The b-uncut blog

Crowdsourcing Art | Neon Burns

// September 1st, 2010 // View Comments // b-loud // Lawrence

Crowdsourcing art is just what we do. This week we have the wonderful Debra D’Breau to showcase. Her digitally enhanced art is beguilingly brash & bold. Her confidence in lustrous form erupts in a high-octane contrast. Each image whips viewers in the gut and her powerful pictures leave a long-lasting sensory hit. She is a greatly valued artist in our art community and always offers positive feedback to many of our emerging artists. To commission art from Debra’s colour brandishing brilliance go here. Otherwise enjoy the interview…

What was your very first artwork?
Doodles of my “Lines” as far back as grade school.

Describe the piece you love the most—why?
“Fallopia” It was part of my theses in college. It took over a hundred hours to complete and I received an A+ for it. The crazy thing is I painted it with my then 6-year-old daughter’s grade school, glitter paints. The one I have posted is not the original.

What are your methods? Your inspirations?
I paint, draw and write, but at this time I am having an epiphany with photography. The world and the people in it are my inspirations.

What did it take to make it to where you are now?
Success, poverty, success, poverty, success, poverty. . .

Do you make a living from your artwork?
My artwork is giving me life.

Who has helped you along the way?
My mother has been my greatest support. She always saw the artist within, but I never dreamed it would ever be a possibility. I was a corporate girl chasing the money and found it didn’t necessarily bring me fulfillment.

What 5 artists (dead or alive) would you invite for the ultimate dinner party?
Ansel Adams, Georgia O’Keeffe, Salvador Dali, Richard Avedon, Francesco Scavullo, Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rin. I know I named (6), but I couldn’t choose one to leave out.

Your favourite curse?
A bit embarrassed to say, but it’s “f_ _k!” It’s a word that fits every occasion.

Your biggest (albeit endearing) flaw?
Overly emotional and overly sensitive..

Qualities a man needs to seduce you and the flaws that will repel you? Seduce? He must be a true gentleman. Repel? A man that has no respect for himself.

Your parents advice you should have followed, but didn’t?
You cannot spend $3, when you only have $1.

Your idea of the perfect weekend?
Room 26, in the Victorian House, at the Beachmere Inn in Ogunquit, ME.

Who would you chose to rule the world?
The universe, but it already does so I’m good.

Favourite ice-cream?
Breyers Butter Pecan

Where do you see yourself in…..One month? One Year? One Decade?
I don’t even know where I’ll be tomorrow. Life can change in an instant.

Don’t Play With Boy Soldiers

// August 24th, 2010 // View Comments // b-street // Lawrence

The likes of D*Face and INSA are collaborating with over 30 street and contemporary artists who have each customised Schoony’s iconic “Boy Soldier”. That’s right, a whole army of commando kids will be ambushing exhibitions next week in both East and West London.
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The ALL-STAR line-up is serious! There’s drum n bass dj Goldie, Inkie, Mau Mau, Dotmasters, Grafter, Liliwenn, Dan Baldwin, Matt Small, David Bray, Fin DAC, SnugOne, SNUB23, PEN1, BEST EVER, Joe Rush, Slice, John Nolan, K-GUY, Nick Reynolds, Carrie Reichardt and much more…

Boy Soldiers

02, 09, 2010 – 16, 09, 2010

Thurs 2nd September:
Buyers Preview. By invitation only, please email guestlist@graffiklondon.co.uk

BLACKALL STUDIOS
02,09,2010 – 04,09,2010
OPENING : THUR, 02,09,2010, 6PM
73a Leonard Street London EC2A 4QS, UK
020 7739 9551 / www.blackallstudios.com

GRAFFIK GALLERY
09,09,2010 – 16,09,2010
OPENING : THUR, 09,09,2010, 6PM
284a Portobello Road London W10 5TE, UK
020 3181 0000 / www.graffiklondon.co.uk

Rebel Art | The Days Are Coming

// August 17th, 2010 // View Comments // b-street // Lawrence

itchy for a revolution, watch this and SPREAD IT!

found at rebel art

Crowdsourcing Art Opinions

// August 10th, 2010 // View Comments // b-wired // Lawrence

Art is the most subjective thing on the planet so discussing it is vital, and equally pointless! It depends on how passionate you are about any specific work of art. Given you have the opinion and passion, the über intelligent dudes at Digit London have developed a revolutionary way to Crowdsource comments on art. It involves bar codes and smart phones (read more). They started on the street and have now taken the tech indoors.

Surely every gallery needs this; especially the big boys. Tate, Guggenheim & Armoury could all build online communities around the social aspect. It’s gotta be the future for a participatory exhibition experience. Videos, blog posts, photos and online art all use a commenting system. The matrix gets a step closer to our physical world…

Bubble Away Your Friday

// August 6th, 2010 // View Comments // b-inspired // Lawrence

Hi friends, how wonderful this video makes you feel Enjoy your weekend.

