artsy forager

Tag: abstract art

  • Unraveling. Adrian Esparza.

    Unraveling. Adrian Esparza.

    That little piece of thread.  You know the one.  You want to pull it, you want to cut it, but you know that if you do, that seam will be broken and everything will unravel.

    Many times over the last year I’ve had that feeling, that longing to pull the thread, to let things unravel.  Sitting by my mom’s bedside, especially in those last two weeks, alone with her at night in the hospice room, listening so closely to every breath, I had to stop myself from pulling on that thread.  She needed me.  I couldn’t let myself unravel.

    Adrian Esparza | artsy forager #art #artists #sculptures #textiles Adrian Esparza | artsy forager #art #artists #sculptures #textiles Adrian Esparza | artsy forager #art #artists #sculptures #textiles Adrian Esparza | artsy forager #art #artists #sculptures #textiles house5 Adrian Esparza | artsy forager #art #artists #sculptures #textiles Adrian Esparza | artsy forager #art #artists #sculptures #textiles

     

    We all felt it– she was so weak, we all had to be her strength.  Then when she was gone, we were able to allow ourselves to unravel, to feel and express those emotions we’d dammed up for so long.  Our cloaks were undone but we didn’t leave them in a discarded pile on the floor.  We picked up the threads and began to weave a new story.  One that included her memory, her spirit, her strength.  It won’t look the same as before, not even close, we’re rebuilding into a completely different kind of beautiful.

    The sculptural work of El Paso artist Adrian Esparza uses threads from Mexican sarapes and reconstructs them into architectural-like wall sculptures.  To see more of his work, please visit the website of his representing gallery, Taubert Contemporary.

    All images via Taubert Contemporary.  Artist found via Beautiful Decay.

  • Landing. Richard Claremont.

    Landing. Richard Claremont.

    Mr. F and I have been doing this travel thing for over four years now.  That’s four years on the road.. four years of not knowing, four years of adventuring.  We are getting ready to think about our next spot, taking off and landing again in a new place, awaiting discovery.

    Each fresh spot brings not just a new landscape, but new environments, new vibes, new spaces.  Every place comes with its own sense of being.  Australian artist Richard Claremont  interprets the character of landscapes near his South Coast home in paint and color.

    Claremont1 Claremont2 Claremont3 Claremont4 Claremont5

     

    I like to look back on the places we’ve been and think about our time in terms of what we felt and experienced in each one.  Claremont’s paintings with their pink light and lush brushstrokes evoke the warm and loving feeling of a landscape well loved.  We’re looking forward to finding our own well loved landing.

    To see more of Richard Claremont‘s work, please visit his website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.  Artist found via Christina Foard on Facebook.

  • Commune. Kate Shaw.

    Commune. Kate Shaw.

    Our time here in the Bay Area is getting short.  As of today, we have less than a month left in Marin County.  We’ve tried to take full advantage of the area’s beauties, but every time we venture out for some peace and quiet, something gets in our way.  All the other humans.

    These paintings by Melbourne artist Kate Shaw, with their layers of ink, glitter, and powder, speak to the way we as humans are corrupting the natural world we claim to love and appreciate so much.

    Kate Shaw | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #abstractart #landscapes Kate Shaw | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #abstractart #landscapes Kate Shaw | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #abstractart #landscapes Kate Shaw | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #abstractart #landscapes Kate Shaw | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #abstractart #landscapes

     

    Mr. F and I don’t want to come off as crotchety old so-and-so’s ( although, maybe we are! ), perhaps it’s just that our expectations of what it means to spend a day in wilderness areas are a bit high.  We want to see and experience renowned beauty, but in places that are so heavily populated, the enjoyment seems to come with a price.  The best thing about these places is that they should be refuges of peace, but it’s hard to commune with your thoughts as Rhianna is blasted down the trail.  While Shaw’s work deals more perhaps with chemical devastation and destruction, I feel like there is a spiritual decimation happening, too.  Or maybe we just need to find a cabin in the woods for a while.

    To see more work by Kate Shaw, please visit her website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Branching. Ember Fairbairn.

    Branching. Ember Fairbairn.

