World Body Painting Festival

The ‘World Body Painting Festival 2009’ ended a couple of weeks ago in Austria. The celebration has been fashioned to promote the art of body painting, support artists all over the world and finally to encourage fair trade between artists and companies. It has been around since October 2001 and involves a show that mixes music, dance, choreography and a circus to parade the body designs. The competition is distinguished by categories; brush-sponge, airbrush, special effects, fluoro effects and face painting then results are giving based on 1st, 2nd and 3rd winners.

The idea is for professional body painters or painters who paint for a hobby to show off their skills and be appreciated for their talents. By looking at pictures of some models online, it’s clear that there’s a multitude of talented artists that take part in the event and have been given a good opportunity to show the public what they are capable of. The style of each model depends on the medium, what you can do with that medium and what sort of effect you desire.

The brilliant feature of the festival is that the association holds an academy to help people develop skills so that they are able to body paint and eventually take part in the festival. The academy includes painting and airbrushing workshops, lectures and demos and special effects therefore individuals can be given the basic skills and then cultivate their own style. It’s difficult to tell you what different designs appear in the festival so it’s worth having a look at the website.
http://www.bodypainting-festival.com/

Rockpool

Today I went to see the ‘Rockpool’ exhibition in Bolton Market Place by the Neoartists, and also find a little more about this group of artists/designers that have come together.

Basically, the Neoartists are a group of about thirty artists which consists of painters, sculptors, printmakers, photographers etc who enjoy fine art and design, and want to show the public their work. The members come from a variety of backgrounds; the majority are students from Bolton University and others from industry, schools, or just individuals who are passionate about art. A donated space within Bolton Market Place is used to exhibit and sell their work, along with trying to promote the group and used to spread the word. To find out more check the groups’ website out www.neoartists.co.uk.

The work I saw at the exhibition today was very diverse, yet interesting! Even though there was lots of inspired and exceptional work in the exhibition, there were two particular works that caught my eye, first was the cubist style painting below by Lita Narayan ‘Go For Gold’.

The painting is pretty explosive and combines a range of mixed media on canvas. It seems to have this mirrored effect occurring throughout the image, and comes across as an exciting scumble that is quite geometric. The colour palette choice meant the piece stood out in the exhibition like a sore thumb [which is good thing!] The mixture of gold and red gives me the impression of class and value, making the work more sophisticated and suave. The price tag of ‘Go For Gold’ is £375.

The second composition was created by Janine Williamson entitled ‘Resonance of Memory’ and is a thought provoking piece of work. The ceramic project uses 42 porcelain boxes on a table that each contain either text or image on the front, and an item inside. I think the concept behind the design was that the images and items are there to remind you of a time when you used these items [for example a photo of a bike].

The piece is very interactive, and whilst I was in the studio two children came in and started looking at different boxes. This eventually led to each of them talking about events where they used these items in life and brought back memories from the past. For this reason I thought this work would be ideal for a school environment, and the style of the design allows the porcelain boxes to be altered by giving users the freedom to reveal to different items. However, for a home situation it may not be as practical and will ultimately become boring.

Finding out about the Neoartists was a valuable experience for me, and I give these artists credit for promoting themselves as a team and bringing art and design to the public eye in Bolton. Who knows, if I feel in the near future I have the calibre to produce work like these artists, you may see my work being exhibited in Bolton!

Swine Flu 'Patient Zero' Lives Forever

With the issue of swine flu hitting the headlines everyday, Mexico have chose to make a bold move by erecting a statue from the originator of the epidemic, the one and only little Edgar Hernandez!

Manufactured by Mexican sculptor Bernardo Luis Artasanchez little Edgar measures 4 feet high and weighs in at 70 kg. Apparently created at the petition of the Veracruz [home of Edgar] authorities, the statue represents Mexico defeating the virus and subsequently attracting more tourists.

Hmmm, don’t think I agree with the reasoning behind the statue and whether it will benefit Mexico, but I do understand the victory over the virus theory. Although, I’m pretty certain Edgar Hernandez will not want to be remembered in his home town as swine flu patient zero, let alone by tourists that visit Mexico as well!

The Mexican tourist commerce is suffering since swine flu has emerged, but surely this is not the direction to go to attract tourists again! Maybe focusing on how Mexico has returned to a normal life after the outbreak would be a wiser concept, but encouraging tourists to visit Mexico to see a statue? I’m not convinced.
*Photograph from www.mirror.co.uk

One & Other

The public in Trafalgar Square London recently began a new project where each individual can be part of the living statue. Here’s how it works, every hour for 100 days different people will be hoisted up onto a plinth that stands about 6.7 metres high, and each person can do whatever they like in this time.

