Artist Trevor Wayne’s main goal in his work is to make people smile, and the colorful and witty way he conveys ideas is certainly smile-inducing. For that ability to charm viewers of his artwork, Wayne earns this Dazzler of the Day crowning. Check out his website and online shop here for more evidence of his brilliance, and the excerpted bio below:
Trevor Wayne mines familiar references for his paintings, drawing on totems of consumerism and mainstream entertainment that are well-known to American audiences. Trevor’s artist statement is to simply “make people smile”, very often by taking dark imagery and flipping it.
Trevor was influenced into a world of art by Saturday Morning Cartoons, and mass production of art he carried with him to school on backpacks, binders, and clothing. He attended the American Academy of Art in Chicago.?
Trevor Wayne was born in Chicago, lived on a blueberry farm in Michigan, lived in Hammond, IN (the town the classic “A Christmas Story” is based on), NYC, Los Angeles, and now resides in Palm Springs, CA.
“Life is so damned hard, so damned hard… It just hurts people and hurts people, until finally it hurts them so that they can’t be hurt ever any more. That’s the last and worst thing it does.” ~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned
Our current era of instant information and transparency makes it refreshingly uncommon to find so little confirmed info on an artist who once dominated the American landscape as much as J.C. Leyendecker did in the first half of the 20th century. His work was regularly featured on ‘The Saturday Evening Post’ and in advertisements for Arrow, Gillette, Ivory Soap, Kuppenheimer and Kellogg’s. He was an inspiration and occasional mentor for Norman Rockwell, and if you’re aware of Rockwell’s signature style, you know Leyendecker’s, as the influence was that strong. Ensuing years, however, have given the prominence and glory to the latter, who also played the public publicity game far better than Leyendecker would or could.
Part of that has been attributed to his likely sexuality – I say likely because there is no official confirmation that Leyendecker was gay, though his unmarried lifestyle, and the fact that he lived with his long-time model and studio manager Charles Beach for almost fifty years, along with some decidedly homoerotic undertones to a lot of his work, makes it pretty clear whose team he was on. At the time being gay was still the love that dare not speak its name, and Leyendecker never publicly came out, nor did it seem to be his natural state to be open and public about much of anything – he preferred to stay at home and do his work.
That work, seen in small part here, is a glorious testament to his talent and artistic prowess, and depicts an America that was once written about by F. Scott Fitzgerald (whose books have occasionally employed an image by Leyendecker for their covers). Lovely words and lovely images for a country, and an artist, whose lives were not always lovely.
“And that taught me you can’t have anything, you can’t have anything at all. Because desire just cheats you. It’s like a sunbeam skipping here and there about a room. It stops and gilds some inconsequential object, and we poor fools try to grasp it – but when we do the sunbeam moves on to something else, and you’ve got the inconsequential part, but the glitter that made you want it is gone.” ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned
“There’s only one lesson to be learned from life anyway…. That there’s no lesson to be learned from life.” ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned
“Facts which at first seem improbable will, even on scant explanation, drop the cloak which has hidden them and stand forth in naked and simple beauty.” – Galileo Galilei
Any opportunity to showcase one of the greatest living artists of the moment should be taken and explored to the utmost, so it is with fevered pleasure that the featured work here – ‘Flower Bed’ by Michael Breyette – that I present this blog post extolling the artist’s virtues. ‘Flower Bed’ came across my social media path as a harbinger of spring, and Breyette described it as such on his enchanting website: “I’ve always been intrigued by the impact nature can have on someone, the serenity of sitting by the ocean, the peacefulness of a walk in the woods, the coziness of a rainy day or the cheerfulness brought by flowers. In contrast, man’s effect on nature is not usually too positive. So with that I offer man enjoying nature, positioned between a bed of flowers and a bee. The bee population is suffering from massive ‘die offs’ globally, in which man certainly has a hand.”
From there, I hastened to delve into what Breyette has been up to of late, which brought me to a recent work, ‘Beach Bums’ – the perfect segue into the sunnier season on the horizon. It paints a picture of a tranquil stroll by the sea, indulging in the play of sand upon the feet, the ocean in the air, and the comfort of a lover’s hand in your own.
Closing out this post is the simplicity and grandeur of ‘Arcadian Lake’ – a contemplative pose of pause at the edge of a lake, where the gaze of the subject is fixed loosely out of frame, lending the work a mystery and intrigue that merely hints and whispers of something just out of reach. Like all of Breyette’s work, it leaves the viewer wanting more.
Christine Sun Kim is an artist whose work focuses on sound, and sometimes its absence, positing intriguing explorations of art through music, linguistics, drawing, and performance. Her body of work is as impressive as it is wondrously varied and powerful. A magnificently minimalist website offers glimpses into her work and career, as encapsulated in the excerpt below. Her passionate search for the myriad ways in which we communicate is one of the most important journeys ever made by a Dazzler of the Day.
