In fact, it isn’t easy to specify particular sources of inspiration.

Natural vs. Artificial.

Two seemingly opposite concepts. Yet in this day and age, it is often difficult to tell the “natural” from the “artificial.”  There is artificial sweetner, imitation vanilla extract, cubic zirconium, synthetic fabrics, genuine imitation leather, and the list could go on forever. 

But imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? Artists have been imitating nature for centuries. South African artist, Jennifer Maestre has created beautiful sculptures made out of colored pencils. That’s right…those beautiful sea urchins you see are made out of colored pencils. She hand cut every pencil into an one inch piece, drilled a whole in each and then used them as beads.

The End.

Summer is coming to an end, the Park Pictures Deadline is upon us, and it’s the last day for this Intern. 

It’s been an amazing experience writing for the NCMA Park Pictures blog, and I am so excited to see all the amazing works that are being submitted. While I could talk about what this has meant to me, what the experience has taught me, or why this blog is awesome, I thought I’d leave you with some more food for thought. 

This blog, and especially the theme of consumerism has really opened my thinking. Art that engages the idea of consumerism, as well as the overall impact it has on our daily lives, is astounding. It’s something I feel doesn’t always get noticed, until someone points it out. The photographer Brian Ulrich has been focusing on consumerism since 2001. And he’s not the only one. We’ve featured art by Ai Weiwei, Scott Blake, Dennis Darzacq, Lydia Anne McCarthy, and even past winners, Cindy Kohnen and Isaiah Johnson. Next year, the blog could be featuring some of your work!

And here is one more artist for you, Seattle based artist,  Chris Jordan. 

“Chris Jordan is an artist based in Seattle, Washington who is best known for his large scale works depicting mass consumption and waste, particularly garbage. He has been called “the ‘it’ artist of the green movement”- According to his Wiki page

Three Second Meditation, 2001, Chris Jordan

In order to get the full affect of this work, visit his website. This one alone, features “9,960 mail order catalogs that is equal to the average number of junk mail printed, shipped, and disposed of in the US every 3 seconds.” On the site, there are several other images including a reproduction of Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte made out of bottle caps. You can click on the image and zoom in to see the material in detail. 

While Jordan is again only one example of an artist that has taken the idea of consumerism and turned it into art, their are many more, including yourselves! So keep looking, keep examining, and keep inspiring. 

Park Pictures Deadline, August 31st. See the our Guidelines Page for more details. 

Mortarboard Art to Billboard Art

It’s that time of year again…

The pollen has descended making everyone miserable and it’s exam season. Queue terrifying music. Some are already done…the envy of every other student still stressing. Some are pulling all nighters as we speak. And yet there are some of us who are getting ready for something better…Graduation! 

As a soon-to-be college grad, I’m a little nervous about the coming months after school, though I know most everyone else is thrilled! Cap and gowns have been purchased, cakes have been made, and celebrations will soon ensue!  I am not a big graduation tradition person (I wasn’t even sure I was going walk), but one tradition I can really get behind is decorating your cap. Maybe because it’s a little slice of creativity, a little bit different, so that way your friends and family can pick you out of the sea of polyester. 

So if you’re graduating or stressing or both and you want a study break, here are some ideas on how to decorate your cap! 

For the English Major

For the Business Major

For the Sorority Woman

For the Little-Kid-in-All-of-Us

For the Artiste 

For the Fashion Major

And finally…For the Eccentric

And if you still want more ideas, check out Buzzfeed! 

If you’re not graduating, never fear! You may not have you’re own mortarboard yet, but you can decorate some other, bigger boards! The NCMA Park Pictures Competition are ready and waiting for some original artwork.  We are now taking submissions through August 31st. Go to our FAQ page and our Guidelines page for even more info! 

So congratulations soon-to-be grads! And good luck on exams everyone! It’s almost over.

Inspiration from the Past

Last week inspiration was the word of the day! And it’s still certainly important as the August deadline is approaching quickly (a mere 4 months away!) So how were our previous winners inspired? 

We interviewed a couple of last years winners, Isaiah Johnson and Cindy Kohnen. This week we catch up with Isaiah. What he’s been up to since the competition, some words of wisdom, and even a superpower or two! 

My Name is Isaiah Johnson and I’m a Fashion Blogger, Photographer,Graphic Designer and Poet from Burlington, North Carolina.  My fashion blog is called A Collected Gentleman and it focuses on looking and feeling good for cheap. When it comes to my photography I specialize in Fashion, Lifestyle and Portrait

Beautiful. Inspiring. Unique. Different. Love. Enigma 

It changed tremendously, It taught me to really do my research and believe in myself and my work.  

I wanted to create a piece of work that would represent two different universes that visually came together. So I thought of bringing together nature and industrial life. 

I walked around different parks and blocks in Raleigh looking for trees and landscapes that fit my vision.

I wanted people see the beauty we created come together as one. It started with one seed and one brick. I feel like people now are not appreciative of the beauty of trees and buildings. So I wanted to communicate the sense of appreciate for what we’ve built and grown.

My experience with park pictures was amazing. Everyday I worked on the project I learned something new about my abilities and myself. It’s something I would do over if I could.

Never Settle. Always strive to perfect you craft. Learn from trial and error.

Keep going. During your process of completing your work for the competition you’re going to want to give up or feel like it’s now good enough, DON’T. Believe in yourself and basically just have fun and learn from it. I promise you it will  pay off  in the end.

I’ve been working on my fashion blog and some photography projects. Right now my blog is going strong. I’m just looking for opportunities to take my photography to the next level. 

