Oddity Central |
- 5 Talented Artists Who Paint with Wine
- Beautiful Leila Khaled Portrait Made of 3,500 Lipsticks
- The Hikikomori – Japan’s Social Outcasts
- Urine Iron Man Wins Art Competition
| 5 Talented Artists Who Paint with Wine Posted: 21 Mar 2012 09:28 AM PDT
If there’s one thing I’ve learned writing for OC, it’s that the truly talented are able to create breathtaking art out of literally anything, even ordinary stuff like packing tape or sprinkles. So when I read about wine art, I decided to look up the artists who work with the drinkable medium. After doing a little snooping around, we discovered these five amazing artists, who create the most beautiful wine paintings. Christina LoCascio What would a person with a Fine Arts degree and a career in the wine industry do? Why, paint with wine, of course! And that's exactly what Christina LoCascio has been doing since 2002. She is credited with the development of a new technique using wine as her palette, making use of different grape varieties. Several paintings in Christina's portfolio reflect a wine narrative – there are vineyards, grapes and wine bottle portraits. She also uses subjects to portray the emotional experience of enjoying a glass of wine. Her art has a very classy, elegant feel to it.
Photos: Christina LoCascio Nelva Richardson Nelva Richardson started out as a medical illustrator, spending over 30 years in the profession. When the latest graphics technology began to invade the field of medical illustration, she realized that she missed traditional art, creating strokes on canvas with a brush. It was on a whim that she began to paint with wine, while on vacation in Italy. Initially she made thank-you cards for her friends, but soon moved on to more serious paintings and portraits. Today her wine paintings are on display and for sale in wineries of Napa and Sonoma valleys.
Photos: Nelva Richardson Philippe Dufrenoy The 56-year-old began his tryst with art and wine rather late in life, but he's more than made up for it. When the engineer from Bordeaux lost his job, he was disillusioned, not knowing what to do with his life. While he sat at a café contemplating his future, he idly dipped a brush in his glass of red wine and drew a garnet sketch. There was no looking back after that. Philippe Dufrenoy is known to paint with only very strong, young wine, as older ones tend to fade quickly. He uses wine from Bordeaux or California, and the colors used range from garnet to cranberry. His wine paintings usually depict several chateaux and vintners in Bordeaux.
Photos: Philippe Dufrenoy Elisabeth Seguin 75-year-old Elisabeth Seguin has been painting with wine for the past 10 years now. The former home economics teacher has developed a pretty unique method – she places the deposit left by the wine at the bottom of the bottle in a small cup, and allows it to dry in the sun, until a film is formed. This is the color she then uses in her paintings. Even her stroke technique is different. "When I paint, I dip my brush in the wine and I dab," she says. Photos: Elisabeth Seguin Elisabetta Rogai We've already featured this Florentine artist here on OC. The remarkable painter stuck on to her chosen form of wine art, despite the difficulties of using alcohol as paint. After a lot of research and experiments, she was finally able to perfect a system of natural color fixating based on flour and water. So the colors don't change, and the painting doesn't fade away with time. If you want to learn more about Elisabetta Rogai‘s remarkable wine paintings, check out our previous article on her.
Photos: Elisabetta Rogai I don't know about you, but all this talk of wine has made me quite thirsty for a glass of delicious wine! 5 Talented Artists Who Paint with Wine was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
| Beautiful Leila Khaled Portrait Made of 3,500 Lipsticks Posted: 21 Mar 2012 08:25 AM PDT
Last year, Palestinian artist Amer Shomali paid homage to Leila Khaled, a woman revolutionary who became famous as “the poster girl of Palestinian militancy” after hijacking a plane, in 1969. He created a unique portrait made of 3,500 lipsticks for an art exhibition at Birzeit University. We’ve featured many awesome pixelated portraits on Oddity Central, like the one made of plastic bottle caps, by Marry Ellen Croteau, or that of Shannon Larratt, made of 10,000 metal nails, but this is the first one we’ve senn made of thousands of lipsticks. Using the famous photo of Leila Khaled holding an AK-47 and wearing a kaffiyeh, taken by Eddie Addams as reference, Amer Shomali created a sort of canvas out of lipstick holders and then arranged 3,500 lipsticks of 14 different colors to best recreate the Palestinian icon’s visage. Called “Icon”, Shomali’s artwork was featured in a an art exhibition organized at Birzeit University.
