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The Design Inspirationalist

~ Inspiring Ideas | Spectacular Creations

The Design Inspirationalist

Tag Archives: Van Gogh

The Best of Hipster Decor

28 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by melissaoconnor in Edward Stuart, Guest Posts, The Home

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

art, hipster, jackalope, nintendo, paintings, record player, Starry Night, taxidermy, the 80s, Van Gogh, video games, vintage appliances

By the simple fact that the word “hipster” is mentioned in the title of this post, we know that “best” is a very relative term see-sawing uncertainly back and forth between irony and perfect sincerity, depending on context and possibly the weather. What we can say with certainty is that the following bits of genius are very hipster indeed. Let’s take a look at some of the best of twenty-teen décor.

Jackalope Taxidermy
As far as ironic wall-mounts go nothing quite beats a jackalope. It makes an interesting visual on its own while simultaneously mocking the half of Americans that go out and shoot wild animals and then hang them on their walls for decoration. If your other hipster décor is sparse and people don’t know what to make of your eclectic tastes, you could get some good laughs by convincing more gullible individuals that the jackalope is a real animal; after all, you’ve got its head hanging on your wall.
Guest Post: The Best of Hipster Decor
Photo Credit: Flickr

Vintage Appliances
There is something uniquely charming about an old school refrigerator from the 50s and their rounded shape with the non-regular sized or totally absent freezer compartments. It makes a great statement piece, and unlike newer refrigerators come with a bit of personality. Modern refrigerators typically come in chrome, white, and black, and that’s about it as far as your options are concerned. Older refrigerators were (and are!) available in a much larger variety of colors, and can be used to put a bright splash of color in your kitchen.
Guest Post: The Best of Hipster Decor
Photo Credit: Oh Gracie Pie

Paintings
The beauty of paintings is that while it’s preferred that you only hang up the most exclusive and obscure artists, you’re free to do just about anything you like. If you choose to ironically hang up only the most well-known and tired cliché pieces in art history, like Van Gogh’s Starry Night, you can still maintain a consistent hipster vibe by liking it ironically.
Guest Post: The Best of Hipster Decor
Photo Credit: The Bare Square

80s Video Game Consoles
Even though most hipsters typically aren’t old enough to remember the 80s they do love those nostalgic gaming consoles. Setting the Sega SG-1000 that you found at a garage sale for 4 dollars next to the iMac on your desk shows people that you have good taste. Remember to keep it hooked up to your flat screen or you’ll look like a poser, though it’s always legitimate to assert that the poser hipster crowd has ruined it by making it way too mainstream for you in the last few months, and that you’re planning on throwing it out.
Guest Post: The Best of Hipster Decor
Photo Credit: Nintendo Wikia

Record Player/Record Collection
A hipster is not a hipster without a vintage record player and a collection of low quality indie music. If you don’t enjoy indie music you can get away with listening to obscure classical musicians like Berwald, Glazunov, or Tveitt. The most important thing is that when you put on your tunes, no one but your closest co-hipsters should know what they’re listening to. Because of advancing technologies and the evolving hipster genre it’s now appropriate to use not only the hipster standard record players, but also tape decks, and even CD players. Before the decade is out it wouldn’t be terribly surprising if any physical media storage (even by USB stick) becomes a mark of hipsterdom.
Guest Post: The Best of Hipster Decor
Photo Credit: Muses of Megret

{Written by Edward Stuart}

Interview with Artist & Musician Reinder Oldenburger

09 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by melissaoconnor in Art & Design, Featured Artists

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

andy warhol, art, canvas, color, conservatory of amsterdam, countryside, de kooning, dutch, fine arts, fryslan, greetings cards, guitar, hurricane sandy, karel appel, matisse, music, netherlands, new york, owl, painting, picasso, playful, red cross, Reinder Oldenburger, ryan oldcastle, rythm, songwriting, structure, Van Gogh

My first impression of Reinder Oldenburger was definitely a good one, as he seemed laid back, kind and very sweet. Off the bat you can tell he was artistic, which he totally is, and he looked quite handsome that one winter day. You see I met him and my friend Jen in NYC to take photos of their wedding at city hall. It was such an honor to capture their special day.

Interview with Artist & Musician Reinder Oldenburger - © Jen Lombardo
Photo Credit: Jen Lombardo

Since that day, I have kept up with what Reinder has been creating and I have to say, I am impressed. Not only can he write and play music but he paints as well. Born in the Netherlands, he started playing guitar at 13 and then later moved to attend the Conservatory of Amsterdam. The artist, 28, now resides in Queens with his wife and fabulous makeup artist, Jen Lombardo.

Interview with Artist & Musician Reinder Oldenburger - © Reinder Oldenburger
Owl

Color plays a big part in his art as well as his music. In 2011, he decided to start putting his thoughts on canvas and through this has become a self taught fine artist with clear intention and abstract vision, one held by the great expressionists that have truly influenced him. His work is playful, raw and childlike with a touch of maturity and sensibility. It’s amazing he has only been painting for about a year.

I asked Reinder if he would do an interview with me for the blog and he kindly said yes. I am very happy to share the Q and A we had so you can learn a little more about this unique young man too.

