I love it when an artist’s work causes me to do a double take. When I spotted the ceramic sculptures of Anne Goodrich amongst the work at Guardino Gallery in Portland, I almost passed them by. From afar, they just seemed like botanical ceramics, which would likely just have elicited a “nice” from me. But upon closer inspection, I saw that these were something more.
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These beautifully formed ceramics, in their soft pastels and rich earth tones play a delightful little trick on the mind. At first glance, you may think you know what you’re seeing– Oh, pretty seashell, no wait, flower, no wait, gourd.. snail? alien? What is it?!
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It is in the ambiguity that Goodrich’s work finds its simple, sweet power. We aren’t sure exactly what these forms are, but even still, they speak to us. They are achingly familiar, like the face of a stranger who reminds us of a long lost friend.
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They may remind us of forms that exist inside our own bodies. Or of organisms surrounding us, both seen and unseen.
Nest 1 by Anne Goodrich
Whatever they are, I want to bring one home, give it a name, let it speak to me and discover its mysteries.
To see more of Anne Goodrich’s work, please visit her website. If you’re lucky enough to be in or near Portland, OR, you can see her work in person at Guardino Gallery in the Alberta Arts District.
The mixed media work of artist Steven DaLuz glows with an ethereal luminosity. His atmospheric work explores the use of light to create ambience, whether it is a hazy and serene or deeply dramatic.
Threshold, mixed media on panel, 48×60
The self-described “Neo-Luminst” is creating work that is “concerned with the glowing effects of light”. Instead of creating work with an inherent message or narrative, DaLuz instead prefers to let the emotionality of the light and color in his work allow the viewer to draw on their own perception and experience to invoke meaning. Or to simply allow the imagery to speak for itself.
Opus 110, oil on metal leaf on birch, 48×48
For me, these seem to be rare glimpses into another world. These are transcendent, the light, texture and composition all joining together to transport the viewer into a world that may or may not exist within our realm of experience.
Ovum 2, oil and mixed media on panel, 36×36
What one viewer may see as delicate and heavenly, another may view as foreboding and alien. Or, like me, you may be drawn to the richness of color and elegance of the composition, which is enough to spark my own imagination.
Portal, oil and mixed media on panel, 36×48
To see more of this artist’s work, please visit his website or stop by his Facebook page.
Featured image is Cloud Bank by Steven DaLuz. All images are courtesy of the artist’s website.
A man gives many question marks, however, a woman is a whole mystery. ~Diana Stürm
Artist Brad Kunkle is a creator of feminine mysteries. Haunting, glistening visual fairy tales which are at once throwbacks to the past and yet thoroughly modern.
Candela, oil and silver leaf on wood, 33×32
His work takes inspiration from the Pre-Raphaelite era, as evidenced by the medieval-feel of the compositions, near photographic precision and intricate surface detail.
The Quickening, oil and gold and silver on linen, 44×22
But don’t be mistaken, Kunkle’s figures and compositions are not antiquated, but rather fresh and current. The paintings are like pages of out a Vogue magazine fairy tale– and I mean that in the best possible way. These aren’t helpless ingenues, but contemporary women caught up in circumstance.
Afela’s Nature by Brad Kunkle, oil and gold and silver on linen, 16×14The Arrangement, oil and silver leaf on linen, 34×18
These are the modern daughters of Eve, tempted and tempting, the subject of desire and blame. Filled with sensual strength tinged with sadness. Kunkle tells the story of their past by placing them in classical compositions and poses, but the elegant background treatments and inherent edginess keep them firmly on current ground.
The Source, oil and gold and silver on linen, 26×18
To see more of Brad Kunkle’s work, please visit his website. If you’re in the New York area, his work is represented by Arcadia Gallery, where he will exhibit a solo show in Spring 2012.
Featured image is “Girl With Serpent and Pearls”, oil and gold and silver on linen, 25×30.
I’m a sucker for furniture. I love the mixture of function and design. And paintings of furniture? Well, those hold a special place for me as I went through my own “chair” phase while I was studying painting in college. So when I spotted the work of Gabriel Fernandez at Guardino Gallery in Portland this weekend, he had me at hello.
Eichler Book on Table, oil on canvas, 24×36
Fernandez creates scenes using furniture as another artist might use human models. He sets the stage to tell a story, of a moment that just happened or is about to occur. His compositions focus on the beauty of the objects themselves, the lives that they have led.. maybe an interesting life in a public place or a spiritless existence in a warehouse.