In her work, Berlin-based artist Christine Sun Kim, whose first language is American Sign Language (ASL), approaches the concept of sound via deconstructive exercises, experiments, and observations through drawing, painting, and performance. Over the course of developing her own visual language, Kim explores and employs elements from various information systems. By combining aspects of graphic and musical notation, body language, and ASL, she uses these systems as a means to expand what each is able to communicate and to invent a new grammar and structure structure for her compositions.
Performance is also part of Kim’s practice, often providing the starting point for works on paper that display witty evocations of both sounds and signs. She highlights what is constantly present and yet unnamed by us all through naming and then deconstructing preconceived ideas about sound and communication through their parameters, social values, and linguistics. Moreover, Kim works within and around the nuances of sound: at what point does noise become sound? When is something appropriate, and whose job is it to determine the agreeability of a sound, a noise, and their ensuing respectability or social capital?
Christine Sun Kim (b. 1980, California) received a Master of Fine Arts in Music / Sound from Bard College in 2013. She has exhibited and performed internationally, including at the Whitney Museum, New York (2018); Art Institute of Chicago (2018); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2017); De Appel Arts Center, Amsterdam (2017); Rubin Museum of Art, New York (2017); Berlin Biennale (2016); Shanghai Biennale (2016); Sound Live Tokyo (2015, 2013); MoMA PS1, New York (2015) and the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2013). Kim was awarded a MIT Media Lab Fellowship and a TED Senior Fellowship and has presented at numerous conferences and symposia. She lives and works in Berlin.
His intro page says it all: “It’s not about my sex, it’s about my nature.”
It’s the artistic nature of Ali Franco that has propelled his work into one of my favorite things on the internet right now. Decadent, slightly devilish, and always gorgeously-rendered, his pieces are the stuff of ribald erotica, embodying elegance with a gleeful edge.
Think of Madonna’s epic 1990 ‘Vogue’ performance in which she enchantingly recreated a very cheeky court of Versailles, only imagine it with an even more potent sexuality. The coquettish cock, if you will. The derriere-baring debutante. Artist and provocateur Ali Franco offers all that and more, and he is our Dazzler of the Day. Check out Ali’s website here.
Author, illustrator, and multi-talented Renaissance creator Alex Testere wears many hats, and all of them quite well. His illustrated book ‘Please Grow: Lessons on Thriving for Plants (and People)” is a life-guide on growing plants and cultivating the soul, two topics more intertwined and connected than most of us realize. In his spare time he may be found knitting some spectacular garment, such as the gorgeous sweater seen below (I’m still angling to see if he might allow me to commission a knitted health vest for the summer season). When one’s career and lifestyle conspires to create its own work of art, the title of Dazzler of the Day doesn’t fully capture the magic at work, but if it helps share some of the joy, it’s worth it. Unsurprisingly, the ‘About’ bio from his website is as charming and captivating as his written work:
I’m an author and illustrator based in Woodstock, New York.
I lived in Brooklyn for almost a decade before my partner and I relocated upstate. Over the years I’ve worked as a blogger, a social sports organizer, a line cook, a cheesemonger, a magazine editor, and now, I get to spend my time doing my favorite things in the world: telling stories and making art.
In my down time, you’ll find my tending my menagerie of houseplants, knitting an intricate sweater, or sipping wine on a beach (if only in my dreams).
I’m currently about to publish my first book, “Please Grow: Lessons on Thriving For Plants (and People).” It’s an illustrated guide to self-care, creativity, and personal growth, rooted in the life cycle of plants. I hope you’ll check it out! I am also available for hire as an illustrator, writer, and consultant.
{Visit Alex Testere’s website here where you can order ‘Please Grow: Lessons on Thriving For Plants (and People)’ and see all the other fabulous stuff going on in his wonderful world.}
One of my favorite artists also happens to be a favorite friend: Kevin Bruce. A pillar of Albany’s artistic community, Kevin is one of the most entertaining and supportive artists in the Capital Region, happily contributing work and time and energy to many causes and events over the years. I first wrote about him in this post, and a few years later he was named Dazzler of the Day because a more worthy person of that dazzling moniker simply doesn’t exist.
His work is whimsical and witty, imbued with knowing winks and nods, and laced with deeper meanings and layers of innuendo. There are cheeky, sexier aspects present too, coupled with humor and offset with innocent exuberance. A fantasy, a flight, a defiance of rules and boundaries – all in the name of artistic freedom and release. Bruce finds the wonder of a moment, then bends and transforms it into something magical, plucked from the realm of imagination and make-believe then made into gorgeous scenes that suddenly feel like possibility incarnate.
