Art | Heather Hansen

I love doing research for art projects, because I always end up finding the most incredibly innovative people. (There are some crazy talented people out there, no lie.) The best of the artworks left over from school projects end up right here on this blog, and are often used again for my own references later. (Double score!)

This is Heather Hansen, a performance artist who uses her entire body to create these larger than life kinetic drawings. Speak of really getting in to your work, huh? Not only are her works really beautiful and simple (I'm 150% for minimalism), but the process of making these artworks makes for a great picture. Her body covered in charcoal just looks pretty darn sick.

As a performance artist, Hansen creates these works in front of live audiences in her studio, which leaves literally no room for correction of errors or "creative blocks". I think that, if nothing else (ie. God-given talent), the fact that her process is so organic is what makes the artworks so cool. I can only imagine how much self-assurance one must have to continue a charcoal drawing, smudges and all, up to the final piece, in front of people, and still seem so calm. She's amazing!

(image source: twistedsifter.com)

Heather's links: tumblr | twitter | facebook

xo,

Personal | Busy Bee

First off, I'd like to apologize for the major hiatus Oh, Kenzo has undergone. I'm not dead, but I might be dying from lack of sleep and an oversupply of work, seeing as I'm currently writing year-end exams. I think this is a pretty good justification to my absence, so please forgive me. (I'll be done in just under a week from now, hollaaaaa!)

With that said, I thought it would be a good time to show you some of what I've been up to. If you don't know, I take art and design as subjects, and so my hours are dedicated to working on my art, and although I'd like to say that this is the reason behind my non-existent social life, I doubt I'd have one without all the art to do... *laughs awkwardly*

For our exam, we were asked to research (through photography and experimentation) different viewpoints/perspectives and media. Basically, aerial views, worm's eye views etc., and media like pen, watercolour, colour pencils, etc. I've used colour pencils for the majority of the art work below, graphite pencils, black pen and watercolour for the minor sections. My hair, which was mostly cut off when photocopying the reference, was done with chalk and charcoal.

As you can probably tell from the bottom section, it's not finished, but I had to hand it in for marking nevertheless. This project pushed me to my limits, because using a bunch of foreign media in such a large piece, for me, (A2) is very daunting. I'm quite surprised by the way it turned out, considering that I've never attempted anything in colour pencils before... Anyway, blah, blah, fish paste. *rambles on forever*

Tell me what you think!

xo,

Diet Coke x Marc Jacobs

I first found out about this lovely collaboration of Diet Coke (Coke Light) and designer Marc Jacobs about a month ago. I thought that since it isn't really the newest thing on the block, everyone would have already seen it.  Now Coke has done the whole designer-collaboration thing before with Jean-Paul Gaultier here, but I think Marc's version is a little more successful. The packaging is distinctly Coke's, but has the high fashion finesse needed to make it look a little extra.

This particular rendition of the Coke bottles and tins are a celebration of 30 years of Diet Coke, and the three available designs portray women of the 80's, 90's and 00's. I fought the urge to post about it, until now, because the design is so beautiful that I couldn't help it. It's quirky, fun and flirty, and incorporates both brands really brilliantly. 

Unfortunately, only the tins are available in South Africa, which breaks my heart a bit, seeing as the bottles have a sort of chic-ness about them.

Anyway, just take a look for yourself!

xo,

Kenzo

Philip Barlow

While reading the Saltwater Girl magazine's June issue a few days ago, I saw a group of these fuzzy photographs of people all over town... Seeing as I love photography, I took a closer look, only to find out that they weren't photos at all, but paintings by Cape Town based artist, Philip Barlow. I couldn't believe it! I mean, they're absolutely incredible! 

I bookmarked that page (digitally) in seconds with the title: "blog!" So, here I am, sharing with you the work of a very talented South African artist. It triggers the patriot in me when I see us creating such beautiful things... Go figure!

You can take a look at more of Phillip's work here.

With that, I hope you're having a lovely week and a good start to the new month!

xo,

Samantha French

I would think it's fairly evident that I enjoy art and creativity. One thing I absolutely admire is when people paint water. My, oh my... I just couldn't imagine tackling something so, I don't know, intricate? Plain water is quite a feat on it's own, but when people paint objects or bodies within water, that's where I draw the line. I mean, the artistic skill it must take to get that crystalized effect on top of something is miles beyond me.

One artist I came across recently is Samantha French, whose work consists primarily of the most life-like underwater swimmers. These paintings left me speechless, which is the ultimate accomplishment, considering how much I talk! I'll let the paintings speak for themselves...

If you'd like to see more of her works, visit her website or blog, which I find a lot more interactive.

xo,

Hanging By A Thread

This week, my art teacher gave us the brief of our project for the term. One of the requirements is research, as per usual, but consisted of taking sections of artworks, and replicating them in different media such as black pen, koki pens, pins and thread, etc. Literally anything, apart from pencil.

The incredibly 70's idea of pins and thread happened to be the most appealing to me, and ran through my head for a large amount of the day, which eventually led to my sharing this with you.

I find the technique very intriguing, as one does tire from the ever common graphite pencil. After researching through every corner of the interweb, and finding the piece below, I was sold. It looks a little tricky, but I'm sure that if I execute it well enough, the 2D/3D effect will look really good.

If you're just as interested in this as I am, you can find a very good tutorial here on how to create your own small scale pin and thread artwork.

The piece below called 'Fly Away Home' is by Debbie Smyth. It is absolutely stunning, and I'm currently in a state of complete awe... Apart from the beauty of it, can we just acknowledge the sheer size of this piece! If I had ever doubted it before, this piece confirms that there's real talent in the world...

Wish me luck!

xo,