Isn’t it amazing to think of all the precious stones, metals, and other extraordinary objects growing in the hidden places of our world? The sculptural work of artist Brett Freund seeks to explore questions of value and preciousness, what makes one thing more prized than another?
Crystals series, porcelain
Do we place a higher value on something that takes a longer time to ferment and evolve into its ideal form? Or is a thing’s rarity more important? And what about objects that are always growing and changing?
Freund’s work, with its fractal shapes that seem to be metamorphosing right in front of our eyes, making us think of old things, covered in signs of age and transformation. They are no longer what they were, but have become what they were meant to be.
Vessel, porcelain
Which is more valuable, what is at the beginning or the end? To see more of Brett Freund’s work, please visit his website.
When I was taking painting courses in college, we were required to stretch our own canvases. At first, I was pretty horrible at canvas stretching.. as in there were about a gazillion staples in each side of the canvas! But eventually, I got my hands on a decent staple gun and came to appreciate the act of stretching a canvas as part of the creative process. The stretching of textile collages over deep, geometric-shaped frames transforms stitched fabric and threads into strong and delicate sculptures for Colorado artist Jen Pack.
I am a Cube!, chiffon, thread, and wood, 58.5×58.5×3.5
Some of Pack’s work, such as I am a Cube! ( above ) have a seemingly hard-edged sleekness to them, yet upon closer inspection, we see soft lines and gradations in the colored fabrics, giving the work a painterly feel.
Domesticated Thread, thread, chiffon, and wood, 59.5×35.5×3.5Scrap 1, chiffon, thread, and wood, 31.25x10x3.5
Then in other pieces, Pack’s purpose seems to be one of deconstruction, as in Domesticated Thread ( above ) and Purple, Yellow, and Green Toadstools ( below ). Here, what we are met with seems to be an unraveling of the more “finished” and “structured” pieces. It’s almost as if someone pulled a loose thread, which caused the slow unraveling of each piece.
Purple, Green, and Yellow Toadstools, thread, moshi fabric, cardboard tubes or pvc pipe, dimensions vary
To see more of Jen Pack’s work, please visit her website. If you’re in the Los Angeles area, you can see her solo show, UnQuiet Chroma at Taylor De Cordoba Gallery until December 15th! Oh how I wish I was going to be able to get myself to L.A. this weekend!
When this Southern girl was first transplanted to the Northwest, it came as a bit of a shock to me that certain parts of the Northwest were not that much different from the South. I’d naively assumed that all of the PacNW would be open minded, artsy, liberal places like Seattle and Portland. Philadelphia artist Kim Alsbrooks perhaps had a similar experience while living in the South, translating her perplexity at the social structures and prejudices still prevailing in the region into her My White Trash Family series.
Lincoln, graphite and oil on found aluminum can
From the artist’s website: “The White Trash Series was developed while living in the South out of frustration with some of the prevailing ideologies, in particular, class distinction. This ideology seems to be based on a combination of myth, biased history and a bizarre sentimentality about old wars and social structures. With the juxtaposition of the portraits from museums, once painted on ivory, now on flattened trash like beer cans and fast food containers, the artist sets out to even the playing field, challenging the perception of the social elite in today’s society.”
Girl with Hand on Her Shoulder, graphite and oil on found aluminum canEleanor Parke Custis Lewis, graphite and oil on found aluminum can
Of course, the issue of class hierarchies is not limited to the Southern United States. It is an issue still widespread throughout the world. In her juxtaposition of these portraits of high societies’ past against the discards of the lower class, Alsbrooks speaks to the irony of the continuation of such antiquated beliefs.
Ameriga Vespucci, graphite and oil on found aluminum can
To see more of Kim Alsbrooks’ work, please visit her website. Her work will be featured as part of the Parlor Gallery Group Show at SCOPE Art Fair in Miami December 4th-9th!
