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Transitioning. Sarah Illenberger.

Today may officially mark the last day of summer, but for weeks now, summer’s glow has been slowly fading. The hots days have grown weary and we’ve rejoiced in a new, cooler breeze. It is always an interesting time, this changing of seasons. But if you’re like me, you enjoy the shift. Each season brings its own joys, its own rewards and embracing them each for what they are helps to usher in the new.

The beginning of a new season offers the hope of a fresh canvas, a new start. I’ve been thinking very seriously along those lines where this little blog is concerned. This Fall will be a season of transitioning in many ways, including here on the blog. I’m excited to share with you a new vision! Some things will remain, while others will fade like the leaves. New seasons bring new opportunities and we must embrace the transition in order to reap the rewards. Stay tuned for details next week!

Images above are photographs by multi-disciplinary artist Sarah Illenberger. To see more of Sarah’s work, please visit her website.

Images are via the artist’s website. Artist found via Little Paper Planes.

September 22, 2015
Shifts. Eric LoPresti.

As we approach the blank surface, perhaps there is a preformed destination in mind. Or maybe we simply begin and follow where the paint takes us. For many artists, painting is as much about process as it is about finished product. Actually, it is likely more about process and hardly about product at all.

Last year, New York artist Eric LoPresti created a series of paintings repeating the same composition but shifting to various degrees stylistically.

Even the artist that begins with an idea of where they are going will often find the paint taking them in a different direction entirely. It is when we are open to those new directions that the magic really happens– the subconscious takes over and our heart wields the brush ahead of our mind. All it takes is the placement of a certain color or line and suddenly we are off into worlds as yet untraveled.

To see more of Eric LoPresti‘s work, please visit his website.

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

July 30, 2015
Branching. Ember Fairbairn.

A tree isn’t just its trunk. To thrive, a tree needs healthy branches. It needs to be reaching for light, nourished to its tips from within. Those branches become the homes of birds and squirrels, providing subtle, swishing music on breezy days and shelter from rainstorms.

In our current home in Marin County, our apartment in the hillside is nestled in the treetops. We see the world through a filter of blowing branches. Ember Fairbairn‘s paintings remind me not just of our view, but of the way we need to branch out in order to bloom.

Just as a tree can’t survive without its branches, so too do we need to continually reach out for new experiences in order to learn and grow. If we don’t we may become stagnated and overtaken by stronger, greedier vines.

To see more of Ember Fairbairn‘s work, please visit her website.

All images are via the artist’s website.

July 23, 2015
Fragility. Simone Truong.

We when are young, it’s easy to believe we are invincible. We’ll live forever, nothing can touch us. But as the years creep onward, we realize just how very tenuous this life is. As delicate as a flower. The work of UK artist Simone Truong reminded me today of this beautiful fragility we so often take for granted.

It can happen in the blink of an eye– one wrong turn, being in the wrong place at the wrong time in a split second and life is never the same again. We become so tempted by the path everyone else has chosen that we forget that we are only given this one chance. Why use up our chance living someone else’s dreams? Or by not filling every day with as much love, beauty and kindness we can muster?

To see more of Simone Truong‘s work, please visit her website. She has a beautiful collection of giclee prints available on her site! I’m seriously tempted.

All images are via the artist’s website.

May 28, 2015
Prickles. Kwang-Ho Lee.

You are nothing but prickles and stings.. so states Anne Shirley to formidable headmistress Katharine Brooke. These hyperrealistic paintings by Kwang Ho Lee are most certainly full of prickles, but the sting is how incredibly gorgeous they are!

Cactus have this incredible dangerous beauty to them, don’t they? Those incredible textures, especially in the “fuzzy” variety, leave us longing to touch but the second we do we’ll know why we shouldn’t. Which gives them such a lovely, unattainable, untamable appeal.

To see more of Kwang Ho Lee‘s work, please visit the website of his representing gallery, Kukje Gallery.

Images via Hi-Fructose and This is Colossal.

May 19, 2015
Dazzling. Kristi Hager.

