Centennial Celebration 2: Paramount Pictures

Posted on May 8, 2012 by marinachetner

Joe Gillis: You’re Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big.

Norma Desmond: I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.

~Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Director, Billy Wilder, on the set of Sunset Boulevard (1950). This 1920s house was located on Wilshire Boulevard.

Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) and Joe Gillis (William Holden) star in Sunset Boulevard

A scene from Sunset Boulevard

If you haven’t seen Sunset Boulevard, the Academy -ward winning film noir starring William Holden and Gloria Swanson, then I highly recommend it. You will not only watch a compelling story about love, fame, age, and fortune, but also catch excellent performances by Hollywood’s best actors, enjoy a 1950s Los Angeles, and glimpse the Paramount Pictures backlot, where a few scenes were filmed.

In this scene, Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) arrives at the Paramount studio backlot

“Sunset Boulevard” Cecil B.DeMille and Gloria Swanson behind the scenes 1950 Paramount

This year, in 2012, Paramount Pictures celebrates its 100th anniversary.

Founded on 8th May, 1912, it is the only remaining major Hollywood studio and has consistently produced top-grossing hits, including:

Raiders of the Lost Ark, Chinatown, Sabrina, To Catch a Thief, The Ten Commandments, The Godfather, Saturday Night Fever, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, MacGyver, Crocodile Dundee, Family Ties, She’s Having a Baby, Days of Thunder, Mission Impossible… and more.

“Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”: Tom Cruise hanging from the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, 1700 feet above the ground.

Paramount Pictures Headquarters are located at 5555 Melrose Avenue and has an excellent backlot tour, The Paramount Pictures Studio Tour, which runs daily.

Paramount Studios ~ Photo Marina Chetner

Did you know? Studio 13 doesn’t exist because of a long standing superstitious belief.

In celebration, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Film Independent are screening “two stylish crime classics starring Michael Caine: The Italian Job and the steely Cold War thriller Funeral in Berlin” on May 17.

LACMA’s Urban Lights exhibit ~ Photo Marina Chetner

You may find this interesting…

To celebrate the company’s 100th anniversary, a new logo was created by Devastudios, Inc. The studio’s first logo, a rugged, snow-covered peak from the Wasatch mountain range, was created in 1916. The new logo includes a surrounding mountain range and shining sun in the background.

Paramount will use the logo throughout its centennial year in 2012. In 2013, just the wording about the 100^th anniversary will be removed.

The first film to introduce the 100th anniversary logo was Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.

(Sources: Collider and Wikipedia)

Everyday Art Inspiration and a Token of Thanks To…

Posted on January 12, 2012 by marinachetner

Street art has been documented in my blog a few times – from An Epic Faile to Williamsburg Bridge: Art on Art to 5 Pointz to The Logo as Street Art… and more finds (Williamsburg, BK).

It inspired me every day on my strolls around Williamsburg and Manhattan. I like the temporary nature of the works; the ever-changing nature of the art form keeps my eyes open to anything that may have been pasted up, stenciled, tagged, or painted, overnight.

I would also like to thank two fellow bloggers – authors of the blogs: The big picture view for Tisha and massachusetts is wicked awesome – who have nominated me for the Versatile, and Kreative Blogger Awards, respectively. I am honoured that my blog has been recognised; it is really heartening to read inspiring comments about the content I post. Tisha and Mel: Everyday Art Inspiration – street art coupled with life quotes – is in dedication to you both. I really appreciate the support from you both and look forward to reading more of yours.

I hope you enjoy the artworks found around and out, in Williamsburg and Manhattan!

“You must take an obsessive pride in the smallest details of your craft.” ~ William Zinsser

“How much I missed, simply because I was afraid of missing it.” ~ Paulo Coelho

“Where there is love there is life.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

“The most important thing is to enjoy your life—to be happy—it’s all that matters.” ~ Audrey Hepburn

“Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously.” ~ Hunter S. Thompson

“Living is easy with eyes closed.” ~ John Lennon

“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.” ~ Oscar Wilde

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much” ~ Helen Keller

“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.” ~ Michel Legrand

“Every artist was first an amateur.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” ~ Albert Einstein

“To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.” ~ Yann Martel, Life of Pi

