Great New Artists

Who says advertising design can’t be cute? Not iG Parental control! Their naked stuffed animal campaign is one of the cutest ad campaigns I’ve seen in a long time. It features the line “Children can learn many things on the internet” and uses stuffed animals ( a cow and two bears) to demonstrate the danger of children stumbling upon porn sites.

It’s only a little disturbing and actually it sounds worse than it is. I don’t think too many children will be asking where the bears clothes went anyway. It’s a clever way of avoiding racy pictures or boring text ad techniques to advertise a much needed but highly specific product.

When you come from a country as beautiful as Malaysia it’s probably pretty hard not to take up photography at least for Kaism it was. His shots show the beauty in vast landscapes as well as delicate close-ups of everything from tiny flowers to sculptors he happens to meet.

He works in black and white as well as color proving that he not only has an eye for color but for geometry as well as light and shadow. He also shows off his panoramic work done in Photoshop.

I have a tendency to think everything looks better in black and white but subject matter is key and Kaism has proven this through his Oct. 08 shots he took in China.

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.

It’s hard not to fall in love with Locksin. The 23-yr-old illustrator/photographer from Malaysia endears herself to her audience with her blog which showcases her talents and personality without a lot of flashy graphics or bright colors whcih is very admirable in this age when it seems MySpace has made awkward graphics the norm in many cases.

She takes photographs, draws and writes short stories all of which shows up in her blog in some form which is headed by an adorable “here I am” picture and an about me quote: “I love what I do, I’m appreciate what I have, I’m enjoying with my life,” a sentiment we could all use in the new year.

Chen Man is the kind of photographer I like to see. Her work captures something beyond the outer beauty of the make up and lighting effects. She has photographed work for Nylon as well as many Chinese fashion mags like Vision and Chinese Vogue.

All you need to do is look at her website once to see that she is not only interested in fashion for fashion’s sake but also in geometry in nature which is one of the reasons her work is recognizable as Chinese almost immediately. Her subjects are not only high fashion models but she also plays off of the natural beauty of the female face and how figures interplay with light and surroundings.

I love Meekakitty! There I said it. I love her for the same reason I love everything I write about here–she’s brilliant (otherwise why would it be called Great New Artists?).

The videos that prompted this post were both posted very recently. One to her Meekakitty channel and one to her other channel which is collaborative 5awesomebuckfans.

I think the idea for these videos started with the challenge posted by another member of 5awesomebuckfans to post a video which showed something about your life either silently or not (she obviously chose silent) which was a brilliant idea (BTW I do watch 5ABF but only because Meekakitty’s is a member not because I love Michael Buckley).

Meekakitty is really a model named Tessa and she has a MySpace page too.

Was this post too stalkery…? I may want to ask her about that (she would know)

I got a Flip Video Ultra for Christmas so I think I can review it with some authority albeit very quickly. The Flip Video Ultra is not HD but it sure comes close enough for me. I got mine for making videos for YouTube in particular art videos and vlogs and I didn’t see paying $500 on a camera that I was going to carry with me everywhere.

I quickly found out I didn’t have to! There are two versions one 30 minute and one 60 minute and they record using flash memory technology which means, no tapes or cards and the camera can be plugged directly into the computer.

Here’s my first video (goofy but it was a test anyway) and here’s the website, check it out for yourself! I’m looking forward to getting the HD version in the future.

For those of us who have not totally let go of the Christmas spirit this blog post may be of some interest. Christmas Photos From Around The World posted in a blog at My Modern Metropolis showcases some of the best and most interesting photos from Christmas celebrations around the world like Paris, France; Germany and even Iraq.

There’s even a giant sand sculpture of Santa in India! My favorite from the bunch has to be the first one of the ultra-decorated house in England.

So if any of you love Christmas all year round Merry Christmas and happy New Year again!

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

After the recent holiday blowouts that left many of us with no money for charitable giving in the first part of the new year I thought it would be nice to write about a charity that takes nothing but a little time and talent (ok it may be a little more than that).

Operation Photo Rescue is a charity run by a network of volunteers who give their time and talents to restore old photos and documents that have been ravaged by flooding and other disasters around the US in the past years.

I got involved with this charity through NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) shortly after becoming a member in September of 2008 (what a difference a day makes!).

Volunteers typically do two photos a week but they do choose which photos they do which means that it not only helps the people receiving the finished product but also can be a great boon to developing your talents in photo restoration. They always have thousands of photos and need volunteers so check them out.

Happy New Year everybody!