Stacy Alexander -LISTEN TO MY ART BEAT!

Valérie Boy - Defying the Laws of Physics

2011-10-10T11:18:00.000-07:00

When you possess light within, you see it externally. ~Anaïs Nin

Looking at her work, one would never suspect an element of rage. It is so feminine and delicate. However, Valérie Boy was trained to work with steel in an all-male environment and likened it to a way in which people can channel violence and rage artistically. She likes the contrast between the cold, hard steel and the other materials that she uses. Regardless of the media, her work appears painterly and delicate.

The poet, Carl Sandburg once described poetry as being a “journal of sea animal, living on land, wanting to fly the air.” The work that Valérie creates is, in a way, like this. Not content to allow steel to be cold, hard and static, she breathes life into it, to make it appear to something else altogether. Light. Lightweight. Supple. Soft. The metal in her furniture seems pliable, as though it is blowing gently in the breeze.

Valérie refuses to limit herself by media, and uses various techniques to work with silk, porcelain, glass, sculpture, felt, resin and other materials to create her multi-layered, gravity-and-media defying art.

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The Jaguar MK2 is not an actual Jaguar body, but is a substrate that was designed and cut by someone else.

The artist spent a year studying with a steel worker to learn how to cut and weld steel, and is the first woman in France to graduate from the SFPA St. Nazaire in this discipline. When she received funding to make her art full time, she joined a primarily male orgaization working side-by-side with men to create her steel works. She found this physically challenging, but highly rewarding.

Blossom & Bill introduced her work by saying: “Valérie Boy, who has a French passion that dissolves in clouds of smoke and jazz.” He work is musical, lyrical, magical.

Despite her formal training in steel working, she is self taught as an artist. Valérie draws inspiration from various aspects of life itself (such as the 7 Deadly Sins) using steel in ways that contrast with the other materials she uses.

Does this steel pillow not look soft enough to sleep on?! Amazing.

In the beginning there was nothing. God said, "Let there be light!" And there was light. There was still nothing, but you could see it a whole lot better.

~Ellen DeGeneres

To see more work by Valérie Boy , please visit her website by clicking HERE.

Chris Gilmour - One Man's Trash....

2010-11-07T12:08:00.001-08:00

Hi everyone,

It has been awhile! Today's entry is about a young English sculpture named, Chris Gilmour who takes recycling to a whole new level.

Each of the objects pictured below is made of cardboard.

British artist, Chris Gilmour, chooses images and objects that evoke memories and emotions to create his intricately folded and glued cardboard sculptures. He chooses cardboard that “isn’t too clean” because he wants viewers to see what the material really is. Early in his career, he used only new cardboard and people would often think it was the real object that had simply been covered with paper or cardboard and painted.

The only materials he uses are cardboard, glue and an Exact-o knife or scissors.

Chris’ penchant for using recycled cardboard comes from a desire to take control of the waste and objects that surround human beings on a daily basis. He enjoys the immediate accessibility of cardboard and is attracted to his historical void that is associated with sculptures that are made from traditional materials. He says that he does notice packaging when he makes a purchase and attempts not to leave too large a big carbon footprint.

He is influenced by the work of sculptor, Anish Kapoor, Tom Friedman and Andy Goldsworthy who share similar views about the environment.

Chris views his wheelchair piece as his most important because of the ways in which the viewer interacts with it and brings its own story into the piece.

The artist feels that consumerism has shaped even our personalities in ways that cause us to buy things in order to shape our identities. His work is in protestation of that observation.

Chris Gilmore is currently working on a new show that features a life sized Aston Martin automobile. He strives for accuracy even in the interiors of his works that the viewers cannot see. Each detail of the Aston Martin, down to the last spark plug is being recreated.

A Real Flair for Mosaics - Flair Robinson

2010-07-17T14:06:00.001-07:00

Flair Robinson

It is hard to look at Flair Robinson’s mosaic art without imagining cheerful music playing in the background. Her images seem full of energy, and are quite easy to imagine merrily gyrating and flexing to the beat of some imaginary song. She is a true colorist in every sense of the word. Her color choices are dazzling and her designs sizzle.

Vincent's Choice

Sometimes, she includes texts in her compositions. She is primarily a self-taught mixed media and assemblage artist and educator who has taken college-level design, mixed media and mural-making courses, the latter of which were taught by renown muralist, Tracy Montminy at the University of Missouri (Columbia). For awhile, she lived in New York, where she studied filmmaking . Like myself, Flair has a propensity toward utilizing re-purposed materials in her art. She also uses hand-cut glass and ceramic tile.

Thor's Chair

Of late, Flair has begun the transformation from creating utilitarian art pieces to works that stand on their own as fine art. She does this in a studio in the small town of Teluride, Colorado, which she shares with a photography studio. She is represented by the Wildcat Studios Gallery conveniently located just downstairs. If you find yourself in the Telluride area, stop in at 224 East Colorado Avenue. (Hours Monday-Saturday 11:00AM -5:00 PM) Her good friends, Tanya and Stacy Smith own the gallery and have utilized Flair’s artistic expertise on a number of projects.

If Only

Flair draws inspiration from a variety of sources, all unusual….all fun. She sees a roadside attraction and borrows from that. She looks at advertisements from the 1940’s and ‘50’s and gets ideas there. Even vintage fabrics can inspire her work. Flair collects American and Latin American folk art and Visionary art that she feels greatly influences her own artistic vision.

Summer Night

Flairs love of art is evident in many ways, one of which includes her practice of driving 130 miles, round-trip, to buy the grout and other art supplies that she doesn’t have shipped to her directly. (She has her ceramic tile sent all the way from the Netherlands!)

New York City

Flair Robinson is unstoppable and believes that we can all teach ourselves to do virtually anything….and ya know, I think she’s absolutely right!

Click HERE to hear a podcast featuring Flair herself!

Waltzing Mithila

2010-06-20T12:13:00.000-07:00

Sky, Earth and Water
Monalisa Jha
2009

I am forever searching for simple designs to incorporate into my mosaic or other mixed media work. Of late, I have been attracted to the indigenous art of the Mithila people, one of the ancient traditional arts of North India.

Ganesh
Dulari Devi
2008

Mathili art was originally practiced by women on the interior walls of their homes. Popular legend dates the beginning of this art form to at least 5,000 years ago when, at the marriage of Sita and Rama, her father King Janak decreed that everyone should paint their homes with gods and goddesses to celebrate the happy occasion. (We should do that here in America!)

Women's Plight
Rani Jha
2008

In the late 1960s Mathili artists began painting on paper as a means of earning a living. This soon led to experimentation and an expansion of the subject matters. Generally, this type of art captures the everyday lives, the rituals, festivals, social lives of Mathili people. The growing interest in this folk art form also encouraged some men begin to practice what was traditionally considered a women's art. Today, the art flourishes in the villages around the rural town of Madhubani in north India.

Pond Life
Pinki Kumeri
2004
Women Mithila painters outnumber men by a large margin. Hindu gods and goddesses are still common subjects, but the repertoire now also includes popular stories, legends, local and even international events, autobiographies, and contemporary social and political issues.

The First Time to Market - and she is nervous
Pratik Prabhakar
2008

The internet, television and other media that lend a hand in the globalization of art has done much to aid in the popularity of Mithlian folk art. Today, once can find it on hand made Lokta papers and on hand made cotton clothing. Contemporary Mathlia artists have begun to use modern brushes and acrylic paints as opposed to the ancient, home made inks of old. With the new media exposure, market value for Mithili art has been increasing steadily. Fortunately, a growing number of women artists are able to earn decent a income from it, not to mention the rich cultural addition it lends to Northern India.

At the Pond in the Rain
Kiran Jha
2009
At this time, Norbertallen Gallery in downtown Los Angeles is planning an Mithila Art in an exhibit called, “ An Indian Survey of Mithila Art”. It will run from July 8th through August 31.
Animals in the Forest
Laxmi Devl
2010

Correction

2010-06-16T20:46:00.001-07:00

I have corrected the link to Christine Moss' web site, but for those of you who receive this via email, the url is: http://www.joyfulmosaic.com/home

Thanks!
Stacy

The Joyful Mosaics of Christine Moss

2010-06-15T23:07:00.002-07:00

My blog seems to generate a lot of fan mail, for some reason. I find reading these emails a great way to meet people and to be introduced to new artists, one of whom is mixed media artist, Christine Moss.

Christine’s mosaics are created with a view toward uplifting the spirits of those who view them. Through her art she strives to convey joy (hence her studio name, “Joyful Mosaics”) and to connect with that which is Divine. She is mindful of the time it takes to create a mosaic and of the experiences of time expenditure, patience and positive energy that a good piece of art entails. . Her art seems to be as much about the discipline and appreciation for the technique as it is about the finished work.

“When I create mosaics, I am searching for a certain quality of light, texture and color. I am after dream-like realness; that moment when you first wake up and are aware of your surroundings but are still within your dream.
Christine Moss

Christine Moss considers mosaic to be a rewarding medium from the very beginning when she sets out to find the perfect tessarae to express what she wishes to convey. She loves the tactile experience of cutting and arranging each piece and working the soft granular grout between the spaces and pays close attention to replicating and transforming the shapes found in nature into her own joyful signature artwork.

A recent resident of Woodstock, NY, Christine creates her mosaics on the main street at the edge of town where she reserves a work space in the back room for painting, grouting and sculptural pursuits. She claims the move has helped broaden her artistic horizons. However, she hasn’t always worked in a dedicated studio.

“When I lived in Jersey City, I worked out of the kitchen and the living room, wherever there was enough open space and light to see. I had a system of trays and panels that I worked from. Glass was everywhere. It was an organized chaos, not something I could really share with others.”

Christine teaches workshops and enjoys sharing the creative process with her students who range from senior citizens in the Big Apple and Jersey City, to public school children in Newark where she was an Artist in Residence at the Newark Museum.

She is a member of the Visionary Artists Collective at Varga Gallery and sells mosaic jewelry at the gift shop for the Brydcliff Artists Guild. She also sells her work on Etsy. She has built a number of large installations and is available for commissioned work.

Later this month, Christine will participate in the NY Faerie Festival where she will offer not only her mosaics, but a variety of other types of art work including sculptural forms, and jewelry that she makes from found sticks, woven with ribbons, leaves and feathers and embellished with wires and stones.

Please visit Christine Moss’ Joyful Mosaic web site: HERE

A Julie of All Trades - Julie Crisp

2010-05-30T19:06:00.000-07:00

When I see her art, I feel like I’m looking at something Alice might see in Wonderland. It is fanciful, beautiful, unique and whimsical. Melbourne artist, Julie Crisp has been making mosaics for about eight years.

However, mosaic is far from her only artistic discipline. She tells me she has been crocheting, crafting, sewing, painting, decorating, and working with all sorts of textiles since she was a small child. There seems to be no limit to her artistic imagination. She is inspired by any number of things, one of which is seeing other artist’s work on the internet.

“People get it, people don't , I'm not overly concerned.”

Julie has attended many different types of art classes including graphic design, airbrushing and everything in between. She was even a tattoo artist for five years! Last year, she spent weekends working for a Jeweler learning interesting things about the trade. She has also crossed over to the other side of the educational podium to teach art classes herself. She loves being able to speak with people about art and to have an understanding of the different types of media and techniques that are available.

Her unconventional approach to art is delightfully spontaneous. She says, “When I work or am doing something, I am constantly interested in understanding the materials, tools, design, strengths, weaknesses and uses of the situation I am in. I find myself in great, unusual, amazing (to me) circumstances constantly, life is a journey.”

Julie is currently involved in a community project called the Healesville Community
Labyrinth and is “ just waiting for
the dirty, hands-on work to start.” She told me that it has been nearly 3 years of committee meetings and waiting and funding issues . For now, she has
pulled back and is waiting for the actual manual work will begin. She said, “ I'd rather be creating than keeping up with the dynamics of the project.”

With regard to formal art education, Julie says she gets frustrated with “ the whole questionable "system', the passionless 'teachers', and the ridiculousness of it all” She questions the authenticity and reason behind the idea of 'formal training'.

Julie likes to use reclaimed materials in a lot of her work.
“I recycle because it is very cheap, especially when I find items on
hard-rubbish (kerbside rubbish removal by the council). Also original
designs can be created from junk for example a birdbath, I build the
piece from the base up, designing as I go. I work about 60 hours a
week,making wind chimes, chandeliers and mobiles from recycled bits and
pieces, textiles, altered clothing and crafts.”

Julie sells Eco-Clothing and Recycled art goodness in her Etsy shop HERE. Pay her shop a visit, look around. You will surely find something irresistible!

