artsy forager

Category: Mixed Media

  • Artsy Eats: Jenny Brown

    Artsy Eats: Jenny Brown

    When I gaze at the work of February’s Featured Artist Jenny Brown, which I’ve been doing  a lot this month, it makes me long for the sea.  These creatures of the deep and the shallows that she creates out of vintage ephemera reminds me just how landlocked we are here in Idaho.  But this Sunday, we set off for our next destination, Eureka, California!

    Between the anticipation of the sea air and Jenny’s work, I’m craving something salty and briny and these Soy Citrus Scallops with Soba Noodles are sure to satisfy my longing.

    AE_Brown_collage

     

    Those little tentacle-y shapes show up in lots of Jenny’s work and remind me so much of noodles– which I never need an excuse to consume!  This recipe takes advantage of fresh scallops and snow peas to create a perfect mix of flavors and textures.  The ideal pairing.  All that would make it better is a glass of wine and the smell of the salt air.  Soon, Artsy.  Soon!

    To see more of Jenny’s work, head over to her website and devour every last delicious morsel!  The piece above and others can be purchased from Enormous Tiny Art and seen in person at the ETA show at Nahcotta in Portsmouth, NH.

    Art image via Jenny Brown’s website.  Recipe & food image via My Recipes.

  • A Sense of Place: Stacey Rees

    A Sense of Place: Stacey Rees

    Every place has its own personality, just like any person.  Some places are a bit dark and brooding, while others are so sunny and bright they are almost annoying.. Victoria artist Stacey Rees captures the sensual and spiritual atmosphere of her surroundings in her paintings and illustrations.

    Stacey Rees Stacey Rees Stacey Rees Stacey Rees Stacey Rees

    I always find it interesting to compare the feel and palette of the different places we visit.  Between some, there are only minor differences, but in other spots, it feels like being in an entirely different world.  And in those places, often times our personalities may absorb some of that difference, too.  As in Rees’ work, in which there is a wonderful sense of not just earthly but spiritual atmosphere, we can take on not just the physicality of a place but some places get into our souls– for better or worse.

    Mr. Forager & I have visited a few soul-filling places.  Do you have any place you’ve visited that had a profound effect on you?

    To see more of Stacey Rees‘ work, please visit her website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Amuse You: Mana Morimoto

    Amuse You: Mana Morimoto

    Sometimes the art world, including myself and this blog, can take themselves just a wee bit too seriously.  We agonize over what we want to SAY with our work, it just has to mean something deep and intellectual and philosophical, doesn’t it?  Or does it??  What’s that you say?  Some artists create just because its fun?  You’re telling me this is supposed to be fun?   All kidding aside, I do love it when I discover an artist who is creating just for the sheer joy and experimentation of it.  In her own words, Portland artist Mana Morimoto states “I simply love making thread beams come out of people’s eyes!“

    Mana Morimoto | artsy forager #art #mixedmedia #embroidery Mana Morimoto | artsy forager #art #mixedmedia #embroidery Mana Morimoto | artsy forager #art #mixedmedia #embroidery Mana Morimoto | artsy forager #art #mixedmedia #embroidery Morimoto5

    As it does for so many of us, the act of creating began as therapy for Morimoto, and the joy she found in what she discovered to be a talent is evident in the humor seen in each piece. I wrote a bit last week about art as catharsis and I do believe for myself and so many others, it does provide a non-verbal way of working out what’s going on inside our heads.  Or sometimes, it simply provides our minds, hands, and spirits with enough of an enjoyable distraction to put things into perspective.

  • Process Reveler: Justyn Hegreberg

    Process Reveler: Justyn Hegreberg

    For some artists, the end product is the goal, but for others, the process of creating, pushing the limits of medium and where that journey takes them is more the target.  In his work, Portland artist Justyn Hegreberg explores the reaction of paint against glitter, plastic against canvas.

    Justyn Hegregerg | artsy forager #art #painting Justyn Hegregerg | artsy forager #art #painting Justyn Hegregerg | artsy forager #art #painting #abstract Justyn Hegregerg | artsy forager #art #painting #abstract Justyn Hegregerg | artsy forager #art #painting #abstract

    Given their diminutive size, most being around 5×7 inches, there is a playfulness about these pieces that make them seem like small and lively test samples for a larger project.  Which is a huge part of their charm.  If they were to be enlarged, these pieces would lose some of their frivolity, gaining in return something labored.  It’s that experimental aspect of each piece that is so pleasing– you can almost see him working out the juxtapositions.. so what if I extend the raw canvas here, how about some yellow there?

