Please enjoy this oldie by goodie while I spend the next two weeks camping, packing, visiting with the mom-in-law and moving from WA to OR. See you in September!
I can’t believe it is the end of another week already. The time is quickly flying by as George and I prepare to make our way to the West Coast. I plan to take LOTS of photos both on our trip and once we have arrived. But alas, I am merely the point & shoot type. Oh, I try to compose a nice shot or get all artsy with the angles and such, but I have a long way to go.
I took a few photography classes in high school and college and well, let’s just say I never did quite get the hang of it. I am mechanically challenged to say the least. I have such respect for fine art photographers, because I know how difficult getting that perfect shot can be. So today’s faves feature some of my favorite photogs!
Please note that unfortunately, Christina is no longer in this studio. She is actively created from her home studio– but I loved this insight into her creative world.
Christina Foard is above the clouds– literally and figuratively. Her new studio space sits high above downtown Jacksonville in the AT&T building. How could she not be over the moon? This is her view, ya’ll!
Despite the breathtaking view or perhaps, in part, because of it, Christina admits her new studio was a bit overwhelming when she first moved in. An empty office space, originally intended for row upon row of cubicles, proved challenging to figure out how to best utilize as an art studio. But a huge advantage to so much space? Christina has room to breath and room to create.
Ditto goes for her three kids, who are often at the studio with her, sometimes for hours on end. There is plenty of room for them to run around, even skateboard(!) throughout the studio and Christina has set up a “living room” so that she and the kids have a place to relax while she’s in the studio.
There is also room for Christina, the artist, to “play”. When stuck for direction or just needing to get some creative juices flowing, she can plop herself down on the floor and play with paint and paper or stand over it and do some “Pollock-style” action painting. If that won’t get your painting mojo working, nothing will.
Christina’s work is autobiographical– each piece is about a particular time, place, person or memory and is often used as a kind of catharsis, a way of working through a particular memory and replacing what may have been a negative with a positive. Though a lot of her work is technically representational ( centered around recognizable objects ), it is also highly symbolic. Circles and ribbons have begun popping up in Christina’s work lately, often symbolizing the intrusion of a chaos of thought on a peaceful mind.
Just as her life is constantly changing and evolving, so too, is Christina’s work. For this artist, it is more about the process of creating than a finished “marketable” product. ( Though people do respond to her work and it sells quite well ). The paintings she creates aren’t necessarily “precious”, she will often go back and not just tweak but completely rework a piece so that it hardly resembles its former self.
The pieces pictured below, for instance, are works in progress.. they may not exist as you see them a week from now.
This new space is allowing Christina to grow as an artist like never before. She is filled with ideas and there are stacks of new canvases just waiting for paint.
The new studio is also giving her a chance to venture into collage and sculpture. She has wiped her slate clean of exhibitions and shows until early next year, to give herself time to rejuevenate, reinvigorate and explore where her art will take her. I can’t wait to see where the journey leads!
Please enjoy this oldie by goodie while I spend the next two weeks camping, packing, visiting with the mom-in-law and moving from WA to OR. See you in September!
I never fail to be blown away by the humility I find in amazingly talented artists. When Deborah Scott contacted me after I posted in the Seattle Artists group on LinkedIn, I had no idea what I would find when I clicked on her website. It thrills me beyond belief when an artist contacts me to be featured on Artsy Forager and I go to their website and find artwork that is fresh, unique and unlike anything I’ve seen before. Goosebumps, ya’ll!!
This Seattle area born & bred artist began her professional life in a marketing career working for big brands like Betty Crocker and Amazon.com. She would eventually leave the marketing world behind, pursuing art full force, immersing herself in arts education and copying the work of old masters.
Balance, oil and mixed media on canvas, 36×69
Her familiarity with image recognition and brand iconography comes through in her narrative figural work, where she employs classical compositions and perspectives juxtaposed against modern branding instantly recognizable to our 21st century eyes.