Help for Haiti's Art

2010-05-17T06:12:00.001-07:00

The January 12th earthquake in Haiti was not only devastating to the people there, it also reeked havoc on the island's cultural treasures. Subsequently, the Smithsonian has organized a team of cultural organizations to help the Haitian government assess, recover and restore Haiti’s cultural materials. Lead by Haiti's Ministry of Culture and Communication and the Haitian President's Commission for Reconstruction, the 7500 sq. foot building in Port-au-Prince that once housed the United Nations Development Program will be leased by the Smithsonian. The three-story building will serve as a temporary conservation site where objects retrieved from the rubble can be assessed, conserved and stored. It will also be the training center for Haitians who will be taking over this conservation effort in the future.

The “Smithsonian Institution–Haiti Cultural Recovery Project” is conducted in partnership with the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities with assistance from several other federal agencies—National Endowment for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The project is also supported by contributions from The Broadway League, the international trade association for Broadway and the Broadway community. The U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield, a nonprofit, non-governmental organization dedicated to the protection of cultural property affected by conflict or natural disasters, is involved in the project as is the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works. Local Haitian cultural organizations and a number of international organizations will also be involved in the effort.

The rainy season in Haiti has already begun, and the hurricane season is on its way. Much of Haiti’s endangered cultural heritage is in destroyed buildings and is at risk of permanent destruction.

“The highest priority of the Haitian government and the international humanitarian communities has rightly been to save lives and provide food, water, medical care and shelter,” said Richard Kurin, Under Secretary for History, Art and Culture at the Smithsonian. “However, Haiti’s rich culture, which goes back five centuries, is also in danger and we have the expertise to help preserve that heritage.” The long-term goal, according to Kurin, is to “rescue, recover and help restore Haitian art work, artifacts and archives damaged by the earthquake.”

The artifacts recovered and eventually conserved may include building features such as stained glass and historic murals as well as paper documents, photographs, artifacts and some of the 9,000 paintings from the Nader Museum, now in ruins from the quake.

“With this unprecedented inter-agency effort involving the major federal cultural institutions and the private sector, we express our collective belief that in times of great tragedy it is essential to help a country preserve and protect its cultural legacy for future generations,” said Rachel Goslins, executive director of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.

In 2004, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, under the direction of Kurin, highlighted the country in the program Haiti: Freedom and Creativity from the Mountains to the Sea, which featured more than 100 traditional Haitian artists and crafts people, performers, cooks, writers, researchers and cultural experts in performances, demonstrations, workshops and concerts. That collaboration with Haitian cultural leaders resulted in an ongoing relationship with the Smithsonian.

Smells Like Teen Spirit - Kurt Cobain exhibit in Seattle

2010-05-15T17:44:00.000-07:00

Grunge music is about as universally synonymous with modern-day Seattle as Starbucks and Microsoft, and no band symbolizes this movement more readily than Nirvana. The late Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain is easily the most recognizable icon from this period, famous for his heart wrenching lyrics, aggressive left-handed guitar playing, scraggly blond locks and premature demise. On view at the Seattle Art Museum from May 13 through September 6, 2010, the exhibition Kurt will reveal the extent to which his music and biography continue to exert a strong pull on our collective consciousness.

Please click HERE if you can't see the above-video.

Known as "Kurt," the SAM event "will explore the ways in which the grunge movement's most iconic figure continues to influence modern artists from a multitude of disciplines," according to an announcement by Darling. The curator also said that the exhibit "asks viewers to question why and how Kurt Cobain came to mean so much to a generation."

Alice Wheeler's photograph of Kurt Cobain at MTV's "Live and Loud" at Pier 63 in Seattle, 1993.

To be clear: This is not a display of Nirvana ephemera, guitars, CD covers, or the yellow gown Cobain wore on MTV. It's an exhibition of drawings, paintings, photographs, installations, and mixed-media works by artists — including Elizabeth Peyton, Douglas Gordon, and Daniel Guzman, as well as Northwest artists such as Scott Fife, Jeffry Mitchell, Jessica Jackson Hutchins — who are making some provocative, nuanced stuff right now.

All of the works of art began with some kind of connection with Cobain. Some of these connections are immediately, almost painfully, direct, as in Alice Wheeler's color-saturated photograph of Cobain in Seattle in 1993. Cobain is pale and scruffy beneath cherry-red sunglasses and multicolored tinsel garlands; the image captures Cobain's tendency to play with glamor and image, along with an underlying frailty.

Some of the works of art become more conceptually abstract, as in Gretchen Bennett's color pencil drawings. Bennett, who recently relocated from New York to Seattle, creates work out of a wide range of materials and often thinks about how environment, landscape and climate affect what can be produced. She was drawn to Cobain's story and "how Nirvana emanated from this landscape," but she was interested in taking a more "non-iconic, everyday approach." She searched YouTube for homemade videos of Nirvana in concert and isolated certain moments of gesture and lighting when Cobain became visually obliterated or pixelated. She further transformed these images by turning them into color pencil drawings that have a sweet ordinariness to them, despite all of the complex implications of mediation and image dissemination.

Might be worth the trip to the Emerald City to check it out.

From Obama to Oh, Wow! Alexa Meade

2010-04-30T22:35:00.001-07:00

If you happen to be in NYC between now and May 8, you won’t want to miss Alexa Meade’s exhibit at Postmaster’s Gallery. From her political experiences, former Obama campaign staffer, Meade, theorizes, that “experiences cannot always be interpreted at face value; seeing is not necessarily believing,”.

The twenty three year old Vassar grad expresses herself in a truly unique, thought-provoking manner with her reverse trompe l’oeil series. To create it, she developed a technique that makes 3-D space look flat, “blurring the lines between illusion and reality.”

Meade states, "I paint representational portraits directly on top of the people I am representing. The models are transformed into embodiments of the artist's interpretation of their essence. When captured on film, the living, breathing people underneath the paint disappear, overshadowed by the masks of themselves."

Dan Zak of the Washington Post writes, “Meade uses a brush. She paints skin on skin, lips on lips and eyebrows on eyebrows, and the insides of nostrils, using her own mixture of nontoxic paints and unspecified ingredients. Her subjects must sit still for multiple hours as she follows the natural contours of their faces, varying brushstroke and color to exhume their inner essence. When she's done, they appear banished to two-dimensionality, yet they also seem fuller, more dynamic. She then sets her subjects in an installation, or photographs them. There are no touch-ups or special effects beyond acrylic on flesh and the initial complacency of the observer.”

When I wrote to Alexa to ask her permission to write this entry about her, she referred me to the entry about her in Wikipedia, which she described as, "very accurate". I quote this entry about her:

Recent critical acclaim for Meade's work has been positive, with critics alluding to her innovations to the genre of portraiture and the ability of her work to speak to an international audience. Magdalena Sawon, owner of the Postmasters Gallery in New York, NY, recently said in reference to Meade's work, "A portrait is something that's been with us for 3,000 years--that's not an easy genre to move forward...This is a valid and very interesting contribution to the portrait genre." Christian Furr, a world renowned painter who selected Meade for an exhibit at the Saatchi Gallery in London, spoke of the international possibilities of her art. "She's going to create quite a stir in this country," Furr, a UK national, said. "People are fascinated by playing with viewpoints, and she's taking it one step further than trompe l'oeil. I was blown away by it."

(So was I!)

Susan Tuttle's Cool Art Book Giveaway!

2010-04-29T08:18:00.000-07:00

Are there any digital photographers among my readers? Mixed media artists, perhaps? If so, you might be interested in this contest to win Susan Tuttle's new book, Digital Expressions: Creating Digital Art with Adobe® Photoshop® Elements (North Light Books), between now and Tuesday, May 4th at 9pm EST. She will announce the winner (via random drawing) on Wednesday, May 5th.

You can review the book on Amazon by clicking HERE.

Click HERE to read all about the contest.

Good luck!

Stacy

FRAUD!!!

2010-04-18T08:40:00.000-07:00

The first major exhibition of its kind, "Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes and Discoveries" celebrates the remarkable collaboration of scientists, conservators and art historians at the National Gallery in London. The National Gallery’s Scientific Department was founded in 1934 and has become a world leader in the study of the materials and techniques of Western European paintings. Today, the department works ever more closely with curators and conservators to investigate the physical characteristics of works in the collection and to protect paintings for the future. On exhibition 30 June through 12 September.

Modern scientific methods, including infrared imaging, X-ray images, electron microscopy and mass spectrometry can provide fascinating insights into the materials used by artists, studio practice and the ways paintings can change over time.

Close Examination explores this pioneering work by presenting the varied and fascinating stories behind more than 40 paintings in the National Gallery’s collection. The exhibition is arranged over six rooms, representing some of the major challenges faced by Gallery experts: Deception and Deceit; Transformations and Modifications; Mistakes; Secrets and Conundrums; Redemption and Recovery; and a special focus room relating to Botticelli. The exhibition features works by Raphael, Dürer, Gossaert, Rembrandt and others.

Room 1: Deception and Deceit
Some paintings in the collection raise complex questions of disputed authorship and authenticity. These range from straightforward period copies to modern forgeries created with the intent to deceive. The lengths forgers will go to deceive is shown in Portrait Group.

This has been identified as the work of an unknown forger of the early 20th century, imitating the style of Renaissance profile portraits. The National Gallery purchased the painting in 1923, believing it to be an authentic work from the 15th century. Scientific analysis exposed the deception, revealing that the artist had used pigments not available before the 19th century. It also emerged that the top layer had been coated with shellac, a natural resin, to simulate the appearance of age.

Altered to Resemble a Holbein. "Portrait of Alexander Mornauer", 1464-88 (pre-restoration). © National Gallery, London.Room 2: Transformations and Modifications
The Gallery owns several paintings which, over the course of time, have been modified to satisfy changing tastes or interpretations. A provocative Renaissance depiction of a Woman at a Window, probably 1510–30, was dramatically altered in the 19th century to satisfy more restrained Victorian tastes. The girl’s hair was changed from blonde to brunette, her expression made more innocent and her bodice rendered less revealing.

In the 1700s, a painting by an unknown German artist, Portrait of Alexander Mornauer, about 1464–88, was altered to resemble a work by the more famous (and highly collectable) artist Hans Holbein. Microscopic examination of paint sample cross-sections revealed that a layer of blue paint had been applied over the original brown background. The style of the sitter’s hat was also altered. The changes convinced an 18th-century aristocrat that he was buying an authentic Holbein. The Gallery acquired the painting in 1990 and conservators were able to safely remove these additions to return the painting to its original state.

Room 3: Mistakes
This room focuses on the misattribution of paintings, and examines how scientific analysis and connoisseurship can work together to correct past mistakes. A Man with a Skull was acquired by the Gallery in 1845 as a work by Holbein. Even at the time many experts doubted the attribution. Modern dendrochronological analysis to determine the age of the wood panel support has since shown the painting post-dates Holbein’s death in 1543. The exhibition will reveal a new attribution for this painting.

Room 4: Secrets and Conundrums
Despite many triumphs and advances, some paintings remain stubbornly mysterious. For example, it is difficult to exactly recreate the workings of an artist’s studio: the materials and techniques used, or the role of assistants. Close Examination highlights some of the important discoveries made in this area; for instance during recent conservation work on The Virgin and Child with Two Angels, about 1475, experts were able to take a closer look and solve a long-standing conundrum over authorship.

Originally acquired as a work by Domenico Ghirlandaio, the painting was later demoted, attributed to the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio. However, after removing layers of old retouching work, and examining the underdrawing with infrared reflectography, it became clear that Verrocchio himself painted the Virgin, the angel on the left and the landscape in the background, while his assistant, Lorenzo di Credi, painted the angel on the right and the infant Christ.

Verrocchio was one of the finest sculptors of the Renaissance and tutor to both Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli, but very few paintings by him have been identified with any certainty. This discovery has made it possible to reassess other works by the artist as well as his legacy as a Renaissance painter.

Other conundrums featured in the exhibition remain tantalizingly unsolved. A Dead Soldier, an atmospheric painting of the 17th century, was once attributed to the Spanish master, Diego Velázquez. This theory has now been discounted, but while the painting is thought to have originated in Italy, the precise identity of the artist remains a mystery.

Raphael - "Madonna of the Pinks" c.1506-07, Oil on yew, 28 x 22.4 cm. © National Gallery, LondonRoom 5: Being Botticelli
At various points in the National Gallery’s history, some works were enthusiastically acquired on mistaken attributions to iconic artists. In June 1874 the Gallery purchased two Botticellis – or so it seemed. One of these (Sandro Botticelli, Venus and Mars, about 1485) is now one of the most beloved paintings in the collection.

