When an artist chooses to concentrate their attention on one certain subject, I’m always amazed by the diversity of ways in which they explore that form. Especially when an artist is seeking to look beyond representation to abstraction. In this series of Minerale paintings by Italian artist Sara Maragotto, the artist delves into the world of rocks, examining their opposing qualities of solidity and vulnerability.
We think of mountains and rocks as solid, immovable objects. But they have their vulnerabilities, just like everything else on this earth. Rocks can break and erode, sometimes quickly, but more often slowly over long periods of time.
In this series of mixed media paintings, I see Sara Maragotto, examining these characteristics in an abstract way. She retains the hard, sharp lines and surfaces, yet diffuses them with soft brushstrokes and washes of color. We can see what may be a weaker area beneath the surface, ready for exploitation by water or wind. I have no idea if this is what the artist had in mind when creating these works, but it is what my own eye has found. What do you see?
I have to stop myself from running my fingers over paintings in galleries and museums. I’m such a sucker for the texture of paint and the way it informs and enhances a piece of work. Sometimes, the texture is merely a by-product of the artist’s process, but for artists like Patricia Larsen, the texture is the star.
I know that often, for me, when I’m painting, I get caught up in the deliciousness of the juxtapositions of texture and color. There is a certain zen like state that happens when an artist surrenders to what is happening on a canvas. A kind of stream-of-consciousness type of painting tempered with a thoughtful composition results in a wonderful tension.
To see more work by Patricia Larsen, please visit her website. If you happen to be in the Tulsa area, you can see her work in person in the current exhibition at Exhibit by Aberson.
December is here! Mr. F and I are back living in Idaho ( Moscow, ID to be exact ) for the next three months. As we were driving up, we were treated to a spectacular display of snow juxtaposed against the evergreens, rocks and rushing waters. These pieces by this month’s Featured Artist, Casey Matthews remind me of that wintery palette I love so much.
I’ve been in love with Casey’s work for a long time and she was one of the first artists I featured on Artsy Forager. Her work is full of luscious texture and lots of delicious little details that don’t always come through in digital form. Orbs and circles are a large part of her visual language and some of her latest work, she’s exploring a whirlpoolish composition in addition to her characteristic floating shapes and drips. And I’m especially enamored of the way she is overlaying linear elements, adding yet another intriguing dimension.
Casey lives in North Florida, so its pretty doubtful that her inspiration would have come from the snow and evergreens of Northern Idaho. Yet these pieces have much of the atmospheric feel I was imagining as we drove through snow covered canyons and delighted in patches of white dotting the rocks along the river. Isn’t it amazing how an artist’s work can resonate your own imagination?
If you’d like to see Casey’s work in person, you can do so at a number of representing galleries, a list can be found here. If you’re in North Florida, Casey will be showing work at the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club during the month of December, with a holiday reception on December 12th. Or if you happen to be in the Atlanta area, her work will be a part of the annual Masterpiece & Its Minis show at Gregg Irby Fine Art, where you could snatch up a sweet smaller Casey Matthews original, what an amazing gift one would make!
Mr. Forager and I are spending this week celebrating Thanksgiving, so I decided to show my thanks to this month’s Featured Artist by re-running a few of her previous posts! This feature first ran in July 2012. This was before I started calling my husband George Mr. Forager here on the blog, in case you’re wondering who I’m going on about. 😉 Enjoy!
Welcome to Day 2 of our Artists Takeover Event! Today’s artist is the only Canuck in the bunch this week, Vancouver artist M.A. Tateishi. M.A. is an artist whose work I immediately connected with and the artist herself has become a great supporter and friend. Our conversation gives you a little behind-the-scenes peek at Artsy Forager!
The Walls of This Old House, mixed media with resin, 36×48
M.A. Tateishi | You feature a lot of inspiring and different artists. How do you find the artists, and is there a particular reaction you have to art when you find it…like an immediate fall-in-love feeling, or does some work grow on you? Do you have to sort through a lot of “bad art” to find the good ones?
Artsy Forager | I find the artists I feature through a number of different avenues– some I’ve known through working in the industry, others I’ve found through galleries ( both visited in person & online ), social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, through other artists, through other art blogs, lifestyle blogs, even some DIY, fashion & home decor blogs will occasionally feature interesting artwork. Really just keeping my eyes open at all times. I try to always have a pen & paper handy, as you never know when you may happen upon something amazing! The reaction is a little like falling in love or at the very least having a crush! My heart will skip a beat and many times my mouth will drop open. 😉 I’ve been told I have a “great eye” and my husband used to always ask how I knew really great work from mediocre– it’s hard to describe, it’s more of an artistic intuition, I guess. It’s funny, but many of the sources through which I find work are so full of great stuff that I don’t really have to sift through much “bad art”. I do get emails from artists whose work doesn’t quite make the cut for Artsy Forager, though. I always want to be encouraging to anyone who is willing to reach out and ask to be featured, but I strive very hard to keep the standard of work featured high. If I do need to “reject” an artist, I try to offer other avenues for online exposure.
