Work for Disney or not

My big brother used to say that I'd grow up to draw cartoons. He thought that was a put down. I'd love to draw cartoons, animation, claymation, rotoscopes, anything in the drawing field, cause I am a drawer.

Usually its pen and ink and then I fill in the color like you do in a coloring book.What's that called, inking? There are pencils every where in my house and usually poking holes in my purse. Felt tip pens and that good old rapidograph pen set from one of my jobs. I use markers and guache to add color. But I'm perfectly happy with black and white sketches.
This is my final blog, cause I still have other homework to do. I've really enjoyed learning how to blog, it can be addictive.

Can someone do something with this, someone sent it to me? Disney ABC Television Group,Phila, PA, Graphic Artist, part-time, requisition ID 233617 Broadcast Designer a highly motivated artist to join the creative. from PhillyJobs.com

The Eternal Elephant's Trunk

I've been working on this elephant's trunk for over a year. I want the puppet to say "elephant" by the way the trunk moves. Children should identify with the natural movement of the trunk, so its been redesigned and reconstructed many times. I love to see what other puppeteers and "constructionist" are doing. Let's not forget Abby Cadabby from Sesame Street, the way her arms are designed, they move just like a trunk.

My inspiration is bizarre designs that you might find in Cirque Du Soleil. That show is unique on so many levels, it can't be described, you just have to see it for yourself.

Or maybe I can draw from the dolls from the Long Island, NY artist Valerie Bannell. All of them are different but she keeps with the same theme of using natural objects.

And I've been in love the the fabric contruction of Deborah Banyas for years. She and her husband have an unusual style all their own.



But the person who influenced me the most is Faith Ringgold. First with her totem people and then with what she is most famous for, her story quilts. She uses her family and their textile background as inspiration.

Shepard Fairey, Street Artist or Celebrity Artist

You know this guy, he posts is art on the street. Even even if you don't know his name, you know his Obama poster.


I know I'm supposed to write about things that pull me from side to side, head or gut. But there's only one way I feel about Shepard Fairey's work. I love what his style, its clean and crisp. I love that his work was posted on the street. I love that his Obama poster made such an instant splash. Yes, its a political art, but I see the excellent design. Poster art is supposed to be fast reading and to the point. His work has those qualities and more.

Is he now legit, I don't know, but probably. If you go to the following website, his interview puts his situation and motivation in perspective:

http://creativity-online.com/news/shepard-fairey-obey-obama/124743

We should all so lucky to have our work explode on the scene like Fairey's has.

Clarence Muse

I love this actor, who was born October 7, 1889, was 9 years older than my grandmother. I'd never heard about him until a film maker who did a documentary on Clarence Muse. He was in silent films and was "old" when he got into talkies, 1929.

I was so surprised when I saw him in the 1979 film, "The Black Stallion". Mickey Rooney was in it and I don't know any of the other actors, except for Clarence Muse. Its a wonderful picture and I'm sure some of the students saw it when they were little. I just saw the picture this past week.

Here's a quick bio, he was born in Baltimore, MD. The African-American actor Clarence Muse held a law degree from Pennsylvania's Dickerson University. Opting for a show business career, Muse appeared as an opera singer, minstrel show performer, and vaudeville and Broadway actor; he also composed songs and wrote plays and sketches. An actor since the 1920s, Muse was a member of the Lincoln Players. Unfortunately, Clarence Muse, passed away 10/13/1979 the same year that "The Black Stallion" was released.

I can't believe he was still acting at age 90. In all the photographs I've seen of him , he always looked old. He's one of those great actors you never really hear about. I'm so glad I finally got to see him in a movie. "The Black Stallion" will always be one of my favorite films and not because its a great story and not just because I love horses (which I do) but because it has Clarence Muse in a small bit part.

The funny thing he's been in movies that I love, but I didn't know who he was and missed him. Maybe I'll go back and try to catch a glimse of his performance : >

Jim Henson my idol

I just had to write about Jim Henson and the Muppets. I watched the 1st season of Sesame Street when my room mates, who were education majors, kept taking about this strange show with puppets. I fell in love with the Muppets immediately. I love the Muppet Show and Fragel Rock, too.



I've always wanted to work on Sesame Street. Last year I traveled to Doylestown, PA to take Henson Workshops, with puppeteers worked with Jim Henson and on Sesame Street. It was great and really helped with a puppetry project I've been involved with for about 10 years. Some friends and I are working on a puppet show, "Anansi, the Spider and the Magi Rock". I got the meet the puppet maker who makes Miss Piggy's foam rubber legs. I attended a workshop given by the artist who designed the little fairy Muppet (what is her name?).

What to do...what to do? Go to school for puppetry or choose a major that has a job at the end of study? I can't quite justify getting a degree in puppety.

Fringe Festival 9/3/18/2010

Now for something a little more close to home. The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival/Philly Fringe. I love this festival and always stumble onto something so new, that it never even occurred to me.



I can go by myself or invite friends and family from out of town to attend the festival. I cna't be sure what's gonna happen, but something always happens.



Sometimes the event spills out into the street. You walk past a venue and it pulls you into a surprising event.



The catalog is what caught my eye the first time I heard about it and I've been saving them ever since.

Their history (livearts-fringe.org) is:
The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe were founded in 1997 by a growing group of experimental artists in Philadelphia who were manipulating traditional genres, redefining their crafts, and collaborating in ways that the greater art world had yet to see.

The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe now present sixteen days of performing arts events each year, beginning on the Labor Day holiday weekend.

The origianl history is:
In 1947, European music and theater companies were invited to perform at the first annual Edinburgh International Festival. During that same week, eight uninvited theater groups descended on the festivities without warning, adopting and inventing venues that sat mostly on the fringes of the city's center, and thereby creating an unofficial festival of their own. And so the fringe was born. Today, the two festivals coexist peacefully. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe presents thousands of artists each year, and has inspired artists in cities all over the world to join the international fringe movement.

Stephan Strumbal

This artist made a head/gut decision



He started out doing graffiti and decided he was doing a New York expression thing. So he switched to art that was more of a reflection of his background. He's from the Black Forest in Germany . The quintessential symbol of the Black Forest is a cuckoo clock. He applied his graffitti spray painting skills to transform the clocks into street inspired pieces of art. (New York Times Weekly, February 22-28, 2010)

In 2006, his first show sold out. Now he has arranged to have his designs manufactured by Anton Schneider & Sons, a 6th generation cuckoo clock maker. The prices range from $1,200 to $35,000. The designs are based on traditinal models but are adorned with grenades and handguns and capture the spirit od the new Germany that accepts its cliches with the wink of an eye.



Here is an artist that followed his own path and has become very successful in doing it his way, kind of toungue in cheek.