Now, just weeks later, it appears that the case has apparently been settled.
Sources tell TMZ, that Kristina and her grandmother, Cissy Houston, have reached an agreement to leave the teenager’s $20 million payment plans unadjusted. As the agreement currently stands, Brown will receive 10% when she turns 21, 20% at age 25, and the remaining amount when she turns 30.
The singer’s mother, Cissy Houston and sister-in-law/business manager, Pat Houston originally sought out to revise Brown’s inheritance payments citing that she “is a highly visible target for those who would exert undue influence over her inheritance and/or seek to benefit from respondent’s resources and celebrity.”
Last week while promoting their new Lifetime reality show, “The Houstons: On Our Own,” Cissy and Pat Houston appeared on “The View” to discuss their new series, which included a scene of Bobbi Kristina drinking a mimosa. As Pat Houston explained to show hosts, Barbara Walters and Sheri Shepherd, guiding Brown into the right direction is a work in progress.
“She’s not in trouble as it relates to drinking,” she admitted. “I had concern sitting there watching her. I don’t like it at all. But this was her reality, even before her mother passed. I don’t like it, but we’re working on it. She’s growing…we’re seeing her more; we’re dealing with life management skills as it relates to Bobbi Kristina.”
Whitney Houston’s mother added to Pat’s comments; “When you got a teenager who’s 19-year’s old, who loses her mother and really don’t feel like she really has to listen, do you know how that is,” she said.
Deborah Kass is not soft spoken. Nor is her art work, which appropriates pop culture icons and artists she admires, while redefining New York School abstract painting through the lens of feminism. Today, Kass’ first retrospective, “Before and Happily Ever After,” opens at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. The exhibition features approximately 75 of Kass’ works spanning the past three-decades of her career.
After her move to New York City in the 1970s, then 20-year-old Kass entered the art world with her more traditional landscapes and abstract paintings. In the ’80s however, the tide changed with the emergence of neoexpressionism, which was “completely and utterly male,” as Kass put it in a phone interview with The Huffington Post. “The definite prevailing sense with their success and with their attitude, was that this was the natural order of things. And no one seemed concerned or the least interested at all that there were literally no women involved.”
Kass channeled her frustration in a way that shook the art world. She appropriated Andy Warhol’s work, and turned her lady heroes into her subjects, painting the likenesses of Gertrude Stein, Sandy Koufax, and Barbra Streisand.
We spoke to Kass on the phone about her upcoming exhibit at The Warhol Museum. Read on for Kass’ charged, poetic descriptions of her work, how we define ourselves through culture, and why we need female artists. Scroll down for photos.
Before and Happily Ever After, 1991.
The Huffington Post: From where did your use of appropriation in your work emerge?
Deborah Kass: Appropriation was the language of my generation in many ways. It came out of Duchamp, Warhol, Johns, Lichtenstein. My work since the late ’80s specifically questioned what was presented as the “natural” order of things in the history of post war NY painting. In effect I was questioning power and artistic genius and I was asking was this not just part of that same value/valuing system called white patriarchy? And can there even be anything new about an art that re-inscribes those values? By questioning that, I put in jeopardy the assumed power and value of my male colleagues. That could not stand and I have had the career that was the result of that: undervalued and under represented, like every other woman who dared to paint of my generation.
So it’s strange to be getting attention now after all these years. But times have changed, meaning the context has changed. People like me in other disciplines were pioneers of women’s studies, queer studies, black studies in the ’80s. Your generation was educated by those radical thinkers who changed the way we conceive of the history of culture in literature, the law, the media and in every way. The academy embraced and supported them. I mean they were a bunch of serious bookish literature professors!
HP: Can you talk about your famous Barbra Streisand re-appropriation specifically?
