Category: Figurative

  • Homages to Hopper: Richard Tuschman

    Homages to Hopper: Richard Tuschman

    Edward Hopper‘s body of work is one revered and admired by many artists and art lovers, including this Forager.  New York photographer Richard Tuschman  found himself drawn to the painter’s method of visual storytelling, saying so much with so very little.  He created the series Hopper Meditations as an homage to the renowned artist’s work, yet these are not exact recreations, Tuschman tells Hopper’s stories in much of his own language.

    Morning Sun by Richard Tuschman Pink Bedroom ( Window Seat ) by Richard Tuschman Green Bedroom ( Morning ) by Richard Tuschman Woman with Book and Letter by Richard Tuschman Pink Bedroom ( Family ) by Richard Tuschman

    The paintings of Edward Hopper focus on scenes from the stories that unfold in everyday life and just as minutia takes center stage, Tuschman methodically recreates Hopper’s compositions creating dioramas into which figures are painstakingly photoshopped.   It isn’t surprising that a photographer should find such inspiration in the work of Hopper, his paintings having an almost photographic, slice-of-life style of composition.  Yet, in Tuschman’s images, there is a softness to the light and a warmth to the palette that yields a sense of intimacy to the scenes, whereas Hopper’s originals seem much more cooly detached.

    To see more of Richard Tuschman‘s work, please visit his website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Southern Comforts: Jon Davenport

    Southern Comforts: Jon Davenport

    I’m a Southern girl.  You may not know that about me, since we’ve been all over the Northwest during most of Artsy Forager’s existence.  OK some may not include Florida as the Deep South, but North Florida is pretty dang close to South Georgia, which is pretty dang Southern.  Mr. F is a Southern boy and while we definitely feel more at home in the Northwest, there are things about the South that are so incredibly identifiable and iconic, that only Southerners, whether by birth or transplant, truly understand.  Artist Jon Davenport came to the US South by way of the UK where he grew up well versed in Southern iconography, but it wasn’t until he was fully immersed in its culture that he began his artistic exploration of distinctly Southern tastes.

    Cola Queen by Jon Davenport Sweet by Jon Davenport Refresh by Jon Davenport Fried Chicken Basket II by Jon Davenport Atlantic by Jon Davenport

    Jon, who shares a similar style to his wife, this month’s Featured Artist Christy Kinard, creates heavily textured, layered work filled with vintage advertising imagery much of which built up our ideas about life in the South, for better or for worse.  Some of these icons can still be seen as faded paintings on the sides of buildings, especially in small Southern towns.  In many ways, there is a fierce desire to hold onto the past in the South, where Sunday dinners at grandma’s and yes ma’am and no ma’am are still the norm.

    Yet behind the fun and frivolity and charm, there was a darkness that would best be forgotten and which many Southern cities are still fighting to overcome.  Many strive to overcome lingering stereotypes and “Ol’ Boys Networks”, while seeking to maintain the best of what it means to be a part of what has been a troubled region.  Davenport’s work with its bright but slightly faded palette and layered drips and splotches of paint remind us that time marches on, ideals fade, but hopefully what is left is our favorite, most positive parts of ourselves.

    To see more of Jon Davenport‘s work, please visit his website.  His work can be seen in his solo show at Matre Gallery in Atlanta through February 8th.  Stay tuned over the next few days for interviews with Jon & Christy in a special “He Said, She Said” feature on what it’s like to be half of a creative couple!

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Behind the Curtain: Patty Carroll

    Behind the Curtain: Patty Carroll

    Mr. Forager and I are without a home.  We have a roof over our heads always, but as we move from furnished rental to furnished rental, none of them are actually home.  A place that is ours, filled with our own tastes and personalities.  In a way, it is incredibly freeing– if we had a home to decorate, believe me, I would spend waaay too much time doing so!  This idea of creating a beautiful, comfortable home has been around for centuries and continues to be perpetuated and heightened today by magazines, blogs, and social media. The burden of home-making, often self-inflicted, usually falls to women.  In her Anonymous Women: Draped series, photographer Patty Carroll explores the idea that we become so obsessed with creating a perfect space that we lose ourselves in the process.

    Pink Chair by Patty Carroll Easter Hat by Patty Carroll Pray by Patty Carroll Ecru Shade by Patty Carroll Serve by Patty Carroll

    From the artist’s website, “I am addressing the double edge of domesticity; the home as a place of comfort, or conversely, a place where decoration camouflages one’s individuality to the point of claustrophobia“. Or to the point of invisibility.  If, like me, you’re a reader of interior design blogs, think about the homes you see– don’t they all kind of look a bit alike?  We follow trends and take hold of popular styles, never really considering whether or not it truly reflects who we are.  I look back on some of my own choices and wonder, who was I?  The answer– I had no clue who I was, so my choices reflected that lost sense of self.

    And its not only in decorating our homes that we lose ourselves, but in fashion, work, tradition, emotion, even as members of larger groups, we immerse ourselves, taking on characteristics that may not otherwise have been a part of who we are.  Then, its only when we separate ourselves that we realize that the entire time we felt that sense of belonging, we, as individuals, were actually lost.

