There are certain artists who create worlds so beautiful, I find myself wishing I could live inside one of their paintings, even if just for a little while. Today’s Escape Into Life artist, Brad Kunkle is such an artist. He creates stunning images of visual fairy tales.
Brad Kunkle on Escape Into Life
Be sure to check out my feature on Brad’s work on Escape Into Life ( linked above ) and to read more of my thoughts on his work, check out his Artsy Forager feature here.
New Orleans is one of those places that is unlike any other. It is unique in it’s history, traditions and way of life. Artists of all kinds, writers, musicians, painters, are attracted to its vibrancy and joie de vivre. In this most European of American cities, the arts are not just a weekend hobby of the 1%. Creativity is an ingrained part of daily life. Each day is touched by artists in some way. And today, as the town celebrates the most New Orleansish day of Mardi Gras, I thought we’d explore NOLA through the eyes of its artists.
As I was thinking about what makes New Orleans such an extraordinary place, six characteristics kept coming to mind..
SUSTENANCE
No doubt New Orleans is famous for its cuisine.. a bit French, a bit Southern.. totally deliciously unique. Jambalaya, po’ boys, beignets, shrimp creole.. I would be perfectly happy to eat my way through the city! Artist Carlos Lopez celebrates the simplicity and purity of New Orleans cuisine in his still lifes of oysters found in the city’s gulf waters.
SWINGIN’
New Orleans Jazz is the soundtrack for the Delta. The horns, the banjo, the bass.. you can’t help but tap your feet. NOLA artists George Schmidt and Frank Kelley, jr., capture the energy that flows from the melodious sounds of Dixieland jazz. Though currently living in Florida, artist Yvonne Lozano’s Delta roots still show through.
STRUCTURE
The city’s architecture reflects the diversity of its history and inhabitants.. from grand antebellum mansions to the European-influenced ironwork of the French Quarter to humble shotgun houses, each illustrates a facet of the city’s rich culture and history. And, of course, each has been a source of inspiration for artists such as Grant Schexnider, whose Shotgun Series celebrates the spiritual wealth found in these humble abodes.
STYLE
New Orleanians have a style all their own. Unfailingly friendly and hospitable, but direct and unafraid to tell it like it is. But always with charm and high style. The stylishly cheeky work of NOLA artist Sarah Ashley Longshore fits the city like beads on Mardi Gras.
SPIRIT
Joyful. Exuberant. Even in the face of darkness and destruction, every day in New Orleans is a celebration of life. Ally Burguieres’ work shines brightly with the fire of the people of New Orleans.
STRENGTH
The final and most enduring characteristic of New Orleans is the strength of its community and culture. Poverty, disease, disaster, destruction. The city has seen it all, yet through each trial, comes out on the other end that much stronger. Cory Willingham’s work explores the inner strength found when a community is called upon to rebuild.
New Orleans isn’t just party central at Mardi Gras. It is a community filled with artists who are serious about preserving the city’s history and not just persevering, but thriving into the city’s future. It is a city that loves its artists and they return that devotion a hundredfold. We’ll continue the NOLA love tomorrow, when Artsy Forager features a NOLA gallery bringing a fresh and contemporary, yet uniquely New Orleans style to the French Quarter!
All images are via the artist’s websites linked above, unless otherwise indicated. Images by Carlos Lopez and Sarah Ashley Longshore are via Gallery Orange.
I’ve always been interested in the interplay between color and pattern, how each effects the other and the visual impact both can have, even in small doses. Australian artist Kirra Jamison’s works are a beautiful, modern mastery of both.
Her warm and pure palette allow her compositions to pop against neutral backgrounds. Saturated, cut-out like shapes call to mind the collages of Henri Matisse, though Jamison’s compositions tend to be a bit more complex and detailed. But anyone whose work reminds me of Matisse is an automatic fave!
Some of her pieces, such as Willow Weep ( above ) are a delightfully dizzying kaleidoscope of color and detail. I am drawn in by the playful patterns of color, then enchanted by the surprises that await.
