Gift Baskets Overseas Team’s Art Project for World Art Day

This month, I started thinking about my monthly contribution to the corporate blog early. I wanted to do another Behind the Scenes post that would allow you to get a yet another peak into what is it like to work in a global gift expert team that was 100% remote way before this became mainstream. But what could I share exactly? And then our recent experience of running an internal art contest dawned on me. What else could give you a better opportunity to share some fun with us? So, welcome to the Gift Baskets Overseas Team’s art project for World Art Day!

Art Recreation: Art Project for World Art Day

The Gift Baskets Overseas Team’s creative competition was held during the holiday season with a focus on staying healthy and prioritizing team members’ health and wellbeing. Now, we are happy to introduce these works as a part of our art project for the World Art Day!

1. “Sara with her dog” by Mary Cassatt

Our first participant, Diana Dunn, shared: “I would like to share my art recreation experience: the most time consuming for me was to find the right picture to copy I decided to look for pictures with white or dirty-white dogs (as My doggies love our back yard and digging the ground ) That is how I found “Sara with her dog” by Mary Cassatt. “

Mary Stevenson Cassatt was an American painter and printmaker.

2. Clement Mmaduako Nwafor

Clement Mmaduako Nwafor is an award winning contemporary Nigerian Artist and the Creative art director Clemspeter Art Creations Limited who lives and works in Abuja. Kate Collins from our team shares: “Here is my art re-creation😁I was inspired by a Nigerian artist Clement Mmaduako Nwafor.”

3. “Girl with Peaches” by Valentin Serov

“Girl with Peaches” is an 1887 painting by the Russian painter Valentin Serov. Yara Matson reimagined it as “Girl with Vitamins”! “Stay healthy, work hard!”, she said.

4. Work of Aykut Aydoğdu

Here’s what our next participant, Ashley Foster, has to say about her inspiration: “I chose a surreal work of Aykut Aydoğdu. Somehow I even feel connection with this work. [During our long winters], I lack vitamin D, that doesn’t only reflect on physical but also on mental health and can lead to anxiety. So you can see the world a bit “cloudy”. Taking this photo was a really fun process, since I did it myself and couldn’t see well 😅 And in the end I would like to add that anxiety is a real modern problem that spoils life of millions. Could you imagine that this small vitamin which is barely visible on my lips helps me so much to overcome daily stress and sleep better? So this is a kind reminder from me to take care not only during the season but always ❤️”

5. Felix Vallotton work, 1911

Mariana Pereira decided to go with the art is from Felix Vallotton, 1911. She said: “Hi team! This is my contribution to our vitaminization game. I have a lot of fruits and also vitamin and mineral supplement from A to Z and B complex. Last year, in my first season I have realized how important is for us to take care of ourselves. It really helps us to have energy and be ready to our daily season routine (which won’t be easy).”

6. ‘Ophelia’ by British artist Sir John Everett Millais

Our customer service representative and Long Distance Short podcast host Ally Winters says: “I’d like to present my recreation of the painting that I really love, which is ‘Ophelia’ by British artist Sir John Everett Millais. It depicts (unsurprisingly) Ophelia, a character from William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, sinking before she drowns in a river in Denmark.I think that Ophelia perfectly reflects the mood of all people at GBO during the month of December (+ by a lucky coincidence, she is about to die lol).

Nevertheless, in my representation of Ophelia I’m holding vitamins so hopefully they will be keeping me alive. But actually the best vitamins for all of us, guys, is our kindness towards each other and grateful words that we share. So let’s support each member of our big team and remember that we are all just humans. Clients will go but the colleagues will stay: this is what matters!( Joking, of course, we have to make customers return at the end of the day )”

7. Andy Warhol’s art piece

Maria Blacher’s work was quite conceptual: “I decided to use Andy Warhol’s soup art pieces for the recreation. When choosing the theme for his art, he picked Campbell’s soup as it was a daily staple. To me, my daily staple is vitamin D (pictured), especially during winter months when we don’t see much sunlight. Also, 8 vitamin bottles represent my 8th Xmas working for GBO “

8. Three Sphinxes Of Bikini, 1947 by Salvador Dali

This time, even Dmitriy Peregudov, our CEO, decided to take part in the art project together with his wife and Gift Baskets Overseas photographer Olga. Here’s what he had to say: “Three Sphinxes Of Bikini, 1947 by my favorite Salvador Dali. The original painting consisted of one head, one tree and one nuclear mushroom. The head might represent humanity, while the tree represents nature and mushroom cloud represents destruction. In our version authored in 2020 by the GBO photographer Olga Peregudov “head” represents itself, the bonsai tree (bound by the tiled wall – reads “The Wall”) represents the secluded nature of our December and matcha green tea whisk represents the vitamin that kept me going this season.

