Z - a r t B l o g

With all the commotion about Tamara Hoover we are completely overlooking the artist causing all this commotion. Artist, for Tamara Hoover was posing in the nude for fine art photography as far as I'm concerned and not for a pornographic website. We have been through all that, so lets focus on the artist now, shall we?

Celesta Danger may not be completely forgotten as she has been asked for interviews and such on the Tamara Hoover case but her art is completely overlooked and that's a pity because she has some fine works. Her website is under construction, but by clicking on the > you can get in. Whoops, let me rephrase that, apparently a lot of things have disappeared since my last visit and only the "words" section is working any longer. A damn pity I say!

Over to her flickr account then, the famous flickr account by now. But forget about the "scandal" and go through her photos and enjoy her work of mostly strong colored and expressive photographs.

© Celesta Danger

Californian based photographer Jose Villa has a knack for turning wedding photography into real fine art photography. His photographs are downright stunning. He often uses unorthodox compositions and cropping combined with a thorough knowledge of the use of colors or tonal ranges. Ad a cunning eye for detail in photographing the not so obvious and well, you get art. Marrying couples don't have to worry about there pictures becoming to arty, Jose knows very well how to keep the romance and the magic of the day alive.

© Jose Villa

If you ever felt like painting on something else than canvas, why not try a body? If you hurry up you might even be able to participate in the World Bodypainting Festival 2006l! € 18.000 in cash and € 23.000 product prizes is not bad I'd say.

Each year in Seeboden in the south of Austria, Europe’s most colorful Event takes place. The “World Bodypainting Festival” is the biggest art event in the bodypainting theme. More then 20.000 visitors admired work from the best bodypainters worldwide in 2005.

Artists from 40 nations will come to this unique event, and put body art into the mountain and lake scenery. On the three main days the World Champion title in 4 categories will be given. In 2005 the night contest for UV effects had a successful premier and will be given again on one of the festival nights.

The Lake Millstätter See region's scenery is the stage, where bodies are boldly put on show, and each artist has the opportunity to show his/her own specialities - bodies painted with many different materials and techniques, and sometimes combined with the most fantastic costumes, masks and show effects.

The festival runs from July 17th until July 23th, more details and lots of bodypainting pictures on the festival website.

Or how not to use Photoshop: to forge the news! There is a very hot news item in Belgium at the moment, the murder of Joe. He's a kid who was killed for his MP3 player in the Central Station of Brussels, amongst hundreds of other people. The entire country cried out in outrage.
Here is a follow up story by the BBC.

I found an older newspaper clipping on the web. On this picture here below (click on the small one to zoom-out) you see people laying down flowers at the spot where he was murdered. This picture was published by the Belgian news paper "Het Laatste Nieuws". This was to show the world that a "sea" of people came to pay tribute, I guess if only half had shown up it wasn't hot enough? The picture was taken by the AFP. A reliable source one would think. Well, think again, and look at he people in the circles. Whatever is good for making the news just that tad bit hotter? Very out of line and even disgusting in my opinion. Don't refrain yourself and give yours as well.

Unless of course whoever is spreading this clipping on the Internet is using Photoshop to put this newspaper in a bad daylight, as I haven't seen the actual newspaper....

In Austin, Texas, art teacher Tamara Hoover was escorted off campus because she participated in some art pictures in the all together. I had to look a long time before I could find one reminder of these infamous photographs to make my own judgement. Not that it is my business whether this teacher goes nude in whatever photograph. But being an art teacher, participating in some fine art photography as far as I'm concerned, and then getting fired? Come on! What type of ultra conservative censorship is this? This only weeks after I read about Dr. Diane York Blane getting some serious heat about a few topless pictures, more jest then art this time.

In short. A fellow teacher had been talking poorly about Tamara Hoover to her class.
A student said , well if you really don't like Ms Hoover you should check out the website she is on. The teacher made the student pull it up in front of a class full of students.
She told another teacher, they went tot the administration, the administration called an emergency meeting with the school board and police. Tamara Hoover was bad for moral fibre because she was on a pornographic website and deemed ineffective .

The full and developing story can be read here. You also make a donation here so that she can pay the legal costs in the battle for her job and lets face it, against censorship in general!

Photostrip.net displays photostrips that are no photostrips. The strips here presented are interactive story-telling sequences of pictures, sometimes accompanied with text. So I quote from the intro page.

To achieve these dynamics the photographer, of whom I could not find a name, uses skilfully the simple yet effective technique of moving the camera while taking the picture. A technique I myself used recently for my newest photograph: "Walk into the light ye lost soul".

I'm not all to crazy about the website itself. It is quite frankly messy. But don't let this stop you to go in and enjoy the stories told by these blurry, moving pictures.

© photostrip.net

Now here is a funny website, on the lighter side of art. The principle is simple. You tell them what you want a sketch about, you pay $1 and they will draw the sketch and put it on sketch-it. The styles are diverse, some are good, some are bad, but the results in general are funny, so it's a nice place to hang around for a while.

