As I have talked about in posts before, I blog for the music festival which celebrates the legacy and tunes of the Grateful Dead. The festival will take place in my hometown of Bridgeport, Connecticut again this year, with dates running from the 19th through the 22nd.

I interviewed two local, young artists Cara De Angelis and Shawn Lasse of Connecticut for this piece. Lastly, I talked to owners of Altiplano.com, a Vermont-based shop that also works out of (and is influenced by) Guatemalan culture.

Check out the post and comment if you would like. I worked hard on making sure the craft of my three sources was portrayed accurately. They all have great talent.

Here is the link!

To read and see works done by the featured people in my post, check them out here:

http://www.caradeangelis.com/

http://www.altiplano.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Shawn-Lasse-ART-eye-dance-ink/359087797442657

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I discriminate against no art. Abstract, surreal, traditional, sculpture, naturalistic, realistic, what have you. I love it all. (::Insert “She thinks she is so cool” comment here::)

“I could do that. The painter totally just splashed some paint on a canvas and we are supposed to believe he is a deep, meaningful artist? Psshh.” – ignorant and absent-minded individual. (::Insert “What a cocky, judgemental bitch” comment here::)

No, but really. Look at what you are seeing. What about the colors? Are they bright? If so, how do those colors make you feel? Joyous? Angry because you are not happy yourself? What if the colors are dark? Can you relate to some sort of sadness? Do you prefer dark because you become you at dusk? What about all the absence of paint? The vast white canvas that has been so widely overlooked? Can you find no meaning in that?

Art is meant to be interpreted in our own way. There is no right or wrong.  I chose to post the pictures above because they can be interpreted in many ways, to all individuals, under any personal circumstance. How do you relate to a naked woman? Maybe you are one. Maybe you want one. Maybe you think she is too beautifully crafty and it is unreal, and so you higher your normally low standards yet again in hopes to find a being as perfectly structured as the oils on a canvas.

Do not undermine yourself. There is a piece of us in every work of art. We can learn about ourselves from even a speck of red paint on a black canvas. If this gets us thinking at all, it is more than we thought before. Congratulations.