Orange Chair In Front of Radiator, oil on canvas, 25×21
The artist seems to be exploring the relationship of the objects to their environment, as an important player in a larger scene. His use of light and shadow create a sense of emotion and mood, keeping the images from becoming mere still lifes, but instead imbuing them with a sense of story.
Coos Bay Laundromat, oil on wood, 14×19.25Green Chair With Three Suitcases, oil on canvas, 20×22 Green Chair With Three Suitcases, oil on canvas, 20×22
These are objects with soul, with personality, experience. A past, a present and a future.
Green Chair With Three Suitcases, oil on canvas, 20×22
To see more of Gabriel Fernandez’s work, visit his website. Or, if you’re lucky enough to be in or near Portland, OR, drop by the Guardino Gallery in the Alberta Arts District.
My husband and I look at a lot of maps. For the next several years, we’re moving to a new locale every three months, plus we spend weekends exploring the areas surrounding wherever we happen to be living. Oh, and there are also all the future travel plans. Like maybe a stint in Thailand in 2013. ( I KNOW!.. so exciting!! ). We use whatever maps we can get our hands on.. Google maps online at home, GPS in the car and of course, our good ol’ reliable atlas. Currently, we’re pouring over maps as we anxiously await the locale of G’s next work assignment. A month from now I will be typing the Friday Faves from a whole new setting, crazy isn’t it?!
Turns out we aren’t the only ones inspired by maps. Check out some of my favorite artists who incorporate these geographic illustrations into their own artwork. Happy travels!
Richardson, mixed media, 5×5Navigate ( detail ) by Amy RiceDrifter’s Atlas No. 2 by Dolan GeimanFear Hope Oblivion by Francesca BerriniA Good Mess by Wyanne Thompson
How about it, Artsies? Anyone mapping out adventures for the weekend? Have a maptastic artist to share? Do tell!
Normally, I love thick paintings. Canvases piled high with mounds of paint and lots of gooey and delicious texture. But there is a fluidity in abstract watercolors that I find just as appealing. Watercolorist Marsha Boston imbues her work with such a lovely sense of light and tranquil color, they feel like looking at the world from under a blanket of warm water as the sun shines above.
Saucer Magnolia, watercolor and ink
Her botanical work focuses on our relationship with nature, our power over it in areas such as genetic engineering and nano-agriculture. How easy it seems to be for man to take for granted and ultimately destroy the delicate balance that is inherent in the natural world, all for our own purposes.
Leaf Mutants in Pea, acrylic on canvas
Her Remembering Water series stemmed from the disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil spill, spawning an interest in aqueous plants and their usefulness and value in our ecosystem. When oil spills occur, much is made of the impact on animal life, but the harm to plants and microorganisms that sustain them is rarely highlighted.
Widgeon Grass, Remembering Water series, acylic on canvasOculina, Remembering Water series, watercolor on Fabriano
I love art for art’s sake and pretty pictures as much as the next girl. But do you know what I love even more? Beautiful artwork that tells an important story. And that’s what Marsha Boston’s work does. It is telling us the story of the destruction and misuse of the very resources that are here to not only sustain us but give us pleasure. It would be a sad day if there were no more wildflowers to inspire artists like Boston to capture their beauty.
Mountain Cranberry, watercolor and ink
To see more of Marsha Boston’s work, please visit her website and Facebook page.
Featured image is Indian Fig, watercolor and ink by Marsha Boston. All images are courtesy of the artist’s website.
I have not tried to reproduce nature, I have represented it.
— Paul Cezanne
Never where these words more true than in the work of sculptor, David Engdahl. The former architect has been shaping wood to create beautiful sculptures for over twenty years. Inspired by the forms in the environment surrounding his home in north Florida, Engdahl takes his cue from organic shapes, simplifying or exaggerating them to create elegant embodiments of the natural world.
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Using plywood, a mechanically manipulated natural material to create these organically inspired sculptures creates a dynamic tension between the material and inspiration source. By taking a normally lower level type of wood source and creating spledid sculptures, Engdahl is not only taking something “ugly” and making it beautiful, but also hearkening back to the wood’s original forms.
Lamelliform #91Lamelliform #21
The beauty in nature is all around us. But we rarely notice it, much less ponder it. Engdahl’s work may help us recall the glimpse of antlers in the woods, the shadow of a sea turtle making its way across the surface of the deep or the swaying of thin branches in the breeze.
Lamelliform #200
He brings nature and artifice together in a way that reminds us that they can work together to reveal the best in each.
