"WELCOME TO THE DISCO BABE!"
A LOOK INSIDE THE MAGICAL WORLD OF ARTIST ALICIA HOBBS
By John Enot
Every once in a while something catches you completely off guard and throws your senses into a total overload! Such was the case as I was wandering around the endless seas of artist displays at Art Basel, the once a year international artist expo that happens each December in Miami. As I turned the corner and started walking up the next long corridor of artist displays, I suddenly froze as my eyes gazed forward and caught eyes with the most majestically soft and unique color-paletted Mona Lisa I had ever seen. As I stood in the middle of the aisle way and unwittingly impeded the bustling flow of foot traffic (certainly annoying all who were trying to pass), my mind went into an overload that only other creatives would understand. It was as if a symphony had all of a sudden just started belting out a loud rendition of “Largo al Factotum” from the Barbers of Seville in my brain.
It took a few long moments, but I finally started to ease out of my euphoric fog and focus in more intently on each of the faces that were gazing out at me from their neatly hung canvases. "What beautiful paintings!" I thought to myself. Such rich and unique colors blended harmoniously! Such life-like and almost aloof, flirty energy! I really couldn’t believe what I was seeing. And just as I was about to pull my attention away and walk further down the corridor, I made another delightful discovery. Subtly nestled in and around each of the painted portrait personas like tiny hidden Easter eggs, were little riddles, phrases, and words that were reminiscent of a yet-to-be-solved Sherlock Holmes mystery. But, as I would soon find out, these little tiny clues inside these breathtaking paintings weren’t part of some turn of the century British mystery plot… They were the gateway into the magical world and mind of artist Alicia Hobbs.
As I wandered further into the art display booth, my eyes were drawn into those of Frida Kahlo... looking as if she was annoyed that I was more than fashionably late to the party. "Been at the rodeo?" she asked. (In my defense... no one is ever on time in Miami)
Suddenly, my conversation with Frida was interrupted by a gentle sounding sweet voice with the most subtle southern belle drawl. "Do you like her?" The voice asked. As I turned to my right to acknowledge the questioning voice, my mind was blown yet again. "Wow! That dress is amazing!" I blurted out almost uncontrollably. I had just met the artistic genius behind all of the wonderful works that had stopped me dead in my tracks a few moments earlier... adorned in the most grandiose full length, flowy pleated, vintage Gucci gown nonetheless. For some reason, the dress looked extremely familiar. Then it hit me! It was the exact same dress that each of the leading ladies in her paintings were wearing. How incredible and creative! To say that I instantly lost all interest in walking through the rest of the art show would be an understatement. But I had to learn more about this wonderful artist.
Alicia Hobbs’s art is an intoxicating blend of realism and abstract expressionism. It's this fusion between the two genres that sets her apart in the contemporary art scene. Her unique play with light, color, and texture breathes fresh new life into classic subjects, such as Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, the many likenesses of Andy Warhol and Frida Kahlo, and my favorite… Johannes Vermeer’s “The Girl with a Pearl Earring.” Her pale pastel color palette blends beautifully with her meticulous detailing of the subject’s face and likeness. It is as if the Masters themselves had come back to life and borrowed Hobbs’ palette and reengineered their own paintings. Each piece that she creates is a visual masterpiece that’s truly hard to forget.
​
Hobbs wasn't always certain that art would be her life's path. Hailing from Gulfport, Mississippi, she once envisioned a life in medicine, having attained a biology degree with medical school on the horizon. But somewhere between the hallways of the University of Mississippi, where she also juggled art classes with studying for her biology degree... and her current Beverly Hills art studio... Hobbs found her true calling.
​
From an early age, she displayed a talent and knack for the arts… something her loving grandmother, whom she fondly called “Nannie”, took notice of. Not only did her grandmother become her most ardent supporter, but she also became Hobbs biggest inspiration. Every single art piece that Hobbs created… whether a crayon drawing from her young hand… or a full canvas painting… was met with encouragement and love.
Once in college, Hobbs' artistry took an unexpected turn. Although she mainly painted for fun and often would just give her paintings away, her works started catching the eyes of fellow students... especially her sorority sisters. Her dorm room walls became an impromptu gallery, with paintings quickly finding new homes, sometimes faster than she could create them.
​
Feeling irresistibly pulled towards her passion for creating, Hobbs eventually set aside her medical dreams and began to focus more seriously on her art. Taking a job as a nanny to pay the bills, she launched an Instagram account for her artwork, which would be a move that quickly catapulted her forward. As she laughingly recalled as I spoke with her. The very idea of people wanting to buy her art was, and still is, surreal to her.
