artsy forager

Category: Daily Artsy

Artists featured in a solo spot on Artsy Forager

  • Having Your Cake: Lori Larusso

    Having Your Cake: Lori Larusso

    You know one thing I miss about working in an office?  Cake days.  Birthdays, new babies, going aways, work anniversaries– any excuse to have an afternoon cake break in the lunch room.  I was always amazed by how having a little treat in the middle of the day made the work day seem just a bit special.  I can almost taste these painted treats by Kentucky artist Lori Larusso.

    Its Not My Birthday, That's Not My (Orange Slices) Cake by Lori Larusso It's Not My Birthday, That's Not My Cake ( On a Doily ) by Lori Larusso New 5 Black by Lori Larusso It's Not My Birthday, That's Not My Cake ( Blue ) by Lori Larusso Candy For Lunch by Lori Larusso

    It’s interesting how important food is, the preparing of it, the gathering, the sharing and consuming, to so many cultures, including our own.  How baking cookies for someone is a warm and welcome way to say thank you and how we wouldn’t dream of having a celebration without food!  Why do you think that is?  Perhaps because our need to eat is so universal?  Because we all need and crave food, it’s the perfect ice breaker and status leveler.  Maybe that cupcake isn’t on our diet, but the child we share it with will remember the moment always.

    To see more of Lori Larusso‘s work, please visit her website.  Her work will be showing as part of a traveling exhibition at the Schneider Museum of Art at SOU in Ashland, OR until March 15th.

    All images are via the website of the artist’s representing gallery, Skidmore Contemporary Art.

  • February Featured Artist: Jenny Brown

    February Featured Artist: Jenny Brown

    It’s happened again.  We’ve turned over the calendar page to a new month.  February is such a short & sweet month, isn’t it?  It’s here and then over before we know it, but while it remains, it’s filled with Valentines and chocolates, hugs and kisses and cuddles.  The work of this month’s Featured Artist Jenny Brown with her use of antique papers and ephemera seemed the perfect way to put just a little more love into the next 28 days!

    Flowering Jelly #5 by Jenny Brown | artsy forager #art #collage #flowers Flowering Jelly #6 by Jenny Brown Flowering Egg by Jenny Brown | artsy forager #art #collage #flowers #egg Flowering Cephalopod by Jenny Brown Flowering Seed #8 by Jenny Brown

    Jenny collects antique papiers and books, which she methodically and meticulously weaves together to create these magical organisms that seem to float in the ether.  Each small element is put into place just so, resulting in a delightfully real fictitious character on the page, like little Victorian nymphs.

    To see more of Jenny Brown’s work, make sure you head over to her website.  Jenny is opening two shows this month–  she’ll be in the Enormous Tiny Art Show at Nahcotta in Portsmouth, NH and over here in the Northwest at Ghost Gallery in Seattle.  If you’re in either area, please check out her work in person!  You can also follow Jenny on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram ( her feed is so fun! ), and Pinterest.  Four of Jenny’s pieces are gracing the Artsy Forager Facebook cover for the month AND I’ve compiled an album over there of the Jenny Brown’s I love the most.

    All images are via the artist.

  • We are the Wild: Christoffer Relander

    We are the Wild: Christoffer Relander

    If you’ve been reading the blog for a while, you might have caught on that Mr. F and I are hikers.  Not quite in the super long distance-backpackers way ( though Mr. F could do it and has! ), but when the weather is good, most of our weekends are spent winding our way through the woods.  We love winter time, the cold and the snow, but the chillier season means that we go for long stretches without out woodsy walking.  And that can make us a mite antsy.  In these in-camera(!!) multiple exposure portraits, UK photographer Christoffer Relander  reminds us that even in dormant seasons, there is a wilderness in each of us.

    Christoffer Relander Christoffer Relander Christoffer Relander Christoffer Relander Christoffer Relander

    It only had to do with how it felt to be in the wild. With what it was like to walk for miles for no reason other than to witness the accumulation of trees and meadows, mountains and deserts, streams and rock, rivers and grasses, sunrises and sunsets.
    — Cheryl Strayed, Wild

    I’ve been reading the book quoted above lately and so much of it rings true for me.  How we start out on each journey with so much baggage, slowly stripping ourselves of what isn’t necessary, how much nature welcomes us and takes care of us.  And once we spend time in her presence, how every other place no matter how welcome, feels foreign and cold.

