Daily Artsy Mixed Media

Modernized Folk: Lisa Congdon

Posted on February 6, 2012

We have come so far from what we once were.  Humanity’s beginnings were so simple, but it seems we have become incredibly distanced from so many of the practices and traditions that were once essential.  Perhaps that is why native inhabitants of foreign lands hold such fascination.  San Francisco artist Lisa Congdon’s series Boreas explores the people, traditions and landscapes of Nordic countries, but she embraces them in a way that is modern yet still celebrates the ancient.

Sami Woman, graphite, gouache, paper & vintage ephemera in shadowbox, 11x14.2.5

Her portraits are solemnly and reverently rendered in graphite and traditional patterns are mimicked in ultra-bright pops of color and graphic punch.

Sami Girl

..

Sami Man, graphite, gouache, paper, vintage ephemera & fake fur in shadowbox, 11x14x2.5

These feel as if they are a part of a time-capsule, created now, to be opened in one hundred years.. capturing people caught between two worlds, one ancient, one moving faster and faster away from all that they have known.

Kvinne, paper, vintage ephemera, & gouache in shadowbox, 11x14x2.5

To see more of Lisa Congdon’s work, please visit her website.  If you’re near Portland, OR, you can catch her in a joint show at Land Gallery with Trish Grantham until March 3, 2012.

Featured image is Fjall, paper and vintage ephemera in shadowbox, 11x14x2.5.  All images are via the artist’s website.

Design Foraging Mixed Media Photography

Friday Faves: Firebugs

Posted on February 3, 2012

Fire is fascinating.  At once necessary and dangerous.  Delicately beautiful and vigorously potent.  It lives and breathes.  It is no wonder that artist’s embrace its beauty and harness its power.  Take a look at these artists who are using their firepower for good.

Fire by Daryl Bunn

Deai Series by Etsuko Ichikawa

Flower Imprint by Steven Spazuk

Towards Another Theory #6CP by Geoffrey Short

Raining Fire by Steve Shubert ( via My Modern Met )

Daryl Bunn 

 Etsuko Ichikawa 

Steven Spazuk

Geoffrey Short 

Steve Shubert

Daily Artsy Sculpture

Caged Birds Sing: Kate McGwire

Posted on February 2, 2012

Birds are creatures meant to soar.  They inspire us to reach new heights ourselves.  Those avian characteristics are what make London artist Kate McGwire’s work so poignant and powerful.

Guile ( detail ), Mixed media with dove and pigeon feathers in antique cabinet 1760 H x 705 W x 385 D mm ( photographed by Tessa Angus )

McGwire uses fallen feathers to create sculptures reminiscent of birds at rest, coiled upon themselves.  By often placing her sculptures in antique cabinets and cloches, she creates a dichotomy between the suggested creature and its cage.

Guile, Mixed media with dove and pigeon feathers in antique cabinet 1760 H x 705 W x 385 D mm ( photographed by Tessa Angus )

Her sculptures have an otherworldly sense to them– as if they are alien beings, captured long ago for scientific observation or simply decoration.

Stifle, Mixed media with dove / white pigeon feathers in antique glass dome. 71 x 71 x 37 cm

The tension in her work is so palpable, it seems that if one just broke the glass, the creature inside would uncurl itself and rise above its shattered prison.

Cache, mixed media with pigeon tail feathers in antique metal trunk 46 x 26 x 43 cm ( photographed by Tessa Angus )

To see more of Kate McGwire’s work, please visit her website.

Artist found via My Modern Metropolis.

Featured image is Vex ( detail ), mixed media with pigeon feathers in antique museum cabinet, 183 x 110 x 61 cm.  All images are via the artist’s website.

Abstract Art Artsy on Escape Into Life Mixed Media

Artsy on Escape Into Life: Casey Matthews

Posted on January 31, 2012

I absolutely love watching the evolution of an artist’s work.  And the latest round of paintings from abstract painter, Casey Matthews blew me away.  They are unmistakably hers, but she continues to grow in her use of color, elegance of form and sophistication.  So it thrills me to feature her today on Escape Into Life!

Thank Goodness You Said It First, mixed media on canvas

Casey Matthews on Escape Into Life

Daily Artsy Paintings Still Life

Divine Delights: Olga Antonova

Posted on January 31, 2012

I’m a firm believer that anything you eat will taste better served on pretty china or a lovingly decorated table.  The work of Russian born artist Olga Antonova celebrates these every day objects, elevating them using her technical prowess tinged with a hint of charm and whimsy.

Stacked Cups With Yellow Top, oil on canvas, 22x24 ( via Selby Fleetwood Gallery )

The delicate porcelain vessels are stacked, one on top of each other, creating dainty monuments of indulgence.  Tea or coffee sipped from colorful china induces us to have a seat, slow down, have a leisurely chat.  Antonova’s work does the same, creating a calm sense of elegant consumption.

Red and Blue Teacups, oil on canvas, 16x16 ( via Gallery Henoch )

Her depictions of the smooth, shiny surfaces and colorful patterns make me want to fall down a rabbit hole and crash a tea party hosted by a bunny with a crazy chapeau.

