Something about the warmer months make me long for the exotic. Maybe it’s childhood conditioning bringing on dreams of summer vacations to faraway places! I’ve always loved the work of Jill Ricci for her brilliant way of combining exotic motifs with pop art and urban graphics and her mixed media piece, Roam, perfectly inspires an urban globetrotter ensemble! This Mintzita Maxi Dress from Anthropologie embodies a free spirited, exotic traveler type.
How to make it just a tad more Ricci? Edge up the dress’s sweetness with a moto jacket and Chuck Taylors and suddenly it’s like you are living it up Ricci-style. Roam, if you want to. 😉
See more of the Wear the Artsy series in the archives!
I’m finding so much to inspire and aspire to in the work of other artists lately, especially in the way abstract artists approach composition and color. How some artists choose to include graphic or narrative elements eluding to a certain subject or influence, while others, like Emily Crabtree, simply let color and form do the talking.
I love the way her work twirls and drips in cottony bundles of color. In these paper pieces, the forms isolated against a clean white background, almost seem to pulsate and dare to flit about the surface. Peeking in from this side or that, the cropped compositions feel like a fleeting glimpse of clouds of color floating in and out of view.
Perhaps this is sacriledgious type talk, but I’ve never been a fan of the Wizard of Oz. I just never really connected with it. But I do love me some Judy Garland. Meet Me in St. Louis? Easter Parade? I’ll take those over flying monkeys any day! When it came time to think about an iconic Garland role to do a color study of for the Feminine Wiles series, A Star is Born‘s Vicki Lester seemed the quintessential choice.
In Lester’s rise to fame and the effects of her success on her marriage, we see a story of drive, devotion, self-sacrifice, and desolation. A sweeping melodrama filled with mountainous highs and the deepest of lows, it made sense for costume designers Jean Louis and Mary Ann Nyberg to dress Garland’s Vicki in moody lavenders, blues, and greys.
Judy Garland as Vicki Lester in A Star is Born, acrylic on canvas panel, 6×6
If you’d like to see more in the Feminine Wiles series, check out the archives! Gathering up inspiration for some more to come! Do you have a favorite you’d like to see me tackle? Let me know in the comments below!
All film image sources linked above. Art by Lesley Frenz aka Artsy Forager.
When you think about it, our entire world, every organism, every object is composed of a system of layers. Artwork included, especially the work of process driven artist Pam Saturday. Employing layer upon layer of paint and other media, the artist creates a universe in which we see only a fraction of reality.
Bold stripes and other forms may dominate, but for the close observer, there are small glimpses and surprises waiting to be discovered. Colors peek and peer from beneath their blankets of paint and we have no idea how much there is to be unearthed.
You know what made for a perfect Sunday afternoon for a young Artsy Forager? A few lazy, rainy hours and Pillow Talk on my parents’ bedroom TV. If I was ever tempted to trade my brunette locks for blonde, Doris Day could make me do it. As an awkward preteen growing up in the 80s, I was always drawn to Day’s down to earth flirtiness. So when I began the Feminine Wiles series, I knew without a doubt that Doris Day would make my list of inspirations.
The first of three movie pairings of the quintessential romantic comedy duo of Doris Day and Rock Hudson, Pillow Talk not only launched their iconic partnership, it also drew box office and critical acclaim. In the movie, Day plays Jan Morrow, an independent Manhattan interior decorator who finds herself sharing a party line with Hudson’s composer playboy Brad Allen.
Like many films of the era, Pillow Talk is painted in the pastel frosted palette of the late 1950s. Perhaps owing to Day’s trademark blonde locks, noted designer Jean Louis and the film’s costume designer Bill Thomas often dress Day’s Morrow in buttery yellows and creamy ivories.
Even in the set design, she is often surrounded by lemony hues. Maybe a nod to the innocence of this unattainable “golden girl” or the hidden warmth buried beneath the icy ( at least to Hudson’s Allen ) exterior.
Doris Day as Jan Morrow in Pillow Talk, acrylic on canvas panel, 6×6
Day’s natural sunniness and the joie de vivre of this classic romantic comedy made a creamy yellow color study a natural choice for this piece. Although Pillow Talk doesn’t necessarily hold up well in terms of gender equity, its brightness outshines its dated conventions.