“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” ~ Yogi Berra

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” ~ Anaïs Nin

“80% of success is showing up.” ~ Woody Allen

“You live but once; you might as well be amusing.” ~ Coco Chanel

“Everything you can imagine is real.” ~ Pablo Picasso

“But how could you live and have no story to tell?” ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds.” ~ Gilbert J. Chesterson

“The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.” ~ E.E. Cummings

“If you can’t change your fate, change your attitude.” ~ Amy Tan

An Epic Faile: Manhattan’s Best Street Art

Posted on January 3, 2012 by marinachetner

Yesterday I set out to see the graffiti wall on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Located on the corner of East Houston Street and Bowery, it displays work by well-known street artists. I’d been so captivated by the recent work from afar that I had to see it up close.

The Wall Mural, from across the street

Owned by Tony Goldman, real estate investor, the Houston/Bowery Mural Wall has commissioned public art works for a number of years. Artwork after artwork has been displayed here; it’s a living creative kaleidoscope. In November 2010, Kenny Scharf spray-painted a colourful cartoonish work, which was covered up in June 2011 by a large black-and-white photo print by French artist, J.R. Four months later, that photo was pasted over by this current work by artist collective Faile. It is the graffiti wall’s seventh project.

Colour against a wintry streetscape

Looking at it closely, what I assumed to be poster was actually a collage made of torn graphics. I stood there for a while, seeing all kinds of pops. The longer I stared, the more I saw.

Up Close

Faile is made up of two artists, Patrick McNeil and Patrick Mullen, who have been collaborating on works since 1998.

The New York artist collaboration Faile… takes inspiration from the detritus of city walls. The decay of advertising and flyposting provides a platform to present their own take on the world of found imagery. These recognisable pop culture images are visible in their large-scale canvas works, representing a rich collage of the urban experience. In the spirit of collage, they’ve diversified into other areas including sculpture and bookmaking yet their work remains heavily indebted to printmaking and stencilling traditions.

Their first projects on the street had the title A Life, of which their name Faile was an anagram. The name was also an acknowledgement of the inevitable process of deterioration that an artwork suffered when exposed to the elements. (Tate Modern UK)

Pop Art

For the Houston/Bowery mural, Faile used graphics from their old and new works. Part of the mashup: silkscreens, vintage Sci-Fi graphics, logos (including Lufthansa’s), Japanese hieroglyphs, and other iconography.

Combining old silkscreens…

… with Sci-Fi…

…with Japanese hieroglyphs…

…branding…

…and iconography.

The collage started as a concept on paper. From there, large-scale pieces were printed, hand painted, and then torn at Faile’s studio. With the help of a boom lift , individual parts were pasted to replace J.R.’s work. Gaps were filled in with paint to create a polished piece.

The finished work

The artwork was created in October 2011, but some parts have already been defaced.

Wear/Tear

Is this necessary?

Displayed within the collage is the text, “With Love and Kisses, Nothing Lasts Forever,” perhaps in response to those who have been known to ruin works with tags within days of it being pasted. This work will inevitably be replaced with work by the next hot street artist. For now, I hope the show stopper stays put.

Nothing Lasts Forever….!

NB: Faile place works up regularly in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. A couple of recent works are on display on Wyeth Street: 1. “I used to be worth something.”

on Wyeth Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

2. A 16-foot-high industrial doorway is decorated in stenciled grocery posters. The duo collaborated with another street artist, Bäst, on the collection of works below.

Bäst and Faile collaboration in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

*Tate Modern| Past Exhibitions | Street Art.

To see more of their work, in studio and on location, see their website:

FAILE :: Houston & Bowery :: New York City.

The Logo as Street Art… and more finds (Williamsburg, BK)

Posted on November 28, 2011 by marinachetner

I have posted about Williamsburg’s street art in the past as it is hard not to share my unexpected finds. Over the past few months, I have noticed the store logo as street art which is a great way of adding colour to the streets of the ‘burg.

Without further adieu, I hope you enjoy the images below. Please do share any links you may have for street art around the world if you are able to!

* You can check out my previous post on street art here, published on Brooklyn Exposed on 29th November 2011:

Williamsburg, Brooklyn: Outdoor Art Gallery :: Brooklyn Exposed :: Your Guide to Everything Brooklyn!.