‘Tis the season for camping! While Mr. F and I are currently tent campers, we have a soft spot for Airstreams. We aren’t the only ones, though, these aluminum beauties have fans all over the world. Vancouver artist Taralee Guild captures the way their reflective surfaces camouflage and distort their surroundings.
Mr. F and I are definitely low-impact campers– we try not to disturb our surroundings much when we camp. That kind of philosophy may seem to be at odds with these kinds of campers, yet the Airstreams mirror-like surface make them seem almost holographic, taking in and then reflecting back their surroundings. They blend in, yet are still set apart.
To see more of Tara Lee Guild‘s work, please visit her website. We’re heading out to do some of our own sleeping under the stars this weekend. What kind of camper are you? Tent or trailer? RV or cabin?
byEllen C. Caldwell In my series of guest posts for The Artsy Forager, I have been writing about my time in Bali during an arts residency earlier this year. I was introduced to painter Federico Tomasi by another artist Giovanni Lovisetto on a trip to Bali in 2012 and upon my return, I was lucky to revisit Tomasi’s studio and discuss his current works.
As many of us in creative fields know, artistic inspiration is always something of a process. As artists, we are constantly pursuing new creative styles, mediums, subjects, narratives, and voices. Through this process of searching for ourselves, we get used to the circle of finding our grounding, losing our footing, and continuously rebuilding our foundations.
This process can feel painful, isolating, and challenging, but it can also offer creative redemption, freedom, and inspiration. As I discussed in an earlier essay The Writer’s Ledge, these moments on the creative “ledge” are simultaneously terrifying, jarring, and exciting, ultimately yielding the most creative and unique results. It was a joy to visit with Tomasi and discuss the pitfalls and roadblocks we all endure during the creative process—while also seeing the moving and dynamic results coming from this beautiful struggle.
In discussing the beauties and beasts of the unknown, the cycle of returning back to our roots and formal training, and the bounty of this very endeavor, Tomasi and I explored the ongoing challenges that come with living the creative process. Ellen Caldwell | Please tell me about the large-scale, monumental portraits you are working on in your studio now.
Federico Tomasi | The large, vertical-scaled portraits are simply the desire to make them have a monumental aspect even if they are paintings—more as sculptures, huge and oversized for a different perspective. The chromatic choice of colors goes from that marbled, transparent feeling to the copper and bronze. And of course the unusual dimension (3 meters tall and 1 meter wide) helped me to reach what I had in my mind. I actually like them leaned on the wall rather than hung so they look more three dimensional, as sculptures are. It’s still an open chapter for me so let’s see how it will end.
EC | How do they differ from your previous bodies of work?
FT | I don’t think those particular ones are very different from my previous paintings in terms of technique and apart from what I mentioned before, of course. There is a step forward or a research of something different, chromatically speaking, and there are more visible parts of the body instead of the close up facial portraits I used to focus on. There are so many elements that occur to me in this process so it’s a bit difficult to give a harmonic answer… EC | Who are you painting in your portraits now? Could you tell me a little bit about how you have chosen your current subjects or is it still too soon to discuss?
FT | I really don’t know where I’m going right now! I’m trying different things at the same time and the subjects just come either from pictures or movies or my own sketches. I’m still waiting for that sparkle to arrive and a bit of anxiety made me just paint without thinking too much! I have been working on two large portraits of my grandmother who passed away last year. She was incredible, so that brought me to another level. I remember working day and night on those pieces as they where so personal to me. I painted them with oils, which also made it very intense.
EC | We talked a lot about artistic background and training – how often an artist will learn to paint by copying and mimicking the masters. And you were saying that in some ways you felt like you had to return to this time and go back to more of your original training. What inspired you to move in this direction?
FT | Well each artist has his masters and backgrounds to actually admire and learn from—it depends on your goal—for sure not by copying, but what I was saying was that there are skills when it comes to figurative art that have to be there and it’s important to feed those skills to be able to move on. I believe you have to know how to do things in a traditional way to be able to do something very different in the future. I guess it’s the technique that matters in my case… When I feel it’s time to move forward, I always start from some basic skills (traditional) and from there find my own direction
EC | Where do you see yourself moving, having circled back to this original training? Do you see it taking you in an entirely new direction now?
FT | I see myself in moment of transition—a bit frustrating when things are not always coming out how I thought. But that’s part of the game; persistence will take me to a new direction. EC | Yes, that’s part of the beauty and agony of the process, right? How has living and practicing your art in Bali impacted your work—or has it?
FT | Unconsciously probably, it’s more the lifestyle—the freedom and the beauty everywhere that makes the difference but not more than that. Bali is not the same as when I arrived; the tourism and the development of businesses became very chaotic in the last years so it’s not really inspiring me anymore. And I’ve been here for 14 years almost so maybe it’s time to move again!
EC | When did you first start painting and how did you learn or train?
FT | My father was studying at the Academy of Arts in Stockholm when I was around eight years old and I was always surrounded by creative people, so that was my first introduction to that world. After I decided to study five years of art school in Rimini, Italy, and that’s where I started to take my first steps… I’m still learning and hopefully I will learn more in the future. EC | Regarding plastic in Bali, we discussed the over-packaging of products and how there is such a vast amount of plastic debris all over – in the rice paddies, on the streets, and filling the ocean and beaches after big rains… Could you discuss this a bit?
FT |This is a global problem not only about Bali, and it’s very sad. It’s about a lack of education and personal responsibility towards mother nature. For sure there are solutions, but there are too many businesses involved to change unfortunately. It’s incredible, sometimes I manage to see such a perfection and beauty in nature compared to what we humans have been able to do …we are terrible! Sometimes I feel ashamed to be a human being.
EC | Do you feel like you address this plastic problem as an artist or activist – or more simply just on an individual level?
