Daily Artsy Design Foraging

Friday Faves:  Technologically Speaking

Technology is taking over ya’ll.  Almost every aspect of our lives is touched by technology in one way or another.  The art world is no different.  For today’s round-up, take a look at a few artists embracing the digital revolution:

Andy Gilmore

Mark Wilson

Carole Boyd ( all done in Microsoft Paint! )

Jason Fort

Now have some hi-tech fun and check out these artists’ websites!

1.  Andy Gilmore 

2.  Mark Wilson 

3.  Carole Boyd 

4.  Jason Fort 

Featured image is by Mark Wilson.  All images are via the artists’ websites.

Daily Artsy Figurative Paintings

Fashion Fragmented: Amanda Clyne

If you were around for artsyFASHIONWeek, you may already have an inkling of my interest in the relationship between fashion and art.  Lately, I’ve been thinking more and more about the influence of the fashion industry, what the clothes we wear say about our personalities and just the general psychology behind the fueling of the fashion industry and the choices that we make.  Toronto artist Amanda Clyne examines the influence of fashion upon our psyche in her paintings, in which she  “examines the image as a mirror of our desires”.

Double Take by Amanda Clyne

Amanda finds inspiration for her work in the pages of art history books and fashion magazines, seeing similarities between fashion photography of today and historical portraits of the elite.  They both carry with them the same fascination with beauty, wealth and transformation.. “images intended to fuel a spectacle of desire with feigned promises of intimacy and truth”. ( Amanda Clyne via her website )

Looking Back by Amanda Clyne

The artist fragments her subject, creating an elusive illusion, much like a hall of mirrors.  Our eyes deceive us, all isn’t as it would seem.  An important point to remember when gazing longingly at those $300 shoes that will make us beautiful and desirable.  ( Um, not that I’ve ever done that.. )

Losing Face by Amanda Clyne

The way she uses fragments of images to create the whole could be an interpretation of the illusionary aspects of fashion advertising and photography.  The images we see are the composition of designers, photographers, photo editors, art directors, etc. They represent an idealized portrayal of only one aspect of our being.

Clyne_Looking Glass

To see more of Amanda Clyne’s work, please visit her website and Facebook page.  If any of you Canadians out there are in Toronto, be sure to check out her latest show opening December 8th at p|m Gallery.

Featured image is Mirror, Mirror ( diptych ), oil on canvas, 72×36.  All images are via the artist’s website.

Daily Artsy Textiles

Quilts Are Cool: Amy Vigilante

Maybe you beg to differ with that title.  But I’m here to present to you Gainesville, FL artist Amy Vigilante, who does indeed create artistically meaningful, strikingly graphic quilts.  These aren’t your grandma’s bedspreads.  Vigilante’s quilts are modern interpretations of an old world craft.

May May, fabrics and thread, 58x53

May May ( back ), fabrics and thread, 58x53

Make no mistake, these aren’t quilts to cuddle up in on the sofa.  These are intricate works of textile art.  As is my usual m.o., I find the backs just as wonderful and interesting as the fronts.. ( see the pair above & below ).

Sushi, fabric, found objects and thread, 54x51

Sushi ( back ), fabric, found objects and thread, 54x51

Vigilante’s Garment Series includes works constructed using found female garments such as lingerie and swimsuits.  This series seems to perhaps speak to the common female obsession with fashion, “heirlooms” of our past and domesticity mixed with sexuality.

More striking for me, however, are her more geometric works.  These have a tremendous sense of composition and movement.

Zoe, hand-printed fabrics and thread, 91x82

Yogi, fabrics and thread, 90x83

Please visit Amy Vigilante’s website to see more of her work.  If you’re in the North Florida area, her work will be on display as part of the A Woman’s World show, opening this Thursday 12/17, presented by C Gallery at Daryl Bunn Studios.  This show is a mix of some spectacularly talented established and emerging artists.  Not to be missed!

Featured image is Frida ( back ), fabric, found objects and thread, 52×49.  All images are via the artist’s website.

Art News

Exciting News!!

Yours truly is now a weekly contributor to the Escape Into Life website.  Escape Into Life is an online arts journal showcasing visual arts, literature and music.  My first post is up and you can check it out here.  For my inaugural post, I’ve featured the work of one of my favorite artists, Susan Hall.  Susan’s work haunts me in the best possible way.  Hope you love it as much as I do.

Please take some time to poke around the EIL website.  You’ll be inspired!

