“stop and frisk”

Reform “stop and frisk” but don’t throw it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j73tRbkgijg

U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled this past Monday that the NYPD violated the civil rights of thousands of New Yorkers, mostly minorities, with its “stop and frisk” policy. Mayor Bloomberg countered the judge's decision at a press conference saying it is a tactic police use to search anyone regardless of whether a crime has been committed. The mayor went on to say that the policy has been instrumental in drivig down crime rates to record lows and that other courts have deemed it to be constitutional in keeping city streets safe. 

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/08/12/federal-judge-orders-nypd-stop-and-frisk-monitor/

Here's a quote from Bobby Kennedy when he was the U.S. attorney general back in 1964. 

''Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is equally true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on.''

Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968), U.S. attorney general, Democratic politician. The Pursuit of Justice, pt. 3, "Eradicating Free Enterprise in Organized Crime," (1964).

I think it's still relevant today. What do you think?

Feel free to post your comments.

On-Line Exhibition

http://www.artpromotivate.com/2013/04/artists-online-video-art-show.html

My piece titled ARCADE is featured in an on-line exhibition curated by Artpromotivate. This is especially exciting news because I was included with nine other artists in the first of a series of on-line exhibits. 

Print Exhibition

Odokuro

            

         The giant skeleton stands watch over the souls of the ones it has consumed by biting off their heads when they were alive. It is a demon created by gathering the bones of people who starved to death and with an incantation brought to life with one mission and that is to destroy the enemies of it's creator. People that are targeted by this giant hear a loud ringing bell sound. It's a story in Japanese folklore probably meant to scare young children who misbehave.

Any way this is the subject of my color print which I produced using the silk aquatint. 

         Silk aquatint is a technique that produces a more painterly look than other more traditional printmaking techniques. No there is no silk involved! A silk screen material is adherred to a plexiglass plate. The values are created by using acrylic paint mixed with a gel medium. This plate is then inked and printed just like any other plate would. You have the option of printing an edition or monoprint.

Odokuro © 2012 Rafael Ferran

My print is part of an exhibition titled SQUARE DEAL at the Manhattan Graphics Center. It is on now thru the summer 2013!

http://www.manhattangraphicscenter.org/

The Art Of The Watercolor

                                                    Still Life as Self Portrait


Load up that brush with lots of colors and use the white of the paper to bring

 luminosity to your objects! 

        

Almond Delight  © 2013 Rafael Ferran

I have been taking a workshop in Watercolor for the past year.I have been painting in this medium on my own since my high school days so it's not new to me. What is new is that I get to work with a professional artist with 40 years of experience with the medium behind her. That’s a lot of paintings! Plus I get to work with a group who like me are intermediate learners but are gifted enough to bring to the table their broad experiences and talents. 

Breakfast Treats © 2013 Rafael Ferran

We didn't paint from a live model but we did paint objects of our choosing and to me this was exciting because every one came with a different object; it was to reflect everyone's different personality and where our originality showed through

                                                                     

Still Life as Self Portrait © 2013 Rafael Ferran

It also helps to possess good drawing skills, a good knowledge of color so it can be employed for one’s self-expression, to use light effectively to add drama to the painting, placing your object at the right angle of interest and crop it so that both positive and negative space work harmoniously. These five elements helped me to paint these three works successfully.

Oh, I believe there is one more thing to do as part of the learning experience and that is to look at a master of the medium and see what that artist accomplished. I am referring to John Singer Sargent, whose watercolors are now on exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum through July 28.

There are ninety-three pieces on display and they prove what a genius he was. He literally rewrote the handbook for the Twentieth Century of how one should paint in watercolor.

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/sargent_watercolors/# 

https://www.artsy.net/artist/john-singer-sargent

It is a knockout of a show and I recommend it highly!

   

PRINTED ECHOES

AN EXHIBITION OF
PHOTOGRAPHS AND PRINTS 
FROM THE NATIONAL ACADEMY SCHOOL
5 East 89th Street
JANUARY 8 - FEBRUARY 2, 2013
SONIA GECHTOFF GALLERY

     

Column © 2012 Rafael Ferran

                                            
 My etching Column will be exhibited along side others and by the way it's a great looking show that was curated by the Academy's distinguished director 
  Maurizio Pellegrin. 






http://www.nationalacademy.org/art-school/student-faculty-exhibitions/

From Travel Pictures To Art, Part 2

   Venice has a mix of many styles of architecture, while the local color is influenced by the temperature of day and patina of the varied surfaces. People ask me what artist/artists inspired my pieces. I can say the Synthetic Cubism paintings by Picasso and Brague, the collages by Kurt Schwitters and the photo montages by David Hockney
                                         

   Tintoretto © 2012 Rafael Ferran

My photo Tintoretto was taken in the Sestiere di Canaregio on the northern end of Venice. The taller building in the center is the home and studio of that great Venetian painter. Today tourist can find lodging there. Also the Botega di Tintoretto, an art school is located on the street level. I collaborated with a master printer there, but that will be for another blog in the near future. I used the photo as the  reference for my piece Buildings.

Buildings © 2012 Rafael Ferran

Buildings is an abstraction derived from a restructuring of the three point perspective in the photograph.. The transfer of sky into separate blue areas works well with the fragmentation of the structure into distinct architectural details, e.g., windows, gutters, roof tops, interior rooms, doorway entrance, and street.  The materials utilized are photographs, store coupons and magazine reproductions. They were assembled and then enlarged with the Xerox copier. The image was transferred onto archival paper. Paint color was added for some details.