Off-Topic / Arts and crafts [149]


Here's a long, thorough article explaining this phenomenon in detail:

myartbroker.com/investing/articles/why-do-billionaires-invest-in-art

Here's an important fragment, I think:

"To maximise the value of their art collections, billionaires employ various strategies and tactics, such as buying artworks by emerging artists, leveraging their influence to create demand for certain artists, and investing in art-related businesses.

One such tactic is to buy works by emerging artists with potential for growth in value. For example, billionaire hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen invested in emerging artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Jeff Koons, whose works have seen significant appreciation over time. Cohen was revealed to be the mystery buyer of Koons Rabbit selling for over half a billion dollars."

Off-Topic / Arts and crafts [149]


Me neither, but I can think of at least three basic reasons for this:

1. He took part in creating new art style/movement - the New York school of abstract expressionism. Once you create something new that hasn't been done before in art (at least by adult painters lol) you automatically get a place in the pantheon of "great artists" and you're put in the history of art textbooks. That's enough for your art to be "important" and thus - expensive*, no matter how fugly and stupid it is ;)

2. He's dead. Once the artist dies his works go up in value.

3. *And if your art is important enough to be expensive then it means it's going to be valued by collectors. From what I've managed to gather rich people often treat art as investment. Art usually goes up in value with time, so that's a good long-term investment. You don't have to like the art you're buying - what's important is that you know you will sell it with profit later on.


For me personally it doesn't depend on the colour of walls, but on the interior design overall. You can make an interior with white walls look clinical or simply "cold" and empty, or warm and cozy.

Btw, I associate the green colour with hospitals, because that's often the colour of walls in Polish hospitals and schools... It's usually the bottom half of the walls painted green and the other half with lighter colour... I hate it...


Oh, I understand it perfectly, trust me ;D When we moved to another place my parents took that dark, patterned carpet with us and they still have it in the living room after all those years ;/ It's so big it covers the whole floor in the room and even though my mother has asthma she didn't want to get rid of it, because "carpets are expensive"... *sigh* Go figure... 🤷


Please, tell me more :D (I'm interested in interior design and so I like to know what people do with their places :))

Off-Topic / Arts and crafts [149]


I don't see anything unique in this style. As AntV wrote - it looks like something scribbled by a two-year-old...


Pretty much any art invites that. Or rather - you can invent any meaning you wish behind any piece of art, no matter how nonsensical and wild...


No more than scribbles of a two-year-old... Actually, scribbles of a two-year-old invoke more emotion in me - at least I think that it's cute, but in case of an adult painter it's just "Meh..."

I'm not writing this to be mean - it's just how I feel about such art. My little niece draws better than this Twombly guy lol There's just nothing special about his art, besides looking like kid's drawings - I don't know, maybe it was a novelty during his times or something... There's nothing clever about his art, it doesn't make me think or feel anything. It's just scribbles. Uninteresting scribbles. Unclever scribbles. Meaningless scribbles. There is abstract art that clearly couldn't be made by a kid - I appreciate and respect such art more than the Twombly type stuff.

Love / How to make a Polish guy happy? (we're moving to Mexico) [51]

@Poloniusz, did you read it???:

Love / How to make a Polish guy happy? (we're moving to Mexico) [51]


Me and my fellow female students weren't "propped up" by government and any private programs, so I have no idea what you're talking about.

I am not aware of any "affirmative action programs" in Polish education, so, again - no idea what you're talking about.


Yes, yes, and yes!


Of course they add value! Look at all the backward countries on this planet. What they usually have in common? Bad situation concerning the education and emancipation of women.

Love / How to make a Polish guy happy? (we're moving to Mexico) [51]


Exactly!


Not if they could help it (get away with paying them less) lol From what I understand women are less likely to ask for raises, for example.


Dude, you were the one who linked to that article! :D 🤦


You mean like that girl from my uni? Maybe yes, maybe no, we don't know. The fact is that in case of that girl from my university it was the guy who had a problem with her going to work. So the guy's insecurity was the problem, not her.

Love / How to make a Polish guy happy? (we're moving to Mexico) [51]


Well, no wonder, considering that the pay gap still
exists in Poland (even if it's smaller than in many other countries).


A quote from that article:

"While Rickne's research did not measure which party initiated divorce in each case, one theory is that the husbands of top managers who got promoted found the situation harder to deal with than wives who were married to high-performing men."

