artsy forager

Tag: figurative art

  • Behind the Curtain: Patty Carroll

    Behind the Curtain: Patty Carroll

    Mr. Forager and I are without a home.  We have a roof over our heads always, but as we move from furnished rental to furnished rental, none of them are actually home.  A place that is ours, filled with our own tastes and personalities.  In a way, it is incredibly freeing– if we had a home to decorate, believe me, I would spend waaay too much time doing so!  This idea of creating a beautiful, comfortable home has been around for centuries and continues to be perpetuated and heightened today by magazines, blogs, and social media. The burden of home-making, often self-inflicted, usually falls to women.  In her Anonymous Women: Draped series, photographer Patty Carroll explores the idea that we become so obsessed with creating a perfect space that we lose ourselves in the process.

    Pink Chair by Patty Carroll Easter Hat by Patty Carroll Pray by Patty Carroll Ecru Shade by Patty Carroll Serve by Patty Carroll

    From the artist’s website, “I am addressing the double edge of domesticity; the home as a place of comfort, or conversely, a place where decoration camouflages one’s individuality to the point of claustrophobia“. Or to the point of invisibility.  If, like me, you’re a reader of interior design blogs, think about the homes you see– don’t they all kind of look a bit alike?  We follow trends and take hold of popular styles, never really considering whether or not it truly reflects who we are.  I look back on some of my own choices and wonder, who was I?  The answer– I had no clue who I was, so my choices reflected that lost sense of self.

    And its not only in decorating our homes that we lose ourselves, but in fashion, work, tradition, emotion, even as members of larger groups, we immerse ourselves, taking on characteristics that may not otherwise have been a part of who we are.  Then, its only when we separate ourselves that we realize that the entire time we felt that sense of belonging, we, as individuals, were actually lost.

    More work by Patty Carroll can be seen on her website— please do check it out!

    All images are via the artist’s website.  Artist found via Trendland.

  • Surfaced Memories: Jane Hambleton

    Surfaced Memories: Jane Hambleton

    Thumbing through an old photo album.  Spending an afternoon sifting through the contents of a cedar chest.  These are things I took for granted before we started traveling.  I’m even a bit envious of friends posting childhood photos of themselves all over Instagram for “throwback Thursdays”.  All of my nostalgic ephemera is tucked away in a storage unit in Seattle.  So I couldn’t help gushing over the work of Berkley artist Jane Hambleton whose mixed media pieces layer together glimpses of time into collected memories.

    Fragment III by Jane Hambleton | artsy forager #art #mixedmedia

    Hambleton_Fragment II

    Fragment Installation by Jane Hambleton | artsy forager #art #mixedmedia Memoria XIV by Jane Hambleton | artsy forager Write It Down by Jane Hambleton | artsy forager #art #mixedmedia Patterns in Place II by Jane Hambleton Color Dive by Jane Hambleton

    Beautifully textured, these created fragments seem torn from life’s scrapbook.  Sweet, momentary glimpses into a day, a summer, a moment that may have long been forgotten.  Each piece is lovely on its own, but when put together into installations, as the artist intends for each series, we see not only black and white memories, but blank canvases of color.  Perhaps these are the times that aren’t specifically remembered, yet in our minds they are still colored with feeling.

    To see more work by Jane Hambleton, please visit her website or the website of her representing gallery, Seager Gray Gallery.

    All images via the artist’s or gallery’s website.

  • The Mirror Has Many Faces: Reinhard Voss

    The Mirror Has Many Faces: Reinhard Voss

    The We Are the Contributors mini project got me thinking recently about the various roles we play.  Yet we aren’t just taking on different tasks, we’re often putting on an almost completely different persona according to where we are and with whom we’re interacting.  These sculptures by German artist Reinhard Voss, with their Cubist-like style seem to give us a physical manifestation of the various faces we put on.

    Not Exactly by Reinhard Voss OT by Reinhard Voss Sickle Veiled by Reinhard Voss Hampstead Heath by Reinhard Voss Novel Ro by Reinhard Voss

    Voss’s sculptures are created by piecing together strips of wood, leaving our eyes to see the varying grains and planes making up each face.  The effect is eerie at times, resulting in a face contorted or seeming to have been erased.

    The different “faces” we put on can be so similar, can’t they?  We might lose our mouth ( i.e. hold our tongue ) in certain situations or be blinded in others.  How often do we are we truly showing who we are?  In what company do we feel we can show the most honest face?

    To see more of Reinhard Voss‘s work, please visit his website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Grand Flora: Matt Wedel

    Grand Flora: Matt Wedel

    One of the things that continues to draw Mr. F and I to the Northwest is the bigness of this world.  Everything just seems to exist on a grand scale here– trees tower, mountains loom, rivers stretch far and wide.  In his sculptural work, artist Matt Wedel  creates fantastical oversized forms and flowers, leaving no doubt that sometimes bigger is indeed better.

