Week #30 ('20) Art Appreciation
Welcome to my weekly Art Appreciation post, where I provide a list of some amazing album covers, single art, and random art that have come out within the past week. I’ll give you the artist/photographer/painter/magician’s name, as well as any social media or websites where you can go and check out more of their work. Click here to go back and see some other Art Appreciation posts.
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Don’t have anything crazy to say this week other than a thank you to everyone who engages with these Art Appreciation posts every week, and a special thank you to the artists featured who show love to what I’m doing here. It’s been fun being able to exercise another part of my mind from the normal “listen to something multiple times”; it sounds weird but “looking at something for a long time” is a great change of pace! Also shoutout to those musicians out there who are willing to point me in the right direction whenever a cover artist isn’t readily apparent, y’all are a big help.
Remember, use this post to follow and subscribe to these artists; they deserve as much recognition as the musicians they are attached to.
Artist(s): Zach Sisk
The World is Piff 2, by Jamal Gasol
Let’s start with the obvious: the painting that this piece is based off of is a beautifully done naturalistic landscape. I love how the colors are mostly focused on the greens of the grasses and the trees and the deep blues of the river, where usually a scene like this (which looks right on the verge of Autumn) would be cluttered with multi-colored flowers and leaves. That’s not to say we don’t get flowers on here though, because where Zach makes this piece his own is with the gigantic weed plants that have been incorporated into the far side of the river. Whenever people throw weed onto an album cover, it’s usually cheap, almost to the point of a joke, but Zach has taken the time to make sure that the scene here looks natural as hell. I don’t know if it’s photoshop or what but those pot leaves look like they belong in the original scene, and the actual plants look like giant trees growing in the field, lending the piece this fantastical quality, like walking through an ancient forest where weed trees grew 20 feet tall. While weed is definitely associated with Jamal Gasol (this is the second installment to The World is *Piff* after all), it’s the road sign we have here, the US 31, that places this project distinctly as Western New York, a highway that acts as a lifeline out of Niagara Falls and onto other cities like Rochester. It’s a well-crafted piece of art, and symbolically I don’t think Gasol could have gotten a better product; kudos to all.
Zach’s Instagram/Zach’s Website
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Artist(s): Wesley Taylor
Manger on McNichols, by Boldy James & Sterling Toles
While the album itself doesn’t deal as much on religious imagery as it does Boldy’s street life and relationships with family, this album art plays much more into the title of the LP. Y’all know the story of Jesus I’m sure: born amongst a throng of old guys, a lamb or something, etc. But a very important part is the manger, which was where Jesus was placed in the absence of a real cradle or bed, given that Mary was turned away from an Inn. The title of the record, Manger on McNichols, paints Detroit’s 6 Mile as a place where Boldy found himself in place of a more hospitable environment, something that Wesley has depicted here almost perfectly. Everyone present at the Nativity is represented here in the ascending rungs of the porcelain structure here (not sure if it’s a physical construct or a digital one; leaning towards digital given the perfect symmetry): lambs, old guys, Mary herself, then Jesus in the manger. Given Boldy is the focus, he’s obviously going to be the centerpiece, but there is a detail here that I think is absolutely genius. Boldy is looking through this hole, this eye if you will; looking on the bottom side of the “eye”, you can see the porcelain is cracked and fractured, reinforcing the exhaustion that you see in James’ actual eye. You will hear on the record how Boldy James grew up, and it’s information that justifies the hopelessness and indifference you see in Boldy’s face here on this cover. Wesley is an established artist, being very involved in Detroit’s artistic ventures: tap in to his amazing talent.
Wesley’s Instagram/Wesley’s Website
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