I have some real life examples, btw. After I graduated from university I was still hanging out with girls from my year. One of them dated a firefighter. He had a problem with the fact that she earned more money than him. He also didn't like the fact that she was meeting with us. Another girl from my year married a longterm boyfriend after graduating from uni. I don't know what was his current job, but I remember that earlier he was a lifeguard. So I'm guessing he wasn't earning much. And yet, suddenly after they married he told her that he doesn't want her to work and go out with us. They couldn't come to an agreement over this and she divorced him 4 months after their wedding. Now she's with a guy from our year from uni, they have two sons and they seem to be happy and great parents :) She says he's the best dad she could dream of for her kids :)

Also, read this:

The End of Hypergamy: Global Trends and Implications:

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5421994/


Oh, trust me, we're not - I don't think anyone would want to be in your head :)))) And considering that more women graduate from universities than men - I think we're managing with our number of neurons just fine, thank you very much :D 😂

Off-Topic / Arts and crafts [149]

@Alien, you're both good people then - I salute you! :D 👍

Travel / Poland in photo riddles - part 3 [818]

@GefreiterKania, the chips were pretty good, maybe not as good as potato chips, but more refreshing :) An interesting flavour. As for the soup - I had only time for tasting one spoon, and it seemed nice although a bit bland for my taste. My mother said that it's very light. My father refused to eat it lol

And, yes, it's healthy - topinambur has a lot of inulin, for example, which is good for people with type 2 diabetes and high LDL ("bad" cholesterol) :) So it could be a healthy alternative for potatos. 🤔

Travel / Poland in photo riddles - part 3 [818]

@GefreiterKania, yes, correct! Wow, that was fast! :D

It grows at my grandma's in the countryside and when my parents went there last weekend my mother made fried chips from it and later on also a cream soup with coconut milk:

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Travel / Poland in photo riddles - part 3 [818]

@GefreiterKania, nope, it's a vegetable! :)

Travel / Poland in photo riddles - part 3 [818]

@Lenka, nope, but my father said that it does taste a bit like parsley :) 🤔

Travel / Poland in photo riddles - part 3 [818]

@Lenka, those are fried chips indeed, but not made from potatos :)

Travel / Poland in photo riddles - part 3 [818]

What do you think is this?:

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Off-Topic / Arts and crafts [149]

@Feniks, what type of interiors do you like, btw?


Something of this kind, for example:

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Off-Topic / Arts and crafts [149]


Me too.


It's pretty much the same for me, although as I wrote earlier I do think some abstract art do fit certain interiors. I myself wouldn't mind some pretty abstract art on my walls - purely for decorative purposes though :)


That could be the case, but not necessarily - many people simply like painting colourful, cheerful stuff :)


I wouldn't know, since we don't have Ikea in Kielce ;) Until not long ago you couldn't even order anything online from Ikea to our city - I guess we were too far away from civilisation ;D They finally opened up some storehouse in the vicinity of Kielce and you can order their stuff on the internet and pick it up over there.

Off-Topic / Arts and crafts [149]


Me too! :D I like gold on stuff and even in paintings and drawings, so I try to add some golden accents here and there to those neutral colours that I like in interiors in order to liven them up a little, like a white mug with golden spots, etc.


I actually like those, they look pretty (especially if they're golden :)).


That's pretty cool and clever + decorative - I can easily see it hanging on a wall in a minimalist (but not only) flat/house :)

Off-Topic / Arts and crafts [149]


I like the sound of the first part (big white walls, high ceilings), but let's not go too far with that lack of paintings ;) I like paintings, drawings, posters, etc. on the walls and an occasional shelf here and there - just in moderation :)


That's amazing! :D If I were to visit you, you'd have me staring at your walls ;D Btw, who's buying them? You or your wife? :)


For me too - I paint/draw slowly (unless I'm pressed with time, but then I'm usually not entirely happy with the result). I didn't realise how big her paintings are until I saw that photo! I wonder how long does it take her to paint one, especially considering how detailed they are.


I see you, me and jon357 have been traumatised by the decor of our childhood homes ;D

Love / How to make a Polish guy happy? (we're moving to Mexico) [51]


Nope, that's just real life :)

Life / Treatment for Ulcerative Colitis in Poland [5]


According to a documentary I've seen scientific research has shown that eating a lot of meat leads to greater risk of cancer. That's because eating meat stimulates growth hormone and if you eat a lot of meat the cells in your body grow too fast and don't develop properly or something like that (as far as I remember).

Love / How to make a Polish guy happy? (we're moving to Mexico) [51]

@GefreiterKania, thanks to those "sins" you're happily married now :)


I may be wrong, but based on what Kania wrote about his wife, I'm thinking that she may be more reasonable than him ;)


Oh, I couldn't agree more :)

Love / How to make a Polish guy happy? (we're moving to Mexico) [51]


Oh, so you and your wife had the opportunity to get to know each other both personality-wise, character-wise and sexually and thus you found out that you're a match. But you deny this opportunity to other people as "indecent"? How hypocritical of you!

Love / How to make a Polish guy happy? (we're moving to Mexico) [51]

@Poloniusz, I don't know what it's like in that hell-hole where you're apparently living lol, but in Poland in majority of relationships both woman and man have jobs and so both are "supporting their lifestyle" lol Actually, I remember reading an article some years ago where it was stated that people often move in together or even get married in Poland, because life is more affordable then - they can split the bills. So both man and woman are benefiting from the situation.


