“Wait. I see something… they’re saying… hmm… they’re saying that you’re going to grow up to be a big boy. Does that mean anything to you?” said Mona as she peered into her stained coffee mug.

She sloshed it around, looked in again, squinted with one eye, and muttered, “Yep. That’s what the majestic Folgers coffee grounds are saying this morning.” She got up, walked to the coffee pot and poured more into her cup. She stopped for a moment as if she heard something.

She turned back to Jenine, who was sitting at the table wringing her hands as she forced a polite smile. For some reason she couldn’t, or wouldn’t, look at Mona. It was as if she were either terrified of her or disgusted by her. Perhaps it was the combination of both feelings that kept her eyes darting from the ceiling, to the floor, to a spot just next to Mona’s head, and back to the ceiling.

“Oh, you must be kidding,” said Jenine. “I heard you liked to joke around, but will you please take this seriously? I really could use some guidance. I heard you were the best.” She added in that last part to flatter Mona. She had never heard that Mona was the best at anything, especially not at reading fortunes. What she had always heard was that Mona knew everything that went on in that small town, and that if you paid for a reading, that she’d let it slip out and say that some ghosts told her about it, or that she’d heard it in the wind, or whatever. Jenine didn’t care. She just wanted to know the truth.

“So you’re here about your husband, eh?” asked Mona.

“Well… Yes,” Jenine was  a little startled. This must be all over town by now if Mona knew about it and could talk about it so easily. “How did you know?”

“I’d say about 90% of my clients come in here wanting to know if their husbands, or boyfriends, or whatever are screwing someone else.”

“And you can tell them if it’s true?”

“Of course I can,” said Mona, “Read the sign.”

She pointed to a sheet of cream colored printer paper hanging on the wall that read “The Mystical Mona Guarantee: Never Wrong, or You Get Your Money Back.” It was handwritten, but it still looked legitimate somehow. It looked as if it would hold up in court.

“So? Is Jim cheating on me?” Jenine gathered all of her right fingers in her left hand and squeezed them together. She took a deep breath in and held it.

Mona stared at her for a moment. She gathered a deck of cards that were scattered all over the table and pulled three out of the deck. She stared at them for a moment and began messaging the crown of her scull. She looked up at Jenine, who was starting to turn white, and caught contact with her gaze for a moment. She couldn’t keep it for long. Jenine’s eyes darted back to the ceiling, but they couldn’t rest there. They moved from object to object in the small dining room. Nothing registered in her mind, and she started getting dizzy. Mona just watched her eyes travel.

“Breathe child. Everything is okay. Your husband isn’t cheating on you… yet,” and with that, she let out an enormous laugh. It sickened Jenine. How could someone be so insensitive? Well, at least her marriage wasn’t in trouble. Mona could be as crude as she wanted just so long as her information was reliable. If not, she could always get her money back.

“Thank you,” she said as she placed two twenty dollar bills on the table. She got up and walked out without another word.

As soon as Mona heard the door close, she walked over to the kitchen, grabbed a mug out of the cupboard and filled it. She walked to the broom closet and opened the door.

“I can’t believe you married that woman” she said. She handed Jim his morning coffee with a wink.

The End

]]> http://hooplartistsblog.com/super-short-1-someone-teller/feed/ 0 http://hooplartistsblog.com/cool-young-artists-a-variety-of-ideas-16-featuring-digital-artist-jeremy-young/ http://hooplartistsblog.com/cool-young-artists-a-variety-of-ideas-16-featuring-digital-artist-jeremy-young/#comments Sat, 03 Mar 2012 23:16:42 +0000 mmcneal http://hooplartistsblog.com/?p=96

Jeremy Young

This week we feature another Cool Young Artist from New Zealand. His name is Jeremy Young, a 16 year old digital artist who specializes in using Vexel within Adobe PhotoShop. Jeremy enjoys the precision and clean lines produced by Vexel, because it provides him the “freedom to experiment and bring in other elements.” He describes why he uses these applications in an interview posted by Dave Kaufman on the website Techlife, posted on May 20th, 2011.

