Miriam Brumer

 

Miriam Brumer

 

 

 

                     Our special artist for today goes under the name of Miriam Brumer. She was born in New York City and currently resides there. Her education consisted of a MFA in Painting, Boston University BA, and in Art and English, University of Miami. The inspiration for her work stemmed from nature itself (No pun intended). Throughout many of her drawings she invests in trying to imply a sense of change, growth, and impending eruption. She also tries to invoke the intrinsic characteristics of plants, cells, or underwater creatures instead of the outer characteristics. As you may have guessed she saw her art as a way to relate to the natural world and emphasize its own scurrility. Her artwork is located in New York City, and New Jersey.

 

Now here's the image of the painting:

http://www.drawingcenter.org/viewingprogram/portfolio.com

Electric Tango acrylic and ink on paper 2011 23" x  30"

Why did I choose this picture you might ask? I chose this picture because of its colors and how it portrayed the plants in a surreal fashion. Each plant has its own unique patterns and colors like the Venus flytrap in the middle and the flower between the Venus flytrap and tulip for example. However, I think her other works have a lot more appeal and creativity within them which you can find at http://www.neoimages.net/artistportfolio.aspx?pid=572. So as always feel free to visit that site anytime you want. So enjoy and I look forward from hearing from you.

 

Christian Nguyen

 

 

 

The artist for today's blog goes by the alias of Christian Nguyen. He was born in 1968 at Saigon, Vietnam which was of course during the last 7 years of the Vietnam War. Since 1975, he lives in New York City. His main objective is to emphasize the many ways that space can be seen and used. What he means is that there's an understanding between the formal image (focusing on what's on the surface) and the perceptual image (Symbolizing the figurative context). Some of his drawings are produced threw layers of epoxy resin polished and smoothed by sandpaper and placed on top of each other. The transparent top layers force the pictures to work with and against each other to create a transition between the formal color dotted layers and the figurative graphite layers. Another theme found in his works is the use of architecture which was used to emphasize the concept of space and it shows. Some of his graduate rewards are invoked in the form of the 2000 Master of Fine Arts from the Hunter College, Graduate Program, the 1991 Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Cooper Union, School of Art and the 1986 International Baccalaureate from the U. N. International School.

 

Here's one image of his works that can be found at the Drawing Center:

http://www.drawingcenter.org/viewingprogram/portfolio.com

The image is called the Divan.

Graphite, epoxy resin and acrylic on panel

2011

32" x  48"  x 2"

 

               I chose this one because it associated very well with one of his methods of creating his form of art. So, why do I like this art piece to some extent? Well here's the thing, at first it is just a bunch of dots in a multitude of colors placed in a unique pattern. However, when you take a closer look at the image, you'll notice that there is some form of architecture in the picture which takes the picture's subtly to a whole new level, making the picture a bigger challenge to the viewer's eyes.

 

However some of his works also come in the form of this:.

The image is known as obviously; the Three Staircases. 

Charcoal and acrylic polymer on canvas

2007

42" x  66"  x 2"

 

               This image consists of the use of the horizon, the vanishing point, and of course the handling of spacing. Thanks to the details within the paper layer, the image looks very three dimensional. The other thing that I like about this drawing is that the image is layered in a very unique way as the paper is layered over the charcoal layer giving the picture a big sense of surrealism. As you might have guessed, Christian Nguyen's Three Staircases caught my attention the most compared to the Divan. That's not to say the Divan wasn't interesting in its own right, but the Three Staircases was what sold me to Christian Nguyen's creativity. I decided to include these two images because I want to emphasize the strangeness and creativity of Christian Nguyen's projects. So if you want to find more of his work, you can find it at the above link or at  http://www.re-title.com/artists/Christian-Nguyen.asp. So, enjoy looking Christian's surrealism and Good Day!

 

Margaret Griffith



 

 

 

                 "Now for something completely different" as one of the characters from Monty Python would say, because this project won't be drawing related. Instead it is sculpture related. The creator of this project is named Margret Griffith. Her art style and technique was inspired by the man-made structures' spaces. Through these things, she has made herself determined to analyze architectural elements from abstraction to perspective. Most of her drawings consist of geometric division of space and the use of the grid. However when the Great Recession or in her case; the Next Great Depression hit the Global Economy, she started to take pictures of empty houses to support her work while understanding the emptiness in the context of Eastern thought. Recently she has been taking an interest in taking pictures of the front gates of her neighborhood. Afterwards she then projects the images on to paper and removing the negative spaces leading to life size paper replicas. The designs are piled up on top of one another on the wall and the floor to produce a three dimensional abstraction consisting of patterns, lines, shapes and mass. Through this she started to emphasize the themes of the metamorphic relationships regarding urbanism as well as theft, fear, isolation and possession. The gates according to her for example, represent confinement. She earned her education degrees from the Cranbrook Academy of Art (2001) and the Maryland Institute College of Art (1994).

 

Low and behold the image featured on the Drawing Center.

http://www.drawingcenter.org/viewingprogram/portfolio.com

 

The image is called Coringa

Handcut paper

2012

Dimensions variable              The reason I chose this image is because it was pretty unique and surreal as far as sculptures go. I mean just pay attention to details of each piece of the paper foils. Each variable has its own pattern and when all of those patterns are molded together, they create a strange mish mash of shapes. The patterns also resemble melted and bent metal (although the patterns are of course made out of paper). Based on what I researched, the patterns used to make the picture imply what the actual gates looked like. I don't know what else I can say about this piece of work other than it is a very creative sculpture using a careful use of spacing and placement. You can always find more of Margaret's work at http://www.margaretgriffith.com/. So if you have the time go visit her site and be intrigued by Margaret's many projects and other works.