DK: Barbra was someone who insisted on patrolling her own representation in Hollywood and it drove Hollywood crazy. Of course she was wildly successful because of that. But there was so much resistance to her despite the bigger embrace of her culturally. Because she went against the norm in Hollywood…like I was sort of obsessed with her resistance because I identified with it so closely…I have this whole idea now — well its been developing now for thirty years — that you find yourself in culture as a child and that’s how one defines oneself. One says, “Oh, I really like that song”…“I like that character”…”I like that book,” and that’s how. It’s something that’s resonating within you. It’s a way that you define yourself through the culture.
Part of my project has been talking about not finding my reflection. And what that felt like and what that means and how to find it anyway or redefine…my favorite history to make it look like me.
HP: Do you consider yourself a political artist?
DK: Yes.
HP: In the “Brooklyn Rail,” you say: “There are more important issues than someone thinking they are right about a historic moment, even if the moment is now. We need all the option on the table to survive right now.”
Where did you get this sense of immediacy? Have you always had it, or has there been a time when it’s more pressing?
DK: I am not alone in thinking that we are at a tipping point ecologically and morally and politically. Democracy cannot survive without a vibrant middle class, yet the policies of one of the parties has been committed to wiping it out for 30 years. Social issues have been used to distract Americans from their own self interests since Nixon’s southern strategy and now people are paying the price. It’s as if someone was yelling “abortion! religion! gay! black! women! poor people!” to your face, just so they could pick your pocket from behind and it worked.
All the other immediacies of my adult life have been building up to this. I never understood how people couldn’t see it coming for the last three decades, it was so clear. The other recessions didn’t carry with them the massive unemployment, the income inequality and the death of the middle class like this one, and the sheer unadulterated greed. Nor the rejection of science and the reality of global warming. The end times. Citizens take democracy for granted, but that is a huge mistake. We took the middle class for granted and now look.
DK: [Take as an example] John Berger’s “Ways of Seeing,” there’s no woman in the world or black person in America who doesn’t know what that means. The people in power are the people who define everybody else. That’s the nature of power. And survival depends on understanding.
The “Bring It On” star, 32, died on Friday, Oct. 26 after she was struck by a car while crossing the street in Georgia. According to the Gwinnett Police Department, the driver of the vehicle was “was determined to be not at fault and there are no charges pending.” The driver also phoned 911 after the accident, at 10:30 P.M. Reed was pronounced dead at 10:59 P.M. at Gwinnett Medical Center. She would have been 33 Sunday.
Reed was known as one-third of the Atlanta-based group Blaque, who had hits like “808,” “Can’t Get It Back” and “Bring It All To Me,” which featured ‘N Sync’s J.C. Chasez. She starred in 2000’s “Bring It On” with band mates Brandi Williams and Shamari Fears-DeVoe. The rapper was a protégé of the late Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, who was a member of TLC until 2002.
We are devastated by the loss of our group member, sister and friend Natina Reed. Because of the enormous support of Blaque fans and our love for each another, Blaque officially reunited this fall and we were in the process of working on a new album and a reality show. Natina continuously embodied the pioneering spirit of Blaque and her undeniable creativity touched the hearts of fans everywhere. Natina was a mother, sister, accomplished songwriter, artist and friend. We ask for your prayers at this time for Natina’s family. She will forever be missed and her global influence eternally felt. We thank God for the experiences we shared.
Williams took to Twitter to share her grief about Reed’s death, writing, “Last night the world was changed forever, life will never be the same….she was my sister.”
And Gabrielle Union, who also starred in “Bring It On,” simply tweeted, “#RIP #SAD #BringItOn.”
Reed was reportedly working on a solo rap album, as well as a new movie and reunion with Blaque.
She is survived by her 10-year-old son, Tren Brown, with rapper Kurupt.
Gabrielle Monique Union was born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1972, the middle child in a family of three daughters. She is the daughter of Theresa (née Glass), a former dancer, social worker, and phone company manager, and Sylvester C. Union, an AT&T manager and military sergeant. Union’s early childhood years were spent as part of a rich black community and as part of a large family that had been in the Omaha area for many generations. [1][2][3] She was raised Catholic.[4] At the age of eight, her family moved to Pleasanton, California, where she grew up and attended Foothill High School. In high school, Union was an all-star point guard in basketball and a year-round athlete, also playing in soccer and ran track.