In no time at all her popularity began to grow... so much so that she had to quit her nannying job to focus on being an artist full time. Her inaugural collection of 30 paintings sold out in less than 24 hours, leaving her grappling with a deluge of commission requests. The more that she posted new works of art on her Instagram page, the more her client list swelled. Definitely not a bad problem to have across the vast world of starving artists. But just as Hobbs' career was exploding exponentially, so too was Covid 19 across the country and world. Between the global Covid pandemic and hurricanes smashing into the Mississippi coastline, her upcoming debut art show had to be cancelled multiple times. Facing all of this uncertainty, and the lease on her current apartment about to expire, Hobbs decided to load up her car and head west towards a brand new start in the city of angels in 2020. After a little bit of searching, she found the perfect space and opened her studio in Beverly Hills which she shares with her canine companion Ms. Ritzy Roodles.
Hobbs’ creative process is beyond original and unique. Utilizing both oil and acrylic mediums, she begins her painting process with a quick draft of the subject. She then builds more broader shapes and fills them using a triadic color palette consisting of one white and two contrasting hues. Hobbs then uses a technique where reflective light is portrayed around the subject that ultimately brings the painting to life. She often lets incidental brush marks remain untouched on her canvas, believing they lend a certain depth and dynamism to her still-life compositions.
Hobbs believes that the hallmark of her artwork is its whimsical style. She loves to use surprising and unlikely color pairings mixed with pronounced brushwork and deliberate textures to present a slightly off-kilter take on conventionally classic themes. And all one has to do is allow themselves to get lost in one of her wonderful creations for a few moments to see that she accomplishes this quite masterfully.
Alicia Hobbs has truly morphed into one of the most talented and sought after young creators in the art world today. Her pieces have sold all over the world and she is a regularly invited exhibitor at the most prestigious art festivals in the country... showcasing in places like New York, The Hamptons, and in Miami at Art Basel. She is not only a talented artist, but she is truly a genuine sweet soul with all of the charm and kindness you would expect from a Mississippi southern gal.
And as for her future? One thing became crystal clear to me as I said goodbye and slowly made my way out of Alicia’s booth (while security turned out the lights and ushered the last remaining stragglers out of the expo center as they closed down for the night). No matter how far she has already come on this amazing and magical journey, Alicia Hobbs is just getting started. AM
The Wonderful World Of Todd White
Todd White is unique! His colorful palette and edgy illustrative artwork has won over art aficionados all over the world and catapulted him to being one of the most popular and collected artists in the world. His paintings seem to have a magical way of capturing and captivating people by revealing his subject's innermost feelings and creating timeless scenes of attraction and intimacy in his works. His paintings are both humorous and provocative... and his style can best be described as having a “Rat-Pack meets Picasso” artistic vibe. His gallery shows often invoke a high energy buzz with lots of laughter, and his audiences always demand repeat viewings. And beneath the sharp lines, exaggerated features, and textured skin of his characters, there is a truth and likeness in his imagery that seems very familiar... almost too familiar to some. Lazy moments lost in a daydream, to dark self-destructive binges... the plights of his characters depict a very real undercurrent of life.
​
​
White is a compulsive observer of detail, always studying and absorbing figures, faces, and features. He spends most of his time people watching and scribbling down sketches (often on napkins or even tablecloths) of whatever situation is before him. While his subjects come from all walks life, his eye and perspective is so unusual that he has a way of altering the way we perceive people and how they interact with one another.
Born in 1969 in San Antonio Texas, White moved to Hollywood in his mid twenties where he landed a job doing animation. It wouldn't take long for his talent to get recognized and open a floodgate of opportunities in which he began developing illustrated characters at some of the most renowned production studios and hit animation TV shows in the country... most notably the hit cartoon series SpongeBob SquarePants.
White's artistic prowess and unique finesse has not only made him one of the most recognized modern day artists, but his talent has crossed over and been recognized by peers in other creative art forms, such as the world of music and film. In 2007, White was chosen from hundreds of artists to be the Official Artist of the GRAMMY Awards... the world's most prestigious music
event. Then, In 2009, he was asked by Warner Brothers to take part in a major design exhibition celebrating the 70th anniversary of the classic motion picture, "The Wizard of Oz." And in 2010, the soft drink giant Coca Cola commissioned White to produce a limited edition series of bottles and cans that bore his illustrated characters with his trademark boxed signature appearing on every container. It is the first time Coca-Cola has ever allowed another logo
or trademark to appear on one of its products. And as if all of those awards and accomplishments were not enough, White was awarded one of Britain's most prestigious accolades in 2011 by the Royal Family when they gave him the Diana Princess of Wales Gold Medal after he donated a hand-painted original portrait of the late Princess to the Diana Awards charity. The award has only been handed out eleven times since the charity's inception and White is the only American to ever receive the honor.
