Modern Art despite Modernism

(To be honest I sorta forgot what we were supposed to respond to, so I'm responding to whatever the interactive essay thing from the Museum of Modern art that was on the syllabus)
While abstractions are interesting, I prefer works of art that have a form to them.  However, works with geometric patterns such as Mondrian's Broadway Boogie Woogie bring a smile to my face.  Perhaps it is Broadway Boogie Woogie in particular, as it is reminiscent of the colors of lego blocks I used to play with when I was a child.  When things appeared simpler...
I am also fascinated by the semi-photo realism of romanticism paintings (grammar?), which is what lead me to Odd Nerdrum (who I found a few days before Professor Wellman showed some of his works to the class), who uses human forms reminiscent of romanticism but are in environments of surrealistic quality.  A few of his paintings, such as arrest- have a sort of lava-like swirls of color in the background that reminds me of the works by Jackson Pollock like Full Fathom Five, except the swirls general flow and follow the human forms.

Digital Painting

I found this interesting:

If you watch carefully during the coloring stage, for example the skin tone- there are only solid blocks of color.  Variations in the color are achieved through gray scale shading, and perhaps some subtle modifications to the base underneath.
And here I was still choosing different colors to achieve different shades in my digital art...

Raid my "Digital Artness" folder!

I thought I'd grab one of the digitally inked drawings I have kicking around and post it.  I don't know why, not like anyone will see it.
I like the way the purple and the blue colors seem to harmoniously  interact... At least I'm good with choosing colors :)

Anyway, I'll throw in the original pencil just for fun, because I want to make your eyes bleed at my horrible drawing skills.  In my defense I never had any formal training (unless you count a few years of tae kwon do which I have forgotten by now).

An ekphrastic flag

 Flag

Jasper Johns (1954-55)

Unresolved in your heart
in the mind
in the body.
A collection forms together
like leaves in the autumn.
Fused together they lay.

Mr Orton gives Mr. Schrodinger a run for his money
Yes and no.
Light and Dark.
Positive and Negative.
Yet none of these they show.

Laid in a plan
of intricate design
as a whole showing a flag
in your eyes and mine

going out upon a limb.

Random Drawing

I seem to be doing this quite a bit recently.  I don't know why, maybe because I am finally starting to be satisfied with my skills with a pencil    |:c)

 

Gumi (2012)

Joshua Nye

This character is not an original, but a rendition of a character created by Yamaha for their "Vocaloid" program, which allows the user to create songs in the style of "J-Pop".  The program uses voice samples from famous actors and actresses and digitally manipulates them.  It is essentially (and referred to as) a "Digital Diva".  There are currently a few dozen different versions floating around, each with a different anime style character representative of the program.

The age of the human singer has passed.

Drifting

Odd Nerdrum (2007)

This is a rather interesting piece.  It is reminiscent of a romantic painting, yet there is a sort of surrealism that lends it to modern painting, specifically the swirls of colors on the woman's right arm and above the male form.

Early Morning

Odd Nerdrum (2006)

Nerdrum declares himself a kitsch artist, being rather cynical of modern art.  However, an artist who calls himself (or herself) a kitsch artist is in fact supporting the philosophical movement of the same name.  This "kitsch" is a sort of return to the classic romanticism and narrative form of painting.

Philisophically, it focuses on the importance of humans, tending to ignore the appearance of the supernatural (such as religion).  In addition it ignores the view that artists should follow the zeitgeist (spirit of the current time period), with an emphasis on individualism.

Interestingly enough, Odd Nerdrum is in prison for tax evasion.

Data
Joshua Nye 2012

Similar to the previous post, I thought I'd liven things up with some of my own art (albeit a bit of an older piece).  If you want an explanation for this piece, I'll unwillingly provide one:
In the modern age there is a sort of obsessive fetishism surrounding technology to the point that the persona we take on when interaction through digital worlds becomes almost as real as ourselves.