By grounding his subjects in everyday, relatable situations (one of my favorite works of his is a masterful depiction of the crowd at the downtown Albany Dunkin’ Donuts) he is able to employ more fanciful elements in the outfits and actions depicted. His alter-ego Whiskey Sour saw us through those first few tumultuous home-ridden months of the pandemic, doing what she always did best in the form of madcap entertainment and indomitable enthusiasm. We need more of that kind of spirit in the world, and I’m happy that Kevin Bruce is here to provide it through his artwork and in his inspirational existence.
{Check out his FaceBook page here, where he regularly posts pics of his work. It’s a joyful addition to the otherwise-drab social media landscape.}
“If in my youth I had realized that the sustaining splendour of beauty of with which I was in love would one day flood back into my heart, there to ignite a flame that would torture me without end, how gladly would I have put out the light in my eyes.” ~ Michelangelo
Mythology is rife with imaginative portraits of humans whose quest for glory leads them to dire ends – Icarus, Narcissus and Prometheus come to mind. There are also Biblical stories where humans’ ingenuity and intelligence sparks an unexpected triumph, such as in David and Goliath. (Figures that sort of hubris would come from the Bible. Are we deities or not? Are we divine or merely human?) I’ve been happy to be merely mortal – a human with hubris, haughtiness, and hell sometimes in my heart – and I contain all the folly that every human has contained since we were created. That means I’ve had the vanity and self-deception to assume that a personal blog could become a work of art.
“If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.” ~ Michelangelo
Making a blog into a work of art is perhaps a silly notion. When I consider the great works of art that have survived the centuries, a blog is unlikely to ever be counted as one of them. To that end, I have failed miserably, and will continue to fail in that quest. Making myself into a living work of art is also a ridiculous endeavor. I will fail at that too.
Yet in the effort, I hope you will find some shred of nobility. In the trying, may you see the striving. In the attempt, may you find the hope. If Icarus never fell, how would we know we could fly? If Prometheus hadn’t dared to capture fire, how would we learn to burn? If David hadn’t stepped forward to face Goliath, how would we muster the nerve to try?
“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it. ” ~ Michelangelo
For all of the twenty years this website has been in existence, I have striven to find myself – the man I truly was, the one beneath all of the fluster and bluster. Chipping away at our own thick stone to reveal the tender interior is not only the province of sculptors and artists, but the quest of every human being remotely interested in getting to know themselves. In certain ways, that is the purpose of life. Some may call it vanity, some may call it self-obsession, some might deride it as ego – and all of those play their necessary part – but only when we discover and know ourselves can we look into the soul of another human and possibly hope to see what is truly there.
“The promises of this world are, for the most part, vain phantoms; and to confide in one’s self, and become something of worth and value is the best and safest course.” ~ Michelangelo
Admittedly, I am no David. Nor am I Goliath, or Prometheus, or Icarus. Far too afraid for far too often to be any of those characters, and far too flawed to have achieved what they did in spite of their folly, I’m only beginning to learn to be comfortable in my own skin. Such a lesson takes longer than twenty years, and the few things I know now at 47 wouldn’t have been dreamed or designed when I was 27. That’s why I’m still doing this. There is so much more to know. The two decades encapsulated on this website are the merest wisp of my life. You think I’ve revealed everything? You haven’t seen anything. We’re just getting started.
“To know each other is the best way to understand each other. To understand each other is the only way to love each other.” ~ Michelangelo
Having been an admirer of his artwork for years – decades, actually – it gives me supreme pleasure to crown Brenden Sanborn as this Dazzler of the Day. His watercolor work hangs lovingly around the world, and his focus on the male form has garnered him worthy admiration from the usual, and sometimes unexpected, subjects. Beauty transcends labels and genres, and Sanborn’s work stands as testament to the enduring power and appeal of his skills and talent, rather than any specific subject matter. Does it help that he has an eye for taking his subjects and transforming them into something almost always greater than the sum of their parts? Absolutely – and that’s part of his magic. He can take a simple everyday scene and turn it into a moment of transfixing grace through an intricate dance of shadow and light, masterfully guiding a series of deft strokes delivered with delicate acumen. Visit his website here for all that’s in the works, peruse the gorgeous collection he has for sale, and then check out his YouTube page for a glimpse into how it all happens.
“When you are young, there are many things which appear dull and lifeless. But as you get older, you will find these are the very things that are most important to you.” ~ Kazuo Ishiguro, An Artist of the Floating World
The works of Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai are some of the most famous art pieces in the world, especially his renditions of Mount Fuji and all those glorious waves. Hokusai has also painted a number of snow-themed works, to which I often turn at this time of the year, trying to find beauty in the predicament that is winter in upstate New York. I’ll curl up in a cozy corner of the conversation couch, backed by the light from the front window, and delve into my art books, slowly turning the pages and marveling at the work of a masterful artist, and the way it mirrors the wintry scene just beyond my reach.
