ilana Yakov: By Aline Blasizzo

Ilana Yakov is an artist who specializes in sand art. NO, that doesn’t mean she fills bottles up with colored sand. Instead she takes handfuls of sand and spreads it across a piece of lighted glass. She then adds music and created a story with designs made by the sand…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvxpXblbYCQ

Kumi Yamashita by Jacob Sorgi

I was inspired by the artist Kumi Yamashita because of how awesome her shadow art is. Shadow art is pretty self explanitory, the artist takes normal objects and arranges them in ways that creates an image as a shadow by shining light in different ways. I just thought it was really cool because it seems kind of easy compared to some other kinds of art, but really its very hard, especially considering how detailed the final images in the shadow are.

Bob Hudak by Symantha Sandee

 

This picture is one of my favorites by him because of the reflections in the water, and all the roots showing. It gives the picture character and it is definently one of a kind.

Art by Michaelangelo- Sean Pierce

I have always found Michelangelo as an interesting artist. As he has been able to make some of the worlds most famous statues such as the one above. He was able to put much detail and emotions in his sculptures that was well known during the Renaissance era. In which he took this to another level as you can almost feel the emotions from his sculptures 

Sandro Del Prete by Anthony Madrigal

Sandro Del Prete is a Swedish artist that is famous for his creative optical illusions. His love of art started when he was very young and after finishing school he decided to start painting. Known for his 'impossible' paintings, Prete's works have been said to have some flaws said by critics. His art is very interesting to look at and is pretty amazing to see the optical illusions in the picture. In the 60s, he started to look differently at many things that inspired him to use a different style. Thus he began making art that could be observed at different perspectives. His art is very interesting to look at and is pretty amazing to see the optical illusions in the picture.

Alan Houser by Ben Bailey

Alan Houser is a Native American (Apache) sculptor. His creations are very natural, which makes sense, since Indians live off of the land and don't depend on technology as much as we do. Usually you would think of pots and bowls when you think of Indian sculpture. The majority of his art is displayed outside, which really complements it as you can see below.

Art by Subodh Gupta

 This inspired me as it was an interesting concept. As you are able to make many interpretations on what you wish to make. it can end up in many shapes and forms, in which you have the power to manipulate the shape of the sculpture using different shapes and sizes, also gives you a chance to give the sculpture texture. Sean Pierce

The Fine Art of Barbie by Peihang Huang BY OLIVIA FARIAS

When I was exploring thisiscolossal.com I came across Huang's paintings and was instantly in love.
 I was looking for ominous yet colorful inpiration for my art project. I got that inspiration with these oil paintings of Barbie Dolls by Peihang Huang. Her use of colors that normally wouldn't coincide are placed and blended together to create these amazing paintings. I love how she takes all different angles of the dolls and there's something so eerie yet friendly that invites the viewer in to take in more of Huang's experience. She hails from Taipei, Taiwana and creates grotesque paintings highlighting the frailty and softness of human flesh and personality. She uses oils on canvas and creates large pieces that blow the viewers mind away.

I was greatly inspired by her paintings and her usage of color. I knew for my piece I wanted a profile of my face and having Huang's pieces for reference and inspiration were a huge help. She helped me come to the decision to paint my face in a fauvism type style. Which helped really make my painting unique and come together.

Auguste Rodin by Ben Bailey

François-Auguste-René Rodin was a famous French sculptor, and is also accredited as the founder of modern sculpture, and lived 1840-1917. One of his most famous pieces is the "Thinker", which took him ten years to create and perfect. Many of his works were the nude human form in athletic posture. Rodin was especially skilled with sculpting clay. However, most of his works were criticized during his life. I like Rodin's art because he takes ancient works including the Greek nude form and mythology and adds a touch of modern art to them.

 

Ted H. Silverman - by Anthony Madrigal

Ted H. Silverman is an American clay/stone sculptor. After taking classes in Italy, he came back to the United States to work on different sculptures. He was inspired from the works of others in Italy while he was studying there. Silverman mainly does abstract works with Italian/domestic marble. In 1990, he started focusing mostly on stone sculptures still keeping them abstract. This allows for the spectators to use their imagination to appreciate the art.

http://www.tedhsilverman.com/

http://tedhsilverman.com/gallery2/v/Clay/

Peter Donnelly by Ben Bailey

Peter Donnelly is an American artist who uses a very unique medium, sand. His art is a large 2D image in the sand. His pieces can only be admired to their full potential when viewed from above. This art is unique, because unlike paint or mosaics, or any other type of medium, his creations wash away as soon as the tide changes. He uses sticks and rakes to drag along the sand and make the intricate designs he creates. This form of art is very natural. This unheard of method almost takes the childish game of drawing pictures in the sand to an entirely different level.




 

 

Steve McCurry by Anastazia Gilman

Steve McCurry is an American photojournalists who is best known for his piece "Afghan Girl" that was in the National Geographic. His career started when he snuck into Pakistan disguised in the native dress just before the Russian invasion. He left the country with the film sewed into his clothes. He says that he likes to take a picture of someone and their unguarded face. He wants to take a picture that will capture the soul of the person. That is what makes his pictures so captivating, the look in the person's eyes. His pictures have inspired me to try and draw something from a viewer when they see the art. It cant just be something that it interesting to look at but rather it needs to evoke a feeling.

Here are some of his famous pieces...

Check out his website: http://stevemccurry.com/