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.
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!
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!
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. In 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Nature, in 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.
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.
Humboldt County, our temporary home of the moment, is apparently known for its oysters ( among other things, ahem.. ). Their fame and abundance is pretty much completely lost on me. I’ve just never been much of a fan, will only eat them fried ( hello, southern girl ) or baked with champagne and brie ‘cuz I’m fancy like that and Mr. F makes them this way and they are not only palatable but to die for delicious! If there were any other way to make me love them, it would be through the work of this month’s Featured Artist Carlos Lopez, who finds amazing beauty in their jagged shells.
I’ve featured the work of this young New Orleans painter before and he is constantly “painting, painting” as his daily Facebook status attests, cranking out new, inventive ways of seeing his signature subject. Most recently, he’s taken to isolating his oyster shells on bright, bold backgrounds, giving them a contemporary pop quality that is especially striking. You’ll be seeing more from Carlos all through this month, so stay tuned!
To see more work from Carlos Lopez, please visit his website and the website of his representing gallery, Gallery Orange in New Orleans. Be sure to head over to the Artsy Forager Facebook page where Carlos is our cover artist and I’ve put together an album of my Lopez faves!
Mr. Forager and I love to share dreams. I’m not just talking about the speculative, what if, kind of dreams, but the productions put on by our subconscious while we’re sleeping. If either of us has an interesting or unusual dream, we always share it. The work of Belgian artist Marie Rosen has the same surreal, things are not quite what they seem feeling, so often found in our dreams.
Flat planes and barren landscapes defy reality and keep us from knowing for certain how the elements of each piece fit together– landings leading to nowhere, tiny feet gather beneath a giant covered table. It’s that same incongruity that so often leads us feeling out of sorts following a particularly vivid dream. Things seem almost real, yet we know they are only imaginings.
We live in a world of labels. Where the things we consume are linked to who we are– our personality, our political views, our wealth. Yet we make assumptions based on the consumption habits of other people all the time, whether consciously or unconsciously done. We gather around us these symbols of status and wealth, often more important to our perception of ourselves than anyone else. Michigan artist Jaye Schlesinger captures in paint the tokens of consumption that are often prized as much as the products themselves.
In the past, I’ve been as guilty of this as anyone, hoarding bags from my favorite luxury stores, even carrying my lunch to work in one occasionally. There is nothing wrong with nice things, of course, and if we can afford luxuries, why not treat ourselves? But the danger comes when we begin to judge others on the basis of what they can’t afford. For me, traveling with Mr. F has been incredibly freeing for my own magpie tendencies. We can only carry so much with us and, as we move from place to place, we find that more often than not, the people we meet are much more interested in who we are than in the car we drive or the clothes we wear. It is teaching me a lesson in perception that I’m not sure I would have learned otherwise.
Wow, heavy stuff for a Friday, eh? Jaye Schlesinger has more beautiful paintings of ordinary things ( my fave! ) on her website. Be sure to check it out!
One of the things I love most about the art world is the diversity– of people, styles, ages, eras. It’s amazing to not only see the work of new graduates and up & comers, but to look back at the artists who made the way for today’s success. This week’s round up of must-see museum and gallery shows includes work from recent MFA graduates, old-school Abstract Expressionists, modern figurative savants, and some abstract artists who just wanna have some fun.
Oh how I wish I could be in all these places! Someone needs to hurry up with that teleportation device. If you’re in any of these areas and able to see these incredible gallery shows, share your experience on Instagram & tag me @artsyforager with the hashtag #dontmissartsiness!
