Week 6

Upon seeing this picture it immediately reminded me of my childhood. I watched all the old horror movies as a child and here it brings all the best together. All the classic horror movies monsters are displayed in the tv screen. I especially like that the color of the tv is not as bright and vivid as the color in the rest of the picture to give it a slight older feel. The rest of the picture uses very bright colors. I also liked that the tv has what would be parts of the monsters emerging from it, and they are displayed in the brighter colors even though they are from within the screen. The picture is also kind of weird because the tv has been put on a man's body. And in turn the body is holding the decapitated head instead of the tv. Their are a lot of little interesting fun things going on in this picture. Everything from the skeleton hanging from the tv antenna, to the mouse crawling out of the jacket sleeve all add an interesting touch.

TASS poster by Nikolai Fedorovich Denisovskii: "A 'Statesman' of Contemporary Germany" August 25, 1944

This past weekend I went to the Art Institute's "Windows on the War" exhibit on Soviet propaganda posters from WWII. It's a huge collection (someone said it took over a year to curate) which encompasses every stage of the Soviets' involvement in the war, from the Axis invasion of Russia to the downfall of Berlin to the signing of peace treaties at the end of the war. At every step of the way, illustrators working for TASS churned out all sorts of posters to bolster public morale, dehumanize the Axis powers, or encourage viewers to do specific things, such as enlisting in the army, refraining from gossip, and--for German-occupied nations--committing sabotage of infrastructure.

In working to dehumanize their enemies and establish Soviet Russia's superior morality, TASS artists often depicted Germans as sickly or beastly fiends, with blue skin or long nails. Sometimes they had these Germans ravaging a pure-looking, comely young maiden to accentuate the Nazis' depravity. In a different poster, a Nazi medic is shown shooting a wounded comrade to avoid having to treat him. While such a scenario was probably based off of only hearsay, the one shown in here was from a very real discovery near the end of the war, which vindicated much of what the Soviets had been saying about the morality of their enemies. This poster was done in reaction to the liberation of Nazi concentration camps, and focuses very intently on the blood that is on the Germans' hands. The large disembodied hands of whoever is giving the subject a medal, and the solid white reflection and grim expression of the man very clearly detach and dehumanize these two characters as two cogs in a brutal machine.

(Above is the photo I took with my dinky cameraphone. Below is a good-quality image I found by uploading the former to Google's reverse image search. This page is what came up.)

Week 6 - David Fernandez

Diego Fernandez is a freelance illustrator from Buenos Aires, Argentina. All of his work that he has up online consists of female portraits, similar to this one. He uses some different techniques and materials to create these, but they all have the same general style. I picked this one to show because it reminded me of the centaur scene with the little cherubs from Fantasia. I also especially liked the textures he used in this piece. From what I’ve gathered from his website, his work is mostly created for personal use. I don’t think there aren’t any examples up of his freelance work. I would be interested to see what else he’s able to do with different subject matters, since he is clearly adept in many mediums. His website is: http://diegofernandez.daportfolio.com

Week 6 ~ Trollface

The trollface, a fairly recent popular icon that's been reappearing all over the web to piss off your everyday average internet user. To be more elaborate it is an illustration that came to represent the expression people make who are 'trolling.' Trolling is a internet slang to describe a person who posts off-topic message or inflammatory message on online communities. This illustration has been overused everywhere on deviantart and other online sites, that I have even caught myself using it as well.

The trollface was first created by a deviantart user named Whynne when he made a MSPaint comic to illustrate the pointless nature of trolling on a website called 4Chan on September 19, 2008. This simple drawing of a face with a big mischievous grin soon became the symbol or emoticon to show someone 'trolling.' I found it really interesting that Whynne's trollface was originally a failed attempt to imitate a comic character known as "Rape Rodent." This failed attempt soon became its own icon that has become more popular that what it had imitated. It really shows how mistakes can be good.

Rape Rodent Illustartion
The First Trollface Appearance Comic

Week 6 | David Alfaro Siqueiros

Following up my last post... Siqueiros was highly influenced by Posada's political work. Siqueiros is known as part of a legendary trio called Los Tres Grandes or the Three Giants. They're a group of independent muralists that were internationally renowned for their social and political murals all over latin america as well as the US. (Jose Clemente Orozco and Diego Rivera are the other two)

Siqueiros was known for using pyroxalin instead of typical paint. (car paint) His portrayal of the working class wasn't complete without using the very tools found in their environment. He also created an illusion of space in all his murals. (such as the mural to the left). The ceilings seemed to continue much higher than they did.

Siqueiros is also credited to have created the largest mural project and installment in history. Which is now part of the Mexican World Trade Center. This building is known as the Polyforum. (some links below)

- javi

El Polyforum (outside)

El Polyforum (inside)

El polyforum (wall)

Week 5 Late | Jose Guadalupe Posada

Jose Guadalupe Posada is one of the greatest influences on Latin American Art as well as one of my personal favorite artists. Posada was a highly political cartoonist during El Porfiriato (under the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz). He did many illustrations for countless magazines and book covers. The majority of his work were lithographs. Although his genius remained in the shadows for the majority of his life, his art was brought to the attention of many artists, such as Diego Rivera, in post-Revolutionary Mexico.

Posada is most known for his calaveras. He was very interested in society's unjust social classes. He believed that no matter how much wealth or property you owned, you'll end up the same as any poor peasent or middle class worker. Dead. By portraying figures as skeletons, he would bring the upper class or elite to the level of el campesino or laborer.

-javi

This is one of Tim Bradstreet's covers for Punisher Max. He uses Photographs subtracts and adds colors and shading that creates these photo-realistic covers. This particular issue of Punisher opens with the Punisher torturing a particularly nasty eastern European slaver by sedating him pulling out his small intestine and hanging it from a tree, and then wakes him up. I think this a very effective cover foreshadowing the events to come.

*edit

Sorry it took me so long to fix this.