The other painting (Follower of Sandro Botticelli, An Allegory, probably about 1490–1550) was then thought to be a companion to Venus and Mars. Some even thought it the more desirable of the two. However, this painting was soon discovered to be a pastiche, painted by a follower in the style of the great master. The paintings will be shown side-by-side so that visitors can test their own skills of connoisseurship.

Room 6: Redemption and Recovery
The final room of the exhibition celebrates instances in which the work of great painters has been re-discovered through a combination of scientific analysis, conservation, connoisseurship and art historical research. Until 1991, the whereabouts of Raphael’s original painting of The Madonna of the Pinks, about 1506–7, was an intriguing mystery for art historians. Only copies of the painting were known. However, during a visit to Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, Dr Nicholas Penny spotted an intriguing painting which demanded closer examination.

Infrared reflectograms revealed an exquisite underdrawing beneath the paint surface, bearing all the hallmarks of Raphael’s hand. Subtle differences between this underdrawing and the finished painting, particularly in the costume and background landscape, showed the artist had changed his mind as he worked. No copyist wishing to pass a painting off as the original would have departed from his model in such a way. Chemical analysis confirmed that the pigments used were typical of Raphael’s distinctive palette, including some that ceased to be used after the 16th century.

'Close Examination' is the first major exhibition to explore the full range of scientific discoveries made by a leading art gallery within its collection. The close working relationship between scientists, conservators and curators constantly yields new and exciting findings while helping us to gain a deeper understanding of important works of art.

Clck HERE to see the web site for The National Gallery in London.

10 Most Eccentric Artists to Ever Live

2010-04-14T22:46:00.000-07:00

I had a note from Amy Cook who asked me to point my readers toward her blog where she has written an interesting piece about the 10 most eccentric artists to ever live. Why not give it a read?

Click HERE to go straight to the entry.

Stacy

Winfred Rembert - Works on Leather

2010-04-08T06:20:00.000-07:00

Winfred Rembert (Photo by William Oppenheimer)

A self-taught artist, Winfred Rembert grew up in the 1950's working in the cotton fields of Cuthbert, Georgia. He was arrested after a 1960’s civil rights march and survived a near-lynching before serving seven years in jail. It was in jail, creating wallets next to another inmate, that he first learned to hand-tool leather. Years later, at the suggestion of his wife, Rembert integrated storytelling and the tales of his youth into tableaux on sheets of tanned leather.

Now, at 58, he lives in New Haven, Conn., where he is a guest lecturer at Yale University, a far cry from his early life in the cotton fields and in prison.

Rembert often begins his pictures with drawings, in an effort to work out detailed patterns. He retains each drawing in his archives. When the stories are carved and tooled into the leather, his images take on texture and depth. During the final step, he paints the surfaces in vivid dyes. The final images offer a flamboyant narrative of life in the still-segregated South of the mid-twentieth century.

“I ordered a book called ‘How to Carve Leather,’ but I don’t agree with nothing they do.

“For the paintings, I mount them on Gater Board with non-toxic glue. I put on a varnished surface to protect them from the water. They’re glued down into the frame.”

What's Wrong With Little Winfred

"My mother gave me away at three months to her aunt. She didn’t have no husband. Her mouth was so big she’d run ‘em off, my aunt said. My aunt’s granddaughter lived with us, and I thought for a long time that she was my sister. Mama, that’s what I called her, was not big on education, but what she was big on was work. I went to school very little. At six years old, I was picking cotton for fifty cents or a dollar a day. Mama could pick a lot of cotton. She got $2 for every 100 pounds she’d pick. I worked as a field hand digging potatoes, too."

Rembert’s education had been a source of frustration, and he attended school intermittently between periods of working as a field hand.

“You feel like a dummy,” he said. “They used me to feed the heater. The teacher never called on me. She didn’t want to embarrass me. I thought I couldn’t learn."

Doll's Head Baseball
“I made my own toys. Other kids bought the toys I made. I made riding things -- three-wheel bicycles, wagons and pop guns, bows and arrows. I had to do that to get some kind of joy. I made things by not having anything -- no Christmas, no money. I had my toys. It meant a lot to me to create things. I was good at drawing, too."

Watermelons on a Saturday Afternoon

“Ideas crowd in on me so much I almost died last year. I’m in prison every night or else running for my life. I can’t sleep. I work with people in prison now and some right out of prison. But this is fun,” said Rembert.

These days, Wifred enjoys his life -- making art, raising a family . . . freedom. He has a gentle sweetness and a kind demeanor that contradict the stories he tells of going AWOL from the Army, escaping from jail, being a trouble-maker, surviving a near-lynching and belonging to a chain gang. “I’ve put all that behind me now,” he says when questioned about his seeming lack of anger and the disparity of his present life and his past. In a special event, Adelson Galleries and Peter Tillou Works of Art present the paintings of Winfred Rembert this spring. The exhibition, taking place April 7 through May 28, 2010, will be Rembert’s first major solo exhibition in New York. It will feature lively painted and carved figures of cotton pickers, pool hustlers, midwives, preachers, dancers and prison inmates prancing rhythmically across the gleaming leather.

Winfred Rembert is illustrator and subject of the book, "Don't Hold Me Back: My Life and Art" written by contributing author, Nikki Giovanni (Contributor)

Pamela Pardue Goode - Beneath the Surface

2010-03-25T12:15:00.001-07:00

Pamela Pardue Goode
“My preferred theme is seeing beneath the surface; consequently there are often hidden elements in my work, inviting the curious viewer to look deeper, and hopefully enticing the less curious observer to heighten that instinct.”

The creative destiny of North Carolina artist and writer, Pamela Pardue Goode, was determined by the artistic proclivities of her natal family. She refers to herself as an “artist by genetics”. The familial architects, painters, musicians and writers coaxed Pam toward the arts when she was a child, exposing her to a multitude of artistic media. That art became ingrained as an everyday occurrence and became a language that she speaks fluently. The many-talented Pam designs and creates jewelry and faux finishes. She quilts, sews, knits, and does landscape design. She also makes mosaics.

Her eye for symmetry and design resulted from the many years she spent working in her father’s architectural firm. Serendipitously, when her husband decided to open a printing company in the early 90’s, Pam became the graphic designer. Almost a decade later, she discovered mosaics.
The Happiest House

"The Happiest House Breaks Fear Apart; We Silence Witches With Our Art."

“I made my first mosaic in 1999 and fell in love immediately, not only for the ability to play with color in a new way, but for the spatial relationships that had become so deeply ingrained in me.”
Expecting

Pam’s work is lyrical and energetic, rewarding viewers with an immediate, visceral sense of presence. It is filled with dynamic and interesting design relationships, color and form. She works with a variety of materials that include glass, porcelain, stone, and found objects.

My Mother Lived and Died

“This mosaic traces the concept of life from the central birth motif, through the varied passages of life, to the climb up the final mountain and release of the soul. Pieces of a woman's life (china, pearls) along with an evolutionary theme of tides, procreation (the miniature fetal-shaped snail shells), fragments of sea-tossed shell, the "sands of time," and an edging of ephemeral sea foam. The central haliotis shell, which echoes the spiral sea shapes, shelters five pink pearls, just visible through the tiny arc of holes.”

When I asked her why she makes art, Pam expressed that the need to create, to bring an element to life and to make “something” from “nothing” are the driving forces behind why she does what she does.

“Art has also been a monumental means of communication for me, as I grew up with an almost incapacitating shyness and then began to lose my hearing in college. But of course there's more to it than that, because it would be almost impossible to convey in conversation the experiential breadth that led to "My Mother Lived and Died" or "Wasteland" or even "Happiness Rains." I write a lot, and even so, I can't write the feeling, but I can build it on a piece of wedi :) “
Wasteland

“His piece began in a dream. Because the image was so void-like, I immediately thought of T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland," using lines from that poem as well as from "The Hollow Men" to create the pewter spiral that crashes into the deep. The pewter letter beads read: "We are the Hollow Men; We are the Stuffed Men; Pray for us Sinners now and at the hour of our Death; Pray for us now and at the . . . " The intersecting spirals of poetry and blank, floating faces overlap to form a rough heart shape, which seems to give the mosaic a less jarring feel.”
Howl

As owner of Ciel Gallery in Charlotte, Pam presents juried international exhibitions focusing on mosaic art. Her work has been selected for inclusion in Mosaic Arts International upon three occasions, and has appeared twice in “Mosaic Art Now”, a publication featuring mosaic art across the globe. Click HERE (/) to see more of Pam’s mosaic art on her web site, “Wild Hair Mosaics”.

Tape Artist, Rachel Ward. It's a Sticky Situation....

2010-02-18T22:46:00.001-08:00

Austin artist, Rebecca Ward’s signature medium is tape. Doesn’t mater what kind of tape. It could be duct tape or masking tape or even electrical tape. If it’s tape, she can make art out of it. With her amazingly precise execution, the artist does a great job of morphing a simple material into something exceptional. She uses this medium to explore the unique structures of the sites in which her installations are situated. She explained this by saying that her work constitutes a collaboration between a particular space and herself.

She has long had a certain fascination with tape and began to experiment with it to decorate her apartment while she was in art school. She claims that while it didn’t look so great, she was interested in the lines it formed, the stripes and the bright colors. She describes the medium as “incredibly seductive”, “…so bright, shiny and smooth.”

“I think I realized that tape could be a wonderfully suitable medium for installation pieces when I started to appreciate it for both its aesthetic (color and texture) and practical (adhesive, linear) qualities,” she explained.

Ward's work is site-specific, taking its shape in response to the particular details of its venue. “Many things can influence the way an installation looks. Some surfaces can be really tricky to work with in getting the tape to stick and adhere -- brick is like near impossible -- but the easiest surface is drywall,” she explains, adding: “My art is about an interaction with space and the built environment that I'm asked to interact with.

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The Many Hats of Jerry Bleem

2010-02-13T17:07:00.000-08:00

Jerry Bleem

Jerry Bleem, an artist, teacher, writer, Franciscan friar and Catholic priest, earned his M.F.A. at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and his M.Div. from the Catholic Theological Union at Chicago. He glues insect wings to glass to create beautiful vessels, uses staples to make sculptures and he crochets to make political statements.

As an artist, Bleem examines the cultural construction of meaning by looking at what we discard and by transforming the nonprecious through time-intensive accumulation. His work serves to highlight the relationship between value and identity, and to consider assumed ideals. The resulting work–both 2- and 3-dimensional surfaces–mines topics ranging from apprehension to beauty, ecology to politics.

The Illinois Arts Council has recognized his work with five individual artist fellowships. Bleem has also been awarded an Arts Midwest/NEA Regional Visual Arts Fellowship and numerous residencies including the Roswell Artist-in-Residence grant.

Bleem has taught in the Department of Fiber and Material Studies of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago since 2000. During the 2008-9 academic year, Arizona State University named him a visiting professor in its School of Art. His interests span historic and ethnographic textiles, the dynamics of collecting for artistic production, and material culture from popular and denominational religion.

In his writing, Bleem investigates the intersection of art and religion in a monthly column for U. S. Catholic magazine; his articles have also appeared in SDA Journal, Fiberarts and exhibition catalogs.

As the news media report on the United States' presence in Iraq, they present us with two kinds of stories: those that deal with the formulation and implementation of national policy, and those that report on individuals whose lives have been altered by this conflict. These two sets of stories seem to exist apart from each other; the connections between private tragedies and national strategies remain relatively unexplored.

His Nationalism series examines the link between the U.S.A.'s course of action and the lives of its citizens. He chooses nation's banner, the flag, as his primary material which he cut into thin strips.

“…Then I rely upon crochet to reconfigure the familiar surface into an unfamiliar, abstracted one and to elicit associations with the grandmothers of our lives quintessential providers of comfort and safety.”

“Cutting up the flag aligns my work with those who have used the flag to express their opposition to national policies. Though clearly not treating the Stars and Stripes in a traditional or widely acceptable manner, desecrating the flag is not my goal. I see the time spent slicing and crocheting as a way to make my thinking physical. This work allows me to mull over patriotism, allegiance to my country, the implication of "indivisible" and "with liberty and justice for all."

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Click HERE to visit Jerry’s web site.

True African Art

2010-01-25T12:50:00.000-08:00

Gathinja Yamokoski

Gathinja Yamokoski is an African artist who is working, through her web site, to restore African art appreciation throughout the world. The site serves the purpose of boosting the African art economy by offering a fair marketplace for African artists without exploitation.