Pixelated Rhythm, mixed media with resin, 36×48
MAT | How do you organize your writing? Do you have a lot of posts ready to go, or do you work on deadlines? Do you have an editor/friend to bounce things off, or do you work alone? And how to you manage all your social media? Are you typing away on your iPhone while you’re waiting at the post office?
AF | I plan out Artsy Forager posts usually no more than a week or two ahead. I’m a bit of a procrastinator by nature, something I’m trying to work on, so right now, that’s about as far out as I can plan & organize for the posts themselves. Since I post to the blog Monday-Friday and my husband’s schedule can change, I’m sometimes writing & scheduling posts in advance for the days when he is off. For instance, he’s currently working Wed-Sun, so I make sure to have all my posts completed and scheduled for Monday & Tuesday by Sunday night, so that we can enjoy time together without too much distraction. I normally work alone, but will sometimes bounce ideas off fellow bloggers, artists and of course, my hubby is always a ready ear. I’m still learning to smartly manage social media.. I finally signed up for Hoot Suite, which allows me to advance schedule posts to social media and has gone a long way toward helping me maintain an online presence even when I may not be physically near a computer. 😉 You may be surprised to learn that I don’t have an iPhone or even internet access on my cell phone and right now the hubby and I share one MacBook Pro between us. It can make keeping up more difficult, but it also helps to be able to disconnect when spending time with my hubby.
Neon City, mixed media with resin, 36×48
MAT | Finally, what motivates you to do the Artsy Forager? As an artist I can see the benefits for me, and I think it’s important to bring original art to as many people as possible, but I was wondering what inspires you?
AF | This is a really interesting question and one I’m sure many artists are curious about. I began Artsy Forager when I left a long time gallery/ art consultation position and was preparing to leave Florida to begin traveling the Northwest with George. I knew that I would be bored without something to occupy my time while George was working and getting a different job in a new town every 3 months didn’t seem appealing or even possible. I thought about what I’d loved the most about my former position, what really excited and motivated me– it was the artists themselves and their work. I’ve always loved writing, I was almost a Lit major before switching to Art History and I thought blogging would be an interesting way to fuel my passion for art, help artists succeed in whatever way I could and allow me to build and create something of my own. What really inspires me is the relationships I’m building with artists from all over the country. When artists come to me for advice, I am honored, humbled and inspired to do more of whatever I can to help them succeed. Who knows where Artsy Forager may lead in the next few years. I hope it leads to greater success, not just for me, but for every artist featured.
Champagne Pop, mixed media with resin, 24×36
To see more of M.A.’s work, please visit her website. Taking over tomorrow: Christina Baker!
Mr. Forager and I are spending this week celebrating Thanksgiving, so I decided to show my thanks to this month’s Featured Artist by re-running a few of her previous posts! This feature first ran in November 2011. Enjoy!
Many artists will paint multiple paintings on the same canvas, one on top of the other. But while most are painting over work that they’ve tired of or that was unsatisfactory, Vancouver artist M.A. Tateishi, layers her paintings in order to later reveal what is hidden underneath.
Pink Is The Navy Blue Of India, mixed media and resin on board, 36×48
In her Excavations series, she layers 10 to 20 underpaintings onto her panel, then begins her process of excavation to reveal the varied surfaces underneath. A final coat of resin seals the surface and enhances the visual depth of each work.
Neon City, mixed media with resin, 36×48
To me, there is something really beautiful and moving about work that utilizes this process of selective revelation. After the artist has created a visual history, to then go back and unearth those hidden gems must be a bit like the excitement of opening gifts on Christmas mornings. Oh, what treasures may be found! What happy surprises lurk just beneath the surface!
Spiral Joy, mixed media on panel, 36×36
M.A.’s Transparency Series offers an even more fluid experience of each work’s visual history, as each layer is transparent and clearly visible in the finished work, as well as the underlayer of the wood panel, adding a wonderful organic texture against the pops of bright color.
Fire Snake, mixed media on panel, 40×40Free Bird, mixed media and resin on board, 36×48
M.A. once told me that she often feels like a piece isn’t complete without a little touch of pink. This is an artist that definitely embraces the power of pink and isn’t afraid to unearth what is hidden.
To see more of M.A.’s revealing work, check out her website and Facebook page. If you happen to be in the Vancouver, BC area, MA Tateishi will be participating in the Eastside Culture Crawl this weekend. See her website for more details!
Featured image is Thrush Song, mixed media on panel, 36×36. All images are via that artist’s website.