Jeremy is fascinated by man-made objects and is not particularly inspired by nature. He also gains inspiration from other artists, people and cultures. His work has been featured in Advanced Photoshop Magazine, the French edition of Advanced Creative Magazine plus numerous website blogs. His work is also been featured on Deviantart.Com, which he describes as an excellent place to meet other artists and obtain feedback on his artistic designs.

This cool young artist has yet to get his work into galleries and has not yet done any work for commission (as of May 2011). Jeremy is a student and does his graphic design work mostly as a hobby. He has kept his digital art design work separate from his school work; even his teachers are not aware of his talents as a digital graphic artist. His workplace for digital art design work is his bedroom, which overlooks the ocean and includes “a large desk clear of everything but my computer.” He also enjoys surrounding himself artwork.

Jeremy describes his work as vibrant with clean lines, using minimal structure and “extreme colour” for maximum impact. However, he also works with black and white digital art. To see several of his digital graphics artwork pieces, click on his displayed work at Deviantart.Com. He will be going on to college, but is not sure of his major. He is considering the fields of economics, medicine and design as his best college majors; however, he is sure that “being creative” will always be a part of his life.

Do come back next week, when we will again feature another Cool Young Artist! Thank you for reading!

Feeling
Cool often, but not always, is about a feeling. Thus, sex is cool and so is bungi-jumping, the latest electronics, cars, trucks, motorcycles, fashions, foods, recipes and artistry. Why are they cool? They are cool because of this – appealing to one, several or all of the human senses. Can anything be labeled as “cool” otherwise? Yes!

Heroes
A firefighter saved a young 7 year old girl from a burning home in Boston. Upon being interviewed by a local TV station, the hero is humble and even a little embarrassed about being on TV, but says, “I was just doing my job.” Is the firefighter “cool” in the eyes of the girl’s parents? Absolutely! Is he cool in the eyes of every caring parent who views the story? Absolutely! Is he cool in the eyes of a serial rapist, who has just murdered his tenth victim, also a 7 year old girl. Absolutely not, because he could care less about either the 7 year old girl or the firefighter. Thus, one of the characteristics of “cool” is caring – one human being caring about other human beings.

Character
A janitor is cleaning offices at a local high school and finds 5 twenty dollar bills, carefully folded, put in a money clip and lost under the principle’s desk. He calls the principle and turns the money over to him the next morning. Is he “cool” to the thief who just robbed $500 from a nearby convenience store? Absolutely not, because good character is not valued. Is he “cool” to the principal, other administrators and faculty of the high school? Yes, because good character is valued, especially to the principal. Thus, cool has still another description – valuing a person’s character.

Appreciation
The author of the U.S. National Anthem, Francis Scott Key, the creator of the poem “If,” Rudyard Kipling, and the writer of the Gettysburg Address, President Abraham Lincoln are all sincerely appreciated people by most Americans, and also by most historians, philosophical thinkers and poets around the world. Are these authors, writers and poets “cool”? Absolutely they are, in the eyes of those appreciating their work. Thus, cool has still a different connotation – appreciating fine artistry.

Conclusion
“Cool” has many meanings and descriptions, but is highly dependent upon the perception of the observer, especially with regard to the feeling, caring, valuing character and appreciating – all engendered by artistry or the actions of people. All of these are responsible for strong emotions and responses from many, and often most, human beings.

And this is certainly true of all the artistry and Cool Young Artists featured on this website.

Thank you for reading!

Young-Deok received a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in environmental sculpture at the University of Seoul. His artistry is described as comparing the “standardization of modern life” with the original use of the chain – endless and monotonous repetition of motion. The chain is given a newness of life as the artist sculptures the human body, or parts of the human body, entirely out of bicycle chains, giving the chain “new vitality and life.” The text describing this unique art does not clarify weather the descriptions, quoted here, are from the artist himself or the writer.

However, one direct quote from Young-Deok describes his cool, young artistry. “I use immobile and cold textured form of a body to express our true nature that turned from the human nature to a property.” His English is a little awkward but his intent is clear. He is using an inanimate, common invention to express a smooth and accurate reproduction of humans – body, head and other parts. View some of his work at http://artistaday.com/. (There is a request to not reproduce the photos without the artist’s permission, which has been honored; but a request to include a few pictures has been made.)

