Does this sculpture by New York artist Tom Fruin remind you of anyone?
I’ll give you a hint..
Do you see it? Love how these very different works compliment each other! Read more about Karen Schepf’s work here and Tom Fruin’s workhereand on Design Boom.
Featured images is Light & Shadow Play, Kolonihavehus, photographed by Nuno Neto. Images are via the artists’ websites unless otherwise noted.
Being a hyper visual person, I remember imagery like nobody’s business. Names, however, often escape me. So I was very excited when on Pinterest last week, I spotted the Omaha artist Karen Schnepf. We’d carried a few of her paintings while I was working in a gallery, purchased through an art rep, so we’d never had any contact with her personally. I was so delighted to find her again so that I could share her striking, color saturated work with you!
Let me just say that none of these photos do Karen’s work justice. Her canvases are super high-gloss, making it nearly impossible to get accurate photos. But that deep shine is one of the things that I love about her work.
The glossy surface enhances the brilliance of her saturated color palette. Her use of such vibrant color tempered with black and lustrous surfaces call to mind modern stained glass on canvas. The color seems to virtually ooze across the canvas. I want to swim in it!
To see more of Karen Schnepf’s work, please visit her website.
Featured image is Painting-033. All images are via the artist’s website.
Anyone who knows me is aware of my love affair with scarves. As in I own way too many and am powerless to resist their call. I even hike wearing a scarf ( ok, a bandana, really ). They instantly up the degree of artsiness in any outfit. These hand painted and embroidered scarves by Naomi Clark on Grey Area are insanely gorgeous, wearable works of art!
See all the designs here!
I have a feeling that I held on to my childhood dolls longer than most young girls. I think I may have been almost thirteen before I finally stopped playing with them, although my favorites still held a place of honor in my room while I was young. Those were the symbols of childhood that I couldn’t bear to part with. I never wanted to forget the countless hours of play and joy those plastic babies had brought me. In her Doll series, Canadian artist Fausta Facciponte, confronts us with imagery of the forgotten dolls of our childhood, reminding us of the innocence we’ve left behind.
When we’re young, many of our toys teach and shape who we may eventually become. Dolls seem especially important to teach children how to care and nurture. How many times have you “personified” a doll so that a child will know to be gentle with a baby? I can vividly recall a niece swinging a doll by her hair..
We dress and undress them, feed them plastic food, bathe them, swaddle and cuddle them. But as we mature, we reach a point where we realize that it is all pretend. That caring for a real baby is much more work, much more complicated. As we transition from childhood, perhaps we realize that the doll play mimics a much more scary reality.
So we put away the childish toys, discarding them as infantile. But maybe what we are really putting out of our prepubescent minds is the inevitable reality of growing up and being faced with the actuality of the world we were playing and preparing for.
To see more of Fausta Facciponte’s work, please visit her website. Are there any childhood toys that were touchtones for your transition from childhood to the adult world?
Featured image is Peter by Fausta Facciponte, archival pigment print. Images are via Stephen Bulger Gallery.
Every time I go back to the work of Portland artist Anna Magruder, I fall more in love with it. Come and see why over on Escape Into Life today!
I am craving color. It seems like spring has sprung everywhere except where we are. Don’t get me wrong, I love winter, but after almost 4 months without flowers, I am ready for blooming! So it should be no surprise that this week I’m drawn to the work of Anne Harper.
Spring is full of contrasts– bright flowers glowing against skies wet with rain. Harpers work parallels for me the loveliness of an urban spring. Her liquid color reminds me of my first spring visit to Seattle, where the cherry blossoms littered wet sidewalks. It seemed magical. ( Probably didn’t hurt that I was newly in love, both with the city and my then soon-to-be hubby! )
Then, the rainy days of spring gradually dry, giving way to the glorious glow of summer. I am ready. Are you?
To see more of Anne Harper’s work, please visit her website. In addition to being a fantastic painter, she is also a talented musician! You can listen to her tunes here.
This artist found via Saatchi Online.
Featured image is a detail of Persuasion #4. All images are via the artist’s website.
I can sort of relate to Linus van Pelt, of Peanuts fame. I have a favorite blanket, too. It was never a security blanket of the type that is carried around and a meltdown ensues when it is forgotten, lost or laundered. But rather, I have a blanket ( quilt, actually ) given to me by my grandmother that is a repository of memories and is one of my prized possessions. I imagine Los Angeles artist Erin Payne understands emotional connections to a cherished textile.
In her Piles series, Payne sets up still lifes constructed of heaps of blankets, sheets, tablecloths and other household fabrics set against landscaped dioramic backgrounds, forever memorializing these stacks on canvas. Just as I find comfort in the warmth of my grandmother’s quilt, both physically and emotionally, so do many once ordinary items become cherished vessels of remembrance.
But what happens when the person most connected to those memories is gone? The beloved item may be forgotten, thrown out or given away, becoming a hollow receptacle, now ready to be imprinted upon by a new owner.
Will their new keeper appreciate the past life of an object that may be a bit worn? Will they even give thought to whose history this article has been a part of?
I hope my grandmother’s blanket will be with me, reminding me of sniffles comforted and snuggles under a reading lamp. But even if it somehow finds its way out of my grasp, I hope the love that it carries radiates from its worn threads. To see more of Erin Payne’s work, please visit her website.
Featured image is Pile 4, acrylic on canvas, 24×24. All images are via the artist’s website.
Have you ever fallen in love with a wonderfully strange work of art but had no idea how to design a room around it? Interior designer Fawn Galli hits the mark with her contemporary fairy tale room designed around a painting by Anne Siems.
See more from this fantastic fantasy meets contemporary NYC home, visit House of Turquoise or House Beautiful. And when you’re finished drooling, visit designer Fawn Galli’s website for more inspiration!
Hubby and I are treehuggers. Not in a holier-than-thou, I-always-recycle, never-ever-use-plastic-grocery-bags kind of way ( though there may be a little of that ), we’re more the Babe!-did-you-see-the-size-of-that-tree, doesn’t-that-tree-trunk-look-like-the-Venus-de-Willendorf, oh-I-want-to-hug-it variety. As the days get longer and the weather gets slightly warmer, we’re beginning to plan lots of treks into the woods to do some tree-gazing. One of our favorite things to do is lay on the ground and look up at the trees and their branches. So to get you in the mood for perhaps a little tree-gazing of your own, here are a few artists who share our woodsy love!
Adam Shaw | Liz Ruest | Angie Renfro |Susan Goldsmith
So how about you, Artsies? Any tree-hugging plans this weekend? 🙂
Featured image is The Truth Calls Us Into Being by Adam Shaw, oil on canvas, 70×50. All images are via the artist’s websites, linked above.
I always get a little thrill when I get a tiny foam work of art in my coffee.
