Tuesday, September 15, 2009

If it isn't one thing ...





Images from two artists crossed my computer screen recently – one was Betty Hechtman's crocheted cactus (see her blog for Saturday, September 5) and the other was the sculpture of Jonathan Ro-Schofield, whose medium is cardboard. (http://jonnycardboard.com/sculptures/sculptures.htm).


What they have in common besides the underlying creativity is that in both cases the artist is trying to make one material look like another: yarn to look like organic matter, cardboard to look like cake or jewelry.



Edgar Mueller’s street art is another extreme example (making it look as though there's a sink hole in the cement!), but we see this phenomenon more than we realize. On fabric, there’s every kind of imitative image from brick to flesh; painters try to make oil on canvas look like rolling hills or dukes and duchesses; needlepointers make thread look like water or flowers or trees.

... it's another.




And if you’ve ever seen Cow Art in Madison Wisconsin, as I did at Bouchercon one year, you know what I’m talking about in spades! One cow was painted to look like a Monet canvas, where, of course, paint was made to look like water lilies and bridges. I'm dizzy!

Miniaturists make big things look small; Oldenberg makes small things look big.

When I was a kid, we had a milk pitcher designed so that milk came from a cow’s mouth. (Wasn’t that the wrong end?)

I’m sure you have your own favorite examples. Or -- what are you twisting into something else right now?

5 comments:

Linda O. Johnston said...

The decorated cows you saw in Madison, Camille, inspired me to Google them since I saw them in Chicago while I was there for an RWA conference. Turns out they're apparently part of the CowParade (see Wikipedia) being displayed all over the world. I may get to see them again when I next visit my son in San Diego since they're in La Jolla this year. Has anyone seen them someplace else?

Camille Minichino said...

Thanks for the research, Linda. The set I saw in Madison were amazing -- all kinds of "reproductions" and images.

Anonymous said...

Well, I worked on one of those cows in art class - Fenway Park and environs on it's tummy, head, legs and sides. I wasn't happy.
And, I had a cariacature cat pitcher that I gave away asap. I'm a purist! xoxoxox

Camille Minichino said...

I'm not crazy about mixing metaphors, either!

Betty Hechtman said...

The cactus was just my first toe dip into making something three dimensional with crochet, but I'm sure it won't be my last.

I saw the cows when they were in Chicago. They were lots of fun.