Union attended the University of Nebraska before moving on to Cuesta College. She eventually transferred to UCLA and earned a degree in sociology. While studying there, she interned at the Judith Fontaine Modeling & Talent Agency to earn extra academic credits. Invited by the agency’s owner, Judith Fontaine, Union started working as a model to pay off college loans.[5]
In 2000, Union landed the role of Isis in the cheerleading movie Bring it On opposite Kirsten Dunst. Bring It On helped push Union into the mainstream and she began gaining more exposure. This led to Union being cast in the CBS television drama City of Angels as Dr. Courtney Ellis.
Union was cast in her first leading role in the 2003 film Deliver Us from Eva with rapper L.L. Cool J. This was her second time working with the rapper since making a cameo in his video “Paradise” in 2002. The film received fair reviews from critics and it showed that Union was a leading lady. Union landed the role of Will Smith‘s girlfriend Syd in the film Bad Boys II, a box office success grossing over $273 million worldwide. Union starred with Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx in the film Breakin’ All the Rules in 2004.
Union starred in the short-lived 2005 ABC series Night Stalker. She has also starred in the independent drama films Neo Ned and Constellation, the latter of which was released to theaters. She won an award for Best Actress in Neo Ned at the Palm Beach International Film Festival, and the film received awards at several festivals.
In an interview with Art Nouveau Magazine, Union complained about the lack of roles for black actresses and actors in Hollywood: “There used to be [roles] specifically written black, if you knew Denzel was doing a movie you knew his wife, girl or love interest was going to be black [but] that’s not necessarily the case anymore. You’re in that room with every amazingly talented actress of every hue, and it’s a dogfight, it’s hard”.[7]
She joined the cast of the U.S. television series Life on NBC and appeared in four episodes prior to the cancellation of series in May 2009.[8] She appeared in the ABC series FlashForward alongside John Cho and Joseph Fiennes as Zoey Andata, a role for which she got nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.
COREY BARKSDALE
September 27, 2011 — If you live in Atlanta, you might have already come across Corey Barksdale’s paintings in art festivals, galleries, or on his website. This bright African American artist brings life to his designs with great textured colorful elements and creativity. His works reflects his many sources of inspiration, with a focus on music and dance – Jazz music in particular -, urban city life and the love and strength present within the African-American community.
Corey has carried out numerous projects for businesses and individuals throughout Atlanta, and he has participated in art shows throughout the United States.
Over the last few years Corey has also developed his skills as a mural artist and one of the major projects he recently completed was a 30 feet mural painting for the Beltline, Atlanta’s ambitious urban redevelopment project. Rob Brawner, the Atlanta Beltline program director was thrilled with the result, stating that: “Corey was able to bring the Atlanta BeltLine alive through his colorful interpretation of the project.” Another much acclaimed mural project he recently completed was a vast wall painting for the Ben Hill Recreation Center as part of the Paint Big project, an initiative by Wonderroot, Living Walls, Dorian McDuffie and the City of Atlanta Office of Recreation.
Corey is also an artist who cares and who often donates his time and artistic energy to various charity projects. He recently participated in a house remodeling for the ABC show Extreme Makeover Home Edition, contributing a mural painting for one of the family’s bedrooms. One of the charities dear to his heart, the Furniture Bank of Metro Atlanta, has “been honored to receive donated art work from Corey Barksdale for its annual fundraiser. Every year we are amazed by his talent and generosity!” says Megan Anderson from the Furniture Bank.
Corey’s creations can be used as quality interior design decorations by advertising firms, bars, restaurants and other retail businesses.
His fine art paintings offer a modern/contemporary style, on canvas or Masonite and will create a memory you can treasure for years to come.
His mural paintings will make your location stand out, contributing to your visual identity and allowing you to express and communicate your mission and vision in a creative and esthetic way.
