Wk 8-Artist Joseph DeLappe & Micol Hebron
Joseph DeLappe- http://www.delappe.net/
Micol Hebron- http://micolhebron.artcodeinc.com/pages/bio-and-artist-statements-and-old-news/
Joseph DeLappe is a UK-based artist and known for exploring contemporary issues in politics through various mediums of sculptures, interactive gaming, paintings, drawing, etc. He was born in San Fransico in 1963 and went to San Jose State University. His work has been shown all throughout America and even has exhibitions and performances in Australia, the United Kingdom, China, Germany, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Mexico, Italy, Peru, Sweden, and Canada. Micol Hebron is an interdisciplinary artist who practices studio work, curating, writing, social media, crowd-sourcing, teaching, public speaking, and both individual and collaborative projects. She is currently a professor at Chapman University and says she thinks of herself as “a metaphoric paperclip, bringing people, resources, and opportunities together to facilitate the creation of new and positive knowledge and experience.”
In 1996 DeLappe’s piece Virtual Paintings.2” used various colors of watercolor. The colors are pretty vivid in some with lots of black colors. The canvas is smaller in size, but still has a lot of detail. In Hebron’s piece “The Happy Lion” she uses bright watercolors with a white background to draw attention to the two figures. Her canvas is standard size.
DeLappe’s piece depicts people utilizing virtual reality technologies. I found it interesting that he has been portraying virtual reality since even the late ’90s, and virtual reality is still a huge thing today. The people in the picture look lost in their virtual realities, and he does a good job of putting you in their environment. DeLappe was inspired to take on this idea because he has been colorblind all his life. He compares color blind glasses to virtual reality because the glasses have opened/connected him to a new world of color like how virtual reality opens us to a new world. In Hebron’s “The Happy Lion” depicts two men with their genitalia in a square knot. The men are both in lederhosen but seem to be opposite of one another as one is connected to culture and nature and the other is bohemian and artsy. One is also more formally dressed than his counterpart. I think this represents two men who argue because of their differences and their penisis entangled, and the body language of their hands on their hips represents that.
Both these unique artists are very unique and different from each other as one explored political feminine issues, and the other explores the world and technology. I enjoyed both of their art and I love how bold both of them are. I think this opened my mind that art has no boundaries, that you are free to do or say what you desire.
