Sunday, January 30, 2011

Progress

A few new things have been going on lately. I recently found a gallery that is interested in representing my 2D work, (paintings and drawings) so I will put up a few pictures of that work (so you know what I'm talking about). For those interested the gallery is "GalerĂ­a Kandinsky" located in San Pedro Costa Rica. Besides this exciting development, I'm continually progressing with the fabrication of more pieces for "Monetary Bondage" (so I have pictures of that progress here as well). I have also begun to develop a few ideas of potential Museums and Galleries that Might be interested in exposing "Monetary Bondage". This is probably not in the immediate future but exciting things to think and talk about..... any way on with post and the eye candy..... hmmm where to start?  
Lets go 2D for the first time. below are three examples from a collection/series in progress called "Imperfect Geometry" all pieces are acrylic on canvas.
"Dioxazine Purple Indian Yellow" is only 12 inches by 12 inches but contains 288 triangles. 

"Cadmiuim Orange Cobalt Blue"

"Light Green Cadmium Orange" 

I call this one "The Big One" and it is part of another on going collection/series called "Universal Metaphor". These are drawings not paintings although, it is easier to just say they are "mixed media" due to the vast variety of pens, inks and markers used to create the many layers of visual depth and physical texture if you can get close enough to them to notice it.  

This is a smaller piece from the same collection. This one is called "Rings of Saturn". I do have prepared artist statements for both collections which I plan to share, (hopefully soon) but I want to keep this post relatively short and don't want to start putting people to sleep in the middle of it... So I will be making that information available for those who want it (like I said hopefully soon).  

On to more "Money Art" this is the progress so far on the "13 Skulls" collection within  "Monetary Bondage".  The white skulls have made an appearance on an older post as well as the unfinished red skulls but its nice to see how they all look together.
I plan to make 13 of these pieces total each one will be in a different color and have slight variations on the bezel and decorative silver elements, making each one completely unique yet similar.  
Well I guess that should about do it for now. I'm going to go tinker around with a few ideas I have in my head and will hopefully be making another post soon. So until next time best wishes to all the fellow travellers out there and thanks for tuning in. Hope to have you next time.   

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Money Art? Art and Money....

What is art and what is money? When does one turn into the other and vice versa? These are some rather perplexing questions and I enjoy examining those relationships in the art I create. As I am very interested in the relationships between art, money and value, and those are the topics explored in my body of work "Monetary Bondage". I often do research on the topics and discover some interesting things along the way.  

Sadly, one of the first artistic objects that one might stumble across when looking for information on these topics is Damien Hirst's "For the Love of God". This is a widely talked about work of "art", and I would rather not discuss it in great detail. I only mention it as it helps demonstrate the relationship between art, money and value.
Damien Hirst, "For the Love of God"

There are many other artists that are far more deserving of our attention than the artist previously mentioned. 
My personal approach to the subject of art and money and my personal interest in the topic arises from the "concept" of money and what people value and why? 

Meanwhile investigating these topics I learned about an artist who's work closely resembles my own in concept, but is very different in terms of execution. The "Exchanghibition Bank" is a project by artist Dadara that revolves and almost overlaps my own interests in what people value in terms of "money/art" and why. 

When I first wrote this post (in early 2011), the "Exchanghibition Bank" project was still in development. Since then it has become quite a success, I had the privilege to meet Dadara and even began a collaboration with him as we have a mutual interest in these topics. 

Monetary Bondage + Exchanghibition Bank Collaboration
There has been an ever increasing amount of people and artists taking an interest in these topics. Many of them appear on the "Art as Money Blog" where I originally found out about the "Exchanghibition Bank" project. It has been interesting to see the interest increase (no pun intended), and here are a few of the observations I have made through the years.  

It is fairly obvious to see that financial institutions have continually failed throughout history and continue to do so today, yet people continue to put their faith in money. In today's financial world of digital banking and ridiculous sums of money being thrown around with little consideration, oversight or accountability; one begins to wonder what the heck the money we see on a daily basis, like a dollar bill, is really worth compared to a million, or even a billion, not to mention a trillion dollars. Sums of money we can't begin to imagine. It becomes difficult to imagine because the majority of money today exists only in theory inside computer banks (This always boggles my mind) so what is our money really worth, I mean when was the last time you saw a trillion dollars in real life??? What a Trillion Dollars Looks Like!! 