Marbury was having an affair with his personal chef Thurayyah Mitchell, but when he fired and kicked her to curb she claimed Marbury was sexually harassing her.
Marbury wanting the problem to go away promised his jumpoff $900k.
I repeat Marbury promised a woman he slept with 5 times almost a million dollars just to be quiet. According to TMZ, Marbury paid the woman $600k and then the payments stop.
The women went to court and WON the case to get the rest of her hush money.
Gabrielle Union stepped onto the white carpet at her 40th birthday party on Monday sponsored by Courvoisier Gold with glowing skin, a fresh smile and the friendly demeanor we have come to expect from the actress after many years in the industry.
Totally unlike her famously crabby character in Deliver Us From Eva, Union was full of self-deprecating humor about reaching the big 4-0. “It’s either going to be armageddon, or serendipity,” she told reporters gathered for the fete. “I’m not sure which. My a** falls, my boobs start to droop. I don’t know. I’ve been looking at my friends who’ve made it, and look practically intact, and younger than ever. I’m hoping… It’ll be my luck that it all goes south and my a** drops to my ankles,” Union stated with a sparkling wit that charmed typically jaded journalists.
From the looks of the gorgeous actress that night, the possibility that age will bring Union anything but more opportunities seems unlikely. Wearing a 5th & Mercer jumpsuit from the new clothing line by her gal pal La La Anthony, the Think Like a Man star noted that she had accessorized with her “favorite earrings.” Yet, what really drew attention were the new bangs.
“I ran out of weaves, so I said, ‘Let me try a bang.’ Literally, I just ran out of weaves,” Union explained about switching up her look. Borrowing the idea from fellow movie star Taraji P. Henson, Gabrielle admitted, “I just bit her whole style. I can’t promise what it will look like next week. I may have found a new muse and I will have stolen their look.”
In addition to the fresh cut, Gabrielle credited her pretty locks to a specific product. “It’s a 10 is everything. It’s a leave in conditioner. Now they have a whole line of shampoos, but I got hooked on the leave-in. It’s everything for every hair type.” She praised the detangler for its protection even against intense heat. And the secret to that glowing skin?
Water. Just water.
“I drink a gallon a day. I’m still using my regular Neutrogena, but I haven’t moved into the anti-aging products. I basically use my pink grapefruit scrubs and cleansers, but I drink a crapload of water.” Union’s skin, hair, and nails all benefit from extreme hydration as her main beauty secret, she told People magazine‘s correspondent.
While lovely on the outside, Union is far from focused on the superficial. As she easily responded to numerous press outlets with intelligent aplomb, Union also demonstrated her substance. For instance, she is reading The Warmth of Other Sunsby Isabel Wilkerson, “a piece of history that we don’t shed enough of a light on, to explain how we’ve ended up all over the country, as opposed to just nestled in the south,” Union related about this black history masterpiece.
As her professional life continues to build, Union’s personal life is blossoming. She beamed when discussing her boyfriend Dwayne Wade — but has no plans to rush into motherhood anytime soon. As she turns 40 on Monday, Gabrielle looks forward to “more time with friends” and “more time with my family,” in addition to cherishing greater simplicity. “I don’t have the time for drama and chaos in my life. I have just eliminated crazy people, crazy situations, unnecessary situations that can be avoided. I just don’t have that urge anymore to be in the madness.”
TheGrio spoke to Gabrielle Union in further depth about how to maintain a youthful spirit at any age, her feelings about the election and campaigning for Obama — and her take on the controversial casting of Zoe Saldana as Nina Simone.
The Grio: So tell us, how does it feel to turn 40?
Gabrielle Union: I don’t know, because I feel twelve! Physically, other than my lower back pain, I physically don’t feel any different. Emotionally and mentally, I’m in a good place. I’m entirely happy. I have a great life. I’m actually at a place to appreciate it, and recognize it.
How do you stay fashionable and fabulous at any age?
