art diva studios visuals and verbiage by Rachelle Díaz
oracles
Artiquette
Well, my prediction about the Tucson city budget meeting earlier this week was fulfilled: the impending fallout is now a bitter controversy. As Tu Scene is not a place for critique (yet), I shall blow hot pixels here, opinionated Art Diva that I am. Who knew everyone and their dog who opposed the hotel and [...]
The Alchemy of Art
For the last few months, I have been thinking about the Artist as Shaman: a person who acts an intermediary between the People and God [via]. An oracle who can shed insight into the future, albeit not in the most direct forms of communication. Not to sound pompous or anything, but that is always how [...]
Passing the Buck
Downloaded clip art from Microsoft Office. I feel the world financial depression (which started in the U.S.) was caused by an ethical crisis more than anything else. We all say it at work: “not my problem.” But imagine millions of people saying it, over and over. And if everyone’s saying it, eventually it’s going to [...]
Harmonies
Just as much as swirling guitars and Hammond organs, vocal harmonies were an integral part that defined the 60′s psychadelic pop sound. This flashed in my mind this as I watched this episode of I Dream of Jeannie a few days ago, featuring future girlfriend-killer Phil Spector. I had to watch it just ’cause of [...]
Velvet Rebellion
Prologue 1. Sametová Revoluce. The Velvet Revolution (Czech: sametová revoluce) (November 16- December 29, 1989) refers to a non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that saw the overthrow of the Communist government. On November 17, 1989, riot police suppressed a peaceful student demonstration in Prague. That event sparked a series of popular demonstrations from November 19 to [...]
RGB: future classic
Acid neon and neutral colors will be completely out by the middle of next year (in the States – it’s on it’s way out in most other countries) and primary colors will make a comeback. What will be unusual about this trend is that it won’t just be in ephemera like fashion and graphic design, [...]
Vogueing Out
A couple of things caught my eye as I cracked open the March 2008 issue of VOGUE yesterday. 1) Is high fashion trying to angle itself with high art? Art has been what I would call “street hip” for a couple of years now, but for me, the deer heads, power lines and raindrops are [...]
Sweet vs Shameful: Art Logos
The Diva’s kickin’ it old school, going back to my pithy early days of blogging focused on graphic design critique. Women & Their Work I heard about an opening at Women & Their Work tonight and went to their website for more information. The show, featuring terrifying yet cute fabric sculptures by Katy Heinlein, looked [...]
Corporate Art takes on a new form
I packed in with scores of my closest fellow hipster doofi at the opening of the Scion Installation 4: It’s A Beautiful World at Gallery Lombardi on Saturday. The whole event rubbed me horribly wrong (not the gallery’s fault). 1. Why have an opening in an 18′ x 30′ gallery where hundreds of people are [...]
Historical Correlations
I finally found what I was looking for in Culture and Society in Venice 1470-1790: the connection between the Postmodern and the Post-Renaissance (may be my own coinage). The Counter-Reformation was a conservative backlash against the Humanists and the Protestants in which the Church machine sought to regain control of the people through art, music [...]
Things to Come: Country Escape vs Urban Immersion
Perhaps in 10 years or less, the artists loci featured in the Texas Biennial will not be the megapolisesesses of Dalls/Houston/San Antonio/Austin, but rather will sound like a litany of nowheres in the show catalog: Quanah, Palacios, Wied, Electric City, Mount Enterprise, Hico, Uvalde, Valentine… Artists will go on an exodus into the countryside for [...]
Things to Come: Realism
This piece is first in a series of opinionated forecasts about art, culture, fashion and business called Things to Come. Look for these posts in the oracles category, but don’t look for definitive answers. There is too much history to absorb. We only receive vague transmissions of our own culture, like watching a snowy TV [...]
