Nail Art Is Dead - Barbara Kruger Inspired Nail Art

This year, for "inspired by artwork" day of the 31 Day Challenge, I tackled an idea that I've contemplated in the past. My nails are inspired by the work of Barbara Kruger, a conceptual artist who often addresses how words and images, particularly in the media, can affect our identities and assumptions about truth.

Her signature style features black and white photographs overlaid with declarative text, often accentuated inside red rectangles. Notable Kruger pieces include "I shop therefore I am," "Your body is a battleground," and "No." I got a little cheeky with my interpretation and chose "Nail art is dead," a sensationalist idea that I occasionally see pop up on my feeds. Clearly I disagree!

Nail polishes used:
Polish My Life Storm Clouds
Polish My Life Saint
American Apparel 7th and Alameda
American Apparel Hassid
INM White Porcelain
OPI Coca Cola Red

I'll tell you what, this was horrifyingly time consuming. The letters are freaking tiny and I needed them to look a certain way to match the font that Kruger uses. The base was easy -- I used a square nail art brush to paint on some brushy marks in the style of the Nailasaurus streaky watercolor nail art.

Then I freehanded the red rectangles and text, which took me a good hour and a half to two hours. I was constantly refining the shape of the letters and had to re-do one of the nails once. Still, I think it is a huge success! Except now I'm blind from the tininess of the letters.

Previous nail art inspired by artwork:

• Jackson Pollock's One: Number 31
• Warhol drip nail art
• Kaws' Kawsbob

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Sweet Spring Mix Over Nude

There's just something about spring that makes me want to "go nude"... on my NAILS that is! But going without polish just isn't in my programming, so instead I chose to include partially nakey nails in today's nail art design.

I know that I used Nicole by OPI - Hit the Lights for the yellow here, and Essie - Bikini So Teeny for the blue. But shame on me, I just can't remember what I used for the pink. Oops! I should have posted these faster instead of sitting on the post for a while!

The design on my pointer was created by placing a piece of tape over the lower half of my nail and then freehanding stripes in the remaining space. The rest of the designs were also freehanded! My thumb was done using a more relaxed version of the abstract brushstroke technique. It basically involves just swiping some random bits of color on the nail with the polish brush.

Before doing this design, I did buff a few of my nails to remove my staining. I wouldn't recommend this, as my nails have felt weakened and thin for a few weeks now (and they are normally pretty strong). It did make for a nice canvas, though!

Which design is your favorite? I think I am liking the falling flowers and the geometric triangles.

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OPI Black Spotted and Neon Abstract Brush Strokes

Here's the manicure that I ended up wearing for New Year's Eve! I was inspired by the gorgeous rainbow spongicure by Samarium's Swatches as well as the abstract brush stroke technique by Gorgeois, which I have previously used here.

OPI Black Spotted is a highly coveted polish that, to the best of my knowledge, was (is?) only available in Sephora stores in France. I'm not even sure if it is still being sold anymore or if it popped up in other locations, but suffice to say it is not very easy to get. I definitely consider myself lucky to have been able to connect with someone who could get me a bottle!

This is one very thin coat of Spotted over an abstract brush stroke manicure using Orly Dayglow, Orly Melt Your Popsicle, Orly Skinny Dip, Orly Beach Cruiser, and Orly Fresh. Spotted was a bit finicky to apply, and even harder to clean up, as it didn't want to play nicely with the acetone. The other weird thing was that it sort of peeled off from the tips the next day, but that may be because I did a layer of topcoat before applying it.

Oddly enough, I think I preferred this manicure before adding the Spotted, at least in person. At arm's length, Spotted just looked kind of dark and muddled, not as oil slicked as it looks up close and in macro photographs.

I hope everyone had a fun and safe New Year, and here's to another year's worth of nails! :)

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