Mr. Forager & I both marvel at the way architects here in the Northwest deal with the terrain.  Houses and other structures are built to hug the earth or conform to it, often leaving us wondering what a feat of design and engineering it took to solve that problem!  The ceramic compositions of Philadelphia artist Ben Fiess  remind me of those precariously perched buildings.. seemingly random or off-kilter, yet as a whole making perfect sense.

BC: DD: DB:: YW, porcelain, stoneware, fabric, tape, wood, 23x10x7 cm

BL:: DD:: DO:: FS, porcelain, fabric, 23x10x7 cm

Fiess, whose more practical design I featured in last week’s Design Foraging, puts together these compositions with great care and concern for the elements of texture, materials and space.  Indeed, each piece seems like a perfectly balanced still life in three dimensions.

GP: FS: SD:: PB, porcelain, stoneware, lizella, felt, rubberband, 23x13x7 cm

In addition to line, form, and texture, color plays a key part in Fiess’s compositions.  He works within a tight palette, each cool tone balanced by the natural warmth of wood and textile elements.

IW: WP: DD:: LB, porcelain, izella, wood, felt, tape

IC: SB: PS:: GD, porcelain, stoneware, felt, tape

Want to see more of Ben Fiess’s work?  Be sure to check out his website here.

All images are via the artist’s website.

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!

For most of us, Crayola crayons were our very first artistic tools.  Whether it was those thick, fat ones perfect for uncoordinated, chubby little hands to grip or the de-luxe 64 pack with the built-in sharpener, those colorful little sticks were our first glimpse into the world of artistic expression.  Seattle based artist Diem Chau takes those original tools, carving them into tiny figures reminding us of how they shaped our own young imaginations.

Storytelling Crayons, installation view, carved crayons and wood base

That distinctive scent, the waxy texture, peeling the paper down so that more of the brilliant color could sweep across the paper.

Yellow Girl, carved crayon and wood base, 3×3.5×3

Girl and Dog, carved crayon and wood base, 3×3.5×2

My most distinct memory of Crayolas happened on a summer road trip with my grandparents.  A long trip in the car, of course, meant bringing along plenty to keep us busy.  For me, that meant books, crayons and paper.  My crayons ended up strewn all over the back deck of my grandparents’ green Impala and were promptly forgotten about when we stopped for a bit.  We came back to a colorful mess!  I don’t think my Mimi & Papa were ever able to completely clean the wax out of the upholstery.  Oopsie!

Boy and Girl, carved crayon and wood base, 3×3.5×3

What memories do Chau’s crayons bring back for you?  Please visit her website to see more of her work.  She’ll be showing at the Elvistravaganza during Bumbershoot in Seattle or if you’re on the other coast, you can see her carving crayons LIVE at Saks 5th Ave on Sept. 6th from 6pm-10pm.

All images are via the artist’s website.

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!

Is the adjective buck actually used in the common vernacular?  Or do only So You Think You Can Dance geeks like myself know what it means, thanks to Lil’ C?  He uses it as slang for something that is crazy good and cool.  Which is exactly how I would describe the sculptures of Portland artist, Rachel Denny.

Red Buck, polyurethane foam, wool and wood

On my morning walk with George today, we came upon a deer munching on flowers in a neighbor’s yard ( one of the things we love about the Northwest ).  So when I came across Rachel’s work this morning, I connected with it instantly.  Her work explores that surprise of the unexpected wildness of nature in urban settings and every day life.

Young Buck, merino wool, polyurethane foam, thread and wood

Young Buck and Red Buck, both above, are part of her Domestic Trophies series, which while appearing at first to be whimsical and playful, actually seem to be making a commentary on how we try to justify our own violence or antipathy against nature.  The head of an animal that was once a living, breathing creature, killed for sport and mounted as a trophy gets “domesticated” and rendered impotent by blanketing it in a warm and colorful wrap of fuzzy wool.  It is now rendered to be merely a decorative object instead of a wild beast.

The Lion and The Lamb, polyurethane foam, wood and wool

Or perhaps the artist is comforting these poor creatures.  Covering their eyes and shielding them from a future of staring down at the same scene day after day.  Or maybe she’s just having a little fun by creating something beautiful out of something so symbolically grotesque.

