What is under a painting?

Have you ever wondered what was under a painting?  Have you ever thought that there might be something under it?  Most of us don't even stop to think about what even could be under a painting.

Well the artist Blake Neubert has taken the concept of what is under the painting to a whole new level.  I am going to warn you right now, he has a morbid and even creepy side to his artwork, but at the same time it is really kind of cool how he does this.

Enjoy!

So this is the painting before he scrapes away the paint.

And this is the after.

Okay, my first question has to be, how do you think he does this?  Does he have something between the layers of paint so that it scrapes off easily?  What would make someone even think of doing art that looks like this?  Do you find this gross or fascinating?  What image would you do if you could do this style?  Would you also do a person or animal or would you do something like looking into the inside of a car?

Carved for greatness

SO I am a very simple person.  I have no desire to have a fancy house with fancy things, that is until I saw these doors.  These are hand-carved doors that you have to specially order to fit not only your house buy your design choice.  I can't even imagine the hours that went into making each of these low relief masterpieces.

Take a look and tell me what you think?

SO what do you think?  Does it make you want to own a log home up with the mountains too?  Do you have a different design in mind?  I am not so much of a bear person, but I love the last one with the tree and deer.  Which one is your favorite and why?  If you could pick another design what would it be?

Dignity

It's not very often that I get to talk about South Dakota artists.  Dale Lamphere is  However, today I am really excited to show you the newest South Dakota sculpture that will be along I-90 by Chamberlain called "Dignity".

Dignity is a 50 foot sculpture of a Native American dancer that is being created out of steel.  She will dance high above the Missouri River and will be an amazing site to see.  Her unveiling ceremony will be this weekend in Chamberlain, September 17.

This is Dale in front of the stuatue.

Scale models in his workshop

Another scale model

Work in progress

Art or just distasteful?

So the old saying is "Art and beauty are in the eye of the beholder."  Basically it means that you can either like some types of art or you don't have to.  That is the reason for this blog, it is a way for you to tell me what you like and what you don't.  Everyone is entitled to your opinion.

So that being said, some people are not fond of artwork on the sides of buildings.  They think it is distasteful and sometimes often rude.  I want you to check out these buildings that have created controversy in their respected communities and tell me what you think.

What do you think of these buildings?  Do you think they are art or have they created eye sores in the community.  If you could paint something on the side of a building, what would you paint?

Right to the point

Artist Salavat Fidai has taken carving sculptures to an all new level, a miniature level at that.  He carves the graphite from a pencil into incredible works of art.  So stop for a moment and look at your pencil, if your holding a wooden pencil, and think about how small of a surface that is.

 Now think about sharpening that pencil.  How often does that break?  How hard do you struggle to just get a pencil tip so that you can use it.

Its WALLE

Okay, after looking at all of these images, what do you think of Salavat's style?
Is this something that you would like to try, or do you think you would get too frustrated?  What image would you like to see carved into the tip of a pencil?  Do you think there is a subject matter that he couldn't do?

European Adventures, how was your summer?

Whew... I don't know about you, but I have had an amazing summer traveling the world.  I have come home rested, rejuvenated and ready to go.  I am excited about all of the new ideas and lessons that I am ready to present to you.

In front of the Moulin Rouge

We climbed to the top of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.  Did I ever mention I have a huge fear of heights?  This was a giant accomplishment for me and one of many firsts on this trip.

Among my firsts, was a trip to the catacombs under Paris.  We had to come up with plan C since the Louvre and Orsay museums were under water.

Another first, we climbed the steps of the Eiffel Tower.  This is on the first floor, and its hard to tell, but the girls are standing on a glass floor.  Again, I was happy to be the photographer and not on that glass floor.

Regan is enjoying a strawberry and nutella and whipped creme crepe.  I think she was wearing more than she ate, but it is so worth it.

The sun and sand of Barcelona was amazing after the cold, rainy days of Paris.  Enjoying the view at Park Guell.  Look at those beautiful mosiac benches behind the girls.  Gaudi designed all of those that wrap around the park.

This is Gaudi's stunning cathedral know as La Sagrada Familia or the sacred family.  It is scheduled to be finished in 2026, so anyone want to guess where my trip will go that year?  It is an already beautiful cathedral I can't wait to see what else they need to do to finish it.

This is the arena in Nimes.  This is the most complete arena left in the world.

Warm Seafood Salad!  This was probably one of my best meals all summer.  It was so good.

Any guesses where we are?  It really does lean to the side.

While we were checking out the "Statue of David" at Academia, they also show Michelangelo's unfinished works.  I love how you can see where he is going with this, but the details are still missing from the sculpture. 

This is the church of Assisi.  It was started by St. Francis himself. 

This is Nikole getting a lesson in making homemade pasta.  Our tour director hooked us up with this cute little couple and their small little resturant that serves about 50 people, so one bus at a time.  

In front of the Colosseum on our last day.  Look we are still smiling even after being together for 14 days.

We all threw our coins into Trevi fountain and made wishes to return to Rome.

I also had the wonderful opportunity to see the entire island of Ireland.  If you ever get the chance to see this amazing place I highly recommend it.

This was a little spot outside of Cork, Ireland.  See not everything is green.  But that is the Atlantic Ocean on the right side of the photo.

This is Mr. DeWitt kissing the Blarney stone.  It is said that kissing the stone will give you the gift of eloquence when it comes to talking.  I don't think he needed to kiss it, but maybe you disagree?

This is Blarney Castle.  Okay, maybe everything really is green in the Emerald Isle.

  So those were just a few images of my summer, but now I would like to hear about your summer vacation.  I would love to hear about what you did, what you saw and maybe what you learned.

Please share your ideas in at least 3 sentences with around 30 words.

Power in photoshop

So now we have just finished our photoshop projects, and while some of you did really good, others struggled.  But I want to show you what can be created on that program if you really work with it.

Artist Balazs Papay works with a couple of 3D computer programs, but one of them is photoshop.  Here are a couple of his works of art.

So what do you think?  Is this something that you wish you would have thought of?  Does this look like a career that would interest you?  Can you think of some interesting objects that he should put together?