If you’ve been reading the blog for awhile, hopefully you’ll recognize the work of these painters. Each painting is an original and available for purchase through the artists, with a portion of the proceeds benefitting the Nashville Zoo. Now I’m not sure they have any mice at the zoo, but I’m sure there are lots of other wonderful little furry foragers!
City Mouse | Country Mouse will be showing in the found gallery through March 28th, so you’ll have until then to snatch up one of these beautiful little paintings all for your very own! Throughout the month we’ll get to know the artists a little better, too!
So what are you waiting for?! Grab a handful of cheese and click here to see for yourself!
During our time here in Joshua Tree, Mr. Forager & I often find ourselves talking about what makes this place so different compared to everywhere else we’ve lived. Apart from the obvious, there is such an openness to the landscape here that creates incredible beauty, and yet, there is no place to hide abandoned buildings, rusted out cars and windblown trash. The paintings of Dallas artist Kim Cadmus Owens featured familiar lonely landscapes, infused with color and fractured lines inspired by technological irregularities.
Lounge, oil on canvas, 48×48
Smoke and Mirrors: Coming and Going, acrylic and oil on canvas, 156×48
Just as the forsaken buildings once loved and cared may now be hazardous eye sores, our relationship with technology and electronic communication also shifts and evolves. We long for the immediate connection it allows, yet find ourselves frustrated and often unable to cope when the lines of communication go awry.
Pawn, carbon and acrylic on beveled wood panel, 24×30
Grand, carbon and acrylic on beveled wood panel, 24×30
Leader, carbon and acrylic on beveled wood panel, 24×30
We love how easy it is to connect and yet balk at how those systems of connection invade our privacy. We often find ourselves forsaking the people sitting right next to us for those on the tiny screen in our hands, just as we abandon old buildings full of character and history for shiny new strip malls. Owens use of fragmented lines and color in her work remind us that those connections have broken.
Cheap, acrylic and oil on canvas, 48×48
To see more of the work of Kim Cadmus Owens, please visit her website. How have you seen your relationships and landscape change with the changes in technology? What do you do to combat against a reliance on electronic communication & gadgets galore?
We had such a fabulous response to last month’sArt Association that Erin of artsocial, my AA partner and I immediately started choosing artists and planning for the next few rounds. I know everyone loved Christina Baker’s work and pinned like nobody’s business to win that lovely little painting! ( PS– Christina’s work will be available in our first exhibition & sale, which begins tomorrow! ) I think you’re going to love this month’s catalyst & prize just as much! My own pinboard was incredibly fun & inspiring to put together– I didn’t want to stop pinning, but somebody has to write this here blog.
If you’re new to Art Association, here’s the lowdown– You create a Pinterest board around one work of art ( which we provide ), filled with anything and everything that pops into your mind while gazing at the catalyst piece.
So without further ado, I present to you, dear Artsies, your catalyst artwork for this month’s AA, Yellow Rose No. 2 by Emily Jeffords!
Step 2 | You create a Pinterest board titled Art Association, like mine here, where you pin any and all images you associate with the featured artwork ( like word associations, only visual )– here’s a sneak peek at some of my associations
Step 3 | Leave a link to your Art Association pinboard in the Comments section of this post
The pinner who is deemed the winner ( hee ) will be the proud new owner of this beautiful Emily Jeffords original lithograph! Stem + Orchid is an original lithograph and comes matted for an overall size of 12″ x 13″. Wouldn’t this be a lovely addition to a gallery wall or propped prettily on a bookcase?! **
Stem + Orchid by Emily Jeffords
The pinner with the best Art Association board ( as judged by me and Erin ) will be chosen on Wednesday, February 27th at 5pm (mountain standard time). I’m looking forward to seeing all the creative associations you come up with! Ooooh, I just thought of another one!
Ready, set.. PIN!!
**So sorry but the contest is open to US residents only. I know. Pooh.
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.
Tea Time, archival digital print on metallic paper on plexiglass, 26×36
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.
Doubt, archival digital print on metallic paper on plexiglass, 53×35
Olga, archival digital print on metallic paper on plexiglass, 60×36
Untitled, archival digital print on metallic paper on plexiglass, 60×36
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.
Organic A, archival digital print on metallic paper on plexiglass, 24×36
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.
Collage seems to be the “it” medium these days. And why not? It takes a gifted eye for composition, color, and visual texture to make a collage that stands out amid the throng. French artist Pascaline Dargant’s collages are beautifully simple yet remarkably memorable. My new collage crush! I’m sharing her work today in my Artist Watch over on Escape Into Life. Check out the post here!
21st century humans are over thinkers. In this age of almost unlimited information access, we Google it, Wikipedia it, overanalyzing most anything and everything that comes our way. The moments in which we just lose ourselves to what is happening right that very secondare increasingly rare. Los Angeles artist Jan Zoya intentionally strives to keep the intellect out of her work, resulting in abstract paintings that are free from constraint.
Castle in the Sky, oil on canvas, 23×23
Ramshackle Harbor, oil on canvas, 30×30
Her journeys in paint become a conversation on canvas, a talk between color, texture and what emerges. Between the path the artist decides to pursue and the road not taken.