One of Young-Deok’s shown artistic sculptures is labeled “Anguish 2.” It depicts a perfectly proportioned lifelike squatting body with arms folded over the knees, with no head (possibly to not distract from the body form) – all designed from bicycle chains. The second piece is labeled “Meditation” and depicts a perfectly proportioned bald head with eyes closed. It is so lifelike, you actually expect the sculpture to open his eyes!

The website includes numerous comments and impressions about the work of this cool young artist. These include: “Very cool!” “Love his work!” “Incredible sculptures!” and “Very time consuming, not to mention expensive, bicycle chains aren’t cheap!” Ironically, one other observer commented that he loved the sculptures because it made him feel uncomfortable, reminding him of a “bunch of maggots.”

Other observations included a variety of interpretations of the artistic pieces. These include “tension in the pieces,” “makes me feel tangled up as a human,” and “face of a god,” “incredible use of imagery,” “powerful imagery,” “people drawn in on themselves in fear and not thinking for themselves at all,” “profound,” and “modern and very applicable to our present.”

Do come back again next week, when we will feature yet another “Cool Young Artist.” Thank you for reading!

Richard started with a fascination for graphics on a computer game and then downloaded Adobe PhotoShop 4.0 at age 12 or 13. Upon learning all he could from the program, he decided to purchase PhotoShop CS2 and “spent years getting familiar with that program.” He then discovered that some people made a living doing graphic design work; soon it became his “number one passion in life.”

In a May 2009 interview by Paulo Canabarro, a Brazilian Web designer and artistic writer for Fabio Sasso, last week’s featured Cool Young Artist, Richard describes how he became so talented using PhotoShop through years of practicing and great time and care in each artistic design, which often requires weeks of work and usually hundreds of hours. He believes some people are just born with the ability and eye for artistic design; however, it still takes time, effort and perseverance. (See the complete interview on the Abduzeedo website; click on the blank graphics for more of Richard’s artistic designs.)

Richard routinely experiments with different designs, which often are finished much different than his original thought and intention. He describes “client work” as usually easier than his own original creations, because he can build upon concepts and ideas of the client before he employs his own unique ideas and designs.

Richard is described in his website as a diverse artist, who “pushes the limits of his work” and employs many different styles and techniques. He has a “surrealistic style,” whose work is a combination of illustration and design with an eye for detail, composition and quality.

This cool young artist has been featured on Computer Arts Magazine UK, Abduzeedo, Wow Magazine, Digital Arts Magazine UK, Digital Kingdom, Advance Creation Magazine France, DACS SC USA and other websites and print publications. His clients include Tiger Beer, On Wired, Advance PhotoShop Magazine and Computer Arts Magazine.

Richard is currently available for hire and may be reached at: Contact@OtherStream.Com.

Fabio Sasso

Fabio Sasso is a freelance graphic and web design artist from Porto Alegre, Brazil. He has created websites since 1999 and experimented with them as early as 1996. Fabio is also the founder of Abduzeedo, which is a personal project and “one of the world’s most sought after blog for inspiration and tutorials.” He works on “really cool projects” for both the Web and print media. Some of his world famous clients include Adobe, MSNBC, Wired UK, Digital Arts Magazine, Abril and others. Currently, he is a graphic designer at Google and resides in Mountain View, California.

The Abduzeedo website was founded in 2006 and is the repository for all sorts of articles to inspire cool young artists. Favio describes it as a “blog about design.” It features useful tutorials for the most popular graphic design applications created by software developers, including Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. Tutorials for other graphic design applications from Pixelmator, Fireworks and others are anticipated. According to the website, it attracts over 100,000 design enthusiast visitors each day, or three million each month! Contributors to the site come from Brazil, the USA and readers around the world.

 [Graphic withheld pending permission]

Artistic Design by Fabio Sasso
(used with permission)

His design writers at Abduzeedo include numerous artistic graphic designers from Brazil, plus one from Germany and another from the U.S. – all cool young artists These seven are:

• Fabiano Meneghetti: Twitter: @FabianoME
• Paulo Gabriel: Twitter: @paulogabriel
• Alexis Papageorgiou: aloa@abduzeedo.com or http://twitter.com/obstgemuese
• Paulo Canabarro (Paul0v2): pvpcanabarro@gmail.com or http://paulocanabarro.com/
• Amanda Macedo
• Eduardo Sasso
• Marcelo Seferin

Pictures and a short description of all of these cool young artists, actually “writers” and artists for Abduzeedo, can be found at the Abduzeedo website.

