If you’ve ever taken an art class, I’m sure you’ve copied the work of a “master”. Redrawing and painting great works of art is one of the tried and true methods used to teach basic skills. I love the way some artists are taking masterworks and recreating them in fun and interesting ways. Check ’em out!
Out of the Square by Cesar Santos ( via artrenewal.org )Frida Dog by Clair HartmannMan Ray by Jocelyn GrivaudGirl With a Pearl Earring by Sarah Ashley Longshore ( via Gallery Orange )
Have a fantastic weekend, Artsies! Any plans for museum visits this weekend?
Featured image is Picnic in Central Park by Cesar Santos ( via Art Renewal Center ). All images are via the artist’s websites, unless otherwise stated.
I grew up in a household where old things were relished and appreciated. My dad and brother refurbished antique cars. My mom had a knack for painting and reusing old furniture. Family vacations were taken to historic sites instead of Disney World. So it isn’t any wonder that I have a fondness for the sculptural work of Seattle artist Michael Todd Harrison.
13, assemblage
Architectural fragments and wood are stacked together as building blocks of these humble monuments to the past. Some of Harrison’s pieces, like the one above have a charming, vintagey-homey feel, as if they were plucked directly from the wreckage of a derelict Queen Anne home. Others, such as Burst, are more abstract in feel and organic in shape, carefully hap-hazard. In the artist’s hands, what could have simply been a pile of scrap wood becomes an explosion of line and shape.
BurstSpiral
Harrison’s latest series, Skyscrapers, takes inspiration from walks through the city, with it’s tall monuments built long ago by men who have since been all but forgotten. There is a poetic loveliness in these folksy, wooden sculptures paying homage to albatrosses of glass and steel. A reminder, perhaps of architecture’s humble beginnings, as well as our own.
SkyscrapersSmall Church
To see more of Michael Todd Harrison’s work, please visit his website. He is currently the Artist-In-Residence for the James W. Washington Foundation in Seattle during the month of February. You can keep up with his residency work here!
Featured image is Horizon by Michael Todd Harrison. All images are via the artist’s website.
Life just gets so complicated, doesn’t it? We are constantly bombarded with imagery and information, it’s a wonder our brains can keep up! What I love most about the work of New York artist, Peri Schwartz is her way of seeming to keep things simple in such a complicated world.
Studio XXVIII, 2010, 38×52
Using simple swathes of bold color, she distills objects and spaces into their purest planes and forms. We are no longer caught up in minute, mind-numbing detail, but instead, can enjoy her worlds for the lively, colorful spaces they are.
Studio XXXI, 2011, 38×50
She uses perspective to great advantage, as it is directs us and gives our too often over-saturated brains a bit of a rest.. sort of just gently pulling us along so that we know just what we are seeing before we even realize we are seeing it. 😉
Bottles and Jars XVI, 2011, 36×22
The peek-a-boo quality of the lines and grids give a hint that there is much more going on beneath the surface than our eyes may notice upon first glance.
Studio XXIX, 2010, 38×52
Doesn’t that always seem to be the case, though? We make simplistic conclusions about complicated processes. Each of these works are a complex juxtaposition of color, light and space, fooling our eye into seeing form and shape in a primitively intricate way.
Studio XXXII, 2011, 40×44
To see more of Peri Schwartz’s work, please visit her website.
There are certain artists whose work resonates with me, to whom I return again and again for inspiration. Vancouver, BC artist M.A. Tateishi is definitely an artist whose work fits into that category! I’m so happy to feature her over at Escape Into Life today. Please click on over and take a look at this extraordinary artist’s work!
Happy Valentine’s Day, Artsies! I hope you have plenty of love being lavished on you today and lots of folks in your life to love on. Here’s something I love: serving pieces that are a perfect balance of function, beauty and artistry. Here are a few beauties I found, pretty enough to serve the ones you love!
Hope you enjoy a wonderful V-day, hope it includes a meal with your favorite person ( or people ! ) and if served from a beautiful, handmade bowl, even better!
Featured image is the Dots Collection by Liz Kinder, available here.
