Tag: erika bell

A Little Nostalgia

Erika Bell Leave a comment

With a new year beginning, feelings of nostalgia are bound to arise in place of past events, people, and art. As the years go by we are graced with new and upcoming artists and artwork that brings about change within how we view certain aspects of life and ourselves. With the start of a new year, it becomes a question of what will be created or discovered this year, that will completely trump anything we’ve ever seen before? What will challenge our views or enlighten our minds? Yet, there will always be a deep appreciation for what art has done to get us where we are today.

Take these photo sets for example:

School Break (Detroit)

Photo Credit: BoredPanda.com

A New York Minute

batmanpride.tumblr.comMacauley Culkin in Home Alone 2: Lost in New YorkTom Hanks and Meg Ryan in You've Got MailPatrick Swayze and Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost

Photo Credit: PandaWhale.com

I loved these photographs because they elicit feelings of nostalgia for the past and greater times, especially when it comes the time for new beginnings. What I also loved was the artistic quality of them and coupling two eras of moments that are completely different from each other.

In art there should always be reverence for artistic history, and what got us to where we are today, but let’s also keep our minds open to whatever creativity can bring us in the future.

Psychedelic Boat Ride

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I’m a media buff if you haven’t noticed by now. I find art to be most interesting in the way it has developed with technology and is presented to the masses. In the 70’s original version of the highly-acclaimed Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, there are many elements of artistic innovation that have never been done before. The candy room, the orange oompa-loompa’s that belted out impromptu jams at the drop of a chocolate bar, and the most intriguing scene to me—the boat scene.

The psychedelic boat trip captures all I ever expected the 70’s to be plus an ontological approach to questioning life. I love that this was a kid’s movie. The boat trip uses a creepy Dr. Suess adapted tune, the flashing of bright lights in a dark tunnel, the indistinguishable images of monsters, and the complete fear of the passengers, to create an artistic message that what we fear is always with us. However, we choose to live in this blind oblivion with candy and the beautiful aspects of life to avoid our fears.

I find the art in the scene to be the true grit of what is visually happening, and what Willy Wonka is saying. He’s not sugar-coating his words, no pun intended. The insertion of the Psychedelic boat scene in the midst of all of the happy and carefree feelings that the movie permits, makes the scene even more noticeable and questionable.

I’m not quite sure what the scene exactly is saying through the visually graphic and trippy images, and I don’t think anyone will ever know unless they ask the writers of the film themselves. My little interpretation of the scene is that it utilizes art as a means to evoke fear and change within people, but we all know from the story only one child truly captures that change.

Here’s the scene in all its glory:

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory: Psychedelic Boat Trip

Classic vs. Modern: Fairy Tales

Erika Bell 4 Comments

I know my fair share of fairy tale stories thanks to Disney and the countless classics that grace my shelf at home. Cinderella meets her prince charming and lives happily ever after, or Snow White battles the evil queen with her seven dwarfs, ultimately falling in love and living happily ever after. Fairy tales have been around even before Disney took the world by storm with animation and musical classics. Like many folklore origins, fairy tales have been passed down through oral diffusion and reworked to appeal to certain audiences.

The classics that we know so well, Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Little Mermaid, have created a belief in society that what happens in these stories, a beautiful girl going through turmoil and eventually finding love and happiness, is something that we all hope to be true in our lives. The classic films gave a hope for those who wanted something special to believe in, yet they also gave a falsification of reality that modern adaptations have felt compelled to expose.

Once Upon a Time, Shrek, Snow White and the Huntsman, all have reconstructed fairy tales and made the stories we’ve all held dear into modernist takes.

Once Upon a Time follows the story lines of almost every fairy tale character from the classics, and how they are connected to the curse that has fallen upon the main characters. The television show’s take on classic fairy tale stories is inventive and dramatic. The story may twist what exactly happened to each character, but it does so in hopes of finding a greater happiness for all characters.

Movies like Shrek and Snow White and the Huntsman can be considered nods to the classic stories as well. By reinventing the main characters and creating new ones, the stories give the genre something more than just magic and good to believe in. The movies give the fictional characters power, physically and mentally, that helps them fight the evil that will inevitably cross their paths.

These fairy tale adaptations have brought the power that the modern-age has developed when it comes to cinema. No longer is the sweet and innocent story line what captures audiences’ attentions, it has become about the mystery, the intrigue, and the idea of complete failure in order to reach that happily ever after. These adaptations don’t solely rule out the happy ending, but the turmoil that the fictional characters go through is more complex and more hard to overcome.

When you compare the classic tales of magic to the modernist tales of vengeance, you can see the difference decades have made on the idea of the good vs. evil. Movies and television are not wrong in giving such well loved stories new ideas and depth, but there is a clear understanding in what has changed about the beloved fairy tale story. Time. Times have changed and so have the ideologies of what makes a fictional story believable.

Trend-Setters or Trend-Stoppers?