    A tree isn’t just its trunk.  To thrive, a tree needs healthy branches.  It needs to be reaching for light, nourished to its tips from within.  Those branches become the homes of birds and squirrels, providing subtle, swishing music on breezy days and shelter from rainstorms.

    In our current home in Marin County, our apartment in the hillside is nestled in the treetops.  We see the world through a filter of blowing branches.  Ember Fairbairn‘s paintings remind me not just of our view, but of the way we need to branch out in order to bloom.
    Ember Fairbairn | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #abstractartEmber Fairbairn | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #abstractartEmber Fairbairn | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #abstractart Ember Fairbairn | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #abstractart Ember Fairbairn | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #abstractart

     

    Just as a tree can’t survive without its branches, so too do we need to continually reach out for new experiences in order to learn and grow.  If we don’t we may become stagnated and overtaken by stronger, greedier vines.

    To see more of Ember Fairbairn‘s work, please visit her website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Bound. Pava Wulfert.

    Bound. Pava Wulfert.

    It doesn’t always take another person to imprison us.  We can often bind ourselves up without any outside help– whether by our own thoughts, or actions, or expectations.  It’s a challenge just to get out of our own way.

    In this sculpture series, artist Pava Wulfert binds together painted canvas and wooden racks, illustrating in three dimensions a sense of captivity.

    Pava Wulfert | artsy forager #art #artists #sculpture #contemporaryart Pava Wulfert | artsy forager #art #artists #sculpture #contemporaryart Pava Wulfert | artsy forager #art #artists #sculpture #contemporaryart Pava Wulfert | artsy forager #art #artists #sculpture #contemporaryart Pava Wulfert | artsy forager #art #artists #sculpture #contemporaryart

     

    We don’t always recognize our own confinement– like Wulfert’s elements painted in bright, happy colors, we may be blissfully ignorant of our lack of liberty.  It’s interesting that Wulfert uses typical artists’ materials like paint, canvas and rack pieces in these bound sculptures.  Perhaps how we see ourselves as artists can be a prison of sorts?  Certainly thinking of ourselves only in one artistic dimension limits our boundaries!

    To see more of Pava Wulfert‘s work, please visit the artist’s website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Submerged. Wendi Turchan.

    Submerged. Wendi Turchan.

    Having spent the last two summers on the Northern California coast, where the water doesn’t warm up too much between winter and summer, it’s been a while since I took a swim.  When I was young, spending summers at camp and at my aunt & uncle’s lake house, I loved the water.  One of my favorite things was to hold my breath and sink to the bottom.  Time slowed down, the world became distant and muted.  It felt like an immersion into summer.

    Wendi Turchan | artsy forager #art #artists #mixedmedia #abstractart Wendi Turchan | artsy forager #art #artists #mixedmedia #abstractart Wendi Turchan | artsy forager #art #artists #mixedmedia #abstractart Wendi Turchan | artsy forager #art #artists #mixedmedia #abstractart Wendi Turchan | artsy forager #art #artists #mixedmedia #abstractart

     

    These paintings by Wendi Turchan seem to illustrate that feeling of submersion.  Fluid background colors seem to melt into each other, while bright geometric shapes float and sway.  It feels like diving to the bottom of the pool for a sunken treasure.

    To see more of Wendi Turchan‘s work, please visit her website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Submersions. Kim Keever.

    Submersions. Kim Keever.

    Re-entering the real world after so many hours, weeks, months spent by my mom’s side has been more of a struggle than I might have imagined.  There was, of course, a desire for a return to normality, to get back to a world in which each ring of the phone didn’t follow with a sense of fear and foreboding.  But lurking constantly, just beneath the surface, are emotions that threaten to float to the top of my throat, sting my eyes, and take over.

    Kim Keever | artsy forager #art #artists #photography #abstractart Kim Keever | artsy forager #art #artists #photography #abstractart Kim Keever | artsy forager #art #artists #photography #abstractart Kim Keever | artsy forager #art #artists #photography #abstractart Kim Keever | artsy forager #art #artists #photography #abstractart

     

    I’m trying to walk the line between acknowledging and allowing those emotions but not giving them complete control.  It is natural to feel this swirl of hurt for someone I loved so fiercely and miss so terribly.  But as much as she would appreciate and understand those emotions, she would absolutely hate to see me overcome by them.  So I let them come and then I let them go.

