I used to hate Valentine’s Day. Back when I was single, my friends and I often enjoyed Anti-Valentine celebrations. But now that I’m an old married lady ( it’s been an entire year of marital bliss! ), I revel in it. So today in honor of the upcoming V-Day, dear Artsies, I’m sharing my obnoxious lovey-doveyness with you! Here are some of my mushy-love-stuff faves..
Cleaning Is Addictive by Kelly ReemtsenSweetheart by Robert TownsendVentricle by Eva Milinkovic, Tsunami GlassworksLove by Jill Joy
May your weekend be filled with love! If you’re not on the receiving end, try giving some away!
Happy Tuesday, Artsies! Make sure to head over to Escape Into Life to check out today’s feature on Artsy Forager fave Sarah Ashley Longshore. One of her pieces would make any place more chic and fun, no?
Octopus Audrey, acrylic on canvas with high gloss resin, 24×24
We have come so far from what we once were. Humanity’s beginnings were so simple, but it seems we have become incredibly distanced from so many of the practices and traditions that were once essential. Perhaps that is why native inhabitants of foreign lands hold such fascination. San Francisco artist Lisa Congdon’s series Boreas explores the people, traditions and landscapes of Nordic countries, but she embraces them in a way that is modern yet still celebrates the ancient.
Sami Woman, graphite, gouache, paper & vintage ephemera in shadowbox, 11×14.2.5
Her portraits are solemnly and reverently rendered in graphite and traditional patterns are mimicked in ultra-bright pops of color and graphic punch.
Sami Girl
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Sami Man, graphite, gouache, paper, vintage ephemera & fake fur in shadowbox, 11x14x2.5
These feel as if they are a part of a time-capsule, created now, to be opened in one hundred years.. capturing people caught between two worlds, one ancient, one moving faster and faster away from all that they have known.
Kvinne, paper, vintage ephemera, & gouache in shadowbox, 11x14x2.5
To see more of Lisa Congdon’s work, please visit her website. If you’re near Portland, OR, you can catch her in a joint show at Land Gallery with Trish Grantham until March 3, 2012.
Featured image is Fjall, paper and vintage ephemera in shadowbox, 11x14x2.5. All images are via the artist’s website.
Fire is fascinating. At once necessary and dangerous. Delicately beautiful and vigorously potent. It lives and breathes. It is no wonder that artist’s embrace its beauty and harness its power. Take a look at these artists who are using their firepower for good.
Fire by Daryl BunnDeai Series by Etsuko IchikawaFlower Imprint by Steven SpazukTowards Another Theory #6CP by Geoffrey ShortRaining Fire by Steve Shubert ( via My Modern Met )
Birds are creatures meant to soar. They inspire us to reach new heights ourselves. Those avian characteristics are what make London artist Kate McGwire’s work so poignant and powerful.
Guile ( detail ), Mixed media with dove and pigeon feathers in antique cabinet 1760 H x 705 W x 385 D mm ( photographed by Tessa Angus )
McGwire uses fallen feathers to create sculptures reminiscent of birds at rest, coiled upon themselves. By often placing her sculptures in antique cabinets and cloches, she creates a dichotomy between the suggested creature and its cage.
Guile, Mixed media with dove and pigeon feathers in antique cabinet 1760 H x 705 W x 385 D mm ( photographed by Tessa Angus )
Her sculptures have an otherworldly sense to them– as if they are alien beings, captured long ago for scientific observation or simply decoration.
Stifle, Mixed media with dove / white pigeon feathers in antique glass dome. 71 x 71 x 37 cm
The tension in her work is so palpable, it seems that if one just broke the glass, the creature inside would uncurl itself and rise above its shattered prison.
Cache, mixed media with pigeon tail feathers in antique metal trunk 46 x 26 x 43 cm ( photographed by Tessa Angus )
To see more of Kate McGwire’s work, please visit her website.
