Emotion is a complicated thing when it comes to artwork; what evokes great emotion in one person can be utterly meaningless to another. I will never forget one art auction I was at as a teen and one woman was talking about a Picasso painting and talking about all the emotions she felt looking at it. The only thing I could think was that my beagle could do a better job. But that is also the beauty of art, that it is ok for certain images to speak to one person and not the other.
Given the uniqueness of the theme, and the fact that one piece may or may not be emotional to another, I thought I would do something different for this issue and take you through my collection of pieces I have either bought, wish I could have bought, or bought a cheap poster replica of and introduce you to some of my favorite works.
This is a piece titled Blue Moon Over Venice by Marko Mavrovich. First you need to understand that the bridge in this painting is the Bridge of Sighs and on one side of the bridge is a prison. This bridge is in Venice, Italy. The first time I saw it, I had just finished my Criminal Justice Master's degree, and we were on a cruise that just left Venice. These facts instantly made the painting interesting to me and I felt like it spoke to my troubles while getting my degree and was a symbol of the success that I found when I completed the degree.
This next piece is from Charles Fazzino and is called My Love of Broadway. As a complete Broadway Nerd, this image really caught my eye and not just because of the way he makes the images pop-up from the canvas. It makes me smile every time I look at this piece because I love looking for musicals and plays that I have seen, ones that I would love to see, and ones that I haven't even heard of. Without fail, every time I look at this image I notice another musical that I hadn't noticed before.
This is a classic animation, this one titled Scooby Snacks. Honestly I could choose many animations for this slot because I grew up watching Scooby Doo, Looney Tunes, Disney Movies, and various other animated shows and movies like Balto and All Dogs go to Heaven. These images never fail to make me grin as I remember the nostalgia of growing up on these cartoons... And ok maybe it's not just in the past that I watched these cartoons.
Lovely Dog is a sculpture by Romero Britto. His style is so creative that it can't help but bring joy to people, including myself. Being a dog lover, that is another bonus of this massive sculpture. The colorfulness of the sculpture and the perfect head tilt that all dog owners will be very aware of, only serves to make this piece even more magical and just makes you want to hug the dog... at least if you can lift him because I hear he is quite heavy.
I'm afraid I am not familiar with the title of this piece, but this is an artwork by Tim Yanke. Shortly after the artist David "Lebo" Le Batard died, Park West Gallery had a massive auction in his memory. One of the pieces available was this tribute to Lebo, which the artist promised to make a version of for everyone who purchased it. Unfortunately, this image does not do justice to the tribute since many of the colors on the painting are actually neon. Lebo had been famous for many different images, but one of his most used images was of the owl and it seems only fitting that another artist pay tribute to him using an owl. Lebo's death devastated many people in the art world and it was so meaningful to see people come together and share their memories of him and their love of his art along with seeing other artists pay tribute to him.
Wings of Hope is a painting by Michael Godard where the proceeds go to St. Jude's Children's Hospital. This is his newest version of Hearts of Hope. For years he had many people coming up to him asking if he could add pink to his Hearts of Hope series because they had people in their life who survived breast cancer, passed from it, or were living with it. This idea of his ended up combining the ribbon colors from as many cancers as possible, which is why it is in rainbow colors. This artwork also has metallic coloring and the wings of the hummingbirds seem to pop off the page by using iridescent ink. I have heard that when some look at this painting, they see hope. Hope that they or their family member currently battling this horrible disease called cancer can make it through.
This last piece is Don't Worry Baby by Jim Warren. This is probably my favorite piece from one of my favorite artists. This image reminds me of walking my beagles growing up when it was raining. They always insisted that if I wanted them to move, I would need to hold the umbrella over their heads and let myself get soaked. They always won the argument too. This image makes me smile remembering their antics over the years but also makes me miss them. This piece perfectly portrays what pet owners will do for their pets.
Do you have a favorite piece of art or a favorite artist? I would love to hear about them. See you all in the next issue.