There are artists who take a subject which might, in other hands, be cloying and saccharine, and create imagery that is interesting, intriguing and ok, perhaps a teeny bit creepy.  It is in that contradiction that photographer Loretta Lux has found her own sweet spot.

Hopper

I first discovered Lux’s work through The Jealous Curator site, where blogger Danielle Krysa compared Lux’s figures to characters from of Wes Anderson film.  I totally see it.

Marianne

Boy in Yellow Pullover

Thanks to her pale, subtle palette, absence of detail and painterly use of light and composition, Lux has created portraits that are eccentric and just so slightly off in a wonderfully delightful way.

The Waiting Girl

To see more of Loretta Lux’s work, please visit her website.

All images are via the artist’s website.

When I first saw the work of photographer Anna Pogossova on The Artful Desperado blog, I was completely enchanted by her use of color.  So I couldn’t resist featuring her in my Artist Watch on Escape Into Life!  Check out more of her work over on EIL here.

Anna Pogossova

Anna Pogossova on Escape Into Life

This Featured Artist post is coming a bit late due to the craziness of adjusting to our new digs.  Being born a flat-lander ( Sunshine State, represent! ), I continue to be amazed by the change in perspective that comes from living among the mountains.  Whether you’re in a valley looking up or gazing down from the top of a hill, your way of seeing changes.  The work of this month’s Featured Artist, photographer Pamela Viola moves our eye in much the same way into new perspectives.  Her way of seeing gives us a new manner of looking.

Brelly I

Viola focuses her lens, not only straight ahead, but up above, down below, over, under and every which way in between.  What we’re left with as the viewer is a capture of an angle we might have otherwise never noticed.

Gallery Place with Red Dots

Gray Light

Supreme Court Behind Bars

And it isn’t only those unique angles that draw us in.  But also the way in which the light and shadow plays differently from those unexpected perspectives.

Pyramids

To see more of Pamela Viola’s work, please visit her website and be sure to check out her work on the Artsy Forager Facebook page!

All images via the artist’s blog.

Seattle, Seattle, Seattle ( Marcia Brady voice ).. we arrived on Saturday and are completely in love with the city but overwhelmed by apartment hunting.  So this week, I’m re-running posts featuring some favorite Seattle artists.  Sorry for the repeats, hope to be back to normal artsy blogging next week!

I grew up in a family of motorheads.  My grandfather owned a neighborhood service station from 1961 to 1979, the kind where you didn’t pump your own gas and a fluid check and windshield wash was complimentary.  I was only seven when he retired but can still remember the sights and smells of the station.  Seattle photographer Todd Jannausch’s series Garage Evidence captures the decline and decay of these iconic landmarks.

Garage, 2009

Through Jannausch’s photos,  I can practically smell the familiar faint odor of oil mixed with orange cleaner ( my grandfather kept his place immaculate! ) and hear the ring of the station bell as a car drives over it, signaling Granddaddy to service.

Tune-Up, 2009

Little Boxes, 2009

I can remember playing on the lifts in the garage, drinking Coca-Cola in glass bottles and following my grandfather around like a puppy.

Old Pumps, 2009

Just like my grandfather’s station, these old relics have been replaced by more bigger, more efficient yet less friendly models.  Thank you, Todd, for capturing their last breaths and for taking me back to the time I spent in such a place. Be sure to check out Todd’s website for more from the Garage Evidence series, as well as his other work.

PS– Scroll down for a peek at my granddaddy, Lester ( aka L.V. ) Hamilton on the day of his retirement, April 14, 1979, the day before my 7th birthday.

Lester Hamilton, April 14, 1979

All Todd Jannausch images are via his website.

May always feels like the month when we truly transition out of winter and into the glory of the warmer months!  Mr. Forager and I are now in Seattle, though, so I’m not sure how warm we’ll be this May.  But we have the work of this month’s Featured Artist, Pamela Viola to keep us glowing!

Whizz 2 by Pamela Viola

Be sure to head over to the Artsy Forager Facebook page, where Pamela’s work will be gracing our cover AND check out the Facebook album full of my favorite Violas!  Want to see even more?  Peruse Pamela’s website and blog.

Image via the artist’s website.

A perfect blend of the beauty of nature and portraiture!  I’m featuring the gorgeous photography of Sara K. Byrne in my Artist Watch on Escape Into Life today.  Head on over to check it out!

Sara K. Byrne on Escape Into Life

Artist found via The Artful Desperado.  Image via the artist’s blog.

Happy Earth Day, dear Artsies! I wish I could tell you that in anticipation of the celebration of our beautiful planet that Mr. Forager & I got out and did some hiking during our last weekend in Joshua Tree. But alas, there were errands to run, boxes to pack, and it was close to 90 degrees here in the desert, which when hiking with little shade feels like triple digits!

As we prepare to bid farewell to JT, I thought you might enjoy a few peeks inside our past forays into JT National Park to celebrate Earth Day!

It’s been lovely, Joshua Tree.  I wish we could say we will miss you like crazy, but you deserve folks who love you like we never could.  It’s not you, it’s us.  Farewell.

To see more images from This Artsy Life, follow Artsy Forager on Instagram!  We don’t have any adorable kitties or pups to fill up our feed, but there is the occasional super cute image of the gosh darn handsome Mr. Forager.

All images by Artsy Forager.

The end of our time in the desert is quickly coming to a close ( we’re now at less than three weeks to go! ).  The desert is a place of strong lines.  Folks either love it or hate it.  Jagged mountains cut across clear blue skies.  Tropical oasis spring up amid the arid sand.  Last year, photographer Daniel Kulka spent an artist residency in Joshua Tree National Park studying the juxtapositions of desert elements, The Edge Effects.

By positioning a glass mirror on an easel among the desert terrain, Kukla captures the harsh beauty of Joshua Tree.  What is seen may be the stark contrast of a cobalt sky amid the beige or the glass may seem to disappear as it captures what can be a confusing landscape.

The imagery of the single easel, alone in the desert recalls the abandonment seen everywhere in this place.  Empty homesteads left to ruin, leftover junk discarded among the cholla and joshuas.  In the openness of this place, what is cast away is not hidden, it is stranded for all to see.

To see more of Daniel Kukla’s work, please visit his website.

All images are via the artist’s website.

As I mentioned on Monday, I am battling a doozy of a cold.  I’m on my third day of confinement and first day of being out of bed before 10am ( although I’m writing this at 10:37am and I’m ready to crawl back in ).  I’ve been consoling myself with Pinterest and guilty pleasure tv marathons on Hulu.  But the bright colors and quirky compositions of the work of San Francisco photographer Kelly Nicolaisen remind me that there is fun and life to be had on the other side of this temporary yuckiness.

Nicolaisen is an art photographer with an incredible eye for color and composition.  Each image is carefully balanced yet they still feel like the capturing of a fleeting, ordinary moment.

Just in case we’d forgotten, Nicolaisen’s imagery reminds us of the color, joy and humor to be found in this life.  We aren’t meant to live in worlds of taupes and greys.  We need and crave the bright spots.  Living in the desert has taught me that.  For it is in those moments that we remember there is still delight to be found.

To see more of Kelly Nicolaisen’s work, please visit her website.

All images via Saatchi Online.

More and more of our interaction and how we present ourselves to the world, as well as how we perceive others is based on online representations.  In his Off II series, Danish artist Johan Rosenmunthe places digitized images of friends from the internet into entirely analog settings.  See more from this series of work in my Artist Watch on Escape Into Life here!

Off II series by Johan Rosenmunthe

Johan Rosenmunthe on Escape Into Life