Teal Doe, polyurethane foam, wood, wool, paint and thread

Whatever Rachel Denny is doing, I am on the bandwagon.  These pieces are fanciful and fun and if there is a deeper message behind them, so much the better.

Go to Rachel Denny’s website for more of her sculptural work– the ceramics are great, make sure you check them out!

All images via http://www.racheldenny.com.

I don’t know about you, but I love anything that’s just a bit off.. wonky if you will.  So of course, I’m loving this collection of Wonky Pots by Anthropologie Featured Artist Vanja Bazdulj.  A little odd, a little irregular, a whole lot wonderful!  Here are a few of my favorites!

Small Yellow Wonky Pot

Large Jug Handle Wonky Pot

Large Coral Kingdom Wonky Pot

Large Riptide Wonky Pot

Small Pink Strip Wonky Pot

Normal is completely underrated! ( see yesterday’s post )  I’ll take my artsy a little on the wonky side any day.  Happy weekend, Artsies!

All images via Anthropologie here.

In this world, it’s difficult sometimes to find something truly genuine.  Everything seems to be derivative of some earlier idea.  In her We’re Going on Vacation series, sculptor Erin McKenna takes fragments of hot tubs and plays with their inherent imitator qualities to create sculptures recalling sea life, both of the artificial and organic variety.

Brominator, altered piece of hot tub, glitter, flocking, sculptamold, enamel paint, 19x9x13

So hot tubs are designed to look like the inside of shells– thinking that somehow our simple minds might be fooled into thinking we are in some sort of tropical hot spring instead of where we really are, a plastic box full of chlorinated water.  McKenna takes broken pieces of jacuzzi plastic and reminds us of the artificiality they represent by recreating them into artificial representations of actual seashells.

Crest, altered piece of hot tub, glitter, flocking, sculptamold, Great Stuff, enamel paint, 19x12x15

Clam, altered piece of hot tub, resin, glitter, flocking, paper mach, enamel paint, 31x23x15

Shell, altered piece of hot tub, resin, glitter, flocking, paper mache, enamel paint, 15x8x9

I think that’s what I find most interesting about McKenna’s Vacation series.. the glorification of imitation.   Taking an object that emulates nature and fashioning it into objects that parody that same nature.  There’s a parallel with our own lives in there somewhere.  How often do we borrow ideas only for them to echo back to us their counterfeit nature?

Crustacean, altered piece of hot tub, glitter, flocking, sculptamold, enamel paint, 12x16x8

To see more of Erin McKenna’s work, please visit her website.

All images via the artist’s website.

Last night, as Mr. Forager and I were taking our evening walk around Joshua Tree, we spotted the most amazing little creature!  Appearing to be a hummingbird, we moved in closer and took a few photos in the quickly disappearing dusk light.  Imagine my surprise when I opened the photos this morning and saw that it wasn’t a hummingbird at all– but an insect of some kind!  ( A pair of antennae we couldn’t see last night being an easy tell ).  A quick Google search confirmed what we had seen as a striped hummingbird moth!  It seems such a fanciful little thing, not quite real somehow.  Similarly, ceramic artist Renee Brown crafts her own fanciful interpretations of nature’s forms.

Desert Rose, vitrisite spary, 21″ high

[ no info available ]

Sliced Gold Nugget, avacadonium, celadonium, bark spray matrix

Sliced Gold Nugget ( detail )

In carefully straddling that line between reality and fantasy, Brown’s work may leave us questioning the vision before us.  Are my eyes deceiving me?  Is that a hummingbird I see?

[ no info available ]

Artist found via Daily Dolan Geiman.  All images are via the artist’s website.

So much is made of the clothing we place on our bodies.  I maintain my belief that the clothes we choose make a statement about who we are.  But lately, the concept has been taken further to encompass not just the style of the fashions we wear, but what they are made of, where, and how.  In her sculptural work, glass artist Cassandra Straubing addresses domestic and industrial labor, two of the major producers of clothing through the centuries.

With His Wife Now Gone, His Clothes Never Seemed to Make it Back in the Drawer, cast glass with found objects, 33.5x17x19

With His Wife Now Gone ( detail )

Last Monday, as I was driving home, ironically from a day of shopping for a few clothing basics at Target, TJ Maxx, etc., I listened to this story on NPR regarding the trend of “fast fashion” begun in the 1980s and gaining relentless momentum since.  Clothing is being produced, consumed, and disposed of at alarming rates, all the while using up valuable finite resources.  And although the impetus behind Straubing’s work, according to her artist statment, is linked more to clothing as a representation of who we are and who we become, I see in it a throwback to the simplicity of the way clothing was once viewed– it’s first purpose was practical, perhaps overalls or an apron for every day, a suit and “Sunday dress” for special occasions.