    I’m hoping Mr. F and I are able to get out into the woods a little this weekend, my soul needs a bit of a recharge.  Hope you have a wonderful restful weekend, too!  Perhaps you’ll be able to embrace a bit of your own inner wilderness.

    To see more of Christoffer Relander‘s work, please visit his website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.  Artist found via This is Colossal.

  • Artsy Lately: Clare Elsaesser

    Artsy Lately: Clare Elsaesser

    I love writing this blog so much.  One of my favorite reasons?  An excuse to follow the artistic journey of so many amazing artists.  California artist Clare Elsaesser was among some of the first artists featured on Artsy Forager and her work just continues to evolve and grow.  This latest body of work is so stunning, I couldn’t wait any longer to give you a peek.

    Southern Shore by Clare Elsaesser In All Directions by Clare Elsaesser Unclasped by Clare Elsaesser The Point by Clare Elsaesser

    Clare’s work is moving into a more complex, narrative direction with these, yet still retaining the simplicity and graphic style that is her artistic trademark.  There is so much visual texture and depth and the emotionality that is always present in her work really takes center stage.  It feels like we are being given short glimpses into not just a moment in physical existence, but a visceral, intimate look into the spirit of a moment.

    To see more of Clare Elsaesser‘s work, please visit her website.  Prints of Clare’s work are available in her Etsy shop!

  • Fragile Lives: Tanis Saxby

    Fragile Lives: Tanis Saxby

    Flustered.  Anxious.  Stressed.  Extra crabby.  These are just a few ways to describe how I’ve been feeling lately.  My freelance work is busier than ever, I’m working under a deadline for a project debuting in March that I’m really excited ( and super stressed ) about, and I’ve just added more by creating an Instagram project for the month of February!  The work of sculptor Tanis Saxby is just exactly what I need to focus on right now.. pure, flowing, and delicate, they remind me of the fragility of this life.

    Tanis Saxby Tanis Saxby Tanis Saxby Tanis Saxby Tanis Saxby

    Life is such a delicate balance.  Too much of one thing or another is enough to set us off into dangerous territory.  How much I sometimes envy the birds and animals of the woods, how simple their needs and how instinctual their purpose!

    Much of Tanis Saxby’s work is an embodiment of the vulnerability of life, the sculptures in her Flow & True series speak to the delicate strength possessed by all life and the movement and transitory forms of every element in nature.  Her Dandelion & Bone series continue along this theme, especially focusing on the ethereal dandelion seed.  The flower, often thought of as a weed, has held the wishes of many a young child ( and this Artsy adult! ).

    So I plan to gaze awhile at these lovely creations and focus on the flow of good coming into and going out of my life.  There is so much more to be thankful for than to be stressed over.

    To see more of Tanis Saxby’s work, please visit her website.

    Thank you to artist M.A. Tateishi for introducing me to Tanis’s work!  All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Going to 11: Dane Lovett

    Going to 11: Dane Lovett

    Music is an amazing connector.  We can be at a concert with thousands of strangers and share one voice.  We smile and wink at the fellow coffee shop patron secretly singing along to the ubiquitous Mumford and Sons Pandora station.  For those who love it, music has the power not just to connect us to people but to connect us to places and memories.  These paintings by Melbourne artist Dane Lovett remind me of how the music we love becomes the soundtrack to our lives. ( Sorry, that was a pretty cheesy line.  But music does that to me.  Just go with it. )

    Double Album by Dane Lovett Movement by Dane Lovett Both Sides of the Rainbow by Dane Lovett Nothing High Grade by Dane Lovett Floor Standing Loudspeaker by Dane Lovett

    From the lullabies our mothers sing, to the Alphabet Song, to the music-our-parents-hate, we can identify stages and cornerstones in our lives by the music we listened to at the time.  When Mr. F and I hear “our song“, no matter where happen to be, we are instantly taken back to those first magical months of falling in love.  Music can have the power to heal and to comfort.  Musicians and their words have the capacity to communicate what perhaps we cannot.  A few years ago, on our first trip together to Glacier National Park, this song came on the iPod as Mr. F and I were ascending up the Going to the Sun Road, surrounded by amazingly beautiful scenery, we were both overcome with emotion– overjoyed at being in such a place with each other and sharing in that moment, the beauty of the song matching the intensity of our feelings.  It’s one of my favorite musical memories.  Do you have any special musical moments?  Share in the comments!

