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.
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!
Have you ever watched a sunset, watching the sun melt into the landscape and wished there was a way to capture other than on your iPhone? New York artist Jamie Harris seems to ensnare the elemental liquidity of nature in infused glass.
These encapsulations of color seem to magically suspend the elements forever in animation– a sun that never quite sets, water that freezes mid-flow. Bright, saturated color hangs in translucent waves that seem like they could crash into each other any second. Completely enchanting.
I do love work filled with calming translucency and dreamy washes. But sometimes, I’m in the mood for something a bit more wild. The work of South African born Boston-based artist CK Aderem is filled with controlled explosions of texture and color that is totally getting my juices flowin’.
These small scale paintings are like tiny landscape abstractions, bursting forth with color and teeming with movement. Layers peek from behind each other like a mythical creature shyly glancing from around a corner, enchanting and drawing me in to try to get to another glimpse. I want to slide down those thick lines of paint, to see where falling down those rabbit holes might lead. What an adventure it would be to fall into the candy colored world he is creating!
In this week’s round up of gallery shows and museum exhibitions, I am so bummed that I’m nowhere near any of these spots because each of these shows looks amazing!
Click through the gallery links above for more information about each show. If you check ‘em out, tag me ( @artsyforager ) on Instagram with the hashtag #dontmissartsiness! If you go I’ll be totally jealous!
Three posts in one day?! What’s going on? I’ll tell you what– I am joining with the folks at Great.ly to celebrate the first ever White House Maker Faire! America has always been a creative nation, but in recent years, as technology has become accessible, we’ve seen the rise of a Maker’s Movement, creating opportunity where there were once just dreams. Today, the White House celebrates our #nationofmakers and so do I!
To honor just a few of the amazing makers out there, I thought I’d share a handful of the creative entrepreneurs you can find in The Trove, my boutique gallery at Great.ly—
Emily Jeffords
Jennifer Steen Booher
Meredith Aitken
Romina Bacci
Deb Haugen
Find more from these amazing artists in The Trove! I’m so honored to play even a small part in helping to build up these creative careers! Happy Maker’s Day!
This post contains affiliate links. As a Great.ly Tastemaker and curator of The Trove, I receive a small commission on each piece sold from The Trove boutique gallery.
In my guest post “Artsy Abroad: Fear, Frustration, and the Art of the Forage” last month, I described the time I spent at the beginning of the year in Batuan, Bali, seeking out artists to interview during a month-long arts writing grant. I was lucky to find an abundance of artistic inspiration during this time and am excited to share this with you now…
Ketut Jaya Kaprus’ studio in Batubulan, Bali, Indonesia. Photo by: Ellen C. Caldwell.
One of the first artists I was introduced to was Ketut Jaya Kaprus. Kaprus brought a sampling of images and videos with him (see the video at the end of this post) and this meeting sparked a wonderful and ongoing conversation about art, the environment, and our artistic inspirations.
Soon after this initial meeting, Kaprus invited me to his home studio in Batubulan and then to his friend Made Budhiana’s studio in Denpasar. I spent the day with Kaprus, Budhiana, another artist Wayan Sunadi, and my friend and translator Sudipa Yasa from Bali Purnati. Together, we discussed their experiences at art school, their artistic community and arts collectives in Bali, and their work.
top | Ketut Jaya Kaprus, detail from one of offering paintings. Photo by: Ellen C. Caldwell. bottom | Kaprus’ examples of physical offerings, the inspiration for much of his work and color palette. Photo by: Ellen C. Caldwell.
When I arrived at Kaprus’ studio, he began by showing me a handful of his smaller framed works – all of which were naturalistic in style and depicted detailed paintings of the daily offerings one sees all over Bali. As a Hindu priest in his home village, Kaprus is inspired and motivated by traditional Balinese customs and ritual symbols – all of which he incorporates into his work. These smaller paintings beautifully capture the details of the offerings that are an integral part of everyday life in Bali. Kaprus became interested in making these offerings at a young age, and later, he began transforming the physical offerings into representations of them as well.
left | Interior of Kaprus’ studio in Batubulan. Photo by Ellen C. Caldwell right | Kaprus painting in his studio during the interview. Photo by: Ellen C. Caldwell
Besides these realistic paintings, Kaprus is more known for his loud, colorful, and abstract paintings. Monumental and larger than life, in many cases, these paintings covered every inch of his walls—a physical symbol of the way in which art and the creative process takes up every aspect of his spiritual and psychic being. Seeing both of his painting styles together shows how the colors and symbology from the offerings are the literal inspiration for and translation of the larger abstract paintings. In this way, the smaller works shed a light on the meanings and jumping off points for his larger works.
After a wonderful studio visit and interview with Kaprus, we headed to Budhiana’s studio in Denpasar. Simply put, Budhiana’s studio is the stuff of dreams.
The entryway to Made Budhiana’s studio in Denpasar. Photo by Ellen C. Caldwell.
A large, two-story barnlike structure, it has all the right lighting, large open spaces for his huge canvases, an amazing sound system and movie projection setup, books and music to inspire the mind, and art to inspire the senses.