Lucky Charms, oil and mixed media on canvas, 36×60Consumption of Innocence, oil and mixed media on canvas, 36×60Stalemate, oil and mixed media on canvas, 36×60
Like the classical masters she studied, Deborah’s work has layers of meaning, symbols abound– some obvious, others more subversive. But the result causes us to pause and consider, truly gaze at each work, wondering what the artist is getting at.. Is she poking fun? Is she making a serious commentary on a topical issue? A little bit of both?
The meaning isn’t obvious. Though realistic in style, Deborah’s work seems abstract in meaning. A blending of the best of both worlds, if you ask me.
Check out more of Deborah Scott’s work on her website, here. Her work is currently on display at the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, WA and The Hive Gallery in Los Angeles. She hits the East Coast next year, showing at Susan Eley Fine Art in NYC.
Please enjoy this oldie by goodie while I spend the next two weeks camping, packing, visiting with the mom-in-law and moving from WA to OR. See you in September!
Art
Art isn’t just limited paint on a canvas or carved marble. Anyone who knows me knows that I love shoes, so these babies by Israeli born designer Kobi Levi won me over at first glance. Amazing stuff! I hope you enjoy seeing them as much as I did!
It’s been such a grey, gloomy week here in North Florida, that I thought we could all do with a little sunshine! Maribel Angel’s work never fails to make me smile. Maribel grew up in a Spanish speaking family and their influence definitely comes through in the vitality and liveliness of her work.
Maribel’s work tells a story, one that comes from within her own imagination and world of dreams. A place filled with festive color, galloping horses, flying bunnies and fanciful birds.
As Maribel’s work symbolically explores the effects of layers of time and history, so her treatment of her mediums are often a layering of paper, images, paint, text and symbols.
It is in these details that Maribel’s graphic design background comes through. Not only in the use and placement of text, but also in the juxtapositions of color and pattern. Actually, I’ve always thought she could be a very successful textile designer. I would totally buy a fabric or wallcovering in the design of “Bohemian Blossom” ( pictured below ), wouldn’t you? I’m picturing a this on a full skirt with a crisp white shirt and floppy straw hat!
So, Maribel Angel.. Painter-Graphic Designer-Future Textile Designer ( if I had my way! ).. let’s see, any other hyphenates to describe this multi-talented artist? Oh, that’s right–she’s also a sculptor!!
Maribel takes found objects and gives them new life in her assemblages and I must admit, I find every one of these “Cuckoos Nest” birds absolutely charming. Seriously, I’ve never met one I didn’t completely fall for. Maribel was sweet enough to give me a wonderful miniature guy and it is one of my favorite possessions.
Madeleine Peck-Wagner has a way of taking subjects that could be trite and making them extraordinary. Her latest series features mythical wolves and horses, but in Madeline’s hands, they are treated in a way that is contemporary and elegant. The cross-hatching & precision of the lines are reminiscent of architectural drafting, giving the figures depicted a strutctural, landscaped quality. Conversely, blots and washes of brightly colored paints call to the spiritual significance such animals, both living and decayed possess.
Fighting HessiansRussian Winter IIWolves At The DoorWe Are All Tragedies
Encaustic painting is a favorite medium of mine. Their waxy, frosting-like texture sends me over the moon. Every time I’m in a gallery, I will be drawn to the encaustics, guaranteed. So for this Friday round-up, I’m sharing with you some of my favorite waxy painters.
Why Stream Upstream by Mary Farmer, encaustic on canvas, 40×40
Whirl #1 by Wendy Franklund Miller, encaustic on wood, 12×12
Interplay by Nancy Natale, encaustic with fiber, oilstick and oil paint on birch, 24×24
Do you have any favorite encaustic artists I should know about? Do tell! To see more work from these fabulous encaustic artists, please visit their websites.
Featured image is Crossroads by Nancy Natale. All images are courtesy of the artist’s websites.
PS– As the hubby and I prepare to move from Aberdeen to his new assignment in Grants Pass, OR AND enjoy some camping and a visit from my mom-in-law, Artsy Forager will be rerunning some older posts over the next two weeks. Hopefully, this will give new readers a chance to see some artists that were featured back when the only people reading were my family and friends. 🙂
Upon first seeing Lori Nix’s photographs, you might think she must have an unbelievable knack for scoping out interesting places in various states of destruction and decay. But look a little closer. These places aren’t real at all. They are tiny apocalyptic scenes of the artist’s own making.
