Collage as a medium has had such a resurgence in recent years, but it’s a tough undertaking to get right and create something unique and lovely. In this series of collages on book pages, Brooklyn artist Claire Oswalt creates beautiful little compositions, proving the old cliche, less is truly more.
Using watercolor sketches on torn paper, Oswalt crafts these minimalist collages using careful restraint, the result being thoughtful arrangements of shape and color. In collage, as in most everything, it is so easy to go overboard, to over think and over create. It takes an artistic confidence and discipline to be able to say so much with so little.
Sometimes the art world, including myself and this blog, can take themselves just a wee bit too seriously. We agonize over what we want to SAY with our work, it just has to mean something deep and intellectual and philosophical, doesn’t it? Or does it?? What’s that you say? Some artists create just because its fun? You’re telling me this is supposed to be fun? All kidding aside, I do love it when I discover an artist who is creating just for the sheer joy and experimentation of it. In her own words, Portland artist Mana Morimoto states “I simply love making thread beams come out of people’s eyes!“
As it does for so many of us, the act of creating began as therapy for Morimoto, and the joy she found in what she discovered to be a talent is evident in the humor seen in each piece. I wrote a bit last week about art as catharsis and I do believe for myself and so many others, it does provide a non-verbal way of working out what’s going on inside our heads. Or sometimes, it simply provides our minds, hands, and spirits with enough of an enjoyable distraction to put things into perspective.
Occasionally, Mr. F will wake up and unknowingly be mad at me for something I did in one of his dreams. It’s only after being awake for a bit that he realizes that what he is remembering never actually took place. Just last night, I had a similar dream about him and had to stop myself from carrying those feeling on into our day. Funny how much what happens while we’re sleeping can affect us, isn’t it? These paintings by Kristen Schiele remind me of what my subconscious must be like– not orderly and sensible, but filled with hints and tokens of seemingly unrelated moments.
These pieces are dream-like in their mash-up of elements, jumping from here to there just as our subconscious does in slumber. I often awake wondering– where did that come from?? Sometimes it seems like we’re trying to work out our waking life in our dreams, or perhaps the past comes back more vividly when we aren’t consciously trying to resurrect it.
To see more of Kristen Schiele‘s work, please visit her website. Have a fabulous weekend, Artsies! I’m looking forward to lots of dream-time!
OK, I admit it. I like fashion and all its trappings as much as the next girl. But there is something that doing this traveling thing is teaching me– how to not just live with less, but to desire less. I found these collages by Jonni Cheatwood, acrylic and mixed media applied to the pages of a Neiman Marcus catalog to call attention to our need to chase the latest trend.
As a single girl, I was definitely a bit of a fashionista. Always a bargain shopper, I didn’t spend massive amounts of money, but being single, I had a lot of time to spend hunting down just the right pair of boots or the latest jacket cut. But when we prepared to embark across the country and begin traveling, I had to pare down like crazy and then before we left Seattle, I had to purge even more ( everything we live with right now fits in the back of our car ) and it was painful. Clothes had been such a crutch for me– you see, when I was young, I knew what it felt like to be the girl in class in the hand-me-down clothes, the girl who only got one new outfit for the first day of school, not an entirely new, on-trend wardrobe. So when I was an adult and earning my own way, fashion wasn’t just an indulgence for me, it was a way to get past the feeling of being the girl with the holes in her shoes.
We still find we need to pare down just a touch more, so more purging is occurring. What I’m learning through this process is that there are certain items of clothing I own that I love, not because they are in keeping with the latest trends, but because I love the way they fit, the way the clothes look on me and, most importantly, how I feel in them. Paring down to just what I love is a perfect way to ensure that every piece of clothing is worn and that I feel beautiful and special in everything in my closet. Shopping is hard to resist still, but when I do indulge, it is for something that I know I’ll love and feel good in for years to come. And with the paring down, it has to replace at least one ( preferably two! ) things already in my closet. Not as much thought goes into choosing an outfit for the day, freeing my mind to concentrate on other things and cultivate new, more important ideas. When you chase trends, fashion changes so much, you’re constantly feeding the need for the latest thing. I’d rather fill my life with things that aren’t so easily replaceable.
How about you, Artsies? Are any of you recovering fashion-addicts? How did you overcome?
It’s happened again. We’ve turned over the calendar page to a new month. February is such a short & sweet month, isn’t it? It’s here and then over before we know it, but while it remains, it’s filled with Valentines and chocolates, hugs and kisses and cuddles. The work of this month’s Featured ArtistJenny Brown with her use of antique papers and ephemera seemed the perfect way to put just a little more love into the next 28 days!
