I look better in inky technicolor

I know I have already raved about the genius that is the Argentinean high-fashion artist Andy K, but I  just have to do it again. Not only did he paint me this wonderful portrait, but he has also been busy in the lab producing even more of his amazing, expressive, colorful art.

I absolutely love my portrait, particularly the Coca-Cola reflected in my glasses which is very fitting for my Atlanta roots. I also dig the pale colors and the combination of pink with red which is one of those color-combo faux-pas that I love to flout in my wardrobe from time to time. 

His newest stuff is somewhat different from the peices I featured in my Delicious Brains post about him. I like the scrolls of writing on these with the simple sentences, as well as the bird-cage motif. They almost feel like old gothic advertisements for a freak show, and the subjects feel as trapped and desperate as I imagine those performers would have felt, constantly isolated and on display.

Notice the smear of red, like blood, in the bird-cage and the speech-bubble containing not words, but a bird. The subject is practically disappearing in the violence and rage of the colors that consume him. Absolutely stunning. 

 

This one is very interesting, a bit more hopeful than the previous as the subject is strong and un-caged with a kind of serene look of satisfaction on his face. I wonder what the significance of having the clock inside the cage is?

The drummer in this one reminds me of the subject of the first painting. The cage still appears in this one but this time it is the drum containing a butterfly. I love how the woman's face is turned away from us, perhaps towards the caged butterfly, and how the sentence contained in the scroll is abruptly cut off mid-sentence. I can definitely feel the chaos and frustration in this one.

I'm no art-critic but I do enjoy analyzing art... mostly I just use the skills I have from studying literature and apply them, but do any true art academics out there have any opinions on these pieces? I think they definitely leave one with a lot to think about. 

This was just a small sample of Andy K's impressive portfolio. If you're intrigued, be sure to check out the rest of it on his flickr! You can also see the interview I did with him in the beginning of February here. Also, if you have anything you would like to submit to the DELICIOUS BRAINS segment of the Zombie Lace blog, I am always looking for poetry, short fiction, art, reviews, and anything creative of yours to share with the world... or at least to share with my readers, but it's a start, right??

Edit 3:45pm on Monday: Andy just informed me that he will be selling prints and originals of his work, so now you really must check out his flickr! Send him a flickrmail or leave a comment on a particular piece to work something out with him.

DELICIOUS BRAINS!!!! The Art and Style of Andy K

DELICIOUS BRAINS: The Art and Style of Andy K

I’ve noticed that often times people who appreciate fashion also appreciate art. Maybe it has to do with the way it’s all connected to understanding, enjoying, and playing with the appearance of things— be they paint on a canvas or an outfit on a girl! And occasionally art and fashion will be joined together so seamlessly (pun intended!) that it becomes difficult to see where one ends and the other begins. If anyone is a clear example of this harmonious union between Art and Fashion, it is the subject of Zombie Lace’s first official edition of DELICIOUS BRAINS: Andy K.

Lacking the proper words (not to mention the proper background in art critique) to really do his work justice, I asked Andy to describe his artwork and his influences himself:

“[It]’s hard to describe; not because it's so complicated but because it just happens. I hardly know where my influences are, but I can assure you my mother is a big one. She is a fashion designer, and a great critic. I was raised around both Poe and Vogue, and have a great love for the golden age of Hollywood. My grandmother was also a fashion designer who was in love with Rock Hudson.”

Andy resides in Argentina but has ambitions of relocating to the United States. He uses a variation and combination of digital methods, watercolour, ink, “and sometimes other things like red wine and coffee” to create these marvellous pieces that seem to burst from the page with a life of their own.

Particularly noteworthy is his ability to mix these elements, playing with the boundaries that define ‘art’ and often including a healthy dose of pop-culture into his subject matter.

I love the simplicity and surprise in works like these: why not have Buddy Holly and Lucky Strikes be the focus for a watercolor? Or incorporate symbols that are instantly familiar and universally recognized such as McDonalds? Something about these images and the way in which they are executed has a strong impact on me, and I believe that in many ways they capture some essence of our high-speed, globalizing contemporary culture. (That was a mouthful!)

Perhaps more subtly observable in his work is Andy’s other major inspiration, fashion. He maintains that “fashion is my ideal, my hope, so my art is based upon fashion and style-- that simple.”

He explains that it “was always a part of my life, so in a way I was not conscious of fashion, even with such a big influence at home. But [ever] since my teen angst...ended, I started getting more and more interested in fashion,” particularly in grunge clothing. I think many of us can relate to that!

Similarly, I’m sure we can also all relate to Andy’s love of fashion magazines, which he hopes to have his work featured in some day. These publications serve as a tangible example of the inseparable natures of art and fashion, Andy speaking excitedly of them as “big art books and you can get them every month!”

“I have this theory. People can be beautiful or create beautiful things. I grew up wanting to be Errol Flynn or Clark Gable, [but] it didn’t take me long to realize I wasn't going to be like that...

...So my next logical choice was Howard Hughes, but I didn't have enough money to be him...

...So that took me to Andy Warhol who astonished me with his famous pop portraits, and I saw he wasn't beautiful, but he could create beautiful things. ...

... I wanted that, and I realized fashion was about beautiful things and aesthetics.”

I couldn’t have put it any better myself, and English is my first language! And frankly, those other guys are nice eye candy, but I think that Andy K ended up choosing the right role model in Andy W. They have more in common than just their names; Warhol may not have been eye candy, but he sure did know how to make it, and I think it’s safe to say that Andy K does too!

Now that you probably have the Andy K bug like I do, you can visit his website or his facebook to see more of his fashionable art (or should I say artistic fashion?). He’s also taking all the freelance work he can to build his portfolio, so if you need an artist for any kind of project or poster, be sure to jump on this chance to have the amazing Andy make an original piece for you before he moves to America and gets scooped up by Vogue! Contact: kurdtman@gmail.com

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Do YOU have art/writing/ideas that you would like to see published in the next edition of DELICIOUS BRAINS? Submit your work to Zombie Lace and you could be featured next!
zombielace@gmail.com