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Christian Louboutin and His Stylish Take on “the Gaze”
If you walk up to any makeup counter or shoe salesperson wanting to create the perfect nude lip or find a classic nude pump you will likely get one shade. What if that nude looks nothing like your skin tone? Why is the universally accepted nude distilled to a single ivory hue? If you’ve never even thought of…
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My Mourning of Synergy: The Legacy of Phife & a Tribe Called Quest
When De La Soul “officially” came on the scene with “3 Feet High and Rising” in the spring of 1989, I was in High School walking a not so fine line between my obsession with new wave synth pop and my love for rap (frankly I jumped between worlds), but when “Me Myself and I”…
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The Veiled Genius of Ruth Asawa
Ruth Asawa’s art celebrates diversity of style and technique. Drawing from illustration, painting, dance, basket weaving, music and pottery, her multi-disciplined approach to art was nurtured as a student at Black Mountain College in the late 40’s. Her introduction to art however, came to Asawa under less than auspicious circumstances. During WW II Asawa’s entire…
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Artist a Day Challenge 2016-29 BONUS: Happy Leap Day!
I posted this photo last September and it is one of my favorites. To this day, I have not been able to source the artist. Sometimes a leap into the unknown is necessary. Here’s to all the creatives making that leap!
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Artist a Day Challenge 2016-28: Shinique Smith
When I started Culture Shock Art in 2010, my goal was to explore street art and graffiti in Los Angeles, after I stumbled upon street artist JR’s work completely by accident. The process of discovery through investigating the origins of one of his murals led me to his 2010 TED talk after which I purchased one of his lithographs. That…
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Artist a Day Challenge 2016-27: Ebony Patterson
Last year I took a class with the Sotheby’s Institute of Arts where a fellow student shared the work of Ebony Patterson, and I have not forgotten their work since. One particular piece stands out to me as one that honors the past while challenging the viewer to see the present. In Patterson’s 2014 performance…
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Artist a Day Challenge 2016-26: Carrie Mae Weems
Last year I highlighted Carrie Mae Weems and I love her work so much that she deserves another mention. Weems was recently announced as the 2016 National Artist nominee by the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Aspen. “Founded in 1966, Anderson Ranch Arts Center is a premier destination in America for art making and critical dialogue,…
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Artist a Day Challenge 2016-22: Norman Lewis
Norman Lewis was one of the first pioneers of Abstract Expressionism, but his legacy as an artist among his AbEx contemporaries is relatively unknown. His work was an incredible blend of figurative and abstract painting and I am glad to see that it has finally found its way into institutional programming. “Procession: The Art of Norman Lewis” is…
Colony Little, Culture Shock Art 