Composition With Dragon Pot, oil on canvas, 20x20 ( via Gallery Henoch )

Composition With Pink Cup, oil on canvas, 28x26 ( via Gallery Henoch )

To see more of Olga Antonova’s work, please visit her website or the websites of her representing galleries or check them out in person, if you can at — Gallery Henoch in New York, Selby Fleetwood Gallery in Santa Fe, Beth Urdang Gallery in Boston, Gardner Colby Gallery in Naples and Rice Polak Gallery in Provincetown, MA.

Featured image is Composition With Cups, oil on canvas, 30×15.

Daily Artsy Figurative Paintings

Complexity of Simplicity: Gigi Mills

Posted on January 30, 2012

Dance is one of the few art forms requiring no materials, only ourselves.  Santa Fe artist Gigi Mills, a former dancer now self-taught painter, transfers her dancer’s fluidity and grace into her compositions.

Girl With Dog and Boxes, oil on panel, 24x18 ( via Watts Fine Art )

Mills’ work focuses on simplified forms, figures and shapes are reduced to their simplest outlines, planes and colors, so that the viewer is instead caught by the emotional power present.

Girl With Plaid Dress and Bird Dog, oil, crayon, paper & charcoal on paper, 11x14 ( via Gallery Orange )

By keeping her color palette neutral, her use of the occasional bright color takes on a much more powerful significance, it becomes the staccato highlight, delightfully drawing the viewer’s attention.

Girl With Striped Dress and Birthday Cake, oil on panel, 30x24 ( via Gallery Orange )

Resting Spot With Birds, oil on panel, 18x24 ( via Gallery Orange )

Gigi Mills doesn’t currently have a website, so check out her work online at representing galleries: Gallery Orange in New Orleans, Watts Fine Art in Indiana and Selby Fleetwood Gallery in Santa Fe.

This artist found via Gallery Orange.

Featured image is Ocean With Sea Birds and Yellow, oil on canvas, 60×36.  All image sources are noted above.

Installations

Friday Faves: Street Cred

Posted on January 27, 2012

Henry David Thoreau said, “This world is but a canvas to our imagination.”  Street artists take that idea quite literally, by taking art out of the isolating artistic environments of galleries and museums, bringing the art to a public that might not otherwise be exposed to it.  Check out these examples of art full of street cred!

Alice Pasquini

NeSpoon

Ben Wilson

Juliana Santacruz Herrera

Snyder

Keep your eyes peeled for street art while you’re out and about this weekend!  Would love to see some examples from your community!

Featured image by Alice Pasquini.  Click on each image to view the source.

Daily Artsy Figurative Photography

Becoming a Wallflower: Cecilia Paredes

Posted on January 26, 2012

As many of you know, my husband and I are currently living in a new locale every three months.  Each new place has its own personality and part of the excitement ( and scariness! ) of our journey is to find where we fit within each community.  Peruvian-born artist Cecilia Paredes‘ work explores, what to me, are very personal themes of displacement and relocation.

Parades uses make-up, body paint and costume to visually blend into intricate backgrounds.  This visualisation of our desire to fit, to be a part of who or what surrounds us resonates with me, not only as someone not currently rooted, but also because I am in many ways, still learning who am I apart from what or who surrounds me.

In each image, though her figure is well disguised, we are still given a hint to her presence, whether it be through her hair or the whites of her eyes.  She is hidden in full view.  Blending in, yet waiting to be discovered.

Normally, this is where I would direct you to the artist’s website.  Cecilia Paredes does, indeed, have a website, but unfortunately, at the time of this posting, it doesn’t seem to be working.  You can find her on ArtNet or check out any number of reviews that come up on Google.  I found her via Lost at E Minor.

All images are via Cecilia Parades’ feature on My Modern Metropolis.

Daily Artsy Mixed Media

Salvaged Surfaces: Valerie Roybal

Posted on January 25, 2012

When was the last time you wrote a hand-written letter?  Or read a book made of paper instead of on your Kindle?  Wrote a check? As we shift closer and closer to becoming a paperless society, it seems that by foregoing that physical connection with common materials, we are losing some little part of the soul of our humanity.  Albuquerque, New Mexico artist, Valerie Roybal takes the forgotten ephemera of the past and resurrects it, giving it a new life through her work.

Transmutation, mixed media

Just as much of the joy of a handwritten card comes from the process– the choosing of just the right design, taking the time to sit down and write, the physical sensation of putting pen to paper, walking it to the mailbox– so is Roybal’s work process-driven.  From her artist statement, “Order, association, and reverence emerges from the sorting, arranging, and placement of each accumulated piece into a whole.”

Transmutation 4, mixed media

In her “In the Library” series, the artist uses that process of sorting and arranging to create compositions reminiscent of stacked book spines.  There is a kind of random orderliness to these not unlike a library of treasured collections.

In the Library 14, mixed media

Through her work, Roybal also explores natural physiological processes such as cell mutations.  The resulting compositions possess the seeming precision of scientific illustrations, but with the bursts of life and color that remind us of the wonder of the organic world.

A Brief History 3, mixed media

Transmutation 5, mixed media

To see more of Valerie Roybal’s work, please visit her website.  Thanks to Hillary at Stellers Gallery Ponte Vedra for introducing Artsy Forager to this artist!

Featured image is Transmission, mixed media.  All images are via the artist’s website.