4/21/10: Tobias Keene

"Tobias Keene’s paintings continue to explore, through the immediacy of color, texture and form, a quality of lost innocence. By using negative space as part of his composition, he has created a unique exploration of displacement." Artist a Day

I’ll be frank with you all, today wasn’t a great day. I’m writing this post pretty late, and that is due to the three hour tennis match that I played (and lost) against my school’s rival. It’s 8:00 pm here! But I have to admit, when I saw this painting by Tobias Keene I sort of calmed down and felt at peace. I think it has something to do with the little girl’s expression. I remember the days when I was a young child in which I was bored out of my mind due to of the stupidest things. I feel the girl’s innocence actually penetrating through the glossy finish of the painting and hitting me straight in the heart. Whether you are a child, a teenager, or a grown adult, I feel sometimes God gives us the tiniest struggles to get through. Maybe it’s a tough tennis match, or sitting for a very long time. What doesn’t kill you, does in fact make you stronger. Always remember that.

You can find more of Tobias Keene’s work here.

4/20/10: Vincent Serritella

"Of Cuban-Italian American descent, Vincent Serritella was born in Miami, Florida. The symbolism and philosophy of Latin art combined with the discipline,craftsmanship and techniques of the Italian masters have had a major influence on his work." Artist a Day

What is it that you see when you look into the mirror. All that you were? All that you are? All that you will be? For me, when I look, I see all of my hopes and dreams. Who I want to be. I have a hunch that the gentleman in this Vincent Serritella painting is seeing everything that he currently is. He is reflecting upon what he has become, and stands there with a smirk, as if to say “I like who I am”. To be honest, I think that the man in the painting has reached a state of nirvana; pure, eternal bliss. He’s wearing his life on his shirt, and his heart on his sleeve. I think that all people should try to live this way. It seems that if human beings had a little bit of humility and compassion, and were completely transparent in their way of life, people would be much happier and more importantly kinder to everybody. Until that day comes, we will just have to wait.

You can find more of Vincent Serritella’s work here.

4/19/10: Michael Klein

"Michael Klein is a talented painter with a unique sensitivity towards nature, which he acquired at a young age." Artist a Day

Peace and contentment are two beautiful things, especially when they mix with each other. Alone, these feeling are enough to make our day, week, or year; but when they coincide, it’s enough to make a lifetime. Those are the two emotions that I feel swelling up inside me when I look at this painting by Michael Klein. The serenity expressed on this girls sleeping face is something that a lot of us don’t see in our daily lives; which is a shame. It is the moments that Kline capture in his life-like paintings that bring out the innocence that we all once had. You know what, as I’m typing this post I’m starting to feel a little jealous of the girl in the painting. She is at rest and unexposed from all the problems in the world, while we are caught up in every last cultural problem. Wow, I was actually not expecting to feel this way about this artwork. Peace, contentment, and jealousy. I wish I was her.

You can find more of Michael Klein’s work here.

4/18/10: Mark Boyle

"In my early years, I explored ravines and woods near my house. Often being late for dinner lost in another world. A serious interest in painting developed at 11 years old." Mark Boyle

I believe that God made the Earth round for a reason. Beside the obvious fact that if it were flat we would all plunge into an oblivion of space debris, a round Earth helps us to stay curious. You see, we can continually travel the world and find new and intriguing things every time we stop somewhere. With a round planet we can go on for centuries and discover something new every time we make a lap. That’s whats so beautiful about life, as well as this painting by Mark Boyle. What possibly could these people be looking at? Have they discovered something new? Did they strike oil? The beautiful thing is that it doesn’t matter. They are enjoying life, exploring their surroundings and living in the moment; something that I feel not too many people still today now-a-days. They are expanding their horizons, and making the most out of what God has given them.

You can find more of Mark Boyle’s work here.

4/17/10: Robert Cannon

"Terraforming is a concept devised by the aerospace industry to describe the process of creating a habitable environments in uninhabitable places, like Mars or the Moon. I pirated the term to bring it to bear, through the works, on modernity, capitalism, indeed the whole Civilization Project which seems to me uninhabitable in certain ways." Robert Cannon

Throughout the course of human history everything hasn’t gone right. For example, the Roman Empire collapsed, Enron was fraudulent, The Leaning Tower of  Pisa didn’t work out well, and George W. Bush was elected president…twice. Obviously us humans are not perfect creations and that is the vibe that I am picking up from this terraform sculpture by Robert Cannon. What immediately caught my eye was the fact that the plant life was actually growing in the sculpture instead of on it. I feel like Cannon was trying to make a statement with this one; that although the human race may not always have the best ideas or actions, nature has a way of fixing things. From the old, dilapidated sculpture arises new life. So as the old generations die out, humans can always look forward to new ones fixing all of our mistakes.

You can find more of Robert Cannon’s work here.

4/16/10: Mel Ristau

"Mel Ristau’s aerial sculptures animate large interior spaces with color and whimsy." Artist A Day

As I sat looking at this sculpture this morning, trying to soak it in, I couldn’t help but to think of it as a brain. A child’s brain to be exact. You see, when children are young and full of innocence everything is new and shiny to them. The steel accents of Ristau’s aerial sculpture act as the ever expanding nerve cells in a growing child; always expanding and never thinking about the same thing. Whoever photographed this work did a fantastic job at capturing the essence of all things child-like and whimsical. The beaming sun shining down onto the colorful rectangular squares really makes one smile. In fact, even as I write this post, I can’t help but to eek out a smirk after having seen this piece multiple times already. To be honest, it makes me wish I was a kid all over again.

You can find more of Mel Ristau’s work here.