Something about this time of year makes long for warm & cozy things. Felt played a big role in the holiday decor I grew up with, so I love seeing so many modern spins on this classic material. Here are a few of my recent felt art finds!
There are some artists whose work I’ve been following and admiring long before my blogging days. I first spotted this month’s Facebook Featured Artist, Susan Melrath’s work in print form during my art consulting days in Florida. I was always drawn to the beauty in her limited palette and the way her distilled compositions were powerful in their simplicity.
Party Table, acrylic on board, 22×19Charger, acrylic on board, 12×12
In her Figurative series, Susan takes those quick little moments that often pass by unnoticed, capturing the sweetness of this particular day, that particular party.
Landscape, acrylic on panel, 30×25 framed
Although her shapes are simple, Susan uses color and pattern to create depth and visual texture, especially evident in her Garden series ( although she’s now playing with pattern in her Figurative series as well! ). Her use of floating, layered patterns give her florals a colored gossamer effect, leaving them distinct yet beautifully distorted.
Memory of Magnolia, acyrlic on paper, 20×26 framed
To see more of Susan Melrath’s work, please visit her website and be sure to check out her gorgeous cover image and album on the Artsy Forager Facebook page.
Following our little road trip to Southern California, I’m happy to be back foraging for you! We’re newly installed in Joshua Tree, California until at least mid-January. Our little artsy rental is only a few blocks from the entrance to Joshua Tree National Park. We can actually see it in the distance from our back porch! This place has a special kind of energy– there is a connectedness you feel here.. to the earth, to the sky, to your fellow humans. The work of Northern California artist Sonya Philip brings to mind the way in which we link ourselves with our surroundings and each other.
Philip chooses to weave into every day objects, things we might otherwise cast aside or not even look twice at. In doing so, she reminds us of our own disposability and habit of consumption. A design woven into a fallen leaf ( above ) might symbolize the leaf’s eventual decay, while threads woven through discarded and gessoed postcards ( below ) or a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream carton speak to the beauty that can be found in what otherwise might be considered trash.
The delicacy of her weaving juxtaposes against the crassness of commercial packaging and metallic rusticity of a bicycle wheel to reveal a symbiosis of the organic and the industrial.
To see more of Sonya Philip’s work, please visit her website.
If you are a painter, you no doubt know the joy of gazing upon piles of paint freshly squeezed from their tubes. Perhaps you’ve admired the loveliness to be found on your palette after a day of painting, when the colors have mixed together in a riotous symphony. The work of this month’s Facebook Featured Artist, Seattle’s Margie Livingston straddles the worlds of painting and sculpture, in which the paint becomes sculpture.
Painting Folded Into a Square, acrylic, 20x20x4
Using paint both as medium and subject, Livingston’s work transforms what is normally a two-dimensional vehicle into one that exists in three-dimensions. No longer content to merely represent an image of an object, the paint actually takes on an object’s shape.
Plank, acrylic, 97 5/8 x 1 5/8 x 3 1/2Coiled Layered Strip, acrylic, 9x9x3Negative Cube, acrylic, 8x14x14
Margie’s Painted Objects has taken center stage at Greg Kucera Gallery in Seattle ( supported in part by a 4Culture Individual Artist Project Grant and a CityArtist Project grant from the City of Seattle Office of Arts & Culture ) and will be on exhibit through November 10th. Go see it!! I’ll be far away in California, so I can’t go, which means you MUST!
To see more of Margie Livingston’s incredible painted sculptures, please visit her website and be sure to check out her gorgeous cover image and album on the Artsy Forager Facebook page.
Featured image is 90 Color Test, acrylic and grommets, 90 squares at 8×8 each, 78×96 overall. All images are via the artist’s website and the website of Greg Kucera Gallery.
While Mr. Forager & I are on the road, making our way to California, we’re rerunning Artsy Forager’s most popular posts. This post originally published on February 7, 2012 and got a huge bump thanks to being featured on the Freshly Pressed WordPress feature. Enjoy!