City at Night, mixed media on canvas, 36×48
Garden of Earthly Delights, mixed media on canvas, 17×23
Daisychains Around the Maypole, mixed media on canvas, 36×36
As I mentioned in a post last week, I’m learning how to have these conversations in paint. To let your brain take a vacation while you paint is very difficult to do! We’re always wanting to know, what will the outcome be? Where is this going? When will we get there? But as in Zoya’s work, I found that it was when I stopped thinking that the magical combination of instinct and intuition took over. And the journey became much more interesting!
Passage, mixed media on canvas, 36×36
To see more of Jan Zoya’s work, please visit her website and give her Facebook page a like, too!
Happy Monday, Artsies! Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend. Or are you one of the lucky ones who gets a President’s Day holiday? We’re totally jealous!
Our weekend was full of ups and downs– Let’s get the bad stuff over first.. The Downs: Discovering a hole in the kitchen sink pipe of our rental Friday night ( yikes! ), the Disneyland like atmosphere of wineries in Temecula made us miss Oregon even more, crowds at the local breakfast joints on Sunday ( where did all the people come from?? ), still no working sink Sunday night ( the dishes are piling up! )
The Ups: Attending the Palms Springs Fine Art Fair on Friday, a day filled with wine tasting in Temecula on Saturday, discovering less crowded, out of the way wineries, soaking up the warmth on the back porch with Mr. F & a cocktail on a restful Sunday. I’d say The Ups outweighed the The Downs for sure!
[ Carole Feuerman greeting at the Palm Springs Fine Art Fair ]
[ Aldo Chapparo, Robert Kelly, Oli Sihoven ]
[ totally needed some of this over the weekend ]
[ art candy by Klari Reis ]
[ wine, wind, wonderful ]
[ hmm.. which do we want? ]
[ Dr. Evil cherub ]
[ the Foragers love a game of bocce ]
[ warmth of the sun ]
Hope you had a lovely weekend, Artsies! Lots more photos from the Palm Springs Art Fair, Temecula, and more from This Artsy Life on the Artsy Forager Instagram feed! And tons of loveliness coming your way this week, including the opening of our very first online show, City Mouse | Country Mouse in the Found Gallery! Such exciting stuff I can’t stop using exclamation points! 😉
Sometimes the amount of garbage we accumulate in a week completely shocks us. We wonder how in the world two adults could create so much waste. We do try to be aware of our consumption and curtail it wherever we can. The work of French artists Hortense Le Calvez and Matthieu Goussin aka Forlane 6 Studio speaks to the human race’s over consumption and the consequences it will eventually bring.
Ordinary, mass produced objects, decorated with “seaweed” and “tentacles” are submerged. These objects, which weigh so heavily on many of our lives and the earth in general, gloat weightlessly.
This slowness of movement contradicts the rate at which so many of these objects are consumed and disposed of. The objects seem at once foreign and organic to the sea’s atmosphere. Perhaps in a nod to how we fool ourselves into thinking that buying that next thing we don’t really need doesn’t make a difference.
To see more of the work of Forlane 6 Studio, please visit their website and be sure to follow their Facebook page, where they’ve recently posted photos of a new installation!
Perhaps some pretty flowers arrived at your house yesterday? Maybe not ones of the Christy Kinard variety ( but if so, LUCKY!! ), but the sweetly scented kind. Pray tell, what did you do with your floral treasure? Please don’t say you just left them in the boring, cheap-o, mass manufactured vase they came in! A beautiful token of love deserves a special vessel. An artsy vessel. Here are a few I would happily grace with blooms!
Green, Yellow, and Red Ceramic Pot by Esther Griffith
Hope you the lovey doveyness keeps coming your way! I’m off to Palm Springs today for the Palm Springs Art Fair, looking forward to spending the day discovering more artsy to share with you!
**this vase is extra special because it is emblazened with lyrics from mine & Mr. Forager’s song. It’s not super mushy, but it fits us perfectly!
I adore a good love story. Mr. Forager does not approve of love stories without a happy ending. I, on the other hand, appreciate the twists and turns of tragic, complicated relationship stories. Monumental artists often have epic love stories, whether they be blissful or heartbreaking, or often a combination of both. In honor of this most loving of days, here are a few of my favorite artistic pairings!
If you’ve been reading the blog for awhile, hopefully you’ll recognize the work of these painters. Each painting is an original and available for purchase through the artists, with a portion of the proceeds benefitting the Nashville Zoo. Now I’m not sure they have any mice at the zoo, but I’m sure there are lots of other wonderful little furry foragers!
![This Artsy Life: Weekend 7 [ Art, Wine, & Who Really Cares About the Rest? ]](https://artsyforager.com/images/Pier+Regular/This+Artsy+Life%3A+Weekend+7+%5B+Art%2C+Wine%2C+%26%23038%3B+Who+Really+Cares+About+the+Rest%3F+%5D.png "This Artsy Life: Weekend 7 [ Art, Wine, & Who Really Cares About the Rest? ]")