Next week, we will feature another cool young artist from Brazil, as interviewed by one of Fabio’s writers and artists, Paulo Canaborro. His spectacular design graphics will inspire the creativity in every reader. See you next week!

Family In A House

This week’s Cool Young Artist is a 34 year old artist who lives and works in Soul, South Korea. She is a 2001 graduate of Sungshin Women’s University in Seoul where she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts in Sculpture. Jin Young also earned a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts in Sculpture in 2005 from the same university. Her artistry appears to be both designer toy and figure sculpture, featuring see through figures of people – usually allowing the background to appear through a part or parts of the body using a clear glass appearance. The extremely unique art portrays a family living in a house, but somberly “trapped by society” within the very limited confines of the house.

In somewhat broken and unconventional English, a website “biography” of Jin Young describes her artistry more than the artist. The inner world of the family is closely examined as exposure to the outside world is “refused” in an effort to not expose their “pretentious look as a friendly family.” The alienated family is depicted as having an uncomfortable meeting with guests attending family holiday events. The children are portrayed suppressing their emotions, which even extends to the family dog. The description of the art is sometimes difficult to interpret, which the art itself may do more clearly, depending on the observer.

To cover and conceal the sad emotions of the family, Jin Young uses wall flowers, clothes and shadow effects. However deceptively, the flowers serve as a decoration welcoming the family’s guests; but they also serve to divert the observers’ attention away from the melancholy demeanor on the faces. From image to image the artist appears to preserve the solemn facial expressions despite the “bright atmosphere” created by the flowers.

Concealing Emotions

The title of the biography describes the artistic pieces succinctly with the phrase, “Hidden inner worlds come to light.” However, from the information given, it was not clear whether or not all of the artists work is based on this one family theme. Here are a few more family faces:

Family Faces

From 2004 to 2008 Jin Young had solo exhibitions and selected group exhibitions in Korea, Japan and England. Exhibition locations included the Union Gallery in London, the Ami and Kanoko Gallery in Osaka and the Kumho Museum, the Sungkok Museum, Gallery Zandari, the Seoul Museum of Art and the Kimi Art Gallery in Seoul, South Korea.

Thank you for reading about this week’s Cool Young Artist!

Kseniya Simonova

In every respect, this young Ukrainian girl, Kseniya Simonova, is a Cool Young Artist. Her eight minute video from YouTube demonstrates her talent. Using a giant light box, measuring approximately three feet by four feet, she transforms the white or light colored sand into amazingly real and detailed images. She does this to music as she draws dramatic images of the invasion and occupation of her country from 1941 to 1945.

Her demonstration is before a live audience as she tells an entire story of the invasion and occupation. No other tools are used other than the sand and both her hands, often simultaneously. The images almost magically appear, including small details of people’s faces and landscape scenes as well as depictions of decorative sculptures, masks, sky, clouds and many other exquisite images.

During the demonstration the audience sometimes gasps at the reality of Kseniya’s creations and their destruction as she wipes away one beautiful creation either in preparation for another or through gracefully transforming the image into an entirely different storybook scene, image or new creation of artistry.

While watching Kseniya gracefully do her “sand painting,” you cannot help but think about whether or not slick, clever and smooth video editing was used. Detailed images often appear under her fingers, palms or fists as she manipulates the sand with amazingly smooth, graceful movements, complementing and almost in time with the music; appropriately, her art is also called “sand animation.” I concluded that video editing was not used; however, I have no way of verifying this.

This Ukrainian artist won the “Ukraine’s Got Talent” competition to show both her imagination and her “sand painting” skills. Truly, she is a “Cool Young Artist”!

Kseniya Simonova is only the second cool young artist to be featured. Do come back next week when we will feature another unique artist, who could come from anywhere in the world. Also, if you know of a cool young artist you would like to see featured here, please let us know. Maybe you will be inspired to learn how to become an artist like one of these Cool Young Artists!

Thank you for reading!