I love it when painters explore their 3-dimensional side. I’m not talking about donning special sunglasses to see the latest technology driven flick. I mean, when artists who normally work in 2-dimensions explore the world of sculpture. The result is often magical, their paintings come to life! Seattle artist Liz Tran ( an Artsy Forager fave ) brings her color saturated paintings to life in ceramic form.
My Rayonier, glazed ceramic, acrylic ink, acrylic paint, 19x15x9
Perhaps what draws me to Liz’s work time and time again is her obvious love for the outdoors and the way she expresses that affection in joyful color and whimsical lines. The sculpture above, My Rainer, holds a special draw for me, as Mount Rainier is my favorite mountain. Rainier has been the site of some wonderful memories for my husband and I, and Liz has captured its magic in such a unique way.
Of course, who could forget her twisting, multi-hued trees? She mimics their shapes and winding branches in these ceramic creations. In this form, they almost take on an alien-like quality, which I am totally digging.
Then there are her Backbone pieces, which I must confess, are my fave! They are one part tree trunk + one part stacked tea cup + one part graphic color = total wonderfulness! How amazing would a grouping of these be in a children’s hospital? Or tucked away in a garden?
To see more of Liz Tran’s sculptures and paintings, please visit her website. You can also check out my feature on Liz’s paintings here.
While Mr. Forager & I are on the road, making our way to California, we’re rerunning Artsy Forager’s most popular posts. This post originally published on December 21, 2011 and an Etsy Facebook post feature made it go just a little viral. Enjoy!
This Florida girl is pretty new to the powdery white stuff. If you live anywhere with snow, you know, as I am now finding out, that the fluffy white sugar transforms and quiets all around it. But it is a fleeting beauty, only lasting a few months before turning to slush and ushering in the newness of spring. And with the environmental changes taking place and urban sprawl snowballing ( pun intended ), the time and places to enjoy unspoiled beauty is diminishing quickly. The vulnerability of the landscape under the threat of commerce is the underlying theme of Vancouver, BC artist Nicole Dextras’ Ice Typography installations.
View, 6 foot ice letters on the shore of Lake Ontario on Toronto Island during an art residency at the Gibraltar Art Center in 2007.
Her installations of words against backdrops of natural and urban landscapes begin with wood forms which are filled with water and left to freeze. Once frozen, the forms are removed, leaving behind only the ice, which as we all know from Frosty’s story, only lasts for a little while.
Resource, Ice text installed on Lake Nipissing during the Ice Follies exhibition hosted by the WKP Kennedy Gallery in North Bay, Ontario in 2008.
These installations are indeed powerful when whole, but it is once the ice begins to melt, or is blown over by wintery winds that their real potency comes through..
Equally compelling is the juxtaposition of words and phrases against their natural or urban backdrops..
In Flux, created during an Art Residency at the Banff Art Center in Alberta in the winter of 2005.Desire, Night shot with the city lights glowing in the background.Consume, Ice text in the front of the ever expanding Coal Harbor real-estate boom.
To see more of Nicole Dextras’ poignant installations, please visit her website. During this season of incredible beauty and rampant consumerism, perhaps take a walk in the woods instead of heading to the mall. It will be good for your soul.
Featured image is Legacy, a shot of the plywood forms installed on the frozen Yukon River. All images are via the artist’s website.
I am so taken with the way artists take common materials and lead us to think of them in a more abstract way. San Francisco artist Mary Button Durell uses simple tracing paper to create beautifully simple yet amazing sculptures.
The Piles, tracing paper, wheat paste and acrylic, 17x18x16The Piles ( detail )
Using the tracing paper and wheat paste, Durell hand shapes the forms, resulting in light, organic arrangements that seem to be suspended in a fragile state.
Empty, tracing paper and wheat paste, 16x12x43 Cloud Blue, tracing paper, wheat paste and acrylic, 17x24x1.75
The cell-like shapes and translucency call to mind shells or bubbles, ever changing and fleeting.