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I love high fashion. Ever since I was a pre-teen my obsession with foreign designers and unique style icons emerged, and I can’t seem to shake it. With high fashion comes trends that are transferred from the runway to the people around us (studs, color-blocking, ombre, etc.). Trends are great, they keep the youth of this generation flowing with creative ideas like decades of the past (70’s hippie, the 80’s, 90’s grunge, etc.). However, with the waves of trends and styles that drift in and out of our generation, I feel that we may never reach the heights that the 70’s or 80’s have reached.

The 80’s was a decade in fashion known for vibrant contrasting colors, excessive makeup, wild hair, and leggings (ah, where they were born). Since the beginning of the 21st Century, the trends that runways have produced and brought to the masses have yet to create a long-lasting stamp on the people of this time. We do have waves of trends that stay with us for a few months, but then something new sweeps the scene  and the trends that we’ve loved so much are forgotten and regretted.

Photo Credit: ohmydior.org

I suppose that’s a part of fashion, but I fear that there will never be such an iconic time again where a trend makes a mark on the world for a decade or more, and we all embrace expression through style.

We do have the hipster” trend that has kept its standing for a good year (oversize shirts, leggings/skinny jeans, loafers, glasses that you don’t need, etc.), but I’m not sure if it’s strong enough to make a statement for those who will look on this time in the future and think of style and its evolution.

Photo Credit: sexysocialmedia.com

Oh Hey I Live There…

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One of the many benefits of being a wolverine is the luxury of wandering into The UGLI to grab some movies that I probably don’t need to be wasting time watching, but I do anyway. Recently I ended up grabbing 30 Minutes Or Less, a movie set in my hometown of Grand Rapids, MI. It came out awhile ago, and I was aware that it was filmed in my hometown, I just never got around to watching it. After watching the movie, which was hilarious might I add and I highly recommend to anyone who likes Aziz Ansari, car chases, and craziness, I completely saw my hometown in a different light.

I left Grand Rapids with vigor and hope for the bigger and the better, but after seeing it with explosions I began to see the beauty of the place I left behind, and I’m still not completely sure if it’s because of the explosions or… Anyway, Grand Rapids became this Hollywood set in my eyes. The cinematic look of its downtown, usually scattered with people and bad drivers, became this place with artistic backdrops and beautifully ancient brick buildings, liveliness, and vibrancy.

I don’t know if it’s what they call homesickness, whatever that is, but I like to think that it’s my mind’s recreation of a place that I began to lose excitement for. A local bar became a strip club, the Family Dollar that I’ve graced countless times became a stakeout scene, a gas station next to my old house became a scene where a decision to rob a bank was made, which all added this feeling of excitement for sure, but also this intriguing construction and dimension that I’ve never held Grand Rapids to have.

Sometimes we see the Hollywood lights or the hustle and bustle of New York City as these creative and thriving locations, but we don’t see the beauty and the aspects of interest within the places we live. It took me eighteen years to see Grand Rapids in a new light, but I can confidently say that I’m from the west side…of Michigan that is.

And if you would like to see the beautiful city of GR from your own humble abode, along with some hilarious moments, check out the trailer for 30 Minutes Or Less!

Arts Ink Newbie

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Do you see that? Right there in the distance? It’s long, creative, and full of potential. Oh you give up? It’s a new school year packed with art, culture, and writing here at the University of Michigan! I know, I’m boiling with excitement too!
Let me introduce myself. I’m Erika, a freshman here, and an aspiring writer with a passion for fashion and art culture. I came to U of M looking for an education where I could enhance my writing abilities and discover where I want to go with it. I’m undecided for now, but I know that my appreciation and love for fashion and writing will always drive where ever I want my career to end up.
Now let me be honest, I’m not an artistic genius, nor am I in the music or theater school with a masterful ear and eye for greatness. I’m simply a girl in love with our artistic world. I swoon over masterful pieces and bob my head when I hear greatness. I want to be that person who is able to communicate all that Ann Arbor, and the world has to offer in terms of art, but let’s be honest, i’m just a newbie. I’m going to be learning about this wonderful environment and falling more and more in love with it just like you will. I intend on growing as a writer and as a person that appreciates this artistic world we live in. So please, don’t hold my made up terminology and my “ooh so pretty” against me.
So let me guide you into the realm that most intrigues me, and what you will probably see me writing about week after week. I love Tumblr. I know, one of a billion, but seriously my most inspirational moments come from learning from other people about what they find beautiful in the artistic world. I love Ann Arbor. It’s beauty and its uniqueness is something so different to the state of Michigan, and I feel so inspired by the culture and diversity that I see here everyday. And finally, probably the majority of my posts will come from my randomness. One day I could be all about Italian culture, and the next I could be ranting on about the world’s need to purchase the remake of Carrie.
I’m an intense believer that the art that we create, and the various cultures that surround us are representations of our lives. I feel like we must embrace the beauty that we are surrounded by in order to really be satisfied.
I hope that my perspective on the Arts Ink blog gives you insight into your own journey to creativity because I’m on my own as well. We can grow together! But seriously, finding the fun in art, music, fashion, and culture is the most important lesson I want to be learned here. We all have our different interests and niches, but the enjoyment that comes from simply being more in touch with our creativity can only bring out the best in ourselves.