Art, money or both; is there a difference? Only you can be the judge...
(100 Dollars? : Daniel Icaza)  
Sums of money like this usually don't exist in single physical places (if they exist at all) which is what makes objects like Damien Hirst's "For the Love of God" so intriguing. Theoretically nothing in the world can really match its material worth, but whether or not the monetary cost of a piece of art makes it a "good" or "successful" piece of art is up to every individual viewer. I know I ask myself on a daily bases why a one dollar bill is worth less than a hundred dollar bill simply because of a design change?
It is my hope that by creating art that questions the value and concept of money; mankind can move onto a more logical form of economy. For this reason it brings me great joy to see artists like Dadara creating art that challenges our concepts of value and money.

Think I could buy a coke with this?
 ("Quarter Dollar?" By: Daniel Icaza)
Thank you for taking an interest in these topics and I wish you all the best on your path of discovery. If you have anything interesting or relevant to share, please feel free to leave a comment below.
Until next time peace and love to all the fellow travellers. ;o)

      

Etsy Shop Now Up and Running!

Just a quick post to let everyone know that I finally got my Etsy site up and kicking so if anyone is interested in what I have for sale please visit the shop at danielicaza.etsy.com.  There are only a few items up for now but there will be more to come soon I promise.
Just a glimpse of some of the work that is and will be available at the Etsy shop. 

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

First Enameled Pieces

As I mentioned in my last post I have been trying to get a nice deep etch so that I could do some champleve' enamelling and the first successful piece is finally completed. This is the first in a series within the "Monetary Bondage" body of work. Sure hope every body likes it should be plenty more to come in the near future. 
"13 Skulls" (front)  Copper, Sterling Silver, Gold, 1964 USA Quarter, Cubic Zirconia, White Vitreous Enamel  

"13 Skulls" (back)  Copper, Sterling Silver, Gold, 1964 USA Quarter, Cubic Zirconia, White Vitreous Enamel

This is the next piece already under way, it looks black in this picture but in actuality its a very deep red. The pitting around the design is a variable I am still trying to address in my etching technique; this is an issue that I have not had to deal with before but I am sure I'll figure something out. Although not an intentional outcome I feel that for these pieces in particular the pitting provides a pleasant and attractive aesthetic quality which might not look as good with a different design. Anyway I'll be sure to make another post as things progress, until next time. . .  

Sunday, January 9, 2011

A Few New things

Happy 2011 everybody out there. I hope the holidays treated you well. I don't have to much to go over at the moment but I figured I would make a little post and talk about a few of the projects that kept me busy over the holidays. I decided to play around with some silver wires and test my hand at weaving some chains. I also have a marble collection as I have always loved glass marbles; after a bit of playing around I figured I would try and put the two together and this is the outcome.   

"Cool Marble Necklace" Blue and Green Glass Marbles, Sterling Silver


"Warm Marble Necklace" Orange Glass marbles, Sterling Silver

Grouping of three Marble Necklaces
I am still working on more pieces for "Monetary Bondage" as well, here are the outcomes of my most recent etching's as I am still becoming accustomed to the tools and materials available to me in this country.

"Indian Head?" (front)  1901 Indian Head Penny Copper, Cubic Zirconia/s , Silver 

"Indian Head?" (back)  1901 Indian Head Penny, Copper, Cubic Zirconia/s , Silver 

"Dime?" (front) 1950 Dime, Copper, Cubic Zirconia/s, Silver (This is not the best picture I have to try and get a better one but if you look really closely you can see the design that has been etched into the star shaped copper frame.) 

"Dime?" (back) 1950 Dime, Copper, Cubic Zirconia/s, Silver
 Well I guess that about does it for this post. I am currently etching a few more pieces as I am becoming more comfortable with the chemicals I have at my disposal. Hopefully, I will be able to enamel on these next pieces as I become more comfortable with my materials. Best Wishes to everyone out there. Be sure to check in again and I'll let you know how things have progressed.