I remember being fascinated by a pair of geodes that were one of my grandmother’s travel souvenirs. The ugly, nondescript rocky surface hiding inside it a magical, sparkly surprise. Los Angeles artist Elyse Graham shares my childhood fascination, creating her own sculptural geodes from layers of latex and urethane.
When we first arrived here in Eureka, we experienced our very first California earthquake. It reminded me, as do the geysers and mud pots of Yellowstone, that this planet we live on is a living, moving, breathing entity. So it seems only fitting that Graham creates her geodes around the void left by her own exhaled breath. She adds each layer, one on top of the other, the resulting effect unknown until the geode is finally split.
How often do we, too, work blindly only to discover something amazing when all is revealed?
I have a special place in my artsy heart for artists who are inspired by language. Maybe it comes from my love of writing and reading– my college major came down to a decision between Art History and Literature. Or perhaps I just love the contemporary cheekiness. This newest series by Vancouver artist Ben Skinner is an artistic and linguistical win-win for me!
The series of reduplications ( exact words used in succession ) cast in plaster makes us think twice about these commonly used phrases and their origin. Skinner’s work often deals with language and meaning, usually finding their power in simplicity, as in the case of the Same, Same series.
You can see more of Ben Skinner‘s work on his website. If you happen to be in Vancouver, be sure to check out his recently opened show at Back Gallery Project.
This week, it would seem, is one to be filled with all sorts of newness! In addition to the new post series started on Tuesday and the introduction of my Great.ly shop, I’m excited to finally launch a new featured series I’ve been pondering for a while now. I’m always on the hunt for new ways to support and promote the artists whose work I love. When we travel, we’re on the lookout for local art shows and happenings. Which led me to think, hey, you guys must be, too!
Each Thursday afternoon, I’ll be posting a round up of interesting gallery or museum shows I think you outta know about– one from each region of the country, North, South, East & West. ( FYI– sometimes North and Northwest will be interchangeable, just because. )
west |Jennifer JL Jones, Invisible Thread at Hunter Kirkland Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM**
Find details about each show by clicking through to the gallery or museum links above. If you check ’em out, tag me ( @artsyforager ) on Instagram with the hashtag #dontmissartsiness!
**Jennifer JL Jones’ show ends June 8th! Get there before it closes.
Image sources via the galleries & museum sites linked above.
When it comes to ceremonies and celebrating, it seems like here in the US, our traditions are pretty mundane. Where are all the costumes and displays? For many other cultures, milestones are met with ritual and fanfare. Baltimore artist Amy Boone McCreesh explores that relationship between exhibition and ephemera in her sculptural work.
Crafted from cut paper, ribbons, sequins, found objects, you name it– these sculptures are teeming with texture, color, and movement. Reminding us of maypoles, leis, and exploded pinatas, they are contemporary interpretations of ancient traditions.
As artists, we are pretty obsessed with our materials and mediums. Photographers baby their cameras and lenses, sculptors take precious care of their tools. And painters, well, we love paint– the way it smells, the way it looks, the way it behaves. Seattle artist Margie Livingston, whom we last heard from in October 2012 during her run as Featured Artist, has been continuing her own wild love affair with the properties of paint.
Stretching, pulling, carving, slicing, dicing, Livingston pushes paint to its ever expanding limits. This latest group of work seems to have an elegant electricity about it, in the juxtapositions of graphic black & white against super charged neon purples and pinks. Then she spins that on its head with her gloriously shroud-like draped paint sculptures.
Poured, Sliced, and Draped, a show of Margie Livingston’s latest work, opens at Greg Kucera Gallery in Seattle today, with the opening reception taking place during First Thursday on June 5th. If you’re in Seattle, don’t miss her Artist Talk this Saturday, at 11:30am, see the Greg Kucera site for details! Aaaah, some days I really miss Seattle.
I am loving these little Puffball Bonsai sculptures by Alexandra Gjurasic. They make me happy with their colorful stripes and cotton candy poufs. I could just leave it at that. But I like to take things a little deeper. They’re fun and completely awesome, but what are they saying to me, besides let’s play?
The high level of artificiality mixed with the traditional china pot speaks to me of the pet-like nature of Bonsai’s. They are high maintenance mini-trees cultivated mainly as a form of meditation and expression of creativity on the part of the caregiver. They seem, to me, to be like pet trees. Gjurasic is taking that idea even further by “dressing them up” in colorful stripes and glittery flowers. It’s interesting to think about flowers and houseplants in this way– these living things, which thrive in their own natural environment, cut down or cultivated in order to give us pleasure.
Oh and Gjurasic’s trees also spun off paintings, which are almost as enchanting! To see more of Alexandra Gjurasic‘s work, please visit her website.
Mr. Forager’s tastes are a bit unpredictable. I never know which artist’s work he’s going to connect with and I’m often surprised by the ones he choses as favorites. But when we were looking for something to watch after an afternoon of imbibing at a local home-brew festival, I knew we couldn’t go wrong with Wayne White. Neil Berkeley’sBeauty is Embarrassingtakes a look at the highs and lows in the career of this Southern boy turned media and art world darling.
