modern makers

art start

draw a balloon dog, color it in

make a real one....

sculpture

model magic balloon dog

Balloon Dog is part of Koons’ larger Celebration series, which he began in the early 1990s. “Koons has been making work around the intersection of high and low art since the early 1980s, so in many ways the Balloon Dogs are familiar terrain for him,” says Morgan Falconer, Faculty, MA Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s Institute of Art. “He has been inspired by cheap ceramics, garden designs, and classical statuary, but the Balloon Dogs appear to have captured people’s imagination more than most series.”

The Celebration series includes large-scale sculptures of various objects associated with childhood and celebration, such as hearts, diamonds, and Easter eggs. The Balloon Dog sculptures, created between 1994 and 2000, are made of mirror-polished stainless steel with a transparent coating that gives them their vibrant colors, ranging from blue to pink. By monumentalizing this simple symbol of childhood joy and festivities, Koons taps into themes of innocence, pop culture, and the merging of fine art with more commercial, accessible art forms.

Cultural Impact and Market Success

Balloon Dog caused a sensation when it sold at Christie’s in 2013 for $58.4 million, setting a record auction price for an artwork by a living artist at the time. Several unique versions of varying colors, materials, and sizes exist in private and public collections around the world. The shiny, pristine surfaces of the sculptures mask the complicated, labor-intensive process required to replicate the curvature of real balloons.

Koons’ Balloon Dogs exemplify the artist’s decades-long preoccupation with recreating banal objects as fine art that inspires delight, humor, and exploration of what society claims to be valuable. “Like so many of Koons’ sculptures, they’re based on a motif that is instantly recognizable. That’s key to their popularity and market success. They have layers of complexity, but they are built on simplicity. They’re unforgettable,” says Falconer. The sculptures demonstrate contemporary art’s ability to instill new wonder into the most familiar of objects and forms.

Did Jeff Koons Make the Balloon Dogs?

In short, no, Jeff Koons did not make the Balloon Dogs himself, although the concept is all the artist’s own. Koons is also the mind behind the systems and machines that enabled the recreation of regular-sized balloon dog figurines on a massive scale.

The making of Koons’ Balloon Dogs is an incredibly intricate, labor-intensive process. Each sculpture begins as a small-scale model which is scanned digitally to create computer renderings that map out the curves and volumes of the sculpture. From there, pieces of mirror-polished stainless steel are cut into hundreds of individual components using highly complex industrial methods like spin-forming and laser cutting. These individual pieces are then welded together, sanded, buffed, and polished over the course of thousands of hours until not a single seam or blemish is visible on the surface.

This process, which is repeated for each Balloon Dog, requires the work of 45 artisans. The sheer investment of craft and advanced manufacturing technology involved in creating these sculptures contributes to Koons’ reconceptualization of everyday objects as priceless, rarefied artworks.

jesse breakwell

australian artist

Y Tim Burton

tim burton

making a self portrait in the style of tim burton

timburton.pdf

faces

art start:

draw a sketch of the art. write down what it makes you think.

about bansky

newest artwork

dirty up a piece of paper
torn sidewalks from paper
draw an umbrella
drip painting

ART START

DRAW THE IMAGE THAT YOU SEE.

WHO IS THE ARTIST?

SANDRA SILBERZWEIG

SELF PORTRAIT

CHALK PASTEL PROJECT - USING CHALK

paint our tanks

embellish our sharks with colored pencils and pens

fussy cutting

Painting Day!

paint our shark using wet on wet watercolor

paint our tank with tempera piant - mixing turquoise

THIS IS DAMIAN HIRST - A CONTEMPORARY ARTIST.

take notes in your sketchbook

KUMIHIMO:

AN OLD PRACTICE OF WEAVING STILL POPULAR TODAY.

MODERN MAKERS MAKE THINGS WITH THEIR HANDS.

STARTING OUR KUMIHIMO BRAIDS FOR WHEN WE FIND FREE TIME TO USE OUR HANDS.

choose 2 colors

keep strings straight

abstract art painting

Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition. Abstract art, non-figurative art, non-objective art, and non-representational art are all closely related terms. They have similar, but perhaps not identical, meanings.

Abstraction indicates a departure from reality in depiction of imagery in art. This departure from accurate representation can be slight, partial, or complete.

Our Project: to create a non-objective art piece to explore several elements of art and apply some principles of design.

Our Project: To develop on a non-objective abstract piece of art exploring various elements of art that will be cut apart to create a final book. Our process will help us to identify line, shape, pattern, color, value, and texture within a work of art. We will identify movement, balance, variety, and repetition as principles of design. This is a mixed media project that incorporates pen, paint, and collage materials.

step one:

Sketch 4 possible compositions in your journal. Compositions should have large organic and/or geometric shapes. Decide on a color composition.

Step Two:

Choose one and sketch your design onto the large white paper. Use a pencil and fill the space of your paper. Each shape should be at least about the size of your hand.

Step Three:

Begin painting. Create a sense of unity in your work using a color scheme.

Step Four

Paint more shapes if desired; overlapping to create space. Use paint sticks or paint.

Step Five

Add lines and patterns with skinny brushes, markers, etc. Add collage material.

ADAM FUJITA

ABOUT THE ARTIST ADAM FUJITA (known as Adam Fu), is an artist and designer living in Brooklyn, New York. He has used graffiti as an art medium for twenty five years, but also holds an MFA in Product Design. Fujita’s most recent work features bright, neon-like graffiti in public places made entirely out of layered spray paint.