In her own art, Gathinja places her focus on the traditional customs and practices of Kenya and says that her paintings are a direct reflection of her spiritual and intellectual growth as a human being.
Hypnotizing Child

I'm in Three Places

African art has a history that is centuries old. Despite strongly influencing Western Art, theirs is still largely a domain that is unknown and given less credit than it deserves However, today, there has been great interest by art enthusiasts who find Africa to be a colossal and thriving home of contemporary African paintings such as this mixed media painting by Michael Wafula:
Prayer- Under God's Eyes

Gathinja started the True African Art web site to give exposure to the largely undiscovered field of Contemporary African Paintings. As a result, its Artists are reaping never before seen publicity, income, and hope.

True African Art

If you are unable to see the above-video, please click HERE.

Gathinja Yamokoski, who was born and raised in Kenya, now lives on the East Coast of the US. Being an artist herself, opening up an original African Art Paintings website was an easy decision for her.

Gathinja says, "I have always loved art and have always shared it."
In the Village

Artists in Kenya often work in networks in order to gain more business. They offer tips to each other of where to find work and who is looking for it. So when word got out that Gathinja was looking to purchase paintings in Kenya, artists swarmed to get in line. One of them was Jared Juguna who created this piece, entitled, "Inside Face"
Inside Face

True African Art.com has for sale over 400 original African Paintings by some 40 African Artists. It includes exclusive video interviews with African Artists and employs a small staff of Africans who work on site on the continent. Though the website painting prices range from $10-$750, most are under $100.

To visit their website go to http://www.TrueAfricanArt.com.

Study With a Mosaic Art Master in Italy!

2010-01-16T10:04:00.001-08:00

Imagine yourselves on a hill in Italy standing on the grounds of a beautiful castle from where you can see views over Udine and the exquisite surrounding countryside. As the majestic Alps in the background thrust upward, a master mosaic artist leans over a table in the village below, preparing artists from all over the world to take their skills to a heightened level of expertise. This scenario need not be a figment of your imagination. Mosaic artist, Pam Givens, is a facilitator who brings mosaic artists together to experience this chance of a lifetime opportunity to study with one of the greatest living mosaic artists in the world, Maestro Giulio Menossi

(Please click HERE if you cannot see the video above.)
Maestro Menossi’s specialized techniques are unparalleled in their ability to impart students with the knowledge and skill to reproduce paintings in mosaic with amazing clarity and accuracy. The experience of taking his classes will forever alter one’s approach to the mosaic arts.

The Maestro states:

“I believe that the slow painstaking mosaic process exposes our personal stories. The difficulties of the journey follow the lines of the glass, where each tessera represents a new encounter, where hues and shades harmonize into new colors, where the shapes to close to our noses don’t allow us to recognize the vision as a whole, which we only discover by taking several steps backward and looking with fresh eyes."

"Creating a mosaic is a process of pairing, shaping, adding and removing tessera after tessera until the work is complete. Each piece needs to be chosen not only according to the one that precedes it, but also taking into consideration the ones that will follow. It is a process of deliberate construction and the most important element is passion.”

I encourage you to register for one or both of the two classes that are being offered in May:

Venetian Mosaic Technique Portraiture Course - Double Indirect Method
May 16 - May 28, 2010

Students will be instructed and helped in developing expressive eyes, mouth and stylized hair. They will learn specific andamento for the face, shading, color, cutting and placement that bring life and realism to the human face. Menossi is known as one of the premier portrait mosaicists in the world, and this is your chance for direct guidance in this challenging method.

Copy of a Klimt - Direct Method
May 30 - June 11, 2010

This course offers the student the unique opportunity to work directly learning the techniques of cutting, placement, texture, color theory and artistic interpretation of a painting. Maestro Menossi provides the cartoon, and all material, plus his own inimitable and inspiring style of teaching and method to provide a stellar experience in mosaic discovery.

Here is a video by Pam Givens that gives more detail:

(Please click HERE if you cannot see the video above.)

All the information you’ll need to take this wonderful journey can be found on THIS web site.

You can do this!

Sonia King - "Mosaic is hard. Art is harder."

2010-01-06T16:28:00.001-08:00

"Mosaic is hard. Art is harder." - Sonia King

Everyone who is anyone in the mosaic art world is familiar with the name, "Sonia King". This artist is, without a doubt, a primary driving force behind today’s contemporary mosaic art… a whirlwind as it were. Sonia teaches, writes books, gives lectures about mosaics worldwide and creates some of the most ambitious and compelling mosaics one will ever see.

Nebula Aqua
In her quests for visual expression through mosaic art, Sonia explores the beauty and physical relationships of the natural world. She travels the globe gathering the finest tesserae to use in her works…shells, smalti, gold, marble, ceramic and elements from nature that, when assembled, are highly inventive, original designs. However, her work also holds hints of familiarity in terms of visually expressing the feeling of place, of dimension and of interconnected relationships with the earth. Her work is visual poetry, art that effects its viewers both on a visceral level and a contextual one. Permafrost
As she flies around the world, Sonia is inspired by the appearance of the topographical features of the earth’s surface as her plane passes overhead. However, she does not necessarily model her works directly from these things.
Outlier

Sonia’s art remind us of the capacity of an individual to alter the universe by modulating and unifying the outcome with countless individual pieces. These mosaics make manifest the physical presence of light and heighten the viewer’s visual perception when viewed at different angles. As they change with the light, Sonia’s mosaics give the appearance of art that participates with its environment, art that allows reflection and a connection with the natural world.
Whiteout

“Putting together the tangible and intangible, bits of color and texture, tesserae of meaning, I assemble each work one piece at a time, building a world to get lost or even found in. The work is difficult: a struggle to get every piece right while managing its relationship to the next piece and the one before, all the time considering the work as a whole. Creating with a broad range of materials raises the complexity beyond just cutting a piece to fit. Unlimited choices in scale and texture and reflectivity and spacing and more, keep my mind working on many different levels at the same time. It is engrossing and consuming and challenging and hard and I wouldn't do anything else.”
~Sonia King
Spinoff Spinoff detail

She has received many awards for her art including the Spectrum Award which signifies international recognition for 'creativity and achievement' from the tile industry. She has been featured in dozens of publications and on television. She holds a BFA in Environmental Design from the California College of Arts and a MBA from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She was one of the founders of the American Society of Mosaic Artists and also served as its President. She currently serves as a Vice President of the Associazione Internazionale Mosaicisti Contemporanei, (AIMC) in Italy. She has studios in Dallas and San Francisco and teaches internationally.
Meltdown Meltdown detail

Please visit Sonia’s web site, HERE to enjoy more information and photographs of her work. Interested parties can sign up for her occasional newsletter under the “news” heading on the site.
Adrift

Linda Vaden-Martin – Mixing Healing with Mosaic Art

2010-01-03T10:13:00.000-08:00

Before I write about Linda, I'd like all of you to know about a great creative blog that is celebrating its second anniversary by having a giveaway!
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Click HERE for KV Creative Designs blog!

Now...back to our regularly scheduled program.....
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Linda Vaden-Martin

"I believe we are creative beings by nature and to create is therapeutic for our soul."
Linda Vaden-Martin

I’ve known Linda Vaden-Martin through flickr for quite a while now. Additionally, she was one of my son’s (Myles Blackwood) art students a couple of years back, but I didn’t have the opportunity to meet her personally until this past September when I was staying in Aptos, on the Santa Cruz Bay. Mosaic artist and friend, Delaine Hackney drove down from San Francisco to spend the night and Linda joined us for dinner. The three of us had a great time together, laughing and talking.
Linda, Stacy, Delaine
Subsequently, Linda and I walked on the Aptos beach and had a few phone conversations, and as I got to know her better I really started to pay attention to her art in a big way.

It isn’t every day that one finds an artist who is so focused on using her art to the degree Linda does to affect good in the world. Glancing through her portfolio, I discovered her work in, “The Cradle Project”, an installation that was created to promote awareness and raise financial support to help feed, shelter, and educate disadvantaged African children. She isn't doing this to accomplish accolades for herself unlike so many "self-horn-tooters" in the art world, but is doing it out of a genuine concern for these children and for all people.

Linda has a BS in Occupational Therapy and embraces a holistic view of how we, as human beings, are effected by our thoughts, our environments and our overall perspectives. Since I am personally studying psychology with a view toward doing some type of art therapy eventually, Linda’s melding of mosaic art and the healing arts is of great interest to me. She adheres to the simple theory that purposeful activity enriches lives. (A core belief in occupational therapy is that we will flourish by engaging in creative, productive, and playful pursuits.)

The artist states, “I am in an extraordinary position to combine my talents and skills with what I call Therapeutic Mosaics. One of my goals is to facilitate group and community projects that will enrich the lives of those experiencing life challenges, bring community together, and garnish our environment with the beauty of mosaics. My vision is to work with groups of people and their loved ones who have been challenged by devastating illness. I vision a community filled with murals not only to beautify, but to act as an anchor reminding us of what's truly important, each other.”

“I feel mosaics can be likened to life. What may appear to be broken and discarded can be rearranged and transformed into something spectacularly beautiful. In mosaics, as in life, we have many choices to choose from and can easily be overwhelmed. However it isn't until one actually begins to pick the pieces up do we find how easily they fit together. And if they don't, well, that's what we have tools for!”

Much of the strength in Linda’s work lies in her ability to discern and create beautiful and interesting patterns. The surfaces of her mosaics are complex, resembling hand-worked quilts or fine embroidery.
Expansion

Her subject matter is interesting and often imitates Linda’s strong and playful inner spirit.
Tiny Dancer

Dance Fever

These are examples of more of the work she made in 2009. Note her strong sense of color, texture and design:
Kiss of Love

Back Side of the Sun

Linda lives with her son, Brandon, in Aptos, California where she sometimes teaches mosaic workshops. For more information, please visit her web site, HERE.

Goodbye, 2009!

2010-01-02T08:21:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year, Everyone!

May the new year bring peace, happiness and prosperity to you all! As a departure from the usual, I thought I would help commemorate 2009 with National Geographic's top photographs of the year. Enjoy!

Irit Levy

2009-12-30T22:41:00.001-08:00

Irit Levy

Irit Levy was a painter before she became a mosaic artist.

She is almost unable to recall a time in her life when she didn’t paint. One of her memories takes place at around age five, when her teacher called her mother to show her Irit’s paintings that uniquely stood out from those of the other children.

“I kept painting women with yellowish high hairstyle (like Marge Simpson..) and perspective houses with flat roofs. I can remember how amused I was hearing them discussing my pictures and I just couldn't be bother to tell them that I was painting my mother (who had a blond Audrey Hepburn coiffure) and our house which had a flat roof...”

Beginning

Irit spent most of her painting career creating what she refers to as, “big ‘dirty’ abstracts”. Through the years she did a lot of experimental art with other media as well….printmaking, casting, pottery, illustrations, but she didn’t try mosaic art until just a couple of years ago.

Cafe Au Lait

She colorfully describes her exposure to mosaics as an experience in which she was “vacuumed into the medium”. She noted that this experience was unlike anything that had transpired before. She quickly became an enthusiast, all but giving up the other forms of art making.
My City

Irit says she is driven by the mosaic process itself. She creates precise mosaic art that is skillfully crafted with obvious passion. The process seems intuitive, as that of a painter, with emphasis on strong shadows and representations of reflective light. It is, without a doubt, a tribute to color, texture and form.
Tea Break

This artist doesn’t necessarily like to tell people what informs her art. It is her contention that once the art is completed and out in the world, her thoughts and drive are irrelevant. She trusts that the art has a life of its own and that it forms a personal experience of expression between itself and the viewer.
Cleavage

Irit is a woman of the world whose remarkable mosaics show a diversity of mind and spirit. They defy the limitations of the hard tesserae to take on the appearance of a softer medium, paint in the third dimension, perhaps. One can almost see the “brush strokes” or, in the case of her cartoon-like pieces, pen and ink, created by her unique applications of vitreous glass, marble, ceramic tiles, stained glass, pebbles, beads and even sand. She is inspired by many things…by photographs, paintings and objects that she sees in the world, et al, and she always manages to give these things her signature twist, converting them into lively, energetic works of art.
Big Steps

Her portrait work is very strong. Irit manages to capture her subjects in comfortable, lifelike poses, even in abstraction.
Beautiful Woman

I find her cartoon images particularly endearing. Could it be because I relate a little too closely, perhaps? (Yikes! Is this me??)
Big Happiness

Irit Levy states, “In August 2006 I escaped from the unbearable heat into one of the very many beautiful shops in the SoHo, NY. This escape changed the path of my art. It was the amazing Sicis showroom. A few months later I put aside my brushes and paints, turned off my kiln, stored my clay and dived into the wonderful world of mosaics.

