SEX

The theme for my second year of my IB art experience is simply just 'sex'. Sex is a rather controversial subject, but at the same time it is a natural act that all people know of whether they deny it or not.
There are many ways of viewing sex, you can view it as something inappropriate and morbid, or you can view it as something beautiful. Either way, i find the topic interesting to work with.

Audrey Kawasaki is a Japanese American artist who portrays sexual behavior in the most beautiful way possible, using oil paint on wood.

Terry Richardson is a photographer who also works with sexual topics. His personal artistic photos are often raunchy and controversial.

on letting go

i haven't updated this blog for awhile... due to school and my laziness. however, i have accomplished my second culture piece. for awhile already actually but i never got around to posting it on here. it is based on the topic of women in Thailand, the issue of prostitution and women "letting go" of their traditional lifestyle. the painting is on wood, with acrylic and oil paint used. The woman lying down represents the female prostitutes of Thailand, she is naked, smoking and has heels and pearls on her head. She is naked because she has shed her culture, leaving her with nothing. She is smoking because it is taboo and untraditional to do so. She has pumps and pearls on her head because in Thailand, putting feet on the head is considered extremely disrespectful and unacceptable, and the pearls just signifies how she puts materialistic possessions before anything else (always on her mind; her head). The smoke blown out has veins in it, in the colors of the Thai flag, this shows how she has let go of her own blood and origin.
I do like this piece a lot but i feel like i should've have made it a lot bigger. I cut it in a diamond shape spontaneously, because it looked to plain being in its original rectangular shape.

demarchelier

after doing some heavy research on sasha, i came across a famous fashion photographer who is responsible for all the beautiful shots in vogue and bazaar. patrick demarchelier is a french born photographer who was raised in new york city. he has worked with all the top models, the likes of kate moss, naomi campbell, gemma ward etc.

sasha pivovarova

i have recently begun to be intrigued by strange looking models.
one that striked me was sasha pivovarova, mainly because of her interesting, out of this world alienly strikingly beautiful face. after looking around for her on the internet, i discovered that she was actually an artist herself. before getting into the modelling business, she never even thought about it, she was a struggling artist in russia who was discovered randomly.
she carries her art equipment everywhere, even during catwalks. in between walks she would work on her art. i find this extremely awesome. how unfair that a person with such a perfect physique has true talent as well. she looks so ethereal to me, she's like a little ghost who could catwalk.

barge! barge! barge!

i just got back from the revolting biology barge trip this morning. the barge itself was relaxed and really nice, especially with a nice breeze. however, the activities we had to do were boring and not to mention the 3 minute showers were harsh.
on the bright side we had a lot of funny moments and it was quite an artistic experience as well.
the sky was always beautiful, the water sparkled in the sun and some spots we were at had interesting things to look at.
one was definitely the gothic temple. this temple was built by some thai king (i dont remember) to prove to the westerners that thais have just as good architectural skills as they did. i walked through there at around 8pm with a couple of friends and the buildings were quite creepy yet magnificent.
we also visited ayutthaya and went to the ruins of the kings temple. this temple was built in respect for the kings mother in the style of the angkor wat in cambodia. however it was burned down by the burmese when ayutthaya was invaded.

my favorite spot on this whole trip has to be the little pier that i discovered with akasha, alexis and li. it reminded me of the pier in the notebook. i dont even know if pier is the right word HAHA. but that place had lots of lilly pads and it was just beautiful.
here are four more photos i took during the trip:

cultural development

i have started a new piece for our second culture theme. this piece is based on how some people let go of their cultural ways in their blood and adopt modern materialism instead. i have painted an asian looking naked woman. i plan on letting her smoke a cigarette and then painting a large part going up for the smoke. i painted the cigarette and the nakedness to represent the taboo that is against asian cultures for women. im not sure what to do next but whatever my brain wants me to do. i do.

fingers crossed photography

i have an unhealthy obsession with internet phenomenon "hannabeth" on myspace. she is a very very pretty model. anyways, whilst lurking her myspace (which i don't do very often..) i came across a photographer whom she has worked with a lot. dirk mai is his name but he is known as "fingers crossed". he is a californian based fashion photographer. his work is still quite amateur-ish but i like his style a lot. check out his myspace : http://www.myspace.com/thebearsandi