White's artistic process is as unique as his paintings. He always names his pieces first before ever taking a brush stroke. He then tries to visualize his subject's faces and absorb their personalities. Once he has a feeling for who his subject (or subjects) is, he then lets his imagination run wild until he has a clear picture and feel for each person's story in the painting. Sometimes the story will come quickly. Other times it might take him a while for him to see the storyline. But no matter how long it might take, White won't paint a single stroke until he can
conceptualize the story of the art piece in his head. He is disciplined and always follows his process. Nowadays, Todd White's art can be seen all over the world at some of the most prominent galleries and range from several hundred dollars for a smaller work, and several thousand for a larger, hand-embellished, signed canvas. Want a custom hand-painted original? Well that will set you back about five or six figures. Recently he had a show at the Bank of Scotland in Manchester, England... and Talk Show Personality Larry King hosted the unveiling of The World's Largest Todd White Collection at the Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, California. He also has his first book out if you are fortunate enough to find one and get your hands on it. The edition was limited to just 850 numbered copies, and included two exclusive Limited Edition prints that are numbered and hand signed. Not bad for an artistic kid from Texas who likes to doodle on napkins! Not bad at all. AM
For more information on Todd White's work... please CLICK HERE to visit his website.
Two Years Since The Historic Beeple Sale, What's Happened to the NFT Market?
.jpg)
On March 11, 2021, Christie’s sold Everydays: The First 5,000 Days (2021) by Mike Winkelmann, a.k.a. Beeple, for $69.3 million, making him the third-most expensive living artist at the time. But rather than acquiring a painting or a sculpture, the winning bidder for Beeple’s work received a non-fungible token (NFT)—a unique digital identifier that used blockchain technology to certify and verify ownership of this digital artwork.
​
Crypto-enabled sales had been gaining traction before the Christie’s auction. According to NFT analyst NonFungible.com, the market for NFTs had already quadrupled in 2020, with the total value of transactions increasing by 299% year over year to more than $250 million.
There were a number of eye-catching sales in the run-up to the Beeple sale: An NFT of popular GIF “Nyan Cat” sold for $600,000; the YouTuber Logan Paul sold around $5 million worth of tokens in a single day; and mainstream brands were also getting involved, with the NBA, in collaboration with Dapper Labs, selling a tokenized “highlight” of a dunk by LeBron James for $200,000. Beeple himself had also previously sold a work for $6.6 million on Nifty Gateway, an online digital art marketplace.
The Christie’s sale, however, marked a landmark moment for the art world. With the single-lot auction, the 256-year-old institution brought the mechanism of NFTs into the eyeline of traditional art world watchers, while inviting a new generation of collectors into its gilded orbit.
​
It was also the first time that a major auction house had sold a purely digital NFT, and the sale sent discussion of the technology into a fever pitch within the art world—leading to mainstream coverage beyond the collectors and gallerists who usually follow auction results. In other words, a wider, more powerful swathe of people were now paying attention. Heady proclamations followed. “I believe we are witnessing the beginning of the next chapter in art history, digital art,” said Beeple in a statement after the sale.
​
.jpg)
.jpg)
But since then, the mainstream perception of NFTs has come to be characterized as the province of fraudsters and grifters rather than artists and innovators. More than $100 million worth of NFTs were publicly reported as stolen between July 2021 and July 2022 according to Elliptic, and, by September of last year, NFT transaction volume had collapsed by 97% from its peak in January 2022, according to Dune Analytics.
In 2021, many had assumed that NFTs would seamlessly enter the commercial art world, and yet this prediction also appeared to lose steam. According to Artsy’s 2022 Gallery Insights Report, just 11% of galleries sold NFTs in 2021, and 67% said that their clients had not even inquired about them. For the galleries that did sell NFTs, half said that their NFT total sales value was $5,000 or less. Some 20% of galleries earned between $5,000 and $14,999 from NFTs, and just 5% made more than $250,000 selling NFTs.
​
This volatile, boom-bust picture of NFTs is perhaps due to their close relationship with cryptocurrencies—unregulated asset classes used primarily as investment vehicles instead of as art. While this perception has undoubtedly contributed to those bleak figures above, there are still interesting artworks made and sold as NFTs.
​
“With the bubble and speculation that was around NFTs in the early days, it sadly took away from the conversation around the art itself,” said Christopher Y. Lew, a former curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art and current chief artistic director of Outland, a platform dedicated to fostering critical discussions on emerging digital technologies. “Now that things have calmed down, we’re coming back around to really talk about, ‘What is the artwork?’”
​
As speculators lose interest and institutions begin supporting these artworks, NFTs are arguably in a healthier, more sustainable place within the art world than they were two years ago. “While the hype is cooling down, the production is consolidating, and NFTs, be they digital artworks or a way to mediate with actual collectibles, will form part of the future of art collecting and investment,” said Natascha Reihl, head of business development and private sales at Artemundi, which is launching a limited series of NFTs of works by Francisco de Goya.
​
There are other signs of promise for NFTs in the art world: Late last year, Christie’s launched a new platform that exists entirely on the blockchain, and just this month, Art Dubai created an expanded digital section for its 2023 edition.
​
As more artists explore what NFTs can do and integrate them into their work, the more potential for interesting uses of the technology, said Lew: “That’s where you’ll have galleries, collectors, and museums follow those artists. Artists are always the ones that are blazing that trail.” AM
​
Subscribe now for Free!