Oh gosh, with a team of people who help me! (Laughs.) I look at trends, but I’m not a slave to them. I like to spend some money, but I’m not going to go broke. I just try to be reasonable with it and I ask for advice. I stay with my head buried in a magazine. I travel, I try to be inspired by people. And I hang out with a lot of young people, you know? I just don’t date them. (Laughs.) I look at them for fashion advice.
You recently held a campaign event for President Obama.
I should just say, “Vote, make your voice heard.” But I have to be more specific, as there is so much on the line with this election, especially with young people. If you’re happy that Osama Bin Laden is dead, and the auto industry is alive — if you’ve ever needed a Pell grant, or have ever heard of one, or would like to know that they are going to continue to exist, you have to vote for Barack Obama.
If you want to keep your student loan interest rates down, you’ve got to vote for Barack Obama. If you’d like to make your own decisions about what happens in your vagina, you kind of have to vote for Barack Obama. If you believe in health care for everyone, and that it’s a right and not a privilege, and if you believe that 100 percent of Americans deserve equal protection under the law, including gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, you’ve got to vote for Barack Obama. Basically, if you don’t want to send our country backwards, you’ve got to vote for Barack Obama.
now in so many places. Show up. Understand that this election is about you. You will be affected. Your vote does count.
What’s your opinion on the Zoe Saldana casting as Nina Simone?
Wow, this was a while ago. I remember the big brouhaha. I’ve been a fan of Nina Simone, and I kind of look to her daughter for her opinion.
But I’ve also known Zoe for a long time. Zoe as an actress — she’s amazing. I understand that it’s important image-wise to physically capture what Nina Simone looked like really, because that so informs her story. Like when they cast Renee Zellweger as a slave in Cold Mountain– that was a stretch. It impacts the story, and it changes the story into something else. I can understand people being upset.
But we can have that conversation civilly and without destroying Zoe, who is a dope, fantastic Morena, who represents in such a huge way for darker-skinned Latinas, but I do understand the need for Nina Simone to be Nina Simone and not re-imagined.
As Hispanic Heritage month comes to a close this year, we would like to remind art admirers in the US that the celebration of Latin American art does not end in October. In fact, exhibits across the country from Los Angeles to New York City are paying tribute to Hispanic art and artists well into the new year. Mexican jazz music in New York, kinetic art in Houston and Latin American photography in Phoenix… there’s still much so see before the season ends.
So if you haven’t yet had a chance to check out some of the country’s recent homages to art in Latin America, check out the slideshow below for 10 of the best exhibits that are going on this fall. Let us know how you have celebrated Hispanic Heritage month in the comments section.
Nobody puts the Arts sector in a corner. That’s pretty much what the National Endowment of Arts said when they announced their partnership with the Bureau of Economic Analysis this week. According to a statement released by the NEA, the two agencies are teaming up to initiate the first-ever effort to measure the contribution of the creative sector to Gross Domestic Product, putting Arts on par with sectors like the manufacturing and construction industries.
The program will be called “Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account,” and will provide precise data on employment, wages and the overall contribution of the Arts to the American economy. It’s part of the NEA’s new research agenda, which emphasizes “impact analysis”; in other words, the affect of the arts on various sectors such as science, technology, education and the economy.
As a part of the ACPSA, the NEA has outlined plans to identify and measure the specific industries and commodities that spark creative engagement and bring cultural goods and services to the public. The expected data will shed light on the number of people employed by museums and theaters, the revenues of architectural firms, worker compensation in the music industry and the value of the book publishing industry, among other things.
In the past, the BEA has collected economic data for select arts domains such as performing arts, but the reports were sporadic and the estimates were generally broad, often combined with data for other sectors such as sports and recreation. But the new NEA-BEA partnership will now provide precise measurements for subgroups like dance, music, and theater.
The NEA has been on the receiving end of some jabs as a result of Mitt Romney’s intentions of slashing public arts funding. As Eric Morath at Nasdaq.com notes, the ACPSA’s new, more precise, data collecting strategy could prove influential as the government moves toward tightening federal spending.
