March 24th Today, I am...

...this creative illustration by Mia Araujo!

My name is "Sleeping Sickness". I'm an acrylic painting on wood by Michelle Mia Araujo: "I am an Argentine-American artist, born and raised in Los Angeles. I have long been fascinated by the multi-faceted complexity that makes each person unique. I believe that all individuals contain an entire universe within them, which is invisible to the  naked eye. My work concentrates on giving shape to the unseen forces within my subjects-- their thoughts, memories, emotions, and complex histories. These qualities fit together to form a vast, rich inner landscape of identity and mythology for my characters. In May 2007, I graduated as valedictorian from Otis College of Art and Design, with a BFA in Illustration and a minor in Creative Writing. I am represented by Corey Helford Gallery in Los Angeles, and have shown my work in prominent galleries across the US." She draws inspiration from everything, but especially fairy tales, performance art, vintage photography, music, literature, animation, and world cultures.

other Mia Araujo paintings:

interesting acrylic paint facts:

* acrylic paint is a paint that is made from the combination of pigment and acrylic polymer emulsion, which contains acrylic resin and water
* the resin used in acrylic paints was first patented in 1915 by a chemist and inventor Otto Röhm from Germany
* acrylic paints began to be developed in the 1920s to the 1940s and were able to be bought commercially in the 1950s
* acrylic paints were popular during the pop art, abstract art and photorealism periods in the 1900s, and have remained very popular due to their flexible nature, providing less cracking; versatility; and their quick drying characteristics

(all facts found at AcrylicPaint)

March 23rd Today, I am...

...simply - Salvador Dalí!

I was a surrealist painter from Spain (1904 –1989). I was a skilled draftsman, best known for the striking and bizarre images in my surrealist work. my painterly skills are often attributed to the influence of Renaissance masters. My best-known work, The Persistence of Memory, was completed in August 1931. My expansive artistic repertoire included film, sculpture, and photography, in collaboration with a range of artists in a variety of media. I attributed my "love of everything that is gilded and excessive, my passion for luxury and my love of oriental clothes" to an "Arab lineage", convinced that my ancestors were descended from the Moors. I was highly imaginative, and also enjoyed indulging in unusual and grandiose behavior. My eccentric manner and attention-grabbing public actions sometimes drew more attention than my artwork, to the dismay of those who held my work in high esteem, and to the irritation of my critics.

Dalí had an older brother, born nine months before him, also named Salvador, who died of gastroenteritis. Later in his life, Dalí often related the story that when he was 5 years old, his parents took him to the grave of his older brother and told him he was his brother's reincarnation. In the metaphysical prose he frequently used, Dalí recalled, "[we] resembled each other like two drops of water, but we had different reflections." He "was probably a first version of myself, but conceived too much in the absolute."

other Salvador Dalí pictures:

INTERESTING Salvador Dalí facts:

* for Dali, even from a very young age, pleasure and pain were pretty much the same thing; at least that’s how Dali would justify his childhood habit of attacking people for no apparent reason 
* within the art community, Dali was renowned for his love of making money.; because of this, he was sometimes sneeringly called “Avida Dollars,” which is both an anagram of Salvador Dali and a reference to his greed 
* he designed the famous Chupa Chups lollipops logo and the 1969 logo for the Eurovision Song Contest; he also appeared in ads for Lanvin chocolates, brandy, and even alka seltzer
* he was also a bit of a con man; he justified the enormous price tag on one painting by telling a rich customer that the paint had been mixed with the venom of a million wasps - it hadn’t 
* another scam of Dali’s happened when he was contacted by Yoko Ono, who requested a strand of hair from his mustache; in return, Dali demanded $10,000; when Yoko coughed up, Dali sent her a dried blade of grass instead, since he was worried Yoko might use the hair for witchcraft 
* Dali once delivered a lecture wearing a full deep-sea diving suit, which he refused to take off, almost suffocating as a result 
* in 1955, he arrived at a speech in a Rolls-Royce full of cauliflowers because he was fascinated by their shape 
* Dali was obsessed with Hitler in a way that even Hitler would probably have found unsettling; he said: “I often dreamed about Hitler as other men dreamed about women.” 
* Dali would sit in a chair holding the spoon above the plate and doze off. As he fell asleep, the spoon would drop onto the plate, making a noise loud enough to wake the artist in time to jot down the surreal images he saw in his dreams
* Dali had a lot of famous friends, spending time hanging out with Elvis Presley, John Lennon, David Bowie, Pablo Picasso, and even Sigmund Freud, but probably his weirdest acquaintance was with rock legend Alice Cooper (you must READ MORE at the bottom link!)


(all facts found at ListVerse)