Mr. F and I can definitely relate to snails, turtles, basically any of those I-carry-my-home-on-my-back types. Although technically, we carry home in our Hyundai Santa Fe.. still, we feel a kinship. 😉 But what if you really could carry your home on your back? These utilitarian sculptures by Julia Gabriel are hand-dyed canvas backpacks inspired by architecture and well, they are the most inspired backpacks I’ve ever seen!
I mean, how fun would it be to carry your books & laptop to your favorite coffee shop in one of these? This series is available through Buy Some Damn Art until November 5th. Check out the show online at BSDA and see more of Julia Gabriel‘s work on her website.
When I was young, I remember spending hours flipping through the Sears & Spiegel catalogs, circling every little thing my heart desired and hoping to receive a few of those wishes for Christmas. While there are still lovely things I want, my tastes and passions are a little more grown up and my treasures a bit more lasting. I am often asked, whose art I would be in my dream collection? I think about it quite a bit– too much probably! It’s so very difficult to choose, I’ve discovered the work of a great many fantastically talented artists! I think for me, a perhaps for many art lovers and collectors, it comes down to whose work do I want to live with every day?
In order to want to dwell with an artist’s work, hopefully for a very long time, I need to feel a deep connection to it, to have something inside me stir and resonate each time I look at it. Whether it’s their use of light, line, color, or texture, I need to delight in it and be able to lose myself. It’s probably obvious that I’m drawn to a certain palette, too, as color is for me, a strong part of a work’s appeal.
I consider myself very lucky to already own small pieces by a few of these artists ( all my art is in storage or I would share those with you! ), but they are, every single one, artists whose work I fell in love with the very first time I saw it. And they are artists whose work I consistently return to time and time again.
Perhaps I have a bit of an advantage, being exposed to the work of so many gifted artists, but maybe my biggest privilege has been to get to know these artists personally. And those friendships and relationships make their work even more special to me than it otherwise would be. Getting to know the artists whose work you’d like to collect will help you understand and appreciate your collection even more.
Just putting this together motivates me to save my pennies so that I can start hoarding more artwork! What about you? Who would be in your own dream art collection?
All image sources credited above. Please note some artwork has been cropped from the original.
Although we technically don’t have a home of our own these days, the idea of home is on my mind a lot. Just this morning I was browsing through realtor.com, as you do, checking out what’s around in our price range. I find the need to remind myself that home isn’t always about the roof over your head. The Trailers Collected series by the late photographer Nan Brown prove that often home is in the eye and heart of the beholder.
It might sound corny, but it’s so very true. Home is where the heart is. If a place is filled with the people we love, it provides us shelter, not just in the physical sense but in the emotional and spiritual senses. By capturing these humble abodes, some well cared, for others, barely hanging on, Brown captures the essence of what home can be.
To see more of Nan Brown‘s work, please visit her website. The artist passed away earlier this summer after a long illness. She leaves behind a legacy of thoughtful, sensitive work.
Sometimes, it isn’t a matter of what you see, but how you see it. Perception can be a funny thing. Often, Mr. F & I will watch the same movie but get something totally different from it. Or we’ll look at a scene and I’ll zero in on one thing, while his eye notices another. The simplicity of these paintings by Isabel Bigelow remind me that what each eye focuses on is as unique as the person they belong to.
Bigelow zeros in on simple shapes, isolating them against monochromatic backgrounds, leaving us to wonder– am I seeing what I think I’m seeing? Or am I seeing something else entirely? The shapes become even more ambiguous when we turn the paintings on their sides or upside down.
But maybe that’s a good thing, this act of seeing differently. We can focus too closely on our own perceptions, forgetting that there are other angles of viewing. Not wrong, just different.
Finally, finally FINALLY.. It’s Fall ya’ll!! I think I may have mentioned once or a hundred times how very much I love this season. The crisp, cool air, the brilliant changing of the leaves, the warm yellow light, it is by far my very favorite time of year. Tennessee artist Deann Hebert & I have that in common. She, too is a fall fanatic and wants to share her love of the season with you and what better way to do that than to GIVE YOU SOME ART!!
