Often when we think of spring, our thoughts turn to light, pale pastels but this season, I’ve noticed just how saturated everything around me seems. Maybe it’s just a shock to my eyes following the white and grey winter or perhaps this has just been an unusually sunny and bright season. In any case, I’m finding myself more drawn than usual to heavy doses of color and I’m blaming this saturated spring!
Here are just a few of the full color palettes inspiring me on Pinterest lately–
I’m kind of a bit bi-polar sometimes when it comes to artwork.. I either fall for work that is super textured, busy, crazy with color and line and visuals, or I do a complete 180 and find myself falling in love with simple compositions and clean lines. Lucky for me, collage artist Eugenia Loli does both incredibly well. But today, my simplistic side is taking over!
You may recognized Eugenia’s work from an Escape Into Life feature I did on her a while back. Her latest work has been showing up in the Artsy Forager Facebook feed and I have been consistently blown away, so thought it was high time she got a real feature!
In her digital collages, Loli uses vintage and modern imagery to create fanciful, surreal scenes that give the viewer just a glimpse at what the underlying narrative might be. Like still shots from a B-movie, there is a delicious campiness to them, made even more striking by her use of bold, vintage-y color.
To see more of Eugenia Loli‘s work, head over to her Tumblr. She has a number of products available in her Society6 shop, including striking and super affordable prints. I’m personally coveting a tote bag, although I don’t think I’ll ever be able to decide which image I like best.
While we were hiking last weekend, Mr. F & I spotted something we’d never quite seen before. We’re familiar with nurse logs, but noticed several trees whose roots had grown over and around a fallen redwood. In her Viral Series, Toronto artist Jess Riva Cooper explores ideas of environmental impact and change as flora overtakes the human face.
It has always amazed and intrigued me the way we build things up, yet nature always finds a way to inhabit and continue on its own journey. From the spider taking up residence in the smallest corner of the bathroom, to abandoned buildings through which vines and trees have grown, try as we might to prevent it, nature takes what is needed. How much more would we live in harmony if we simply left things alone or provided nature a place to thrive among us? Something to ponder over your weekend, dear Artsies.
As I sit working in my t-shirt and jeans, munching my lunch of popcorn and staring at these paintings by Minneapolis artist Michael Carson, I’m reminded of how very unglamorous life seems sometimes. The most dressed up I get these days is wearing a skirt with my flip-flops or adding a fancy scarf to my every day uniform.
Ocassionally I miss cocktail dresses and high heels and I’ll pick up Vogue or Vanity Fair to get a little glamour fix. And then I see things on the news like the suicide of model turned fashion designer L’Wren Scott and remember that the rich and glamorous life isn’t always what we think it is. In Carson’s paintings, I get a keen sense of melancholia and boredom on the faces of his figures. Beautiful and fashionable, but sad. Painting his figures into mainly neutral, unrecognizable spaces make them relatable in a way they may not have been had we seen them a lush setting.
No matter our physical or financial circumstances, we’re always responsible for our own happiness and welfare. For some it is found on the runway, for others behind an easel or on a hiking trail. But choosing to live your life as if it is the only one you will get ( because it is! ), no matter how, is the ultimate in luxurious living.
To see more of Michael Carson’s work, please visit his representing gallery, Bonner David Gallery. If you happen to be in Scotsdale, AZ, you can see his work in person there.
It’s so easy to get caught up in our world of 21st century technology, especially when working from home. How slippery a slope it can be to go days on end without stepping outside! I often spend hours and hours a day in front of a screen ( or several! ), so our Saturdays spent hiking are utter bliss for my soul. Last weekend, Mr. F and I took a coastal hike where we marveled at the power and grace of the waves and the variety of stones washed upon the shore. In her work, Australian artist Carmel Seymour explores our relationship to the magic of nature, as we search for connections in our increasingly unnatural existences.
The artist states, “Natural objects linger in the home like a ghostly presence, an echo of pre-civilized humanity, an aesthetically pleasing reminder of our mastery and our diminutiveness.. Our attempts to bring nature into these constructed places can be seen as shrine to a deity more permanent than ourselves.”
Seymour’s work mirrors this thought of domestic tameness versus wildness in the way she juxtaposes carefully wrought figures and objects against puddles of loose watercolor. For all our “advancement” and self imprisonment, we are each one a wild creature born from a wild earth.
To see more of the work of Carmel Seymour, please visit her website and the website of her representing gallery, Helen Gory, where you can see her work in person if you find yourself Down Under.
Artist found via the Helen Gory Gallery. All images via the gallery’s website.
