New Logo!

Hello kittens!

Today is an exciting day! Why? Because today is the day that I post my first logo!

I had previously blogged that I would be selling my paintings in a few weeks on etsy.com. I wanted to create my own logo for my etsy shop, and overall, just for business purposes (because I had my first customer as a free-lance photographer this summer!). I drew mayn designs, and I liked many of them. I spend quite a long time trying to decide which drawing to use, and I thought I had hit a dead end, when...bam! This one picture that I drew stared right at me, and I knew that drawing was the one that would become my logo. 

This graphic that I have posted here includes the original drawing combined with information. The picture logo that I spent so much time deciding on was the image in the bottom right of this graphic. The logo has two eyebrows, one lifted up and lips and a mole.

This logo is close to my fascination and love for Marilyn Monroe. I talk about my connection with Marilyn Monroe in an earlier post (in which I created a self-portrait with her eyes, lips, and mole). When I first discovered Marilyn Monroe in middle school, I remember instantly being connected with her image. I never really knew why I felt this connection with the idea of Marilyn Monroe, but the early Hollywood beauty always seemed to stare beyond the internet image and see me. As if, I had known her. As I am reading a biography on her, I am finding out more why I feel connected with her as an icon, star, person, and artist. In a tribute to Marilyn Monroe, I added the mole to the logo. The lips are a cartoon version of my own, and the eye brows are based off of my own , as well (I love curving one eyebrow down and lifting one up...).

I hope you enjoy! Thoughts?

Esty.com

Hello Everyone!

I wanted to let all of my blog followers and fellow bloggers
that I will be selling some of my art work on etsy.com soon!

Etsy is easy to navigate, and you can search for me on the site
by my e-mail, ella.bella7@gmail.com!

I really do love all of my blog follwers and supporters, so because
of your positive feedback, and interaction on my blog, I will
be posting all of the art work that I will be selling on here, first.

(so you can get a first look, and pick...contact me at my above 
e-mail if you are interested in any of them!)

Peace,

Ella Bella

Layers

"Layers", ink, photographs, digital effects
This is a piece that I created from "Rj's Surprise". I decided to use the original sketch for this piece. Behind the sketch of us is a series of pictures in black & white. I created this because I truly love creating and love to be with Rj.

A Falling Star, Portrait of Rashawn with Lana Del Rey

"A Falling Star, Portrait of Rashawn with Lana Del Rey", india ink, pen, crayon
I decided to draw a portrait of one of my closest friends, Rashawn. Rashawn is such an amazing person and friend, and I really am so thankful for having him in my life. This is a piece of the portrait that I drew him. I did not include the whole portrait because the portrait itself is a letter that I am mailing to him (and he hasn't seen it, yet! So the rest is a surprise!!). I included lyric from several different Lana Del Rey songs because Rashwan was the one who introduced me to her music.  It has been over a year since I have seen Rashawn, and I am proud of him for being himself and accomplishing many things! I plan to see Rashawn, again, soon, and I can't wait until then!

Rj's Surprise

"Rj's Surprise", pen, photoshop

A note on the meanings

Hey everyone!

I wanted to address the reason why I give explanations beneath my art work on this blog. I explain my art work, so you can see my initial reason for creating the art. Also, because most of the art I make is conceptual and can be categorized as "modern" art, I try to provide insight to the symbolic nature of my pieces. I do not write these explanations, in order to force you to see my perspective. I write them, so you can see my reason for making the piece, but I just want my art to evoke feelings. I do not mind if you see my perspective or even care about it. I do hope, though, that my art work can be a point of departure for your thoughts and feelings. If my art work reminds you of anything...I have done my job.

Peace,

Ella

Me and Marilyn.

