artsy forager

Posted on January 16, 2015

We all have expectations of life. Perceptions of what our ideal world would look like. Those expectations seem to be heightened these days by the images of perfect lives we are bombarded with daily via social media and lifestyle blogs. Every meal shall be perfectly garnished with stylishly mismatched vintage dinnerware! Children will be the very picture of tiny fashion perfection and their birthday parties shall rival that of the royals!

Taking her cue from the Jan Steen household, a 17th century Dutch painter’s style turned shorthand for a messy scene, photographer Julie Blackmon explores the disparagement between a society that is both “child centered” and “self-obsessed”.

In her domestic scenes, we often see no adult figures, only children, as if pardon this turn of phrase, the inmates are running the asylum. I apologize for that reference, yet it is what kept coming to mind as I was going through the portfolio. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad point of departure. Children need freedom and play, it is essential to their development especially in our over scheduled world. Blackmon is capturing these fleeting moments of the chaos of childhood, in all its messy, mythic reality.

To see more of Julie Blackmon’s work, please visit her website.

All images are via the artist’s website. Artist found via Robert Mann Gallery.

Abstract Art Daily Artsy Paintings

Posted on January 15, 2015

As a somewhat fledgling painter exploring the nature of environments myself, I’m always intrigued by how other artists interpret the scenes we experience. In her paintings, New York artist Allison Gildersleeve paints the simultaneous experiences of small, hemmed-in parcels of wilderness.

When I paint these woods, I want it to feel as if all the stories that took place there are unfolding simultaneously.

The artist takes reference from the same scene as experienced multiple times over the seasons, layering each impression over the next. The resulting cacophony is like a beautiful mapping of the emotional weight of each place. For every person who walked through, every child who played tag, there is a bit of themselves and their memory left behind long after they’ve trod that ground.

To see more of Allison Gildersleeve‘s work, please visit her website. if you happen to be in New Hampshire, you can catch her solo show at Cynthia-Reeves Gallery in Walpole until January 20th.

All images are via the artist’s website and the Cynthia-Reeves Gallery website. Artist found via Christina Foard.

Daily Artsy Paintings

Posted on January 14, 2015

Food and sex. Let’s face it, our American culture is pretty much obsessed with two things. Yet we often want to deny how much each matters to us. We are somehow above such base desires. In her work, Asian American artist Kira Nam Greene explores the dichotomy in a fascination of the objectification of women by portraying them as highly styled, delectable food.

A self confessed food lover, cuisine has often been the focus of Greene’s work, as she combines Eastern motifs and symbols with ubiquitously American foods like Skippy Peanut Butter and a stack of pancakes. In thinking of the food as shorthand for the female body, I began to notice the treatment of the food in composition– elevated on a pedestal, as an award, the object of leering attentions.

Kind of makes you rethink that phrase, “you are what you eat”, doesn’t it?

All images are via the artist’s website. Artist found via Jenny Brown on Instagram. If you aren’t already following Jenny, you need to be!

Daily Artsy

Posted on January 13, 2015

Many artists work in series format. For some, the subject of the series is determined by the subject of the work– oceanscape, abstract, pop culture, etc. But for Los Angeles artist Benjamin Adelmann, a series of work is often dictated by the process through which the artist arrives at his final destination.

Whether through beginning in a completely abstract composition or with a previously composed work manipulated through editing software and repainted as manipulation, Adelmann’s work feels more about what happens on the journey than what is waiting upon arrival. It’s a lesson I’m striving to embrace myself these days– that act of getting lost in the process and learning my way through it. That relinquishing of what I have in mind for a final outcome and just following where the path may lead.

To see more of Benjamin Adelmann’s work, please visit his website.

All images are via the artist’s website.

Daily Artsy Mixed Media

Posted on January 12, 2015

Our current vagabondish lifestyle can make it difficult to create new connections. Sometimes we are only in one spot for 13 weeks, which seems hardly long enough to foster lifetime relationships. But occasionally, we come across those people with whom we instantly click. Those that we feel like we’ve known all along. That connective act, that fostering of the newfound with our own memories brings to mind the work of Happy Red Fish AKA Dutch artist Hagar Vardimon-van Heummen.

Our friend Veronica has a way of describing those people with whom we feel instantly at ease– she calls them “zero people”. Now that may sound a bit insulting, but it means they are those rare friends who require zero energy. We don’t have to put on a show. They get our jokes and understand our hearts. It’s funny that some of our shortest stays while traveling have yielded some of the best connections. It’s something we’ve been learning along the way– when you happen across those kindred spirits, take every opportunity to foster the connection. We need more zero people in our lives.

To see more of Happy Red Fish‘s work, please visit her website.

All images are via the artist’s website.

Daily Artsy Photography

Posted on January 9, 2015

Instagram has changed the way we see the world. OK, maybe that’s giving the ubiquitous photo sharing app too much credit. But perhaps it has unleashed in many of us the desire to capture not only what we see, but how we see. The “candy colored minimalism” of photographer Matt Crump gives us a glimpse into one way of seeing the world around us.

I’ve found myself thinking about the way we edit and filter our experiences through the photographs we post. Often when Mr. F and I are out hiking or taking in a particularly moving scene, I reach for my camera or phone, but know as I snap the shutter that what I feel in that moment won’t be captured with the lens alone.