We are a few weeks into Spring here in Northern California and this weekend, something wonderful happened.. we seemed to have finally turned a corner into deep spring. That time of year when the air is warm and soft and everywhere you turn something extraordinary is blooming. All I want to do is turn my face to the sun, lie in the grass and soak it all in. This piece by April Featured ArtistAlexandra Bellissimo perfectly captures these deep days of spring, the longing to be one with the blossoming world. And this Scenery at Sunset Dress by Modcloth is just the perfect translation of that light and airy feeling that the first warm days of spring delivers.
Today I’m even wearing my own version Surface, this work by Alexandra Bellissimo, a new scarf I’ve been eyeing that feels like spring. Winter, I love you, but I think I’ll always have a bit of a crush on Spring.
Keep watching the blog & social media for more from Alexandra Bellissimo all throughout April, including an exciting announcement coming soon! *Hint: it starts with a P and ends with “rints”. 😉 And of course, you can always peruse Alexandra’s website for more of her stunning work.
Want to see more of the Wear the Artsy series? Check out the archives here!
I rarely feel more at peace or more excited than when Mr. Forager & I are hiking in the woods. To be among the wildness, where plants and animals live and roam freely is completely exhilarating and intoxicating. The forests are full of magic and wonder, it isn’t surprising that so many fairy tales get their start in such a place. Moscow-based photographer Katerina Plotnikova takes her lens to wild places, creating stunning photographs telling fantastical tales.
She weaves her models into their surroundings, often posing them intimately with real wild animals, producing that beautiful, slightly horrific feeling the best fairy tales provide. When we are out hiking, I am always blown away by nature’s beauty and bounty, yet continually cautious and on alert, knowing that we are trespassing into the home of wildness.
The forecast for last Saturday in Eureka was cloudy and rainy, so Mr. F and I planned to spend a leisurely day drinking coffee and catching up on work in a downtown coffee shop. And we did, for a few hours.. until we noticed that the rain didn’t seem to be coming and the sun was shining! So we decided ditched work to spend the afternoon doing a little more exploring around Old Town Eureka. We tasted grains at the local brew shop, browsed a dusty antique shop and a fun little vintage clothing boutique. As we were about to grab a burger & hit up Mr. F’s favorite Eureka watering hole, I spotted an open sign at Sewell Gallery and was so pleased at what we found inside.
Sewell Gallery exclusively features the work of Humboldt County artists and showcases some of the best the region has to offer in a large and inviting space. The current show, up for just a few more days, features the work of textile artist April Sproule . She creates these amazingly intricate contemporary quilt designs– I was especially drawn to the graphic quality found in her monochromatic work.
In addition to the featured exhibition, Mr. F and I found a wide range of mediums and styles to peruse. We both loved these ceramic pieces by Shannon Sullivan— gorgeously crafted and temptingly priced!
ceramics by Shannon Sullivan
Of course, you know I can’t resist abstract paintings and these two were calling to me across the sunlit gallery..
It was just the perfect day to wander through a gallery! We’ll definitely be putting Sewell on our list of places to stop in occasionally.
It’s looking pretty likely that Mr. F and I could be in Eureka at least through the summer and I’m more excited about that prospect than ever. With the largest concentration of artists per capita in all of California, Humboldt County has so much to offer and discover!
If you ever happen to be in Eureka, make sure to put in a stop at Sewell Gallery! Coming up Saturday is my first Eureka Arts Alive event. Stay tuned for more on that next week!
April showers bring.. a new Featured Artist! Yay! I’ve been having a serious photography moment lately so I’m excited to feature one of my favorite photographic finds of the last year, LA artist Alexandra Bellissimo all throughout the month of April.
Alexandra’s work has an incredibly elegant, graphic simplicity. Nude figures photographed, just a touch of digital manipulation, then natural elements are collaged into the composition by hand. Human, animal and flora meet, becoming one to create a new, fantastical reality. The more I look at her work, the more I fall in love with it. A story is told with minimal language, and I long to hear more.
Alexandra Bellissimo‘s work will be featured on Artsy Forager all throughout the month of April, but if you can’t wait to see more, head over to the Artsy Forager Facebook page to see her cover photo, as well as an album of my favorite Bellissimo finds. Be sure to visit the artist’s website, too!
PS– A new project collaboration will launch soon featuring work by Alexandra Bellissimo’s work along with three other fabulous artists! Stay tuned for more details!
There is such power in water, to calm, to cleanse, to inspire. At the end of a stressful day, a long soak in a warm bubble bath can make me a new person. These amazing oil paintings by Swedish artist Linnea Strid capture those ordinary moments in which water meets body and unleashes its blessing.
We plunge ourselves into its cool depths to escape the oppressive heat of summer, we gently pour its warmth over newborn skin. We sit and stare into its glassy surface or watch waves lap at our feet and our spirits become refreshed and renewed. It within our bodies, keeping us nourished and well.
