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  • American Jam: Joe Wardwell

    American Jam: Joe Wardwell

    If you were paying close attention to Don’t Miss Artsiness a few weeks ago, you may have spotted this artist’s work.  The mind-bending work of Joe Wardwell mixes classical American landscape paintings with rock lyrics and the result is just as phenomenal as you think it would be.

    Joe Wardwell | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #contemporaryart Joe Wardwell | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #contemporaryart Joe Wardwell | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #contemporaryart Joe Wardwell | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #contemporaryart Joe Wardwell | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #contemporaryart

     

    Music lyrics become such a huge part of our psyche.  These little soundbites pop into our head, often when we least expect it.  We can sing along with tens of thousands of other people at a concert, every voice lifted up in harmony.  We know the music we love as well as we know our own backyards.  Wardwell makes a connection between the American love of the landscape to the permeation of pop culture, creating these mirror-like stenciled scenes that remind us that music, as well as art, is just another kind of exploration.

    To see more of Joe Wardwell‘s work, please visit his website. You can see his work in the current exhibition at La Montagne Gallery in Boston.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Wear the Artsy: Carlos Lopez + Emily Miranda

    Wear the Artsy: Carlos Lopez + Emily Miranda

    This past Sunday, following more weekend festivities than is normal for us, Mr. F and I took to the beach for the afternoon.  There is always something about the salt air, the crash of the waves, and the sand between your toes that is healing for the psyche!  Doesn’t the ocean have its own special, briny scent?  And it always seems to give sparkle to everything it produces.  The paintings of this month’s Featured Artist Carlos Lopez gives expression to the nourishing power of the sea and jewelry artist Emily Miranda‘s Oyster Cuff is the perfect sparkly companion!

    Wear the Artsy: Carlos Lopez + Emily Miranda | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #jewelry

     art | Study #1 by Carlos Lopez

    jewelry | Oyster Cuff by Emily Miranda 

    Carlos is masterful at expressing the oyster’s gentle, undulating curves in paint, mimicking the rollicking waves, just as Emily Miranda sculpts those same contours from in her cuff bracelet.  One work of art to see, one to wear.

    To see more of Carlos Lopez‘s work, please visit his website.  You can see more gorgeous jewelry by Emily Miranda on her website.  Both a feast for the eyes!

    Image sources via links above.

  • Sucre Doux! Osamu Watanabe

    Sucre Doux! Osamu Watanabe

    Mr. Forager and I have begun a little tradition while here in Eureka.  Each Tuesday and Thursday evening, we take a very long walk up a few steep hills to a local bakery where we reward ourselves with a sweet treat.  We realize we’re probably undoing some of the good we’ve just done, but without the reward, the journey isn’t nearly as pleasant.  What is it about sweets that make them seem such thrill?  Japanese artist Osamu Watanabe plays with my sweet tooth with his delectable dessert inspired sculptures.

    Osamu Watanabe | artsy forager #art #artists #sculpture #contemporaryart

    Osamu Watanabe | artsy forager #art #artists #sculpture #contemporaryart

    Osamu Watanabe | artsy forager #art #artists #sculpture #contemporaryart

    Osamu Watanabe | artsy forager #art #artists #sculpture #contemporaryart Osamu Watanabe | artsy forager #art #artists #sculpture #contemporaryart

     

    Watanabe’s mum was a confectionary school teacher, so it’s only natural he would find his muse among the memories of his childhood.  His sculptures are created from modeling paste and wax, shaped into familiar confectionary forms.  He gives us an array of visual treats to rival any bakery case and even better, these delights are calorie free!

    To see more of Osamu Watanabe‘s work, please visit his website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Spiro-Graphics: Kim Kirk Nielsen

    Spiro-Graphics: Kim Kirk Nielsen

    Tell me you remember Spirographs? That ubiquitous toy that combined the worlds of math and art and captured the imagination of many an artsy kid.  Danish born, Paris based artist Kim Kirk Nielsen adds his own spriroriffic drawings to appropriated imagery, adding graphic punch and curves in all the right places.

    Kim Kirk Nielsen | artsy forager #art #artists #mixedmedia #contemporaryart Kim Kirk Nielsen | artsy forager #art #artists #mixedmedia #contemporaryart Kim Kirk Nielsen | artsy forager #art #artists #mixedmedia #contemporaryart Kim Kirk Nielsen | artsy forager #art #artists #mixedmedia #contemporaryart Kim Kirk Nielsen | artsy forager #art #artists #mixedmedia #contemporaryart

     

    I love the way Nielsen is using these spherical forms to emphasize certain areas of each image, as well as playing with scale as in the last piece to create a surreal, dreamlike scene.  The Fibonacci like spirals that echo the patterns of lace doilies ( an ongoing theme in Nielsen’s work ) provide an interesting graphic foil to the photographs he’s chosen to manipulate.  That’s it, I’m going to track down a Spirograph and start drawing all over everything!

    To see more of Kim Kirk Nielsen‘s work, please visit his website.

    Images found via the artist’s website and his Saatchi Online portfolio.  Artist found via Saatchi Online.

  • Consumer Culture: Robert Mars

    Consumer Culture: Robert Mars

    Happy Independence Day!  I hope you don’t mind if I get a little deep on you today.  The work of Robert Mars explores the idealization and fascination we as a nation have developed with pop culture, brands, and celebrity and it got me thinking this week.

    Robert Mars | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #contemporaryart

    image image image image

    I had originally written a long rant-y post about american consumerism, but decided this morning that it just didn’t fit the positive and light-hearted vibe I try to keep up around this joint.  So I’ll let you draw your own conclusions. 😉 Hope you have an incredibly artsy Independence Day!

    You can see more of the work of Robert Mars on his website.

    All images are via the artist’s website and Facebook page.

