Artists Bring Cartoons to Life

A Cartoon Standard

Few shows have captured the pop culture zeitgeist and contextualized so many references like The Simpsons have. Accordingly, the characters of the show have been modified and made hyperrealistic.

Spongebob Squarepants is seemingly everyone’s guilty pleasure cartoon. Perhaps a user on Reddit.com summed it up best:

Guys, I’m fucking sick of this. I’m almost 20 and haven’t been able to score a better job than a fucking cook at a local fast food joint. What makes it worse is that I live in a small town so business is pretty limited, and where I work is the only place that’ll hire high school graduates. I’d get the hell out of this town if I could actually drive too, but I’ve failed every damn test I’ve ever taken. I’m socially awkward, even my only other co-worker fucking hates my guts. I have repressed lust for one of my best friends too; she’s athletic, smart and a gorgeous southern bell. I love her. You know what it’s like; I’ve been friend zoned real hard. She’s my only real friend, besides this one kid, who I’m pretty sure is only hanging around me because he is mentally challenged. I guess he’s the only one that can tolerate me. And what makes this all fucking worse is that I live in a fucking pineapple under the sea.

The realism may make you question their relationship

It’s hard to imagine that the boys from South Park could actually be real children bundled up in a small Colorado town. But this might make you think again.

Not Until Just Now

A final cartoon whose characters have been hyper-modified, is one I grew up with (I’ll admit it!), Rugrats. Here are Tommy, Chucky, Phil and Lil. And check out Angelica- she looks like even more of a bitch in “real” life.

Klasky-Csupo.....squirt~

Don’t you just love the evolution and malleability of a good ol’ cartoon?

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Ten years?

2000?

Remember this kid?

2010

Yeah, he’s ten years older.

But so are you – except you’re genitals aren’t exposed in record stores everywhere.

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Handwerker

There’s a great art museum on campus. Did you know that?

It’s in the basement level of the Library. I admit that until now, I’ve only been there for Open Readings hosted by the Writing Department – which, might I add are very entertaining and worth checking out. But the museum warrants a visit for the purpose of checking out the exhibitions.

Right now, “Voices – Contemporary Ceramic Art from Sweden” is on display. There are a ton of awesome pieces, and their medium is not limited to ceramic; light, glass, paint and glue are also employed in creating magnificent, thought-provoking works of art.

Renata Francescon

This piece, which resembles a glazed honeycomb, is at the rear of the gallery.

marten medbo

This creepy piece was created by Marten Medbo, also a Swede. The artist who sports thick-rimmed glasses and a five-o’clock shadow looks like he belongs in an indie-rock band. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that his piece featured in the Handwerker is reminiscent of the creatures crawling on the cover of Built to Spill’s 2006 album, You in Reverse.

Bottom Right

Am I wrong?

Moving on, there is also this:

fire bad!

In this depiction of an epic volcano, the lava is actually a funky bulb pluming out of the miniature mountain. This was created by Frida Fjellman – you guessed it, a Swede . (Born in 1971… kinda cute in a starving artist kind of way).

The first piece I saw upon entering is a piece that brought me back to my youth. It was the days I would read the back of the cereal box before heading to school. On certain mornings when my mom let me eat sugar cereal, I was enthralled with the back of the box of Apple Jacks. You remember, they had all kinds of mind-tricks and optical illusions, which gave you a headache only to complement the headache that would set in after consuming so much sugar that morning.

This piece, if I could assume, is an homage to those early mornings staring at the box.

Swede

(Eva Hild, “Loops”)

If you’re in the library, or got some time to kill while on campus, drop by the art gallery. For more info, check here – http://www.ithaca.edu/news/release.php?id=287.

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checker boards and smarty pants

...just the 3D entrance way.

...just the 3D entrance!

