More and more of our interaction and how we present ourselves to the world, as well as how we perceive others is based on online representations. In his Off II series, Danish artist Johan Rosenmunthe places digitized images of friends from the internet into entirely analog settings. See more from this series of work in my Artist Watch on Escape Into Life here!
It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it. Double-exposure photography is hardly a new concept, but the way Portland, Oregon photographer Misha Ashton-Moore does it is something special! I immediately feel for her warm + cool palettes and mixture of images, sometimes subtle, sometimes completely yet beautifully disparate. Check out more of her work in my Artist Watch today over on Escape Into Life. See it here!
Misha Ashton-Moore on Escape Into Life
Artist found via Daily Dolan Geiman. Image via the artist’s website.
We’ve been living in Southern California for the last six months. Joshua Tree, CA to be exact, a tiny little hamlet full of Seussian spikey trees just outside the Joshua Tree National Park. It’s an artsy, hippy community full of off-the-grid houses and uh, herbal self-medication. Just an hour to the South of us is a whole other world! The slick, mid-century vacation haven of Palm Springs. Photographer Nancy Baron turns her lens to the habitations and inhabitants of the tropical desert town in her series, The Good Life.
I get myself down to Palm Springs at least once a month. Because sometimes this longtime suburban city dweller just needs to get a Target fix. Each time, I’m struck by the juxtapositions at work in Palm Springs. Beautiful, iconic mid-century style architecture dwells together with big box stores and strip malls ( which I admittedly frequent when there ).
Baron chooses to photograph mainly the architecture and older generation of Palm Springs residents. These are the pillars on which this affluent community was built. I often wonder, will the next generation move into the next world with as much grace, dignity, and elegance?
The people of Palm Springs have much in common with the signature modern architecture. Elegant, secure in their own tastes, with just enough style to make you sit up and take notice. May we all be graced with such.
To see more of Nancy Baron’s work, please visit her website.
All images are via the artist’s website. Artist found via Lost at E Minor.
Doing a little Guest Foraging over on the UGallery blog today! For this month’s installment in my series for UGallery, Curated Persona, I’ve put together a little collection of art for The GlobeTrotter. Methinks I might be feeling a bit of wanderlust myself! Mr. Forager & I are both itching to hit the road on to our next adventure! Check out the post over on UGallery’s blog here!
I just love the idea of translating the artwork we love into the jewelry and clothes we wear. After all, the artwork we love is an extension of our souls, so why shouldn’t the way we clothe ourselves be, too? In this edition of Wear the Artsy, Featured Artist Diana Lemieux’s When Night Falls in the Forest pairs beautifully with an agate ring from Terrain.
art | When Night Falls in the Forest by Diana Lemieux
ring | Dendritic Agate Ring by Melissa Joy Manning
I think any maiden of the forest would be thrilled for this ring to adorn her artsy finger!
Art and jewelry linked above.
I often envy Mr. Forager. When we’re camping or out hiking, he has no problem at all laying down wherever– absolutely no fear of bugs or other creepy crawliest like yours truly. He can really allow himself to be one with nature. The collages of Los Angeles artist Alexandra Bellissimo beautifully simulate what it might really be like for the human body to merge with the natural world.
Bellissimo photographs her models ( often she is her own model, giving even more emotional depth to her work ), in their own completely natural state.. No clothing, nothing between the skin and the world around it. The nude figure appears vulnerable, easily overtaken by the flora creeping over its form.
While there is some work done in Photoshop ( I.e., the removal of an arm to be replaced by a branch ), the added elements are done through traditional, meticulous cut and paste collage. In doing so, the artist maintains a very real feeling of physical transformation.
To see more of Alexandra Bellissimo’s work, please visit her website. And if you’d like to read about and see some insight into her process, be sure to check out her blog!
All images are via the artist’s website.
It is a special gift bestowed upon artists to take what is ugly and make it beautiful. In his Recycle series, photographer Cristobal Valecillos uses every day materials to craft the fashions and sets he then photographs, so that what is often never looked twice upon becomes elevated to extraordinary.
Every single thing but the models in each set is carefully crafted from pizza boxes, Starbucks sleeves, newspapers, etc., giving each design incredible texture and depth. The fashions seem to fit the models as well as any couture, and the drama of what seems to be unfolding in the expanded scenes lends those pieces in particular a wonderfully theatrical quality.
I spotted Valecillos’ work several times at the LA Art Show and the photographs, mounted on plexiglass are sleek and beautiful in person. However, it was the artist’s cardboard sculptures and set installation that really stayed with me. A reminder that every thing around us is temporary and fleeting, every chair we covet and save for, every piece of art hanging on our walls, every item of clothing carefully chosen.
In his artist statement, Valecillos alludes to the creation of beauty from waste, using recycling to inspire art. For me, I see in his work more of a statement upon the artificiality and ephemeral nature of the world we find ourselves in. What do you see?
To see more of Cristobal Valecillos’ work, please visit his website.
All images are via the website of the artist’s representing gallery, The McLoughlin Gallery.
Note: There seems to be an issue with EIL, as this Artist Watch has not been published as scheduled. Working to get it fixed!
There is so much to be proud of in our history, yet there is much darkness as well. In his Camp Home series, Japanese American photographer Kevin J. Miyazaki documents what has become of the barracks once used to house Japanese prisoners of WWII in internment camps here in the US. Many of these buildings were redistributed and became homes, barns, and outbuildings. See more from this series, as well as Miyaki’s Fast Food and As Seen series in my Artist Watch on Escape Into Life here.
Kevin Miyazaki on Escape Into Life
Image via the artist’s website.
As fellow Artsies, I know that you are familiar with that sensation that comes over you when gazing upon a favorite work of art.. you want to jump right in and live inside the canvas. Well, dear Artsies, I say you can! In this new series, Live the Artsy, I’ll show you how a work of art can come alive as a living space.
Living in Her Name was Anna by this month’s featured artist Diana Lemieux means dark, cozy walls that envelop you like a forest, classically traditional shapes, and a few punches of color for attitude. I’m picturing a little Notting Hill apartment that smells of heather and tea.
art | Her Name was Anna by Diana Lemieux
space | via Decor8
Any work of art you’ve fantasized about living in? Let me know in the comments and I might just show you how to Live the Artsy!
I apologize in advance for the number of posts coming your way featuring artists whose work I discovered at the LA Art Show. I can’t help it. There was so much amazingness there and some of the work I just can’t get out of my head! I kept going back both physically and in my mind to the photographs of LA artist Gay Ribisi.
No doubt, we’ve all seen underwater fine art photography. But Ribisi’s method of blacking out the background and her storyteller’s style of setting each scene creates images that burn into our memories.
Her floating women, stark against their black backdrop are isolated in their moment and movement. We know there is a tale to be told with each one, perhaps epic or ordinary. It’s as if we’ve walked into a darkened theater in the midst of the 3rd act, who is this on stage? What is her story?
To see more of Gay Ribisi’s work, please visit her website.
All images are via the artist’s website.