Jenny collects antique papiers and books, which she methodically and meticulously weaves together to create these magical organisms that seem to float in the ether. Each small element is put into place just so, resulting in a delightfully real fictitious character on the page, like little Victorian nymphs.
To see more of Jenny Brown’s work, make sure you head over to her website. Jenny is opening two shows this month– she’ll be in the Enormous Tiny Art Show at Nahcotta in Portsmouth, NH and over here in the Northwest at Ghost Gallery in Seattle. If you’re in either area, please check out her work in person! You can also follow Jenny on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram ( her feed is so fun! ), and Pinterest. Four of Jenny’s pieces are gracing the Artsy Forager Facebook cover for the month AND I’ve compiled an album over there of the Jenny Brown’s I love the most.
In one way or another, we all buy into the idea of “the American Dream“, we strive for success and prosperity. And if we haven’t achieved it, we’ll fake it ’till we make it. Or we’ll just fake it. In his mixed media work, Brooklyn artist Matthew Conradt looks at the contradictions we’ve built in our pursuit of the prosperous dream.
We buy McMansions with more space than we’ll ever need, filling them huge flat screens and designer knock-offs. We stand in line to upgrade to the latest phone, we trade in perfectly running cars for new. We’ll present ourselves as successful and prosperous, even if we are drowning in debt in our pursuit of a facade.
Conradt’s work begins with the collection of found imagery symbolic of American Life. The images are then reconstructed and transferred onto mylar in large scale form, reinforcing the “bigness” of American culture. The resulting images focus on the contradictions we find in our culture and how they creep into our subconscious.
There is a school of thought that in order for something to be good, it has to be complicated. A special meal must mean slaving for hours in the kitchen, the latest tech gadget must be filled with buttons and apps of every variety. But there is also beauty and tranquility to be found in the paring down. Portland artist Courtney Price distills her paper collages into the most elementary of forms, yet the results are filled with dimension and sophistication.
Overlapping paper shapes one on top of the other just so, Price is mixing color with light and shadow, creating varying shades just as she might with paint. The forms advance and recede according to their hues and how our eyes perceive their shapes. And oh, those palettes! Each piece seems to be a study in color relations.
So much of what we see depends on how our eyes and brain work to create perception. Last week, I shared the work of a photographer who creates work to change our perception of the body. In her series, Things Fall Apart and Collection, artist Erin O’Keefe uses our methods of perception to create what seem to be three dimensional sculptures. Or are they?
Magicians and illusionists have been using our perceptions to create seemingly impossible tricks for centuries. In order to process information at such a rapid pace, our brains take short cuts for us, but sometimes, they get it wrong.
Erin O’Keefe crafts these “sculptures” from cut and torn photographic images. Using the visual elements within the images themselves, she creates the illusion of a three dimensional object. The “objects” are then photographed as if a piece of sculpture, further adding to the illusion and our brains’ confusion!
Were you fooled? To see more of the work of Erin O’Keefe, please visit her website. Be sure to have a peek at all her other stunning work!
Being nature loving outdoorsy types, Mr. Forager and I sometimes discuss what it would have been like for Adam & Eve– to dwell peacefully with wild animals. Mr. F hopes that being able to interact safely with wild creatures will be one of the perks of heaven. He really really wants to hug a grizzly bear. In her mixed media work, New York based artist Lauren Matsumoto uses unexpected elements to focus on nature and how we relate to it.
The artist uses female figures from vintage erotica among playful and whimsical flora. But there is an element of the looming industrial age, as planes, satellites, and automobiles threaten to intrude and destroy our love affair with nature. How often do we completely unplug? No wifi, no cell phones, no cable t.v. It’s definitely easier said than done, but maybe if we try it, we can recapture some of that peaceable kingdom that once was.
When we go out hiking, Mr. Forager is, with the exception of gorging on huckleberries and the like, strictly a leave-it-as-you-found-it hiker. I am too, for the most part, although I sometimes find myself so very tempted by that perfectly shaped leaf or beautiful wildflower. A stone does occasionally find its way into my pocket, but with our traveling, my hoarding of rocks is limited. Last week, I came across the work of Marilla Palmer, whose delicate constructions examine the intricacies of the forest and man’s hand upon it.
The artist tenderly renders wispy branches, then adds in embroidery, sequins, glitter, and such. The resulting compositions have the feeling of modern botanical renderings, a celebration ( or perhaps condemnation? ) of the coming together of man and nature.
If you’d like to see more of Marilla Palmer‘s work ( be sure to check out some of her sculptural pieces! ), please visit her website.
