Conceptual Response to Music

The concept, colors, composition, and subject matter of this image all stem from my visceral and stream of conscious response to the song Tears From The Compound Eye by Boards of Canada.

Illustration Concepts Final

This piece is a proposed editorial illustration for an article in Attitude magazine's October 08' issue named "Is Gaydar Destroying Your Relationships?".

Propaganda Final Campaign

Woo, it's a been a while. I'm pushing through the breadth of finals to the finish line -- now is the time to reveal some major projects that I'v been working on. These pieces are more "finished and refined" than anything I've done before. Not surprisingly, however, is that these pieces are very simple. The idea is that if I start making cohesive "simple" images, I will work my way up to even better complex images. It's all about starting small. So eh, I'm gettin' there.

About these pieces - like I stated in the previous post, this series is directed at the Baltimore Queer community and their lack of community, diversity and acceptance of the larger Queer culture. These stickers, if created, would be smacked all over the Queer neighborhood and even the rest of the city. I'm trying to tackle this issue with a combination of gay icon's and text that would leave the viewer with a question or idea that would start the cogs turning in their minds and hopefully among their friends, too.

This is, of course, Judy Garland. Guest stars in my other pieces will remain secret until I release this series here. Think of this as your teaser! It's for an assignment for Propaganda to tackle the issue of the hetero-normative assimilation of the LGBT community in Baltimore. This specific sticker is part of a seven piece campaign for the issue, and I'm not even sure if this is the final. I have three stencil-pieces, three stickers, and one poster for this campaign*. We shall see where this series goes.

*Subject to change, seeing as t-shirts might be fun to make for this assignment too.

Political Caricatures

I hope you like these, I had so much fun doing them. This Propaganda class is really helping me try out new things, like these caricatures. More later, however. A lot of work is being done, it's just not being scanned or color corrected.

New Music Is Good

So I've been reaching out, trying to bring some new things into my life. Music is always a good start, and I've been getting a lot of it (thanks Dan). First and foremost, there is José González.


This man is an indie-folk musician from Sweden -- why is he not Aryan you ask? It's because he's of Argentine descent! His music is soft and lush, focused on his voice and acoustic guitar. His cover of fellow Swede's The Knife's "Heartbeats" is breathtaking!
Other artists include Vetiver, Bat For Lashes, and Animal Collective -- as a Baltimore resident I SHOULD have listened to Animal Collective's music before, but I had not. All in all, I'm branching out, trying to discover new musicians. Most of my favorite musicians have just finished promoting, selling, touring, and living an album. As such, I probably wont be hearing from them anytime soon, so now is the time to soak up what I can of music I am not familiar with. Pretty refreshing.

Minganji and Gitenga Masquerade

So I'm researching African mask and masquerade for an exhibition proposal for my African Art Forms. I found this image while researching different dances. It's of the Pende peoples minganji and gitenga costumes worn by masqueraders. They remind me of Björk's costume for her Volta promo shoot.


This outfit was knit by the Icelandic Love Corporation, and it seems as if they based the design for her costume on the Pende dance costumes. It's neat to see African life and dance influence other peoples art work, however orientalist it may be.

My Propaganda Campaign

So for midterms we have to do a minimum of five illustrations in a set for a "visual campaign" to compliment the election. We had to choose to either promote or make fun of a president/vice president candidate. I chose to make fun of McCain and Palin from a feminist stand point, giving the viewer the context to see their gendered flaws. Plus, these were just fun images to make.

Gold Digger

This is a piece designed around the concept of taking a catch-phrase or word that is uncommon or slang and giving it visual life. I chose the phrase "Gold-Digger". The catch to the assignment, however, was to choose an artist that you admired and work from their stylistic view point. How fitting -- I fall in love with Richard Gray and I get this assignment. The separate components and processes came together nicely for this piece, and I'm satisfied with the final.

Politically Conscious

These are two more pieces from my Propaganda class at MICA. The assignment was to take two politically oriented statements said by those around you and make opinionated illustrations based on those statements. The first illustration, meant to be sold as a magnet, refers to the claims thrown by Obama supporters and campaign affiliates that Sarah Palin gave her daughter the choice of having an abortion. They criticized the statement Palin made, that she was "proud of the decision my daughter made to keep her child". The second illustration, meant to be sold as a bumper sticker, actually alludes to the McCain and Palin campaign slogan, "The Real Mavericks". To give you some context, the dictionary definition of a maverick is a "rebel or non-conformist".

BJÖRK IS BACK

Volta wasn't the most successful venture into commercial music for this songstress. Like a tween in puberty, Volta represented a growing period for Björk. She was trying out new stylistic approaches of song craft, collaborating with people from all over the world, and thinking big by kicking the worlds ass with an 18 - month world tour. But as an album, Volta fell flat. Seemingly unfinished, chaotic without a clear purpose, and a little too safe in arrangement composition, Volta didn't live up to the high expectations left with her more adventurous, stylistically sound, and compositionally experimental albums Medúlla and Drawing Restraint 9.

But here, we see Björk traveling down a new path. Limited chord progression and key change, unique sonic atmosphere, chilling vocals, and fantastic drum beats (even more exciting and strange then the drum work on Volta, which was pretty excellent). This Björk reads a little less orientalist and formulaic and a little more challenging and developed. Hopefully this a precursor to Björk's future work.

The single for "Nattura" will be released on October 20th from One Little Indian.

Hedi Slimane

Hedi Slimane is wonderful.
I might put a little more meat to this post later. I admire his handling of composition and light. Also, the rear portrait at a three quarters view is lovely.

Dimitris Papaioannou

Dimitris Papaioannou is my newest art crush. I mean it, he's a dream boat. Papaioannou is the visual mastermind behind the Opening Ceremony of the 2004 Summer Olympics, as well as my favorite piece, the film "2". With a strong romantic undercurrent, the scenes within "2" portray the many emotional facets of a relationship, specifically in the video above as between two men. Beautiful and bitter-sweet, these performances demand the viewers emotional participation and response -- a quality that I think is difficult to require.

Did I forget to mention that his work is heart-warming? Because it is.

These are examples of Richard Gray's work. He is my new illustrative obsession. His illustrations are choked full of crystal clean imagery, detailed line work, and a unique handling of color. His amalgamate use gouache, graphite, and digital fuses together seamlessly, and as such his illustrations become sleek and his textures well defined. And plus, the guys and gals in his work are so damn sexy.

aloC-acoC

Propaganda is rapidly becoming a class that I can count on expecting finished, punchy images come out of.
This piece is a response to Coca-Cola's South American bottling factory controversy.

New Blog!

Hello world, this is Michael Hoeweler speaking.
Like most other bloggernaut's I will be posting my thoughts on
illustration, art, design, music, fashion, culture and other general
loves. I hope to keep this guy updated at a steady pace.
I feel good.