These are too well executed to be good velvet paintings. Part of their cachet , for me, has always been bad: 2) proportioning, 3)color choice and 4) perspective. #1 has always been poor choice of subject matter; eg, I once saw a badly rendered v-painting of Jesus and Elvis playing guitars on the steps of the Pearly Gates. Unfortunately, I had spent all my money on tequila and returned to the E.E.U.U. empty-handed. #starwars
@lazyeight: Always try to snatch up those once in a lifetime paintings! I -did- score a painting of pimps and hookers done like Grandma Moses, but I regret not buying the Creature From The Black Lagoon in cheesecake style. #starwars
Vader in black velvet, never reaching the end,
Tuskens they've painted, never meaning to send.
Boba in ways I'd missed with these eyes before.
Just what the point is, I don't know anymore.
'Cos I love you, yes I love you, oh how I love you.
Gazing at Godzilla,flames from the mouth,
Just what they're thinking through I can't understand.
Some try to tell me, the art they cannot defend,
Just what you want to be, Mothra will be in the end.
And I love you, yes I love you,
Oh how I love you, oh how I love you.
And, if you allow for a moment of art school snobbery, he's definitely in that strange area where somebody is kinda technically proficient, but is still lacking an essential flavor that makes the proficiency meaningful. #starwars
It's freakin Sci-Fi on freakin Velvet in freakin color and is so freakin bad in so freakin many ways that it makes it freakin uber-cool. So freakin "essential flavor"can bite my freakin *ss.
[We will now return you to normal programing]
Your just jealous that none of these are hanging on your wall
@Jassen: Yes, I am an art snob. I won't be so cruel and heartless to equate his stuff with Thomas Kinkade, but there is no way I'd ever be buying anything like those.
@gods-n-clods: With the disclaimer that irony's a fairly subjective thing that wanders a very fine line, I'd be more inclined to call it kitsch. Irony implies that the artist is saying something about the thing it's using through using it (see: Andy Warhol; don't see: the vast majority of hipsters).
This stuff comes across to me as simply "here's some sci-fi thing that I think nerds and myself will like." That's what I meant about it being "technically proficient, but lacking an essential flavor": the guy's a competent painter, but the paintings are just paintings of sci-fi stuff -- there's nothing there that makes them more than sci-fi paintings on black velvet. #starwars
@gallahad: I see your points, but what makes them more than sci-fi paintings on black velvet, is that they -are- sci-fi paintings on velvet. Velvet art as a medium is analog/retro, the sci fi imagery is digital/futuristic, and mashing the two create an ironic product-- strictly comedy... we are fawning over them pretty much just for that reason.
Proficency of rendering the image aside, there -is- a technical proficiency in handling the humor and contradiction of retro versus futurism. It's the job of the artist to covey this humor better; in this case, White's Kenner Chewie and Leia on his DeviantArt page convey this best IMO, and the Elvis Yoda yesterday is the Cream Of The Crap. This handling of subtext, cultural relevance, -then- technical execution, is what separates the hipsters from the craftspeople.
"Here's some sci-fi thing that I think nerds and myself will like" is a valid operating system; I love LMAO while I'm making fine art (White may be operating in a commodity-niche though, dude has to eat). I fully see your reservations, though. #starwars
@gallahad: As the artist of these works, I have to chime in here.
As you might have surmised, I have no real agenda here. I am not offering grand social commentary, nor am I trying to set the art world on fire. I am not trying to be the next "Juxtapoz" cover model. This is a hobby for me and, as a sci-fi nerd, it is a fun and interesting one.
I don't have an artist's "mission statement", but if I did it would be this:
"here's some sci-fi thing that I think nerds and myself will like"
@gods-n-clods: Seeing the other stuff on his DA page (I'm trying really hard not to dock points for that fact alone), I'm probably willing to upgrade my status to a wavering maybe... thank the action figures for that. Still, though, it's a very fine line and I'm not convinced the concept actually pulls it off well enough. Black velvet paintings to me means tacky black velvet Elvis and, if the series really is intended to be ironic, it doesn't push the irony hard enough to get past that association.