I guess by technical definition, I’m a housewife. Besides writing and curating this blog ( which is completely a labor of love at this point ), I don’t work outside the home. Housewife would be a lot easier to explain than “art blogger” when people ask what I do. For the first time in my life, I’m taking care of a household consisting of more than just myself. In her Domestic Series, Massachusetts artist Leslie Graff explores perceptions about domestic life and relationships in our post-modern world.
Picking Up, acrylic on canvas, 30×40
Her cropped compositions and classic environmental and clothing choices create a universality to the imagery. These could be snapshots of life from virtually any decade in the last six decades.
Stirring Things Up, acrylic on canvas, 30×40
As much as our roles seem to have evolved over the years, have things really changed that much? My own husband definitely never pushes for our home to be immaculate or for dinner to be delicious and perfect every night, but as a woman, I find myself striving for that perfection and disappointed when I don’t deliver. Why is that?
6:12pm, acrylic on canvas, 30×40
Why, even when our husbands are happy to help with cooking, cleaning and kid care, do we still expect ourselves to be able to “do it all”? Is it Martha Stewart syndrome? Are we comparing ourselves to standards impossible to keep?
I'll Wash, You Dry, acrylic on canvas, 30×40It's Homemade, acrylic on canvas, 30×40
How about those among us who are artists as well as spouses, parents and perhaps have another day job, as well? How do you do it?! 🙂
Featured image is So Satisfying, acrylic on canvas, 30×40. All images are via the artist’s website.
I used to hate Valentine’s Day. Back when I was single, my friends and I often enjoyed Anti-Valentine celebrations. But now that I’m an old married lady ( it’s been an entire year of marital bliss! ), I revel in it. So today in honor of the upcoming V-Day, dear Artsies, I’m sharing my obnoxious lovey-doveyness with you! Here are some of my mushy-love-stuff faves..
Cleaning Is Addictive by Kelly ReemtsenSweetheart by Robert TownsendVentricle by Eva Milinkovic, Tsunami GlassworksLove by Jill Joy
May your weekend be filled with love! If you’re not on the receiving end, try giving some away!
I would like to extend a warm welcome to all the new Artsies who have joined in the fun! I’m so glad you’ve discovered Artsy Forager thanks to our feature on WordPress.com’s Freshly Pressed. I hope you’ll find as much stimulation, inspiration and just pure enjoyment in the artwork as I do! Feel free to roam around the site, there are lots of wonderful artists waiting to be discovered!
If you’re the social type, please come on over to Facebook & Twitter and connect with Artsy Forager there, too! Lots of goodies, fun and interesting tidbits are being shared there. And of course, feel free to share Artsy Forager with your friends!
Happy Tuesday, Artsies! Make sure to head over to Escape Into Life to check out today’s feature on Artsy Forager fave Sarah Ashley Longshore. One of her pieces would make any place more chic and fun, no?
Octopus Audrey, acrylic on canvas with high gloss resin, 24×24
We have come so far from what we once were. Humanity’s beginnings were so simple, but it seems we have become incredibly distanced from so many of the practices and traditions that were once essential. Perhaps that is why native inhabitants of foreign lands hold such fascination. San Francisco artist Lisa Congdon’s series Boreas explores the people, traditions and landscapes of Nordic countries, but she embraces them in a way that is modern yet still celebrates the ancient.
Sami Woman, graphite, gouache, paper & vintage ephemera in shadowbox, 11×14.2.5
Her portraits are solemnly and reverently rendered in graphite and traditional patterns are mimicked in ultra-bright pops of color and graphic punch.
Sami Girl
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Sami Man, graphite, gouache, paper, vintage ephemera & fake fur in shadowbox, 11x14x2.5
These feel as if they are a part of a time-capsule, created now, to be opened in one hundred years.. capturing people caught between two worlds, one ancient, one moving faster and faster away from all that they have known.
Kvinne, paper, vintage ephemera, & gouache in shadowbox, 11x14x2.5
To see more of Lisa Congdon’s work, please visit her website. If you’re near Portland, OR, you can catch her in a joint show at Land Gallery with Trish Grantham until March 3, 2012.
Featured image is Fjall, paper and vintage ephemera in shadowbox, 11x14x2.5. All images are via the artist’s website.