    Sheep with Flowers by Matt Wedel Flower Tree 2010 by Matt Wedel Flower Tree 2013 by Matt Wedel

    Flower Tree 2013 by Matt Wedel Portrait by Matt Wedel

    Wedel’s larger than life flowers and plant forms spring forth from craggy rock-like shapes, fairly bursting forth as if they simply cannot be contained.  Color spills down from their petals, as if the life held therein is overflowing onto the rock below.  Exaggerated faces and fantastical forms create a wonderland where we might come to recognize that humans really are so very small.

    To see more of Matt Wedel‘s work, please visit his website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • The Body Sculptural: Isabelle Wenzel

    The Body Sculptural: Isabelle Wenzel

    ‘Tis the season for transformational decision making aka New Year’s resolutions. We’ve all made our lists of who we’d like to be by the end of 2014– physically, mentally, emotionally.  We start off the year with such hopes and expectations for ourselves.  We make concrete goals but have we given consideration to changes in thinking and perception?  What if instead, we concentrated on how we see ourselves?  In her Models as Surfaces series, photographer Isabelle Wenzel  challenges our perceptions by treating the human body as sculpture.

    Model #5 by Isabelle Wenzel Model #2 by Isabelle Wenzel Model #1 by Isabelle Wenzel Model #7 by Isabelle Wenzel Model #6 by Isabelle Wenzel

    We most likely think of ourselves in labels that have been put upon us by others– she’s the pretty one, he’s the funny one, etc.  But we are so much more than who we are pigeonholed to be.  We have the power to transform ourselves, just as Wenzel’s models transform their bodies into headless, sculptural shapes.

    So maybe our resolutions shouldn’t be so much goal oriented as perception oriented.  Instead of a resolution to create a painting a week, how about a goal of changing your perception of how you see yourself as an artist?  Or instead of the highly popular diet resolution, change the way you view food and how your think about your own body.  We can change our minds first and the rest will follow.  I’m resolving to give it a shot!  Who’s with me?

    If you’d like to see more of Isabelle Wenzel‘s work, please visit her website.

    All images via the artist’s website.  Artist found via Design For Mankind.

  • Affronting Our Fronts: Tristan Pigott

    Affronting Our Fronts: Tristan Pigott

    We all want to present ourselves in the best way possible.  But with the infiltration of social media into every aspect of our lives, its tempting to cross the line over from putting our best foot forward to presenting an inauthentic picture of who we are.  In his work, artist Tristan Pigott examines our habits of self-projection and the superficiality we often perpetuate.

    Tristan Pigott | artsy forager #art #painting What's Your Point by Tristan Pigott Tell Me by Tristan Pigott Tristan Pigott | artsy forager #art #paintings Waiting by Tristan Pigott | artsy forager #art #paintings

    His compositions employ fashion models in the place of “ordinary” people, to further enforce the notion of the fronts and facades we create for ourselves.  It’s so easy to fall into the trap of wanting every photo we post to be beautiful, to encite envy among our social media followers and to lead them to believe we live a life to which they should aspire.  And maybe we do in some ways.  But in other respects, each life is filled with the same sorts of gunk and uncomfortable human stuff that we are all too often so very careful to edit out.  How many photos have you seen this holiday season of burnt cookies?  Or a child in mid-meltdown because Santa didn’t bring exactly what he asked for?  Not many, I’m guessing. I certainly didn’t post the photos of the burnt Honey Rosemary Pecans I made or my non-made up face upon waking first thing Christmas morning.

    Why?  Because I’m chicken.  I don’t want the world to see the dark circles under my eyes or to know that I occasionally leave food in the oven just a bit too long. ( Oops guess now you know my secret! ).  Like everyone else, I want the world to see my life as beautiful.  But here’s the thing.  Every life IS beautiful.  Filled with beauty.  It may not be magazine spread perfect, but each and every one of our lives is full of moments that take our breath away, that make us laugh and yes, make us mad or embarrassed.  But what makes our lives the beautiful messes that they are is embracing the imperfectness, being able to laugh with and at ourselves.  Letting people into our beautiful mess.

    To see more of Tristan Pigott‘s work, please visit his website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Stories Retold: Marybeth Rothman

    Stories Retold: Marybeth Rothman

    When I was young, one of my favorite grandmother’s house activities was to sit with her and go through the piles and piles of photo albums she meticulously collected and kept.  I was enchanted by seeing my grandparents when they were young, my mom and uncle as children and black & white pictures of countless relatives I never chanced to meet.  After my grandparents passed, my mom, brother and I sat around her dining table and tried to go through all the photos.  We discovered a good many whose faces we didn’t recognize and surprisingly, my grandmother didn’t label.  Who were these people?  What had them meant to our grandparents?  In her encaustic mixed media work, New Jersey artist Marybeth Rothman takes vintage photo booth pictures without identity and puts new stories to old faces.