    How about you, Artsies?  Are you a final result type of artist or is the process where your joy  is found?  If you’d like to see more of Justyn Hegreberg‘s work, please check out his website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Southern Comforts: Jon Davenport

    Southern Comforts: Jon Davenport

    I’m a Southern girl.  You may not know that about me, since we’ve been all over the Northwest during most of Artsy Forager’s existence.  OK some may not include Florida as the Deep South, but North Florida is pretty dang close to South Georgia, which is pretty dang Southern.  Mr. F is a Southern boy and while we definitely feel more at home in the Northwest, there are things about the South that are so incredibly identifiable and iconic, that only Southerners, whether by birth or transplant, truly understand.  Artist Jon Davenport came to the US South by way of the UK where he grew up well versed in Southern iconography, but it wasn’t until he was fully immersed in its culture that he began his artistic exploration of distinctly Southern tastes.

    Cola Queen by Jon Davenport Sweet by Jon Davenport Refresh by Jon Davenport Fried Chicken Basket II by Jon Davenport Atlantic by Jon Davenport

    Jon, who shares a similar style to his wife, this month’s Featured Artist Christy Kinard, creates heavily textured, layered work filled with vintage advertising imagery much of which built up our ideas about life in the South, for better or for worse.  Some of these icons can still be seen as faded paintings on the sides of buildings, especially in small Southern towns.  In many ways, there is a fierce desire to hold onto the past in the South, where Sunday dinners at grandma’s and yes ma’am and no ma’am are still the norm.

    Yet behind the fun and frivolity and charm, there was a darkness that would best be forgotten and which many Southern cities are still fighting to overcome.  Many strive to overcome lingering stereotypes and “Ol’ Boys Networks”, while seeking to maintain the best of what it means to be a part of what has been a troubled region.  Davenport’s work with its bright but slightly faded palette and layered drips and splotches of paint remind us that time marches on, ideals fade, but hopefully what is left is our favorite, most positive parts of ourselves.

    To see more of Jon Davenport‘s work, please visit his website.  His work can be seen in his solo show at Matre Gallery in Atlanta through February 8th.  Stay tuned over the next few days for interviews with Jon & Christy in a special “He Said, She Said” feature on what it’s like to be half of a creative couple!

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • This American Life: Matthew Conradt

    This American Life: Matthew Conradt

    In one way or another, we all buy into the idea of “the American Dream“, we strive for success and prosperity.  And if we haven’t achieved it, we’ll fake it ’till we make it.  Or we’ll just fake it.  In his mixed media work, Brooklyn artist Matthew Conradt looks at the contradictions we’ve built in our pursuit of the prosperous dream.

    The Woodgrain is Not Made of Wood by Matthew Conradt Imaginary Friends by Matthew Conradt It's Nice to Want Things by Matthew Conradt Housing by Matthew Conradt Poor Babies by Matthew Conradt

    We buy McMansions with more space than we’ll ever need, filling them huge flat screens and designer knock-offs.  We stand in line to upgrade to the latest phone, we trade in perfectly running cars for new.  We’ll present ourselves as successful and prosperous, even if we are drowning in debt in our pursuit of a facade.

    Conradt’s work begins with the collection of found imagery symbolic of American Life.  The images are then reconstructed and transferred onto mylar in large scale form, reinforcing the “bigness” of American culture.  The resulting images focus on the contradictions we find in our culture and how they creep into our subconscious.

    To see more of Matthew Conradt‘s work, please visit his website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.  Artist found via Little Paper Planes.

  • Surfaced Memories: Jane Hambleton

    Surfaced Memories: Jane Hambleton

    Thumbing through an old photo album.  Spending an afternoon sifting through the contents of a cedar chest.  These are things I took for granted before we started traveling.  I’m even a bit envious of friends posting childhood photos of themselves all over Instagram for “throwback Thursdays”.  All of my nostalgic ephemera is tucked away in a storage unit in Seattle.  So I couldn’t help gushing over the work of Berkley artist Jane Hambleton whose mixed media pieces layer together glimpses of time into collected memories.

    Fragment III by Jane Hambleton | artsy forager #art #mixedmedia

    Hambleton_Fragment II

    Fragment Installation by Jane Hambleton | artsy forager #art #mixedmedia Memoria XIV by Jane Hambleton | artsy forager Write It Down by Jane Hambleton | artsy forager #art #mixedmedia Patterns in Place II by Jane Hambleton Color Dive by Jane Hambleton

    Beautifully textured, these created fragments seem torn from life’s scrapbook.  Sweet, momentary glimpses into a day, a summer, a moment that may have long been forgotten.  Each piece is lovely on its own, but when put together into installations, as the artist intends for each series, we see not only black and white memories, but blank canvases of color.  Perhaps these are the times that aren’t specifically remembered, yet in our minds they are still colored with feeling.