Cheers and great art,

Lesley

Daily Artsy Figurative Paintings

You’ve Come A Long Way to Bring Home the Bacon, Baby: Kelly Reemtsen

Growing up, I wanted to be Audrey Hepburn.  Or Doris Day.  Or any of the beautiful, plucky, well-dressed heroines of the 50’s and 60’s.  I longed for the “good ol’ days”.  When women dressed up in hats and gloves to go shopping and flitted around the house in chiffon petticoats.  But then I woke up and realized that I was looking at the past through movie-colored glasses.  That those women, while dressed to the nines on-screen, still had to scrub toilets and change diapers and were still fighting to be recognized as equals.  But have we really come that far?  Artist Kelly Reemsten captures the frustration and seeming futility of all that it means to be female in a post-feminist world.

Cleaning Is Addictive, oil on panel, 36x36

Reemsten’s women are dressed in highly feminine candy colored vintage frocks, but often wielding iconically masculine tools such as a chainsaw or axe.  These tools can be seen perhaps as menacing or even empowering.  Or rather, looking at the imagery as a whole, the dresses and tools may be symbols of our efforts as women to “have it all”.

Inconspicuous, oil on panel, 36x36

Women still feel pressured, perhaps now more than ever to be all things to all people.  They are expected to not only cook, clean, care for children, etc., but now are also expected to have a successful career.  And look fabulously fashionable while doing it.  What once was strictly male domain is now our stomping ground, as well.

Unrequited, oil on panel, 36x36

Are the women pictured trying to maintain their femininity in a male dominated workforce?  Or are they working to show us that gender differences are inherently there and should not be ignored?  We were created equal, yet different.

The Hopeless Romantic, oil on panel, 36x36

Throw Back, oil on panel, 36x36

What say you, Artsies?  While you’re pondering, take a gander on over at Kelly Reemsten’s website to see more of her work.

Featured image is Slip, oil on panel, 72×48.  All images are via the artist’s website.

Daily Artsy Figurative

Friday Faves:  Cause Celeb

There is no doubt that the US as a country, heck, the earth as a planet even, seems to have an obsession with celebrity.  There is something about the famous ( and infamous ) that fascinates us.  Artists are no strangers to celebrating celebrity.  Many masters honed their skills and made their livings rendering work of the rich and famous.  So today, Artsy Forager is featuring celebrity-driven work.  Watch out for the paparazzi!

La Dada Gaga, (Marcel Duchamp's L.H.O.O.Q. + Lady Gaga) by Troy Gua, resin-coated Lightjet Metallic Print Mounted on 6mm Sintra, 36 x 36

Bob Dylan by Jon Langford, digital print and mixed media on panel, 10x14 via Augen Gallery

Bill Murray, celebrity portrait photoshopped onto portrait by George Dawes by Steve Payne via Artist A Day

Madonna by John Duckworth, acrylic on panel, liquid glass topcoat, 24x24

To see more of these artists’ work, please visit their websites.  Have an epic weekend, Artsies!

1.  Troy Gua

2.  Jon Langford

3.  Steve Payne 

4.  John Duckworth

Featured image is Audrey in Moonlight Peacock ( study ) by Sarah Ashley Longshore.  All images are via the artists’ websites unless otherwise noted.

Daily Artsy Sculpture

Into The Woods: Christian Burchard

To go along with yesterday’s post featuring Haley Farthing, today’s post presents partner in Out of the Woods show currently up at Davis & Cline in Ashland, sculptor Christian Burchard.  The work of these two artists compliment each other so well and this show was so beautifully and thoughtfully arranged, to showcase the artists both together and individually, that I thought they both were deserving of their own time in the spotlight on Artsy Forager.

The Gate Keeper, bleached madrone burl, 16x11x4

Burchard works almost exclusively with the wood of Pacific madrone trees.  George and I had never seen these trees until hiking here in the Northwest this spring.  Their orangey-red bark peels away in paper thin curls to reveal satiny smooth ivory colored wood underneath.  We’d never seen anything like it.   Burchard uses the burls that grow within the roots of the trees for his sculptures ( by the way, he utilizes the rejects from wood that has already been harvested for the veneer market ).

Stepping Stones, bleached madrone burl, 24x20x4

Like Haley Farthing, Burchard also uses a simple, neutral color palette in order to draw the viewers attention to the patterns and textures in the surface.  He is letting the beauty of the madrone wood shine through, every knot, ring and crack is visible and the shapes carved to bring those characteristics to full advantage.

Dervish, bleached madrone burl, 19x19x8

Circle #1, bleached madrone burl, 8x8x3

This sculptor has so much more to see than the few pieces I’ve showcased here– be sure to check out his website.  You’ll be amazed at the loveliness to be found there.

Featured image is Rocks & Trees #2, madrone burl, flat & hollow forms, 15x17x7.  All images are via the artist’s website.

Abstract Art Daily Artsy Mixed Media

Inherent Abstractions of the Natural World: Haley Farthing

The moment I walked through the doors of Davis & Cline in Ashland, I fell hard for the work of Haley Farthing.  Immediately, they drew me in, I had to take a closer look.  What exactly was I seeing?  Her palette is so subtle, the shapes so fluid, these are works that are best examined at close range.

