I’m sure many of you will be spending the next few days celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday with friends and family. Thanksgiving is Mr. Forager’s absolute favorite holiday, because it is all about coming together with the people you love, celebrating life and cultivating gratefulness. I’ll be taking a little break over the next few days, enjoying time away, but before I go, I wanted to express my heartfelt thanks for each and every one of you.
For the readers who follow along on this journey with me, for the folks who’ve become clients and friends, for the artists who continually inspire me and make this website such a labor of love, THANK YOU! I wish for you a more abundant and joyful life than you could ever imagine.
Mr. Forager and I are spending this week celebrating Thanksgiving, so I decided to show my thanks to this month’s Featured Artist by re-running a few of her previous posts! This feature first ran in July 2012. This was before I started calling my husband George Mr. Forager here on the blog, in case you’re wondering who I’m going on about. 😉 Enjoy!
Welcome to Day 2 of our Artists Takeover Event! Today’s artist is the only Canuck in the bunch this week, Vancouver artist M.A. Tateishi. M.A. is an artist whose work I immediately connected with and the artist herself has become a great supporter and friend. Our conversation gives you a little behind-the-scenes peek at Artsy Forager!
The Walls of This Old House, mixed media with resin, 36×48
M.A. Tateishi | You feature a lot of inspiring and different artists. How do you find the artists, and is there a particular reaction you have to art when you find it…like an immediate fall-in-love feeling, or does some work grow on you? Do you have to sort through a lot of “bad art” to find the good ones?
Artsy Forager | I find the artists I feature through a number of different avenues– some I’ve known through working in the industry, others I’ve found through galleries ( both visited in person & online ), social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, through other artists, through other art blogs, lifestyle blogs, even some DIY, fashion & home decor blogs will occasionally feature interesting artwork. Really just keeping my eyes open at all times. I try to always have a pen & paper handy, as you never know when you may happen upon something amazing! The reaction is a little like falling in love or at the very least having a crush! My heart will skip a beat and many times my mouth will drop open. 😉 I’ve been told I have a “great eye” and my husband used to always ask how I knew really great work from mediocre– it’s hard to describe, it’s more of an artistic intuition, I guess. It’s funny, but many of the sources through which I find work are so full of great stuff that I don’t really have to sift through much “bad art”. I do get emails from artists whose work doesn’t quite make the cut for Artsy Forager, though. I always want to be encouraging to anyone who is willing to reach out and ask to be featured, but I strive very hard to keep the standard of work featured high. If I do need to “reject” an artist, I try to offer other avenues for online exposure.
Pixelated Rhythm, mixed media with resin, 36×48
MAT | How do you organize your writing? Do you have a lot of posts ready to go, or do you work on deadlines? Do you have an editor/friend to bounce things off, or do you work alone? And how to you manage all your social media? Are you typing away on your iPhone while you’re waiting at the post office?
AF | I plan out Artsy Forager posts usually no more than a week or two ahead. I’m a bit of a procrastinator by nature, something I’m trying to work on, so right now, that’s about as far out as I can plan & organize for the posts themselves. Since I post to the blog Monday-Friday and my husband’s schedule can change, I’m sometimes writing & scheduling posts in advance for the days when he is off. For instance, he’s currently working Wed-Sun, so I make sure to have all my posts completed and scheduled for Monday & Tuesday by Sunday night, so that we can enjoy time together without too much distraction. I normally work alone, but will sometimes bounce ideas off fellow bloggers, artists and of course, my hubby is always a ready ear. I’m still learning to smartly manage social media.. I finally signed up for Hoot Suite, which allows me to advance schedule posts to social media and has gone a long way toward helping me maintain an online presence even when I may not be physically near a computer. 😉 You may be surprised to learn that I don’t have an iPhone or even internet access on my cell phone and right now the hubby and I share one MacBook Pro between us. It can make keeping up more difficult, but it also helps to be able to disconnect when spending time with my hubby.
