Earth Day Special: Leaving your mark on the world

"I want my art to make a difference in the world!"

"I want my art to change lives!"

We've all made these statements, even if it was exclusively in our heads... but how many times have we been crushed by the follow up question: "How?"

Unfortunately, I don't have an answer to that... finding the answer to "how" is a personal journey every artist must take. But for everyone's inspiration, here's an artist who decided to "make his mark on the world" in a very literal (and eco friendly) way.

Meet Jason de Caires Taylor. He's an artist who builds life size sculptures, dumps them into the sea, and encourages coral forests to germinate on the figures, and create new habitats for underwater life.

He recently installed a piece containing 400 figures off the coast of Cancun/ Isla Mujeres, Mexico. The piece is called The Silent Evolution:

Anyway, be inspired! Change the world! Make it a better place!

... But don't be afraid to use unconventional methods

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PS: A link to Jason de Caires Taylor's website here.

New Work

I wanted to post this piece for you all to see my most recent work. It wouldn't fit on my scanner bed so I had to photograph it. Even then, the saturation and all way off and needed some photoshopping to "correct". After all the patient retouching, it's still a bit off, but I'm ok with it for now. I guess I say that to say please don't comment on the overall quality of the image as depicted here. It's much prettier in person...

This is a piece for the art book I am Art Director for called The Hollow Project which deals with self-image and eating disorders. Some of you may have received a call to entries form from me about it, but I would like to encourage all of you to contact me about it. I am looking for some awesome art on the topic and would love submissions from the SoT. Here is the description from my blog - www.imageaddicted.blogspot.com -

*6"x18"

*Watercolor, Gouache, Ink

*Rives BFK paper

This is the completed version of my earlier WIP (several posts ago). I started this image nearly a year ago and set it aside after about 2 hours of work. It wasn't until recently I decided to finish it. I was struggling with completely conceptualizing it when I began and wanted to sit with it before jumping full force into it. Suffice it to say that after many more paintings and drawings I was inspired to complete this one and I am very glad I did. It is one of my favorite paintings I've ever done and am thrilled with how it turned out.

Conceptually, my purpose for painting this one was to show that physical beauty is temporary at best. Our culture is constantly telling us how to look and often at the expense of our character. We are so focused on looking "right" that we begin to judge others based on our own insecurities. This painting is all about the eventual death of our physical beauty. We all grow old. We all get wrinkly. We all sag and most of us will get fat.

And that is perfectly ok.

If we spend all of our time obsessing about our physical appearance and forsake our inner being, the one we will never lose no matter how old we get, we are truly and unavoidably ugly. Hopefully you can see that in this work of mine.

Reverse creative block

Question that I have never really talked about with any artist before.

Have you ever had a reverse creative block where you sit down at your desk and want to be working of 20 different projects but in the end get so little done because you are thinking about everything else? I know the solution is to just work hard and get as much done as you can, but at the same time I feel like I'm rushing out less than awesome work just to move on to the next project.

Help a Bob out and let me know what you think.

Sons of Turner Salon

Hey everyone. I am hosting what I hope will be the first of many of us all meeting up and getting to know each other better.

The details:

Saturday. April 30th ~6pm

at 49 W. Bryn Mawr Ave.

Roselle, IL 60172

It'll be a potluck sort of thing so please bring some food or drink (b.y.o.b.).

All are welcome, hope to see you there!

Define yourselves

Every time it rains, my mind gets lost very easily, and even at nearly 11pm, my lack of sleep is making me really contemplate some things.

I guess I've thought of these things before, but now they strike me the most, on muggy nights that make me miss Savannah. What does it take to be one of the Sons of Turner? What does it MEAN to be one? I always have that slight fear of people not really liking me or valuing what I have to say when an opinion is requested, and perhaps it's nonsensical paranoia, but I occasionally have this feeling in my gut that questions just why I am a Son of Turner. It's not at all that I mind being one. But I do feel as though our purpose is not really certain sometimes. Is it meant to be a community built around deeply seeded discussions? Is it simply for the love of art and travel? Are we meant to be closer to one another than we have settled to be, or is everyone just too shy, like I am, to ask?

Well, it's late enough at night that I can set aside just a little cowardice and ask these things. Maybe there's something I'm missing that everyone else understands about the Sons of Turner, and if such is the case, I can't wait to find out what that is. If not, the summary of this is that I want to know you all better. I want to have fueled discussions about art and life and the thick relation between the two. I want to meet for coffee and have sketching nights, travel the states, even the closer ones, just for the sake of finding an adventure with people that I am close with, who find common ground with me. I hesitate to say 'travel the world' only because budget is a difficult thing to plan in the first place. I know this firsthand; I'm unable to make the Maine trip and it's literally put me to tears a few times.

I want these experiences, I want the understanding and most of all, I want to feel like I'm a part of this thing, this group, that is so diverse and intellectual and valuable, only perhaps timid like I am when it comes to this comprehensive part.

-Dani