I’ve not had much time to think about the project but I imagine it’s just for a bit of fun, and is trying to bring people together. The plinth has been housing contemporary art works for the past ten years, and was vacant prior to 1999 so Antony Gormley’s took it upon himself to use this space as a tool. The ‘One and Other’ project began on 6th July and involves 2,400 members of the public being chosen randomly from 18,000 applicants to create this piece of art, if you can call it that!

Members of the public are able to have their ‘15 minutes of fame [x4]’ on this plinth and can show off any talents they have, singing, drawing, acting etc with an audience present.

I think the concept of using people in a public place this way is creative and dramatic, along with giving individuals the opportunity to be creative and make a name for themselves. The audience will not know what to expect from each statue, but gives them the chance to discover the different people living in their community. Sheer entertainment seems like another good reason for starting a project like this, and I think it’s only inevitable that somebody will eventually get on this plinth naked and try to steal the show!

*Photograph taken by Peter Macdiarmid

Sure, For A Price That Won't Make You Sweat.

Sure anti-perspirant deodorant has a new campaign to promote its product to the consumer in the harsh times of the credit crunch. I only noticed the Point of sale during my shift at work [Tesco] and thought I'd show you the concept that Sure have gone with.













The Unilever company Sure may have seen a drop in sales over the past year due to consumers buying cheaper brands, so want to change the customers perception of their well known brand with this campaign.

The strap line used 'Confidence, for a price that won't make you sweat' is interesting because it incorporates this idea of price [along with the image] yet still includes the purpose for using an anti-perspirant.

The RRP of a 150ml Sure aerosol can is £1.73 and together the coins make up this figure [not that we can tell]. The TV ad uses the same concept, created by ad agency Lowe London, and shows the coins falling to make up a deodorant can.

I think the concept is good, and does well to get this idea of price across and still focus on the products core purpose. The campaign is clean and refreshing, which represents their brand and what Sure deodorants are about. However, the campaign seems to be going overlooked, and the public aren't really noticing what Sure are trying to do. I've probably seen the ad on TV a dozen times but didn't take much notice until I did some research into it, and watched it online. The campaign is missing something - the shock factor, and in times when deodorant brands [Lynx etc.] are trying innovative and unique ideas, Sure has stuck to something quite regular and simple which I think may be the wrong way to go.

Blackrod Scarecrow Festival 2009

I know it was a while ago, but on the weekend of the 4th July, I decided to finish work early and visit the annual scarecrow festival in Blackrod which my work mates were talking about.

Others did not think much of the event and didn't seem that interested to be honest but I just thought I'd check it out and see for myself. Obviously the idea was about having fun for the people making the scarecrows, and for the public enjoying the event. It attracted a great deal of visitors and let people show off their skills too!

The scarecrow above, Liam Gallagher, was a major highlight of the event because it looked just like him! I'm not sure what materials were used to create the scarecrow but I loved the attention to detail they had put in, particularly the Stella can by his right foot! It kind of reminded me of the wax models that are in the Blackpool Waxwork Museum so it maybe worth a visit.

Unfortunately I only caught the event nearing the end, and it was beginning to rain so many scarecrows had been taken down. However I did a little research online and saw some other photos that shows how good some of the scarecrows were. The techniques and media used to create the scarecrows were all different, along with the way the creators dressed and styled them. There didn't seem to be two of the same character so it was good to see that people were being creative when thinking of who to base there scarecrow on. Enjoy!

Bolton's Got Talent

Whilst browsing through the Bolton News last week I saw that Bolton University were hosting an art exhibition entitled 'Bolton's Got Talent'. The exhibition was used to display the best A Level and GCSE artwork from local schools including Canon Slade, Bolton School and Smithills etc. I thought visiting the exhibition would be a good opportunity to see the standard of work coming from schools these days, and I've got to say I was pleasantly surprised! The quality of work was amazing, and some of the concepts along with the various mediums used were brilliant. The different ideas and techniques that I saw were good to see in such young people, and I could see that many of them were not constrained to boundaries that more experienced designers are. Not only were the ideas fresh and innocent, but some of the drawing and fine art abilities were top class. Particularly the pastel drawing of the Joker from one of my favourite films Batman: The Dark Knight.














These graphic artist skills show real potential, and it doesn't stop at that. I saw some brilliant scumbles and a textiles project that really caught my eye, where the pupil had created food for a tea party totally out of textile materials. At first glance I thought it was real food but after a closer look I could see how different materials had been used to make food. It was clear how much detail and effort had been put in to make the cakes and chocolates etc. look genuine.

The skills that these young people have show real potential, and hopefully they'll get the grades they deserve. It is good to see that art and design is still booming and that ideas and design work are improving all the time. During my own school time, the standard of work was nowhere near this level so who knows where it will be in 5 years time!