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  • Artsy Dwelling: Gather ‘Round the Table

    Artsy Dwelling: Gather ‘Round the Table

    There will be lots of gathering of friends and family around our dining tables this Thursday.  Grandma’s china comes out of storage, the crystal sparkles and the silver shines.  For some dining rooms, this is the most action they see all year!  We eat in the kitchen, over the sink or on the couch in front of the tv.  But this gathering place is not a room to neglect!  It’s a place, to quote Simon dePury, “Be bold, be amazing!” ( Are you watching Work of Art?! )

    The dining room, even if not a formal, separate space is the spot to make a big statement.  So in this edition of Artsy Dwelling, I’ve gathered up some images of inspiring spots, a feast for the eyes!

    Want to have fun dinner parties?  Make sure the art in the room reflects your cheeky style!

    Via Sketch42blog.com
    Via Apartment Therapy
    Via Belclairehouse.blogspot.com via Coastal Living

    Or maybe you want to throw ultra-cool and hiply intellectual soirees?  Add some graphic punch with your artwork.

    Via 2.bp.blogspot.com
    Via Apartment Therapy

    Or maybe you like to keep things fresh and elegant?  Let oversized artwork shine, so if guests need a break from conversation, give them oversized artwork to get lost in.

    Via Traditional Home
    Via Timothy Whelan

    Want to be really bold?  Paint the walls a deep, rich color and let simple, graphic artwork be the star of the show!

    Via Elements of Style blog via Elle Decor
    Via Rue Magazine
    Via Lonny Magazine blog

    Wouldn’t even a frozen pizza seem like a gourmet meal in an artsy environment?  Pass the parmesean!

  • Abstractions of Atmosphere: Susan Goldsmith

    Abstractions of Atmosphere: Susan Goldsmith

    This year, autumn has been a completely new experience for me.  Having never experienced a full autumn outside of my home in northeast Florida ( short trips north don’t really count ), one of the things I was most looking forward to this year was enjoying a cool and brightly colored Fall.  And Southern Oregon did not disappoint!

    For me, there is just something about this autumnal time of year that makes the natural world more evident and magical.  Things slow down, trees and animals prepare for the long winter ahead.  Blazing sun is replaced with fog and clouds, making the amber colored leaves that much more striking.  California artist Susan Goldsmith captures the essence of the natural beauty of autumn in her mixed media work.  I want to buy one so that I can gaze at it in the middle of summer, dreaming of the return of cool days and warm colors.

    Brandy Creek Falls I, oil, oil pastel and resin on panel, 20.5×20.5 ( via Davis & Cline )

    In her work, Susan uses digital photographic prints as the base layer of her paintings, applying them to the surface then enhancing them with paints and/or pastels, so that the resulting effect is not one of merely an embellished photograph, but rather the impressionistic reinterpretation of the original composition.

    Redbud, oil, oil pastel and resin on panel, 40×20 ( diptych, 20×20 each, via Davis & Cline )

    What the viewer is left with is a lovely sense of atmospheric abstraction, light and mood, that bursting forth of vibrant color against grey skies which is so characteristic of autumn.

    Hachiya Persimmons II, mixed media and resin on panel, 17×17 ( via Lanoue Fine Art )
    No. 153, mixed media and resin on panel, 24×24 ( via Lanoue Fine Art )

    I first caught glimpse of Susan’s work at Davis & Cline in Ashland, OR, but have sense discovered her connection to another favorite gallery resource, Lanoue Fine Art in Boston.  Of course, you can also see her work on her own website.

    Featured image is Brandy Creek I, silver leaf with pigment print, oil, oil pastel and resin on panel, 61.5×21.5 ( overall size ).  Images are via Susan Goldsmith’s representing galleries, as noted.

  • Artsy on Escape Into Life: Laird

    Artsy on Escape Into Life: Laird

    Check out my Escape Into Life post today featuring Laird, a Northeast Florida photographer whose work can be seen at Florida Mining.  You may remember his work from my Gallery Spotlight post featuring FM.  This new work is stunning!

    Laird on Escape Into Life

  • Vintage Pop: Melody Postma

    Vintage Pop: Melody Postma

    Vintage photos and ephemera, bright colors against faded backgrounds, pop culture iconography.. these are a few of my favorite things and they can all be found in the work of Melody Postma.

    Absolute Beginners, mixed media on panel, 36×36 ( via Lanoue Fine Art )

    This Clearwater, FL native and graduate of SCAD shares my own fascination with old photographs, utilizing their documentary/slice-of-life style and pop culture graphics of years gone by to create work that calls to us from the past.  We see our parents and grandparents in these faces, recalling memories of favorite games, candy, the way of life as we like to remember it.

