Every month Beautiful Bizarre Magazine chooses one of our favourite artists to TAKE OVER social media for the day. For November, we chose Joel Rea to share with us the artists who have inspired him throughout his artistic career. Just in case you missed it, below we present the full TAKE OVER.
Joel Rea //Being asked to do Beautiful Bizarre Magazine’s TAKE OVER is a humbling task, with a huge following the magazine has risen extremely well in a few short years, sharing the vast visual creativity that saturates every corner of our planet. They leave no stone unturned, passionately sharing and connecting all levels of the art world. To me, the BBM promoting agenda comes across my Insta screen as if to claim – ‘If the artwork rocks, we’re with it!’, and that’s an ideology I can roll with. When selecting the artists I wanted to share I went with the painters that I loved 10 years ago and will love in ten years time, they are my core crew, the ones who ignited the painting flame within me. These names are always at the tip of my tongue, owning a decent amount of real estate in my mind, giving me endless nostalgia, inspiration, motivation & hope…enjoy. :)
Salvador Dali // “Christ of St. John of the Cross” // With his inexhaustible curiosity into the human consciousness, skills of a Renaissance master and shameless self-promotion that would match our modern obsession with self-exploitation Dali’s art is the gift that keeps on giving. He’s my hero and reminds me always to embrace and display your own individual weirdness.
Roberto Parada // “Snoop Dogg” // Wit, empathy and courage make a great illustrator, add in unbelievably vibrant, luscious oil painting and you get the sublime and clever oil paintings of American artist Roberto Parada. I discovered his work in my art college days and it was love at first sight.
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres // An immaculate technician of 19th Century oil painting, I will describe Ingres’ style and subject matter as an abundant fruit bowl of delicious pleasure in which my taste buds can never get enough. In the flesh, his paintings are shockingly beautiful and intimidatingly motivating to myself as a painter.
Jeremy Geddes // “Pale Memory” // A conceptual & technical genesis in the realm of modern oil painting, Geddes work constantly blows my mind, the sensitivity in his brushwork is in a class of his own. He is a unique builder of surreal worlds as he exploits our modern eye’s comfortability with photography, creating shockingly real seeming scenes that bend reality and open the consciousness to limitless possibilities.
Mark Ryden // “The Creatix” // A master of oil paints with a soothingly satisfying pop-surrealism style his complex themes are full of imagination, wonder and appreciation of the natural world. A sense of spiritual enlightenment flows throughout his repertoire of paintings like a modern day Salvador Dali. I have a print of his Christina Ricci portrait in my bedroom, she cradles a giant bee, the image always stops me in my tracks taking me away to a place of meditative enjoyment.
Ron English // Combining lucid imagery with smart political statements and pop culture spins, English is a pony with many tricks. I love his unexpected cross-overs where daily life meets hyper-cartoon fantasies and in turn, he creates a multitude of unforgettable artistic visions that consistently surprise and entertain me.
Alex Grey // The creator of his own Church ‘Entheon’ a building where he houses the visionary art of himself and other creators, his own paintings contain nearly indescribable, glorious visions. Grey links art with spiritually and scientific wonder, he investigates the mysterious world of hallucinogenics along with core themes of human existence; birth, life, love & death. His paintings are beautifully complex and truthful and remind me that all life is wonderfully miraculous.
This was the last piece chosen by Joel Rea for his TAKE OVER. Thank you again Joel, we really appreciate you taking the time to put this day together.