Neon City, mixed media with resin, 36×48
MAT | Finally, what motivates you to do the Artsy Forager? As an artist I can see the benefits for me, and I think it’s important to bring original art to as many people as possible, but I was wondering what inspires you?
AF | This is a really interesting question and one I’m sure many artists are curious about. I began Artsy Forager when I left a long time gallery/ art consultation position and was preparing to leave Florida to begin traveling the Northwest with George. I knew that I would be bored without something to occupy my time while George was working and getting a different job in a new town every 3 months didn’t seem appealing or even possible. I thought about what I’d loved the most about my former position, what really excited and motivated me– it was the artists themselves and their work. I’ve always loved writing, I was almost a Lit major before switching to Art History and I thought blogging would be an interesting way to fuel my passion for art, help artists succeed in whatever way I could and allow me to build and create something of my own. What really inspires me is the relationships I’m building with artists from all over the country. When artists come to me for advice, I am honored, humbled and inspired to do more of whatever I can to help them succeed. Who knows where Artsy Forager may lead in the next few years. I hope it leads to greater success, not just for me, but for every artist featured.
Champagne Pop, mixed media with resin, 24×36
To see more of M.A.’s work, please visit her website. Taking over tomorrow: Christina Baker!
Mr. Forager and I are spending this week celebrating Thanksgiving, so I decided to show my thanks to this month’s Featured Artist by re-running a few of her previous posts! This feature first ran in November 2011. Enjoy!
Many artists will paint multiple paintings on the same canvas, one on top of the other. But while most are painting over work that they’ve tired of or that was unsatisfactory, Vancouver artist M.A. Tateishi, layers her paintings in order to later reveal what is hidden underneath.
Pink Is The Navy Blue Of India, mixed media and resin on board, 36×48
In her Excavations series, she layers 10 to 20 underpaintings onto her panel, then begins her process of excavation to reveal the varied surfaces underneath. A final coat of resin seals the surface and enhances the visual depth of each work.
Neon City, mixed media with resin, 36×48
To me, there is something really beautiful and moving about work that utilizes this process of selective revelation. After the artist has created a visual history, to then go back and unearth those hidden gems must be a bit like the excitement of opening gifts on Christmas mornings. Oh, what treasures may be found! What happy surprises lurk just beneath the surface!
Spiral Joy, mixed media on panel, 36×36
M.A.’s Transparency Series offers an even more fluid experience of each work’s visual history, as each layer is transparent and clearly visible in the finished work, as well as the underlayer of the wood panel, adding a wonderful organic texture against the pops of bright color.
Fire Snake, mixed media on panel, 40×40Free Bird, mixed media and resin on board, 36×48
M.A. once told me that she often feels like a piece isn’t complete without a little touch of pink. This is an artist that definitely embraces the power of pink and isn’t afraid to unearth what is hidden.
To see more of M.A.’s revealing work, check out her website and Facebook page. If you happen to be in the Vancouver, BC area, MA Tateishi will be participating in the Eastside Culture Crawl this weekend. See her website for more details!
Featured image is Thrush Song, mixed media on panel, 36×36. All images are via that artist’s website.
Mr. Forager and I have been camping our way down the West Coast this week. While camping isn’t always the most comfortable way to bed down, there is something about sleeping under the stars, hearing the wind, the crickets and such that can put us more in touch with the world above and around. In her photogram based work, Oakland artist Vanessa Marsh crafts images that remind us of the wonder starlight provides.
In shades of grey, Marsh creates scenes filled with shadows and silhouettes, the simple way we see at night, breaking objects down to their most fundamental forms. Though the shapes may feel a bit dark and haunting, skies filled with stars beckon a welcoming hello. In focusing on the skies above, we’re able to shift away from the darkness surrounding us and turn our faces toward the lights twinkling down. How is it possible to look up into a star-filled night sky and not feel a twinge of hope and possibility? It never fails to fill me with both.
