This week we're really digging Munk One's work. If you haven't yet heard of Munk One, you may have seen his band artwork for artists like Smashing Pumpkins, Korn, My Chemical Romance and many others. He's a contemporary American illustrator and fine artist based out of California. Since 2003 he's been exhibiting his work in galleries and shows no sign of stopping any time soon.
This week we're spotlighting several members' videoblogs on MIX. First up, ksawyer does a weekly music round-up show called New Sound Now. In this first episode, he showcases some great music videos, sources for free music, and discusses the usefulness of artist videos. I love the video he features from the Raveonettes, the chorus from "Dead Sound" has been stuck in my head since. ksawyer also fosters some thought-provoking discussion on censorship.
Lucy and Bart is a collaboration between Lucy McRae and Bart Hess. It combines McRae's interest in the relation between the human body and its environment with Hess's work in the manipulation of the bodily form.
Check out this awesome Iron Man sketch by MIX member madd sketch! Dammit, we have the most talented fans!
Flickr user Joe D! refaces U.S. bills to resemble pop culture icons in his collection: Refacing Government Tender. Aside from the humorous aspect of the refacing -- the project makes you think about the real value of paper money -- an important question nowadays as we watch the value of the U.S. dollar plummet.
As a side note, I wonder what would happen if he tried to spend his art. Would merchants would accept the bills? Legal tender is legal tender, although I'm not versed in the legality of "refacing" currency.
(via Super Punch)
This is why I love internet video. Multimedia artist Paul Slocum accumulated footage for this Full House homage over a period of 3 years and found actors across the globe (via Craigslist) to depict the classic confrontation between Joey and DJ.
Aside from the obvious humor of a corny scene being depicted over and over again, it's really quite interesting to see just how many ways it can play out.
(via A.V. Club)
Our friend Justine Ezarik, better known as iJustine, decorated a few Easter eggs this year. Lucky for us, we landed smack in the middle and got the YouTube thumbnail. I enjoy small treats. :) Happy belated Easter!
I just love this too much. An example of how even the most simple visuals can be compelling in the hands of a talented artist.
[ Via: [Via Eva Olive] ]
In this week's show and campfire discussion, we talk about 90dayjane.com. The 90 Day Jane blog was only a few days old before it was taken down by its owner. See, the blog documented the final ninety days of Jane's life before she commits suicide. She didn't know how she was going to do it, only that she was going to do it, and she was taking us along for the ride.
Check out this amazing piece of billboard graffiti by AUGOR in LA at Melrose & Mansfield. Pay attention to the detail and integration with the original billboard art. PT Anderson should be proud.
More pics and info at LAist.
Microsoft's hostile bid for Yahoo hasn't come without backlash (duh). Fearing the inevitable Microsoft conversion of Yahoo-owned Flickr, almost 3,000 Flickr users have joined the Microsoft keep your evil grubby hands off of our Flickr Flickr group. The above image is 1 of 100's submitted to the group's photo pool.
I'm not thrilled at the idea of Microsoft owning Flickr, but I'm not ready to stop using one of my favorite social networks just yet. How about you guys?
On EPIC-FU the other week we spotlighted Aesop Rock's awesome jam, "None Shall Pass." In this "making of" video, Aesop talks about the meaning of the imagery in the video. The artist who created the pieces in the video is Jeremy Fish, a really talented San Francisco-based artist who created the artwork for the album. For fans of the song and the video this is great stuff.
Thanks to our comic book industry friend Adam Wallenta, the big news this week is the return of Captain America after the assassination of Steve Rogers, the original Cappy.
That Alex Ross cover art on the right (above) is sick, but I'm not sold on the new uniform. Who follows comics out there and what do you think of the new Cappy? I'm a reformed comics junkie (I once owned over 10,000 comics, and read every single one of them) and I once owned issue #100 of Captain America from the original series.
Chip Whitehouse is a student at Indiana University getting a BFA in painting. Recently he's gotten into making speed painting videos, where he documents his painting process in generally under five minutes.
He uses ArtRage and a Wacom Intuos3 6x8 graphics tablet to make the art, screen captures the process with CamStudio and edits it all with Windows Movie Maker. He recently made one for us. It's really impressive to watch. Drop him a line and let him know what you think.
If you find yourself bored or in need of a fun distraction, artist Ferry Halim posts his delightful flash games on his site. They are all very refined and very intuitive and easy to play. I've toyed around with about 10 of them, and they were all really simple and a lot of fun.
We featured Natasha Wescoat and her artwork on the show previously. She recently twittered that she had a new video up for her artist guide series about artist pet peeves. If you're an artist, or aspiring to be one, definitely check out her blog posts, art and videos at natashasartcandy.com. Good tips and good inspiration. Also, I hear her birthday is coming up. Happy birthday Natasha!
MIX member Tia is a really talented jewelery craftsperson. I remember seeing her stuff when she uploaded a bunch of photos to MIX when she first joined many months ago and thinking how lovely the stuff was. Check out a few pieces, and then go to her store and support independent artists and craftspeople!
I've been looking for a way to work this project into a show for the past 4 months, but since it hasn't happened, I wanted to post it on the blog because I think it's such a great project. Hope Larson is an art school student and created a "kiss book" that she intended to pass around to her classmates for them to illustrate. She writes:
It ceased to be a kiss book the moment it was passed to someone without my knowledge, which was disappointing, but it turned out well anyway.I think it's fantastic. Check out some pics below, and here's a link to her blog entry with more pics, and she has her own website, too.
We live in public trailer from RADAR on Vimeo.
I saw my friend Kenyatta twitter about this a few days ago, and just recently my other friend Jay was discussing it in the videoblogging group.
If you haven't seen it yet, definitely check out web entrepreneur/multi-media artist Josh Harris' trailer for his new documentary We Live In Public. It's a socio-political and artistic experiment that looks at what happens as we propel ourselves into lives that are on perpetual public display via the web. Eight years in the making, the million dollar project hooks up 32 web cams in a Manhattan loft that's set up bunker-style and records the lives of a 100 volunteer artists/guinea pigs while discussing the implications of the project as it d/evolves into madness. It asks the question: Will we survive in public?
We have some amazingly interesting friends. Take our friend Bre Pettis for instance... who else of all the people we know would laser the 2008 calendar right onto their thumbnail? No one we can think of - except for his friend Martin apparently.
I could see this being useful for a personal countdown... difficult to forget something when it's etched on your fingernails... And if not that, well, it's definitely a conversation starter. :)