“ ….and the rest is history..er…herstory.

Please visit the Irit Levy web site by clicking HERE.

James Vogler -Wax and Oil on Canvas

2009-12-25T10:47:00.001-08:00

Having lived just a few miles from the Vermont border at one time, I found myself often driving around the area enjoying the works of local artists. There is a certain feel to a lot of art from this region…a connectedness to the earth, perhaps, or a feeling of serenity and calm.

I recently had occasion to discover the complex, translucent paintings of Vermont artist, James Volger, whose works with oil and wax on canvas stand out from other Vermont artists. They evoke a sense of Richard Diebenkorn ‘s abstract expressionist vision of art. The paintings appear to be generated from two perspectives. On the one hand, they appear to be informed by abstraction, color and tactile imagery, but they also suggest tangible objects and landscapes. In viewing the work, it appears the artist moves back and forth between these ways of viewing his subjects, taking advantage of particular characteristics inherent in the unique properties of the oil and wax.

The artist states, “Overlapping fields of color and suggestions of line and light are used in my painting to create an atmosphere of space between geometric forms. Loosely inspired by elements found within landscape and still-life painting, the figures and forms are replaced by color planes. Color interacts with itself, creating light and depth. Through the intentional process of painting but heavily aided by coincidence, the chromatic forms and planes battle for dominance on the surface, leaving others to be swallowed by another. Through this dynamic but sensitive interplay between transparent and opaque shapes and through the suggestion of emerging and receding forms, the foreground and background become interchangeable. Time becomes marked and space becomes limitless.”

There are a large number of techniques that can be used to create oil and wax on canvas paintings. For example, cold wax medium mixed with oil paint on a palette and applied in layers is one way of describing how these types of paintings are made. At any point during the process of building up the painting, the artist might mix in powdered pigment or carbon, draw with paint sticks or tube paint, use solvent to create lines or expose hidden layers, scratch or gouge through with knives or other tools, use a brayer to smooth and distribute paint.

Diego Rivera’s paint was made up of beeswax, lemon resin (resine elemi) or copal, essence of lavender or turpentine and dry pigment and he applied this medium to stone walls to make his murals. The wax and lemon resin or copal were each mixed separately with the essence of lavender by boiling in a water bath or double boiler. When this process takes place, the wax becomes a thick molasses-like substance and is then ground with the dry pigment with a smooth marble hand grinder. Lavender essence is used to thin the mixture. In Rivera’s day, prepared colors were kept as a paste in air tight containers covered with water. The cement or stone wall was then prepared with the lemon resin mixture. If this was too thick and pasty to apply a blow torch was used to soften the material and make it more malleable. Blowtorches were also used to apply the paint to make it more fluid and to fuse the wax into the resin layer below.

Vogler writes: "While working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY from 1978 till 1990, I continued to develop my style of color field abstraction. After moving to Vermont in 1991, I changed careers and ceased painting while establishing my own business. Three years ago I resumed painting, and currently paint full time most of the year. My work is formed of complex arrangements of overlapping shapes produced in oil for it’s inherent luminosity and mixed with a wax medium to create a matte surface to allow the viewer to see the subtle color relationships. My work is currently in an evolutionary stage with a prolific body of work being produced on both canvas and paper."

James Vogler majored in Art History and Painting at Rutgers University. and Kean University. Originally from New Jersey, he now resides in Charlotte, Vermont. Readers can see more of his work on his blog by clicking HERE.

Recent Exhibits

ECCO Clothes Sept.- Oct. 2009

Maltex Building Burlington City Arts April 2009-Sept. 2009

Chittendon Bank Davis Center UVM March 2009 – May 2009

Sketchbook Project Art House Coop Atlanta Ga. Traveling exhibit Feb. 2009

Museum of Contemporary Art DC.

Chris’ Jazz Café Phila. Pa.

Laconia Gallery Boston Ma.

Antena Gallery Chicago Il.

Soulard Art Market St.Louis Mo.

3rd Ward Gallery Brooklyn NY

Museum of Design Atlanta Ga.

Chicago Art Source Chicago Il. June 2009

Burlington Art Hop 2008 Maltex Building Sept.2009

Mr. Volger's works are currently in numerous private collections in US and France.

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-25T09:45:00.000-08:00

Ingrid
Seasons greetings to all my readers!

As of today, Feedburner reports that I have 3214 subscribers! It has been an honor to be able to use this blog to bring a little more art into your lives. Thanks to all of you for reading. I hope you will continue to read and tell your friends about this blog.

Wishing each of you an exquisite new year, filled with love and happiness, prosperity and art!

Much love,
Stacy Alexander

Picasso - Tripping the Light Fantastic

2009-12-20T20:21:00.000-08:00

Back in 1949, LIFE magazine photographer Gjon Mili went to see Picasso in Vallauris, France. He showed the artist some photographs of ice skaters with tiny lights affixed to their skates jumping in the dark. Picasso was immediately inspired. These photos of his "light graffiti" were the result:

The Art of Crystal Thomas

2009-12-18T00:00:00.001-08:00

“ Every day I become more addicted and find myself even more overwhelmed by ideas that I’ll likely never have time to bring to life. But that doesn’t stop me from trying.”

Crystal Thomas

Crystal tells me that there is little that strikes such fear in her heart as much as being asked to describe herself as an artist. I don’t think there is an artist reading this blog right now who hasn’t related to this feeling at one time or another, so yeah, Crystal. Join the club. ;-)

Ginko Fan

Her work is marvelous. One might never guess that Crystal was never particularly interested in being an artist until 1998. That was when she tried her hand at mosaics for the first time. She went on to develop her skills in the medium and, in her own words, “…as I continued to explore mosaic, I gradually began to see the world as an endless buffet of color, contrast, texture, and movement. I’m passionate about mosaic art because of the infinite possibilities of style, material, technique, and subject. I don’t feel bad that I can’t sculpt or paint; there’s an entire world of art in mosaics alone.”

Journey

Like so many of us who are hooked on mosaics, Crystal readily admits her addiction to cutting and sticking pieces of things together to create new things. She is attracted, in particular, to the elements that are shiny.

Sweet Deception

Several years ago, Crystal found herself creating a lot of mosaic frames and mirrors. She had just completed the twenty sixth piece and had listed it on Etsy, (an online forum for selling hand made items), when a couple from Texas who were opening a retail art establishment bought all of them. Wow! What a sale!

Black and White Skull

Crystal writes, “A few months later, they called with this proposition: “People in Texas really like skulls. Would you be interested in creating a mosaic skull for our store?” “Sure, why not?” I said (trying to hide my skepticism and slight revulsion of the idea, and deciding not to mention my vegetarianism). “Great,” they said. “We’ll send you a couple.” A few weeks later, a box showed up on my doorstep…with FIVE cow skulls inside. Once I got over the initial heebie jeebies caused by handling dead heads, the rest is history. “

Poppies Skull

In 2002, Crystal went on a mosaic tour led by Gina Hubler. Among her tour destinations was the Mosaic Art School in Ravenna where she took a three-day workshop taught by Luciana Notturni.

Transition

Crystal says that her personal goals are to simply to continue to learn, experiment and create art that she isn’t embarrassed by and that she would hang in her own home. (I’m thinkin’ MUSEUM here….) She has recently started teaching beginning level mosaic classes in an attempt to create even more hopeless addicts to keep her company.

So far, it appears to be working.

Please CLICK HERE to visit the Crystal Thomas Mosaic Art web site.

Gallery & Retail Representation

• 2009– : Maryland Mosaics, Glyndon, MD

• 2007-2009: Patina, Marble Falls, TX

• 2008, 2009: Ciel Gallery, Charlotte, NC

• 2009: Bassetti’s Crooked Arbor Garden, Woodinville, WA

• 2009: An Ancient Language — A Modern Translation: An Exhibit of Fine Mosaic Art, Granville Center for the Arts, Garland, TX

Publications & Press

• Mosaic Renaissance: Millefiori in Mosaics, Laurel Skye, 2009 (p. 118)

• Mosaic: Finding Your Own Voice, Brit Hammer-Dijcks, 2008 (p. 82)

• Lake Country Life: "Chocolate" skull published, 2008

• Blog features: Mosaic Is Art, Kim Grant Mosaics, Patina, Make Mine Mosaic, Skull-A-Day

Professional Workshops & Education

• 2002: Classical mosaic intensive workshop, Mosaic Art School, Ravenna, Italy:

• 2002: Mosaic Tour of Italy

• 2009: Society of American Mosaic Artists annual conference, San Diego, CA

• 2009: A Lighter Base for 3D Mosaics, Sherri Warner Hunter, San Diego, CA

• 2009: Abstract Mosaics, Sophie Drouin, Portland, OR

Recognition

• "Modville" wins Flickr cityscape mosaic challenge

Seattle Mosaic Artist, Kelley Knickerbocker

2009-12-10T23:36:00.001-08:00

She describes herself as a “glass texture junkie” who is attracted to the properties of glass and the ways in which it reflects and changes with the light. I describe her as an innovative, talented mosaic artist and educator whose alluring contemporary glass mosaics evoke thoughts of nature, of earthly elements…of fire, ice, oil, water.... There is a certain primal intimacy in the way she fixes these images in glass. She creates a look that engages unique concepts with critical thinking to create a style unlike any other.

33 Degrees

Seattle mosaic artist extraordinare, Kelley Knickerbocker, is founder of Rivenworks Mosaics, a mosaic studio that specializes in custom fine art mosaics and architectural applications.

Her art has been exhibited in local, national and international juried exhibitions.

(Next month, I’ll be taking a class taught by Kelley through Seattle Stained Glass. I can hardly wait!)
Blue View

The artist states:

“Texture and dimension: the stuff of art, the stuff of life. The
textures and dimensions of our physical world - and indeed of our
humanity – result in often startling and profound complexities,
tensions, and contrasts. The possibility of exploring this artistically
in a physical construction sort of way is what draws me to mosaic as an
art form, and in particular to the dangerous topography of raw-edged
glass.”
Firewater
Firewater detail

“It’s not particularly friendly work - I go through a lot of
band-aids, and caution viewers to touch at their own risk – but it
yields satisfyingly dense results unachievable by any other means.”
Glimpse
Glimpse detail

Kelley has had artistic interests throughout her life, but the versatility and limitless possibilities of mosaic art facilitated her transition to work as a full-time mosaic artist. Through her studies of glass mosaics, she developed several techniques that she now teaches to other artists, namely: (1) Texture Field, one of Kelley’s techniques in which she creates layered textures using clear glass; (2) Flat Stacking, which is a technique she developed in which translucent glass is stacked over itself on a mirrored or clear glass surface, and (3) Edge Stacking, a technique I’ve tried a few times in my own work in which glass strips of heights are set on edge creating a dense, saturated effect.

Kelley: “I work primarily in glass because of its incredible ranges of color,
opacity, reflectivity, and of course texture. Every surface of glass,
including the occasionally striated riven edge, offers up new
possibilities for visual density, especially when layered over and
against itself in varying heights. Using mirror as a substrate allows me
to experiment with how light passes through and bounces back through
multiple layers of glass, and also allows me to insert unexpected hits
of “glow” into fields of opaque material. Combining glass with opaque
materials such as unglazed porcelain in my mosaic construction was
inevitable and irresistible: the fall-into-me depth of one enhances the
unyielding opacity of the other, and vice versa."
Oil Meets World
Scattergarden

Kelley is currently an active member of the Society of American Mosaic Artists.

Oh...and she also has excellent taste in footwear. :-)

The Stereograms of T.Enami, Japanese Photographer

2009-11-21T09:58:00.000-08:00

Photographs of Japan from the Meiji and Taisho Periods (1868-1926) have captivated viewers around the world since they were first circulated. Until very recently, though, his name was virtually unknown. Now we know that the prolific photographer’s name was T. Enami – or rather, that was his trade name. He was born Enami Nobukuni, and his work made a deep and far-reaching impact on photography.

traveler in woods stereoview

Some of T. Enami’s most popular and memorable works were his stereograms: two nearly-identical 2D images taken from slightly different angles that, when viewed together through a stereograph, appear three-dimensional. If Blogger accepted these types of images (which, unfortunately, it does not...) you would see these pictures flickering back and forth to show the full effect. Even so, they are compelling without that feature.

Enami started his career as a traditional photographer, but later embraced the more “modern” stereoviews and lantern slides. Judging from his carefully staged stereograms, he approached his work with a great deal of attention to detail. The colors on these stereograms were all hand-painted, and the resulting product was sold around the world. Today, collectors treasure these exquisitely detailed antique images.