    Languishing in the Calm, mixed media on panel, 36×36 ( via Lanoue Fine Art )

    Looking at these images and icons leads me to wonder.. Will audiences in the future be impacted as emotionally when they look back on today’s culture?  Will we see artists exploring the good ol’ days of the 00’s, the digital revolution, reality shows and social media?  Will the cultural phenomena of today hold as much charm as other decades?

    Might Cause Double Vision, mixed media on panel, 42×42 ( via Lanoue Fine Art )

    Or is it just that we always look back with nostalgia at times that held precious memories or periods that we’ve idealized?  Maybe it’s the 21st century cynic in me, but I’m just not sure we’ll look back on the current era quite as fondly.  Or maybe it’s that most of us didn’t live through the eras we’re most nostalgic about.  And perhaps that what Melody Postma is getting at.

    A Memory Hard to Ignore, mixed media on panel, 36×36 ( via Lanoue Fine Art )
    There’s Treasure Children Always, mixed media on panel, 36×36 ( via Lanoue Fine Art )

    To see more of Melody Postma’s work, please visit her website.  Her work can also be viewed at Lanoue Fine Art in Boston, Hubert Gallery in NYC, Gallery Brown in L.A and Trudy Labell Fine Art in Naples, FL.

    Featured image is An Afternoon With Whitman, mixed media on panel, 36×36.

  • Friday Faves: Technologically Speaking

    Friday Faves: Technologically Speaking

    Technology is taking over ya’ll.  Almost every aspect of our lives is touched by technology in one way or another.  The art world is no different.  For today’s round-up, take a look at a few artists embracing the digital revolution:

    Andy Gilmore
    Mark Wilson
    Carole Boyd ( all done in Microsoft Paint! )
    Jason Fort

    Now have some hi-tech fun and check out these artists’ websites!

    1.  Andy Gilmore 

    2.  Mark Wilson 

    3.  Carole Boyd 

    4.  Jason Fort 

    Featured image is by Mark Wilson.  All images are via the artists’ websites.

  • Fashion Fragmented: Amanda Clyne

    Fashion Fragmented: Amanda Clyne

    If you were around for artsyFASHIONWeek, you may already have an inkling of my interest in the relationship between fashion and art.  Lately, I’ve been thinking more and more about the influence of the fashion industry, what the clothes we wear say about our personalities and just the general psychology behind the fueling of the fashion industry and the choices that we make.  Toronto artist Amanda Clyne examines the influence of fashion upon our psyche in her paintings, in which she  “examines the image as a mirror of our desires”.

    Double Take by Amanda Clyne

    Amanda finds inspiration for her work in the pages of art history books and fashion magazines, seeing similarities between fashion photography of today and historical portraits of the elite.  They both carry with them the same fascination with beauty, wealth and transformation.. “images intended to fuel a spectacle of desire with feigned promises of intimacy and truth”. ( Amanda Clyne via her website )

    Looking Back by Amanda Clyne

    The artist fragments her subject, creating an elusive illusion, much like a hall of mirrors.  Our eyes deceive us, all isn’t as it would seem.  An important point to remember when gazing longingly at those $300 shoes that will make us beautiful and desirable.  ( Um, not that I’ve ever done that.. )

    Losing Face by Amanda Clyne

    The way she uses fragments of images to create the whole could be an interpretation of the illusionary aspects of fashion advertising and photography.  The images we see are the composition of designers, photographers, photo editors, art directors, etc. They represent an idealized portrayal of only one aspect of our being.

    Clyne_Looking Glass

    To see more of Amanda Clyne’s work, please visit her website and Facebook page.  If any of you Canadians out there are in Toronto, be sure to check out her latest show opening December 8th at p|m Gallery.

    Featured image is Mirror, Mirror ( diptych ), oil on canvas, 72×36.  All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Quilts Are Cool: Amy Vigilante

    Quilts Are Cool: Amy Vigilante

    Maybe you beg to differ with that title.  But I’m here to present to you Gainesville, FL artist Amy Vigilante, who does indeed create artistically meaningful, strikingly graphic quilts.  These aren’t your grandma’s bedspreads.  Vigilante’s quilts are modern interpretations of an old world craft.

    May May, fabrics and thread, 58×53
    May May ( back ), fabrics and thread, 58×53

    Make no mistake, these aren’t quilts to cuddle up in on the sofa.  These are intricate works of textile art.  As is my usual m.o., I find the backs just as wonderful and interesting as the fronts.. ( see the pair above & below ).