FT | It’s difficult as an individual to change the world but you can always be aware of things in your little microcosm. I collect stuff on the beach, just walking with my dog, for example. I do it even if I know it will not solve the problem, hoping someone sees and gets the message. I said before it’s all about education so let’s start ASAP. It will take a generation to change if we are lucky… Born in Stockholm, Sweden, Federico Tomasi began showing his work in 1997 after moving to Asia. Since then, he has shown internationally in Italy, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Lebanon, and the U.S.
We are down to seven more weeks left in Eureka. That is, if Mr. F’s contract doesn’t get extended, which we think it will. Mr. F always knows exactly how many weeks we have left in one spot. He is such a wanderer, too long in one place and he begins to feel a bit hemmed in. And I admit, it’s rubbed off a bit on me. Living in someone else’s home, with their stuff, a view that I didn’t choose, will often leave me a bit unsatisfied, too and ready to move on in our adventures. In her work, Brooklyn artist Louise Belcourt explores her own views in the shapes and forms she sees and the one’s that block her vision.
Belcourt takes her inspiration from the views she sees, using color and form to play with their spatiality and physicality. Forms seem to recede and advance at the same time, just as our time in one place seems both long and short-lived.
It hardly feels like summer. Here on the Northern Cali coast, the temps have barely ever gotten out of the sixties– I’m still wearing scarves and boots on occasion! In addition to the cooler weather, Mr. F and I both seem to be having trouble getting into a relaxed summer vibe these days. There always seems to be something on the agenda, something to be done, something to plan, somewhere to go. I feel like we’re missing out a bit on the carefree feeling that summer brings, but these paintings by Massachusetts artist Carol O’Malia bring me that much closer.
Any time we’re able to get to the beach, a river or waterfall, any body of water, really, and I see the ripples sparkling in the sun, my mind instantly relaxes and calms. O’Malia really captures the radiance of summer light, not just sunlight, but the way we feel more effervescent in summer. I’m still waiting for that weightless feeling, forgetting everything that’s happening in the world and just soak it all in. I hope it comes soon.
To see more of Carol O’Malia’s work, please visit her website.
Hey you fellow Foragers! There are some incredible shows going on right now. Here are just a few of my recommendations for must-see museum and gallery shows this week!
If you were paying close attention to Don’t Miss Artsiness a few weeks ago, you may have spotted this artist’s work. The mind-bending work of Joe Wardwell mixes classical American landscape paintings with rock lyrics and the result is just as phenomenal as you think it would be.
Music lyrics become such a huge part of our psyche. These little soundbites pop into our head, often when we least expect it. We can sing along with tens of thousands of other people at a concert, every voice lifted up in harmony. We know the music we love as well as we know our own backyards. Wardwell makes a connection between the American love of the landscape to the permeation of pop culture, creating these mirror-like stenciled scenes that remind us that music, as well as art, is just another kind of exploration.
This past Sunday, following more weekend festivities than is normal for us, Mr. F and I took to the beach for the afternoon. There is always something about the salt air, the crash of the waves, and the sand between your toes that is healing for the psyche! Doesn’t the ocean have its own special, briny scent? And it always seems to give sparkle to everything it produces. The paintings of this month’s Featured Artist Carlos Lopez gives expression to the nourishing power of the sea and jewelry artist Emily Miranda‘s Oyster Cuff is the perfect sparkly companion!
Carlos is masterful at expressing the oyster’s gentle, undulating curves in paint, mimicking the rollicking waves, just as Emily Miranda sculpts those same contours from in her cuff bracelet. One work of art to see, one to wear.
To see more of Carlos Lopez‘s work, please visit his website. You can see more gorgeous jewelry by Emily Miranda on her website. Both a feast for the eyes!
Happy Independence Day! I hope you don’t mind if I get a little deep on you today. The work of Robert Mars explores the idealization and fascination we as a nation have developed with pop culture, brands, and celebrity and it got me thinking this week.
I had originally written a long rant-y post about american consumerism, but decided this morning that it just didn’t fit the positive and light-hearted vibe I try to keep up around this joint. So I’ll let you draw your own conclusions. 😉 Hope you have an incredibly artsy Independence Day!
Two artist posts in one day?! I know I don’t usually do this, but when I saw this artist’s work on Booooooom! I just couldn’t wait until next week to share it with you. Mostly self-taught New York artist Marcelo Daldoce creates these absolutely incredible folded watercolor paintings in which the figure hides and reveals itself through the artist’s manipulation of his surface.
From his artist statement, “My work focuses on the terrain beyond the conventional two-dimensional landscape of paper and canvas. In bringing to life a flat surface, I strive to create a puzzle between what is real and what is illusion..” Isn’t it interesting how we tend to do this for ourselves, folding in and hiding the parts of us we don’t what others to see, manipulating our own surface so that we only reveal a studied portrait of the person we’d like everyone else to assume we are. I’d like to be more transparent, to unfold my own portrait so that I’m no longer hiding any part of me. So that what you see is what is me.
Last week, while Mr. F and I were out with a few of his work colleagues, we discovered that, at a table of four adults in their 30s/40s, every single one of us came from a divorced family. It seems that we all become torn and tattered as life gets ahold of us. Not just the kids of divorce, but anyone who’s gone through pain, suffering, and loss. But it’s how we deal with our circumstances that determines the people we become. In his mixed media work, artist Howard Sherman uses a process of addition and subtraction to create unruly surfaces that result in a beautiful mess.
Just as we react to our own situation, Sherman describes his work process as a bit of “call and response”.. Each action creates a reaction, and it is up to the artist whether the result is something to keep or cover up. Just as we act and react to people, events, and circumstances in our lives, it is up to us to decide how we are affected and what our own final composition will be.
