Below is just some of my artistic endeavors.
I am a portrait artist who works in colored pencil and graphite.
I periodically write and illustrate a comic strip: Sunny and Gloom.
I write miscellaneous things that may or may not become something more.
I draw caricatures that I have dubbed Cliffcatures.
I doodle.
I draw flowers in colored pencil.
I draw tattoo designs mostly tribals though I have done others as well.
The community of the World Artist Network is formed by a diverse network of emerging and established artists, art appreciators, curators, students, teachers, galleries, collectors and more. WAN Blog is the perfect space to share your thoughts on exhibits you have visited, artists you admire, new techniques or media you are experimenting with, openings, news... anything and everything that brings the art world together.
This is a photo taken by Betsy Rasmussen the other day while walking around downtown Baltimore. We see the image of two girls eating some sort of food together and both have the following message on their shirts: "ANARCHY IS A SOCIALISM". Let's break it down. I'm not clever enough to figure out if there is some kind of play on words going on here hinging on the difference between "A SOCIAL" and a variation: "ASOCIAL" which would mean not social. So yeah, this piece does bring into question the social mechanisms found and not found in the case of Anarchy. Anarchy seems like such a fantasy to me. This image seems like a lazy weekend day pinched by non-comprehensible political propaganda AND I don't... (444 more chars)
(Wednesday, 12 November 2008) Written by WAN D Jour
JAMES BRADSHAW Globe and Mail Update November 12, 2008 at 3:58 AM EST Emerging from the debris of decades of squabbles and hundreds of pages of legal documents, Toronto's Art Gallery of Ontario unveils its revamped and redesigned home this week in a state of happy detente with neighbourhood residents who once voiced fierce opposition to its transformational plans. The tensions and spats between homeowners of the Grange area date back to expansion projects completed in 1974, 1977 and 1993, which were opposed and altered by a small but tenacious group determined to protect the area's residential quality from the seemingly ever-expanding structure in their midst. But as they contemplated weeks of costly legal hearings at the Ontario Municipal Board over the most recent construc... (5434 more chars)
At the end of the day, the entire world's geo-political scene is just people saying things and doing things and some of the things said are true, some are false. Some of the things are done completely and some incompletely, but accountability holds us all responsible. I've created not only the world's largest fictional corporation (Brown Mega Corporation), but I've also co-founded an elite team called World Artist Network Team Scorpio (W.A.N.T.S.) to delve into the personal and interpersonal issues that strengthen and weaken connections amongst individuals and groups. The end goal target will be the realization of the WANAX (World Artist Network Arts eXchange), which will be the central processing unit for the global visual information economy...once it gets up and runni... (64 more chars)
(Wednesday, 22 October 2008) Written by WAN D Jour
Diamond skull will go to auction if it fails to sell, says Damien Hirst Cristina Ruiz | 20.10.08 | Issue 195 LONDON. Damien Hirst’s diamond-encrusted skull, For the Love of God, will be sold at auction if it does not find a buyer, according to the artist. In a long interview last month with the French newspaper, Le Figaro, Hirst said: “I sold 2/3 [of the diamond skull] to an investment company, I kept 1/3...We have an agreement. If they can’t sell it privately, within eight years, it will go to auction.” In a separate interview also published last month, Hirst’s business manager Frank Dunphy told Time magazine that he and Hirst’s London dealer, Jay Jopling, are also investors in the work. For the Love of God was first displayed in the exhibition... (1016 more chars)
Bid to rescue Berlin Wall artwork Whoever thought 40 years ago that at any point in time there would be efforts made to actually rescue the Wall? For decades the Berlin Wall was the physical symbol of the Cold War "Iron Curtain" between East and West. But since it was breached in 1989, one remaining part of the wall has taken on a new role, as a 1.3km art gallery. Age and graffiti have taken their toll on the art, however, and a 2.2m euro project is now under way to restore it. Organisers say the East Side Gallery is a tribute to those who died, and hope work will be complete by 2009 - the 20th anniversary of the wall's fall. In January 1989, East German leader Erich Honecker proclaimed that the Berlin Wall, built to prevent people escaping from Soviet-controlled East Berlin t... (2193 more chars)