If I could have any superpower it would be, super human strength and healing. It would be cool to be the strongest man on earth. I could fight crime and help the world whenever disaster strikes. Also I could survive anything with my healing ability. Basically I would love to have Wolverines powers minus the claws lol. 

To see Isaiah’s original work an artist statement you can go through our archives or check here. You can continue to follow Isaiah on his blog, A Collected Gentleman. Check back next week for our second interview with Cindy Kohnen! 

Peeps…Not just for eating.

Candy, candy everywhere! Easter has come and gone, but the remnants of candy wrappers and half eaten chocolate bunnies still litter Easter baskets all over the world. Just to give you an idea of how MUCH candy we’re talking, here are some stats for you:

1. Easter is the SECOND most important candy eating holiday of the year (after Halloween).

2. Americans consumed 12 million pounds of candy in 2011.

3.90 Million chocolate bunnies are produced each year in preparation for Easter. 

4. After the Easter favorite (chocolate bunnies)700 million peeps are made  for the occasion.

5. That means 4.2 million peeps are made per day. 

6. Next is the Jelly Bean- 16 billion jelly beans are made around the Easter Holiday.

7. If you lined each of these jelly beans lined end to end would circle the globe nearly 3 million times (talk about frequent flyers!)

8. Total annual spending on ALL Easter related goods in the US alone-$14.6 Billion.

9. The first chocolate eggs were made in Europe in the early 1800s.

10.One of the first Easter treats was the Hot Cross Buns (like the classic song).

Consumerism is alive and well during the Easter holiday. The pastel candies, the chocolate bunnies, the cute animals, the Easter egg hunts, it’s all become a part of our shopping culture. Not only in the United States, but all over the world. In Tosca, Italy, the largest chocolate egg was created in April 2011. This masterly crafted egg weighed 15,873 lbs (almost 8 tons!), and reached a height just over 34 feet. 

Chocolate eggs aren’t the only candy folks enjoy during this spring holiday. Peeps are also a holiday favorite. Peeps have recently become an artistic medium for Peep enthusiasts. The Washington Post has an  annual “Peeps Show” diorama competition and staff members at BuzzFeed re-created Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.” 516 Peeps were used in order to recreate this masterpiece. (And I must say, the good folks at BuzzFeed did a fabulous job.) While the color pallet may be a little pastel, it still captures the movement and “elegance” of this famous work. Certainly, art historians will be discussing this artistic wonder for years. Or at least until the Peeps hold up. 

While this might be an egg-streme example (Come on, you had to give me at least one egg pun!) of art inspired by Easter, it’s not the only way to take the themes from this holiday and run with them. Artists the world over are inspired by what they see around them. Whether it’s technology, nature, consumerism, or even the delicious Peep, an artist can turn their inspiration into art.

So if you’re an artist, unleash your creativity, and enter your art into the Park Pictures competition. As we’ve shared, the theme this year is inspired by the work of Brian Ulrich. The American Photographer takes the idea of consumerism, and the mundane, into art. Begin looking around you, consume art, consume the normal, and transform it into something unique. The Park Pictures billboards are waiting for your art. Deadline is August 31st. 

Going Green- All year round!

 Everyone’s favorite Irish holiday has given the world Green Fever. Several world famous landmarks changed their traditional colors in favor of Shamrock Green to honor St. Patrick’s Day. While there are several landmarks, such as the Chicago River, that usually participate, several new comers have joined the list. The classic “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign opted for green lights this year, in addition the Pyramids at Giza, as well as the monolithic Sphinx, traded their traditional sand stone color for green!

Image from Today.com. Originally from Tourism Ireland.

         By now, most of these awesome attractions have reverted back to their standard colors, so if you still can’t get enough green, we’re here to help! The North Carolina Museum of Art’s 164-acre park is embracing spring, and going green. The Museum Park aims to “provide an urban pocket of green space for visitors to learn about art and ecology”. And it most certainly does that! The Park consists of two main water features (a retention pond and creek), five trails (soon to be 6!), and more types of plants and wildlife than can be counted. There are dogwood trees, persimmon, hickory, oak, sweetgum, maple, magnolias, muscadine grapes, ferns, Goldenrods, evergreen ginger, black walnut, American beech, just to name a few. In addition, the park sustains various wildlife species such as, a den of grey foxes, eastern bluebirds, Carolina Chickadees, and milkweed bugs which feed our Monarch Butterflies.

North Carolina Museum of Art. Pond Dedication. 

            In addition to the natural “green” space that the Park provides, there are also large monumental sculptures and commissioned works of art through out the area. Gyre is a perfect example of a monolithic, environmentally conscious work that the Park houses. Artist, Thomas Sayre, created the piece on site by using a method of earth casting that he actually developed. Three elliptical shapes were dug into the ground, which were then filled with a mixture of iron oxide and concrete. After steel reinforcement was added and the shapes were allowed to cure (for a month), a crane lifted the forms out and positioned them in their current location. “With a direct, physical connection to its site, the work appears to have sprung up like a natural formation rooted in the landscape.”  There are more than 11 works of art displayed throughout the park. For more information on these ‘green’ works visit the park website.

North Carolina Museum of Art. Thomas Sayre, Gyre. 

            In addition to these pieces, the park also features the Park Pictures Billboards. Currently these billboards exhibit works by artist Lydia Anne McCarthy, which can be seen below. However, they’re even more impressive in person!  So we invite you to come out to the Park and the Museum. Walk around, be inspired, and remember that you’re work could be featured in the park too!

Keep checking the blog for more information on the competition. You can submit your work through the blog on our submit page until August 31st. Check back in September when we announce the winners! Good luck and Go green!