(cc)sketch-it

Today I would like to point your cursor in the direction of dizzle blog*. You might not understand the written text but that is of no importance, it's for the photography that you have to go here and browse through this interesting and diverse photoblog. (use the archives link)

Friday my wive had a splendid surprise for me. She had received 2 free tickets for the summer opera in Alden-Biesen. We had to drive around quite a bit to actually get the tickets but boy was it worth it!

First of all there is the setting. Landcommanderij Alden Biesen is a castle that is beautifully restored. In the inner court of the castle is the stage and the platform for the audience below 4 giant parasols to protect audience and actors from the weather. In this case, from the sun and to maintain the temperature when it got dark, it was a gorgeous day.

Secondly there was the opera, La Bohème. It was a modern interpretation of the opera with a lot of contemporary items brought on to the stage. There was also a lot of humor added, small details to lighten up the sad story. As an example, when Marcello sings about how he paints the heroes on the walls of the in he points at paintings of Batman and Spiderman. Another nice one is when Rodolfo buys a little pink hat for Mimi and it turn out to be fluffy pink earmuffs. Yet the arias stand strong as a rock in a tempestuous sea of music and emotion. The cast was very international with famous singers from Italy, Germany, Korea and so on. You must know that this was my first opera ever but I was very impressed and actually moved to tears at the end by the pure emotional power of the music.

Thirdly and this was a surprise, it appeared to be a special performance, a Gala performance. One of those extra expensive once that help to keep the price of the regular shows low. The kind of shows where the rich and the famous are pampered with food and drinks before, in the pause and after the performance. So we ended the night with drinking, munching and talking to the wive of a former Belgian minister who also was the former Latin teacher of my wive.

We had a fantastic evening and the regular tickets are very affordable at €20/30. So, if you love opera, or want to give it a try, wherever you are, fly over if necessary, but come and see this magnificent edition of La Bohème.

In contrast to yesterdays entry which was full of life and movement I know present to you the work of Michael Parkes. Parkes's artwork is more classical in terms of composition, more graphical. The scenes are set against very simple backdrops, the people rigid and often pale. Yet his work is very dreamlike and enchanting. Of course the graphical character is also a result of his choice of medium, lithography. Enjoy the lovely prints and the fine details.

© Michael Parkes

Else Uhlmann is an South African Artist who lives in Sweden and paints what is to my eye modern Impressionism. For this she uses either oil or watercolor. Her work is colorful, rough, bordering on abstract yet still figurative. With blots and lines she creates beautiful impressions of living people swiftly moving or soft and intimate. She also paints nature but in my honest opinion the paintings of people are far better.
Her gallery is a pain to navigate but worth the effort!

© Else Uhlmann

A watercolor painting by Joseph Mallord William turner Turner has set a new record for a British work on paper at a recent Christie's auction in London.
The 1842 watercolor "The Blue Rigi: Lake of Lucerne, Sunrise" went for nearly three times its estimate, selling for 5.8 million pounds or about $11 million USD. Making it a record for a British work on paper.
Not so long ago Joseph Mallord William Turner also set the record for the most expensive British painting to be sold at auction.

Noel Annesley, honorary chairman of Christie's, said the work marked the culmination of Turner's achievement in the medium that he made his own. In a technique of almost unimaginable subtlety Turner expresses his lifelong preoccupation with the effects of light, shade and atmosphere.

As seen on Art News Blog

Another gap of a few days in my posts. I beg humbly for your forgiveness for this breach of trust. I was far to busy with my number one hobby: travel. Yes, again, my wife and I packed our bags for a few days. We went for a walking trip to the French Ardennes, pictures of this trip will be available soon.

More importantly, specially for this post, a new photograph in the fine art photography category saw the light during this trip. I was an experiment on impulse but I was very, very happy with the result. The title is "Walk into the light ye lost soul" and the photograph as you see it is straight out of the camera, no post processing what so ever. I hope you will excuse me for being very proud. The full image can be seen here, it is the last one of this exhibit.

Don't forget, if you are interested in buying a print, just mail me at peter @ zgallery-art.com for the possibilities (size, cost, etc).

A need little Photoshop trick, and I do mean little, as this trick will help you turn regular photos into fake miniature photos.

The Tilt-shift technique is historically achieved with a tilt-shift camera lens. Today this technique is getting more and more popular among amateur photographers who generally fake the effect with the aid of Photoshop. How you can do this you can learn here. An interesting article about this can be found on the Columbia News Service.

As seen on the Carrot Revolution

If you frequently read my little posts here you will know that I stumble a lot. Well this time I stumbled on an interesting yet rather unusual photography website called "Uncommon Photographers". This site is all about photographs of photographers caught in action. It's an interesting browse with quiet a collection. If you are a photographer yourself sometimes, who knows, maybe you are in there as well. Enjoy.

© Ken Ilio