What would you consider your first love, music or art? And why?
I started playing guitar in 1997 when I was 13. I took lessons and started playing in some local bands and eventually moved to Amsterdam to study music at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. I didn’t start painting until much later in 2011 after a visit to the van Gogh museum so it’s safe to say music was my first love.

How do you feel art and music/songwriting influence each other in your life?
I think they are essentially the same. They both have rhythm, color, and structure. I get inspired to paint a picture from listening to music and vice versa.

Interview with Artist & Musician Reinder Oldenburger - © Reinder Oldenburger
Andy Warhol

What is it that draws you to use vibrant colors in your paintings?
I think they’re just mesmerizing! Some of my favorites are cadmium yellow, naphthol red and azure blue. They’re so powerful I find it hard not to look at them.

Interview with Artist & Musician Reinder Oldenburger - © Reinder Oldenburger
Untitled

How do you feel your upbringing and surroundings have influenced your artistic vision and what experiences have influenced you the most?
I grew up in a generation without cell phones and social media. There was less distraction and more time to use the imagination. I’ve had a very free and untroubled childhood growing up on the Dutch countryside. The skies are amazing over there! The Dutch landscapes are a painter’s dream and I definitely believe that has influenced my perception of space and color.

Where do you look for inspiration?
Most of the time inspiration comes as I’m working. Music and books are some of my favorite sources. I believe that everything I see, hear and experience influences and inspires me when the time is right.

Explain your artistic process when starting to work on a painting.
A blank canvas can be very intimidating. It’s all about being open and fearless, adding and taking away. Every brush stroke leads to another. I often have no idea where I’m going. I basically start building on a simple idea and let the current take me to unknown waters. When I paint I like to listen to loud music and drink lots of coffee.

Interview with Artist & Musician Reinder Oldenburger - © Reinder Oldenburger
Untitled

Is it ever hard to part with a painting when it’s sold?
For me it’s all in the process of creating. I’ll give it everything and when I’m done with a painting I’m ready to part with it.

Who are your favorite artists and why?
Picasso, Matisse, de Kooning, Karel Appel, and van Gogh are some of my favorites. Mostly because of their incredible use of color.

Interview with Artist & Musician Reinder Oldenburger - © Reinder Oldenburger
Vincent van Gogh

{To learn more about Reinder, you can visit him at reinderoldnburger.com and ryan oldcastle.com. You can purchase his paintings in his Etsy shop. Also currently for sale are limited greeting card boxed sets featuring 8 paintings from his 2012 work which you can buy for $20. He is kindly donating 25% of the profits to the Red Cross to help Hurricane Sandy victims.}

Repurposing Canvas Art

02 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by melissaoconnor in Art & Design, Edward Stuart, Guest Posts

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

art, Canvas Art, canvasgalleryart.com, design, Edward Stuart, frames, home decor, Repurposing, Starry Night, Van Gogh, yard sales

The economy is down and our bank accounts are deflated, but that doesn’t mean we have to go without great art. The major difference is that we can’t afford supporting good artists to get it. Obviously that’s pretty harsh since we should want to promote good art, but if you can’t afford it then that’s that. Instead, here are a couple of ways to make bad art good or to find good art for cheap.

Enhancement
There are few better feelings than walking into a thrift shop and finding a great framed piece of canvas that you already have a plan for. These bargain basement values will often set you back little more than $5. I like to take the content in these frames and use that as a jumping off point, creatively. For instance, I’ve often seen framed art that has a nautical theme to it, be it an ocean landscape or maybe a lighthouse safely guiding ships in with a beacon of light. Take those boring images and use some acrylic paint to add a sea monster ravaging some fishermen, a dragon terrorizing a village, or an alien space ship hovering above the beach. The problem with a lot of this cheap art isn’t that it’s particularly “bad” so much as that it’s boring. If you’ve got the necessary painting skills (or not if that’s how you roll) you can take cheap generic stuff and make it your own.

Purposeful Ruination
This is exactly the same thing as the above category, except that it involves using prints of extremely good but overplayed pieces that just about anyone is liable to recognize like this awesome blog showing a variety of altered versions of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”.

Guest Post: Repurposing Canvas Art
Photo Credit: Popped Culture

Stencils
Yes I know, stencils are for amateurs, if you’re that awesome you can use a paintbrush. For those of us who are awful at typographical things, we will cheat. Hip boutique stores sell framed art like this for far more than it’s worth, but you’re smarter than that. You’re savvy. Take a forest landscape and stencil “Vintage Solar Cells”, or “Carbon-Emission Free Energy before it was cool” across it. If you’re not into the hipster thing, stencil something inspirational over the classic evergreens and mountain lake as a pick me up for a rainy day.

Yard Sales
This isn’t so much repurposing as it is simple reuse. If art modification makes your skin crawl then yard sales are for you. The fact is that a lot of people can’t tell the difference between good and bad art. That means some people overprice bad art, but it also means heavily underpriced good art. If you go around every weekend and look through local yard sales you will absolutely find some priceless stuff at absurdly low prices all because someone didn’t know or care that grandma was an art aficionado.

{Edward Stuart wrote this on behalf of canvasgalleryart.com.}

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