Steve Uren

This week’s Cool Young Artists will feature the first of many individual artists. His name is Steve Uren, owner of Steve Uren Studios in Marquette, Michigan, which is in the central Upper Peninsula of the state. Inspired by his grandfather, Steve is a woodworker, specializing in custom created furniture and artwork.

Steve Uren Studios was formed in 2001 and was originally named Birchwood, reflecting the name of his family’s camp. Originally a part-time hobby, Steve’s love for woodworking soon turned into a full-time business. In addition to showing and selling his products in art shows and select galleries on the east coast and the mid-west of the United States, he does commission work. By referrals and correspondence using email and phone, orders are taken and based on the customer’s description of the project and/or a picture of the designated space. Costs are determined by the design, the woods used and the customer’s budget; and he says, “All designs can be based on your budget.”

All of Steve’s creations are unique, truly one-of-a-kind pieces of functional wood art. There will never be another piece of wood furniture made exactly like any of those created by Steve Uren Studios. He also uses a carefully selected pack and ship company to keep shipping costs to a minimum.

Steve’s created works of wood art and furniture include desks, tables, cutting boards, bureaus, night stands, chairs, ornamental boxes and other works of art. From his website, here are a few of Steve’s unique creations:

Steve Uren Studios Wood Art and Furniture

Steve specializes in custom made woodworking according to the customer’s designs and specifications. More examples of his work can be found at SteveUren.Com.

Other Cool Young Artists will be featured randomly. If you were inspired by Steve Uren’s work and his creations, do let us know. A wide variety of artists will be featured here in the future. So check back next week. And thank you for reading!

All graphics and text were published with permission from Steve Uren Studios.

This week we will describe several organizations for “Cool Young Artists.” Small and large, these have inspired and are inspiring hundreds, thousands and even millions of young artists in the U.S. and around the world.

“Craftworks at Cool Spring” features an 81-acre nature preserve near Charles Town, West Virginia. It is described as a “home for art, nature and sustainability.” They provide “after school” classes for local young artists ages 6 to 9, which includes paint, pastels, collage and pencil creations. They teach about famous artists and art styles and help students create their own “masterpieces.” There are similar classes for ages 10 to 13 designed for the more serious artists who learn new styles and techniques. A $5 materials fee is charged and the next classes, which start each January, among other starting times. Their well designed and easily navigated website features blog opportunities, membership pages, email updates and a “Jefferson County Arts and Culture Calendar” describing local artistic and related events. Its a “cool” site and facility!

On its website, the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers describes the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization as “the longest-running, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens in the U.S., and the largest source of scholarships for young artists and writers.” (The link is not associated with the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers.) With a legacy back to 1923, the Alliance has encouraged over 13 million students and recognized more than 9 million young artists. The organization has also made available over $25 million in awards and scholarships.

Would you like a quite extensive listing of famous modern artists, famous contemporary artists, art styles and art techniques, with a brief description of each one? How about a current description of “Art News” from all over the world? Check out Modern & Contemporary Artists and Art. This site provides a huge variety of information and is easily navigated.

The 24th Street Theatre is a unique and hybrid arts organization providing free after school arts enrichment programs, an outreach program for at-risk teens, art teacher training programs, gallery exhibits and much more. The organization strives to engage people of all ages, races and income levels. It strives for thought-provoking and relevant cutting-edge art from such diverse forms as professional development teacher workshops to arts education school workshops to musical concerts and seasonal theatrical productions.

Finally, Cool Young Artists came across the Young Artists for Haiti featured by CoolSpotters.Com. This is a Canadian movement to engage young musicians to help with the ongoing effort supporting Canadian charities as they help the people of Haiti to overcome the devastation of the January 12, 2010 earthquake. Only a month after the devastation, 50 of Canada’s best and brightest artists met and produced a rendition of the renowned hip hop artist K’naan’s “Wavin’ Flag,” which included specific lyrics for Haiti with proceeds going to Free the Children, War Child Canada and Word Vision Canada. Their website features profiles of nine “Young Artists for Haiti,” including Lights, Justin Bieber, Emily Haines, Deryck Whibley, Kardinal Offishall, Pierre Bouvier, Nelly Furtado, K’Naan and Avril Lavigne.

Cool Young Artists will also feature articles on individual artists and their work in coming articles. Let us know what you would like. As always, your comments and questions are most welcome. Thank you for reading!