T. Enami ran a photography studio in Yokohama until his death in 1926. His work spanned a multitude of areas, including postcards, large-format prints, private portraits, glass transparencies, photo processing and print-making, and numerous commercial photography projects. His photographs have appeared several times in the pages of National Geographic, a true honor for any photographer. One of his half-stereoview images was even used on the cover of their 100th-anniversary book Odyssey: The Art of Photography at National Geographic.

Despite his monumental contributions to early Japanese photography, T. Enami’s identity was not widely known outside of Japan until around 2006, when his descendants shared information about him with biographers and collectors. He was the only photographer of his era known to work in all contemporary commercial and artistic formats, and it can be said that his work has been seen by more people than that of the more established “masters” of his time.

The appropriate credit is now being given to thousands of Enami photographs that were previously unattributed or simply attributed to the wrong photographer. Enami is now, finally, in his rightful place among the most influential early Japanese photographers. A detailed biography of T. Enami can be found at T-Enami.org, and even more of his animated stereograms can be found at Pink Tentacle.

Penny Siopsis - South African/Greek Artist

2009-11-09T18:11:00.000-08:00

Artist's statement:

" In my recent work I use 'found' objects including found film. I am particularly interested in the things people leave behind by force of circumstance; things which embody very specific memories and experiences, yet have wider social and cultural resonance. These objects are complex subjective traces of emotional investment not always easily expressed. Being 'found' and often made and treasured for intimate and private reasons, these objects are emblematic of a merging of private and public worlds. "

The images are powerfully loaded: while the deep shades of red draw one in, the content repulses and disturbs. The simple titles of the prints belie the tragedy of the images. The content of the “Shame” series deals with rape, the abuse of power, psychological trauma, damage, torture and agony. The viewer is confronted with images of gross violation and devastating injustice, which evoke strong emotive responses of desperation and outrage.

The girl-child who is ‘shamed’, ‘humiliated’, ‘disgraced’ and ‘embarrassed’ illustrates what the artist refers to as the “poetics of vulnerability”. In the print Sorry the child is naked but for a thin blood-stained cloth draped over her back and is bending down in an incredibly vulnerable and compromising position.

In Three Trees, a naked woman sits against a tree, her legs splayed and tied with rope to two other trees. Two figures kneel over her, pushing her legs farther apart. The image is rendered in sensual pours of deep reds, pinks, grays and purples that form a lacquered, visceral sheen. The sharp tug between seductive surface and troubling content is the core of the Johannesburg-based artist’s work, which for years has employed erotic and violent allegorical images of women culled from such sources as Japanese woodblock prints, news stories and ancient myths.

For her latest body of work, made in 2008-09, the artist used only glue and ink on canvas, producing liquid, luminous swaths of color. Siopis’s wet reds and pinks vividly conjure meaty images of blood and flesh.

In Anonymous, which depicts an androgynous seated figure holding a flower, glossy saturated crimsons evoke the dense red of a blood clot, and the figure looks skinless. A tiny baby is barely visible in Miracle, falling through an almost entirely abstract composition of swirled and splashed color that resembles celestial gases; in this painting, Siopis uses gold, cream, mahogany and a splatter of dark brown the color of dried blood.

A well-established artist and noted academic, Penny Siopis is particularly interested in the ways that national history and personal memory intersect in visual narratives of the South African social climate. She is a South African of Greek descent., who was born in 1953 in the semi-desert town of vryburg in the northern Cape. She now resides in Johannesburg where she works as an artist and lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand. She studied fine arts at Rhodes University, Grahamstown. She was awarded a British Council scholarship and continued her studies in the United Kingdom. Her work has been shown in many international biennales including the Venice Biennale (1993), the Johannesburg Biennales (1995, 1997), the Kwangju Biennale (1995) and the Havana Biennales (1994, 1997). She has also participated in a many international exhibitions

The Injustice Surrounding artist John T. Unger

2009-11-03T23:00:00.001-08:00

This is an outrageous story about an artist I already featured here on my blog awhile back. I encourage everyone who reads this story to please forward it to your friends.

Thanks,
Stacy

Artist John T Unger, Creator of Artisanal Firebowls, Sued in Federal Court by Imitator, Seeks Help Raising Legal Defense Funds

Artist John T. Unger is getting an unwanted education in copyright law. He appeals to the online community to help him raise funds to win a federal court case that could have far-reaching intellectual property implications for artists and entrepreneurs.

10.26.2009 – When it comes to copyrighted work, how similar is too similar in design, content, or name when someone else creates a product like an existing one?

Intellectual property issues have the potential to affect artists, bloggers, journalists, freelancers, designers and others who make their living through creative, original work, especially if they primarily do so online. Not only money, but also reputation, and customer satisfaction are at stake.

Unger is fighting a Federal lawsuit by FirePitArt.com, whose owner, Rick Wittrig, is seeking to have the copyrights for Unger's original artwork over-turned so Wittrig can continue to manufacture and sell lower-priced products of extremely similar name and design.

When John write to me today, he said this:

"I'm also working on setting up a not for profit foundation to help other artists raise legal fees in defense of their art in the future. It's at www.defendart.org although I haven't had time to flesh it out yet. By the end of the week there should be more there."

Click HERE to see John's web site.

Kath Jones - Cinnamon Hill Designs

2009-10-30T22:24:00.001-07:00

Kath Jones

My transition back into Portland life was made memorably more pleasant by my being contacted by one artist after another within my first week or so. They welcomed me here, invitied me to this get-together and that. I was touched and flattered by their kindness and generosity of spirit. ( BTW, John and I will still have a presence in the Bay Area as well, but it feels great to call Portland home for now.)

One of the artists who contacted me was Kathleen “Kath” Jones, mosaic artist extraordinaire, who lives in nearby Milwaukee, OR. When I looked up her work online, I was taken by the intense textures and color combinations and thought my readers might like to know more. Therefore, I am happy to present this entry about Kath Jones:

Yearning

Kath is drawn to the beauty of the glaze drip patterns that slide down the sides of the vessels that she smashes to create beautiful pique assiette mosaics.

The artist states:

“I have a special affinity for 'mistakes' on an individual pot. I'm attracted to the colors and textures on these discarded pieces ~ the way the glazes drip down the sides and blend with other glazes can be one of the most beautiful things in the world to me; they are like gemstones! I love to bring new life to these objects that are thrown or given away."

Celtic K

Kath considers neither ceramic tile nor smalti as “her thing”. In addition to broken pottery, she goes for a luxurious array of other tesserae such fluorite, glass, mirror, shells, pebbles, aragonite cluster turquoise…and on and on. Her style is truly unique and easily recognized as her own, as no one else makes mosaic art quite the way Kath does.Quintessence

As I was viewing her work, I noticed a common theme in many of her pieces, namely ray shapes that appear to be emitting from a central concentric focal point. When I asked her what the attraction was to this theme she told me that she has a thing for “for Orbs and continuum.”
Shift

Kath’s work is condensed and controlled, yet organic and energetic at once, creating an interesting tension between opposites with spontaneous burst of color throughout.
Endless...

She also makes figurative works that are strong representations of the real world.

Male Nude

Although art has been a part of her life since she was a child, Kath did not elect to become formally trained as an artist. Instead, she draws on her own imagination to guide her through the processes. Influenced, in part, by the Impressionists, Kath finds a myriad of ways to express herself through her art.
Soaring Off The Precipise

Kath Jones is available for commissioned work. If you would like to learn more about the artist and see other of her works, please visit her web site, “Cinnamon Hill Design.”
Exodus

Claudine Hellmuth – Hip Art for Playful Hearts

2009-10-22T21:19:00.001-07:00

Claudine Hellmuth

Ah. Where to start?

There is so much to say about artist, Claudine Hellmuth!

I originally learned about Claudine’s art when I purchased an instructional video covering some of her collage techniques.

From that moment on, I was hooked! Since then, she has become a Facebook pal and someone whose blog I follow religiously.

Claudine and her art were featured on The Martha Stewart Show (<--click to watch cool video!) and on many other arts and crafts programs as well as in books and magazines.

Claudine and Martha

She has her own line of high quality paints manufactured by Ranger Industries. I highly recommend them. They are thick and creamy and luxurious...and they don't fade at all.

Claudine is a painter, an illustrator who has become one of America’s artistic sweethearts with her line of whimsical, retro mixed media creations that she calls, Poppets® which remind me a lot of Jenny Holzer's work....with a twist

Claudine writes, “ …My English grandmother used to use the word "poppet" as a term of endearment saying to me "don't worry little poppet everything is going to be OK." And since these artworks make me feel happy, safe and young -- the name fit perfectly.”

Claudine holds a BFA from the Corcoran College of Art & Design in Washington DC (right across the street from The Whitehouse). Her concentration was in painting, but in her senior year she began doing more mixed media work which inspired her to evolve her style into the type the collage work she does today.

Claudine’s work gained popularity when she decided to use her viewing audience as inspiration for her one-of-a-kind, custom-made collages.. People send her photographs and tell her stories about their lives. She then transforms these things using ink, fabric, paint and other media into her patterned and colorful mixed media work.

In addition to creating her artwork full time, Claudine teaches mixed media workshops in the US & Canada. She has written several books about her techniques. The one I like best is titled, Collage Discovery Workshop. Claudine enjoys the challenge of working with a variety of materials, cutting, pasting and painting her artworks by hand.

I hope all of my readers will stop by Claudine’s web site and check out her many artistic talents. There is something there for everyone and in every price range! This is the perfect place to shop for the upcoming holidays, in fact... She makes really cute customized paper dolls and all kinds of cool art. Really. Check it out.

Lin Schorr : The Collaborative Murals

2009-10-15T23:03:00.000-07:00

Lin Schorr

I am honored to have recently been a participating artist in a collaborative mosaic mural that will soon be installed at the Providence Park Medical Campus in Novi, Michigan. The project was conceived by an online friend and fellow artist, the beautiful, Lin Schorr, who is in the process of coordinating the fourth in a series of four said murals.

The concept came about when one of Lin’s mosaics was chosen as first place winner in a mosaic challenge group.
...of Atlantis

The group’s rules state that the winner of the challenge be allowed to choose the theme for the next challenge. Lin chose the swirl….and from this, Swirlendipity I. & II. were born.
Swirlendipity I.

Lin stated:

After some fast and furious brainstorming on the part of a few of the artists in the group, the little swirls had morphed themselves into a full blown mosaic quilt project. Being the instigator of the swirls I jumped at the chance to be the one to pull it all together... I do love a big project!

We ended the challenge on October 31st with 61 swirl entries! Though because not all were made on mesh I was sent the 56 that were. This created another challenge: To design the mural with the mosaics touching each other or break the project into 2 panels of 28. The swirls were almost perfectly divided into cool & warm colors so I decided to break it up.

Swirlendipity I will be located on the Orthopedics & Surgery level of the hospital and Swirlendipity II on the Women’s Services/Labor & Delivery & Neonatal level.

The mural I participated in was a mosaic jigsaw puzzle called, “Amuzapalooza”. The theme was "color" and each artist interpreted her puzzle piece in rich, saturated colors that, when united, created this incredible, cohesive design.

Amuzapalooza
I am at a loss for words to describe the overwhelmingly great feeling of having participated in a work of art so beautiful and with so many fantastic artists! I will always be grateful to Lin for allowing me to be a part of it. I think she has come up with something that has great potential for many fantastic future projects.

I can’t wait to get started on the next one.

Amuzapalooza will be installed on the Neurological Sciences & Oncology level of the hospital, and the 4th and final mural, still in its design phase, will be located on the Cardiology & Surgery level with the appropriate theme....hearts!

