When I first saw the work of photographer Anna Pogossova on The Artful Desperado blog, I was completely enchanted by her use of color. So I couldn’t resist featuring her in my Artist Watch on Escape Into Life! Check out more of her work over on EIL here.
Many of us have a love/hate relationship with Instagram. Maybe we love that voyeuristic glimpse into other people’s lives. Perhaps we hate that their lives might seem more glamorous than our own. What I personally love is the way it allows us to communicate the beauty in simple moments. The work of Cincinnati artist Emil Robinson carries with it the same celebration of the magic to be found in every day.
As I type this, I’m sitting at my desk and am struck by the loveliness of the orange candle sitting quietly on the deep white windowsill. Robinson’s work reminds us of that we don’t always have to seek out what is interesting and delightful. It is all around us, just waiting to be noticed.
It might seem strange to want to document such routine aspects of our lives, but it is these common moments that truly make up our lives– that fill the space between the extraordinary.
What ordinary moments did you see the beauty in today? To see more of Emil Robinson’s work, please visit his website.
Artist found via Erin McIntosh. All images are via the artist’s website.
It feels like things are sort of finally getting back to normal.. almost. After being gone for what seemed like an eternity, I’m back on Escape Into Life today sharing the work of Nicolas Kuligowski in my Artist Watch. Head on over to EIL to see more!
Nicolas Kuligowski on Escape Into Life
Image via the artist’s website.
This Featured Artist post is coming a bit late due to the craziness of adjusting to our new digs. Being born a flat-lander ( Sunshine State, represent! ), I continue to be amazed by the change in perspective that comes from living among the mountains. Whether you’re in a valley looking up or gazing down from the top of a hill, your way of seeing changes. The work of this month’s Featured Artist, photographer Pamela Viola moves our eye in much the same way into new perspectives. Her way of seeing gives us a new manner of looking.
Viola focuses her lens, not only straight ahead, but up above, down below, over, under and every which way in between. What we’re left with as the viewer is a capture of an angle we might have otherwise never noticed.
And it isn’t only those unique angles that draw us in. But also the way in which the light and shadow plays differently from those unexpected perspectives.
To see more of Pamela Viola’s work, please visit her website and be sure to check out her work on the Artsy Forager Facebook page!
All images via the artist’s blog.
Forget those boring old still lifes from your grandma’s era. Artists like Thrush Holmes are taking that classic subject and reinterpreting it through modern eyes. The result is anything but boring.
Neon-hued petals in flattened, simplified shapes let you know these aren’t just any old floral paintings. With color blocking reminiscent of Matisse, these blossoms fairly jump off the canvas.
Graffit-like lines incorporated give these paintings a freewheelin’ freedom their classical predecessors never dreamed of.
To see more of Thrush Holmes’ work, please visit his website.
All images via the artist’s website.
Ordinary things explored with interesting color and texture.. I love the simplicity of the work of artist Megan Dorien, being featured in my Artist Watch on Escape Into Life today. Head on over and check it out!
Megan Dorien on Escape Into Life
Image via the artist’s website.
Having lived the first ahem, three decades, of my life in the South, I completely understand why people are drawn to it. There is a co-mingling of worlds in the South, some owing to its sordid history, others a product of the atmosphere and the people who find themselves there. New Mexico artist Gigi Mills, having grown up with her family in the circus on the West Coast of Florida, far from the “traditional South”, finds herself repeatedly drawn to its charms. In her latest series, The Deep South and Other Stories, which debuted at Gallery Orange in New Orleans two weeks ago, the artist explores her attachment to a life that could have been hers.
A childhood in the circus, while filled with color, charm and adventure, doesn’t offer much in the way of stability. For Gigi, it is that sense of permanence of place, of generations of history that leads her again and again to southern places.
In her work, as in many areas of the South itself, there is an enchanting sense of elegance and charisma that completely bewitches us. But it is the complexities of this world that we find most intriguing– the secrets kept, the stories told and untold.
If you’d like to see more from the Deep South and Other Stories series, please visit the Gallery Orange website. Gallery Orange also has beautiful Gigi Mills books available for purchase through their website– a lovely way to learn more about the artist and enjoy her work, even if a painting is out of reach.
All images via Gallery Orange.
I always remember my first visit to Seattle in the springtime. The cherry trees were blooming in the neighborhood where Mr. Forager was living ( this was before I became Mrs. F ) and then it rained, as it is always wont to do in Seattle. After the rain, the blossoms weren’t quite as fluffy and perfect as they’d been, but we were left with a magical blanket of pink petals dotting the sidewalks. The wind would eventually sweep each petal into its breeze and carry it away to some unknown place. As I look at the floral encaustics of Seattle artist Alicia Tormey, I’m reminded of the delicate strength it takes to withstand the storms.
Tormey’s flowers have a wonderful, swirly diaphanous quality as translucent strands float from and around them. In some, we see look to be veins coming through, as if these are the angels of flowers loved and pressed between book pages as a remembrance.
Each flower almost takes on the personality of a dancer’s movements.. wild yet graceful.. controlled chaos, passionate yet maintaining an elegant line, always.
To see more of Alicia Tormey’s work, please visit her website.
Images via Gilman Contemporary and Chase Young Gallery.
What did we do before the days Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to record the beauty of every day life? How would anyone know how lovely my lunch might be on any given day? I don’t think UK artist Elaine Pamphilon has ever asked that question. Her lovely mixed media works capture the ordinary in an incredibly special way.
Often dividing her surfaces into planes of color, Pamphilon treats us to glimpses of moments that, though simple as they may be, draw us in with their sweetness and humor.
There is such a sense of collected spontaneity about her work, as if each finished piece is just a quick little sketch in her journal, a remembrance of the day, sights, sounds, and findings.
Sigh. Her work makes me wish I was a better journal keeper. Guess I’ll have to settle for Instagram. To see more of Elaine Pamphilon’s work, please visit her website.
Artist found via Christina Foard. All images are via the artist’s website.
The limited palette and tight scope of the work of this month’s Featured Artist, Peri Schwartz is what continues to keep me enthralled with her paintings. An artist whose work shares these same characteristics is Lily Stockman, whose work I’ve featured twice here on the blog.
Lily and her sister, Hopie, have teamed up to create Block Shop, a textiles company creating hand block printed, naturally dyed scarves crafted in India by the Chhipa family of master printers ( more about the process here ). Doesn’t it seem fitting that if you love Peri’s focus on her place of inspiration, creation, and process that you would wear an artist designed, hand crafted and created scarf? Of course it does!
art | Studio III by Peri Schwartz
scarf | Mosaic [ marigold + black ]
Because they are hand crafted, only a limited number of Block Shop textiles are created at one time. The entire inventory sold out in less than a week when Block Shop launched back in December! So Lily & Hopie have restocked and are taking pre-orders for April 1st shipping. And if you love these as much as I do, you’d better get your order in now before they’re gone!
See more from Peri Schwartz and Block Shop on their websites, linked here and here.
Image sources linked above.