Pulse, pastel and ink on wood, 48x24

For Haley, “abstraction and ambiguity of a subject is much more powerful when it is a part of it’s inherent nature”.  She takes organic subjects, such as driftwood, plants, etc and magnifies the view, creating a perspective that highlights their intrinsic abstraction.

Constant, pastel on wood, 24x12

Her limited, neutral palette allows the texture and pattern of these natural materials to be showcased and celebrated.  Mere leaves appear to be angel’s wings or folds of rich satin flowing from the bodies of ancient Greeks.  She constructs her work in such a way that these organic forms take on classical compositions.  While allowing the grain of the wood surface to show through reminds us that these are earthly manifestations, their beauty inherent in their creation.

Untitled, pastel and ink on wood, 9x12

Growth, pastel and ink on wood, 48x24

Please take the time to check out more of Haley Farthing’s work on her website.  Her Out of the Woods show can be seen at Davis & Cline until November 26th.  It is a beautiful, inspiring show– I highly recommend checking it out if you’re in Southern Oregon.

Featured image is Nestle, pastel and ink on wood, 60×24.  All images are via the artist’s website.

Daily Artsy Figurative Mixed Media

The Magical Maggie Taylor

The art world is a strange, small place.  How else do you explain that I saw an artist’s work on the website of a Boston gallery, which I stumbled upon through searching for another artist, only to discover that the artist I found has connections to my former neck of the woods in Florida?  Call it fate, call it kismet, call it Al, if you like, but it means that I must feature the work of Gainesville artist Maggie Taylor on Artsy Forager.

Ever After, pigmented digital print, 15x15

Her technique of scanning and layering images in Photoshop ( read more on her technique here ), give these haunting works the visual texture and depth of paintings.

Hornet's Nest, pigmented digital print, 15x15

The works are dreamlike, in that way where nothing in dreams seems completely logical, yet feels very real.  The rich, luminous colors add to the intense emotionality and daguerreotype quality.  It’s like looking through a stereoscope into another world.

Garden, pigmented digital print, 8x8

No Right Answer, pigmented digital print, 15x15

Maggie Taylor’s work is available for viewing on her website and Facebook page.  She has upcoming shows at the Center of Creative Arts in St. Louis and the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles.  Her work can also be seen at Lanoue Fine Art in Boston, as well as other galleries throughout the US and a few in Europe and Asia.

Featured image is The Rehearsal, pigmented digital print, 15×15.  All images are via the Lanoue Fine Art website.

Artsy Spots Exhibitions Galleries Reviews

Artsy Spot:  Florida Mining

Ninety-nine percent of the time I completely love my life in the Pacific Northwest.  But occasionally, there is that nagging little 1% that longs to be back in my hometown of Jacksonville, Florida, just so that I can be in the thick of the exciting artistic resurgence happening there.  Though the arts in Jax were hit hard by the recession, artists and art supporters are determined to make Jacksonville a cultural destination.  Among them, artist Steve Williams is bringing home forward-thinking, atypical art with his new gallery, Florida Mining.

CPHACE by Laird, inaugural exhibition at Florida Mining

Williams is no stranger to playing gallerist.  He’s been at the heart of several successful galleries in Jacksonville over the years.  As an artist, he thrives on being involved with other artists and their creative processes.  And, being the generous soul that he is, wants to help them succeed and in the process, is bringing his unique vision for the arts to his hometown.

Florida Mining

Florida Mining’s mission?  To present emerging to mid career artists who are thought provoking and fresh with a mix of medium and perspective.  And they were off to a slammin’ start with their first show featuring a new series of work by Northeast Florida photographer Laird, a series infared photographs which begin with organic surroundings and are composited and mirrored so that the resulting image becomes almost hauntingly alien, yet familiar.

CPHACE series by Laird

Florida Mining’s sleek, contemporary space, designed by the brilliant team at Designmind, Larry Wilson and Rebecca Davisson ( both artists in their own right ) is the perfect showcase for making avant-garde work accessible to North Florida.

Florida Mining

Up next for Florida Mining is a new show, Tonya Lee: All Smiles, a new series from the Jacksonville-native, current Philadelphian featuring paintings and wallpaper ( yes, you read that right! ), embracing Lee’s fascination with alternative materials.

Tonya Lee: All Smiles

Tonya Lee: All Smiles opens at Florida Mining this coming Friday, 11/11/11.  If you are anywhere nearby, you will not want to miss it!  Big things are in store for this new venture.  Go and experience it for yourself.

If you’re not in Florida, be sure to check out Florida Mining on their website, Facebook and Twitter.  Always interesting and cheeky fun to be had.