To see more of David Engdahl’s work online, visit his website. Be sure to check out this wonderful video in which the artist explains his creative process and give you a glimpse inside his home studio. If you’re in the North Florida area, stop by Studio 121 at 121 W. Forsyth Street in downtown Jacksonville, where he will be the featured artist, August through October.
Featured image is Lamelliform #194. All images are courtesy of the artist’s website.
I find myself continually drawn to artists who realistically paint the human figure, but reimagine it in unique ways. ( see: Deborah Scott, Susan Hall, Jeff Whipple & so many more I’ve yet to share with you ). So it goes without saying that the work of New York based painter Robin Williams ( no, not THAT Robin Williams ) got me really excited.
Party Hat by Robin Williams
You know I love work that’s just a little bit cheeky. Williams paints scenes from childhood imaginations & experiences and portraits of figures dressed up in a stunning array of absurd costumes. Her wide-eyed, willowy figures have a Norman Rockwell-ish timelessness to them. But Williams invests in her gawky, pre-pubescent figures a darkness and absurdity missing from Rockwell’s happy-go-lucky world.
Ornamented Boy by Robin Williams
Her portrait figures pose stiffly in outlandish costumes and headresses, seemingly unsure of how they found themselves in such a situation. Perhaps speaking to how we begin as wide-eyed children, but as we grow into adults, we find ourselves wearing the most ridiculous costumes in order to appear to fit into someone else’s conception of who we are.
Flower Cap by Robin Wiliams
Other figures find themselves in the midst of a preposterous scene, almost like a dream of a childhood memory.. the way we remember places and events from childhood in a more fantastical, exaggerated way.
Swoon At The Water Pump by Robin WilliamsTired Prince by Robin Williams
The portraits, for me, especially convey that feeling of what it was like to be a kid full of energy and vitality only to be forced to sit still, whether in school, church, etc. That feeling of a corralled hurricane, just waiting to break free of the constraints being forced upon us. On second thought, you don’t have to be a child to feel that way, do you?
Collar On Boy by Robin Williams
Please visit Robin Williams’ website to see more of her work online.
The featured image is titled Yellow Hat. All images courtesy of the artist’s website.
I admit, I’m not always up on the very latest trends, I am in my 30’s after all. I knew all about the “Put a Bird On It” trend, but had no idea that art featuring chickens had become such a big deal. Chicken art makes me think back to my grandma’s house and her Americana farm scene prints featuring chickens. And her ceramic chicken collection. Needless to say, chickens aren’t the first subject that jumps to mind when I think of the latest in the art world. But for whatever reason, these birds are fowls are ruling the roost.
Roost by Brian McGuffey
Seattle area artist, Brian McGuffey draws from childhood experiences in his creative process. In “Roost”, pictured above, he elevates the rooster from lowly barnyard animal to a dignified, full-plumed specimen. Just look at that profile. You know all the hens would be clucking all over him.
King of the Hill by Sydney McKenna
Why did the chicken cross the road? To attend a chicken-only art show, apparently! St. Augustine, Florida artist, Sydney McKenna painted “King of the Hill” specifically for a show at the W.B. Tatter Studio & Gallery celebrating not just chickens, but also the gallery’s sixth year anniversary. I hope they served a vegetarian menu for the opening. 🙂
But the Tatter who is by no means the only chicken show I’ve covered in recent months. Remember Yvonne Lozano’sWhat Happened to the Chickensshow? Yvonne created an entire series of painting centered around a family trip to Colombia and a few friendly chickens she met there as a child.
Here, Chicky Chicky by Yvonne LozanoOut and About by Hilary Williams
But chickens in art aren’t just reserved for the barnyard.. In “Out and About”, San Francisco based artist Hilary Williams depicts a little hen who seems to have escaped and is enjoying a lovely day on the town. This chick is ready for a ladies lunch and some retail therapy.
Speaking of plucky adventurers ( pun intended ), Dolan Geiman’sBlue Highway also shows how chickens in art aren’t just for grandma’s kitchen anymore. Geiman’s graphic, mixed media approach results in work that is more contemporary than kitsch.
Blue Highway by Dolan Geiman
Where is this upsurge in chicken art leading? Only the chickens know for sure. The banty in Jim Draper’sCross Creek seems ready to take the road less traveled. And maybe that’s what the chicken art movement is all about.
Cross Creek by Jim Draper
The featured images is Laughing About This Life by Hilary Williams. All images are courtesy of the individual artist’s websites.
PS– I restrained myself from finding a Road Crossing Chicken joke to go with each piece of artwork. You’re welcome.