Patterned backgrounds in works like Belong To Me ( above ) appear, upon first glance to be a symmetrical repeat, but each element is revealed to be unique. It is amazing how our eyes fool us into thinking that all are the same.. there is something poetic in that, isn’t there?
To see more of Kirra Jamison’s work, please visit her website. Thank you to Tamara Lynn Photography for introducing Artsy Forager to this artist!
Featured image is Cut Out V, vinyl on paper, 57×38 cm. All images are via the artist’s website.
I guess by technical definition, I’m a housewife. Besides writing and curating this blog ( which is completely a labor of love at this point ), I don’t work outside the home. Housewife would be a lot easier to explain than “art blogger” when people ask what I do. For the first time in my life, I’m taking care of a household consisting of more than just myself. In her Domestic Series, Massachusetts artist Leslie Graff explores perceptions about domestic life and relationships in our post-modern world.
Her cropped compositions and classic environmental and clothing choices create a universality to the imagery. These could be snapshots of life from virtually any decade in the last six decades.
As much as our roles seem to have evolved over the years, have things really changed that much? My own husband definitely never pushes for our home to be immaculate or for dinner to be delicious and perfect every night, but as a woman, I find myself striving for that perfection and disappointed when I don’t deliver. Why is that?
Why, even when our husbands are happy to help with cooking, cleaning and kid care, do we still expect ourselves to be able to “do it all”? Is it Martha Stewart syndrome? Are we comparing ourselves to standards impossible to keep?
How about those among us who are artists as well as spouses, parents and perhaps have another day job, as well? How do you do it?! 🙂
Featured image is So Satisfying, acrylic on canvas, 30×40. All images are via the artist’s website.
This artist found via Pinterest.
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.
Her portraits are solemnly and reverently rendered in graphite and traditional patterns are mimicked in ultra-bright pops of color and graphic punch.
..
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Gigi Mills doesn’t currently have a website, so check out her work online at representing galleries: Gallery Orange in New Orleans, Watts Fine Art in Indiana and Selby Fleetwood Gallery in Santa Fe.
This artist found via Gallery Orange.
Featured image is Ocean With Sea Birds and Yellow, oil on canvas, 60×36. All image sources are noted above.
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!
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.
All images are via Cecilia Parades’ feature on My Modern Metropolis.
My post this week on Escape Into Life features an incredibly amazing artist with a poignant story to tell.
Don’t miss out on Lee Price’s work.
George and I are people watchers. Sometimes when the hubby and I are stuck in a public place with time to kill, we love to watch the people go by, making up stories about who they are, where they are going.. Occasionally, in the course of observing, we may make eye contact with a stranger. Just a glance, but in the moment, there is a recognizable connection between souls. Los Angeles artist Kris Lewis shares his own experiences in human observations with his wonderfully moody portraits.
If you’ve read the blog for a while, then you know I’m a sucker for interesting portraiture. Lewis follows in the footsteps of portraitists that came before him, his figures are beautifully drawn and rendered. But what sets his work apart is the capturing of the fleeting emotion of a moment, whether conveying a sense of vulnerability, power, sadness, even resolution.
The faces portrayed often seem decidedly modern, but when juxtaposed with costumes of another era and surrealish landscape backgrounds, as one blogger put it, the result is “modern spooky”. These aren’t prosaic traditional portraits to hang above the fireplace. They are explorations of experience, revelations of hidden narratives.
It’s almost as if, in carefully observing his subjects, the artist sees them in another life. A life previously lived in a different time and place.
Which makes me wonder.. how would such an artist depict me? Or you? Wouldn’t you love to know?! Visit Kris Lewis’s website to see more and while he’s in the process of updating it, you can find his latest work on his Facebook page. Speaking of Facebook, have you “liked” the Artsy Forager Facebook page? If not, you may be missing out on all sorts of fun & interesting tidbits not shared on the blog!
Thank you to Christine at Bijou and Boheme for introducing me to this incredible artist!
Featured image is Weathered Oak, oil on wood, 24×20. All images are via the artist’s website.