Artist Feature: Johanna Tagada / BonjourJohanna

As I was going through a blog-redesign binge in the wee hours of the morning last week, I realised that one of my sidebar categories reads: "Art", and I haven't featured an artist in over 3 months! :o So without further ado, let's get into some art!

Johanna Tagada is an abstract painter who also works with many different media, including painting, collage, photography, textile design, and ceramics. She's originally from France, but currently lives in Germany. Her heritage is multicultural, and so are her interests; She speaks many different languages, travels often, and is inspired by cultural heritage, especially folk art. Her irregular patterns and shapes have something of a tribal or naive feeling to them, yet the colours and sparse compositions make it feel quite modern. The pattern below, with its visible painted texture, resembles cracked mud, a motif that brings to mind the ancient past, hunter-gatherers, wild, harsh environments - What makes this image modern is the two-dimensionality and the pastel colour. The best way I can describe her colour palette is: Sun-bleached pastels.




I really enjoy the textile pattern below, as it looks a bit like a quilt - an art form that has a long history and folk-craft connotations.


In her shop, you can find many different kinds of objects, prints, pins, zines, and even hand painted t-shirts. This one's pretty adorable, and even comes with some tea leaves and a matching card! I'm calling it "The Tea Tee" ... heh heh heh.

Speaking of her store, I love the paint-dollop background she has going on! I've been looking around for web and blog-design inspiration recently, and her store has a fresh feeling to it.


If you want to learn more about Johanna, I have links to a couple interviews she's done below, as well as all her other sites. She seems like a wonderful person: unpretentious, open, creative, and optimistic, just like her art. The best way you can support her is to like/share her work, or even better, buy something from her shop!


You can find her here:
Shop - Bonjour Supermarket
Blog - Bonjour Johanna
Portfolio - Johanna Tagada
Instagram: bonjourjohannatagada
Facebook
Interview about her life
Interview about her aesthetics






My links:
Instagram // Pinterest // Bloglovin // Society6

New Tunes, etc.

I can't get enough of this band, Purity Ring, especially this song called Ungirthed. I found them through a youtuber named Grav3yardGirl. She's crazy and I love her.

Just so you're aware, there's some tame nudity in the video below.




I saw this picture on Tumblr, and I think I'm gonna go strawberry blone when I get back to Cali, which, by the way is happening in just FOUR WEEKS. I also like the length... I want long hair! It's already a couple inches past my collar bone, but I want it down to my waist!


via Shannon Tumblr


Also, I just want to share with you two of my favorite pieces in the Musée D'Orsay. The first is Pierre Bonnard's cat, and the second is a floral still life by Van Gogh. This cat just makes me happy when I look at it. And Van Gogh's coloring and surface texture are captivating, but obviously you can't see that on a computer screen.


via Musée D'Orsay Catalog

My best friend is coming to Paris for two weeks in just 7 days! I'm going to take us on adventures everyday, and I can't wait!

Musée Gustave Moreau

When my Mom was in Paris, we took an hour to check out the Gustave Moreau museum. Most people, even people who have some knowledge of art history, aren't super familiar with this artist, but I gotta say, he's extremely interesting!

{View of the lower studio space}
He's considered a Symbolist painter, so many of his tableaux are a fantastical melange of biblical, mythological, medieval, and otherwise imagined references. Some of his work is more textured, expressive, and colorful, like the later work of Delacroix, while his more famous works are expertly drawn, highly ornate, and almost scintillate with detail. His mix of symbolism with extreme attention to detail bring to mind, at least in my own head, apocalyptic yet ancient, and cult-like, ritualistic themes. I picture his images taking place in an imaginary time that is futuristic, yet extremely ancient at the same time, and it's pretty easy to become lost in them.














This museum doesn't take long to visit, so I would highly recommend it as an extra outing when you need something else to do in Paris. I say that like you'll actually run out of things to do... NOT possible! haha

What's also pretty unique, is that the museum itself resides in Moreau's actual home, and planning for it began while he was still alive, by Moreau himself. As a result, you can see not only some of his living quarters, but also take comfort in the fact that it was organized and preserved according to the artist's own vision. Pretty neat!





