BOLD & BEAUTIFUL Exhibit at Tart Gallery

A special showing of the Bold & Beautiful Exhibit occurred at the Tart Gallery on 2 January 2010.   The gallery is owned by ByrneDarkly Cazalet and has two floors of art. 

The Bold & Beautiful exhibit featured artwork by real life poster artist Claudia Hek of The Netherlands. Unfortunately, Claudia could not be present.   Due to technical difficulties, Claudia is unable to maintain a presence in SL.

Of interest is the fact that each of the posters features dark haired females as the subject, evoking thoughts of a Betty Boop characterization.   A common theme is the use of a red flower in the hair.  Each woman is modeling various looks, such as a pirate with ship tatooed on the arm, cigarette in her mouth; a woman encircled by red roses and wearing a sombrero; an Indian girl, and a  woman in lingerie sporting a nun's head wear--interesting. One of the more striking posters was a woman superimposed on a black panther surrounded by flames and baring fang teeth.

Claudia Hek was born on the rustic island of Terschelling in the Netherlands.  Later she left for Amsterdam to attend the Rietveld Art Academy there.   At Reitveld, she was learning portraits and realistic art.  She had wanted to learn techniques and apply it to the art she was focused on, primarily graphic art.   She soon realized her vision would not be encouraged and left the Reitveld.  During her time in Amsterdam, she found employment and began playing in bands.  Through her work with bands and involvement in the Amsterdam music scene, she was able to pratice her art  by doing posters, logos and t-shirt designs. From this work, word spread of her talent.   After some time, she came to the realization that she wanted to focus more on the art side of things so she quit her job and starting networking.  Because her work was already known through the music scene, she took on many jobs doing posters, etc.  Word of her work spread via the internet around the world and over the last 5 or 6 years, Claudia has been able to earn a living from it on a freelance basis.  She is now a well known artist in the underground scene and her style is most valued by garage/rock bands for her posters, logos and self printed t-shirts.

Claudia still plays in a band, with her animator/cartoonist/painter husband.  There are times that, due to the demands of the band touring and recording, she is unable to work at her art, but she continues to collect new ideas during those times.   Claudia claims she has always been into art and creating things, and as a child she focused on drawing horses. as that was her passion ,having grown up with horses.  Nowadays, Claudia is attempting to mix the realistic style of painting with the subjects she paints; she is not as excited about the graphics now.   She is very excited at working on her own unique style.  Between Claudia and her husband, they have the music/art scene pretty well covered!
Visit Claudia's website at http://www.claudiahek.com for more information or to make a purchase.

By Shellie Sands