Arts
¨ I purchased a piece of art with the signature Poliat, can you tell me more?
¨ Why does Bob Olszewski use wax to sculpt his miniatures?
¨ When Bob Olszewski replicates fine details on miniatures, does he do that fine detail in the wax stage of development?
¨ How does one become an appreciator of art?
¨ The Droste Effect
¨ How can a color blind artist be sure of an accurate color
mix?
¨ What are the ancient Fine Arts?
¨ Valdivian Morteros in feline shapes
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QUESTION:
I recently purchased artwork where colored felt was cut and pasted together in a stylized shape of a flower or plant. The signature reads Poliat, and I wanted to find out a bit more about the artist. Are you the artist of this piece?
ANSWER from Michelle Mock on 16 June 2007:
We sent your question to Frank Poliat. He tells me that the piece you have is the work of his parents. It was a commercial venture around the late 60s early 70s. As he mentioned in his Imagiverse.ORG interview, both his parents are artists. The timing of your question was rather good. He is in the process of setting up a website of his parents' artwork. It should be launching a few weeks! Thank you for a great question! We are very happy you contacted us.
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QUESTION:
Why does Bob Olszewski use wax to sculpt his miniatures?
ANSWER from Ray Olszewski on 20 May 2007:
Using wax by artists reaches back to 2000 B.C. which archaeological evidence was found. The Lost Wax process produces very precise, detailed castings. Bob has said before that wax allows him to additive or subtractive as opposed to other materials like wood, for example. You can't add to it unless you glue it or if you take away too much, you've ruined the design. Same with marble, etc. Wax also allows for reproductions from a single mold made from the wax original.
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QUESTION:
When Bob Olszewski replicates the finely detailed wrought iron work on pieces such as the Disneyland Haunted Mansion miniature, does he do that fine detail in the wax stage of development?
ANSWER from Robert Olszewski on 14 May 2007:
This is a great question and thank you for asking. The initial design is layed out in paper four times the size of the actual miniature produced. The wrought iron work on the Haunted Mansion sculpture is first a graphic that is four times its actual size on the piece itself. That graphic is reduced to the size we want it to be and it is then cut with a laser in brass. That part of the piece, by the way, is the most expensive component of the Haunted Mansion and is too fine to be cut in wax.
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QUESTION:
How does one become an appreciator of art? For instance, the curators or experts who analyze antiques from all centuries and give them a price? What education does one pursue?
ANSWER from Imagiverse on 25 November 2006:
The answer can be found in Michael Dunev's interview. Have a look at it here: http://imagiverse.org/interviews/michaeldunev/michael_dunev_06_06_04.htm
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QUESTION:
I've been trying to find an answer to this for a while and nobody has been able
to answer it for me. What is it called when you have a picture of the
actual picture in question in the picture itself and goes on infinitely. An
example of this would be when you point a video camera at directly at the
TV so there is a TV in a TV in a TV on your television. Thanks anyway
if you don't know the answer I was just wondering because I can't find an
answer anywhere.
ANSWER from Ansun Yan
on 8 June 2006:
The effect is called the Droste Effect. It's a Dutch term because Droste,
a Dutch hot chocolate company, was the first to use it. There's apparently
a joint project by the Universiteit Leiden and the University of California
at Berkeley to link the Droste Effect with the works of the mathematically
inspired Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher (1898 - 1972).
Escher's known for creating impossible
objects and images of infinity. If you want more info, head
on over to the link to the project at http://escherdroste.math.leidenuniv.nl/
Whew! You almost had me, there!
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QUESTION:
I am an artist like Frank Poliat and I too have red/green color blindness. I
always worry about mixing certain colors like purples, tan, greens and pinks
when I paint. How can I be sure of an accurate color mix in my work?
ANSWER from Frank Poliat
on 19 February 2006:
The only way I know is to label your palette carefully (maybe with a Dymo labeler)...
then if you know your base colors and then you mix several to make a "new
color" you can know what that color is by its parent colors.
I admire your courage in dealing with
the problem head on.
Now here's my philosophy after dealing
with this issue head-on for so long myself :): Go with the
colors that you see that overlap with the colors that "normal" people
see. That's just my opinion..... Also, spend time just
considering the options in terms of artistic media where you and "normal" sighted
people overlap, in black and white graphics, sculpture and photography
and multimedia. When you're color blind many secondary factors
occur, for example, we may not only see different colors differently,
ie. brown can look green, pink can look grey etc., but even colors
that we CAN see, we may not see if they are small and far away...
i.e., we may be able to see red cherries in a cherry tree, but from
50 yards... we don't.
Anyhow, this is not anything I've talked
about much to people, even though being color blind has profoundly
affected, my life, outlook and life-choices.
Be well, and I look forward to seeing
some of your creations.
Frank
[Note from Imagiverse: One more thought
on this subject... (from someone who is neither an artist nor colorblind)...
artists seem to have a natural feeling for what is right in their
work. Continue painting from the heart. Paint what YOU
see and even if the rest of us see it differently it doesn't really
matter. Your colorblindness could actually be your artistic
signature. You can't critique a painting based on what the
rest of us see but you are the artist! Believe in your work. The
rest of us, who do not have your talent, envy you!]
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QUESTION:
What are the ancient Fine Arts?
ANSWER from Michael Dunev on 5 October
2005:
Hi, thank you for the question. The notion of Fine Arts (Beaux
Arts) is a relatively new one, beginning, I would guess with the
French around the period of the Enlightenment. One can suppose
that the ancient Greeks also had a notion of the Fine Arts, but perhaps
we are giving a modern spin to an ancient people. Many of the ancient
works of art are only interpreted as such by us moderns; their creators
had different purposes in mind, mostly ceremonial in nature.
It occurs to me that the Classical view
on the Fine Arts, were those endorsed by the Greek muses: poetry,
drama, dance and music.
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QUESTION:
I wonder if you ever come across Valdivian Morteros in feline shapes as I saw
recently in Quito at the Casa del Arte.
ANSWER from Michael Dunev
on 11 February 2005:
I don't know of any Valdivia morteros but there are lots in Mexico and Central
America in Jaguar motif from Nicaragua. They're rarely as finely sculpted
though.
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