What is your artistic interest ???

[Brick Miner]

you know, as an illustrator and art enthusiast, i've started to wonder if a connection can be realized between people's fine art interests and their LEGO MOCing interests.

for example, my current work (in non-LEGO art) is greatly influenced by peit mondrian (one of the great mod art movement contributors).

i love art that is simple, and refined... my interests are as far removed from "highly rendered" as possible. i care so much less about the work that the renaissance "masters" did, compared to the work of the "modern" movement. for me, visual appeal happens when all the fluff is taken out, and all you have left is a balance of composition, color and shapes.

this notation can also be extended to my other interests in life... for example my favorite music, warehouse NYC techno, is simple and calculated. every minuet pitch change can be heard in every instrument, and that is what makes the music beautiful. and reduction of noise, and an emphasis in exploring sounds as they change.

picasso is quoted for saying "art is the elimination of the unnessesary" and i find that to be true when speaking about my LEGO MOC interests. i care less for multi thousand piece "sculpted" MOCs... instead i explore simple, calculate MOCs where each piece means something, there are no "filler" bricks, and you can't use two 1x2 bricks in place of one 1x4 brick.

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now, for the sake of discussion and enlightenment... i extended this question to you, to see if anyone else can find this true about themselves... is there a connection between your fine art interests (or any other art form outside of LEGOs) and LEGO MOCing interests.

im excited to hear and discuss - BrickMiner

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IMPORTANT: im not suggesting any one style of MOCing (or art in general) is better than another... it's merely a matter of interest, and exploring the type of artistic stimulation your mind enjoys.

[Starwars4J]

Personally I have a love of nature. That's why it's my favorite subject for my photography. People are fine, but eh, nature is just so much grander and beautiful. I guess it's reflected in the fact that I'm most awed by MOCs that best capture the look of nature. A realistic mountain, a waterfall, etc. Norro did this more beautifully in his most recent work than almost any other MOCist. It looks so natural, you can almost place yourself there, in a real version of it.

That to me is the ultimate level a MOCist can attain. I take my interest from nature. Even the unnatural as inspired by nature (twisted vines of hoses and pipes in SHIPs for example)

[ghoulrealm]

I, like Starwars4J, draw my inspiration mostly from nature, though usually on a smaller scale than geographical features. My astetical interest mostly encompass biological features and organic qualities.

Though not always a direct appreciation of natural beauty, I also favor;

Prehistoric cave paintings or petroglyphs,

Native american art such as sand pianting and pottery embellishments,

Japanese ink painting,

and surealism when the emphasis is organic (artificial if it has hydrodynamic curvature and/or is biomechanical.)

[snefroe]

you know, as an illustrator and art enthusiast, i've started to wonder if a connection can be realized between people's fine art interests and their LEGO MOCing interests.

for example, my current work (in non-LEGO art) is greatly influenced by peit mondrian (one of the great mod art movement contributors).

i love art that is simple, and refined... my interests are as far removed from "highly rendered" as possible. i care so much less about the work that the renaissance "masters" did, compared to the work of the "modern" movement. for me, visual appeal happens when all the fluff is taken out, and all you have left is a balance of composition, color and shapes.

this notation can also be extended to my other interests in life... for example my favorite music, warehouse NYC techno, is simple and calculated. every minuet pitch change can be heard in every instrument, and that is what makes the music beautiful. and reduction of noise, and an emphasis in exploring sounds as they change.

picasso is quoted for saying "art is the elimination of the unnessesary" and i find that to be true when speaking about my LEGO MOC interests. i care less for multi thousand piece "sculpted" MOCs... instead i explore simple, calculate MOCs where each piece means something, there are no "filler" bricks, and you can't use two 1x2 bricks in place of one 1x4 brick.

--------------------------------------------------

now, for the sake of discussion and enlightenment... i extended this question to you, to see if anyone else can find this true about themselves... is there a connection between your fine art interests (or any other art form outside of LEGOs) and LEGO MOCing interests.

im excited to hear and discuss - BrickMiner

--------------------------------------------------

IMPORTANT: im not suggesting any one style of MOCing (or art in general) is better than another... it's merely a matter of interest, and exploring the type of artistic stimulation your mind enjoys.

