Day 3697: Andre and a hug.

 

"Broken Borders": ink, junk mail collage

 

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2GN2S ...

10-Year-Old Boy Makes Art That Sells for Over $100,000

Fifth-grader Andres Valencia’s inspirations range from Picasso to Pokémon.

San Diego-based painter Andres Valencia created an abstract scene called Invasion of Ukraine earlier this year. In the top left corner, a single eye cries onto a Ukrainian flag. In the center, a menacing soldier with a Russian flag armband clutches a machine gun. “Andres was in his bedroom as I was watching and listening to the news about the war in Ukraine,” the artist’s mother, Elsa Valencia, tells Forbes’ Natasha Gural. “... When I walked in I saw a small 12-inch by 9-inch canvas sketched and colored with marker. I asked him about the painting. He said it was the ‘invasion of Ukraine.’ I was absolutely moved.” Elsa Valencia offered her fifth-grade son a larger canvas, and he got to work.

Young artist Andres Valencia and his family at the opening of “No Rules,” his solo exhibition at New York’s Chase Contemporary gallery

Earlier this month, prints of Invasion of Ukraine went up for sale on the artist’s website, and all proceeds went to the Klitschko Foundation, which supports Ukrainian youth. But Valencia is no stranger to selling his artwork: He made history last December by being the youngest artist to ever show at Art Miami, where he sold his entire 17-painting collection in three days for prices ranging from $5,000 to $20,000, according to the New York Post’s Jacquelynn Powers Maurice. The buyers now in possession of a Valencia original include Jordan Belfort, Brooke Shields, Channing Tatum and Sofía Vergara

“I’ve been in the art business for 20 years,” Chase, owner of Chase Contemporary Gallery tells the Times. “I’ve worked with guys like Peter Beard and Kenny Scharf. Andres has the potential to be that big—or bigger.”

Along with the potential, Valencia has the work ethic: He aims to paint every day. “I paint in little pieces,” Andres tells the New York Post. “I work on it for an hour or two. Then I go do something else. I come back to it the next day and keep adding more.” The young artist says his work is influenced by Picasso, Jean-Michel Basquiat, George Condo, Salvador Dalí and Amedeo Modigliani. In the studio, he likes to listen to the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Freddie Mercury.

Billed as "nicest place on the Internet"!

 It had to happen, there are studies that have shown that a twenty second hug reduces the harmful, physical effects of stress, including its impact on your blood pressure and heart rate. That's because prolonged hugging releases oxytocin, a powerful hormone in the brain, only found in mammals.

And if you don't have anyone handy, go here

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A fun 3-minute video, Spaghetti?, here.

 

Just because ...

 

Prairie Falcon

 

Smiles for Monday ...

  

 

     

   

 

 

 

 

                             Thanks for coming by today