Artists who participated in the Swirlendipity I. project are:

Maria Alvarez – Lundie

Kim Barrow

Christine Brallier

Cynthia Buhrig

Candace Clough

Julie Crisp

Susan Crocenzi

Francesca De Lorme

Kim Grant

Shawn Hayes

Wendy Husen

Caroline Kovacs

Barbara Lewis

Eulavon Mallouf

Ulrike Martinez

Pat Mitchell

Elsbeth Morselt

Lynne Mosiman

Rita Schelin

Debra Sutton

Crystal Thomas

Susan Walden

Cindy White

Swirlendipity II. artists:

Maria Alvarez – Lundie

Brigitte Bezemer

Michelle Curow

Alison DeBuc

Lynn Dubnicka

Shawn Hayes

Patricia Helzer

Linda Hooper

Wendy Husen

Caroline Kovacs

Barbara Lewis

Pat Mitchell

Elsbeth Morselt

Maria Peak

Jessica Sanders

Carol Shelkin

Agnes Spitzer-Greig

Kathleen M. Stewart

Linda Vaden Martin

Sherry Vesey

Susan Walden

Cindy White

Amuzapalooza artists:

Judy Adams

Stacy Alexander

Janet Althoff

Maria Alvarez – Lundie

Barb Arne

Christine Brallier

Dennis Brown

Cynthia Buhrig

Candace Clough

Susan Crocenzi

Michelle Curow

Lori Desormeaux

Lynn Dubnicka

Katie Flanagan

Ilona Fried

Elsie Fontaine Gaertner

Virginia Gardner

Pamela Pardue Goode

Edna Grainer

Kim Grant

Shawn Hayes

Patricia Helzer

Linda Hooper

Gretchen Kauffman

Eve Lynch

Eulavon Mallouf

Pat Mitchell

Lynne Mosiman

Junko Ota

Maria Peak

Donna Post

Gila Rayberg

Claire Roche

Jessica Sanders

Cindy Sbrissa

Rita Schelin

Agnes Spitzer-Greig

Suzanne Steeves

Kathleen M. Stewart

Crystal Thomas

Linda Vaden Martin

Susan Walden

Elena Weissman

Cindy White

Donna Wold

Katharina Fritsch

2009-09-22T21:43:00.000-07:00

A recent trip to the SF MOMA yielded my initial discovery of one of the most important sculptors living today, German artist, Katharina Fritsch. Her sculptures consist of simple outlines and bold use of color. Her figures and objects are reminiscent of fairy tales, fables and myths and have a way of imprinting on one’s mind.

When I walked into the room that contained her work, I saw four circles of 224 big, black, plastic poodles arranged in tight, densely packed rings, surround an infant poised on an eight-pointed gold star. The points of the star created eight radiating axes by which the poodles were aligned. The result was a stunning visual play of repetitive patterns in space.

Fritsch's intention is to lodge an indelible visual image in the mind of the viewer, indissolubly fusing experience and memory. Although some viewers may have found the poodles threatening, they appeared to be on alert watch, guarding over the child. And despite the ominous atmosphere, a strange undercurrent of humor is present in the quirky oddness of both the poodles and the baby.

Fritsch chose the poodle as a dog that is cute and beguiling but can also be aggressive and mean. Soon after completing the piece, she recalled that a poodle appears in the story of Faust, retold in a nineteenth-century novel by Johann Wolfgang Goethe that is known to every German schoolchild. While out walking, Faust sees a black poodle and brings it home, unknowingly inviting the devil into his study. The baby suggests the innocence of children at birth, untouched by evil and misfortune. As it begins the journey of life, it must face the tensions of civilization and the potential for corruption.

The attention that Fritsch pays to the surfaces of the sculptures, and to their color, scale, and the space in which they are presented creates a strange tension between the familiar and the uncanny. A life-size elephant is anatomically exact down to the last fold of skin, but painted an unearthly blue-green.

A man, tucked up in bed, is confronted by a giant black mouse that squats on his chest. The effect of giving solid reality to the visionary and fantastic is unsettling. It is a relationship that Fritsch is keen to explore.

'I find the play between reality and apparition very interesting', she says, 'I think my work moves back and forth between these two poles.'

Her sculptures open up dark areas of our collective consciousness and confront deep-seated anxieties, although this is often tempered by humor. Their iconography is drawn from many different sources, including Christianity, art history and folklore, without being reducible to a single source or meaning.

In her working process, Fritsch combines the techniques of traditional sculpture with those of industrial production. She uses models to create moulds, from which the final sculptures are cast in materials such as plaster, polyester and aluminum.

Many are made as editions, meaning that multiple casts are taken from one mould. Full of allusions to nightmares, spectres and symbolic figures, Fritsch's work gives substance and weight to the fleeting products of our imagination.

Her work has been the subject of exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern, and theMuseum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; and the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. She is represented by the Matthew Marks Gallery in New York. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Marks_Gallery

Emma Hack - Human Wallpaper

2009-09-19T06:31:00.000-07:00

Australian visionary artist, Emma Hack, has made a name for herself as one of the most creative and innovative artists in the world. The phenomenal thing about her work is the medium she chooses. She doesn’t work on canvas or clay; her medium is the beautiful form of the human body.

She started out as a makeup artist, hairdresser and face painter of children. Her talents have continued to evolve over the last two decades and now result in the mature and fascinating form she works in today. Hack applies paint directly to models’ bodies and match up perfectly with their background, acting as a kind of camouflage. The bodies are not entirely hidden in the patterns; rather, they become part of the pattern and allow the background to flow even more beautifully.

The wallpapers featured are by the legendary designer Florence Broadhurst, licensed specifically for Hack’s use. The intricate designs can sometimes take up to 19 hours to apply. When finished, the model’s body is at once a continuation of the design and a completely unique work of art on its own. The designs accentuate, rather than hide, the fluid beauty and grace of the human form.

The wallpaper paintings began with Emma doing the painting herself and a photographer making the images. However, as she has continued to grow as an artist, Emma has taken over the photography as well. She has experimented with adding creatures and other types of designs in to her paintings, adding a new element to the concept of her amazing body art.

Although most of her subjects have been female, Emma has also experimented with painting the male form. The wallpaper designs she uses with the male models are necessarily different; they highlight the strength of the male form and the very different curvatures of the male body. She calls all of her models her “muses,” and her affection for the art and for the human form is apparent in every painting. She manages to make the bodies of her muses look infinitely inviting, fragile and soft without once over-sexualizing them.

Emma’s work has been shown and celebrated all around the world, winning her several awards and establishing a firm following for the budding artist. She has done many series other than the Wallpapers, including “Cowscape” which features stunning paintings on cows. Her inspiration, she says, comes from nature and all of the diverse cultures of the world.

Woops~

2009-09-19T00:28:00.000-07:00

Hello Readers,

I don't know why Blogger sent out that Richard Avedon entry. It was an incomplete draft. Am on vacation right now and will finish it when I return.

Stacy

Katrina Doran from Dallas, Texas

2009-08-31T21:13:00.000-07:00

At Doran Studio in Dallas, Katrina and Denny Doran (pictured above) produce works of art in a variety of media. Katrina, will be the focus of today's entry. Her professional background includes working as an interior decorator, a gourmet cook, a costume designer and performer for special-event production companies. Katrina now focuses her time and attention on mosaic art and sculpture. She teaches mosaic classes and workshops at the Creative Arts Center of Dallas, TX, at the Visual Expressions Creative Arts Studio in Cedar Hill, TX and at other spots in the metro-Dallas area. She is a member of the Society of American Mosaic Artists, the Texas Sculpture Association, and is a Board Member for the Texas Visual Arts Association.
She names Sonia King as her mentor and teacher and is inspired by Sonia's work which she describes as being, " like maps to landscapes both familiar and unknown. Beautiful creations using natural materials." (More than one of us would agree with this assessment.)

After many years and several careers I had the inkling to try mosaics again. In my own studio with a few books for advice, I attempted to reinvent the wheel of shards. Luckily, I had promised myself, earlier that year, to work with people who were skilled and knowledgeable about what I was willing to take on. So, I signed up for a mosaic workshop with Sonia King at the Creative Arts Center of Dallas and never looked back.

Avian Table

In her artist statement, Katrina writes:

"I am interested in creating curious objects that seem magical, that seem as if they are from another time and place, or might have been something you once dreamed. I gather many types of materials: rusted metal from the street, rocks, glass, dishes, toys, beads, mirror, marble, minerals, fossils, shells, smalti, gold and copper glass tiles, tempered glass, bottles, paints, powders and inks. I want to select what for me are seemingly incongruous things and assemble them into something new and memorably beautiful."

When Katrina was in high school, she created her first mosaic, a depiction of an owl in flight that was constructed of marble and granite. She experienced the same fear that many of us felt when we grouted our first pieces...that she had ruined it. She states:
"My dad says he still has it somewhere in the deep recesses of his garage, but we’ve yet to locate it. I’d love to see it after so many years and see what a bit of acid wash could do to bring it back to life!"

Among her different styles of mosaic is a series of assemblage and memoryware:
Madonna

Katrina is currently one of three mosaic instructors at the Creative Arts Center of Dallas and the only mosaic instructor for

Visual Expressions Creative Arts School

in Cedar Hill, TX. She says she is fond of the following quote and uses it as a place to stand for her own life and as inspiration for her students.

“Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be, brilliant, or just talented, or fabulous?” Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God within us.

It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Marianne Williamson

Lotus Fountain

"My work as a mosaic artist allows me to explore my own self-expression. What has been most useful to me as an individual is to work solo, exploring materials and techniques and then working with various communities to create something larger than what I can accomplish on my own. The interplay between knowing myself alone and knowing myself through others is the richest form of play I could ever imagine."
Bridgitte

For example, in 2008, Katrina enrolled a group of mosaic artists into creating a group of pink flamingo sculptures for the State Fair of Texas. She designed and carved each sculpture herself while the participating artists added their own artistic interpretation in mosaic to each one. Rebecca Collins filmed a YouTube video of the project, which is where I initially found her

(Please click HERE if you are unable to see the video above.)

The group's mosaics are featured in the latest promotional video for the State Fair of Texas.

Katrina adds:

"...whether I am creating work to please myself or to explore a technique or idea, I love sharing the creative process with others. This includes teaching, creating large community based projects, individual commissions, and mosaic fine art pieces shown through gallery settings."

Aiyana Eternal Blossom

Katrina is interested in the use of symbols throughout history and through cultures. She writes, "... My undergraduate degree is in psychology and I find myself drawn to the study of what we make things mean and how the symbols of meaning are then interpreted through art. We, as human beings, often have it that we are alone, that the thoughts we have are unique. How is it then that the symbol for an eye is used in cultures all over the world as a talisman for protection? Who had the original idea? Who said it offered protection? The eye symbol is used on the Seal for the United States of America, it is found in Africa, Greece, Turkey, India, Tibet, and in the Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and even Voodoo religions. "

Doran Studio is a work in progress.

"We consider the entire space a place for honoring what creates. The exterior is slowly being covered in mosaic as a community-making project. We look forward to setting up a schedule for our latest project: 110 Cole Street - where people from various communitites come together to create mosaic patches representing places of inspiration from all over the world. These mosaic patches will be attached to the front of Doran Studio and will become a symbol of what's possible when we all honor creative self expression."

Katrina is currently working on a series of images related to the Tree of Life. Not only does she find this image appealing to her eye, she is once again interested in the use of this symbol through history, culture and religion.

"The materials I use and am fond of are varied. Smalti, marble, natural stones, fossils, hand-made ceramics, pebbles, glass, rusty metal are all materials with unique characteristics. I truly enjoy bringing them together. Perhaps mosaics are my way of demonstrating how we, as human beings, are all related, how we all fit together to create a rich and fascinating world."

Please visit the Doran Studio web site HERE.

Daniel Edwards....Bad Taste or Pithy Social Statements. You Decide...

2009-08-20T18:54:00.000-07:00

Since I am originally from Oklahoma, a bit of Oklahoma art news caught my recent attention. I learned that a statue made by Daniel Edwards was destined for the Central Oklahoma city of Norman, home of the OU Sooners and the University of Oklahoma.

Edwards' work addresses celebrity and pop culture in ways that evoke controversy. He is most noted for his proclivity toward making statues of nekkid famous people I'll be surprised if they actually allow him to cross the state line. We'll see!

The statue in question is a nude portrayal of Angelina Jolie breastfeeding twins. (My mother is probably packing to move to another state as I type this.)

The statue, called “Landmark for Breastfeeding,” will be unveiled in Mainsite Contemporary Art next month, on September 11, 2009, before moving to London later this fall. For Edwards, the piece is meant to inspire people to accept public breastfeeding, using the naked bust of the exalted Hollywood mama-of-many to normalize the act in the minds of onlookers.

What follows is an excerpt from a documentary that was produced about the project. If you are unable to see it, please try clicking
HERE.

Born in La Porte, Indiana in 1965, Edwards' works include a sculpture of the disembodied head of Ted Williams, a life-sized statue of Britney Spears giving birth while nude on her hands and knees on a bearskin rug, Opera in a sarcophagus, and a nude Presidential bust of Senator Hillary Clinton.

Another Edwards creation that has resulted in a lot of raised eyebrows is his sculpture of a tiara'd Paris Hilton, lyind dead on an autopsy table, companion chihuahua looking on.