For the past two weeks, even before the official arrival of Spring, the scent of jasmine has permeated the air here in Marin County. Mr. F and I breathe it in and count ourselves lucky to be in this place! The array of blooms here has been breathtaking. Doesn’t it always seem as if the first flowers of spring are exploding with excitement? Like they’ve just been itching all winter long to dazzle you with their color and scent.

And dazzle they do. And dazzle we don’t do often enough. Why? Because we’re so worn down by the monotony of life. Go to work, cook dinner, take the kids to soccer. Rinse, repeat. We don’t allow ourselves the freedom to sparkle. To find that moment to feel worthy of shining. The flowers know their worth. Why don’t you?

Photography featured today by Kristi Hager. To see more of Kristi’s work, please visit her website.

All images via the artist’s website.

March 26, 2015
Focus. Ori Gersht.

We like to whine and complain that we’re so busy, we have no time for fun anymore, wah wah wah! I know I’m guilty. But the truth is we do have time. We just don’t give it to ourselves. We choose where to place our attention and too many times it is on the things we truly care about the least. In his Exploding Mirrors series, photographer Orly Gersht captures what the camera sees as the mirrored reflections of flower arrangements explode. And what the camera focuses on is truly telling.

As the glass breaks ( electrocuted to the point of explosion ), the camera focuses not on the beautiful arrangements of flowers, modeled after paintings by Jan Brueghel the Elder, but on the surface of the glass itself. The lens picks up what is happening most immediately in front of it. Unlike us, it doesn’t choose its focus. It can’t block out the chaos in the foreground to focus on the beauty in the background. What really strikes me is that it is that false surface that changes– the beauty remains unchanged. Yet the camera’s capture of the exploding surface fragments and destroys it. Ignore that surface. The good stuff is safe and waiting.

To see more of Ori Gersht‘s work, please visit CRG Gallery’s website.

All images via the CRG Gallery website. Artist found via DesignMilk.

March 20, 2015
Delicacy. Marta Spendowska.

I never thought I’d say it, but I think Instagram may be surpassing Pinterest as my new favorite social media tool. I do still lurve Pinterest, but am finding Instagram to be much more friendly, creatively and socially. And it’s become quite the source for finding artists, too! Case in point with today’s artist. I discovered watercolor artist Marta Spendowska on Instagram and have been marveling at her juxtapositions of soft strokes and bold color.

Social media, for the most part, isn’t much about delicacy. It’s more about who screams for attention the loudest. But once in a while, a whisper breaks through the noise, as in the case of Marta’s work.

To see more of Marta Spendowska‘s work, please visit her website and be sure to follow her on Instagram!

All images are via the artist’s website.

March 4, 2015
Awash. Nick Knight.

While much of the country is still slogging their way through snow and ice, here in Northern California, the rains have returned. But the other day, I was caught by surprise by the first cherry blossoms beginning to make their appearance on our backyard branches. I find myself checking every day to make sure they haven’t been washed away with the rains.

These large format works by photographer Nick Knight, with their melting liquidity, seem to be disintegrating before the eye, just as the rain beats upon the new blooms of a coming spring. The colors run with a painter’s touch, some petals fall but others remain strong. We don’t always know why some flowers are allowed to remain on their branches while others spill to the ground before they’ve even had a chance to fully bloom.

To see more of Nick Knight‘s work, please visit his website. More from the Flora series can be seen at Show Studio.

All images via Show Studio.

February 9, 2015
October Featured Artist. Raquel Edwards.

I’m sure you didn’t think I’d be back so soon and this is just a momentary pop-in. But I couldn’t let a new month dawn without bringing you a new Featured Artist! When first we met October Featured Artist, Raquel Edwards, it was almost exactly three years ago and she was exploring beauty through the lens of a camera rather than a canvas.

Artists are driven by the need to explore and express and Raquel is no exception. Switching from photography to painting, she’s now discovering new techniques and means of visualization digging into the nature of cognition. The shapes she presents are somewhat familiar, yet just foreign enough that we can draw our own conclusions as to the meaning of their presence.

To see more of Raquel Edwards’ work, please visit her website. One of her gorgeous encaustic paintings is gracing the Artsy Forager Facebook page all month long and I’ll be sharing favorites of Raquel’s work as often as I can on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Pinterest.

All images are via the artist’s website.

October 1, 2014

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