    Sushi, fabric, found objects and thread, 54×51
    Sushi ( back ), fabric, found objects and thread, 54×51

    Vigilante’s Garment Series includes works constructed using found female garments such as lingerie and swimsuits.  This series seems to perhaps speak to the common female obsession with fashion, “heirlooms” of our past and domesticity mixed with sexuality.

    More striking for me, however, are her more geometric works.  These have a tremendous sense of composition and movement.

    Zoe, hand-printed fabrics and thread, 91×82
    Yogi, fabrics and thread, 90×83

    Please visit Amy Vigilante’s website to see more of her work.  If you’re in the North Florida area, her work will be on display as part of the A Woman’s World show, opening this Thursday 12/17, presented by C Gallery at Daryl Bunn Studios.  This show is a mix of some spectacularly talented established and emerging artists.  Not to be missed!

    Featured image is Frida ( back ), fabric, found objects and thread, 52×49.  All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Exciting News!!

    Yours truly is now a weekly contributor to the Escape Into Life website.  Escape Into Life is an online arts journal showcasing visual arts, literature and music.  My first post is up and you can check it out here.  For my inaugural post, I’ve featured the work of one of my favorite artists, Susan Hall.  Susan’s work haunts me in the best possible way.  Hope you love it as much as I do.

    Please take some time to poke around the EIL website.  You’ll be inspired!

    Cheers and great art,

    Lesley

  • You’ve Come A Long Way to Bring Home the Bacon, Baby: Kelly Reemtsen

    You’ve Come A Long Way to Bring Home the Bacon, Baby: Kelly Reemtsen

    Growing up, I wanted to be Audrey Hepburn.  Or Doris Day.  Or any of the beautiful, plucky, well-dressed heroines of the 50’s and 60’s.  I longed for the “good ol’ days”.  When women dressed up in hats and gloves to go shopping and flitted around the house in chiffon petticoats.  But then I woke up and realized that I was looking at the past through movie-colored glasses.  That those women, while dressed to the nines on-screen, still had to scrub toilets and change diapers and were still fighting to be recognized as equals.  But have we really come that far?  Artist Kelly Reemsten captures the frustration and seeming futility of all that it means to be female in a post-feminist world.

    Cleaning Is Addictive, oil on panel, 36×36

    Reemsten’s women are dressed in highly feminine candy colored vintage frocks, but often wielding iconically masculine tools such as a chainsaw or axe.  These tools can be seen perhaps as menacing or even empowering.  Or rather, looking at the imagery as a whole, the dresses and tools may be symbols of our efforts as women to “have it all”.

    Inconspicuous, oil on panel, 36×36

    Women still feel pressured, perhaps now more than ever to be all things to all people.  They are expected to not only cook, clean, care for children, etc., but now are also expected to have a successful career.  And look fabulously fashionable while doing it.  What once was strictly male domain is now our stomping ground, as well.

    Unrequited, oil on panel, 36×36

    Are the women pictured trying to maintain their femininity in a male dominated workforce?  Or are they working to show us that gender differences are inherently there and should not be ignored?  We were created equal, yet different.

    The Hopeless Romantic, oil on panel, 36×36
    Throw Back, oil on panel, 36×36

    What say you, Artsies?  While you’re pondering, take a gander on over at Kelly Reemsten’s website to see more of her work.

    Featured image is Slip, oil on panel, 72×48.  All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Friday Faves: Cause Celeb

    Friday Faves: Cause Celeb

    There is no doubt that the US as a country, heck, the earth as a planet even, seems to have an obsession with celebrity.  There is something about the famous ( and infamous ) that fascinates us.  Artists are no strangers to celebrating celebrity.  Many masters honed their skills and made their livings rendering work of the rich and famous.  So today, Artsy Forager is featuring celebrity-driven work.  Watch out for the paparazzi!

    La Dada Gaga, (Marcel Duchamp's L.H.O.O.Q. + Lady Gaga) by Troy Gua, resin-coated Lightjet Metallic Print Mounted on 6mm Sintra, 36 x 36
    Bob Dylan by Jon Langford, digital print and mixed media on panel, 10×14 via Augen Gallery
    Bill Murray, celebrity portrait photoshopped onto portrait by George Dawes by Steve Payne via Artist A Day
    Madonna by John Duckworth, acrylic on panel, liquid glass topcoat, 24×24

    To see more of these artists’ work, please visit their websites.  Have an epic weekend, Artsies!

    1.  Troy Gua

    2.  Jon Langford

    3.  Steve Payne 

    4.  John Duckworth

    Featured image is Audrey in Moonlight Peacock ( study ) by Sarah Ashley Longshore.  All images are via the artists’ websites unless otherwise noted.