Skip to content

About
- Find the Forager
My Work
Contact

Tag: figurative art

Facades. Sean Mahan.

I’ve been called intense several times in my life and each time I take it as a compliment. I’m not unfriendly, but I’m also not super outgoing and smiley, which often leads to well meaning strangers telling me to smile. I am afraid, though, that sometimes my serious demeanor may make me seem less approachable or happy than I am. When going through the website of a fellow Florida artist I’ve admired for a long time, Sean Mahan, I was struck by how much his slightly sad-seeming figures reminded me of my own misunderstood facade.

This pattern of assumption and misapprehension goes both ways, too. Sometimes the people who seem the happiest and most jovial are deep down incredibly sad. We put on a display for other people.. it’s what is expected, what makes them comfortable, no matter whether or not it is true to what we feel inside. It’s taken me a long time to be content with my own temperament, to be OK with being the quiet observer instead of the life of the party. But it is who I am and I’m cool with that. Just don’t tell me to smile.

To see more of Sean Mahan‘s work, please visit his website.

All images are via the artist’s website.

February 27, 2015
Dissections. Jean Faucheur.

Mr. F and I have been doing a lot of breaking it down lately. No, that isn’t some sort of euphemism and no, I don’t mean breakdancing. We’ve been apartment hunting in Marin County, where we’ve just landed for the next three months ( and hopefully by the time you’re reading this, we’ve found a home! ) and have been analyzing every possible rental backwards and forwards. It’s pretty amazing how a place might look like a fabulous bargain until we start breaking down extra costs associated. These photo collages by Jean Faucheur remind me of the way our perspectives change once we come at something from all possible angles.

Just a minut shift to the left or to the right can alter our perception completely, perhaps allowing us to become aware of details we just couldn’t see before. Have you ever found yourself going steadily along one way of thinking only to suddenly experience a revelation that causes a monumental shift? Feels like I’ve been experiencing a lot of those lately. Dizzying at first, but ultimately clarifying!

To see more of Jean Faucheur‘s work, please visit his website.

All images are via the artist’s website.

February 23, 2015
Storytelling. Andrea Kowch.

I love a good story. Be it novel, film, or just an anecdote, I can’t get enough. Mr. F is a marvelous storyteller, far better than I’ll ever be. He has more stories than the Grimm brothers. While abstract painting has my heart, I do love the intricacies and narrative intrigue of allegorical painting, and in the work of Andrea Kowch, the visual storytelling shines.

It seems to me that with the advent of social media, as a society, we’re rediscovering our storytelling roots. On Twitter, we’re challenged to set a scene with just 140 characters. Instagram allows we visual folks to tell our stories through photos– often more powerful than words. Kowch’s figures with their sly, knowing gazes and hair in wild disarray drew me in when I first saw them in the Get Real show at MOCA when I was home in Florida. In the way her characters interact with each other, the viewer, and the world around them we seem to be catching them in the midst of a private scene– one whose true story is known only to the artist, but perhaps not even she.

To see more of the work of Andrea Kowch, please visit her website.

All images are via the artist’s website.

February 16, 2015
Nocturnes. Carla Berger.

It might surprise you to know that Mr. F and I are kind of homebodies. At night, any way. We get out during the day, hiking, adventuring around each new town we find ourselves in, but we often like to just spend our evenings at home with a nice dinner and a bottle of wine. I do get the itch sometimes, though, and tell Mr. F that I need a night out. There is something about being out when the sky is black that feels special. It’s that sexy I’m-out-on-a-school-night-after-curfew kind of feeling.

The work of photographer Carla Berger captures the alluring provocative quality to the night time. Her blurred, often closely cropped images are like fleeting glances into a film noir world. A world filled with seductive characters and intrigue. Proof that sometimes we all need a little escape into the night.

All images are via Carla Berger’s Instagram. Follow her for gorgeousness in your IG feed!

February 13, 2015
Anticipation. Rebecca Mason Adams.

Some occasions in life seem all about the expectancy. When I was young, those days leading up to Christmas or a summer vacation were filled with hope and excitement. Even today, I get giddy thinking about what is just around the corner! For me, these monochromatic paintings by Rhode Island artist Rebecca Mason Adams capture the feeling of those moments in wait.

Whether it is waiting to spring a surprise or hoping for the phone to ring, something about the way her figures are in a sort of tense repose, often receding into their darker backgrounds, as if waiting for a cue to begin. It’s difficult, isn’t it, to push through and stop waiting? Some times we don’t have any choice but to wait, but often we are the ones to hold ourselves back, fearful that the anticipation will be sweeter than the reality.

To see more of Rebecca Mason Adams‘ work, please visit her website.

All images via the artist’s website. Artist found via The Jealous Curator.

February 10, 2015
Impermanence. Fanny Nushka Moreaux.

These days, I find myself feeling grateful quite often. The fleeting nature of life has never been more apparent, which seems to make it easier to find moments of bliss. Perhaps because the darkness is lurking, the light shines more brightly. The work of French artist Fanny Nushka Moreaux, with faded hues and gossamer figures, reminds me how very tenuous is our own existence.