Want to see more in my Feminine Wiles series? Check the archives! I’m beginning to brainstorm how to display and where to show these pieces. Think I have some fun ideas! If you’re a boutique or gallery owner or know someone who might be interested in partnering, give me a shout!
Film image sources linked above, painting by Lesley Frenz aka Artsy Forager.
Remember that tendency towards simplicity I mentioned yesterday? We’re continuing on that theme today! Wisconsin based artist Robert Atwell creates striking paintings using shapes so simple they are almost instantly recognizable, yet still remain ambiguous.
Atwell draws upon his graphics background to great effect– the bold colors and simple forms communicate to the viewer instantly, although we may not know exactly what it is we’re seeing, we know we recognize it. A swing, a kite, a camera, who knows? It is in the not knowing that the art is found.
To see more of Robert Atwell’s work, please visit his website. You can see his work in person at his representing galleries Gilman Contemporary in Ketchum, Idaho and Simon Gallery in Morristown, New Jersey.
Or maybe it would have been more appropriate for this to be Painting 8. This seventh painting in my series of small color studies,Feminine Wiles, is based on Elizabeth Taylor in Butterfield 8. Elizabeth Taylor plays Gloria Wandrous, a promiscuous party-girl model with a propensity for attracting wealthy suitors.
Although Taylor has been said to have disliked the film, her performance garnered the actress her first Oscar. Gloria is a character filled with passion and sexuality, but flawed in her own humanity. I thought it was so fitting that the palette of the film should be so full of fleshy pinks and peaches.
Elizabeth Taylor as Gloria Wandrous in Butterfield 8, acrylic on canvas panel, 6×6
To see more of my Feminine Wiles series, check out the archives here. Oh and Feminine Wiles has received its first bit of press! The Woven Tale Press included a spread on FW in their latest issue! So exciting!
Butterfield 8 image source linked above, art by Lesley Frenz aka Artsy Forager.
As human types, we are in a constant state of flux. Even when we think we aren’t moving, we are constantly evolving in this direction or that. In these paintings by Los Angeles artist Allison Miller, we see the evolution of her process, the results leaving me feeling slightly off kilter in the best possible way.
In order to gain a fresh perspective on their work, many artists will turn their canvases on their sides or upside down. But they don’t always leave them that way to continue painting. Miller allows those twists and turns to be evident in the final painting– leaving us with paint that defies gravity by dripping up and compositions that delight no matter which way the canvas is turned.
As people, we too are molded and shaped as our circumstances twist and turn, allowing us to be carved into our most recent incarnation. But soon, our human canvas will rotate once again and we’ll add yet another layer to our composition.
It’s often a challenge to put a finger on just what it is about an artist’s work that draws me in. But in the case of the work of Jessica Bell, I’m pretty sure I can pin it down. There is something in her visual language that I’m connecting to, something in the way she is communicating leading me down visual pathways into her process.
Maybe it’s the way she plays with color, planes and simple shapes to evoke a certain place or point in time. Or perhaps it is her use of visual and physical texture in subtle and spare ways. Or the process of layering only to conceal or reveal as needed. Whatever it is, there is a richness and complexity to her work that indicates an artist physically working through each composition on canvas. An organic, evolutionary process that I find so intriguing! Each piece seems a capturing not just of a work of art but a record of art making.
Let’s switch gears a bit, shall we? Looking back over this week’s posts so far, I’ve been in a bit of a nature-obsessed-state, so how about we throw in something different? I spotted the the work of this artist last week on the Little Paper Planes blog and knew I wanted to feature her work pronto! In these mixed media pieces, Gianna Commito is creating a playground of planes and patterns.
Just a simple shift in line creates a skewed perspective that leads us down the path to another inverted plane and then to another and another. It’s like a geometric rabbit hole that I am happy to get lost in! There’s a natural correlation to cityscapes and architecture, but I see parallels to the natural world as well ( there I go again! ). Towering cliffs and slot canyons, redwood burls and nurse logs. We are all just planes resting on top of more planes.
