Cindy Sherman: The Ultimate Chameleon

It’s safe to say I am obsessed with the work of Cindy Sherman. She is truly talented and I really respect the career she has built over the past 35 years. Her creativity and imagination astounds me. I saw her retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) this weekend and although it was a little sparser than I expected, I enjoyed the MOMA’s display of her work. According to a New York Times article, the MOMA rightly described her work as “the unchallenged cornerstone of postmodern photography.”

I’ve always had a thing for playing dress up and make believe…and Cindy has made a living killing doing just that and then photographing herself often perfectly capturing the emotion and personality of the subject. You immediately want to know the story behind the subject at hand…what’s behind that fierce grin or those longing eyes? I don’t even know how Cindy comes up with all of the different personas she becomes, but besides that she executes just as impressively…they are so super believable. Something I learned this weekend is that she shoots everything in her studio where she projects different backgrounds (cityscapes, courtyards, office buildings, etc.). It was also cool to learn more about the progression of her work. She first became famous decades ago for doing a series of black and white portraits. Then she got into the heavy-duty costumes in which she has mocked the PR moguls and actress wanna-bes, she has glorified the victimized androgynous types, she has taken the viewer back in time by recounting many historical moments while also poking fun, she has even shown us her perverted side and apparent preoccupation with clowns. I don’t show any of the later two because, well, neither are really my thang.

The MOMA exhibit ends in May, so go see it now!

Digging Daniela Edburg’s creepy humor

So, a funny little factoid is I don’t get creeped out easily. I don’t mind thinking about morbid things, and bugs and blood don’t really gross me out. I do have a limit, however, and could barely handle the scene in Drive where Ryan Gosling crushes the guy’s skull on the elevator…I think it was the sound that really got me.

Anyhoo, I say all of this because I really dig the work of surrealist Mexican artist, Daniela Edburg, and her stuff is definitely creeeeepy but also so clever and often very funny. I was recently introduced to her work and couldn’t get enough. This woman has a serious imagination, a terrific eye, and some majorly BADASS Photoshop skills. I would give anything to work Photoshop like she does! What I’ve gathered is that Daniela’s main motif is taking everyday situation or everyday people (often domestic goddesses) and putting a distributing twist to it. Take for instance an atomic bomb as the backdrop for a nice, friendly family picnic. Check out the atomic symbol on the cake…

The conceptual aspect of her work reminds me of the brilliant…and equally (or more) disturbed…Cindy Sherman, whose retrospective at the MOMA I am looking forward to seeing in the next 2 weeks.

And, last but not least, one of my personal favorites–“Death By Chocolate”–what a way to go

Rock on, Austin… a city of fun, love, and music

I really can’t shut up about Austin.

I do love to brag. But really it’s that I want to share with everyone what a wonderful place it is.

Austin is one of those places I’ve been dying to go to for the last 8 years (jeez, now I sound old). Honestly, I don’t know what took me so long. My time there gave me flashbacks at a point in college when I insisted I wanted to be a hippie nomad who just did art and wandered the world. Clearly, that didn’t happened but it was fun to be free-spirited for five days and just lay in the grass and listen to music.

This trip happened at an interesting point in my life. I’m going through some personal stuff and my heart hurts. The music was truly healing, as was being with my friends. I also randomly met a fella who is in a related field (advertising) and he was a wealth of knowledge about the industry and gave great recommendations about design schools. I can’t help but believe it was fate.

While I was there I took pictures incessantly on my iPhone. I felt inspired and clearly I found a nice photography groove… Enjoy

Making the world more beautiful one Instagram pic at a time

In the last 72hours, approximately, I have become wildly addicted to Instagram.

It’s a blissful obsession.

I never thought a pic app could be so powerful and produce such wonderful, professional quality images. Besides the filter options, I love that there is a social component to the app, so you can easily share and view pictures by others.

It reminds me of the Forbes article “Why Fashion Bloggers Are Flocking to Instagram” I read earlier this year. I know completely understand why this tool is so sought after.

I’ve been snapping/filtering away, and I want to share some of my favs with you. Scroll over each to see the name of my mini masterpieces.

If you like what you see and know what’s good for ya, find me on Instagram — my username is AnneMarieDC!