    The images above are photographs by artist Kim Keever.  See more of Kim’s work at his website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Superfluity. Amanda Krantz.

    Superfluity. Amanda Krantz.

    If I could think of any one way to honor my mom’s memory in my life going forward– it could be summed up in one word. MORE.

    These paintings by Melbourne artist Amanda Krantz teem with color, movement, and life, seeming ready to burst from their canvases.  They embody what I would like my own life to be.

    Amanda Krantz | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #abstractart Amanda Krantz | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #abstractartAmanda Krantz | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #abstractart Amanda Krantz | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #abstractart Amanda Krantz | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #abstractartAmanda Krantz | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #abstractart Amanda Krantz | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #abstractart

    In the last year of Mom’s life, there was less of the good, less of what she loved and enjoyed. That was perhaps one of the toughest challenges we, as those who loved her, faced.  Watching that light fade as she couldn’t eat what she wanted, couldn’t go and do as she had always done, her life seemed merely a struggle for survival.

    For her, and for myself, I want what is left of my own existence to be abundantly more.  More colorful, more adventurous, more days spent doing what I love rather than merely surviving.

    To see more of Amanda Krantz‘s work, please visit her website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Crevices. Sean Newport.

    Crevices. Sean Newport.

    As humans, none of us are one dimensional.  We are a mashed up conglomerate of peaks and valleys, opposing polarities that often don’t make sense.  It is when we reach below the surface, into the crevices where the true self often hides, that we see ourselves and our fellow beings in reality, for better or worse.

    In his wood sculptures, San Francisco artist Sean Newport begins with individual geometric shapes, building them up and arranging them into a finished whole.

    Sean Newport | artsy forager #art #artists #sculpture Sean Newport | artsy forager #art #artists #sculpture #paper Sean Newport | artsy forager #art #artists #sculpture #paper Sean Newport | artsy forager #art #artists #sculpture #paper Sean Newport | artsy forager #art #artists #sculpture #paper

     

    Varied colored surfaces reinforce patterns and illusions created by the undulating geometrics.    Our perception of the shapes changing with differing perspectives.  Just as opening our eyes to a different view of another may alter the way we see them, or at the very least, help us to understand the crevices behind their own facade.

    To see more of Sean Newport’s work, please visit his website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Temporal. Bill Armstrong.

    Temporal. Bill Armstrong.

    This is my first blog post since my mom left this earth.  It has been seventeen days.  We were lucky in that we had time to prepare, time to say goodbye, but it still doesn’t seem real.  I can still hear her voice in my head, that musical little “Hi Les!” that always greeted me on the other end of the phone line.  I still see her in my dreams, but she is never sick, always whole, always the way I most remember her, the way I want to remember.

    Bill Armstrong | artsy forager #art #artists #photography Bill Armstrong | artsy forager #art #artists #photography Bill Armstrong | artsy forager #art #artists #photography Bill Armstrong | artsy forager #art #artists #photography Bill Armstrong | artsy forager #art #artists #photography

     

    It was a harrowing, heartbreaking experience, to watch someone you love so much slowly slip away.  The hospice nurses marveled that she held on as long as she did– that she must have had some sort of unfinished business to tend to.  But those who knew her well knew that she would let go of her tortured body in her own good time.  Always the boss, always organized and in control, she would decide when.

    If there is anything I’ve taken away from this last year of my mom’s life, it is that we have no guarantees. She never should have been gone at only sixty seven.  There were still plans to be made, life to be lived, grandchildren to watch grow up.  If my mom could be gone, then so could my husband, so could my brothers, so could I.  I’ve been left with a resolve to follow my passions more fully, bask in each day more completely, love more abundantly.  I have today and for now it is enough.

    These photographs by Bill Armstrong reminded me of the fleeting nature of our lives on this earth.  To see more of his work, please visit his website.

    Artist found via Dolby Chadwick Gallery.  Images via the artist’s website.