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Posts Tagged ‘art’

01

Mar

2010

Beyond Burton: Art Inspired by Alice In Wonderland

Floating children, the rabbit hole of the social web, and what Dali has to do with manga.

We’re all about the cross-pollination of disciplines and creative domains. So we love seeing one kind of art inspire another inspire another. Take Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland, on the lips — and eyeballs — of the world with this week’s much- anticipated release. The film was, of course, inspired by Lewis Carroll’s 1865 children’s classic of the same name (which also sprouted two other excellent films, one in 1933, starring a trippy Cary Grant, and one in 1966 for the BBC), and has in turn inspired a variety of artwork in its own right. Today, we focus on three such examples of art inspired by Alice.

NAOTO HATTORI

Japanese-born, New-York-based artist Naoto Hattori has a very distinct, Salvador-Dali-meets-manga aesthetic. This illustration inspired by Alice In Wonderland is one of the most stunning pieces of digital artwork we’ve seen in months.

Hattori’s work is part of the Curiouser and Curiouser exhibition at Gallery Nucleus, which opened this weekend and features interpretations of the iconic story by artists who worked on Burton’s feature film and beyond.

via Wicked Halo

ELENA KALIS

From Moscow-born, Bahamas-based artist-turned-underwater-photographer Elena Kalis comes Alice In Waterland, a surreal and whimsical underwater series that blends the alternate-reality feel of Carroll’s world with a wink at the wicked innocence of Burton’s representations.

We love Kalis’ incredible play of light and color, amplified by the water’s reflective properties in a way that combines softness with intensity to a stunning effect.

CHRISTINA TSEVIS

You may recall Greek illustrator Christina Tsevis, whom we interviewed a few months ago. Much to our delight, Christina recently got in touch with us to let us know that Glamour Greece discovered her via our interview and asked her to create a series of Alice In Wonderland illustrations for the magazine, some of which were reprinted as t-shirts.

Brimming with Christina’s signature style of 2D/3D haunting innocence, the work is a beautiful journey into texture, color and pure whimsy.

Here’s to the power of the social web, the ultimate ride down the rabbit hole.

Psst, we’ve launched a fancy weekly newsletter. It comes out on Sundays, offers the week’s articles, and features five more tasty bites of web-wide interestingness. Here’s an example. Like? Sign up.

17

Feb

2010

CreativeAllies: Artist, Meet Artist

Artist meets artist, or why street cred beats petty pay every time.

The cross-pollination of disciplines and talents is a powerful beast, and we find that it’s all the more prevalent in the creative sphere — lots of musicians also design and illustrate, lots of designers also mix music, lots of filmmakers play an instrument. Startup Creative Allies has stuck its flagpole in this rich intersection by matching visual artists with their favorite musicians to create anything from album art to tour posters to music videos.

It’s a simple yet brilliant concept: The “allies” — designers, photographers, illustrators, animators and creative types alike — upload their creations inspired by music, which can then be licensed to the musicians that inspired them if the latter choose to “activate” them. Musicians can post requests for whatever they need made, be it a radio commercial or a t-shirt design, and allies can browse jobs to find something that strikes a creative chord.

It’s sort of like Threadless meets crowdSPRING, only with far more gratifying street cred if your art gets chosen by the very musician who inspired it. Licensing fees range from $25 for a high-res photograph to $200 for a Flash movie, but said street cred is no doubt priceless.

So whether Ani DiFranco needs a tour poster or the Harvest of Hope festival wants a flyer, the only thing standing between artist and artist is a simple, free signup process open to anyone anywhere in the world.

Hailing from indie music marketing support outfit Music Allies, the team has previously worked with Ani DiFranco, Sia, Aimee Mann, Jack Johnson, Mason Jennings, Martin Sexton and many other such fine musicians. And we think they’re onto something great.

Check out Creative Allies for a wonderful dose of cross-pollinated creativity.

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Psst, we’ve launched a fancy weekly newsletter. It comes out on Sundays, offers the week’s articles, and features five more tasty bites of web-wide interestingness. Here’s an example. Like? Sign up.