Graffiti in the West Bank -- Sept 29, 2010

Over the years, the use of graffiti to make statements on politics, culture, economics and the sort has steadily risen. While it may seem that gradually less of the work seen illustrates work in an activist sense, the atmosphere in other countries is strikingly different.

Case in point: The Middle East

Largely seen by the UN, Israel started building a massive wall in the early 2000's in an attempt to curb the violence in the region by separating Israeli's from their Palestinian counterparts. Lined with barbed wire and guard towers, one could liken to the wall as the world's longest prison wall (current records have it measuring around 425 miles long).

The construction of this wall has led to numerous instances of graffiti, ranging from beautiful to out-and-out offensive. Some instances illustrate a sense of hope between the warring sides. Many of the examples depict a "grass is greener on the other side" outlook with a strong sense of hope. This can be seen as a strong contrast to other works,

consisting of anger against the government and the existence of the wall itself.

For a fee one can have a message painted on the wall without having to be there. A

group of Dutch and Palestinian activists charge interested parties a mere $40 to compose message at www.sendamessage.ni to have their words spray painted on the wall with a photo sent to you shorty thereafter. One letter, on the Palestinian side reads "Have our Jewish sisters and brothers forgotten their humiliation? In your land, we are seeing something far more brutal, relentless and inhuman than what we have ever seen under apartheid."

Guerilla graffiti artists such as the single named "Bansky" have seen this massive wall as a vast canvas much too tempting to simply resist. Packing his supplies Bansky made his way to the Middle Eastern region and set to work creating nine separate illustrations on the wall. Some of these images are surreal, others poignant as Bansky has tried to avoid the overtly political statements littering the area as a whole.

Many of these illustrations depict a sense of hope, a hope for peace that will one day come to this war-torn land, and perhaps this wall along with these paintings --some beautiful, others haunting -- will cease to exist, in its place a beautiful landscape of peace will be in its place, one where paintings won't have to depict a hopeful future. The question is, will it happen in our lifetime?

Horror Vacui -- Sept 27, 2010

Ask yourself, would you rather be in a building staring at blank walls, or with something that has some form of ornamentation?

If this ornamentation was to hang on the wall would you rather it be confined in a box, or would you prefer it to fill the space?

Is it more important to allow artwork to breathe or is it more socially acceptable for beauty to be confined in a box, seen or unseen?

There are hundreds of considerations to be made when constructing a piece of art, more so in the display of said piece(s).

For many there is a certain degree of fear in the notion of empty space. Known in the art world as Horror Vacui, the morbidly sounding art movement unsurprisingly had its start in places such as 19th century psychiatric hospitals and insane asylums. One such patient a Richard

Dadd, become one of the pioneers of this movement. Locked away in his cell, Dadd had little to do. Managing to acquire some art supplies, Dadd set to work on a project that would eventually take nine years to finish. "Fairly Feller's Master Stroke" was one of the first, most influential pieces in this movement. Upon its release, the art community seemingly didn't know what to think. The notion of opening the borders was a new concept to some, but the breathing room enabled in such a movement helped to grow a relatively new movement in the modern art community (at the time).

Moving from the 1

9th century to the current, many artists have adopted the horror vacui style of art. S. Clay Wilson, Robert Crumb, and Robert Williams leaders of the underground comic movement adopted this art style, eventually becoming masters. This style of art would go on to influence many other comic artists such as Frank Miller and Will Eisner.

This movement also has the distinction of transcending across many national and cultural bounds. Examples of horror vacui can be seen in items as far ranging as the clothing worn by people in Middle and South America to the "Where's Waldo?" children's book series.

The majority of the works in this movement express a wide range of emotions, with paranoid claustrophobia being one of the most common. The denial of "open space" (fascinating term, considering the inclusion of borders could just as easily suffocate a piece) to some could be interpreted as the denial of the future/unknown. To others, this movement seen as an adoption of anarchy, some less minimalist examples of such can be seen in works by Jackson Pollock.

Since its inception in a mental hospital, this form of art can be seen in the works of Joe Coleman, and Todd Schorr. With the ever expanding art world one ought to wonder where the horror vacui movement would take us next, especially seeing as how this raw art style often works on fall wall interior designs among others.

Comic Artist Profile: Todd McFarlane -- Sept. 22, 2010

Known best for the character Spawn, Todd McFarlane has found much success as an artist and entrepreneur in a relatively short amount of time.

Attending Eastern Washington University in the early 1980's, the Canadian born McFarlane hoped to have a profitable career in major league baseball. This proved not to be, suffering a major career ending injury during his junior year. McFarlane, studying graphic art, worked in a local comic book store in Spokane, Washington. It was often here that illustrations of many famous characters in the comic world would be sold as a means to make extra income. Later, McFarlane would the Alberta College of Art and Design continuing to hone his talent, as would soon become the well known name he is today.

McFarlane's first published work was in a 1984 backup story in Epic Comics' Coyote. During a two-year run at D.C.

Comics in the mid 80's, McFarlane illustrated the follow-up to Frank Miller's famous Year One storyline. Shortly thereafter McFarlane left D.C. to join Marvel illustrating characters such as the Incredible Hulk and Wolverine, before starting what is seen as one of the most popular runs of any artists or writers on the Amazing Spider-Man. Working with writer David Micheline in issue #298, the duo introduced a new nemesis for hero Peter Parker.

Eddie Brock, a competing photographer at the Daily Bugle was seen by many as an alternate version of Peter, a "what if" of sorts. During this storyline, Peter is seen largely wearing a new black suit that eventually reveals its alien origins. Rejecting it, Peter returns to his famous original suit while the alien symbiote attaches itself to a vengeful Brock. It was in this run that the now famous villain known as Venom would make his first appearance.

Over the years the character has proven to be so popular that various iterations, spinoffs and ripoffs ensued, some of which turned out to be fairly good.

McFarlane had other plans however, eventually leaving Marvel with a handful other writers and artists. The group set out to form their own independent comic company. Image comics, founded in the early 1990's housed various publishing

houses such as McFarlane's own Todd McFarlane Productions (later retitled as Todd McFarlane Entertainment). The initial issue of McFarlane's Spawn holds the record for 1.7 million initial copies sold, a first for an independent studio.

Over the years as his company has grown, he has had to let other artists and writers work on the Spawn book, and various other works of his. Giving new and upcoming artists a start just like he had many years ago. Producing items in various media such as toys, film, and television McFarlane has been able to make quite the name for himself in a relatively short amount of time. Much of this busy schedule takes a toll naturally, but he often still finds time for the random "guest illustrator" spot on any of the books his company currently produces. He often finds time to illustrate album covers such as the one for the "Follow the Leader" album for the band Korn.

Recently company has put out a new ongoing series about a new tortured superhero, Haunt. First announced in 2007, the ongoing collaboration co-created by McFarlane and Robert Kirkman launched on October 7, 2009. There isn't much word on how it's been doing as of yet. But as with much of what has been released through McFarlane's company, it's likely to have been met with some degree of success.