    More work by Patty Carroll can be seen on her website— please do check it out!

    All images are via the artist’s website.  Artist found via Trendland.

  • Surfaced Memories: Jane Hambleton

    Surfaced Memories: Jane Hambleton

    Thumbing through an old photo album.  Spending an afternoon sifting through the contents of a cedar chest.  These are things I took for granted before we started traveling.  I’m even a bit envious of friends posting childhood photos of themselves all over Instagram for “throwback Thursdays”.  All of my nostalgic ephemera is tucked away in a storage unit in Seattle.  So I couldn’t help gushing over the work of Berkley artist Jane Hambleton whose mixed media pieces layer together glimpses of time into collected memories.

    Fragment III by Jane Hambleton | artsy forager #art #mixedmedia

    Hambleton_Fragment II

    Fragment Installation by Jane Hambleton | artsy forager #art #mixedmedia Memoria XIV by Jane Hambleton | artsy forager Write It Down by Jane Hambleton | artsy forager #art #mixedmedia Patterns in Place II by Jane Hambleton Color Dive by Jane Hambleton

    Beautifully textured, these created fragments seem torn from life’s scrapbook.  Sweet, momentary glimpses into a day, a summer, a moment that may have long been forgotten.  Each piece is lovely on its own, but when put together into installations, as the artist intends for each series, we see not only black and white memories, but blank canvases of color.  Perhaps these are the times that aren’t specifically remembered, yet in our minds they are still colored with feeling.

    To see more work by Jane Hambleton, please visit her website or the website of her representing gallery, Seager Gray Gallery.

    All images via the artist’s or gallery’s website.

  • The Mirror Has Many Faces: Reinhard Voss

    The Mirror Has Many Faces: Reinhard Voss

    The We Are the Contributors mini project got me thinking recently about the various roles we play.  Yet we aren’t just taking on different tasks, we’re often putting on an almost completely different persona according to where we are and with whom we’re interacting.  These sculptures by German artist Reinhard Voss, with their Cubist-like style seem to give us a physical manifestation of the various faces we put on.

    Not Exactly by Reinhard Voss OT by Reinhard Voss Sickle Veiled by Reinhard Voss Hampstead Heath by Reinhard Voss Novel Ro by Reinhard Voss

    Voss’s sculptures are created by piecing together strips of wood, leaving our eyes to see the varying grains and planes making up each face.  The effect is eerie at times, resulting in a face contorted or seeming to have been erased.

    The different “faces” we put on can be so similar, can’t they?  We might lose our mouth ( i.e. hold our tongue ) in certain situations or be blinded in others.  How often do we are we truly showing who we are?  In what company do we feel we can show the most honest face?

    To see more of Reinhard Voss‘s work, please visit his website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Grand Flora: Matt Wedel

    Grand Flora: Matt Wedel

    One of the things that continues to draw Mr. F and I to the Northwest is the bigness of this world.  Everything just seems to exist on a grand scale here– trees tower, mountains loom, rivers stretch far and wide.  In his sculptural work, artist Matt Wedel  creates fantastical oversized forms and flowers, leaving no doubt that sometimes bigger is indeed better.

    Sheep with Flowers by Matt Wedel Flower Tree 2010 by Matt Wedel Flower Tree 2013 by Matt Wedel

    Flower Tree 2013 by Matt Wedel Portrait by Matt Wedel

    Wedel’s larger than life flowers and plant forms spring forth from craggy rock-like shapes, fairly bursting forth as if they simply cannot be contained.  Color spills down from their petals, as if the life held therein is overflowing onto the rock below.  Exaggerated faces and fantastical forms create a wonderland where we might come to recognize that humans really are so very small.

    To see more of Matt Wedel‘s work, please visit his website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • The Not-So Secret Lives of Artists: Holly Frean

    The Not-So Secret Lives of Artists: Holly Frean

    What drew me to my college art history major wasn’t just the artwork itself, which obviously astounded me, but it was the stories of the artists themselves and how the way they lived influenced their work that fascinated me.  In her grids of small scale works, London artist Holly Frean playfully gives us glimpses into art history and the lives of artists.

    Sixty Four Artists Painting Self Portraits by Holly Frean A Day in the Life of Picasso #2 by Holly Frean Hommage to Chuck Close by Holly Frean A Day in the Life of Edouard Vuillard by Holly Frean Lucian Freud Paints the Queen by Holly Frean

    Small, seemingly insignificant moments like Rothko stretching or Picasso picnicking are captured alongside “larger” events like Lucian Freud painting Queen Elizabeth’s portrait.  For all our adoration and their notoriety, works like Frean’s help us to remember that these master artists were every day people, experiencing much of the same mundane moments of life that we do, with a peppering of the extraordinary.

    In these tiny little images, we get a film-strip like glimpse into a day or event in the life of the artist.  Frean keeps her compositions simple so that much is conveyed with a small amount of visual information.  The grids read almost like an Instagram feed, screen captures of each instant, which may reveal much or leave much to the imagination.

