Banksy- An artist by any other name

In the world of Art, one area of study that gets both maligned and praised is the graffiti scene.
     A notable artist from it is the imitable Keith Harring. With his bold outlines and loud colors, his art was very califorinian and bright. However, most Graffiti art is rough crude and in some cases, not even original. Here we go to the British Artist, Banksy.

Banksy represents a style of Graffiti art that focuses less on abstract art to more realistic stenciled style works. A good example of this is his piece of an ATM attacking a young girl:

A majority of his art is worked that is based on either subverting pedestrian ideas or if not that, usually it'll be something amusing like a hole that leads to a tropical paradise on a staid grey wall.
Art like his true to the art of Graffiti.

An upcoming local artist

Gino Volpe

Visual Aesthetics

4/10/12

Indie Artist (Musa Hixson)


Recently I had the pleasure of interviewing the chief artist at the Brooklyn Artist Incubator, the man in question: Musa Hixson. I met up with Musa at mu job







Musa was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1977. Around his tenth birthday, Musa and his family moved to New York City. In the spring of ’94 Musa traveled to Rwanda and Uganda as a US Delegate through an invitation from the 7th Annual Pan African Congress. While in Uganda he visited with a Tutsi family that informed of the genocide that was accruing simultaneously in Rwanda and Burundi. This trip inspired a life long interest in the artists’ role in social, economic, and environmental issues and changed his understanding of the power of the visual arts an s a toll to bring social and political issues to the forefront. In 1995, MUSA returned to Brooklyn, to attend the Graduate school at Pratt Institute and earned an MFA in sculpture, from there his work took off.

As far as the medium of his art, Musa has a preference for making pieces out of a bevy of natural and manufactured pieces. His selection includes steel and rope, as well as more natural sources like wood and soil. One of his pieces: Graines de Rêve is an excellent example of this mash up of materials. The piece includes two ropes in twined baskets, well one basket and one cornucopia. From out of the Cornucopia is a small pile of metallic balls. Strikingly enough, this amalgam of both synthetic and organic materials works, making something as innocuous as rope and silver balls striking to the individual.


In so far as a form of expression, Musa explains hat art for him is not form of personal expression of idea, rather a way for him to express a sentiment felt by the surrounding community. The feelings he shares in regards to his art is connected to his work, but not the feelings he shares himself.

Recently, he has taken a break from working personal art projects and has spent the last three months promoting the Cuban festival Soñando en Color (Dreaming in Color) The Soñando en Color project is part of the Havana Biennial, a Biennial Art festival that celebrates Cuban culture through a variety of artistic mediums. Musa’s involvement in this festival is through a promotional gallery in New York and a series of online promotional videos. For Musa, this is his pride and joy and the success of the event is paramount. If all turns out well, Musa will have the inspiration to work on more pieces.

In short, Musa Hixson is an example of contemporary artists at their finest, if not for the drive of people like him, we would not have a successful artistic movement.

Memorial sites

My family isn't the most sentimental when it comes to memorials. We're fairly typical, a few pictures of the kids, a wedding photo here and there. You get the idea. However, you have to make due and here I think I my have a one that fills the quota.

Here, we have my parents, happily married.


Next, are the various news clippings my parents took of the various news pieces made by the Staten Advance at the time of their engagement and wedding. It was interesting how then the news had interest pieces on engagements, let alone marriage.





Finally,we have the hutch ( the area over the fireplace) that has mostly hummel and precious moment dolls, I'm not too sure if this holds significance, but it makes an adorable set piece for the living area.



Finally, towards the end we have a more traditional area, my communion gallery. Several photos of myself, nothing really to note but its a really cute array of pictures.