On the other hand, are we being conditioned to appreciate and applaud the manipulated version of life more than the natural? Or perhaps we are drawn to images like these for their transformative and transporting effect? Maybe it isn’t a question of one or another. And that’s OK.

To see more of Matt Crump‘s work, please visit his website and follow him on Instagram.

Artist found via I Need a Guide. All images are via the artist’s website.

Daily Artsy Paintings Still Life

Posted on January 8, 2015

I stil vividly remember spending days with my mom, sister-in-law, and grandfather going through my grandmother’s things after she was gone. How very adamantly he wanted her things to go on in this life, even when she did not. I’m not as attached to material things as I once was, yet when a person has lived with and used and touched objects I do believe they become sort of intertwined with that person’s spirit for a time.

We each have different ways of interacting with the things around us– from the way we set the table to the way we hang ( or don’t hang ) up our towels. My grandmother’s clothes, while jammed into every available closet space, where meticulously well cared for and carried her scent long after she no longer wore them.

After a loved one is gone, we want to cling to every precious memory and momento. Even the most insignificant little object can carry with it great meaning. But as time goes by, the memories don’t fade, yet our need to grasp those objects close often does. It’s as if our loved ones spirit hangs about as a comfort to us for a while and, when we are ready, it gently lets us go.

These still life paintings by Erin Raedeke brought to life for me this concept of a memorial and spiritual attachment to things and the unique way we interact with not just the things we use each day, but how we use material things to remember the people we love.

To see more of Erin Raedeke’s work, please visit her website.

All images are via the artist’s website.

Abstract Art Daily Artsy Paintings

Posted on January 7, 2015

As I type this post, I feel keenly aware of the quiet around me. The hum of the refrigerator and the occasional noise from the street above are the only sounds meeting my ears. How often do we allow this type of quiet in our days? The elimination of modern noise is one thing that we love about hiking and backpacking. While living in Seattle, it was especially noticeable when we got out of the cacophony of the city and up into the tranquility of the mountains. In his work, Northern California artist Leslie Kenneth Price takes his inspiration from the natural world and serves up work that draws us into the teeming life happening in the quiet that surrounds our noise.

I happened upon the Price’s work when visiting Sewell Gallery back in April and loved it, keeping it in the back of my mind ever since. A peek at his website recently found me falling deeply in love with this new series of paintings, Verano. His use of color, movement, and texture alone are enough to draw me in, but in listening to the artist talk of the influence of nature on his work truly resonated with my own experience and spirit.

I found myself nodding along and thinking, yes,that’s exactly how I feel! over and over again. A true artistic soulmate.

To see more of the work of Leslie Kenneth Price, please visit his website.

All images & video are via the artist’s website.

Abstract Art Collage Daily Artsy

Posted on January 6, 2015

Like any other couple, Mr. F and I talk a lot about our future. One frequent topic of discussion these days is our future home. To build or not to build. What does our ideal home look like? Maybe I’ll just convince Mr. F to base our design on one of these collages by New York artist Ryan Sarah Murphy.

Using found cardboard on book pages, Murphy fashions these abstract collage constructions that seem one part architectural rendering, one part abstract painting. The torn edges lending a landscape quality, making them like grounded fantasies. I’ll take the second from the top, please!

Find more of Ryan Sarah Murphy‘s work on her website and get a peek inside her process by following her on Instagram.

All images are via the artist’s website.

Daily Artsy Figurative Paintings

Posted on January 5, 2015

I’m back, dear Artsies! Ready to hit the ground running in this new year. I’m not sure what 2015 will bring but what I do know is that I can no longer hang in limbo. It’s time to put my face forward and get back to it. As I reflected upon the prospect of beginning again, I was drawn to paintings by Barcelona artist Alejandra Atares.

Moving ahead after lingering in the unknown can be scary and intimidating. There is a fear of beginning something exciting only to have to abandon it mid-stream. But as I like to tell Mr. Forager, the ultimate dreamer/planner..

Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.

He just loves it when I quote John Lennon to him! In the end, we never know what tomorrow will bring, even when all of our loved ones are whole and well. So we must embrace life as it is in this very moment while looking forward with hope and anticipation.

Artist found via I Need A Guide. All images are via the artist’s website.

Older Posts

Newer Posts

Studio Sale 2022!
August 12, 2022
Reviewing. 2019.
December 31, 2019
Showing. Charlotte & Sacramento!
October 6, 2019
Showing. Tiny Art for ETA 26.
September 4, 2019
Showing. Anne Irwin Fine Art EAS 2019.
August 7, 2019

All posts are written by Lesley Frenz, unless otherwise stated. If you would like to repost something you see on Artsy Forager on your own blog, please provide a link back to the original post. All artwork images are the property of the individual artists, please link to this site or theirs when reposting and credit the artist appropriately. Artsy Forager contains some contextual affiliate links. An affiliate link means that I receive commission on sales of the products that are linked to in noted posts. So if you click on a link and make a purchase from an affiliate site, such as Mantle Art or Great.ly, then I may make a commission from that purchase. Those affiliate links may also be found on my Pinterest page. Artsy Forager reserves the right to delete any comments deemed as inappropriate. Play nicely, please.

Artsy Grams