I am completely in love with the graphic illustrative quality of Seonna Hong’s work. Which is why she’s being featured in my Artist Watch over on Escape Into Life today! Check it out here!
Seonna Hong on Escape Into Life
Artist found via The Art Cake.
When I was taking painting courses in college, we were required to stretch our own canvases. At first, I was pretty horrible at canvas stretching.. as in there were about a gazillion staples in each side of the canvas! But eventually, I got my hands on a decent staple gun and came to appreciate the act of stretching a canvas as part of the creative process. The stretching of textile collages over deep, geometric-shaped frames transforms stitched fabric and threads into strong and delicate sculptures for Colorado artist Jen Pack.
Some of Pack’s work, such as I am a Cube! ( above ) have a seemingly hard-edged sleekness to them, yet upon closer inspection, we see soft lines and gradations in the colored fabrics, giving the work a painterly feel.
Then in other pieces, Pack’s purpose seems to be one of deconstruction, as in Domesticated Thread ( above ) and Purple, Yellow, and Green Toadstools ( below ). Here, what we are met with seems to be an unraveling of the more “finished” and “structured” pieces. It’s almost as if someone pulled a loose thread, which caused the slow unraveling of each piece.
To see more of Jen Pack’s work, please visit her website. If you’re in the Los Angeles area, you can see her solo show, UnQuiet Chroma at Taylor De Cordoba Gallery until December 15th! Oh how I wish I was going to be able to get myself to L.A. this weekend!
To me, the best stories are those that are carefully layered and woven together with a touch of mystery. Artist Sarah Awad’s work intertwines seemingly disparate elements to create wonderfully complex and cryptic visual narratives.
In some of Awad’s work, we seem to be looking into a classical museum, filled with artifacts and precious antiquities. These pieces have a eerieness to them that give us a sense of happening upon an unfolding story.
In each piece, we wonder what just happened here or what is about to happen? There is an anticipatory feeling and a slight unease to each work.
To see more of Sarah Awad’s work, please visit her website. If you happen to be in the Seattle area, you can see Sarah’s work in person at James Harris Gallery.
For some Artsies, the holidays can be a bit of decorative overload. I’m talkin’ about those clean line, simple shape loving Modernists who crave the sleek and spare. For this week’s Artsy Holiday installment, here are a few ideas for the Artsy Modernist on your list!
Maybe I’m a closet Modernist because I am loving all these bold colors and geometrics! See more Artsy Modernist ideas on the Artsy Forager Pinterest boards!
For the past few weeks, I’ve been visiting at my brother’s home in Florida, rooming with an extremely energetic seven year old, my niece Kendall. My dad gave Kendall the nickname of Firecracker— a nod not only to her fiery red hair but also to the tiny bundle of explosive energy that she is. The frenetic energy in the work of Australian artist Todd Hunter is definitely Firecracker level.
Hunter’s work is filled with the types of gestural strokes, saturated color, and wild movement that makes my heart skip a beat.
This is work that grabs you, draws you in, and leaves you breathless. While the visual intensity of each work may be what captures our gaze initially, the moments of quiet within the composition end up being what keeps us coming back for more.
To see more of Todd Hunter’s work, please visit his website. Which types of work are you most drawn to? Peaceful and quiet or full of crazy good energy?
All images are via the artist’s website.
When this Southern girl was first transplanted to the Northwest, it came as a bit of a shock to me that certain parts of the Northwest were not that much different from the South. I’d naively assumed that all of the PacNW would be open minded, artsy, liberal places like Seattle and Portland. Philadelphia artist Kim Alsbrooks perhaps had a similar experience while living in the South, translating her perplexity at the social structures and prejudices still prevailing in the region into her My White Trash Family series.
From the artist’s website: “The White Trash Series was developed while living in the South out of frustration with some of the prevailing ideologies, in particular, class distinction. This ideology seems to be based on a combination of myth, biased history and a bizarre sentimentality about old wars and social structures. With the juxtaposition of the portraits from museums, once painted on ivory, now on flattened trash like beer cans and fast food containers, the artist sets out to even the playing field, challenging the perception of the social elite in today’s society.”
Of course, the issue of class hierarchies is not limited to the Southern United States. It is an issue still widespread throughout the world. In her juxtaposition of these portraits of high societies’ past against the discards of the lower class, Alsbrooks speaks to the irony of the continuation of such antiquated beliefs.
To see more of Kim Alsbrooks’ work, please visit her website. Her work will be featured as part of the Parlor Gallery Group Show at SCOPE Art Fair in Miami December 4th-9th!
Artist found via Parlor Gallery. All images are via the artist’s website.
Collages with a vintage bent? Yes, please! Featuring the work of California artist Eugenia Loli in my Artist Watch on Escape into Life today. Check it out here!
My seven year old niece Kendall was recently given a pedometer at school as a physical fitness promotion. Pretty soon, she was obsessing over how far she walked every day. I have a feeling she would love Austin artist Laurie Frick’s Walking series, a group of collaged works based on daily walking patterns.
The artist uses fitbit, mytracks, and a cat cam to record her every day walking patterns, which she then translates in collage form onto alumalite panels.
Isn’t it interesting how little we notice patterns in our own behavior until it is placed before us in a visual way? Frick has created several other projects focusing on self-tracking, each confronting us with the visual reality of the activities we engage in.
To see more of Laurie Frick’s work, please visit her website.
The work of this month’s Featured Artist, Marsha Glaziere is filled with luscious layers, texture, pops of bold color, and a skilled hand at good old fashioned drawing. No matter the subject she undertakes, her style and way of working is unmistakably hers.
Her work straddles the line between representational and abstract, almost as if she begins in realistic mode and then her abstract altar-ego takes over. The resulting work then becomes more about the energy of her subject rather than perfecting every small detail.
Marsha’s latest series, Coffee Spots, features her interpretations of the eclectic coffee houses in and around the Puget Sound. It’s no secret that Northwesterners ( especially those in or near Seattle ) take their coffee very seriously. Marsha decided to begin painting her favorite local spots in celebration of the coffee culture that began in the PacNorthWest and has since spread across the country and around the world.
The Coffee Spots series has been made into a 2013 calendar and fabulous “table COFFEE book”, both of which would make wonderful holiday gifts for the artsy coffee lover in your life! Both the calendar and book are available for purchase on the artist’s website. While you’re there, don’t miss all the other incredible artwork on Marsha’s site, some of which you can also see in her album on the Artsy Forager Facebook page!
If you’re anything like me, you are in a state of disbelief that December is here. But the good news is that a new month means a new Featured Artist! We’ll be closing out 2012 with December Featured Artist Marsha Glaziere— look for more work from Marsha all over the blog, Facebook & Twitter feeds as the month goes on!