“There is certainly a satisfaction and dignity to be gained in coming to terms with the mistakes one has made in the course of one’s life.” ~ Kazuo Ishiguro, An Artist of the Floating World
The notion of the Floating World, where we find our worldly pleasures in and of the moment, is especially resonant in these winter months, when joy is fleeting and the ephemeral thrills slip way before they can be fully felt. I want to embrace winter, I want to inhale its smoky chill and inhabit its icy beauty, and I’m getting closer to achieving this. The love of such a trying season has been a long time coming, and it’s one that took some work and effort to approach. There aren’t many people I know who prefer the rigors of winter to the ease of summer, and those that do remind me that our world is a wonderfully varied and vibrant place, with people as different as night and day. How fortunate we are to be in such a world, for however brief a moment.
“A man who aspires to rise above the mediocre, to be something more than the ordinary, surely deserves admiration, even if he fails and loses a fortune on account of his ambitions… If one has failed only where others have not had the courage or will to try, there is consolation – indeed, deep satisfaction – to be gained from his observation when looking back over one’s life.” ~ Kazuo Ishiguro, An Artist of the Floating World
Being in the middle of a cartoon threesome was, strangely enough, not on any of my bucket lists, but after gleefully discovering the artwork of Quentin Maxfield and being immortalized in one of his erotic scenes, it most certainly should have been. (This is also the closest I’ll get to becoming Jessica Rabbit, and I must take such thrills where I can get them.) The admittedly NSFW/18+only artwork is a glorious amalgamation of animation and real-life photographs, as Maxfield brilliantly combines the two in breathtaking fashion. Beginning with a photograph and wondrously weaving a sexy scenario around it in cartoon form, he creates a scene that elevates a real life pose into the realm of fantasy.
Maxfield’s work is a mash-up of erotic fusion and whimsy, grounded in a skillful rendering of light and shadows: his genius lies partly in his ability to match his additions to the photograph in lighting, tone, and texture, creating a seamless world where a real life image is augmented by animated figures in sexy, surreal style – a heightened landscape of erotic drama. Check out his Instagram and Twitter feeds for more NSFW artwork and scintillating evidence on why he has been named Dazzler of the Day. I can’t wait to see what he conjures next.
Isabella Stewart Gardner knows how to create an inviting environment, and as such she has been a muse of mine for years, having assembled a museum where she lived and shared beauty with the world. One of the sayings she was reportedly quite fond of using was ‘C’est mon plaisir’ – it’s my pleasure – which is surely one of the most pleasing things a person can say or hear. Whenever I thank anyone for something and they reply ‘My pleasure’ instead of ‘You’re welcome’ I instantly adore them all the more – it’s simply a lovelier response.
On this Friday the 13th, as Mercury continues wreaking its retrograde havoc, let us be as lovely as we can be to one another.
Artists always make the best people to profile for this feature, as they create what the rest of us find to inspire, challenge, and entertain. Case in point is this Dazzler of the Day, Greg Fox, who has kept many of us enthralled with the goings-on at his comic strip ‘Kyle’s Bed & Breakfast‘, originally published in 1998. Since then, the beguiling denizens he brings so gorgeously to life have found their way into blogs and books, and can be found at his website here. Greg joins the vaunted pantheon of artists such as Paul Richmond, Dave Woodman, Michael Breyette, and Joe Phillips who have recently been featured here. Bonus points for the way he rocks a kilt at all seasons of the year!
A three-and-a-half decade career as an artist is a formidable and impressive feat to accomplish – and to see it mid-stream is a thing of wonder and beauty and inspiration all at once. Joe Phillips has managed such a marvel thanks to his talent at turning life into a work of art. More than that, he turns his daily existence into the stuff of creative magic and fantastical conjurings, as evidenced by the elaborate costumes and wardrobe he creates when attending various parties and events. Today he earns the Dazzler of the Day crown for overcoming hardships and still making the world a more exciting and beautiful place. Witness a more detailed look into his work and career at his website here: http://www.joephillips.com.
While you may not know Dave Woodman by name or face, you certainly know him by his work. Woodman played an integral part in bringing ‘The Little Mermaid’, ‘Beauty and the Beast’, and ‘Aladdin’ to life during his tenure at Walt Disney Feature Animation. Widely and wisely credited as the triumvirate that formed yet another golden-age of animation, those three films stand as testament to a fertile and magnificent creative cycle of which Woodman was a pillar. Since then, his passion for his artwork has not waned, and seeing his work on social media is a joy when so much of social media has turned sour – for that alone he earns this Dazzler of the Day.