The Beekeeper’s Wife, cast glass with found objects, 18x32x3

Mrs. Evans, kiln cast glass and found objects, 22.5x30x3.25

But today, we fill closet after closet with “disposable” clothing, literally buying into what the fashion industry, media and manufacturers tell us we need.  As Straubing’s glass articles of clothing suggest, we are all becoming naked emperors.

She Waited for Him on Pins and Needles ( detail )

How do we combat against falling prey to trendy fashion?  Perhaps if we imagined each new fashion was sculpted of glass, might we be so quick to want it?  Says the woman who travels with 5 large plastic bins of clothes, 1 giant suitcase, and several smaller suitcases.  But I’m working on it and have two garbage bags full of Goodwill destined clothes to prove it.

To see more of Cassandra Straubing’s work, please visit her page at San Jose State University.

With His Wife Now Gone.. and She Waited for Him.. via the artist’s page at SJSU, The Beekeeper’s Wife and Mrs. Evans via Bullseye Gallery.

Sometimes the amount of garbage we accumulate in a week completely shocks us.  We wonder how in the world two adults could create so much waste.  We do try to be aware of our consumption and curtail it wherever we can.  The work of  French artists Hortense Le Calvez and Matthieu Goussin aka Forlane 6 Studio speaks to the human race’s over consumption and the consequences it will eventually bring.

Ordinary, mass produced objects, decorated with “seaweed” and “tentacles” are submerged.  These objects, which weigh so heavily on many of our lives and the earth in general, gloat weightlessly.

This slowness of movement contradicts the rate at which so many of these objects are consumed and disposed of.  The objects seem at once foreign and organic to the sea’s atmosphere.  Perhaps in a nod to how we fool ourselves into thinking that buying that next thing we don’t really need doesn’t make a difference.

To see more of the work of Forlane 6 Studio, please visit their website and be sure to follow their Facebook page, where they’ve recently posted photos of a new installation!

Perhaps some pretty flowers arrived at your house yesterday?  Maybe not ones of the Christy Kinard variety ( but if so, LUCKY!! ), but the sweetly scented kind.  Pray tell, what did you do with your floral treasure?  Please don’t say you just left them in the boring, cheap-o, mass manufactured vase they came in!  A beautiful token of love deserves a special vessel.  An artsy vessel.  Here are a few I would happily grace with blooms!

Green, Yellow, and Red Ceramic Pot by Esther Griffith

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Home vase by Winsome Gallery**

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Vase by Meredith Host

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Processed Paper Vessel by Pia Wustenberg

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Hope you the lovey doveyness keeps coming your way!  I’m off to Palm Springs today for the Palm Springs Art Fair, looking forward to spending the day discovering more artsy to share with you!

**this vase is extra special because it is emblazened with lyrics from mine & Mr. Forager’s song.  It’s not super mushy, but it fits us perfectly!

All images sources linked above.

Sometimes, I happen upon the loveliest artsy things when I’m not looking.  Last Sunday, Mr. F & I were enjoying a quiet day at home and decided to take a little walk down the hill into Joshua Tree.  We explored a few of the storefronts we hadn’t seen yet and tucked away in a corner was a new little shop, bkb ceramics.  I immediately fell for the modern, simple shapes and the deep rich raku glazes.  The shop is new, but artist/sculptor/ceramicist Brian Bosworth has already made waves at the Dwell on Design show in LA last year.

Ball Planters, ceramic

Small Architectural, ceramic, 4×6

Gold Raku Extrusions, ceramic, 6x5x4

Medium Blue Raku, ceramic, 6x6x4

Each piece is unique, hand carved, completely affordable and functional, with a drain hole in the bottom.  Just add rocks & your choice of succulent and voila, instant desert garden!  We’re seriously thinking we’ll go back and pick our favorite as our artsy reminder of our time in Joshua Tree.. I’m leaning towards the Medium Blue Raku beauty above!

All images are via bkb ceramics’ website.