We just got home from the Francis Bacon special exhibit at The Met which just opened this week. Do NOT miss this one. It is a great colelction of works spanning his entire career.
Bacon is easily one of my top favorite artists of all time as well as a huge influence on the direction my art eventually took. I had been painting cutesy cute until I realized that my personal visual pleasure came from the grotesque. And eventually I found the happy medium between cute and grotesque = natty art. You can see Bacon's influence on my art especially in my piece, Pope Something Something IV. Sure, I painted it around the time the current Pope was being elected. But I definitely had Bacon's paintings after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X in mind as well.
Valazquez's, Bacon's, and mine....
The Bacon exhibit at the Met is up through the Summer until mid August. Be sure to check it out.
While we were at the Met, we also lurked around in my favorite section -- the African / Pacific Islander area. I am forever fascinated by these pieces. So creepily cute and weird... They often remind me of Tim Burton creations. I should probably do some more reading into the Pacific Islander stuff because I know how much more I enjoy the arts of Africa having taken a whole semester of study into these pieces during undergrad. They are cool enough visually to look at, but so much more fascinating to me just knowing the uses behind the masks and statues.
Also while there, we adventured through the medieval and religious based older paintings. Absolutely fantastic stuff. And which today was reminding me of one of my favorite books when I was a (little bit twisted) little kid: Master Snickup's Cloak illustrated by the awesome Brian Froud.
Because I'm on an update kick today... I never posted the finished set of the Seven Deadly Sins which showed at White Rabbit, NYC during the month of March of this year. Lust was sold to a happy home in Italy near the Vatican (how appropriate!!!). But the others are all up for grabs. Please email me for inquiries.
I have been on a bit of a creative hiatus from painting for a little while here. All the big shows and work towards those shows burned me out a bit. But, I just bought a lovely (and BIG) sheet of watercolor paper to start on something new soon. In the meantime, I've been exploring other creative outlets. I've always been an avid photographer and a huge fan of Cindy Sherman's work. I find self-portraits to be fascinating. Altering your own image... letting the world see you as you see yourself. I don't know. There is just something fascinating about someone capturing their own self. The past few months I've started a series of self-portraits in which I recreate album covers. This has been incredibly fun. It simply started as an idea where I thought it would be fun to do a bloody self portrait ala Andrew WK's album. And that got me to thinking how fun it would be to just completely recreate that cover itself. And from there, the project was born. It's been trial and error with hair and makeup, lighting, camera angles, and photoshopping. I love this project because I am learning a lot of technique and skills by just making what needs to happen happen. Anyways, enough of an artist statement... here are the photos (with their album comparisons).
Natty Kocsis / David Bowie
Natogold / Santogold
Natty / Kylie
Natty Twin / Aphex Twin
NK / U2
Natalie J.K. / Andrew W.K.
Natty / Bjork
Nat Phair / Liz Phair
Spring Session N / Spring Session M (Missing Persons)
Natalie / Madonna
I'm hoping to maybe do a show with these when I'm up to 20-25 of them. I have plenty more in store!
natty art was recently featured in a "book of inspiration" project. Check out the book here. It was a thrill to be included with so many other artists that I find inspirational myself!
The opening reception for the White Rabbit, NYC show was a great time! Thank you so much for everyone who stopped by. It was quite the packed house! And thank you to DJ Frankie Teardrop for providing the perfect background soundtrack for the evening. Photos of the event can be seen here for those of you who might have missed out. And, if you did miss out, the show will still be up through the month of March. So if you are in the vicinity, be sure to stop by 145 Houston to check it out!
Please join artist Natalie Kocsis for the opening reception of her latest show at the White Rabbit lounge on Friday, February 27. Natalie will be showing a number of new works and, for the one and only time ever, the complete Seven Deadly Sins series. White Rabbit is located at 145 Houston (btwn Eldridge and Forsyth). The opening reception will take place from 7pm-10pm. Please visit www.natty.org to see what natty art is all about and for further information.
Quincy Jones has launched a petition to ask President-Elect Obama to appoint a Secretary of the Arts. While many other countries have had Ministers of Art or Culture for centuries, The United States has never created such a position. This would be a crucial step in ensuring the strength of the arts community, especially in this time when so many arts organizations are threatened...and when the country needs the arts more than ever. Please take a moment to sign this important petition and then pass it on to your friends and colleagues.
Meant to post this the other week, but I forgot. Better late then never:
Last night we went to experience an evening with animator Don Hertzfeldt. Most folks are aware of Hertzfeldt's work through his cult-classic cartoon, Rejected. If you have not seen this, see it stat. His cartoon style is basically stick figures with wavy, hand-drawn lines. A simple structure that incorporates incredibly well-done editing and sound design which is added to odd dialogue and twisted situations. This combo creates an experience that is very surreal. Don draws, shoots, edits, etc. etc. all his cartoons himself with a small staff of other key players. He even, in many cases, does the voice acting.
Last night's show presented a number of Hertzfeldt's movies. The show started with "The Meaning of Life" and then went right into "Rejected." I figured it would just be ho hum to see "Rejected" since I have seen it countless times at this point. But, I'll be damned if I wasn't giggling the moment I heard "My SPOON is too big!" and practically guffawing like a jackass by, "I am a BANANA!" The guffawing continued all through the short film. It really was awesome to see it on the big screen. After "Rejected" came "Billy's Balloon" and then "Everything will be ok" and, the latest film, "I am so proud of you." These latest two definitely show growth and maturity. They are much deeper movies, that, if not done in Hertzfeldt's easy style, would be really depressing and hard to digest. But, his odd drawing style and use of awkward long moments and strange events helped keep the films light.
Following the screenings, Hertzfeldt himself came out for a bit of Q&A. I knew he was about my age since "Billy's Balloon" was a school project and that came out in '98. But I was still shocked to see how young he was. But he has such a strong head on his shoulders and an incredible business sense. It was interesting to hear about his work process and his love for what he does and other odd tidbits he mentioned. I particularly loved the story of how proud he was of the vacuum sound effect in "Rejected" and how during the first ever screening of that movie, the crowd was laughing so hard that they missed it and he was mad that they missed it. I found that really endearing. Another bonus to the evening, Bill Plympton was in attendance. I'm not sure if the two are friends, but you could tell when Hertzfeldt pointed him out in the crowd that he still maintained a bit of starstruck giddyness about Plympton and even made mention to him being the Velvet Underground of animators... as in the animator that launched a thousand more. Check out Plympton's work also if you never have. His lastest, "Idiots and Angels" was awesome and I was lucky to catch it at Tribeca Film Fest this year.
The whole evening was very enjoyable. I particularly loved the "intermission." Picture THIS on the BIG screen.:
Don would likely be mad that I'm showing something that is on illegally on YouTube, so I'd like to add the message to check out his work and buy his dvds and products so that he can continue to make these AWESOME pieces of animation for all to see. Frank and I are already proud owners of "Rejected" on dvd as well as a t-shirt. But perhaps it's time for us to buy some more: http://www.bitterfilms.com/
Natalie Kocsis has her Masters degree in Illustration and a Bachelor's degree in a bunch of other stuff. Her illustrations have appeared in a number of magazines. Natalie is currently working on self-publishing her first children's book entitled Lucy Goes to Coney Island and is trying to get her art onto more public walls. She lives in Brooklyn, NY and enjoys listening to heavy metal music while experimenting with new ways of creating messy art.