Well, I had an awesome weekend. My roommate and I actually made it to Manhattan to see the Tim Burton exhibit. Let me tell you, it was INCREDIBLE. Inspiring for someone (or anyone) who loves unconventional art. Thought provoking- you see it so crowded and it makes you wonder why people are drawn to this weirdness? I think it’s the fame. But then people of all kind show up. We were in line between two families whose primary language was almost unidentifiable. Everyone loves it! Go see it. The art on display is FREAKY- let me tell you, it really does creep and crawl, splatter and gurgle on the pages and it’s completely bizarre. Online, it says their tickets are sold out. But if you get there when the museum opens at 10:30a and wait in line, you get in, no issue. Plus student tickets are 12 dollars!

In addition to that. Mary found this and sent it to me. I think it’s wild and you should probably take a look at it. Ithaca is a town of smarty pants, and this just exemplifies it to no end. I’m sure none of these things actually happen. But it would be quite funny if it did.

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Nudité

No Parking 10am-3pm Mon-Fri

However, invisible people are apparently allowed to stand whenever they want.

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Chew on this:*
At a get-together this past weekend, I took notice off a wall. Once barren, it is now covered in dozens of sheets of paper.

Portrait of 149

“Where did this come from?” I asked Rob – who lives there, spilling some Beast foam on his Adidas.

“It’s a site called rasturbation.com” I didn’t hear it right. “Like masturbation, but with an ‘R’,” he tells me.

“Ohh.”

You just upload a picture and choose how big you want it. This one is 10×10 – all you’ve got to do is staple or tape all the pages together and voila – you’ve got your portrait. And it’s cheaper than a poster, that is, if you print it on campus. Just try not to get caught rasturbating in the computer lab.

So of course when I get on to my computer I enter rasturbation.com into my browser, assuming this seemingly new-age artform is hosted by some bohemians creating a website based on some wordplay (who does that anyways?) Turns out, the aforementioned site doesn’t exist, and the correct spelling is rasterbation.com, and the tiled artform has been around for years. (Almost makes me think of the museum scene from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.)

*

. . .

This might become pretty popular. It might even replace tapestries as the most common piece of room decor and also as the most flammable textile to be hung from a wall.

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Cornell’s Johnson Museum

I finally made it to the Johnson Museum over at Cornell. You know, this one:

Johnson

This museum has a few permanent collections of art, as well as constantly-changing contemporary collections. But the main attraction at the Johnson is the view. High up on Libe Slope, the fifth floor of the museum offers incredible views of Ithaca and the surrounding areas. The lake, downtown, the hills, and surrounding campuses are spectacular yet humbling.

Cayuga

Being Cornell, though, I thought some of the art would be elitist, high-brow, somewhat snooty and incomprehensible for someone not well-versed in the field of art history. I went to the top floor for the view, but when I scoped out some of the displays, all I saw was this:

bubble bubble

I thought you could pick one of those up at the Commons – don’t know why you’d have to go to a museum to see it.

Then, there was this naked chick:

Exhibition(ist) A

Get some clothes on, hippy.

Turns out that the famed Johnson Museum is no exception to the liberal lifestyle that is nearly normalized in Ithaca. Anyways, if anyone knows of some REAL museums in the area, let me know.

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remember this?

The create-your-own Eustace Tilley contest for the New Yorker is back. Here is a slide show to their winning selections. Check ‘em out!

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Art 3.0

halo-ed?

These three buggers were spotted at the Chanticleer.

what appears to be a frog

Spotted in the Park stairwell.

so low

Why is this bubbler (or water fountain, depending on where you’re from – a conversation in semantics I won’t get in to now) so low? Seriously – check it out in the new business building behind the coffee stand. It’s a foot off the ground!

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Art, Recently Found…

snow-per hero

I found this guy while I was shoveling snow over break.

lord of the garage

I saw this face as I shuffled into breakfast on New Years Day. Illegal, sure. Artistic? Definitely.

faint and dark

Faint, as it was done solely in ballpoint pen, and dark, as it is in a bathroom stall. Hill Center, first floor.

ere ere

Pink Cat DJ, aka PCDJ, as seen at Urban Outfitters, Downtown Ithaca.

he's sleeping

Lastly, here eess a Mexican. Hee got tired from being a salt shaker, so he took a napp.

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