Perhaps it is due to our transient lifestyle these days, our desire to seize every opportunity. Since we never know when we leave a temporary home whether we will return to the area, we tend to make sure we’ve seen as much as we can. There isn’t much laying around on the weekends– there is too much to do, too much to see! In many ways, we are so fortunate. Living in one place, it is easy to stop paying attention to the world around you, to take it for granted. And the people, too. Live like you never know when you’ll see this world again.

To see more of Fanny Nushka Moreaux‘s work, please visit her website.

All images are via the artist’s website.

February 2, 2015
Naked. Daniel Catalano.

There is more to nakedness than the simple truth of being without clothing. It requires trust and vulnerability, traits not always easy to come by. This season of my life, dealing with my mom’s illness, has without a doubt at times left me raw, while also virtually piling on layers in the way of self preservation and protection.

Situations like these tend to bring out our worst or our best. We’ve been dealing with both sides of the coin. The best people leaving us feeling protected and safe in our vulnerable state, the worst piling on judgement and hurtfulness when we are at our most bare.

My poor mom has been left without her own shroud physically and in just about every other way. Stripped of her health and her independence, she has had to lay herself open, to lose the security of her ordered world, to ask for help in ways she never dreamed of.

I’ve had friends thank me for being so open about what we’ve been going through as they go through similar circumstances, yet keep to themselves. And that would usually be my own way.. to keep everything private, bottled up. But to be naked is to also let others know that they have your trust, that they are needed, that you know that you can’t do it alone.

Since her diagnosis, there have been a lot of tears. But there has also been meaningful conversation and deep laughter with those who’ve allowed us the freedom to be vulnerable and the security of knowing we are safe in our nakedness.

Featured paintings are by Daniel Catalano. Please visit his website to see more of his work.

All images are via the artist’s website.

January 19, 2015
Expectations. Julie Blackmon.

We all have expectations of life. Perceptions of what our ideal world would look like. Those expectations seem to be heightened these days by the images of perfect lives we are bombarded with daily via social media and lifestyle blogs. Every meal shall be perfectly garnished with stylishly mismatched vintage dinnerware! Children will be the very picture of tiny fashion perfection and their birthday parties shall rival that of the royals!

Taking her cue from the Jan Steen household, a 17th century Dutch painter’s style turned shorthand for a messy scene, photographer Julie Blackmon explores the disparagement between a society that is both “child centered” and “self-obsessed”.

In her domestic scenes, we often see no adult figures, only children, as if pardon this turn of phrase, the inmates are running the asylum. I apologize for that reference, yet it is what kept coming to mind as I was going through the portfolio. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad point of departure. Children need freedom and play, it is essential to their development especially in our over scheduled world. Blackmon is capturing these fleeting moments of the chaos of childhood, in all its messy, mythic reality.

To see more of Julie Blackmon’s work, please visit her website.

All images are via the artist’s website. Artist found via Robert Mann Gallery.

January 16, 2015
Facing Forward. Alejandra Atares.

I’m back, dear Artsies! Ready to hit the ground running in this new year. I’m not sure what 2015 will bring but what I do know is that I can no longer hang in limbo. It’s time to put my face forward and get back to it. As I reflected upon the prospect of beginning again, I was drawn to paintings by Barcelona artist Alejandra Atares.

Moving ahead after lingering in the unknown can be scary and intimidating. There is a fear of beginning something exciting only to have to abandon it mid-stream. But as I like to tell Mr. Forager, the ultimate dreamer/planner..

Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.

He just loves it when I quote John Lennon to him! In the end, we never know what tomorrow will bring, even when all of our loved ones are whole and well. So we must embrace life as it is in this very moment while looking forward with hope and anticipation.

Artist found via I Need A Guide. All images are via the artist’s website.

January 5, 2015
December Featured Artist. Anna Kincaide.

If you’ve been following the blog for awhile, you may recognize the work of our December Featured Artist. Not only have I featured the work of Anna Kincaide on the blog several times, but she’s also one of the artists I selected for my Artsy Forager print collection for Mantle Art.

I have always had a fascination with the glamorous era of Cary Grant and his contemporaries, where Anna draws much of the inspiration for her fashion forward paintings. The way she isolates her figures against color-blocked or patterned backgrounds kind of make them feel like they have been lifted from the silver screen or fashion magazine and found themselves in the midst of a painting. Which, if you think about it, is not such a bad place to be!

To see more of Anna Kincaide‘s work, please visit her website. Her prints in my Mantle Art collection are perfect for gift giving, too– you can even choose a custom frame right on their site! Easy peasy. Follow along on Artsy Forager social media to see more of Anna’s work all December long!

All images are via the artist’s website.

December 1, 2014

←Previous Page

1 2 3 4 5 6 … 31

artsy forager

artistic pathfinding by lesley frenz

Blog
About
FAQs
Authors

Events
Shop
Patterns
Themes

Twenty Twenty-Five

Designed with WordPress

Loading Comments...

Write a Comment...

Email (Required)

Name (Required)

Website