There is a wonderful phenomenon that happens to me from time to time. I call it “name serendipity”. Every so often when I search an artist’s name on Google, I happen upon the work of another talented artist by the same name! Which is exactly how I happened upon the work of Seattle artist Amy Pleasant.
Free Spirit, mixed media, 36×36
Like Amy, I too, have a collection of vintage photographs from my grandparents’ collection and they are among my most treasured possessions. In her latest series, Lost and Found, Amy was inspired by the discarded memories of strangers. Namely old family photos found in thrift shops and antique stores, now being sold along with old tablecloths and broken lawnmowers.
Three Graces, mixed media, 40×30
Kindred, mixed media, 40×30
Captured moments of past lives now cast away like any other piece of household paraphernalia. Pleasant rescues these memories that have been tossed aside, giving them new life in paint.
Night’s Nest, mixed media, 36×36
In them, we see not the memories of strangers but our own ancestral rememberings staring back at us. To see more of Amy Pleasant’s work, please visit her website. Her work can be seen in her show, “Looking For the Coolidges” opening August 2, 2012 at the Shoreline City Hall Gallery in Shoreline, WA. And on August 1st, she will be the featured artist (along with Dutch artist Janneke Van Leeuwen) at the Visual Thinking Strategies European Symposium in partnership with the Rijks Museum and will be showing at a gallery on site at a large hospital in Amsterdam(! ).
Featured image is Three Graces, mixed media, 40×30. All images are via the artist’s website.
francifularts
July 23, 2012 at 9:46 AMThese paintings give the feeling at once of home and transformation. I love the colors and patterns! The emotional content is riveting too! You wonder if the woman in bed is contemplative or dying, or why two figures in Kindred seem more like ghosts, fading into the brickwork. So glad you shared these!
Sunnyace
July 23, 2012 at 10:23 AMReblogged this on Sunnyace Reblog Collections.
J Rankin
July 23, 2012 at 11:30 AMWhat a shame folks throw such pictures away. How nice that an artist brings them new life. Love the Three Graces. Grandma and two Aunties all ready for a wedding? Is that Grandma’s house in the background? Such family details often become lost because no one has the pictures any longer.
35andupcynicismonhold
July 24, 2012 at 3:27 AMlovely incidental find… 🙂 thank you for sharing.
Artsy on Escape Into Life: Jhina Alvarado « Artsy Forager
July 31, 2012 at 1:01 PM[…] a vintage spin. This week’s Artist Watch over on Escape Into Life is no exception! Like Amy Pleasant, Jhina Alvarado also takes her artistic inspiration from old photographs, lending them an anonymity […]