{Amazing staircase!}

Renoir and Baudelaire

While preparing one of my final exams for my Art and Literature class (yes, I got to prepare the final at home!), I had to find links between pieces of art and literature. Here is a link that I found in this Renoir painting, and in a few lines of a Baudelaire poem. Just look at the painting, read each line, and it's almost as if these lines are describing the scene directly! Pretty cool.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, La Grenouillère, 1869

A few lines from Baudelaire's Parisian Dream:
"and every color, even black,
became a lustrous prism;
liquid turned to glowing glass
and what was crystal flowed...
from within each thing was luminous."

I've never been a huge fan of poetry, but these lines are beautiful. What do you think about poetry?

Thank You Cards

I caught the painting bug recently, and decided to express this new surge in creativity by painting some cards. At first, staring at the blank surfaces, I felt lost and didn't know what to draw. But then I just started drawing, free of self-judgement, and I'm happy with how they turned out!

I was inspired by Katie Daisy's amazing artwork, go admire her work here!

I'm not finished with the one on the right. I bought these blank cards and envelopes at Joann.

Perhaps I should start selling hand-painted cards in my Etsy shop? It did take me a while to paint these though, so I'm not sure if selling these would be worth the time required, and I'm not sure how much people would be willing to pay for these cards.

Art History: Rococo

Jean-Honoré Fragonard is one of my favorites, because he quite often paints scenes of love and restlessness. These two paintings look to me as if a secret love affair is unfolding behind the scenes, and the lovers' hearts are beating a million times a second for one another. I don't know about you, but falling hopelessly in love with a handsome young man sounds like something I'd thoroughly enjoy. Also, that dog looks like my Mom's dog, and that is quite amusing to me.

The Love Letter, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, 1770, Metropolitan Museum

I love the way fabric is painted in classical or Academic-style paintings. The way the light is reflected, and how the fabric falls makes me want to reach in and touch it. Look at the fabric of her dress below!

The Stolen Kiss, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Hermitage Museum

Antoine Watteau (pronounced WAH-TOE) is known for his paintings of fête galante, a french term meaning a frolicking, bucolic, outdoor party of rich, elegant people. I don't know about you, but my idea of a perfect summer afternoon would include running around in a sundress, in a wild-flower-filled meadow. And of course, no fête galante would be complete without a group of chubby cherubs tumbling through the air. Who even came up with fat baby angels anyway?!

The Embarkation for Cythera, Antoine Watteau, 1717, Louvre

What do you think about Rococo painting? Do you love the romantic spirit, or do you find it irritatingly frilly?

Art History is Cool: Edgar Degas

This week, I've been at a loss for what to post. As I'm getting my bearings in the blogosphere, I've been brainstorming for new things to post about. I can do photography and style posts all I want, but in order to take it to the next level, I need something new, something unique! After reading these helpful tips, I realized I should take the advice and post about something I know and love: Art History!

As a few of you may know from the About Me post, I am a student of Art History, and I thought it would be cool (and if not cool, at least interesting) to make art history seem cool! If I succeed, bravo! If I fail, then at least I tried something new, and I'm fairly certain I'm one of the only style/photography bloggers out there who also blogs about Art History. So without further delay, here are Five Reasons Why Edgar Degas is Cool:

{ONE}
French Impressionism was revolutionary. Impressionists were like the hippies of the 19th century, and they literally changed art, the world even. You see, there was this governmental organization in France, called The Academy, that controlled nearly every aspect of art, how it should look, how it should be made, what subjects should be in it, etc. So to make a long story short, the Impressionists told The Academy to "take a hike," and look where they are now! Impressionism is probably the most well-known artistic movement in history aside from the Italian Renaissance. They took a stand, ignored all the rules, and created unprecedented and magnificent works of art.




{TWO}
Ballerinas. Enough said.




{THREE}
Look at that beautiful, saturated, unabashed color! They aren't blended well and they aren't realistic, and that's what conveys the energy of the dance so well.




{FOUR}
He "cropped" his images like snapshots. This was almost a criminal offense in "serious" art of the Academy. Back then, the critics saw this as sloppy, and certainly not worthy of being portrayed on canvas. Degas really showed them who's boss with that lady blocking our view.




{FIVE}
Degas wasn't afraid of empty space. He painted (although he often used pastels) that bare floor with no shame, and he wants you to notice it.



Image names and Dates, top to bottom:
Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage, Edgar Degas, 1874
Two Dancers, Edgar Degas, 1893-1898
Ballet Dancers on the Stage, Edgar Degas, 1883
Ballerina and Lady with a Fan, Edgar Degas, 1885
Ballet Rehersal, Edgar Degas, 1873