Artist of the Day: Swoon

Caledonia “Callie” Dance Curry aka Swoon is a street artist based in New York City. She creates these amazing cardboard and paper cut-out works. They're displayed all over the city and they're built to be temporary.

Perhaps her most impressive work is this one

which is a commentary on a disturbingly large amount of young Mexican women who have gone missing, the Mexican government merely disregarding the cases. This piece is in particular a memorial to 17-year-old Silvia Elena Rivera Morales.





More recently, she's been working on this flotilla project:



The whole idea is to make different ways of life accessible to people who might not be exposed to anything terribly different. Swoon wants to portray this message via a traveling flotilla which stops to give performances.

I'm not sure if she and her troupe are getting the message across. From what I saw in this interview, the performances look a little alienating to someone outside the act.

I love her ideas though, and I hope she keeps engaging the public with her art.

Artist of the Day: Stina Persson

Today I've got an art on for Stina Persson.

Stina Persson is an illustrator based in Stockholm, Sweden. She uses mixed media to create collages of different inks and papers.

Some examples:

Her use of negative space is so simple and engaging. I adore how some of the images just melt into their pages. Especially in these examples:

I even love her ad work.



Check her out here.

Update: Bagels Remain Delicous, Not Punny

Dear Bagels on Broadway,

Anyone who has lived in Missoula for any small amount of time probably knows that you make delicious and pretty affordable bagels.

This is why it pains/disturbs me to learn that you have resorted to creating a not-at-all-clever "Twas the Night Before Christmas" type radio advertisement. It is completely unnecessary.

Sincerely,
Chelsey: A Concerned Missoulian

Seriously, though. If you live in Missoula and have somehow not tried one of these tasty bagels, you totally should.

The Reason Why I Am Not a Starving Artist but Am Still Quite Cash Poor or I Am My Own Grandpa

I am not a starving artist. This is only because I do not rely on my artistic endeavors to financially support myself. In fact, my low-wage student job includes a meal at the end of my shift, ensuring my freedom from starvation.

Man I love not starving.


I like to think that I'm self-employed because I work for my state-run university which I pay anti-money to attend (in this case, anti-money=federal student loans).

I also pay taxes, which go to the University, which pays me for working in their cafeteria, the money from which I use to pay taxes. I am my own source of income!

It's a vicious cycle of symbolic gestures where I pay them to pay me to pay them to pay me.

In all actuality, I'm “paying” for school by promising the Montana and US Governments that I will one day eventually use Real Money to pay for the anti-monies that paid for school.

I even pinky-promised.

That shit is legally binding.

What I'm really trying to say here is that I should not have to pay for school.




images from here and here

Intrauterine Device

I suppose I am writing this because I recently had an IUD* inserted. I have also become wary of ibuprofen and its potential to rend my innards asunder. If you have personal experience with IUDs (IntraUterine Devices) then you might have an idea of how {Recent IUD Insertion} minus {Ibuprofen} equals {Supercramps}.

So here I lie, mostly prone on my dangerously comfortable bed, intermittently wracked with a sudden sharp pain emanating from my fruitless womb.

I already have a blog called Chelsey V's Thing a Day. However, should you deign yourself to experience what has become utter mediocrity there, you will notice that I am very sparse with words. It's a personal art blog and a tool for honing my Photoshop skillz in the vain(?) hope that they shall someday pay the billz.

I hope this new blog (my but blogging is a slippery slope!) will become an outlet for my sudden spurts of writing mania (usually induced my illness, injury, or IUD insertion) and maybe, just maybe I'll become Internet Famous cause apparently that's what bloggers do.

Have a lovely day and y'all come back now, y'hear**?

*Here is the Mirena website. Join us...forever...or the next five years...

**I am not from the American South. I live in Montana. I will occasionally adopt a southern bumpkin dialect, much to the dismay of my lovely boyfriend.