Steve McQueen's film Hunger Set to Open at London Film Festival Steve McQueen's film Hunger, about the last six weeks of the life of Provisional Irish Republican Army hunger striker Bobby Sands, is set to be released on October 31. The film premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. McQueen received the Caméra d'Or (first-time director) Award at Cannes. Kicking off with a special gala screening at this year's prestigious London Film Festival on October 19th 2008, HUNGER is an intimate portrayal of life in Northern Ireland's Maze Prison at the time of the 1981 IRA Hunger Strike, led by Bobby Sands. The film explores what happens when the morality of people, whether prisoners or prison guards, is tested to the limit, when the body itself is used as a weapon for peop... (41 more chars)
The Yale Center for British Art features The Art of David Cox NEW HAVEN, CT - This autumn the Yale Center for British Art will be the first and only U.S. venue for a major retrospective of David Cox (1783-1859). Marking the 150th anniversary of the artist’s death, Sun, Wind, and Rain: The Art of David Cox examines the work of this important figure in the development of British landscape and watercolor painting. The first significant exhibition devoted to his work since 1983, it includes more than one hundred of his watercolors and drawings and approximately a dozen oil paintings. The works are drawn from the Center’s collection, as well as from public and private collections in Great Britain and the United States. Sun, Wind, and Rain: The Art of David Cox has been co-or... (2268 more chars)
Surrealist Wifredo Lam's Afro-Cuban Mythology Meets Salvador Dalí's Personal Myths ST. PETERSBURG, FL - Two new exhibitions which opened at the Salvador Dalí Museum this fall highlight the diverse ways Western and non-Western mythology enlivened Surrealism. Wifredo Lam in North America is the first U.S. exhibit in over 30 years to feature works by Lam, the celebrated 20th century Cuban-born artist. This national traveling exhibition organized by the Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University represents the major phases in Lam’s career, with examples spanning from 1927 through 1985. The exhibit focuses on Lam’s impact on the development of modern art in America, tracing the way in which he combined aspects of the European avant-garde with Afro-Cuban myths and... (950 more chars)
(Wednesday, 15 October 2008) Written by WAN D Jour
When imagination and real life come too close to one another, not everyone wants to hear about it... or see it, as a matter of fact. On October 13, London subway rejected at last moment an artwtork to be displayed at St. Pancras station that portrayed a commuter falling in front of a train driven by the Grim Reaper. The head of the company that commissioned it deemed it unsuitable after the London and Continental Railways (LCR) chief executive Rob Holden, who only discovered what was planned over the weekend, issued instructions to put a stop to the installation of the work because the concept was "completely unsuitable." Train drivers, the Samaritans charity and families of people who had killed themselves condemned the work, which was planned as an addition to the existing sculpture,... (1109 more chars)
Steve Powers Opening On September 21, 2008, an installation by artist Steve Powers will be opening at the Park Avenue Armory in NYC. This installation was previously shown at New York's Coney Island amusement Park in August... imagine, together with the freak show attractions. A little strong of a view for those with a weak stomach, for $1 viewers can watch as a lif-sized figure pours water over the mouth and nose of a bound man, producing 15 seconds of macabre convulsions. "Powers feels that most people are misinformed about waterboarding, which simulates the sensation of drowning. Reactions to the piece when shown at Coney Island have varied from those who find it offensive to a US veteran who applauded the work and remains “stridently pro-waterboarding”. The ... (1546 more chars)
If you would like to let us know of events happening in your area, please submit them to our "Events" calendar. Whether you are having a show or you'd just like to share some events going on in your town, post them up! Let's make of WAN the place to find the best art/fun events to visit. See you there!
