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Most Recent Articles
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- The Online Art Scene
If you appreciate art, try searching for online art galleries on the Internet and you will be amazed at the rich and varied offerings that are available to you. The parade of art is more than just a display of great artwork. There are auction sites, listing of important art events, informative sites that narrate the history of the great artists of all time. And, of course, there's gallery after gallery of timeless and awe-inspiring paintings.
A typical art website contains thousands of art pieces, while the more popular among these sites boast of stirring masterpieces in the hundreds of thousands. Meanwhile, other sites display paintings by subject matter, whether landscape, still life, figurative, impressionist or abstract. There are websites dedicated to showcasing the works of Pablo Picasso , Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Claude Monet, Henri Matisse, Vincent Van Gogh , Edgar Degas and the other great masters. Others focus on discovering the outstanding artists of today and are a God-send to young and aspiring artists everywhere because it gives them more opportunities to get that elusive first break. - Which Is Your Type Of Art Form
Art in Latin means "skill" or "craft" and it is generally accepted to be "the product or process of the effective application of a body of knowledge, most often using a set of skills, which from concept to creation adheres to the "creative impulse" of the maker." As centuries of art study reveal, art has taken many forms and has touched upon many disciplines. From the creation of a painting to the design of a video game, art is now a much more generic term used to describe many of today's human creations.
Whether or not you consider yourself to be an artist or have an artistic nature as people often claim, it is interesting to discover that your skills and abilities can help you develop products or processes that could be characterized as a type of art form. Have you ever taken a picture, created a film, painted an image, performed in front of an audience -your mirror does not count- or even found a new way to use that old pair of jeans you have kept inside your closet? If the answer to these or similar questions is yes, then you are "officially" informed that you can consider yourself as a creator or better even, an artist! Even if this statement is not one hundred percent true, you got the idea. - Contemporary Art In Contemporary Households
In my point of view, contemporary art is absolutely present in contemporary households and can be recognized almost in every aspect of human life, since it has penetrated the way people communicate with each other more than ever before. Almost all-contemporary art forms have become the means through which personal interaction is described or the vehicle though which a specific message is accurately transmitted. Furthermore, increased attendance on art exhibitions, or substantial high levels of sales of various art forms, suggest that contemporary art is both publicly appreciated and highly understood.
Human creativity, along with the need of expressiveness, can be present to any contemporary creation that critics would define as an artistic attempt. As Picasso, the great Hispanic painter, has once pointed out, "art is something that makes people move towards a certain direction in life, or even conceptualize things from a different perspective, which they would have never consider before, if an artful creation had not revealed its mere existence." - Barbie The Queen Of Dolls
It all started when Ruth Handler noticed her daughter Barbara playing with paper dolls and imagining them in grown up roles. At the time, the dolls in the market were all baby dolls and the need for a doll role-model that would inspire little girls to think how they wanted to be when they grew up emerged. Ruth Handler took her idea to the executives at the Mattel Company who at the beginning refused to produce this female adult doll thinking that it would be a very expensive product with little market appeal. After a trip to Europe and a model doll ready to its wardrobe, Mattel Company decided to debuted Barbie in 1959.
Since then, the Barbie Doll's popularity has increased and today, with over one billion of her lookalikes sold, the product line is one of the most successful in the history of the toy industry and, arguably, the icon of female beauty and the American dream. According to Mattel, every two Barbies are sold every second worldwide. - The Omen Is Creepy But Not Classic
The Omen is a film that was released on, of all dates, June 6th of 2006. This was a major promotional opportunity, due to the fact that the date in numerical format was 06/06/06. A remake, the original Omen was created in 1976 and directed by Richard Donner. These films were based off of a novel and the new movie was directed by John Moore. The film focuses on the life of a young boy named Damien who may or may not be the son of the devil. With heavy religious overtones, this film plays on our sense of fear by presenting a quiet, evil, and calculating young boy. The main conflict found within the movie is the disbelief of the boy's father that his son could be the son of the devil. It is a moral dilemma faced by the man, played by Liev Schriber and his wife, played by Julia Styles, who truly gives a performance that you can sympathize with. - Toys For All
Toys are not only for kids. Adults need the relaxation and the memories beloved toys can bring back to their memories. I still have in my room the Rubik's Cube which I managed only once to solve and numerous times I thought of taking off its colored rectangular stickers and placing each color on every side. I never actually did it because I was afraid of the consequences if I destroyed my fathers favorite toy. When I understood that solving the cube requires some planning and problem-solving skills, I was determined to succeed and I still remember the joyful screaming when I managed to "solve" its mystery; probably by accident. Since then, I have been catching myself thinking of my favorite old toys, like Lego and Playmobil, not very girly I know, and recapturing the times I was playing in our then common room with my brother.