    To see more of Holly Frean‘s work, please visit her website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • The Body Sculptural: Isabelle Wenzel

    The Body Sculptural: Isabelle Wenzel

    ‘Tis the season for transformational decision making aka New Year’s resolutions. We’ve all made our lists of who we’d like to be by the end of 2014– physically, mentally, emotionally.  We start off the year with such hopes and expectations for ourselves.  We make concrete goals but have we given consideration to changes in thinking and perception?  What if instead, we concentrated on how we see ourselves?  In her Models as Surfaces series, photographer Isabelle Wenzel  challenges our perceptions by treating the human body as sculpture.

    Model #5 by Isabelle Wenzel Model #2 by Isabelle Wenzel Model #1 by Isabelle Wenzel Model #7 by Isabelle Wenzel Model #6 by Isabelle Wenzel

    We most likely think of ourselves in labels that have been put upon us by others– she’s the pretty one, he’s the funny one, etc.  But we are so much more than who we are pigeonholed to be.  We have the power to transform ourselves, just as Wenzel’s models transform their bodies into headless, sculptural shapes.

    So maybe our resolutions shouldn’t be so much goal oriented as perception oriented.  Instead of a resolution to create a painting a week, how about a goal of changing your perception of how you see yourself as an artist?  Or instead of the highly popular diet resolution, change the way you view food and how your think about your own body.  We can change our minds first and the rest will follow.  I’m resolving to give it a shot!  Who’s with me?

    If you’d like to see more of Isabelle Wenzel‘s work, please visit her website.

    All images via the artist’s website.  Artist found via Design For Mankind.

  • Affronting Our Fronts: Tristan Pigott

    Affronting Our Fronts: Tristan Pigott

    We all want to present ourselves in the best way possible.  But with the infiltration of social media into every aspect of our lives, its tempting to cross the line over from putting our best foot forward to presenting an inauthentic picture of who we are.  In his work, artist Tristan Pigott examines our habits of self-projection and the superficiality we often perpetuate.

    Tristan Pigott | artsy forager #art #painting What's Your Point by Tristan Pigott Tell Me by Tristan Pigott Tristan Pigott | artsy forager #art #paintings Waiting by Tristan Pigott | artsy forager #art #paintings

    His compositions employ fashion models in the place of “ordinary” people, to further enforce the notion of the fronts and facades we create for ourselves.  It’s so easy to fall into the trap of wanting every photo we post to be beautiful, to encite envy among our social media followers and to lead them to believe we live a life to which they should aspire.  And maybe we do in some ways.  But in other respects, each life is filled with the same sorts of gunk and uncomfortable human stuff that we are all too often so very careful to edit out.  How many photos have you seen this holiday season of burnt cookies?  Or a child in mid-meltdown because Santa didn’t bring exactly what he asked for?  Not many, I’m guessing. I certainly didn’t post the photos of the burnt Honey Rosemary Pecans I made or my non-made up face upon waking first thing Christmas morning.

    Why?  Because I’m chicken.  I don’t want the world to see the dark circles under my eyes or to know that I occasionally leave food in the oven just a bit too long. ( Oops guess now you know my secret! ).  Like everyone else, I want the world to see my life as beautiful.  But here’s the thing.  Every life IS beautiful.  Filled with beauty.  It may not be magazine spread perfect, but each and every one of our lives is full of moments that take our breath away, that make us laugh and yes, make us mad or embarrassed.  But what makes our lives the beautiful messes that they are is embracing the imperfectness, being able to laugh with and at ourselves.  Letting people into our beautiful mess.

    To see more of Tristan Pigott‘s work, please visit his website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Stories Retold: Marybeth Rothman

    Stories Retold: Marybeth Rothman

    When I was young, one of my favorite grandmother’s house activities was to sit with her and go through the piles and piles of photo albums she meticulously collected and kept.  I was enchanted by seeing my grandparents when they were young, my mom and uncle as children and black & white pictures of countless relatives I never chanced to meet.  After my grandparents passed, my mom, brother and I sat around her dining table and tried to go through all the photos.  We discovered a good many whose faces we didn’t recognize and surprisingly, my grandmother didn’t label.  Who were these people?  What had them meant to our grandparents?  In her encaustic mixed media work, New Jersey artist Marybeth Rothman takes vintage photo booth pictures without identity and puts new stories to old faces.

    Clotho III by Marybeth Rothman Lachesis III by Marybeth Rothman Atropos III by Marybeth Rothman Fern by Marybeth Rothman T George Bell by Marybeth Rothman

    The artist gives new life to these abandoned portraits, seeing connections between strangers, reimagining them as icons of Greek mythology and fictional characters.  The tiny photographs are enlarged to a grand scale, giving even further importance to these forgotten faces.

    It does make me wonder, what will become of all our own memories?  Especially now that most personal photos are digitized, there will no longer be boxes and albums of photographs to be unearthed.  Will living our lives digitally allow for a better keeping of record or will all be lost when the technology we’ve used becomes obsolete?

    To see more work by Marybeth Rothman, please visit her website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.