Featured image is Vex ( detail ), mixed media with pigeon feathers in antique museum cabinet, 183 x 110 x 61 cm. All images are via the artist’s website.
I absolutely love watching the evolution of an artist’s work. And the latest round of paintings from abstract painter, Casey Matthews blew me away. They are unmistakably hers, but she continues to grow in her use of color, elegance of form and sophistication. So it thrills me to feature her today on Escape Into Life!
Thank Goodness You Said It First, mixed media on canvas
I’m a firm believer that anything you eat will taste better served on pretty china or a lovingly decorated table. The work of Russian born artist Olga Antonova celebrates these every day objects, elevating them using her technical prowess tinged with a hint of charm and whimsy.
Stacked Cups With Yellow Top, oil on canvas, 22×24 ( via Selby Fleetwood Gallery )
The delicate porcelain vessels are stacked, one on top of each other, creating dainty monuments of indulgence. Tea or coffee sipped from colorful china induces us to have a seat, slow down, have a leisurely chat. Antonova’s work does the same, creating a calm sense of elegant consumption.
Red and Blue Teacups, oil on canvas, 16×16 ( via Gallery Henoch )
Her depictions of the smooth, shiny surfaces and colorful patterns make me want to fall down a rabbit hole and crash a tea party hosted by a bunny with a crazy chapeau.
Composition With Dragon Pot, oil on canvas, 20×20 ( via Gallery Henoch )Composition With Pink Cup, oil on canvas, 28×26 ( via Gallery Henoch )
Dance is one of the few art forms requiring no materials, only ourselves. Santa Fe artist Gigi Mills, a former dancer now self-taught painter, transfers her dancer’s fluidity and grace into her compositions.
Girl With Dog and Boxes, oil on panel, 24×18 ( via Watts Fine Art )
Mills’ work focuses on simplified forms, figures and shapes are reduced to their simplest outlines, planes and colors, so that the viewer is instead caught by the emotional power present.
Girl With Plaid Dress and Bird Dog, oil, crayon, paper & charcoal on paper, 11×14 ( via Gallery Orange )
By keeping her color palette neutral, her use of the occasional bright color takes on a much more powerful significance, it becomes the staccato highlight, delightfully drawing the viewer’s attention.
Girl With Striped Dress and Birthday Cake, oil on panel, 30×24 ( via Gallery Orange )Resting Spot With Birds, oil on panel, 18×24 ( via Gallery Orange )
Henry David Thoreau said, “This world is but a canvas to our imagination.” Street artists take that idea quite literally, by taking art out of the isolating artistic environments of galleries and museums, bringing the art to a public that might not otherwise be exposed to it. Check out these examples of art full of street cred!
Alice PasquiniNeSpoonBen WilsonJuliana Santacruz HerreraSnyder
Keep your eyes peeled for street art while you’re out and about this weekend! Would love to see some examples from your community!
Featured image by Alice Pasquini. Click on each image to view the source.
As many of you know, my husband and I are currently living in a new locale every three months. Each new place has its own personality and part of the excitement ( and scariness! ) of our journey is to find where we fit within each community. Peruvian-born artist Cecilia Paredes‘ work explores, what to me, are very personal themes of displacement and relocation.
Parades uses make-up, body paint and costume to visually blend into intricate backgrounds. This visualisation of our desire to fit, to be a part of who or what surrounds us resonates with me, not only as someone not currently rooted, but also because I am in many ways, still learning who am I apart from what or who surrounds me.
In each image, though her figure is well disguised, we are still given a hint to her presence, whether it be through her hair or the whites of her eyes. She is hidden in full view. Blending in, yet waiting to be discovered.
Normally, this is where I would direct you to the artist’s website. Cecilia Paredes does, indeed, have a website, but unfortunately, at the time of this posting, it doesn’t seem to be working. You can find her on ArtNet or check out any number of reviews that come up on Google. I found her via Lost at E Minor.