Toys are used in play by children, adults and pets. The difference a toy has from a game is that toy play does not have clearly defined goals; that is if you do not play with my brother. Today, huge toy chains, like "Toy-R-Us," carry a vast assortment of different toys for any age and background, covering the needs of children and parents. But while parents spend a small fortune on acquiring the latest model of their son's favorite car toy, the young boy will continue to play with the old one and although he will at the beginning be extremely happy with his new possession, the old car that misses a wheel and a door will never leave its bed. - Why Is Saurons Ring Still Important
Since "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy became a huge blockbuster hit, sales of epic fantasy stories, or also known as high fantasy stories, have tremendously risen. People with disperse backgrounds and interests, who have left the world of fairy tales to move to the real one a long time ago, found themselves visiting their local bookstores or ordering online the masterpieces of J.R.R. Tolkien, among other epic fantasy writers. Those who visualized how Frodo looked like prior to the release of the first of the trilogy films were annoyed with the hysteric reaction of the vast public. For them, epics or high fantasy stories are part of a literature world that one has to be induced and explore in detail and should not be seen as an opportunity to buy another trendy book to place on a coffee table. Whether you consider yourself to be an epic fantasy story expert or amateur, it would be interesting to know what epic fantasy stories are and be able to answer one of those "Trivial" game questions with confidence.
Although the definition of Epic Fantasy is still a subject of debate between fans, critics, and scholars, it is rather challenging for a researcher to come up with a single definition that includes all the necessary meanings the words epic and fantasy convey. One of the most descriptive definitions found, stated that "Epic Fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy and very similar to high-fantasy where a seemingly average person undergoes many trials and ordeals which develop he or she into a hero capable of feats needed to thwart challenges of an epic scale. The story takes place in an imaginative world and often the setting is medieval in nature, complete with swords, castles, strange creatures and a magical system." What one can understand from the above definition is that the epic story's hero is not born as such, but life's events and misfortunes mold him or her to one, as the obstacles are surpassed and he or she contributes to the solution of at least one major problem. - Playmobil And Childhood Stories
Why medieval castles seemed so familiar in the history class for me and most of my classmates? Why some of us have a déjà vu when we watch films like the "Pirates of the Caribbean"? We have spent so much time assembling the Playmobil version of the castle, or making stories about pirates, knights, sheriffs and Native Americans as children and playing with the Playmobil spaceship, that sometimes we think that we actually have lived in all those places. For everyone who was a child in the 1980s and later Playmobil is not just the name of a toy, it is a legend.
This legendary story of "Playmobil" started in the 1971, when Horst Brandstätter the owner of toy manufacturer "geobra Brandstätter", asked the -so called- "father of Playmobil", Hans Beck, then a cabinetmaker to develop figures for children. Beck spent three years developing what became Playmobil. His aim was to create a simple and flexible toy and as it turns out he could not be more successful. Playmobil, a 7.5 cm toy, with hands, which are capable of gripping and holding objects and a facial design based on children's drawings (big smile, no nose), was first presented at the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg in 1974. The first figures were of Native Americans, construction workers and knights, while the 1973 oil crisis made it possible for Playmobil to be considered a viable product. Rising oil prices made plastics extremely expensive and larger plastic toys virtually unaffordable. Playmobil began to be sold worldwide in 1975 and had an unprecedented success. - The Misinterpreted Code
Dan Brouwn's mystery/detective novel "The DaVinci Code," published in 2003, has sold more than 40 million copies and its narrative was made into a script for the needs of the recently released Columbia Pictures film carrying the same title. This worldwide bestseller has been translated into 44 languages and is currently the sixth biggest selling book of all time. Can you imagine which one holds the first place on that bestseller list? Well, it is the Bible.
By examining Christianity and traveling through history, Brown's book invites the reader to reconsider what is firmly believed for centuries now in relation to Jesus Christ's deeds and life choices. Offering a conspiracy theory, which is headed by the organization of Opus Dei belonging to the Catholic Church to cover up the "true" story of Jesus, the plot of the novel has helped generate popular interest in speculation concerning the Holy Grail legend and the role of Mary Magdalene in the history of Christianity. - Teddy The Bear
Even if you did not own "Teddy" as a kid, you most certainly had at least one stuffed animal that you carried around or described your day to when you got back home. Today, if you walk across a window shopping area and your eye catches "Teddy" looking at you from behind the glass, you will probably feel the inclination to get inside the store and touch its fur. Perhaps you will even buy the staffed animal, even if you have no kid to give it to, since some teddy bears have become expensive collector's items.
The teddy bear made its entrance in late 1902, appearing in the same year in two different countries: Germany and the United States. According to the story, while President Theodore Roosevelt was at Mississippi to help settle a boarder dispute between that state and Louisiana, his hosts wanting to please this avid hunter took him bear hunting. But since the hunting was poor, when they finally managed to capture a bear, the President's hosts invited him to shoot the poor animal. Roosevelt's refusal to shoot the unprotected animal, was illustrated by Clifford Berrymnan's in one of his cartoons, titled "Drawing the Line in Mississippi." After it's publication in the Washington Post on November 16, 1902, a number of people were inspired by the image and Morris and Rose Michtom from Brooklyn, NY, decided to make a stuffed animal, a bear, in honor of the president's actions. They named the bear "Teddy's bear," denoting the close relationship between President Roosevelt and the saved animal. Their sweet, innocent small stuffed bear became an instant hit and the Michtoms founded the first teddy bear manufacturing company in the United States, named Ideal Novelty and Toy Company. - Clerks II Garners, clerks film, arts, entertainment
Cinematography is one of the man's efforts to portray to others, through the use of techniques that combine motion pictures and text, the world and the messages it transfers as these are understood by the artist. With the term cinematography, one today describes the discipline of making lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema use. Based on two Greek words, cinematography etymologically means "writing in the movement" and was introduced as a new technique to record images of people and objects as they moved and project them on to a type of screen. Combined with sculpture, painting, dance, architecture, music, and literature, cinematography is today considered to be the seventh art.
