talk

A picture can say a thousand words….! Needless to say, I LOVE THIS CAMPAIGN, and I don’t even smoke.  Mario Testino, thank God we have you out there. V Magazine, you get what i love. I’m buying whatever your selling…!

By: Catherine Marie Cuello

If equality benefits everyone, even those in the upper class, then why do we not work towards improving basic living standards? Today’s media has a responsibility to promote consciousness about this issue in an increasingly-interconnected world. Reality television, the gossip trade and other similarly low-brow forms of entertainment have sabotaged attention spans and created meaningless issues to distract public concern. But what if this trend could be turned around, and used for the greater good? For example, why not use the power of celebrity to inspire, motivate and encourage people to get involved?

This is where we come in - holding almost quasi ‘consciousness advocate’ degrees. Our goal should be to constantly reach out and entertain with inspiring messages, challenging change in people’s daily lives.

More than 10% of the U.S. population today is Hispanic, the largest ethnic minority in the United States. In many cases these immigrants have come here to escape poverty and oppression in their home countries, and have been forced to find better living standards elsewhere. Thus, it is our responsibility—as educated citizens, as Hispanics and simply as human beings—to represent our people wherever we are, however we can. continue reading “Basic Standards”

native from filmatika on Vimeo.

Shot in Colombia at the Guajira peninsula in the northernmost part of South America.

Enjoy full screen with headphones. -ac.

At a time when pockets are tight, the general alarm regarding economic decline has given rise to a number of concerns for new-age marketers. A slight edge, a propitious insight, can now make the difference between bankruptcy and billions. This has marketers across the nation scrambling to develop new strategies in a evolving media-scape that they don’t quite understand how to best use, in an effort to gain even an inch.

What marks this economic downturn as unusual are its unique recipients. The Millennials. This generation of brethren, brothas, bros, is the crème of the crop, the best ones yet. Larger (in number) than the Baby Boomers, more well-connected than Oprah, and smarter than you imagined young people could ever be, the Millennials are almost too cool to be true. Born from the early 80’s  to the late 90’s they grew up between the 1990s and 2000s.

This generation of technology-bred, media-soaked, and information-thirsty youth is a class apart, saving wildlife, going ultra-green, and rescuing underprivileged orphans in their spare time. They have not known an era without computers, cell phones or CD’s. They are “the empowered generation” that take information for granted, and make more demands upon what companies can and should offer. Unlike their Gen X predecessors who invented the term “reality bites” Millennials are idealistic and truly believe they can make a difference. continue reading “The Millenials have arrived”

Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter; Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen

 Written by Adal Gutierrez

The new movie building big expectations, not only among Disney fans, but especially among adults who have read the book, is Tim Burton’s adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. What is already an interesting project, because it is Burton and it is Alice, is flavored by the actors who bring the main characters to life: Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter; Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen; Anne Hathaway as the White Queen; and the new face of Australian actress Mia Wasikowska as Alice. Burton has already said he will stay true to the stories’ essence, although the plot is about a 17-year-old Alice that goes back to Wonderland, a place she visited ten years before. Recently, the images of some movie characters have been released and as you might guess, the movie will be a combination of live performance with animation. With Burton’s gift of a kind of insane and mesmerizing creativity; this movie might just surpass the great expectations it is generating. Alice in Wonderland is in pre-production and is expected to open in theaters March 5, 2010.

Too see more characters from the new movie, click below:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/gallery/2009/jun/23/tim-burton-alice-in-wonderland-johnny-depp?lightbox=1

Ok, first let me give credit where credit is due: My 67 year old, conservative yet media savvy mother sent me this link.

It leads to a hub for disillusioned yet Americans in search for a new road map to follow.  Its main attraction is a well produced music video that puts its finger on the pulse of an American Population lost with within the tumult and turmoil that for better or for worse has turned our economy upside down. The premise that “I played by the rules and then the rules changed” is a valid one, if not the most empowering one. Perhaps in this new economy it’s not enough to simply play by the rules of the game, but we must also be prepared to see where the game is going and be prepared for changes. In a way, it’s a kind of therapeutic tool that builds community off of shared stories of personal sorrows. I think ultimately it will be an important part of our American history to chronic these stories of what the average American went through in the depression of 2009.
Its got a catchy tune as well.

http://www.bornagainamerican.org/

turbulence from filmatika on Vimeo.

My flight from Tulsa to NYC.
Enjoy your flight… view full screen and with headphones. -ac.

Raul Higuera’s work is hauntingly beautiful, and definitely worth checking out. The self taught Colombian Fashion photographer presents images that are both dramatic and enchanting as they are fashionable.

check it out at: http://www.raulhiguera.com/

In the past, the perception of genius was counter-productive to the collaborative working environment so crucial for most of us today. Yet we’re still enamored with this classic sense of the genius as the steadfast individual that toils on his own towards a huge breakthrough that revolutionizes art or science. Ayn Rand’s hero in “the Fountainhead” embodied this concept, as does the perennial Albert Einstein who has been representing this “genius brand” for the past 30 years.

As defined by Wikipedia a genius is a person of great intelligence, who shows an exceptional natural capacity of intellect, especially as shown in creative and original work. But how applicable is this to our everyday? The idea of the solitary genius working in a vacuum producing breakthrough work on his or her own is swiftly going the way of the VHS players, walkmans, & Cd’s. The notion that some are “born with it” and others are not may be true but at the end it’s those that best pursue the “it” through perseverance and collaboration that will most likely snag the genius title.

continue reading “The Genius Connection”

I love to draw naked people. Fat ones, skinny ones old ones young ones, for some reason that passion that I had in Art school of trying to capture as much as I can about a person by the expressions of their bodies lives with me still.
I realize that figurative work has not been in vogue for a while, and I wonder why I am still obsessed with drawing the figure inside out. I think it has to with an honest exploration of our humanness and its different forms of manifestations.

The body has a language that communicates so much. It can be subtle or flamboyant; awkward, self-conscious, tired, earnest, graceful, poised, monumental. Models say so much about themselves with their body movements. Maybe I’m also attracted to the idea that the unclothed individual occupies a timeless place, where the same thoughts, yearnings and attitudes and anxieties have existed for thousands of years. Over and over again I paint the experience, pressure, enlightenment, acceptance, sensuality, anger or ambition that each person presents me with. I relish the structure of their core, the curves of their reserves, the expression of their hands and feet and the experience of their faces. I capture with my line, what their bodies tell me with the same tone and intensity. I suppose the way I draw people also says a lot about the artist, but I’ll leave that to the viewer.

for more drawings check out more naked people.

I give special thanks to Eviva the monumental, Robin the brash, Rebbecca the beautiful, and those many others who’s name I cannot remember who graced the model stands at Pratt & Parson’s campus’s from 91 to 98.

Enjoy!