What I find fascinating is that modern art very often looks simple, but it isn't. Classic art usually was just a representation of reality, whether it's from Rubens, Breughel or Vermeersch. That makes it easy for the public to evaluate the work; you like it or you don't. Modern art very often is a representation or a reflection of some one's ideas. Take Piet Mondriaans work here, most people only see lines and colors and don't even think this is art, but if you read Mondriaans explenation for these works, you'll find that it's no longer just a simple construction of lines and colors, but a painting with a specific meaning, in this case something like: "find balance in life through simplicity". Whether you like modern art or not is more a question of understanding the work than appreciating what you see as a copy of reality. In Piet Mondriaans work, I'd even say it's therapeutic... I'd love to have a painting of Piet Mondriaan on my wall, but i'll have to do with a copy made of Lego... :-P :'-)

by the way, Picasso's principle can also be found in the world of comic books. Herg

[alex54]

I was always been fascinated by some Vincent van Gogh works like the iris and sunflowers. I don't know why but they always bring me some sensations, a good feeling. I like the impressionism movement because each touch of paint has its place, and gives the whole picture a real unit.

I like too the architecture. And I really like the melting-pot of movement that you can find in a town ie some medieval style in the historic center, some "renaissance", some "art nouveau" around, and the modern structures like Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, and some Renzo Piano buildings. But the 40's to the 80's buidlings are not my cup of tea.

I don't know how that interest could be in my mocs... Maybe yes, because i'm a Cityman! And I try to have some different style for my buildings. But the modern style is harder for me to capture in my mocs, because it's hard to have some curve effects with "square" Lego bricks.

[Norro]

Interesting Topic! (And now I'll proceed to contradict every point you made X-D X-D X-D No, actually I quite agree about tracing influences being expressed in Lego...)

Personally I am terrible at fine art (drawing). Have always been terrible etc... One of these days I'll scan some of my preliminary sketches for a MOC and we can all have a good laugh... But I can see a model/building/finished product in my mind. I just can't draw it to show you. As I got older I discovered that while I couldn't draw it I could build it, that's where lego entered and why it has stayed ever since.

My main (and I feel dominant) interest has always been a maths/sciences bent. I think this is reflected in my lego. Order achieved by very small components of seemingly individual disorder. I love to build, to construct, to create. [Warning very personal opinion] I have always felt that God endowed all of us with his love of creating, he meant for each of us to be creative, and while our given talents may be highly diverse the common strand of productivity/creativity/satisfaction is there.[back to merely normal subjectivity ;-) ]

Coming back to the topic you initiated (in a more strict sense): I really don't know much about art, I'm one of the people described above who may not understand something enough to appreciate it. That's why I appreciate the sciences so much, it is my way of glimpsing an understanding of beauty. Years ago one of my Physics teachers introduced his subject by saying:

"Physics is the study of the beauty of nature, Mathematics is the study of the nature of beauty"

I've always stuck to that definition. In art I am merely a consumer, it looks nice (appeals to me) or it doesn't. My faviourite paintings would have to be those by Constable, I can remember standing in the National Gallery staring at the Haywain for hours, it will probably be seeping into my MOCs for a long time to come...

God Bless,

Nathan

note of artistic hope: I have only just begun using the computer to develop image style art... I may not be ignorant forever, I just needed the right niche.

[pianodude2494]

I actually draw most of inspiration from...music! It may seem rather strange, but I build my creations in harmony with a certain song. For example. If I had been recently listening to our National Anthem (America's), I might build an American Flag or a model of Iwa Jima.

I regard music as a very important form of art, and tend to follow my musical emotions when it comes to LEGO building. *sweet*

[Brick Miner]

...That makes it easy for the public to evaluate the work; you like it or you don't. Modern art very often is a representation or a reflection of some one's ideas.

very nice perception snefore... and i agree completely. that "representation or a reflection of someone's ideas" is what inspired this thread to begin with. i find MOCing LEGOs a great tool for diving into the depths of our minds... and finding reflections of how we perceive the workings of our world.

LEGOs, in a matter of speaking, are a modern art movement... much like the impressionists who used blotches of paint to interpret their environment... we use basic geometric cubes and slopes to interpret the world around us.

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by the way, Picasso's principle can also be found in the world of comic books. Herg

[Lord David]

I'm pretty nifty at Photoshopping! (for those who haven't realized this already) :-)

Here's some of my work:

http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/106...neck-viper.html

http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/107493/trondonk.html

http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/909...as-present.html

[CopMike]

Now EuroBricks goes deep, really really deep - I

[Norro]

very interesting, and unexpected reply... i had not even considered the mathematic element.

it's interesting that you say these things Norro, being a classic-castle guy and all. i would have expected the space fans to be the math/sciences guys :-D

If you look at the Lego world as a whole (especially back in the Lugnet days when peoples identities were less concealed) you'd be shocked by the number of researchers, engineers, architects, etc into Lego. Personally I would consider the artists interested in lego (now more common) as a 'new wave' in the art of lego, possibly making it more accessible (as artists tend to do to a subject). Also a lot of the castle guys are heavy in the math/science world... Bruce NH be a prominent example...