The first NEA-BEA estimates will be available next year in BEA’s Survey of Current Business, with annual updates to follow. Let us know what you think of the new partnership in the comments section.
For the final chapter of his epic visual triumph, Brambilla finishes with the most technically complex work of the trio, dubbed “Creation (Megaplex).” The piece incorporates hundreds of clips from Hollywood and international films, folding them into the fabric of his ever-repeating narrative. In the slideshow alone we spotted cameos by Tom Cruise, Julie Andrews and Jim Carrey… and we probably missed about 100 more. The cinematic head rush starts at the big bang, continues through embryonic inception, idyllic paradise onto annihilation and back and the big bang once again, all within the form of a giant DNA double-helix. And remember, this is all coming to you in 3D.
Brambilla spoke to the Huffington Post Arts on his cultural lexicon in an earlier interview: “[The works] represent the collective consciousness of their era, a kind of pop version of subliminal film memory. I looked through a lot of foreign cinema for some of the more provocative imagery and everything, virtually every genre you can think of is pretty well represented.”
“Creation (Megaplex)” will show at Christopher Grimes Gallery in Los Angeles from November 3 until December 22, 2012. See stills from the work below and watch “Civilization” to get your mind blown.
Artist Howard Mallory seen in early 2010 with his outdoor, communal gallery "Freedom Train." Rich Hein~Sun-Times
BY MAUREEN O’DONNELL Staff Reporter modonnell@suntimes.com October 19, 2012 6:18PM
Back when “Power to the people” and “Right on” were part of a new lexicon that made the “squares” uncomfortable, the art of Howard Mallory communicated a sentiment he declared with absolute conviction: “I’m black, and I’m proud.”
Mr. Mallory, a longtime Gresham resident who died Oct. 12, exhibited his sculpture and ceramics with the influential Chicago-born artists’ collective known as AfriCOBRA, or the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists.
By “bad,” of course, they meant the opposite.
That Mr. Mallory did this while also holding down a job in shipping with International Harvester made him stand out, said David Lusenhop, owner of Lusenhop Fine Art in Detroit.
Even more remarkable, Mr. Mallory continued to create art after glaucoma rendered him legally blind, Lusenhop said.
“He would carry these six-feet-high big staffs he carved, these walking sticks, and, with his milky eyes, he looked like the ghost of an African king,” said Lusenhop.
Mr. Mallory died of prostate cancer while in hospice care at Holy Cross Hospital, according to his wife, Lessie Mallory. He was 82.
Lusenhop owns a stoneware piece by Mr. Mallory titled “We Must Go Home With Something to Build a Nation.”
“It reflects his belief African-Americans need to be able to support themselves,” Lusenhop said. “He talked about going to Africa. He said, ‘We must go home with scientists, educators, teachers.’ He believed in the empowerment of his community.”
Mr. Mallory went to Tilden Technical High School, then studied at the Illinois Institute of Technology and the School of the Art Institute, his wife said.
His parents, focused on security, “really wanted him to be an electrician, like his father,” she said.
But art “was a passion for him,” Lessie Mallory said. “He’d do it at night; in the evenings, when he’d come home from work.”
He painted in his coach house, and he built a backyard kiln to fire his ceramics.
The kiln “was huge; it was like an igloo,” said his daughter, Merchelle Reese.
Black pride and nationalism and the civil rights movement gave birth to the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s. AfriCOBRA began in 1968, when its members pledged to develop art that reflected the African-American diaspora and experience.
“The thing that attracted me to the group more than anything else was that they were dedicated to delivering a message to the African-American people that was positive,” Mr. Mallory told a reporter for a Chicago Sun-Times story in 2010.
In 1967, an early version of the group painted images of African-American leaders on a building at 43rd and Langley dubbed the “Wall of Respect.” Considered a forerunner of the public mural movement, it featured Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Charlie Parker, Sidney Poitier, Stokely Carmichael, Cicely Tyson, W.E.B Du Bois, Nina Simone, LeRoi Jones, Thelonious Monk, Gwendolyn Brooks, Wilt Chamberlain, Ornette Coleman and James Baldwin.