    Clotho III by Marybeth Rothman Lachesis III by Marybeth Rothman Atropos III by Marybeth Rothman Fern by Marybeth Rothman T George Bell by Marybeth Rothman

    The artist gives new life to these abandoned portraits, seeing connections between strangers, reimagining them as icons of Greek mythology and fictional characters.  The tiny photographs are enlarged to a grand scale, giving even further importance to these forgotten faces.

    It does make me wonder, what will become of all our own memories?  Especially now that most personal photos are digitized, there will no longer be boxes and albums of photographs to be unearthed.  Will living our lives digitally allow for a better keeping of record or will all be lost when the technology we’ve used becomes obsolete?

    To see more work by Marybeth Rothman, please visit her website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Life, Lived Larger: Andrew Salgado

    Life, Lived Larger: Andrew Salgado

    For many, our life may seem filled with adventure.  And at times, it is.  But most days, its a normal sort of existence, the kind that consists of work, laundry, dirty dishes and too much tv.  These large scale paintings by Canadian artist Andrew Salgado have made me stop and think about how to live a bigger life.

    Now and Forever by Andrew Salgado Modern Painters by Andrew Salgado Subject by Andrew Salgado Stare by Andrew Salgado Year of the Silencer by Andrew Salgado

    I’ve always been a small person.  Always a little slip of a thing ( until getting married that is, Mr. Forager put curves on me! ), one of my long time best friends who towers over me has always called me “Little One”.  Because next to her, I was always the little one!  But this littleness isn’t just physical.  I have a naturally shy, retiring nature, the complete opposite of a “larger than life” type of personality.  I don’t hate the spotlight, but I don’t go out of my way to seek it out, preferring to be the one behind the scenes, these days behind the computer.

    These large scale portraits by Salgado are full of texture and vulnerability and delicious messiness.  Sometimes, I think we let our quest for control and order get in the way of a bigger life.  It’s so in my nature to stay safely in my shell, coming out only when coaxed, like a little hermit crab.  But where is the adventure in that?  How many of us will be able to look back on a life lived largely and to its fullest?  I’m striving against my own temperament in my quest but its a fight I’m willing and eager to take on.

    To see more work by Andrew Salgado, please visit his website.  Salgado has solo exhibitions coming up in 2014 in South Africa, New York and London.  You can also follow the artist on his Facebook page.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Design Foraging: Sarah Ashley Longshore at Anthropologie

    Design Foraging: Sarah Ashley Longshore at Anthropologie

    I love everything that Sarah Ashley Longshore does.  You can see all the evidence right here on the blog.  And when she teams up with one of my favorite retailers, well, I just can’t resist sharing the artsy goodness with you!  The artist’s latest collaboration with Anthropologie features her iconic Audrey Hepburn paintings on a tres chic line of travel bags and weekenders.

    Sarah Ashley Longshore Weekender, City of Lights Sarah Ashley Longshore Weekender, Big Apple Sarah Ashley Longshore, Jetsetter Hatbox, London Sarah Ashley Longshore, Jetsetter Hatbox, London ( detail ) Sarah Ashley Longshore, Jetsetter Traincase, Tasseled Traveler

    These remind me so much of “the golden age of travel”, when taking a plane ride meant getting dressed to the nines and a matching set of luggage was the ultimate luxury.  Inside each of the larger bags is a wonderful little “handwritten” note from the artist.  A perfect gift for that artsy girly girl!

    See more of the Jetsetter line at the Anthropologie website.  You can see original work by Sarah Ashley Longshore on her website.  And follow her own jet setting adventures on Instagram!

    All images via the Anthropologie website.

  • Moving In Shadow: Nanna Hanninen

    Moving In Shadow: Nanna Hanninen

    Do you ever feel like life isn’t quite real?  Like you’re sleep walking or drifting in and out of a surreal existence.  Occasionally, I get the strangest sense of deja vu.  Its like finding yourself in a place you experienced in a dream, but this time in reality.  These photographs by Finnish artist Nanna Hanninen have that same kind of unreal fluidity.

    Hannanin_People2 Hanninen_Prayer Tree I Hanninen_Plant VI Hanninen_People III Hanninen_People I

     

    Her figures are obscured, seeming to float on the surface, wandering in and out of the frame.  I feel like there’s a parallel somewhere for our lives, the way we roam from place to place, whether physically, mentally or spiritually.  How often do we find ourselves in one place, but feeling like we belong to another?  We are physically present but the mind and soul are elsewhere.  It happens, too, in our daily interactions.  Are we truly present in each and every conversation?  Or are we allowing ourselves to be someplace else?

    To see more of Nanna Hanninen‘s work, please visit her website.

    All images via the artist’s website.