The original painting depicts an explosion: “The tree is closest to the nuclear blast, then comes to the head, which could mean that the impact on nature is far greater than the impact on humans.” And in our version of course the tree won’t be harmed by a green tea whisk, but the culmination of our season being an explosion of its kind may affect the human head.”

9. Picture by Petrov-Vodkin

Olivia Greenfield decided to play with form and textures: “The original is rather a famous picture by Petrov-Vodkin. I thought, since this is our game for Vitaminization program, I could create a picture with Vitamins. If you are interested, the red and green ones are pain killers; the brown ones are actual multi-Vitamins I purchased for this season; the round yellow pills are Valeriana, light-brown round ones are Leonurus and finally the 2 ocher-colored pills are antibiotics (did not plan to use them at the time the pic was created but finally had to) – very nice kit to survive the season, I think.”

By the way, did you know that you can send Health and Fitness gift baskets to your friends and family to support their wellbeing during the challenging times? But let’s get back to our art project for the World Art Day.

10. “Abaporu” by Tarsila do Amaral

Cadi Melo made a courageous move! Let’s listen to him now: “Abaporu is an oil painting by the Brazilian artist Tarsila do Amaral. It is the most valued Brazilian canvas in the world arts market, with an estimated value of US $ 40 million. My photo can be purchased for just… Hahahahahahaha. Not for sale!”

11. Pop art objects and memes!

Sandra Summers took the scope of a project broader and decided to try recreate pop art objects. She said: “I guess I will slightly mix up all these amazing masterpieces out here with my own recreations but of another kind of art). Sharing my December mood with you, inspired by Eminem’s latest album cover ‘Music to Be Murdered By’. I’d like to especially dedicate it to those endless hours in inbox – what an unforgettable time! And now I can finally relate to the 2nd recreation pic – as I’ve been told today there was no need to add much makeup & photoshop to my face to make me look like Norton’s character from Fight Club. Sooo, with all this I want to ask you to stay alert – eat more fruit & veggies and take vitamins, spend more time outside, have a restful sleep (not only in November), and do not forget about sport activities.”

12. Banksy’s art

Monica Miers expanded Team’s take on popular art. “Inspired by Banksy!”, she said. We liked it! Do you?

13. Painting from Etsy

Megan Scott picked up an oil painting on Etsy (sold by Nakisha .com) to recreate with her dog and its favorite toy. “My dog loves this turtle and gets crazy when seeing it. This picture was possible only with the help of his trainer.”

14. Folklore art for Day of the Dead

Darrell Tucker got inspired by Mexican folklore art. He said: “I only had attempted being “artistically” creative for school, I am not even average, but I learned the past year that the art is on the eye of the beholder. Trying to exercise my artist muscle the past months and after buying all the equipment to start on my computer, this is, actually, my first attempt. This is an “Alebrije”, a spiritual creature that is associated with one of the most famous celebrations of Mexico “Día de muertos”. This little guy, guide the souls of the deaths to the spiritual world, and is a protector too.”

15. “Science and Charity” by Pablo Picasso

Milagros Sánchez took her inspiration from one of the earliest works of Pablo Picasso. She said: “This painting represents the consequences of not buying the vitamins before the season hahaha. My sisters were my accomplices with our lovely dog (her name is Panita) to make the art recreation, and of course, taking care of me to recover the energy lost in December “

16. “Absinthe lover” by Pablo Picasso

Yet another Picasso’s work inspired one of the contest participants! Alexa Smith says: “The frustrated face of this lady reminds me my own face expression when thinking about some complaint resolution (I assume many of you will understand it, when you have a feeling that without a glass of wine it will be hard to sort it out)”

17. Guess the art work!

“can you guess which masterpiece inspired me?“, Katherine Moore asks! Well, I assure you, we guessed correctly.

18. Frida Khalo’s work

Finally, Laura Loredo took a masterpiece by Frida Khalo to recreate for our contest.

Did you enjoy our Art Project for the World Art Day?

We hope so! No, we invite you to:

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