TAKE THE TIME OUT OF YOU'RE BUSY LIFE AND JUST WATCH THIS!!!!!
I recently found out about the work of
JR a former graffiti artist out of paris, who is now taking black and white portraits in an extremely large scale and posting them on the streets to make art more accessible. He has won the 2011 TED prize of $100,000 to MAKE A WISH BIG ENOUGH TO CHANGE THE WORLD and his wish was..."I wish for you to stand up for what you care about by participating in a global art project, and together we'll turn the world...INSIDE OUT."
"Create a large-scale participatory art project that transforms messages of personal identity into pieces of artistic work. Everyone will be challenged to use black and white photographic portraits to discover, reveal and share the untold stories and images of people around the world. These digitally uploaded images will be made into posters and sent back to the project’s co-creators for them to exhibit in their own communities. People can participate as an individual or in a group; posters can be placed anywhere, from a solitary image in an office window to a wall of portraits on an abandoned building or a full stadium. These exhibitions will be documented, archived and viewable virtually."
His projects include "Portrait of a Generation" b&w portraits of suburban thugs from Paris that were display in the bourgeois districts of the city. "Face 2 Face" that put large scale portraits of Israelis and Palestinians side by side in both cities to see if they could tell who was who. and my personal favorite “Women Are Heroes, a project underlining the dignity of women who are the target of conflict" Just whatever you do watch this video, he is amazing, this project is spectacular and I do believe with all my heart that ART truly can change the world. DO SOMETHING THAT MATTERS
http://www.insideoutproject.net/
This year's Annual Student Show just came down. It was running from March 16th-26th. The show was displayed throughout Tyler highlighting the work of undergraduate students from the various departments. Photography was in the basement and for those of you who missed it here are some highlights.... starting from the right Luke Cloran had two images up that he has been working on in the studio this semester, experimenting with the use of models and with various concepts to make the images that have been stuck in his head http://lukecloranjr.blogspot.com/ Jess Stewart included an hauntingly eerie self portrait. Annie showed two of her fabricated landscapes from her recent BFA show Unattainable Places http://adriannezimmerman.wordpress.com, Keristin Gaber's Curtain #1 comes from her series "Within" cargocollective.com/keristingaber. Katie Ames had two of her Cindy Sherman inspired self portraits that will be the theme of her show that opens April 22nd. Natalie Piserchio also had two photographs that are part of her upcoming BFA show Emergence. http://nataliepiserchio.blogspot.com/ Rachel Kotkoskie's image of a couple in bed separated by a dog was one of the pieces that was purchased http://rachellynnk.com/ 