Men created this world for themselves - in which hypergamy was prevalent. And it was prevalent because men denied women education and jobs and so women had to find a man who would support them. This trend is reversing nowadays and the funny thing is that the misogynistic right-wingers like you are hating it lol So on one hand men like you complain how "opportunistic" women are and at the same time they're longing for the times when women had no other choice but to marry in order to survive and they had to stay married even if the husband was bad.


That is obviously a lie - it's your made up fantasy not backed up by any research or statistics :)

Off-Topic / Arts and crafts [149]

@jon357, I personally can't have colourful art on my walls (even though I like colourful art), because I rest best in neutral, light-coloured spaces. I also don't like living in a space with too much clutter, especially on walls (although I like visiting such places lol). I'm guessing it's due to the fact that I grew up in a one-room flat with pretty dark furniture, dark carpets and a big, reddish corner sofa.

Btw, jon357, do you have any souvenirs from your travels, from places where you went to for work? You know, like handmade stuff, for decoration, something like that?


The thing is that it wasn't self-published, it was published by an actual publishing house and that's why I was so surprised by the low quality... The images weren't downloaded from the internet either, since the illustrations fitted the text and were clearly drawn by the same person. It's just they were really bad...
Maybe that wasn't a big publishing house (I don't remember which one was it), but there a lot of beginner artists who are just starting out and would be ready to make better illustrations for peanuts or even for free just to have something published, so it was hard for me to understand why they went for such low quality...


Me too... I didn't have my own room, so my desk was in the kitchen with a wall on the left and an old, noisy fridge on the right - there was no space for any cozy corner ;/


I've noticed many artists and craftspeople are - or, at least, of the Ikea's storage options (they use those mainly for storing art and craft materials) :)


And she has Ikea's pegboard over her desk too :) It seems to be very popular among artists and craftspeople and I was wondering whether not to get it at some point too since it's easily customizable, comes in different sizes and it saves desk space:

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Off-Topic / Arts and crafts [149]

@AntV, btw, could you post some of the paintings by Peter Doig that you like and explain why you like them? I'm honestly curious why some people like this kind of art. 🤔


So maybe I'll try to explain... Firstly, you have to have that "calling" for making art to become an illustrator in the first place. Because in order to reach that level at which you're good enough to be an illustrator you have to learn and practice a lot. And you won't learn and practice enough without that drive to make art. You'll just choose another profession. And then in order to be a successful illustrator you have to love what you're doing. It's not only about illustrators - the same apply to anyone working in any creative field, imho... You have to have a passion for what you're doing. That's why artists fear being replaced by AI so much, because they can't just get another job... Because making art isn't "just another job" for them, it's usually their life's passion, their dream job, part of who they are... Of course, just like with every profession you can experience a burnout, but it doesn't mean that this "calling" wasn't there and isn't there.

For example, here Kate Pellerin explaines when and why she decided to become an illustrator:

mossery.co/en-ca/blogs/inspiration/artist-collaboration-an-interview-with-kate-poopikat

"I went to art school thinking I'd go into character design and work for game companies such as Blizzard. It wasn't until my second semester at Seneca College when one of my professors told me my work didn't communicate anything.

He happened to be a children's book illustrator and he basically opened my eyes to this whole new world. Since then, I've strived to make my illustrations more narrative-like, and begun to pursue a career in picture book illustrations."

Off-Topic / Arts and crafts [149]


Yes, he is and I forgot to add that I really like how he paints people - he's great at it.

Off-Topic / Arts and crafts [149]

And the author :):

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Off-Topic / Arts and crafts [149]

And those are her digital illustrations:

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Off-Topic / Arts and crafts [149]


I forgot to add two important reasons - because she enjoys it and to make people like me happy :)))


Me neither, but I would like to see his paintings in real life :)


Oh, Lenka, I'm afraid you have no idea what you're talking about :))))


I don't remember exactly, it was quite some time ago, but probably yes... That wasn't the problem though - a skilled and experienced digital artist can make lovely illustrations for children's books, even resembling traditional art. The problem was the skill level...

For example, there's a children's book illustrator based in Canada, Kate Pellerin, who creates both traditionally and digitally (in Procreate).

Here are some of her works done traditionally:

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Off-Topic / Arts and crafts [149]


Then why did you write that you "would classify Annie Stegg more as an illustrator" as if an illustrator wasn't an artist?


Not really, it depends what you're illustrating and what kind of illustrations the client expects :) (and it depends what you consider to be "solid technique" vs "weak technique"). Also, I've seen some really bad, very low quality illustrations in e-books for kids... The author/publishing house must've been really stingy or with zero taste lol


As for style - that's rather rare, from my observation... Often authors pick an illustrator precisely because they like their particular art style and they'd like that style for their book.


I disagree... It doesn't matter much if there's a material to base on or not. The artistic creative process is the same. Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were basically "illustrating" the Bible :))) Does that mean they weren't artists?

Also, you and Atch seem to forget that besides the paid work illustrators usually create their own art too :)))