Mythic Faces at the Hudson River Museum

by Christopher Agostino agostinoarts.com #transformationsny #mythicfaces

This past Sunday, June 29, I was back at the Hudson River Museum for Family Day, and I was invited by the organizers to take my inspiration for the faces from a wonderful current exhibit, “Mandy Greer:The Ecstatic Moment” (June 7-Sept.14). From the museum website:

Mandy Greer. Every Moment Lost is Lost Forever, 2013 Photo: Andrea Kurtz

“Seattle-based artist Mandy Greer installs a fantasy world awash in color, laced with glittering chandeliers, and alive with sumptuous birds and enigmatic figures draped in costume in her first New York solo exhibition. In The Ecstatic Moment at the Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, June 7 to September 14, 2014, she draws her inspiration from ancient myths and fairy tales and from the mundane and magical moments of everyday life.”

The scale of her installations transforms parts of the museum into otherworldly landscapes peopled by fantastically costumed creatures, along with photographs of people wearing the costumes in ritualistic settings, often with their faces painted. spiritdancer_figure_hrm_140629cc_agostinoarts Upon seeing the exhibit, I set myself the task of painting the faces of the museum visitors as if they would be inhabiting these costumes and landscapes, in some cases making mask-like designs as if they were enacting rituals like the scenes in the photos and in other cases taking a figurative approach to create personas related to the myth and folklore as well as the thematic description of the different sections of the exhibit (i.e. “Celestial”, and “Earth and Forest”). Hey, if you’re painting faces in an art museum, why not try to paint them like they belong there.

: Winged woman

: Moon Goddess

: Spirit Dancer

: Winged Troll

: The Night Queen

: Wood Shaman

: The Wild Woman – Dzunukwa

: Bird Mask

: Beautiful Day

learn more about the exhibit at: http://www.hrm.org/exhibits.html and Video: Mandy Greer: The Ecstatic Moment

Learn about all we do at: agostinoarts.com

Ruby – beautiful video by Emma Allen

Nov12

Sharing a really beautiful video forwarded to me by a friend. It’s the first I’ve seen of Emma Allen’s work, and well worth sharing:

https://vimeo.com/72670988

Ruby

(This text is from her Vimeo posting):

from Emma Allen 2 months ago ALL AUDIENCES

An animated self-portrait exploring the idea of rebirth and illustrating the transfer of energy from one incarnation to another. I painted this stop frame animation on myself over 5 days, using some face paints, a mirror and a camera.

emmaallen.org
twitter.com/imakefings

Story & Performance – Emma Allen
Photography & Makeup – Emma Allen
Post Production – Alex Try, Phil Varnier
Sound – Alex Try

I have my first exhibition opening this week on 13th November at The Dalston Superstore. Please come, have a look and say hi.dalstonsuperstore.com/features/black-light/

Ver Veris — The Evolution of Civilization

Halloween Face Painting 2013 — Gallery #zombieattack

Oct16

‘Tis the season… We do a lot of Halloween and Fall festival events this time of year, and folks seem even more appreciative of, and open to, our creativity as Halloween approaches. It’s a good time to develop new face ideas and expand on older ones. Our approach is to surprise each person we paint with an original design just for them, only asking if they want to be “nice” or “spooky” — or matching their costume if they have one. Here’s a gallery of some of my favorites as I paint this season, and I’ll add more as we go (gallery updated 10/23/13). Mostly they are the spooky ones, but there’s a few nice ones as well. Check out our event schedule on the News/Schedule page and come and be transformed at Boo at the Zoo and our other Fall Festival and Halloween events.