"Me and Marilyn". Original Photography, digital effects.
After watching the movie, My Week with Marilyn, I was inspired to create a piece dedicated to her influential role in my life. Now, this should be known: I have always been a Marilyn Monroe fan; this movie just made me realize that I should dedicate a piece to her. I first remember seeing Marilyn on a wine bottle label in house growing up. I instantly thought she was beautiful, and felt like there was something behind her beauty that was even more profound. Throughout high school, I collected pictures of Marilyn off the internet, and started reading about her life. I feel like she was an inspirational female actor, whose complexity and simplicity mix to make her very mysterious. I have read about pieces of her life, and I am currently reading a book about her. I feel like I have several connecting points with Marilyn, which explains why I was initially curious about her and interested in her life. Although Marilyn is not on this earth anymore, she is definitely still very alive.

My Four Mothers

"My Four Mothers", Mixed Media

This sculpture represents my four mothers: three extended, one biological. I wanted to create an homage to these women who have encouraged my creativity. Cindy, Teresa, KW, and my mom have all supported my pursuit of art. Not only have they supported me, but they have pushed me to ask, "What if..?" in my art throughout the years. The metaphor I worked with for this art piece was, "These four women have fueled my creativity as air fuels fire." The parts of this piece that holds significant symbolism are the candles and the flames. The candle on the left is taller because it represents my three extended mothers. I used scale to show how many people each candle represents (height); therefore, the candle on the right is smaller because it represents one person: my biological mother. I did not create the scale difference, in order to signify importance. I used scale variety to represent the number of people only. The two candles together represent a passage together, in which my mothers have created for me. This passage opens every time I see one of my mothers, and I am able to refresh my creative perspective through them. The flames are significant because there are hearts that I sculpted inside of the flame. Each heart represents one of my mothers.

I did not have any specific artist for inspiration in mind when I was creating this piece. However, while I was sculpting the flames, I realized that they were very surrealistic. I have always been attracted to the surrealistic movement, and I have always been drawn to Salvador Dalí's work.

Merging Realities

"Merging Realities", Acrylic, India ink, mat board

Hey kittens, sorry it's been a while since I've posted art work...it has been crunch time as far as the spring semester goes. This is one of my last pieces for Design II. And, guess what!? It's 2D & 3D, fun, hmm? I made a woman from simultaneous perspective with abstracted colours. I do not have any certain conceptual purpose behind this piece, but I do think that the overlapping hand came out more creepy than intended (she's going for my face!! ahh!!). Any comments? Peace out.

A Continuation of Katie

This is a continuation of my earlier series of the most fun model, Katie. {:

Colour & Space: A New Series

Colour & Space Series original photography, graphic design
(T-B: Katie (awaiting title, ideas?), self-portrait, "The Innovator with Lana Del Rey"
Hey all you kittens! I know it's been a while since I've posted some art...but, stay assured, I have been busy creating it! The title is to-be-determined as of now because I have just started this series. However, I can tell you my inspiration that sparked this series: this series, like the pieces themselves, are a collection of several different concepts. Upon studying colour theory, my professor had the class watch scenes from Fantasia (still one of my favourite movies to this day). I was really inspired by Walt Disney's colour palette and selection-rewatching scenes from this movie reminded me what a masterpiece the movie was, and how much I have missed viewing it. This series has also been sparked due to the music I have been listening to-specifially Lana Del Rey (thank you Rashawn for introducing her to me!). I feel that her music is very layered-as my art work usually turns out to be. I am also aiming to better my skills of using space and perception in my works (studying this unit in class, now). And for now, that'll do, Pig.

Custom-designed pants

"Feather, Achromatic" spray paint, custom-made stencil, bleach
I custom designed these pants. You like? Look out for me on etsy this summer. {:

Series of Hunter

"Series of Hunter in the Fall of 2011", original photographs (untouched)
This is my roommate, Hunter. I have mentioned her earlier on my blog when I did a portrait of her out of cotton and denim. We went out with two other students to take portraits around the Lynchburg College Campus. Anyone who hasn't visited-should. Especially if you're into nature and outdoorsy activities. 

