There's artists and then there's ARTISTS!!

AZ Jim

AZ Jim

R.I.P. With Us In Spirit Only
Location
SURPRISE, ARIZONA
A friend of mine captured this wall art out here in the west. I maintain anyone who can take a rough stone wall and turn it in to a beautiful mural such as this stands out as an artist. Note the light and shadow shades, just beautiful in my NSHO.

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I agree but, artistically speaking, I would have changed one thing. I'm no expert but it's just that I see 2 separate paintings. I'm sure the threesome standing there have historical and sentimental value that relates to the town...but for the sake of a more contemporary composition and minimalism, hold your 3 fingers up in front of them* to block them out of the picture for a moment. Then imagine the wall with only the horse, rider, and 2 dogs. The 3 figures representing the towns background could be painted in a separate location. Love, love, love the horse, rider, and dog.

*or sit back from the screen a bit, hold up two fingers, close one eye, block the threesome.
 

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Totally, Lara. The three figures make me uneasy. Especially that they are not proportionate. I can just envision them, with a historical building in the background...on a different wall. Would really display this wonderful artist's work.
 
Lara said:
I agree but, artistically speaking, I would have changed one thing. I see 2 separate paintings. I'm sure the threesome standing there have historical and sentimental value that relates to the town...but for the sake of a more contemporary composition and minimalism, hold your 3 fingers up in front of them* to block them out of the picture for a moment. Then imagine the wall with only the horse, rider, and 2 dogs. The 3 figures representing the towns background could be painted in a separate location. Love, love, love the horse, rider, and dog.



*or sit back from the screen a bit, hold up two fingers, close one eye, block the threesome.
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Well I believe the artist meant to reflect the mix of cultures so typical of western states. The ability to grind in that much character and detail on a stone wall impresses me.
 
I can see how you would like that graffiti art, Jim, altho strictly speaking the figures are not in proportion with each other, they don't have to be in graffiti. It can certainly cheer up an area... we have lots of fantastic graffiti art in my city as well and we like it too.

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You are absolutely correct, Cookie. His painting is so detailed I cannot help looking at it as more than grafitti, though. If it were tied in with added background, like your example. OH MY....just imagine ! ! !
 
Just saying, Jim, don't let our comments take away from your appreciation of the piece -- it's nice and probably adds a lot to the atmosphere of the place.
 
Jim, I love the southwest color scheme and the artist did a good job, just seemed that the culturally historic people could be separate. This will make everyone feel better:

I have biggest baddest wall art in my town (I didn't paint it). It's larger than life (and this is only half of it) on the side of a huge brick building (I didn't paint it). The artist obviously had some detail-oriented talent but crammed all images together that were culturally meaningful for our towns background but it looks cluttered, no blank space where your eye can rest, spotty with images where neither composition nor color carries your eye through the painting. Did I mention "I didn't paint it"? haha Wouldn't want credit for this eyesore.

It's like "there's an elephant in our historic district". It looks like the Town Council made a list from the history archives of images and made the artist do precisely that or be hung in the town square. I would sandblast off the classroom&blackboard scene that says "education" and let the old natural brick show through there and elsewhere (there aren't many towns that don't feature education so that image isn't unique). It's a pity they painted over the brick.
 

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AZ, it's good, no doubt about it, although the artist is much better at painting animals rather than people, the horse and dogs are wonderful, particularly the black dog in the foreground, it looks so real and solid.:)
 
Beautiful Jim, I love murals. In Chemainus, a little town slightly north of here, they turned a poor mill town into a thriving tourist industry, just with the addition of murals. Chemainus became "the little town that did."
 
Postscript

(Going with the ORIGINAL post) In my opinion . . . . The Dance-Hall Babe is an attention grabber. For a while there I didn't even know there was a horse in the painting ! As soon as I read the word "threesome" it struck a note . . . . (smiling) . . .

It's probably "Nostalgic Art" to remind the townspeople of "The Good Old Days." I like digging through these old posts. Perhaps THESE are the Good Old Days !

By the way: I love the painting ! At first I didn't get the guy in the Chinese hat, but it probably has something to do with the people who built the Continental Railroad. Strangely enough, America is so indebted to China NOW that "the meek have inherited" that same Railroad !

Postscript: I notice the horse is looking "suspiciously" at the Dance-Hall girl. Made me smile.
 
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I think the three figures in the center of the first mural were added at a later date by a different artist. The cowboy, horse and dogs are a much more accururate depiction than the three characters in the middle. The original artist is more talented.

Some non artistic person in power probably complained about the amount of empty space between the two dogs.

Cookie ~ I like the mural you posted.

Lara ~ The conglomeration of a mural that you posted was probably ok'd by some city council who knew absolutely nothing about art/murals. It is way too "busy" for the eyes.
 
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