It is very difficult for a researcher to find and pinpoint the one individual that could be named the "father" of cinematography, accepting that the word symbolizes a technique used for motion pictures' creation. But, it is apparent that man has experimented, very early in human history, with different methods that would allow him to record the movement of images. Very closely related to still photography, which has been a catalyst to the development of cinematography since the mid 19th Century, the technique that would allow images to be recorded while in motion has been extensively studied. One of the first attempts to analyze the element of movement with the help of photographic machinery was made by the British photographer Edward Muybridge in 1878. After successfully developing a new method of producing consecutive photographic images, he recorded the movement of a running horse. Through the motion pictures he produced, he managed to prove that there are instances when a horse is running that none of its feet touch the ground. Around the same period, the French physicist Etienne Mare managed to capture, also by using photographic machinery that could record 12 images per second, the movements of a flying bird. - Clerks Ii Garners Decent Respect
Clerks II is a film that was directed by the comedic mastermind Kevin Smith. Responsible for creating a host of irresponsible adolescent comedies over the past decade, Smith has shown his remarkable sense of humor to the world time and time again with his realistic yet kooky characters. Clerks II is no exception to the rule.
Picking up where the original Clerks film left off, the film focuses on Randall and Dante, the employees of the Quik Stop convenience store and main characters in the first film. Little has changed in their lives, save the fact that they are a decade older; and now, they've found themselves working the same sort of irresponsible job, this time at a fast food restaurant known as "Mooby's". The film pays homage to Smith's legacy of recurring characters throughout the film; fans of his work will notice the guest appearances of several Smith mainstays. The film also adds a few elements on the last one: where Clerks I was shot completely in black and white, giving it a hip art-house feel, Clerks II is completely in color. And fans of Jay and Silent Bob, the notorious wisecracking drug dealers of the films, will be excited to know that the characters are back and in top form. All of the elements that pleased fans of the first film are here, with the characters killing time and lamenting over the woes of pop culture like they never left the convenience store. - Top Toys Of 2006
We've just passed the midway point of 2006. A survey of leading department stores shows that children age 12 years old and below have diverse tastes and preferences when it comes to their favorite toys. The following are among those that have been frequently mentioned.
1. Garfield and Friends (Volume 5) - Coming Across Applied Arts
Unsurprisingly, since I am a fun of interior design, when I recently received an IKEA catalogue by mail I did not loose any time before scanning its colorful pages to check all the new styles in contemporary décor and the reasonably priced furniture produced by the Swedish giant. It was at that point in time when I realized that most of the designers portrayed in that catalogue's issue were in fact representatives of applied arts.
Interestingly enough, my online search revealed that most of the designers I liked were in fact involved in one or more art professions. From architects to interior decorators, these people applied their design and aesthetics to objects of function and everyday use, generating what is today known as applied arts. The distinction between applied and fine arts is that the latter serve as intellectual simulation to the viewer, while the former incorporate design and creative ideas to objects of utility, such as a vase, a plate, a chair, or a garden table. According to experts, the fields of industrial design, graphic design, fashion design, interior design, decorative art and functional art are considered applied arts. In the creative context, architecture and photography also fall in the category of applied arts. - Art On The Internet
Thanks to the dawn of the internet, art in America has experienced a renaissance of sorts, with new, talented and important young and aspiring artists making a name for themselves every month and with the long-suffering art galleries finally getting a taste of commercial success.
The internet has made it easier for art connoisseurs and dealers to peruse an endless number of new paintings and check out the latest masterpieces that are on sale without traveling half-way across the globe like they used to. Today, an art collector can attend as many as three or four art auctions a day without leaving the comfort of his bedroom. In the past, he would have to criss-cross America and Europe for a week or two before he could attend as many art auctions. - Vincent Van Gogh
The Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh has produced some of the world’s most popular, most beloved and most expensive paintings. Despite his great success, he was also known as a tortured, lonely artist who many felt was mad or at least on the verge of insanity. It is a testament to his immense talent that today, a century after he has died, the world still remembers Vincent Van Gogh.
Of course, we have to acknowledge the fact that not everyone who remembers Van Gogh does so entirely because of his art. People also remember Van Gogh because of the story that has been immortalized in songs about how he cut off his ear and committed suicide because his genius was not recognized during his time. But the history books reveal that this may not exactly be the case. While it is true that Van Gogh had bouts of madness, it is also true that he his work was greatly praised by his fellow artists and radical art critics just before his death. It seems that the story has intertwined both myth and reality.
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