To see more of the work of Vanessa Marsh, please visit her website and Facebook page.
Different minds require different types of rest and healing. Some, like mine, and I suspect that of Brooklyn artist Erin Lynn Welsh, require some quiet time in the big beautiful outdoors to rejuvenate and recoup.
Being outside, away from the distractions of life, gives our minds time to ponder and wander. Its a fantastic way to work through a particular problem or emotional energy that needs to get out. In Erin Lynn Welsh’s work, there’s an emotionality to these paintings, as if the artist has molded together the catharsis of being in nature and the act of painting. Sweeping and staccatoed brushstrokes seem to belie a mood of working through something inside while depicting each scene.
If you’d like to see more of Erin Lynn Welsh‘s work, please visit her page at Uprise Art. And if you recognize the titles of a few of her paintings, then you love Florence + The Machine as much as I do. 😉
Light has an amazing way of transforming shapes, creating shadows and distorting forms. In her Fractal Facet paintings, Toronto artist Catto Houghton continues using her signature geometric chards to create abstract compositions filled with movement and light.
Prismatic shapes dance around her canvases, just as light bounces across a room. She’s exploring the character of light– how it moves and gives shape to the objects it illuminates and by keeping the compositions abstract, we’re able to concentrate on the forms, colors, and shifts. The work has a gem-like quality, with nods to Art Deco shapes and futuristic worlds. What we see depends entirely on how we interpret the artist’s use of color, shape and light. I don’t know about you, but I see some disco dancing goin’ on.
We are in the land of the giants today. Today’s plan includes seeing a bit more of the Redwoods and driving through a tree! I’ve been wanting to do that since I first saw a photo of the Chandelier Tree many moons ago. These enormous trees, the huge haystack rocks in Oregon and just the wildness of the Pacific remind us of how very small we are in this large universe. In his bas relief sculptures, Dutch artist Ron van der Ende uses found wood to sculpt and “paint” his own colossal objects.
Bas-relief sculpture is all about angles and perception. When viewed from one angle, the sculpture may not make sense, but when taken in from the front, it seems to float in true 3-dimensional form. As van der Ende is creating his pieces, he uses pieces of painted found wood to create the colors you see– these aren’t sculptures constructed, then painted. The artist is painting with the found wood. Using the existing finishes of the wood in such a way creates a wonderful sense of texture, which only serves to amplify the depth created by the bas-relief technique.
I hope those last two images give you a sense of the enormity of scale van der Ende employs, making these sculptures as imposing as they are impressive, just like our friends the Redwoods.
As you read this, Mr. F and I are enjoying a week of being footloose and fancy free, currently somewhere along the West Coast between Manzanita, OR and Eureka, CA. Every time we pack up the car to head out on an adventure, the moment the wheels turn out of the driveway, the feeling of elation sets in. We’re FREE! No cares, worries temporarily forgotten, we are flying toward freedom. In this series of paintings by UK born, Hong Kong based artist Simon Birch, the artist depicts figures in flight, soaring through the air, destination unknown.
So figures jump decidedly, slicing through the atmosphere, while other seem to be falling, floating even. There seems to be a metaphor in there for the way we approach freedom. Some of us go all in, taking the bull by the horns so to speak, going for the gusto and lots of other cliches, just simply soaking up all we can from what freedom has to offer. But others, just sort of fall into it, being gently guided as if on a breeze. Which type of freedom do you practice?
Moments of quiet reflection seem too frequent and far between these days. Today, I’m packing up the last of our belongings as we prepare to leave Western Washington tomorrow morning. Stillness in the physical and especially mental sense has been eluding me for weeks. So when I spotted photographer Virginia Mak’s work, the sense of peace she captures completely spoke to my own harried mind.
In these painterly photographs, we see figures moving toward or looking forward to something or somewhere. There is a sense of peace and hopefulness that what we are looking for may be just around that bend or approach our doorstep any moment. Figures are keeping watch, looking ahead, ready to move. So am I.
