Scott Hove

Kevin Cyr: Camper Bike

KMNDZ (Johnny Rodriguez)

http://kmndz.com/?page_id=16

Daniel Danger

his blog: http://tinymediaempire.com/

Eric Fortune

Pieces are 'Alure' and 'Wanting'

Gregory Euclide

http://www.gregoryeuclide.com/

Molly Crabapple

I saw this piece at Gallery 5. I believe it was the only piece by Molly Crabapple there. My eye really traveled when I looked at it.

Her website: http://mollycrabapple.com/

Mike Moses

A local artist. He happens to work at Salvation Tattoo Gallery on Cary Street.

I saw his 'Drowntown' show. http://thedrowntown.com/home.html

I admire a good composition created with simple, concise elements.

His series of illustrations about drowntown were wonderful.

I want to try some illustrations similar!

Kris Kuksi

Kris Kuksi: Painter, Sculptor, Macabre Artist.

website: http://kuksi.com/

dA: http://kuksi.deviantart.com/

His art, its most pervading purpose being to 'expose the fallecies of Man' is very very rich and complex. He describes his favorite style of art as Surreal, Symbolism, and Macabre.

His works are often philosophical. He has a dislike for American pop culture, materialism and frivolousness.

Here's a quote from the biography on his website: "Yet, Kris’ work is about a new wilderness, refined and elevated, visualized as a cultivation emerging from the corrupt and demoralized fall of modern-day society. A place were new beginnings, new wars, new philosophies, and new endings exist."

I would not consider myself as being apart of the American pop culture and I don't suscribe to certain ways of the world.

Unlike Kuksi, however, I like to consider myself very much apart of American today, the world today and I have little interest in the sort of phoenix story of society. When man 'falls' he will be dust and he can't create a rebirth for himself. Man is not that powerful.

So the meaning of Kuksi's art wasn't the thing that attracted me to it. That's not to say I wasn't drawn by them by their physicality. His sculptures are arresting!

There is this super heavy atmosphere created by them, like they are their own civilization and they are something to behold. Perhaps like a tomb, a ruin, a church, something that deserves reverance. He treats 'macabre' the dark, disturbing, scary, grusome, and subject of death as beautiful. Macabre is French for 'dance of death' And his peices are intensly beautiful. I like to dabble in macabre a little as well.

The picture above, on the top left of the post is titled, Plague Parade. I have a good story behind this. I first saw it on the 27th of June when it was awarded a 'Daily Deviation' on deviantart.com. My jaw dropped. I loved it. I was beautiful beautiful traveling death. Anyway, I didn't really file away Kuksi's name, and didn't investigate him futher, so my knowledge of his work was limited to this one piece.

When I went to Gallery 5 on the 5th of October I saw a kinetic sculpture. (the very first picture at top) I was like, 'hey, I feel like I've seen work like this before.' I took a picture.

When I got home I researched Kuksi and voila, he was the artist that made the Plague Parade.

I blinked a few time. I was in complete awe that I'd gotten to see one of his peices in person.

I got to see a Kris Kuksi in person and I didn't even know that I wanted to at the time.

Gallery 5

photos taken by me.

I went to visit the Franklin Terrace building on Friday to visit the KI and CA departments. I really liked how secluded the building was. It used to be an old apartment complex and has a beautiful Spanish style to it. I could easily see myself working there for the next three years.

On the second floor, in the CA office area I found this advertisement for eikonostasis, the debut solo show of illustrator stepanie marguerite-teodozja krehbiel (her full name) was starting that night. I loved the illustration used for the ad and she was a CA major graduated from VCU in 2009. I knew that I had to visit Gallery 5. It seemed to be the place for illustration.

Here is Krehbiel's blogspot: http://www.krehbieldesign.blogspot.com/

I saw art by:

Wes Freed

Kaelan Foisy

Charles Parker Boggs

Molly Crabapple

Amanda Robinson

Bizhan Khodabandeh

Amanda Blackmon

Kris Kuksi

Mike Moses

Gallery 5 website: http://www.gallery5arts.org/Upcoming%20Exhibition.html

Visiting Gallery 5 was the highlight of my day. Not my week, it was just a 40min-1 hour visit. I walked there alone and I was also the only one there upstairs looking at the exhibits. Even so, the intimacy of viewing the art by myself and only for a short period of time was really impactful. There was no one and nothing there to direct me to what I should look at, join me, or anything like that. So the art did, probably excatly what the artist wanted it to. It spoke for itself.

I't been my favorite gallery that I've visited so far and I think, the prettiest space inside and out.

Seung Eun Kim

He's an art director/story boarder/clean-up artist/etc. who's worked on Godzilla, Starship Troopers, The Jackie Chan Adventures, The Spider-Man, The Batman TV Series (2003-2005), The Boondocks and more.

He is very skilled at drawing. Some people outside of the art field tend to think cartoonists or comic people can't draw well, so they do comics. The opposite is true. Kim may be the best drawer I've ever seen and I look at his stuff for help.

Greg Garza

He is such a great illustrator. This peice is titled 'Stuck in the wall', he painted it with Painter9. I absolutely love the transition from 2D to 3D with one digital medium.

Joshua Levin

Also known as mythfits, he can be found here: http://mythfits.deviantart.com/

His does alot of assemablage sculpture. His favorite objects seem to be children's toys, miniture playsets, suvinenir trinkets and things like that.

fiberciment: lost and abandoned places.

This artist seems to understand perfectly how to use interior architecture to his advantage in his photography. His websited and dA is filled almost exclusively with photography of run down industrial factories, high schools, mansions and transforms them to something really beautiful and grand like the ruins of ancient civilizations.