Laundromat, 2008
This Brooklyn-based artist designs and creates a miniature diorama for each scene, always keeping in mind the angle from which the scene will eventually be shot. The tiny models can take up to seven months to complete and two weeks to shoot. The photos are reproduced at a large scale, so attention to even the minutest detail is crucial.
Library, 2007
Why the images of destruction? Nix spent her childhood in rural Kansas, where natural disasters are a way of life. As a child, she remembers the destruction as exciting, something new and unexpected breaking up the doldrums of every day life. She is also influenced by the Hudson River School for its characteristics of romanticism and The Sublime movement, which focused on an “evocation of profound emotion”.
Aquarium, 2007
There is something quite fascinating about these images of devastation, in the wonderment of what could have wreaked such chaos, whether natural disaster, human neglect or perhaps something more sinister and subversive.
Fountain, 2008
In the deconstruction of the scenes, there is created a greater depth than there would be in an intact space. We are caught in the midst of a story, like beginning a dream in the middle of the action.
Beauty Shop, 2010
I first saw Lori’s work in ClampArt gallery in NYC in 2009 and it stayed with me. If you like it as much as I do, be sure to check out the artist’s website and Facebook page. If you’re in the Portland, OR area, her work can be seen at G. Gibson Gallery or in New York at ClampArt.
Featured image is Natural History 2005 by Lori Nix. All images are courtesty of the artist’s website.
So many times when we think of paintings, it brings to mind mostly oils and acrylics. But there are a few artists out there who are creating artwork on canvas utilizing a medium usually reserved for more prosaic pursuits– like making out grocery lists. Artists like Joan Salo are creating large scale artwork using pens.
These aren’t your traditional pen and ink drawings. These are pen-drawn abstract paintings on canvas, as rich and vibrant as any oil painting. These are like the spirographs we did as kids, taken to a whole new, grown-up level. Vibrant colors, rendered in an organic, yet orderly composition. These paintings have such a sense of movement, they almost seem alive.
Untitled, pen on canvas
Some patterns are creations of color and shape woven together like textiles, creating a plaid-like composition.
Untitled, pen on canvas
While others seem more like representations of wavelengths..
Untitled, pen on canvas
… or call to mind a colorful cave filled with stalactites.
Untitled, pen on canvas
Whatever it is that we see in Salo’s abstract works, she is reminding us that artists have long taken every day tools and used them to create the extraordinary.
To see more of Barcelona artist Joan Salo’s work, please visit her website.
Today, I have a case of the mean reds. If you know what that means, you’re awesome. If you don’t know what that means, you need to watch Breakfast at Tiffany’s asap. Holly Golightly’s cure for the mean reds is to get in a cab and go to Tiffany’s. Well, there is nothing even closely resembling a Tiffany’s here in Aberdeen. It wouldn’t be my happy place anyway. Anthropologie would be more like it, but there’s nothing like one of those here either. So today, I’m trying to cure the mean reds by enjoying some artwork featuring Miss Golightly herself, the fabulous Audrey Hepburn. Yes, I know I’ve already done a feature on Sarah Ashley Longshore’s Audreys. But she’s been busy painting some new ones, so I think they deserve a second look. And a third and fourth look. Really, as long as she’s painting them, they’ll be showing up here.
Now that is all the chatting I feel up to today. Enjoy Sarah’s Hepburns. Don’t be surprised if you’re suddenly seized by the urge to put on a little black dress and pearls.
Mariposa, acrylic on canvas with high-gloss resin, 60×72Audrey With Peacock, acrylic on canvas with high-gloss resin, 48×72Audrey Underwater With Goldfish, acrylic on canvas with high-gloss resin, 24×24Audrey Rojo, acrylic on canvas with high-gloss resin, 24×24
You can see more of Sarah Ashley Longshore’s work on her website or by visiting the Gallery Orange website, her representation in New Orleans.
Art
