As you know I am watching this every week and can’t help but weigh in, cuz its fun.

“Last night on Work of Art: The Next Great Artist, the artists entered the gallery to find judge China Chow standing in front of a bunch of question marks. She produces a suitcase and asks everyone to pick a paint tube out of it. Each paint tube contains a word or phrase: some examples were monster, love, good vs. evil, and time travel. The artists travel to the other side of the question marks and find book covers of six classic novels: Alice in Wonderland, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Pride & Prejudice, The Time Machine, Dracula, and Frankenstein.

This week, each artist must create a cover for a classic book. Kathryn Court, president and publisher at Penguin books, came to talk about how important artwork on a book cover is. The winning design will be published on a penguin book which will be for sale all over America. They have until midnight that night to complete their work.” Mike Bandy

It kind of bugged me that the artists were so impressed by the possibility of being published that they stressed way more than in the previous episodes. I dunno it changes things, also, it was for a commercial assignment, so all the import given it sort of negates the fine artist.

What struck me with this episode was just how much the participants had to be more than an artist, they really need to be a jack of all trades, And given the assignment one needs some graffic design experience with typography.

Poor Judith, she really was acting a little crrrazzy. The pressure must have been getting to her. I learned this morning that Jane Austen would write letters to her daughter backwards. Had the judges known that, Judith’s piece would have had a lot more credibility and maybe she would not have been booted off.

Jaclyn’s piece was weak and and her sniffling after the critique was annoying. She seems to want to use her womanly wiles more than her brain, but most artist’s know you have to be thick skinned in the art world, I keep thinking of Tom Hanks saying, “crying, there’s no crying in baseball!” Well, crying under those circumstances is not impressive and I think Jaclyn is far too impressed with her body and it stops her from coming up with good ideas. Putting a semi nude, contemporary figure holding a black hat like in the movie “All That Jazz” is not a good idea for a period piece Jane Austen novel.

I have been disappointed with the critiques from the judges and the artists, some are harsh and mean spirited and in one instance, China Chow made an unnecessarily disdainful expression and her comment was snobbish. Snobbery in the art world is far to prevalent and not helpful. Giving constructive criticism without sentimentality or useless emotion, or rude remarks takes skill and intelligence and can be very helpful for the artist and also for the viewer to understand the elimination rationale.

I was anxious to see the interpretations for Alice in Wonderland, disappointing!

I can’t say there was any one piece that I thought was spectacular although, I have to say, Miles piece was very clever and visually attractive. I had to laugh out loud at the comment Nao made, maybe Miles will read for his piece, ha! (he literally read the whole book “Frankenstein” before doing his piece).

So I feel like I should comment about Alice in Wonderland since I posted about it in an earlier post. I went to see it on Friday of last week and while the visuals and characters were fascinating (of course!) the story itself left something to be desired. A bit disappointed I am

Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen was my fav, no surprise there. And, well Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, whats not to love. And I adored the Cheshire Cat. About mid way I noticed it felt like there was no 3d and while some people find 3d annoying I enjoy it especially for movies such as Alice that are based a lot on the visual. The story begins with Alice returning from having left Wonderland as a young girl and now of marrying age, once again she falls down a rabbit hole and that was exciting. I was so ready for it! But it was less and less enchanting as it wore on until it culminated in a battle scene between Alice and a creature and that, nah, not so good. Still, there was plenty of charming, clever and and artistic aspects to keep me entertained. I’d say two stars. Out of four.

Speaking of ALice In Wonderland, I really like Trevor Browne’s illustrations which are available in prints. And, the 80 page hardback book.

Speaking of movies, I did watch the Oscars yesterday (nearly all day)!
I’m glad The Hurt Locker won best picture, not only because after 82 years of Oscars its the first time a woman has won but because I thought it deserved it. While Avatar was all flashy and expensive to make, I mentioned before that the story itself has been told before. The Hurt Locker was very meaty and different. The idea of war being addictive which is the premise of the movie is so interesting and relevant. I watched GI Jane yesterday (remember that with Demi Moore) and I thought about the hurt Locker because while in training for the Navy Seals, the exercises although tough, had a lot of excitement, by that I mean jumping from planes, rafting, flying, etc, things that thrill seeker type personalities would love and then of course the adrenaline rush of overcoming adversity, of succeeding and getting stronger. All big ego trips. And addictive I think. In the hurt Locker there is that adrenaline rush when the guy who takes apart bombs before they blow has only minutes to save lives including his own. When all is said and done, in spite of the danger nothing else in real life can compare. Its Russian roulette.

I knew Sandra Bullock was the favorite for the best actress category but I was so hoping for a surprise, like Gabourey Sidebe!! Every time I have seen her interviewed I am so in awe of how at ease she is with her appearance. She is not self conscious or apologetic at all about her weight and she has a delightful and infectious Joie de vivre. I am bummed that I still havn’t seen Precious. I really want to see Monique’s performance.

In other news, I feel like I need to post a picture so here is my Heart Joya that finally has a new leaf after over a year! yay!

Its countdown to Alice in Wonderland!! This week! finally after months of waiting.

The Red Queen
(Disney)
The first thing you notice about Helena Bonham Carter in the role of the Red Queen is the size of that noggin. “Oh, it’s true, I can’t even look at Helena anymore because now her real head just seems like a small orange — like she’s got some shrunken head,” Burton deadpans. But when he looks at the Red Queen, he thinks of two people — one of his own relatives and the infamous real-estate baroness known as the “queen of mean.” “She reminds me of pictures I’ve seen of Leona Helmsley. There’s a tiny bit of elements of my mother in there too, for some strange reason. And Helena brings her own things to it too.”

Mad Hatter
(Disney)
Johnny Depp’s latest has made a specialty of hiding his leading-man cheekbones within oddball disguise and the latest is a google-eyed hat maker who’s gone around the bend. The shock of tangerine curls jutting from beneath his hat and his orange-rimmed eyeballs hint at the story lineage of his madness; orange-tinted mercury was once used in the manufacture of felt in Victorian England and it seeped through the scalp skin with some nasty side effects. Burton liked the idea of orangeness for another more personal reason. “There is something really scary about orange hair. Every performer in my childhood who had orange hair, it seemed to signify that they … were not to be trusted and could be dangerous. Bozo, Carrot Top, Ralph Malph…”

A couple of weeks I was at the book store and noticed a book by the ever awesome Camille Rose Garcia, her very own brand of “Alice in Wonderland” illustrations, I would have bought it but the the actual illustrations were very small, and just sides to the written word. If a picture book comes out I will get it to add to my collection. She has a show coming up of the original works at Merry Karnowsky which is here in southern cali. I hope to find time to go see it.

crg