Merriam-Webster definition of "grunge": a type of loud rock music that was popular especially in the early 1990s; also : the fashions associated with this type of music,: heavy dirt
I love New York City and the grunge style equally. Both are synonymous with texture and have layers of it. New York in the sense of arts, culture and food a seemingly never ending supply, so much to see and do. Grunge, there are so many different textures (sometimes layers!) that can be found in objects large and small.
Never in my wildest dreams in my formative years (I'm not going to admit my age here for the world although I have a degree in interior design from eons ago) would I have imagined liking rust, patina, aged, scratched, dented, flaking, dust, flea bitten, the list goes on...everyone was always chasing the new, not realizing what we were giving up.
I'm a firm believer that good design has no age or one style. That is something design school gave me that no one can take away!
The idea of liking grunge it seems to be mostly the vintage type (not too old then it becomes antique, another style) goes along with the changes in fashion. Today with jeans being worn everywhere, when I was growing up girls were not allowed to wear pants at school, we wore dresses, skirts, blouses with white gloves and a hat on Sunday.
I remember the day in high school when the rules changed and females were allowed to wear pants. It seems as we have become more relaxed in our dress so has everything else, fashion and art, it's all related to one another. Who would have guessed what the future lay in store and what possibilities there was in dirt!
The image of the young man above is contemporary but it could be mistaken for fashion in the 60's. The model's hair is the same length and "mophead" style the Beatles made popular. Their hair was considered long, no males were wearing the shoulder length hair then. It is one of the first "signs" of grunge in my opinion, before this long hair on men was considered unkempt and meaning couldn't afford a hair cut.
Originally I wanted to photograph his pretty blond wife sitting on the motorcycle now I am more into shooting the motorcycle body more than the person! I may appear somewhat fickle...but I can just see all that wonderful chrome gleaming in the afternoon light coming through the garage door?! I understand now more what the fuss is all about...the curvy smooth metal, the glistening chrome...
It's exciting, grunge is a whole new art venue for me to photograph, manipulate and paint. One of my favorite furniture and food photography styles has been rustic, somehow by doing the New York images I have becoming more aware of the possibilities of grunge. It is a truth the more you do something the better you become.
One of the advantages of having an art gallery associated with other artists, I don't have to go off the site to see what others are doing and doing well. Pinterest is as I have mentioned before in one of my posts invaluable for inspiration as is Tumbler and other visual sites.
I have run into artists who don't look at other artists work for inspiration, they have become uninspired for long lengths of time, even to the point of giving up their art! I do know about discouragement but that shouldn't last long once you become inspired.
I am thankful for having so much art history behind us with every kind of art style available to view today and grunge fits right in, as they say "We've got it all!"
Suzanne Powers art gallery: http://fineartamerica.com
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