Great New Artists

January has been a successful month so far here so I thought I would do a little time-out housekeeping-type post for all my lovely readers.

So far 2009 has seen a lot of new artists from YouTube and other sites on the internet but I thought it would be in keeping with my more academic nature if February took a slightly different track. I feel it is neccessary to understand old art in order to truly appreciate new art so the month of Feb will be dedicated to some of those old favorites with short descriptions of why they were so great.

Hopefully the rest of 2009 will get back to my roots here at Great New Artists and find some more great painters &ct. making great new art for everyone. Since the summer is usually pretty heavy with this kind of thing floating around we’ll keep our eyes peeled for that around that time.

OK this site transcends a few different types of artistic interests. It’s for fashionistas who want to try on a lot of different looks without a lot of time or money, it’s for web design students who need something great to write about in class and of course it’s for readers of this blog. It’s called Taaz a free virtual makeover tool that not only allows users to try on new make up and hair on virtual models or their pics but also will show you which brands and colors you are using. You can come up with some pretty great high fashion stuff or some pretty prctical looks that look awfully realistic with minimal effort.

In keeping with the tradition of counting down and looking back which seems to transcend generations and religions every year round about this time I decided to write about some of the best new artists I found this past year.

Valsartdiary I actually found out about her a while ago before 2008 started but her style is classic.

Katarina Sokolova one of the best digital painters I have ever seen.

Kawaii Goods.com great little shop full of pink stuff.

Graffiti Paris is a book not a person or organization but it still counts as one of the best art related things I found this year.

Of course there have been a lot more great things this year than just these but it’ll be more fun if I don’t tell you what else to like

The NoHo Scene Festival is happening on October 5^th this year from 11am until 5pm featuring art, music, theatre, dance, acting, art workshops and screenings. I’m assuming this happens in LA or Hollywood or somewhere else I can’t get to by then. You have to wonder about their slogan though, if it really is more fun than you can fit in a day why don’t they make it longer?

The artists village part of the festival will feature exhibits by Danz Art & Deb Ash, Vera Arutyunyan, Thom Bierdz, Ralph Berko, D.V.L. Productions, Fine Art Fire, Felicite Imam’s Fine Art Prints & Cards, Ruggiero Photography and many more

Being a semi-professional anglophile it has seemed that I have spent a lot of time studying other countries lately specifically where art is concerned but this is one time where I’m more than happy to return to my love of London art and tell you all about Aled Lewis—graphic designer.Simply put, he designs t-shirts. More complicatedly put he designs funny t-shirts which make people laugh and/or think. And as he confesses himself on his website he also likes speaking in third person. The fact that he’s an illustrator is not such a shock when you read his background. He says he loves design because he liked to doodle (which come to think of it is pretty much the reason I do it too). My personal favorite of his designs are Self Sufficient, A Simple Explanation and She Screamed but to no Avail. Check out all his designs here.

OK so obviously I’m being a little tongue in cheek with that title but I do think I’m pretty great. I thought since I am an artist why deprive myself of a little profile action in my own blog?

So where to begin? Well let’s start with why I like art: I have been studying art for as long as I can remember because I grew up with parents who were artists. Both my parents have music degrees and were music teachers before I was born. My mother was also a brilliant (well, is) painter in traditional media like acrylics and pastels. So I have had quite the number of years of training for someone my age. I started proper art school studying Visual Communications in 2005 (I will finish in Dec. 2008) which everyone assumes has something to do with sign language (it’s mostly graphic design).

I started studying acting in high school and have performed on stage in plays and concerts including last Christmas when I was in the choir at one of the Point of Grace Winter Wonderland shows in Greensboro, NC.

I have since focused my attention on being a freelance graphic designer full time including running my own online fashion design gallery Future Tense Fashion My homepage Future Tense features the fashion shop and an artist resources page which is always being updated with new links as well as the RSS feed of my other blog at Wordpress.com.

For now I am seeing where my art takes me and plan to start making and selling brushes and textures for Photoshop artists as well as adding a portfolio to my online website network. I also plan to travel to China next year with my church before studying for a Master’s Degree.

Great New Artists is looking for new artists from all genres to participate in this blog. You can be an artist from any discipline including film (even actors), music, visual arts, writing or anything else you can think of to be profile subjects. Whether you have had your big break or no one has seen your art outside of your hamster’s cage we want to see your work.

Great New Artists is a blog which desires to showcase the new and exciting works of the contemporary art scene all over the world. I know you guys are doing some amazing work out there that no one has thought of before so show it off!

Just contact me, Whitney at missfishdesigns@yahoo.com or on MySpace or on The Outer Post just make sure you send a small sample of your work (this can be an attachment or a website address in the message) and include Great New Artists in the subject line.

I can’t wait to hear from you all!

XOXOXO

I love Asian art particularly their fashion accessories and style. Recently because I am a member of Zazzle I found out about Kawaii Goods.com. This is the store of freelance designer Mochi-Chan who describes herself as a web developer who loves cute things.

I love cute things too and her cute things are currently on the top of my list especially where new fashion is concerned. I think the trend since 2000 has been toward this kind of thing bright colors, girly pinks and yellows, cute characters and probably will be more so as the decade wears on. It kind of gives one hope that the 1960’s mod style will go out of style at some point. Not that I don’t like that sort of sleek, defined look but it’s so hard to keep up and sometimes you just want to be a cute girl again!

These kinds of artists that seem like they are working under controlled chaos are a constant inspiration for me and anyone who likes Gwen Stefani knows what I mean. This is the epitome of fashion to me total creativity and not just what will sell to that housewife in New York.

Now go on, buy some cute stuff!