Then again, I could just go over to him and ask him directly. He apparently lives around a half hour away from me. #starwars
@Bruce White: Seriously excellent work, sir. I'm going to fan-you-up, and would like to contact you regarding any exhibition opportunities I can share or offer.
Thanks for the good vibes too! :)
That Chewie figure is in my garage... memories... #starwars
@gallahad: No worries. I have pretty thick skin ...no one survives art school without it.
I am all for constructive criticism and analysis, and I enjoyed the back and forth that was going on here. Honestly, I can see validity in your points (I am a lot harder on myself than most would imagine).
It was only when there seemed to be some "second-guessing" as to my "intent" that I really felt it necessary to speak up, and clarify things a bit. #starwars
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@bonniegrrl: I'd want triptych with Gamera. #starwars
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The last Vader pic prompted me to do this. #starwars
11/06/09
#@! #starwars
11/06/09
Also, that TARDIS one is pretty sweet... #starwars
11/06/09
Kane from Alien just before the facehugger gets him. #starwars
11/06/09
I never saw Alien, but I've been meaning to. I liked Aliens, but I was always told that they were very different movies. #starwars
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Vader in black velvet, never reaching the end,
Tuskens they've painted, never meaning to send.
Boba in ways I'd missed with these eyes before.
Just what the point is, I don't know anymore.
'Cos I love you, yes I love you, oh how I love you.
Gazing at Godzilla,flames from the mouth,
Just what they're thinking through I can't understand.
Some try to tell me, the art they cannot defend,
Just what you want to be, Mothra will be in the end.
And I love you, yes I love you,
Oh how I love you, oh how I love you.
11/06/09
11/06/09
11/06/09
And, if you allow for a moment of art school snobbery, he's definitely in that strange area where somebody is kinda technically proficient, but is still lacking an essential flavor that makes the proficiency meaningful. #starwars
11/06/09
It's freakin Sci-Fi on freakin Velvet in freakin color and is so freakin bad in so freakin many ways that it makes it freakin uber-cool. So freakin "essential flavor"can bite my freakin *ss.
[We will now return you to normal programing]
Your just jealous that none of these are hanging on your wall
;) #starwars
11/06/09
11/06/09
11/06/09
This stuff comes across to me as simply "here's some sci-fi thing that I think nerds and myself will like." That's what I meant about it being "technically proficient, but lacking an essential flavor": the guy's a competent painter, but the paintings are just paintings of sci-fi stuff -- there's nothing there that makes them more than sci-fi paintings on black velvet. #starwars
11/06/09
Proficency of rendering the image aside, there -is- a technical proficiency in handling the humor and contradiction of retro versus futurism. It's the job of the artist to covey this humor better; in this case, White's Kenner Chewie and Leia on his DeviantArt page convey this best IMO, and the Elvis Yoda yesterday is the Cream Of The Crap. This handling of subtext, cultural relevance, -then- technical execution, is what separates the hipsters from the craftspeople.
"Here's some sci-fi thing that I think nerds and myself will like" is a valid operating system; I love LMAO while I'm making fine art (White may be operating in a commodity-niche though, dude has to eat). I fully see your reservations, though. #starwars
11/06/09
As you might have surmised, I have no real agenda here. I am not offering grand social commentary, nor am I trying to set the art world on fire. I am not trying to be the next "Juxtapoz" cover model. This is a hobby for me and, as a sci-fi nerd, it is a fun and interesting one.
I don't have an artist's "mission statement", but if I did it would be this:
"here's some sci-fi thing that I think nerds and myself will like"
:)
Cheers,
Bruce #starwars
11/06/09
Then again, I could just go over to him and ask him directly. He apparently lives around a half hour away from me. #starwars
11/06/09
11/06/09
Thanks for the good vibes too! :)
That Chewie figure is in my garage... memories... #starwars
11/06/09
11/06/09
I am all for constructive criticism and analysis, and I enjoyed the back and forth that was going on here. Honestly, I can see validity in your points (I am a lot harder on myself than most would imagine).
It was only when there seemed to be some "second-guessing" as to my "intent" that I really felt it necessary to speak up, and clarify things a bit. #starwars
11/06/09
11/06/09