God Bless,

Nathan

[Brick Miner]

If you look at the Lego world as a whole (especially back in the Lugnet days when peoples identities were less concealed) you'd be shocked by the number of researchers, engineers, architects, etc into Lego. Personally I would consider the artists interested in lego (now more common) as a 'new wave' in the art of lego, possibly making it more accessible (as artists tend to do to a subject). Also a lot of the castle guys are heavy in the math/science world... Bruce NH be a prominent example...

yes, now that you mention it... i remember reading something at LEGO.com (hobby trains section) that talked about engineers and architects making up the "older" AFOL fan base.

here is the article.

BTW, this thread is taking on a whole new question... "are you a math or art guy/gal ???"

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copmike and lord david... i didn't realize there were so many digital artist here at EB 8-

[oo7]

I despise all modern/abstract art. I just seems so worthless to me, especially Pollock, who is actually one of the most famous! *wacko* Is he famous because of his artistic talent?

I love detail and it would be hard for me to find a scene (or a MOC for that matter) with too much detail. I like things to look realistic. The more accurate perspective one captures in a piece, the greater the talent is that the one possesses.

'Design' makes no sense to me, I understand a little bit of it, but not much. I just make art look realistic, detailed. I hate all that garbage on HGTV, obsessing over which color furniture to put into a room which needs to both correspond with the certain wall color and provide a certain 'mood' for the people in the room. Then it's which style of furniture goes with the color and provides a certain mood and how the styles and colors co-exist together, it goes on and on and on! Pick a color that's not to bright and go on with your lives goddammit!! A color is color is a color! Maybe it's just me, but I don't understand how these certain wavelengths of quantum particles refracted off the paint on the wall can determine whether you feel 'warm and cozy' as opposed to 'cool and relaxed'. All this analyzation of interior design is soooo trivial, why don't these TV shows go and help the needy with something important, not help the rich but lazy with something so very useless. :-|

And the same thing goes for fashion designer stuff. I loath fashion trends. I could go on and on for ever.

Oh, and I'm not that great at math nor do I like it.

[xenologer]

I don't believe in 'Fine Art'

Some things are entertaining, and some are not.

And Legos make me happy. :-D

Uhh... I will say that the recent upsurgence of lego mosaics to make photorealistic(from a distance) pictures is a pretty lame fad tho. Just takes a computer program to list the bricks needed to make any picture you ask for, no talent/originality at all and a waste of good bricks.

[alex54]

yes, now that you mention it... i remember reading something at LEGO.com (hobby trains section) that talked about engineers and architects making up the "older" AFOL fan base.

here is the article.

BTW, this thread is taking on a whole new question... "are you a math or art guy/gal ???"

- BrickMiner

I'm a futur engineer and I work with some architects :-D !

I'm more a scientist/maths guy but I can understand some pieces of art. So art/math are not so incompatible. Just look Andy Warhol, he wanted to be a machine, which is more a maths thing than an art one... Maths and art have a specific sensibility, a specific feeling, but which are really the same. How exited you are when you make a success with a maths exercice. It's the same when you make a draw and you have the feeling that you're work is finished and near "perfect". In both case, you are so satisfied with yourself.

But I have to admit that with art, this feeling is rarer for me, cause I'm almost never pleased with what I do...

[Brick Miner]

I hate all that garbage on HGTV, obsessing over which color furniture to put into a room which needs to both correspond with the certain wall color and provide a certain 'mood' for the people in the room. Then it's which style of furniture goes with the color and provides a certain mood and how the styles and colors co-exist together, it goes on and on and on!

ya, i know what you mean... sometimes they're as bad as politicians :-D

as well, i hate all that is artsy-fartsy... i get real sick of eclectic-this-and-eclectic-that talk. it's really popular among the art gallery/museum crowd |-/ however, i still appreciate art, i think there is a big difference between the two.

talking about how you perceive something is just another way of learning about yourself... and that is what art lets you do, learn about yourself. likewise, i was trying to make that connection to LEGO MOCing (if one even exists).

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BTW, i liked reading your response Alex54 !!!

- BrickMiner

[Fed]

I write creatively for release sometimes. It also helps pay the bills. >:-)

Check this out. It's a link to my Lakers vs. Celtics Association story for NBA 2K7 game.

Since I do mecha... for building inspiration I check out some great Japanese mecha artists and designers for some inspiration. One of my all-time faves is Katoki Hajime, a renowned Gundam/Virtual On modeler/artist/designer. Some of his designs are just... wow. (Btw, I'm wondering if Lego has some renowned Toy designers/artists)

Wing Gundam Endless Waltz Version

Gundam Wing Version Katoki (redesign)

Crossbone Gundam

He's also one of the pioneers for FIX art, a Japanese art style where you put a Gundam toy in a realistic background (he was doing in the late 80s!!): click here