There are a lot of ways in which Mr. F & I identify with White and his journey. Growing up in rural Tennessee, White knew the struggle of loving home yet finding it suffocating. Knowing that to stay might mean to give up on who you truly are, to forfeit a dream. Leaving Tennessee was a turning point for White, just as leaving Florida was for both Mr. F and myself. Sometimes, it is only upon leaving the familiar to realize our dreams and our authentic selves.
We’ve both at times found ourselves not quite buying into the expectations that were set before us. That in order to belong, we had to conform to the commonality around us. Traveling has opened our eyes to different ways of thinking, different ways of living and being. We’ve learned that there is no right or wrong way, there is only the way that is right for you.
For White, art-making does not mean being a serious artiste. His self-proclaimed goal is to “bring humor into fine art. Not art world funny but real world funny.” Mr. F has a wicked sense of humor and we are both huge believers in the insight and ease humor brings to complicated subjects and feelings. Just because White’s work makes us laugh, doesn’t mean it doesn’t have something important to say.
As an artist, White also allows himself and his work to evolve, yet retain his own genuine artistic voice. Whether he is illustrating a cartoon, designing sets or gigantic Lyndon Johnson heads, what comes out is authentically White– irreverent, playful, but filled with dark truths. It seems that for White, the finding happens along the way, different paths of creativity lead over, around and into one another. His artistic journey mimics the connectedness of the way our own pathways evolve and intersect. But he does it while playing the banjo. Match point to Mr. White.
If you’re looking for a few hours of inspiration and truth veiled in lots of Southern humor and explicit language ( the “F” word is White’s fave, he & Mr. F have that in common.. ), check out Beauty is Embarrassing. Wayne White wants you to persevere in whatever your creative path and after you watch, you’ll believe you can.
This planet we live on is an incredible example of a delicate balancing. I’m always amazed to read stories about the ripple effect one tiny plant or micro organism may have on an entire eco-culture. Often it is man whose hand begins the tidal wave. In her work, New Orleans artist Hannah Chalew explores the tenuous relationship between nature and the built environment.
Much like the work of Jess Riva Cooper, Chalew examines the idea of the built environment being overtaken and pushed back to the earth. So often it is man and his development that does the encroaching, providing an interesting juxtaposition when plant life is given the opportunity to reclaim what was.
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.
You guys, we are loving our new little town so much! Since we arrived, everyone’s been telling me how many artists there are here in Eureka and that we must check out the monthly art walk, ArtsAlive. It was a perfect, beautiful evening and it seemed like everyone in Humboldt County was in downtown Eureka, enjoying the spectacular weather and taking it all in.
I knew there were a few galleries I needed to check out but what I didn’t know was that so there were so many artists with studios downtown and a great many of them were open that night! I do so love a peek inside artists’ studios! After checking out the mesmerizing work of Isabelle Staehle at The Black Faun, we wandered through the studios & Hall Gallery at C Street. Large, high ceilinged, open beam studios with tons of light? Yes, please. Mr. F asked if I would like a studio like one of these.. uh yeah, let’s find a way to make that happen! Lots of people wandering through the halls, and a nice variety of work to be found, from abstract expressionist to folk art inspired to traditional landscapes. Truly a cornucopia of artsiness!
We also wandered through the studios at the Center for Insane Artists. How could we resist checking it out with a name like that? Alas, I’ve been unable to find any info for them online. But a handful of the studios were open, some interesting work to be found there, for sure!
My favorite stop was First Street Gallery, HSU’s non-profit, off campus art gallery. No cameras were allowed, but I HAD to share these shows with you, so I pulled images from their website. Currently, the exhibition space is broken up into two shows, one featuring the work of artist and Stanford University professor Gail Wight, on loan from Patricia Sweetow Gallery. Wight’s work is an elegant combination of beauty and science, her burned vellum drawings inspired by a 1948 pharmacological study of spiders and her composite digital prints, all drew my eye with their intricate simplicity.
The other half of the gallery was taken over by three North Coast artists, Seana Burden, Jeff Jordan, and Jesse Wiedel in their group exhibition, Laughter in Darkness. The works of these three artists combine traditional landscape and dream-like imagery often providing commentary on contemporary culture. I was especially drawn to Burden’s “Boob” paintings in which she creates a fantastical land in which all the subversive messages we are sent each day are much more blatant.
seana burden, jesse wiedel, and jeff jordan
Like most good art walks, we weren’t able to get to everything, but what we did see gave Mr. F and I lots to chat about over a glass of wine ( or 3! ) at the end of the night. I hope you’ll check out the websites of these artists and galleries– so much wonderful talent in this area. I feel so lucky to be here, even if for just a short while.
Gail Wight, Seana Burden, Jesse Wiedel and Jeff Jordan images via HSU website. All other images by Artsy Forager.