Photos via Facebook via Amer Shomali (thank you!) Beautiful Leila Khaled Portrait Made of 3,500 Lipsticks was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
| The Hikikomori – Japan’s Social Outcasts Posted: 21 Mar 2012 07:36 AM PDT
Hikikomori (Japanese for “pull in”) is a term that refers to reclusive adolescents and young adults who choose to isolate themselves from social life. With about a million people in Japan suffering from Hikikomori, I suppose you could call it an epidemic of sorts. Except, the condition is not spread through physical means, it's purely psychological. It is a phenomenon of social withdrawal that's pretty much swept the nation in the past few years. About 80% of hikikomori are male, in their teens or twenties, and do not leave the confines of their rooms. They don't go to school or to work, spending their days in the homes of their parents, reading, watching TV or surfing the internet, consuming meals left for them at the door. A good example of a typical hikikomori is this boy I've been reading about. His mother supposedly refused to reveal his name, fearing social retribution for the boy. The 17-year-old was a normal child, but began to hate school about three years ago. This was after he became a victim to bullying and anonymous hate letters. One day, he suddenly returned home and locked himself in the kitchen. He's been in there ever since, refusing to come out or let anyone in. The family's response to this most unusual condition is even more strange. They have simply 'moved on', accepting the boy's behavior as something he will eventually grow out of. They've built a new kitchen in the house, and his mother takes meals to his door three times a day. In fact, this is the manner in which most Japanese respond to hikikomori – with utmost tolerance. Photo: Nekoguchi While hikikomori doesn't sound very different from psychological disorders such as Asperger's, schizophrenia, or agoraphobia, there is no evidence linking it to any of these. In fact, many experts are now saying that hikikomori might not even be a psychological problem, but a social one. In order to understand a condition that's unique to Japan, one needs to take a deeper look into the Japanese history and culture. Photo: Danny Choo Solitude is not exactly perceived as unnatural in the Japanese culture. On the contrary, it is even celebrated at times. Not surprising, given that the country had cut itself off from the outside world until the mid-nineteenth century, when the Western world began its intrusion. The very theme that runs across Japanese history, culture and folklore is apparently that of solitude, with several mythological figures having spent their lives in seclusion. Some even compare the hikikomori with the hermits and wanderers of a bygone era, unable to fit into the modern age, and unable to go back to the past.
The situation may be romanticized, but the reality is much scarier, as life isn't exactly a bed of roses for the hikikomori. Their parents obviously wont be around forever to bring them their meals. A male hikikomori blogger acknowledges this fact and writes: "I know. But I'm not able to overcome my hikikomori." Fortunately, there is some hope, as a few of them do eventually get over their condition and try to integrate into normal society. Tadashi, for instance, spent four years as a hikikomori, before he got a job making doughnuts. It wasn't easy, but he did reach out for help. The sad part is that he doesn't really know why he lost four years of his life. "I just don't know," he says. "I suppose people are still trying to find out what hikikomori is all about."
The Hikikomori – Japan’s Social Outcasts was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
| Urine Iron Man Wins Art Competition Posted: 21 Mar 2012 06:58 AM PDT
The title is a little misleading, so to make things clear, we’re talking about the face of Iron Man made of real urine, in a toilet bowl. This unusual artwork was actually considered better than 600 other entries in a popular art competition. You don’t often get the chance to associate Iron Man with urine, but this is one of those rare occasions, and we only have a geeky Taiwanese guy to thank for it. But how does one get the crazy idea to paint a portrait of one of Marvel’s most popular superheroes with urine. Well, this particular art school graduate was taking care of business one day, in the bathroom, when he noticed blood in his urine. Now, most everyone else would have panicked and ran straight to the doctor, but not this fellow. Looking at the colors in his pee, he immediately thought of the colors of Iron Man’s suit, and felt inspired to create a portrait of the popular crime-fighter using his very own urine. A big fan of the Marvel character, the talented Taiwanese art student even said he has a collection of Iron Man action figures. So to make sure he honored the image of Tony Stark, he spent about two months looking for a toilet bowl with a similar oblong shape as the head of Iron Man. Then when the time came to create the actual excreta artwork, he started consuming edible pigmentation and successfully produced, red, black and green urine, which he then carefully arranged in the shape of Iron Man’s famous visage. For the eyes, the student used his own saliva, which he had to keep producing while the judges rated other works during the contest.
Although it literally stank-up the place during the competition, the blood and urine Iron Man actually managed to beat all the other 600 entries and win the art prize. Apparently the judges were very impressed with the geeky student’s idea, saying it is a breaking of traditional art. Well obviously, the guy used his own urine… What do you guys say, genius, or just plain gross? Urine Iron Man Wins Art Competition was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Oddity Central - Collecting Oddities To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