Budhiana is an established international artist and he sees part of his role in Bali as being a mentor for fellow artists. He invites artists to apply for short residencies to share his lovely studio space while working on their own practice. He is also a lover of classic rock, so much of our day was cast to a soft pulsing soundtrack of Hendrix, Zeppelin, and Clapton: an undercurrent, as if the studio’s lifeline.
left | Inside Budhiana’s studio. Photo by: Ellen C. Caldwell. right | Inside Budhiana’s studio. Kaprus, Sunadi, and Yasa pictured from left to right. Photo by: Ellen C. Caldwell.
Budhiana’s work is generally large (a minimum of about 4-6 feet wide) and very colorful. Steady lines of bright reds, yellows, and oranges pack the canvases’ frames and tell a larger story. Humor and visual narrative, both large and integral parts of Balinese culture, are as much his medium as the paint and canvas themselves. Their friend and colleague from Indonesian Institute of the Arts Yogyakarta (Institut Seni Indonesia Yogyakarta/ISI Yogyakarta), Wayan Doel Sunadi, was also there to show me his paintings. Sunadi’s work takes the comedy up a notch too, as he plays around with humorous subjects and viewers’ expectations for contemporary Balinese painters (as with Mystery of Sunglasses).
left | Wayan Doel Sunadi, Mystery of Sunglasses ( detail ), 140 x 200cm, mixed media on canvas, 2013. Photo courtesy of the artist. right | Wayan Doel Sunadi, Tarbang, acrylic on canvas. Photo courtesy of the artist.
A final interior of Budhiana’s studio. Photo by Ellen C. Caldwell.
None of these artists paint in the older, traditional Balinese styles in any conventional sense, but they all show their artistic roots in different and distinct ways. Through symbology, humor, and narrative, they all ground their practices in older and existing elements of Balinese painterly traditions and themes while experimenting with new and distinct styles that highlight contemporary Balinese culture.
“Ketut Jaya Kaprus: Artwork and Inspiration,” 2014, Film director and editor: Dadi Reza Pujadi, Music by: Jeff Schmidt: live solo, and Marcus Miller: solo bass, A Free Parking Working Film. Video posted courtesy of the artist.
Are you loving these little virtual foraging trips through Bali as much as I am? Thanks so much to Ellen for sharing her adventures and to the artists for opening their studios. More to come from Ellen next month!
Are you an artist, arts writer, or blogger who is planning a residency or trip abroad and would like to share your own Artsy Abroad story? Shoot me and email via the Contact page and let’s chat!
We’ve all been there. Those incredible moments when we first fall in love– like walking on clouds, floating on the gentle rock of a warm ocean. We are consumed in total by our love, seeing the world through a veil of ardor. In her large scale abstract paintings, New Orleans artist Mallory Page allows thoughts of the different kinds of love we experience to guide her through the mystical world of abstraction.
From the passion of first love to the warmth of a lasting friendship, Page captures the way our emotions flow into and out of one another, gradual shifts often happening before we even notice them. Intense, dark color gives way to translucent light. Aren’t these just stunning? Just like love, they’ve totally drawn me in.
You guys know I’m always searching for the best artsy finds for you. Well, in this new series of posts, I’ll be sharing the museums & gallery shows you need to see if you possibly can!
And there is a whole lot of yumminess going on in all four corners of the country!
east |The Way & The Wayfarers, group show featuring work by Jay Knapp, Joshua Hogan & Kuzana Ogg** at Westmoreland Museum of Art
Click through the gallery links above for more information about each show. If you check ‘em out, tag me ( @artsyforager ) on Instagram with the hashtag #dontmissartsiness!
**FYI– work by Kuzana Ogg is now available through The Trove! So even if you can’t see her show, you can still check out her gorgeous work and maybe make it your own!
This post contains affiliate links. As a Great.ly Tastemaker and curator of The Trove, I receive a small commission on each piece sold from The Trove boutique gallery.
Home has been a subject in the forefront of our minds lately. Over the next several years, Mr. F and I are saving like mad so that we can settle down and build a little house that fits our needs and our aesthetic perfectly. What might that aesthetic be, you ask? Well, it has a lot in common with the work of this month’s Featured Artist, Deb Haugen— fresh and organic, yet modern.
In her work, Deb, a California-girl, balances that lovely line between the modern and organic, often employing watery, free flowing colored forms dotted with graphic ink drawing. Translating her work into a living space means lots of white walls and furnishings dotted with pops of muted color and warmed with natural textures and graphic punches of black.
A space like this is just dying for a post-beach fire, wine, and conversation! If you’d like to see more of Deb Haugen‘s work, check out her website AND visit The Trove, Artsy Forager’s new Great.ly boutique gallery where you can find lots of Deb’s work for sale including these lovelies EXCLUSIVE to The Trove!
work by Deb Haugen available exclusively at The Trove
Please note that the above works are cropped. You can see the full versions here!
*This post contains affiliate links. As a Great.ly Tastemaker and curator of The Trove, I receive a small commission on each piece sold from The Trove boutique gallery.