AfriCOBRA was “about producing work that reflected black folk; that reflected the beauty of black folk in a way that had not been recognized before but that still had a very strong message of uplift,” Tracy L. Vaughn, the 2009-2010 director of Northwestern University’s Center for the Study of African American History, said in a video about an AfriCOBRA exhibit she curated for the school.
“Howard did not go on to teach in higher education, like the majority of his colleagues in AfriCOBRA,” Lusenhop said. “He remained on the South Side of Chicago his entire life. He believed in the community and its future.”
Mr. Mallory exhibited his masks, pots and sculptures with AfriCOBRA in the early 1970s at the Studio Museum in Harlem, Howard University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
He sold his work at galleries and exhibited at art fairs, including the 55th Street Art Gallery, the South Side Community Art Center and the McKinley Park Library, his wife said. He did commissioned sculptures for the Cornerstone Presbyterian Church and the Emerald Avenue Presbyterian Church. He also taught ceramics to children at the Parkway Community Center.
Mr. Mallory loved what he called “real jazz,” the kind performed by Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Charlie Parker, according to his wife. He also liked to take his family camping all over the Midwest in his trusty red station wagon.
He is also survived by another daughter, Jarnette Dill; a son, Katara Mallory, and two grandsons. A memorial is planned for 11 a.m. Saturday at Seventh Presbyterian Church, 8623 S. Sangamon.
Sounding great and bursting with energy, Prince didn’t disappoint this week as he brought down the house with a performance of the classic “Dance Electric” on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
Wearing a metallic animal-print jacket and yellow pants, it was a rare late-night television appearance for His Purple Majesty who, at 54, looks pretty much the same as he always has, still sporting his trademark eclectic sense of fashion.
Prince also performed an ode to rock music called “Rock N Roll Love Affair” before closing out the show with “Dance Electric,” a track originally written for his former bassist André Cymone.
Check out the Minnesota native as he wows the audience, backed by a fantastic 10-piece band, in the video above.
Public graffiti and destructive doodling is one of the most costly art forms. Some people apparently think it is creative, and I can agree with that to one extent. However, there is a difference between art graffiti or these art illusions and just tagging away with an alco-pen leaving messages like “I Was Here” written in some elaborate spiral designed way. I have touched on this subject before here on Bit Rebels, and there isn’t much more to say about it other than it is destructive and costs a lot of people a lot of money. Well, as I said before, you can always use “Fat Tag” together with a projector to do your non-destructive tagging if you feel the urge to do it. These street and wall art illusions are a whole different thing though.
There are some street artists who use their creativity to do the same amount of graffiti art illusions without being destructive or costing anyone a lot of money, well, that is not more than the money they spend on chalk and spray paint. It’s always inspiring to see someone take street art to the next level, and this post is entirely dedicated to art illusions that do just that. This is all about the creativeness of people that actually want to show people their art, for free.
That’s right, not many things are cheap in the world anymore, and these inspiring art illusions come across as some of the better ones. The fact that an artist spends hundreds of dollars just to please the public, is to me, a sign that the world isn’t such a bad place after all. The most mind blowing part of it all is the quality. I can’t imagine the extent of talent and time it must have taken to put these pieces together. On top of that, they let people use these art illusions for props while they take photos, which is another huge creativity boost for me.
Some of these art illusions are so realistically created that it’s sometimes hard to see where reality starts and fiction ends. What we should all remember is that it’s all done with pure imagination and some color. The perspective is just mind boggling and the depth is beyond unbelievable.
Mind Blowing Street & Wall Art Illusions
Oh, and as a little bonus for you. Try to figure this one out…
Impromptu portrait taken in the back yard while bbq-ing. Plastic roll down background from good will, $5. Lighting is natural, and an emergency blanket spread out between to stakes as a reflector.
Vignette added in post. Devon Jade, the subject of the portrait, who shines from the inside out with beauty, is priceless…