Its so easy sometimes to lose sight of exactly who we are. Circumstances bend and shape us in ways we didn’t foresee and then one day, we glance in the mirror and don’t recognize the face looking back. The work of Los Angeles based artist Winifred Johnson Brewer seems to address issues of confusion in the environment and within ourselves.
On her website, the artist recounts a story of confusion happening among honeybees. Although the bees are not attracted to artificial light like moths might be, the artist witnessed the insects circling a bare lightbulb in her studio, then dying in a pool on the floor. The bees seem to be forgetting their very innate nature, then suffering the consequences for it. How often have we done the same? Lost sight of our own talents or goals in order to fit in or succeed? If we continue to don our masks, our real selves are likely to go the way of the honeybee.
Being nature loving outdoorsy types, Mr. Forager and I sometimes discuss what it would have been like for Adam & Eve– to dwell peacefully with wild animals. Mr. F hopes that being able to interact safely with wild creatures will be one of the perks of heaven. He really really wants to hug a grizzly bear. In her mixed media work, New York based artist Lauren Matsumoto uses unexpected elements to focus on nature and how we relate to it.
The artist uses female figures from vintage erotica among playful and whimsical flora. But there is an element of the looming industrial age, as planes, satellites, and automobiles threaten to intrude and destroy our love affair with nature. How often do we completely unplug? No wifi, no cell phones, no cable t.v. It’s definitely easier said than done, but maybe if we try it, we can recapture some of that peaceable kingdom that once was.
It’s the end of the week, but the beginning of a brand new month! Oh, October, did you have to go so soon? I’ll forgive you, though, because November means a new Featured Artist and she is one of my long-time faves! The work of Vancouver, BC artist M.A. Tateishi explodes with color and movement, so its fitting that the artist would find recent inspiration in the undersea realm.
Following a trip to the Vancouver Aquarium, the artist has been cranking out these jellyfish inspired works. ( if you’re up Vancouver-way, there’s a special jellyfish exhibit but it’s only on exhibit until November 14th! ) The graceful, flowing creatures are a perfect vehicle for Tateishi’s bold, fluid style. The jellyfish are part of a new Pure series, in which the artist combines drawing and pure, transparent colored resin. Stunning, right??
All this month, I’ll be featuring M.A.’s work here on the blog and the Artsy Forager social media pages. Be sure to head over to Facebook where her work will be gracing the cover of our page and I’ve put together an album of my personal Tateishi faves.
Another note for you Vancouverites ( Vancouverians? ), M.A. Tateishi will be participating in the Eastside Culture Crawl with 400 fellow artists November 15-17th. Don’t miss out on the chance to see these beauties in person! Want to see more? Make sure you visit M.A.’s website and Facebook page.
With each place Mr. Forager & I travel to, we always come away with corresponding memories and associations. Maybe with the weather, maybe with the food of the region, maybe with the experiences we had. The work of Los Angeles artist Matthew Brandt takes the idea of associations of place and actually physically informs his work.
[ taste tests in color, laffy taffy 3, blue raspberry, banana and grape laffy taffy multi-layered silkscreen on paper, 30×40 ]
[ dexter lake, or 3, c-print soaked in dexter lake water, 40×30 ]
[ 120821716891, bubbilicious blueberry gum on paper, 40×30 ]
[ ketchup and mustard, ketchup and mustard multi-layered silkscreen on paper, 40×30 ]
[ marys lake, mt 2, c-print soaked in marys lake water, 105×72 ]
In his photographs of iconic American landscapes and places, the artist pays homage to the locale’s meaning sometimes by soaking his prints in the water of the scene in question, or by using unusual yet culturally meaningful printing mediums. For instance, in his Houses series, photographs of typical American homes are printed with flavored gum, perhaps a nod to the children who grew up there and the memories the buildings carry. For the Taste Test series, the artist printed quintessentially American landscape scenes with typical American condiments like mustard and ketchup or processed sweets like Laffy Taffy and Jello.
The resulting prints become not just images of idealized places, but those places have somehow become a part of the artwork itself. Just as each place becomes a part of those who have visited it.
If you’d like to see more of Matthew Brandt‘s work, please visit his website. Seriously, so much more amazing work to see there!
When you look in the mirror, what face do you see? Not a trick question! Do you see your own visage as it actually is or do you tend to see the face of ten, twenty years earlier? We often think of faces as unchanging, until a glance from just the right angle shows us the mortality of time marching across our faces. In his work, Mexican artist Rogelio Manzo deals with the fragility of life and notion of beauty by deconstructing and distorting the faces of his subjects.
As a society, we’ve become so obsessed with the idea of youth and perfection as beauty– that the end result seems to be that we are ending up with a homogenized standard of attractiveness. The unique face, the one with a bent nose or not-quite-perfect teeth is reconstructed through surgery and orthodontia to fit the idealized “normal”. We all begin to look the same, losing our sense of what makes us each rare and uncommon.