  • Don’t Miss Artsiness 7.3.14

    Don’t Miss Artsiness 7.3.14

    Gallery Shows You Should See

    Summer can be a slow time in the art world.  Some galleries close altogether, reserving their resources for the busy Fall season, while others show off their best artists for tourists and travelers.

    Here are a few shows happening right now, if you’re looking for something artsy to do over the holiday weekend!

    NSWE collage 7.3.2014

    north | Ryan Molenkamp at Linda Hodges Gallery

    south | Splendor: The Work of Jim Waters at High Museum of Art Atlanta

    west | Erica Rose Levine at Thinkspace

    east | Material, Strata & Synthesis featuring work by Laura Moriarty, Eleanor White and Anne Arden Arnold at KMOCA

    Image sources linked above.

  • Detritus Reformed: Aurora Robson

    Detritus Reformed: Aurora Robson

    Whenever we’re out hiking, one of our pet peeves is spotting trash and debris in wild places.  We inevitably come across a bit of litter no matter where we happen to be exploring and always try to do our best to pick up what we can.  Yet we all consume and discard so much every day without even thinking.  Multi-media artist Aurora Robson transforms plastic debris into beautiful, life-like structures.
    Aurora Robson | artsy forager #art #artists #sculpture #contemporaryart Aurora Robson | artsy forager #art #artists #sculpture #contemporaryart Aurora Robson | artsy forager #art #artists #sculpture #contemporaryart Aurora Robson | artsy forager #art #artists #sculpture #contemporaryart Aurora Robson | artsy forager #art #artists #sculpture #contemporaryartIn Robson’s hands, plastic pieces of detritus like those that litter the oceans morph into sea creature like beings, similar to those life forms whose very existence is endangered by the debris.  The material gives the sculptures a graceful, ethereal quality, belying the perilous threat posed by their very existence.

    To see more of Aurora Robson‘s work, please visit her website.

    All images via the artist’s website.

     

  • Unfolding Ourselves: Marcelo Daldoce

    Unfolding Ourselves: Marcelo Daldoce

    Two artist posts in one day?!  I know I don’t usually do this, but when I saw this artist’s work on Booooooom! I just couldn’t wait until next week to share it with you.  Mostly self-taught New York artist Marcelo Daldoce creates these absolutely incredible folded watercolor paintings in which the figure hides and reveals itself through the artist’s manipulation of his surface.

    Marcelo Daldoce | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #contemporaryart Marcelo Daldoce | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #contemporaryart Marcelo Daldoce | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #contemporaryart Marcelo Daldoce | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #contemporaryart Marcelo Daldoce | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #contemporaryart

    From his artist statement, “My work focuses on the terrain beyond the conventional two-dimensional landscape of paper and canvas. In bringing to life a flat surface, I strive to create a puzzle between what is real and what is illusion..”  Isn’t it interesting how we tend to do this for ourselves, folding in and hiding the parts of us we don’t what others to see, manipulating our own surface so that we only reveal a studied portrait of the person we’d like everyone else to assume we are.  I’d like to be more transparent, to unfold my own portrait so that I’m no longer hiding any part of me.  So that what you see is what is me.

    To see more of Marcelo Daldoce‘s work, please visit his website.

    All images via the artist’s website.  Artist found via Booooooom.

  • Unruly Surfaces: Howard Sherman

    Unruly Surfaces: Howard Sherman

    Last week, while Mr. F and I were out with a few of his work colleagues, we discovered that, at a table of four adults in their 30s/40s, every single one of us came from a divorced family. It seems that we all become torn and tattered as life gets ahold of us.  Not just the kids of divorce, but anyone who’s gone through pain, suffering, and loss.  But it’s how we deal with our circumstances that determines the people we become.  In his mixed media work, artist Howard Sherman uses a process of addition and subtraction to create unruly surfaces that result in a beautiful mess.

    Howard Sherman | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #collage #contemporaryart #abstractart Howard Sherman | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #collage #contemporaryart #abstractart Howard Sherman | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #collage #contemporaryart #abstractart Howard Sherman | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #collage #contemporaryart #abstractart Howard Sherman | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #collage #contemporaryart #abstractart

    Just as we react to our own situation, Sherman describes his work process as a bit of “call and response”.. Each action creates a reaction, and it is up to the artist whether the result is something to keep or cover up.  Just as we act and react to people, events, and circumstances in our lives, it is up to us to decide how we are affected and what our own final composition will be.

    To see more of Howard Sherman‘s work, please visit his website.

    All images via the artist’s website.  Artist found via New American Paintings.

  • The Artsy Nature: Joshua Tree & Karen Silve

    The Artsy Nature: Joshua Tree & Karen Silve

    While Mr. F and I were reluctant desert-dwellers and are sure to steer clear in the summer months, I’ll be the first to admit that spring in the desert is absolutely enchanting.  What has been dry and dormant for months on end comes to life with color!

    This post is the second in a new series, The Artsy Naturein which I pair a photograph from our travels and forays into the wild with a work of art in which I find a reminder of that moment.

    The Artsy Nature: Joshua Tree & Karen Silve | artsy forager #art #artists #abstractart #paintings #contemporaryart

     

    photo | cholla blooming in Joshua Tree, CA

    art | Wildflowers 1 by Karen Silve

     

    Though I have no idea the original inspiration for Karen Silve‘s Wildflowers 1 ( cropped above ), the palette of yellows and greens instantly takes me back to our desert spring.  It was a time when we knew our own arid wandering would soon come to end and life was filled with dreaming of new beginnings.  That spring was also a time of renewal for both of us, I remember us both brimming with energy and creativity, just as Silve’s painting is awash in lively movement.

    Check out The Artsy Nature archives for more in the series!

    Photo by Artsy Forager, art image credit linked above.