For you, Olivia {:

"The Lesser Hand" (top), "Releasing" (bottom), acrylics on canvas board.
I posted these two pieces for you, Olivia! My dear friend, Olivia (with such a classy fashion sense and a natural knack for photography), is working on an abstract expressionist piece, so I am posting these two pieces in honor of you! Whether these help with your assignment, or just help you procrastinate...hopefully you find them of some use. {:  I created these two pieces a while ago in my free time. These two pieces are evidence that art is my way of expressing emotions, concepts, words, and many more things. I created the bottom one in a fit of anger, and, I can honestly say that I felt relieved after I created it. Sometimes, all you need to do is throw a canvas board on the ground, fling some paint, and scratch the board a little bit, and....voila! Okay, so it's not always that easy, obviously, but I can say that Art is there for you whenever you need it. (By the way, check out Olivia's art blog at http://oliviaephotography.tumblr.com/) #supportyoungartists

Lost, partner art

"Lost" Partner art; original photographs, digital effects.
I've heard that young artists often spend their early years in art creating self-portraits. I can say that I definitely have done quite a few (as I'm sure you have noticed...:P). I have just generally found that using myself as a subject for my art is convenient, for starters-because you already have consent. But, on a deeper level, self-portraits are so much more than convenient-they are a way of figuring out who I am and expressively documenting who I am at that moment in time...which seems is always changing...

Vibrant Rose

"Vibrant Rose", original photograph, digital effects.
This photograph was inspired by a rose that was given to me a while ago. I took many photographs of it, and decided that I would hang it to dry. I took photographs of it as it aged. I decided to go back to one of the first photographs I took of it, and use it to reflect how this rose made me feel when it was first given to me.

Good job, Martha Alf

"A Piece of Soul Escaped with studies of Martha Alf", original photography, digital effects, original drawings.
This piece was inspired by the song, "Sleeping with Giants" by the Academy Is...There is a line, in specific, that states, "A piece of my soul escaped", and I what it would look like if a piece of my soul did escape-and this is the product! And thank you to South Park, for making this art piece strictly ironic (for those of you who do not know, South Park made an episode on Gingers, and said they do not have souls, so many people would jokingly argue that I have no soul for it to actually escape...). I love working in layers, and I decided to include  a series of thumbnails that I drew in a Martha Alf study I did for drawing class. I included them because I have always loved to draw, and wanted to show that I am currently studying how to better my techniques and my dedication to art. If you look closely, you can see parts of still lives that I replicated from her drawings...more power to Martha Alf for making fruit and everyday objects interesting (because I certainly have almost no desire for capturing the essence of a tomato...:P). As for the rest of the elements in the piece...I'll leave it up to your imagination. ;)

Free Paint Samples!

"Simplification of Dalí's The Christ of St.John of the Cross", canvas,spray paint, samples.
I recently created this art piece for my Design Fundamentals 2 class. The assignment was to create a replication of a "master" work, but to turn it into a value study. I used paint samples because I did this piece not long after I finished the auction item (so my hands were in the pre-carpel tunnel state...le sigh). My art teacher had mentioned doing a value study with paint samples, and I like the idea a lot (and so did my sore hands), so I went to Wal Mart and grabbed all the paint samples that consisted of values only. I honestly wished I would have spent more than one day on this project because it turned out to be more of an abstraction of the original than a replication...so it didn't meet the objectives as much as I would've like for it to. A huge positive about this piece is that this is the first canvas that I successfully spray-painted evenly (one step close to a master graffiti artist :P)I am going to do another piece soon with more paint samples...so stay tuned...and hopefully I won't get busted for taking too many free paint samples...

Valentine's Day

"Suga, Suga", original digital photography, digital effects
This photo collage was named after an inside joke that Hunter and Cole have together (Title credited to musicians Babie Bash & Frankie J). I created this piece in honour of Valentine's Day and to show that there is genuine love in the world. The couple's chemistry is evident on camera, which makes them a great couple to photograph. Often, it's hard to photograph more than one person because there are so many more variables that go into the composition. However, Cole and Hunter are a pleasure to photograph because they are both naturals in front of the lens-and even more so because of how they "click." O, shout out to Cole and Hunter-thanks for all the awesome weekends...looking forward to many more. XD By the way, the quote at the top is credited to Audrey Hepburn.

More Katie

 "Katie", original photograph series
This is my second post of photographs that I took of Katie...all of these are unedited. {: