Inspiration Friday: Art For Art’s Sake

Good Morning Everybody,

Yesterday the Cabo Geek Squad, myself and my buddy Kent, pulled out some new camera gear and headed to the beach.  We got some great stuff – I’m planning to use some of the images, one of which is featured in today’s “Image of the Day” post above,  for another episode of Technique Tuesday which will air next week – stay tuned.

Every Thursday evening the town of San Jose del Cabo hosts an Art Walk of all the galleries in the town.  Casa Dahlia [link] was featuring the work of artist/photographer Roberta Booth [link]. That’s me with Roberta with some of her photographic art pieces in the background.

Roberta images were wonderful abstracts, like the one entitled, “Flashpoint” featured here, that seemed to be taken from smaller parts of photographs she had made. The end result was an image with a subtle and not so subtle blending of tones and colors that was very beautiful. A perfect lead in for inspiration Friday, don’t you think?

Inspiration Friday: Art For Art’s Sake

You know, occasionally I run across a web site, video, or photograph that I find very exciting and yes, inspirational.  Many times these items have nothing to do with photography. It is the shear beauty or emotional impact  one feels when experiencing these videos or images make them a joy to behold.

I’m a firm believer in the fact that when one sees an extremely artistic expression, one’s own creative juices get a jolt too.  The videos I’m pointing you today are absolutely mesmerizing and a joy to watch.

VIDEO #1

The first is one I actually posted well over a year ago.  It is the most fascinating exhibition of dance I have ever seen.  It is a visual masterpiece and a joy to watch.  It’s amazing to me that something like this can even be choreographed, but then I think of the amazing opening of the Chinese Olympics in 2008.  Anyway, give the video a peek right here and see if you don’t agree with me.

VIDEO #2

My buddy, Kent Smith, pointed me to this next video.  You may have seen it on YouTube since it has received about 10,000,000 hits. Hey, that’s still not anywhere near Susan Boyle’s 100,000,000 hits [video ink], but this video is about the MOST original artistic expression I have ever seen.

Kseniya Simonova is a sand animator from Ukraine and tells her story in a most usual manner. She uses flowing sand on a backlit glass panel or pallet to tell an evolving and emotional story of the U.S.S.R’s fight against the 3rd Reich in WWII. 

The poetic motions coupled with the amazing, almost moving images and story she is able to conjure from the flowing sand will keep you transfixed for it’s 5-6 minute duration.  A very worth while viewing experience.  Here is the video ink right here.

VIDEO #3

Lastly, check out this video over at one of my favorite story telling sites – Media Storm.  Here is the video link right here. It is not just the story here that is a pleasure to watch, but also the creative and imaginative use of the almost 3-D imagery makes this video fun and uplifting.

I guess the thought I’m left with after watching this video is that sometimes people, mostly children don’t even know they don’t have much material possession.  Why?  Because for many, they live in the moment and many times those moments are rich in life and joy.  Maybe there’s a lesson here for all of us to learn.

Hey folks, I hope you enjoyed the posts today.  Think of it as a “dessert only” post – just fun, relaxing, uplifting, and inspiring.  I enjoyed putting the collection together for you and I hope you take a short break and enjoy them this weekend.

On that note, I’m out of here.  We’ve got the weekend off and are just going to chill for the rest of out time down here.  See everybody on Monday – that is if I can get my pixels out of the sunshine and off the sandy beach by then ;~)  Have a great weekend everybody.  See ya’ Monday,  David