    To see more of Dane Lovett‘s work, please visit his website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Embracing Intuition: Vince Contarino

    Embracing Intuition: Vince Contarino

    A blank canvas can be a scary, intimidating thing.  Many artists have some kind of end product in mind when they make that first mark.  But for me, it is the ones who embrace what is happening spontaneously and throughout the painting process that create the most interesting work.  For Brooklyn artist Vince Contarino, the practice is one of careful balance between the plan and the process.

    Halcyon by Vince Contarino Old Black by Vince Contarino Fertile Green by Vince Contarino Organ Donor by Vince Contarino NT/NF/11 by Vince Contarino

    According to his artist statement, Contarino develops ideas for paintings through small graphite drawings.  Once a painting begins, it is a “continual balancing act between embracing the intuitive nature of the painting process and making aesthetic choices through patient, considered moves.”

    I’ve been learning this lesson in my own painting practice recently, perhaps starting with an idea, sketch or palette in mind, but allowing myself to follow the brush where it leads, even if that means something completely different from where I began.  The times I’ve allowed myself to do that– still learning not to force myself to conform to a preconceived ideal– are the works I’ve been most proud of.  I think Mr. Contarino is definitely on to something!

    To see more of Vince Contarino‘s work, please visit his website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Love in the Details: Stephen Wright

    Love in the Details: Stephen Wright

    Our memories of the people we love aren’t full scale photos, but more the recollections of the details that made them special to us– the softness of a grandmother’s hand, the freckles on a child’s face, the little particulars that make us unique.  In his work, New York painter Stephen Wright  gently records the minutia of a face, a lock of hair, the turn of a neck.

    Drywall by Stephen Wright Signpost Fifty #4 by Stephen Wright Big Black Chair 2 by Stephen Wright Tousle by Stephen Wright Self Portrait As a Houseplant by Stephen Wright

    Occasionally, when  we sitting together, holding hands while watching Colbert or a movie, I am struck suddenly by the realization that when we’re old and perhaps Mr. F is no longer around, that my hands will remember what his felt like around mine.  That those physical memories will be more precious than any photograph could be.

    Stephen Wright zeroes in on the minor details of his subjects bodies, we get the sense that we can almost feel what that skin is like, soft, maybe cool to the touch, or we feel the sharpness of a clavicle, the roughness of hair gone grey.  I love that his compositions often crop out the subject’s face, after all, we know the hands, feet, the shoulders of our loved ones just as well as their faces, but often fail to really think about how integral they are to our memories of them.  What about you, Artsies?  What details do you remember most about those you love?  I can still smell my grandmother’s perfume and know every freckle on my niece’s cheeks!

    To see more of the work of Stephen Wright, please visit his website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • 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.

  • Shifting Shapes: Don Voisine

    Shifting Shapes: Don Voisine

    All the world can be boiled down to the simplest shapes and forms.  Our eyes tend to focus on details, yet when we really look, we can see the world as a system of circles, triangles, and rectangles.  Brooklyn artist Don Voisine focuses on the relationship of shape, the forms that exist and the various ways our eyes will perceive them.

    Your Idea by Don Voisine Tumble by Don Voisine Ava by Don Voisine Seque by Don Voisine Flexor by Don Voisine

    Using a limited palette and flat color, Voisine’s shapes seem to shift, moving forward and back within each panel’s picture plane.  You can never be quite sure which shapes are in the foreground and which in the background, so that even with the relative simplicity of form, there are complex perspectives happening.  And with their tightly cropped composition, we’re left wondering what happens to each line and color once it leaves the confines of the panel.

    To see more of Don Voisine‘s work, please visit his website.  If you happen to be in the New Haven, CT area, a solo show of his work can be seen through March 1st at the Fred Giampietro Gallery.  Don’t miss it if you’re in the area!

    All images via the artist’s website.