Celebrities Contributing to Art

To me, art is something that is probably on my list of words that are most broadly defined. I started thinking about it more to see if I could narrow down my idea of what it was to help better define it, and that was just so difficult!  Helping to prove my point, the Webster dictionary definition of "art" is "the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects".  That's pretty broad if you ask me.  I consider so many parts of every day life art it's ridiculous. From the way people decide to decorate their cars with bumper stickers or decals or what not to the shoes they wear to the way they wear their hair-- all of those things go towards making a statement about someone and their character.

Since art is mainly used to express oneself, and celebrities are often exactly what people want to be, it is no surprise that celebrities are inevitably closely linked with art.  In my opinion, a tattoo is one of the most common ways I will see "art" being portrayed.  It is a permanent design, symbol or saying, usually with a deeper meaning, permanently inked onto skin.  When I searched "celebrity art" on Google (just because I couldn't think of any pieces of art I had seen recently having to do with celebrities) I realized that the main things that popped up were simple paintings of celebrities or pictures of tattoos of them on people. Obviously, it is no question that we worship them or something!

I chose the tattoo I saw on someone's back of Bob Marley as my piece of art. This one stood out first off because it takes up the person's entire back with just one image, and second because Bob Marley is such an icon because of all that he stands for. Clearly this person is more than proud of Bob Marley and all that he stands for because he or she decided to magnify the image to take up their entire back side! This just means that the celebrity status can have such an impact- people hear of your name and what you stand for and before you know it you can have your face tattooed on their back!


http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/bob-marley-tattoo

Following Celebrities... But Literally?

Modern technology has most definitely made social networking one of the most successful ways of fans accessing celebrities and their lives.  There are countless ways that celebrities get their name out via social networking, with Twitter and Facebook being the prime two.  Since it is easy to make fan pages have a large capacity of "friends" liking the page, or an unlimited amount of followers on Twitter, these sites are fans' dream as they are able to virtually get updates on the lives of celebrities without seeing them in person.

With sites like this, celebrities no doubt know that they are followed by their millions of everyday people interested in the "celebrity life".  Knowing that this is the case, some celebrites welcome this kind of attention with open arms while others can become quite annoyed with the fact that almost every move on the internet will be seen by fans.  That is when several pages are made by celebrity "wannabes" who make a Facebook page or Twitter account posing as a specific famous personality.

This whole social networking idea pertaining to celebrities all ties back to the fact that people can be whoever they want via the internet.  The new age of technology has brought about several advantages, but also disadvantages in the fact that an entirely different life can be lead through a website- or maybe even many websites at once.  Not only could we be following celebrities, but we may also be following some bored middle-aged man posing as a young and gorgeous female celebrity. 

With the fact that celebrities have a strong presence in social networking, along with the celebrity impersonators, we must be mindful of how we let their statuses and tweets impact our daily life.  Whether it is the celebrity or another everyday person, his/her status shouldn't give that personality any more credibility.

Ain't Nobody Got Time for That!

I find it so interesting how normal people have become famous these days because of their videos going viral.  I especially want to focus on the videos that have been extracted from local news shows, like Sweet Brown and Antoine Dodson.  Their videos have become popular as the amount of views and likes on YouTube begins to sky-rocket as word gets around and people start the chain by showing them to their friends as entertainment.

The most interesting part is that these clips have been taken from a regular news show. Someone found these clips to have more entertainment value than just regular news, and found their performance to be "news-worthy" in another way- in the "entertainment" industry via YouTube.  My argument is that the "stars" of these clips, like Sweet Brown and Antoine Dodson, have become celebrities without even trying.  There have been lines used from their performances exponentially more as the amount of views increases, like "Ain't nobody got time for that" and "We gonna find you"-- lines that much of our YouTube entertainment generation population is familiar with instantly.
I'm sure when these people were being interviewed by reporters they had no idea that their performances would be celebrated and enjoyed over and over again just by typing in a few words and hitting the "play" button.

With that being said, I think the term celebrity is defined more broadly by this example.  After all, the Webster definition of the word "celebrity" is "the state of being celebrated; a famous or celebrated person." The rise of YouTube has also caused a rise of the amount of the not-so-typical celebrities.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOMevcsI0lo&feature=fvst

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkOIP_Qiccg&feature=endscreen&NR=1

Wait, Which Candidate Did the Most Celebrities Endorse?

With the current election being in full swing, I find it only appropriate to blog on that topic!  Though I don't believe that in this case that celebrities impact voters too too often, it is still very interesting to see how their political leanings are broadcast over the web as if they will impact their fans.

I thought about this as I was listening to the radio earlier, and after Nicki Minaj's song was over the radio broadcaster commented with, "and that was Nicki Minaj, who is said to endorse Mitt Romney."  I'm not sure why, but right after I heard this I searched that trend on my phone.  It was taken out of context, of course, because she later revoked the statement and said that wasn't what she meant, but my response to this whole ordeal still amused me.  The fact that I am always anxious to check facts I hear about celebrities as soon as I can is kind of a habit that I am not too proud of but I will go ahead and guess that many others have the same guilty pleasure as well.

This goes back to my claim that we are very interested in the lives of celebrities and what choices they decide to make.  In this case, I would say that it doesn't as much affect what we will vote (unless someone is completely clueless about current events and has no idea where they stand!), but more of how we look at celebrities.  We hear so much about their lives on a daily basis that I suppose we feel it is our business to find out what their political leanings are.  The website I found shows pictures of various celebrities sighted at political events and their comments made to media alluding to who they support. For those that are more easily swayed, all they have to do is go on that website and scan through the pictures to find their favorite celebrity and take that information in to possibly make their decision on the upcoming election.

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/celebrities/celebrities-endorsing-candidates-1.3492954#14