Crowdsourcing Art and Sneakers

// August 5th, 2010 // View Comments // b-street // Lawrence

Sneakers hanging on telephone lines have become an ambiguous urban symbol. They’ve inspired theories both hilarious and sinister from art to drug deals. In an effort to get to the truth once and for all the people of earth were asked to help solve this mystery Crowdsourcing style. Using an on-line call out and a phone message bank, this documentary was made entirely from donated photographs, phoned-in theories, video, vlogs, and animation. How cool is that!

The result of this unique digital collaboration between film makers and the international public is available on DVD now. Visit the Flying Kicks website to buy it. AWESOME! But wait, it doesn’t stop there. Contributions to the mystery are still on demand…SO, if you know anything about the phantom Air Max or ghost of the Reebok Classic get involved!

via Hooked

Crowdsourcing Art | Rippling The Realities of Pornography

// August 4th, 2010 // View Comments // b-loud // b-uncut

We are a fairtrade Crowdsourcing art agency. The incredibly talented and experienced DongSheng Guan joined our Crowdsourced art community in March. His latest works took us all by surprise. I’ve never seen pornographic imagery transformed so uniquely. His digitally remastered images play with our notions of reality, toying with our perceptions of graphic and recognisable forms. His new work lures you in and conjures temptations for more. Each distorted picture traps you lusting to know the original image whilst enjoying the vast possibilities. Commission enticing artwork from DongSheng here.

Your first work of art?
Sorry, I cannot exactly answer you, a long time ago, you know, I’ve been engaged in painting for 30 years. The first time I participated in a national exhibition was in 2000; the work was in a realistic style in watercolours.

What is your favourite work of art?
If you mean the world and all works of art, I like too much, if referring to my own, I like the current batch of digital works mine. This is because they are distant reality from our own with strong visual impact and important to me.

Methods and inspiration?
I choose pictures and then use digital technology to transform them until there is the birth of a new image. From reproduction to show, from watercolour to oil painting and then to digital art; I pass a long process and have gradually realized the relationship between technology and art and won my freedom of artistic expression.

What are your artistic aims?
To create desire.

Who has helped you along the way?
Mainly my brother, he graduated from Tsinghua University and then the University of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom. He opened my eyes to make decisive change.

Where five artists will be invited to the last dinner you?
Van Gogh, Picasso, Dali, Andy Warhol, Beuys

What is your favorite curse?
Fuck

Your biggest (although endearing) flaw?
No artistic talent.

Who would you choose to rule the world?
God’s doing well.

Favourite ice-cream?
With Strawberries

Where do you see yourself in a decade?
After ten years, hoping to travel to Europe, where the best exhibitions are.

Graffiti for Hippies | Eco Street Art

// August 3rd, 2010 // View Comments // b-street // Lawrence

A head on hippy crash between guerilla gardening and graffiti is germinating. Yesterday’s graffiti artists purveyed permanent ink & paint and now inventive tagging alternatives such as liquefied mud, moss, recycled fur and plain old pressure washers are being deployed. Anarchistic, artistic, political and egotistical messages are now delivered with no threat of handcuffs or pricey fines.

Jesse Graves

(Images via: Shaunie P., Groundswell Collective, Treehugger, See Brown Blog, May’s Machete)

We use it in the form of a facial mask to draw out impurities from the skin, so it makes perfect sense that watered-down dirt is the ideal foil for artist Jesse Graves’ environmental messages. A coincidence? I think not. However, in true Crowdsourcing fashion, the artist happily dispenses helpful ‘how to’ instructions on his website, which will hopefully get people riled up enough to lobby on behalf of Mother Nature this weekend!

Neozoon

(Images via: Neozoon)

The international artistic collaborative known as Neozoon (a term that references the existence of non-indigenous species) offers interesting food for thought by placing random animal figures throughout the streets of Paris and Berlin wearing assorted recycled fur coats rescued from local thrift stores. The diverse group of artists — who prefer to preserve their anonymity with masks during all public appearances – have proven that their ongoing project is more than just a quirky little pastime. They strategically select the location of all future animal figure installations based on what has happened throughout history, as was the case when they placed recycled fur covered sheep right outside of a former slaughterhouse.

Anna Garforth

(Images via: Yatzer, Free People, Cross Hatchling)

London-based illustrator and graphic designer Anna Garforth propelled herself from paper to three dimensional eco-sculpture by partnering with Elly Stevens in a series of artistic projects that employ sustainable materials, including tree bark, ferns, grass and, most famously, moss. Their collaboration, known as MOSSenger, has yielded beautiful living typography on the front of walls.

Paul Curtis (aka ‘Moose’)

(Images via: Granny Buttons, Daily Art Fixx, Green Answers, Format Mag)

Ask anyone the question: “Who started reverse graffiti?” – the term used to identify any city image that is created on walls, streets, sidewalks or objects by removing dirt with fingers, power washers and copious amounts of detergent — and British artist Paul Curtis will be given all the credit. For 10 years, the Soundclash record label head, disc jockey, eco-marketing guru and self-confessed ‘Professor of Dirt’ has devoted his spare time to the fine art of defacing public surfaces with cleansing messages, all of which have culminated in commercial contracts with high profile brands. One of his biggest coups was being commissioned by Green Works cleaning products to create an impressive eco-inspired mural in San Francisco’s Broadway tunnel (documented in the video above).

