Lots of respect to the artists on DeviantArt. I’d come across the site here and there over the years but never took the time to look around until recently and have been amazed ever since. There’s such a high quality of work that’s displayed there, a lot of which is made by people who just do art as a hobby.
As someone who once visited an art gallery that featured famous contemporary art pieces such as: a crappy rock tied to an old string, a sheet of paper with a single note on it, and a whole room dedicated to one plain black canvas and one plain white canvas…I have to say that sometimes it seems really strange what gets bumped to the top of the art world and what doesn’t.
But hey, maybe most people who go to art galleries like to pay money for the priviledge of viewing crappy rocks tied to old strings who knows. Art is a subjective thing eye of the beholder blah blah blah. Personally my favorite kind of art to browse lately has been Moleskine art…
If you’re recoiling in horror (omg they make it from mole skin!) then you probably haven’t heard of Moleskine notebooks which are basically small notebooks that are bound in oilcloth covered cardboard and have an elastic band to keep it closed. They’re meant to be very portable and usually have an expandable pocket in the back to hold whatever random souvenirs you feel like stashing there. I have a blank pocket-sized one that I use for writing practice so I was really interested to see what other people did with theirs, which turns out to be some pretty amazing stuff.
What I really like about Moleskine art is the diversity in content and style and the PostSecret-like quality about some of them. Anyway, take a look for yourself and let me know what you think.
(Click on picture to see full size version.)
This was inspired by the story of a man named Daniel Tammet who says he can see numbers as colorful landscapes. He was diagnosed with high-functioning autistic savant syndrome and says that to him each number has its own shape, color, texture, and feel.
9 is blue
11 is friendly
5 is loud
289 is really ugly
333 is beautiful
25 is energetic and the kind of number you would invite to a party
He says that when he calculates math problems in his mind he sees the original numbers as shapes that automatically combine to become a new shape, the answer. He can do complex math just off the top of his head and holds a record for reciting pi from memory to 22,514 digits (in five hours and nine minutes).
Artist: dtjones
Original: Sail By Numbers
I love the complexity and the shapes in the background of this one.
Artist: letseewhatwegothere
Original: Kate
Artist’s comment:
“i found some map thing on the floor after workin out this afternoon, and at first i didnt pick it up… but then after i had walked literally 20 feet, i turned around and picked it up… i just had to add it to my moleskine book.
so there it is.
dirty as hell zombie population map.
cant leave home without it!”
Artist: galvo
Original: Dilly Daily 12.6.06
This one is titled ‘Time Travel’. Is he thinking about the past? Sleeping? Meditating? Each is it’s own kind of time travel. Probably just listening to a song by Mystery Jets though :D.
Artist: YoungMathias
Original: Time Travel
Yama Strikes
“A holy man once approached the higher Lamas in search of enlightenment. Instructed to spend fifty years in deep meditation isolated in a cave, the man would attain enlightenment. Upon the last hour of the last day of the last month of the forty-ninth year, two robbers entered the hermit’s cave with a bull they had stolen. The robbers cut off the bull’s head and proceeded to butcher it when they noticed the mansitting quietly in the back. A witness to their crime, the robbers decided to kill the holy man.
I am within the last minutes of attaining enlightenment. If you kill me, the past fifty years of my life with have been for nothing! pleaded the holy man. The robbers, ignoring the man’s pleas, severed his head.
At the moment of death, the holy man took the ferocious form of Yama, placing the bull’s head upon his body. Killing the two robbers, he made cups from their skulls to drink their blood. Insatiable for taste of human blood, Yama attacked Tibet, wearing a crown and necklace of several heads made from his victims.
The Tibetans appealed to the deity of wisdom, Manjushri, for help. Manjushri assumed the form of Yamantaka, the conqueror of death, to defeat Yama. Upon learning the strength of wisdom and never attaining enlightenment, the wrathful Yama instead became entrusted as a protector of Buddhism.”
Moral of the story: Don’t mess with Buddhism or Yama will make a cup out of your skull and drink your blood.
Artist: FunkCrusader
Original: Yama Strikes
I love everything about this picture esp the clouds and the fiery trees, perfect.
Artist: Larbesta
Original: Season Of The Witch
Music for Monday and Tuesday, extra points for the Indigo Girls lyrics :).
Artist: pomegranatebits
Original: Buoy Fireflies
Looks very industrial, dark, and looming. Reminds me of driving past all the ominous oil refineries in Gary, Indiana at night (minus the smog and spooky gas flares.)
Artist: relaxender
Original: All Heart
I love Moleskine books! They are awesome travel companions. And deviant art is awesome. I totally agree, I do not understand how galleries choose art sometimes, I understand there can be meaning to certain pieces of art but it can only go so far sometimes, I mean, like you said, a canvas that’s just black? Sometimes emotions come into play especially where colors are concerned, I should know because I love painting abstract things, however, I see some art and ask “Seriously?” I really wonder about society sometimes and what it decides is art. What are the motivations of the artist? Why did they feel this painting or piece holds impact or substance? This is why I love going to art shows, to pick the brains of the artist. I’ve only come across a handful of artists that are completely in it for the money and are testing the market basically to see what they can get away with in the art world. It’s sad. But all the more motivation to put new work out there right?:)
It would be interesting to know what the motivations of the artists/owners involved in that gallery were. This was a well known (at least at the time) gallery in one of the largest cities in the US.
Were they scamming people or just clueless? Or even worse, did they actually believe some of that was cutting edge and brilliant?
I do remember wishing I could get my money back and the only good thing that came out of the trip to that gallery was the brochure I picked up on the way out. It showed pictures of some of the exhibitions like the room with the plain black/white canvases. I took it back to my hometown and showed it to my friends at school and we all got a good laugh out of it.