    To see more work by Jane Hambleton, please visit her website or the website of her representing gallery, Seager Gray Gallery.

    All images via the artist’s or gallery’s website.

  • Stories Retold: Marybeth Rothman

    Stories Retold: Marybeth Rothman

    When I was young, one of my favorite grandmother’s house activities was to sit with her and go through the piles and piles of photo albums she meticulously collected and kept.  I was enchanted by seeing my grandparents when they were young, my mom and uncle as children and black & white pictures of countless relatives I never chanced to meet.  After my grandparents passed, my mom, brother and I sat around her dining table and tried to go through all the photos.  We discovered a good many whose faces we didn’t recognize and surprisingly, my grandmother didn’t label.  Who were these people?  What had them meant to our grandparents?  In her encaustic mixed media work, New Jersey artist Marybeth Rothman takes vintage photo booth pictures without identity and puts new stories to old faces.

    Clotho III by Marybeth Rothman Lachesis III by Marybeth Rothman Atropos III by Marybeth Rothman Fern by Marybeth Rothman T George Bell by Marybeth Rothman

    The artist gives new life to these abandoned portraits, seeing connections between strangers, reimagining them as icons of Greek mythology and fictional characters.  The tiny photographs are enlarged to a grand scale, giving even further importance to these forgotten faces.

    It does make me wonder, what will become of all our own memories?  Especially now that most personal photos are digitized, there will no longer be boxes and albums of photographs to be unearthed.  Will living our lives digitally allow for a better keeping of record or will all be lost when the technology we’ve used becomes obsolete?

    To see more work by Marybeth Rothman, please visit her website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Spoiled Earth: Brooks Salzwedel

    Spoiled Earth: Brooks Salzwedel

    In our travels, Mr. Forager and I have been very fortunate to have seen some amazingly beautiful places.  Unfortunately, for many, the opportunity to see unspoiled beauty is rare.  Our landscapes are filled with strip malls and fast food joints, rather than untamed forests.  In his resin cast work, Los Angeles artist Brooks Kalzwedel examines this dichotomy of urban development versus wilderness.

    Untitled #1 by Brooks Salzwedel Reclaimed Tipping Tower by Brooks Salzwedel Tendril by Brooks Salzwedel Tangled and Half Nature, Half Power by Brooks Salzwedel The Dinosaur and the Statuette by Brooks Salzwedel

    In these heavily layered pieces, Salzwedel’s landscapes are disrupted by electrical towers and sprawl, almost seeming to be choked by encroaching development.  The mechanical elements look to be nearly parasitical, especially in Tendrils ( 3rd down ), they seem to have incorporated themselves as a part of the root.

    Such beauty, yet so filled with sadness for what is lost.  If you’d like to see more of Brooks Salzwedel‘s work, please visit his website.  If you’re in the San Fran/Oakland area, you can see his work being shown with Mayumi Hamanaka in the two person exhibition, Temporal Void at Johansson Projects in Oakland until January 16, 2014.

    PS–Thanks to The Jealous Curator for reminding me of Brooks’ work!

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Drawing the Journey: Mel Prest

    Drawing the Journey: Mel Prest

    At the end of our traveling, I think it might be interesting for Mr. Forager & I to map out all of our journeys, connecting the places we’ve lived and visited.  As we enter into our 3rd year of traveling together, I have a feeling our map might eventually look like one of these mixed media pieces.  San Francisco artist Mel Prest uses an eccentric system to plot out grids of dots corresponding to Japanese metro routes, connecting the dots to reveal a complex system of connections.

    VSCJP Berlin S-Bahn by Mel Prest VSCJP NY Metro I by Mel Prest VSCJPLZ_Amsterdam Metro + Rock and Roll by Mel Prest VSCJP NY Metro 2 by Mel Prest VSCJP Berlin U-Bahn by Mel Prest

    Grid points are based on spelling out map relationships as Japanese characters.  The artist connects the grid points, including mistaken lines ( in gold ) so that the mistake, instead of detracting from the beauty, adds to it.

    I am especially intrigued by this aspect of Prest’s work.  Although the path we take or the place where we find ourselves wasn’t necessarily what we wanted or intended, it can still add meaning and beauty to our life’s journey.

    To see more of Mel Prest‘s work, please visit her website.

    All images via the artist’s website.