CURB

(Images via: CURB, Interactive Angle, Culture Buzz, Springwise)

Inspired by the eco-graffiti trend that has swept the globe, the marketing organization CURB earns their bread and butter by pimping out Momma Nature on behalf of some of the most notable consumer brands and organizations using nothing more than creativity and artfully arranged snow, sand, grass, dirt, water, and even glow in the dark bacteria. CURB dabbles in so many intriguing biodegradable and zero-impact mediums that it’s hard not to give them credit.

The Dutch Ink Clan

(Images via: Ette Studios)

Working as a reverse graffiti team along the lines of master artist Paul Curtis, several Durban, South Africa schoolmates – including Martin Pace, Stathi Kongianos, JP Jordaan and Nick Ferreira – launched their artistic project by hand scrubbing a visual timeline of their town’s architecture into a pollution covered 17 meter tall concrete freeway wall in Essex Terrace using nothing more than a hardware store-purchased metal brush. With accolades and widespread public appreciation, they moved on to bigger and better projects reflecting more organic scenes such as a school of sardines swimming across a city bridge as well as a stylistic forest that resembles that of a solar print.

Graffiti Research Lab

(Images via: Gothamist, Digicult, Cranium, DigiArts)

Formed 5 years ago, the Graffiti Research Lab — the brainchild of robotics engineer James Powderly and Parsons School of Design valedictorian Evan Roth – offers a veritable open source toolbox for eco-sensitive activists and graffiti artists to take advantage of. Unlike employing typical earth-bound media such as mud, moss and grass, the duo help the public to communicate their messages thanks to the glorious trinity of computers, video cameras and lights which work in tandem to project images on whatever formerly unreachable surfaces might tickle one’s fancy. The result is visually arresting, particularly when New York City’s Brooklyn Bridge or Italy’s Roman Coliseum are used as canvases, enabling those who have a thing or two on their minds to say it in grand style without damaging a single blade of grass…or their law-abiding reputation.

Edina Tokodi (aka ‘Mosstika’)

(Images via: Mosstika, Design Boom)

Easily able to pull her weight with the best of ‘em, Hungarian-born Edina Tokodi – whose stomping grounds are now in the heart of Brooklyn, New York – is a green graffiti artiste extraordinaire who focuses specifically on bringing “nature closer to city dwellers” through the installation of socially relevant images that trigger environmental appreciation.

Alexandre Orion

(Images via: Bldg Blog)

Skulls don’t seem like particularly green subject matter to focus on, but when they’re etched into the inner tunnel of a highly trafficked area via the grand reverse graffiti tradition, they instantly trigger an ‘ah-ha’ moment. They no longer represent trendy, cliché imagery — instead, they serve as a blatant reminder that the toxic pollution released from the hundreds of thousands of vehicles that commute back and forth on a daily basis have left a tangible mark…not just on our physical structures, but also in the air we breathe and in the environment that is supposed to sustain us. Brazilian graffiti artist Alexandre Orion – who in 2007 transformed Sao Paolo’s Max Feffer Tunnel into an outstandingly impactful verdict on our passive pollution oblivion – fortunately had his project filmed before the city washed away all traces of its existence.

Vichen

(Images via: Vinchen)

Vinchen has earned a reputation on par with Banksy as one to be admired, revered and even emulated…and as his website appropriately asks, “What have you done to change the world lately?” One look at his collection of visually arresting images and you’re immediately struck with the sense that the Ohio artist really means business. His varied and judiciously delivered messages comment on everything from bureaucratic nonsense and chronic hyper-consumerism to social classes and the state of the environment. Of his most clever imagery, Vinchen’s simply named “Ivy” – located on Columbus, Ohio’s High Street – uses a crowning glory of plant life as the perfect accent to a grinning face peering from beneath. On the flip side, his depiction of two innocent Bambi-like fawns nonchalantly nibbling on a radioactive flower cause one to exhale a heavy sigh, knowing full well that there’s more truth in it than we’d like to admit.

via WebEcoist

Forget Jay-Z: Introducing DELS with Shapeshift

// July 30th, 2010 // View Comments // b-music // Lawrence

DELS new single Shapeshift kicks ass; solid beat, wobbly grizzlin’ nintendo digital bass sounds and a retina burning video. Joe Goddard (from Hot Chip) produced the single and Us design studio brought the video to life. The young MC has been creating a buzz ever since John Peel heard him as a teenager and put him on the radio. F*%k Jay-Z, make way for London’s hottest rapper. Shapeshift takes us back to a childhood where our biggest dream was turning into something else….

Art Inspiration | Kate MacDowell Porcelain Sculptures

// July 30th, 2010 // View Comments // b-inspired // Lawrence

Art inspiration from an accomplished ceramicist and sculptor Kate MacDowell.

“We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough.  We want something else which can hardly be put into words–to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.” – C.S. Lewis.