NYC Madam Tussauds new wicked celebrity Okay, we all know this museum if full of wicked characters, but this latest addition provoked a visitor to decapitate the wax figure in protest of it showing soon at the museum's branch in Germany... can you guess? "A visitor decapitated a wax statue of Adolf Hitler in July minutes after it went on view for the first time at Madame Tussauds. The 41-year old was protesting the museum’s decision to include a statue of the former Nazi dictator in its new Berlin branch. The museum plans to put the work back on display once it has been repaired." - source: www.theartnewspaper.com
Doubts over Picasso sale THE AUSTRALIAN Corrie Perkin | May 10, 2008 ROD Menzies, the owner of art auction houses Deutscher-Menzies and Lawson-Menzies, makes no secret of his ambition to be the market leader. But this week, when he announced his decision to sell a 1954 Picasso painting through his own D-M Sydney auction next month, even industry colleagues were perplexed. Why sell the painting in Australia and not, say, New York or London? And why auction a work valued at between $5million and $7million at a time of international art market uncertainty and local nervousness about the economy? Mr Menzies paid $US4.6 million for the vibrant painting, titled Sylvette, at a New York auction two years ago. The businessman, who made his fortune through cl... (3933 more chars)
ART Italians, Cleveland museum not quite in sync over agreement to return works Saturday, May 10, 2008 Steven Litt Plain Dealer Art Critic Italy sent conflicting signals Friday about whether it had reached an agreement with the Cleveland Museum of Art over returning ancient works of art the country believes were looted. The Associated Press reported that the Italian Culture Ministry in Rome announced completion of an agreement with the museum under which 16 unspecified objects would be returned. But when contacted by The Plain Dealer, Maurizio Fiorilli, the lawyer handling the negotiations for Italy, at first said that there was no agreement yet and that the original AP report was "sbagliato" -- mistaken. He said the culture ministry's statement was only "an expres... (1737 more chars)
Freud's Heavyweight Nude Gets $35 Million Price: Martin Gayford Commentary by Martin Gayford May 12 (Bloomberg) -- The art world may be about to welcome a new heavyweight champion. If the estimate is correct, ``Benefits Supervisor Sleeping'' by Lucian Freud is about to become the most expensive work by a living artist to change hands at auction. The naked portrait of a very substantial public servant goes under the hammer at Christie's International in New York tomorrow evening, with the auction house expecting the 1995 work to fetch up to $35 million. That compares with the 22 million pounds ($42.87 million) that London's National Gallery paid in 2004 for Raphael's ``Madonna of the Pinks.'' That was a smaller picture of a s... (2953 more chars)
There are lots of things I should be doing right now. One of them is art. OK most of them are art or art related. What am I doing instead? Google Image Labeler. Dammit I am addicted.
I have been working on my comic strip Sunny and Gloom a lot lately. I am in the middle of doing expression keys for each of the title characters. some of the expressions are coming easier than others. I am sure with enough practice I will grow to hate these hopefully comparably crude attempts. I am also working ona dog portrait commission. On top of that I have at least three blogs and numerous message boards to talk about doing things while being distracted from actually doing them. Such as now. Well now I just need a bit of a break before bed otherwise I will be drawing faces in my sleep.
Odd there is a blog about a Courbet exhibit at the Met that is listed as haven been written by me yet I wrote no such blog. Odd very odd. At least I don't think I wrote it. Which dimension is this again?
Through May 18, 2008 if you live nearby NYC, you can't miss this exhibit. This is a magnificent collection of over 100 works from this fantastic artist. He is considered one of the pioneers of modernism. The impressive landscapes and nudes depicted in this collection together with family and friend portraits create an atmosphere that transports visitors to a different time, gaining the insight of an intrincate mind and an impecable technique. For more about this exhibit, visit the www.metmuseum.org
Upcoming events in the Los Angeles area Pinche Michi "Sola" Mar 25 - April 16, 2008 Casita del Pueblo 6738 Greenleaf Ave. Whittier, CA 90601 Opening Reception: Saturday March 29, 2008 6:00pm - 9:00pm RSVP: (562) 693-2844 www.casitadelpueblo.com Brewery Spring Art Walk Apr 5-6, 2008, 11 am - 6 pm The Brewery 2100 N. Main St. Los Angeles, CA 90031 *FREE ADMISSION & PARKING!!!!* www.thebrewery.net "Love Birds" Solo Exhibit by Hawaiian Artist Renee Visaya Reception: April 19th, 7 - 10pm Exhibit runs April 19th to May 10th, 2008 Blue Bird Art House 6747 Bright Ave. Whittier, CA 90601 (562) 696-9493 bluebirdarthouse@verizon.net - www.bluebirdarthouse.com
Blogs 
The community of the World Artist Network is formed by a diverse network of emerging and established artists, art appreciators, curators, students, teachers, galleries, collectors and more. WAN Blog is the perfect space to share your thoughts on exhibits you have visited, artists you admire, new techniques or media you are experimenting with, openings, news... anything and everything that brings the art world together.