Here is the stunner of a painting you could win– Caramel Crisp by Deann Hebert, acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas, 30×30. Gorgeous right?!
Here’s how you can enter to win this painting for your very own–
1 | Create an Autumn-inspired Pinterest pinboard, it can be inspired by the painting or just the season itself! You can see a few of my own pins below and check out more of my Artsy Welcomes Autumn board on Pinterest!
3 | Comment on this post with a link to your pinboard. Easy as pumpkin pie!
Sorry, Artsies, this contest is now closed. A random giveaway winner will be announced here on the blog on Wednesday, October 2nd! Contest is open to U.S. residents only.
Good luck! Now grab a Pumpkin Spice Latte and get to pinnin’!
We all have our product loyalties. Mr. F is fiercely loyal to King Arthur Flour, for instance. Sometimes, as in Mr. F’s case, it’s about how the product performs, in others, it’s because we are enchanted by not just the product, but the packaging. New York based illustrator Spiros Halaris has created a charming series of illustrations celebrating the Aesop brand of beauty care products.
Halaris’ illustrations show crumbled, well used and presumably well loved tubes of Aesop balms and lotions against a drawn illustration of berry branches. In looking at these pieces, I’m reminded of the connection between nature, beauty products, and paint. All can be used to beautify in different ways and there is a natural bridge between found beauty in nature, enhanced beauty with cosmetics, and created beauty in paint.
I find it very refreshing to come across an artist for whom the most important part of her creative process in the process itself. For Utah artist Elise Wehle, the delicately intense, repetitive handwork in her cut paper collages provide an escape into her world of process. It seems we can all suffer from tech and connection overload these days. Moments when we are completely disconnected and far away from a glowing screen of some sort have become fewer and farther between. These pieces in which artist Elise Wehle immerses herself with their deliberately tattered textures, precise cuts, and vintage feel are the perfect antidote to a world obsessed with tiny screens. It’s almost as it we’re glimpsing peek of an Instagram feed deteriorated. The photographic cropping of the images recall those ubiquitous scenes in our social media each day. But they have aged, maybe giving us a reminder that those moments are fleeting– perhaps too fleeting to be constantly clicking and updating.
If you’d like to see more of Elise Wehle‘s work, please visit her website. I’m thinking of starting a little daily painting study to help me unplug & disconnect each day. What’s your method of getting away from technology?
As a dutiful child of the 70s, I love crochet, macrame, all those disco-era handicrafts. Though I don’t always love that era’s color palette as much as my sister-in-law– you guys should see the 1970s era RV she is redoing, appropriately named Gertrude. Anywhoo.. I recently stumbled upon the work of All Roads Design, I knew I wanted to share it with you! It’s like art you can pet. And I so would, every day!
I think one of these would add beautiful texture to our one day Northwest dream home. He ( gotta be a he with all that hair ) would mix so well with all the other artwork I’m coveting. Hey, an Artsy can dream, right? Have a great weekend, Artsies! We’re hoping to take a little road trip this weekend, will fill you in on Monday!
Birds must have magically wonderful lives, don’t you think? I’m always envious of their freedom and grace, their ability to walk on land, swim through the water ( well, some birds ), and fly to far off places. As delicate as they may seem, birds are strong, hearty creatures. In her series of avian paintings, London artist Amy Judd beautifully explores the relationship between woman and bird that has been the subject of many a myth and tale.
In Judd’s work, the feathers serve as armor, a sign of strength and dignity. Their delicacy belies the protection they offer, just as in their avian counterparts. Classically lit figures glow ethereally as if somehow transformed by their gossamer shields.
Do you ever find yourself fascinated by the way certain substances act and react? I’m always intrigued by how different types of liquid interact.. the way oil floats on water, how you can make those pretty drinks by layering the heavier liquid at the bottom of the glass. New York artist Julie Evans takes advantage of liquid reactions in her abstract creations of water-based media on mylar.
These Rorshach-like works seem to take on different forms depending on your perspective.. appearing at once botanical, sea creature-ish, even like organs in our own bodies. What I’m most intrigued by is the various consistencies that the media seem to take on throughout each composition, lovely transparently thin layers melt into deep pools of pigment.