The tableau, created by Daniel Edwards, reminds potential prom queens that no one is impervious to the pitfalls of drinking. Recalling Miss USA's recent battle to keep her crown through alcohol rehab and Princess Diana's untimely death due to drunk driving, a skewed hotel heiress's tiara serves as a grim reminder.

Edwards’ artwork has been reviewed by the New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Miami Herald, The Los Angles Times, ArtInfo.com and Artnet.com amongst many other articles nationally and around the world. Often vilified for his use of celebrity, Daniel’s artwork has also been seen as prophetic and constant in its ability to humanize social issues the media and public have trouble addressing.

The artist does not limit his shocking art to American subjects. He is creating quite the stir in the UK right now, as well, as he unveils a statue of a deceased Prince Harry lying before the British flag.

The piece represents Harry's willingness to sacrifice for his country, and the sympathy for his disappointment of an unfulfilled patriotic aspiration. The memorial is dedicated to the brave at heart. But the brave men and women Prince Harry inspired to enlist for combat following his announcement to serve six months in Iraq are not forgotten.

I don't know, folks. I think Daniel Edwards might be goin' ta hell.

Gary Aagaard - Row away from the rocks

2009-08-17T07:23:00.001-07:00

"Call on God, but row away from the rocks."
Hunter S. Thompson

Twitter….another internet networking tool that has exposed me to a plethora of talented artists across the world. American artist, Gary Aagaard is one of them. His highly acclaimed social realism images reveal a wry sense of humor marked by an intelligent concern for society’s contradictory fundamentals. His work was perfectly characterized by Seattle curator, Michael McGivaren, who described it as being a "2D amalgam" of the writing of Hunter S. Thompson.

Revelations (self portrait)

Gary began his professional career shortly after becoming a Society of Illustrators Scholarship Award winner in 1982. Since that time, his fine art paintings and illustrations have served as trenchant graphic commentary about notable incidents and public figures from a jarring, yet intelligent, perspective

Neo – Conned God

His work has appeared numerously in such notable publications as The Village Voice, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Newsday, Philadelphia Weekly, Barrons and many others.

’99 Bottomline

The artist states:

“My work is the product of my environment over the last three decades. Generally, I've had a positive experience yet tend to be irked by the frequent political and religious hypocrisy, general apathy (relating to war, the environment, fact-challenged pundits, etc.) and dogma of any stripe that leads to social and spiritual tunnel vision. These themes are prevalent in many of my paintings although are often explored using satire and humor as opposed to a sledge hammer (granted, I do use that on occasion, too). That said, during those infrequent times I step off my battered soap box, I paint pieces which will hopefully provide edification or simply a chuckle.”

Model Citizen

Before his 2001 death, David Swift, American producer/director/writer wrote to Gary:

"Gary - Your illustrations are shattering. Some leave a lasting shock. They are certainly not easily forgotten. Don't know the context of their origin but it would certainly tempt me to read the article they illustrate. Had you been born 50 years earlier, you would have been memorialized in the Saturday Evening Post and similar contemporary magazines of the time. You have a marked talent and I would like to work with you. First project I get launched, we will talk."

Religious Right Makes Might

The Ward-Nasse Gallery in Manhattan permanently holds a decade's representation of Gary’s work (with solo shows there in 2005 and 2007) while Klaudia Marr Gallery in Santa Fe, NM exhibits select original oils.

Ma Nature : This Time It's Personal

A particularly notable accomplishments was Gary's portrayal of twelve African American writers who appeared on stamps in Ghana and Uganda.

I borrowed this from Gary’s web site:

“On November 13, 1997, the "Great Writers of the 20th Century" stamps were officially issued in a ceremony at the Smithsonian Institution's Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC. Most of the living honorees and families of the authors attended.

Excerpt from the Washington Post (November 14, 1997) - "My heart stopped....I was bowled over," poet Maya Angelou said yesterday, glimpsing her image on a stamp from Ghana. She was among 12 African American writers honored at the Hirshhorn Museum as Ghana and Uganda unveiled the stamps.

Also seeing their stamps for the first time were Charles Johnson, Rita Dove, Mari Evans and June Jordan. "I have had two thrills today: being on a stamp is one and to sit next to Rita Dove and Maya Angelou is the other," said Johnson, who wrote the acclaimed novel Middle Passage."

Giant on Holiday

In addition to receiving recognition from the Society of Illustrators (NYC), the Society of Publication Designers, Gary has received awards from Print, the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles, Aphrodisia II and RSVP. His paintings have been displayed in the Museum of American Illustration, Gallery-Henoch, the Smithsonian, Klaudia Marr Gallery, Xpo Gallery, Mendenhall Gallery, Ward-Nasse Gallery, Gallery Nucleus and was part of the Museum of American Illustration 2000-2001 Traveling Exhibition.
Beginning this month, his work can be seen in several Pacific NW venues starting with Seattle’s Elysian Fields at 542 1st Avenue and in City Trees Furniture and Gallery, 4616 14th Avenue, NW, through September. I am excited about being in Portland in December because it will be there, in a group show at the Beppu Wiarda Gallery, 319 NW 9th Ave. m and I’ll get to see it up close and personal.

God According to Voltaire (inspired by Voltaire's quote, "God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.")

His original art and limited edition, hand-signed/numbered giclees are available for sale.
Interested parties can view a price list of his available art HERE.

Yo Mama

Although Gary requests that Amway and Insurance Salespeople disregard this notice, he can be contacted HERE for further information:

Grange Gangsta Gothic

The Kim Larson-Amy Blackshaw Wall Mural

2009-08-13T14:45:00.000-07:00

My good friend, Kim Larson, has already told this story over on her blog, but, gave me permission to post it here as well since some of my readers aren't subscribers to her blog.

Here goes....

A couple of years ago, I met Amy Blackshaw, with her two children, Maya and Milo. We started chatting, and immediately hit it off. (We have a Maya in our family, too, so that's how the conversation began...) A week or so later, John and I ran into Amy at our favorite restaurant in downtown Oakland, and we all promised to stay in touch.... but then we all got busy with our lives and didn't....until recently.

Ok...speed ahead a couple of years.

When our daughter, Sarah, announced that she was pregnant awhile ago, I went onto Freecycle recently to try to find a breast pump for her...and lo! It was Amy who offered one. We were happy to reconnect and began an email exchange.

Amy is a mosaic artist, as am I, so naturally, our conversation turned in that direction. She told me she was searching for someone to help her mosaic a mural on a raw cement wall in her back yard and two of the Bay Area's best mosaic artists, Kim Larson and Delaine Hackney, immediately came to my mind, but as I knew Delaine was very busy at the time and probably couldn't help, I contacted Kim who subsequently introduced herself to Amy. They met, felt they were compatible, and decided to team up and take on the job.

Kim, with her graphic arts background, did the excellent design work and headed up the whole project with Amy as her assistant.

This is what the wall looked like before the "Kim Larson treatment"...

Amy was interested in learning the whole mosaic mural process from start to finish and Kim agreed to teach her...because Kim is good that way. :-) Soon, they were up to their necks in tile and glass and nippers and grout and were on their way.

Amy had nothing but good things to report about Kim's teaching abilities, and I'm not surprised. Kim is an excellent communicator and quite competent.

Among other things, the design included a variety of flowers, bees, dragonflies and a likeness of the family cat, all of which Kim made on her own specially designed substrates at home. She then took them to the site and set into the mural before filling in the background.

Kim's design is playful and full of color, energy and movement.

Maya helped her mom with the grouting process:

The finished mural is stunning! From the first glance, all I could do was smile. (Amy's husband came outside with a camera and snapped that first photo of all of us.)

So now, Kim Larson is off to a new re-start on a project that she began a couple of years back...a series of mosaics based on art from the American Southwest. She originally started by cutting the substrates for longhorn bull skulls and has since added other Southwest pieces to the collection. It will be fun to see what she comes up with!

Sewing With Stone...

2009-08-12T10:37:00.000-07:00

A few years back, I had a conversation with Laurel True's mother about a mosaic "throw rug" that she wanted installed in her home. At the time, she mentioned that it would be great if someone could make one that she could move around, but that she was afraid she was going to have to have it set in permanently in her entry hall. I'd seen these rugs on Ebay, but had never seen one in person and wasn't aware that they were created in a flexible form that allowed them to be rolled up and carted around.

More recently, I received an email from a woman in Israel, Ronit, with whom I correspond from time to time, asking how to make one of these rugs. I referred her to a few sources of information, and today, she sent me this article about them.

If any of you are aware of the type of resin that is used in this process, please let me know and I'll insert it into this entry:

(Above - Tiziana and Corinna preparing a carpet-mosaic)

MOSAIC CARPET: a floor covering suppported by flexible resin and fiberglass mesh.

Mosaic carpeting is a new concept in mosaic art. The flexible structure of the carpet allows for rolling up, thereby facilitating transport. However, the most extraordinary aspect is that the piece becomes an object of design which has its own unique character, and like a carpet can be placed in any part of the house and later moved.

When placed on an uneven surface, the carpet takes the shape of the underlying surface without being damaged in any way. The mosaic carpet, like a normal carpet, does not require any particular fixing or application, and therefore there is no damage to the floor nor need for any special means of fixing it in place, unless one wants to place it permanently in a particular location. This art work is suited to either indoors or out, and is not affected by external weather nor temperature conditions.

Opposed to normal carpets, this art work is made of mosaics and is therefore, created from marble, stone or "glass paste" (unsure of translation here, folks.) The carpets can be manufactured in different shapes depending on where they are to be placed, and they can picture any modern or antique subject. The art piece is protected by solvents and is guaranteed against any loss of mosaics. The protective covering also acts as a defense against stains, while the glues used to position the mosaics insure that the pieces are firmly imbedded in the underlying structure. The mosaic may be washed with normal cleaning products, and using cloths, brushes or vacuum cleaners. For best results, excessive blows or rubbing should be avoided, as should be direct strong heat in contact with the support.

Susan Johnson-Walden AKA "BAMA" !

2009-07-22T12:35:00.000-07:00

This story begins about twenty years ago when Susan Johnson Walden became enthralled with the idea of making art from stained glass. She was fascinated by the transformation that transpires between glass and light, and noted how a panel seemed to come alive and change as the sun moved across the sky. It was then that Susan decided to undergo her own transformation and become an artist.

Since there weren’t any stained glass classes offered locally, Susan promptly found herself at her local library combing through books that dealt with the subject of stained glass. Soon, she had taught herself the copper foil technique that was made popular by L.C. Tiffany at the turn of the century.

This method of working with stained glass involves wrapping the pieces of glass with copper foil and soldering them together along the length of the seams.

Susan writes, “The closest glass store was 90 minutes away. I went there for supplies and to ask any questions I had. A few years and many projects later, I had a lot of scraps that I couldn't bare to throw away. I made a few kaleidoscopes, but I got bored with them fairly quickly.

That's when I got into mosaics!”

Susan’s first mosaic was a stepping-stone. She loved using her glass to create mosaics and before long, she was hooked. At that time, she worked in a custom frame shop where she first began to sell her work. She has since graduated to more complex projects and designs such as this beautiful birdbath. and this portrait of “Bean” the cat.
When the Internet became popular Susan found a forum where several artist shared projects, tips and encouragement. She is fondly known therein as “Bama” and for saying, “Da-haaaaang!” when she is enthusiastic (or not) about something. Oh, and in case you haven’ t guessed by now, she hails from the Southern US. Here is a picture of her nice little studio where she creates her mosaic magic:

She spends her days and weeks there creating intricate, complex and stunning mosaics.
Blue Jay
Ancient
Jerry's Butterfly

The support Susan received from her online artist associations was instrumental in her branching out and creating the wide variety of impressive mosaic pieces that are her calling card today. Susan is proud to announce....

“This past year I entered my first art show and won a blue ribbon!”

She placed first in the 3D division of the Winter Arts Festival 2009 Middle Georgia Art Association with her piece entitled, “The Most”
The Most

...and third place in 2D division with one called, "Continuum".
Continuum

Susan’s work is currently on exhibit at Gallery 51 in Forsyth, GA. You can read more about Susan and her work on her web site by clicking HERE.

Doreen Adams…. One tessera at a time

2009-07-09T09:48:00.001-07:00

Doreen Adams

As I write this entry, I am in a beautiful house at the edge of the ocean just south of Santa Cruz. At this moment, I can hear a seal calling through the distant fog. That said, I thought to write an entry about fellow artist and Facebook friend, Doreen Adams, because her studio, Creativeartmosaics.com, is located in a similar environment in the hills above Malibu, also overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Being where I am right now, (and as a flock of pelicans makes circles in the sky outside my window), I can truly relate to the inspiration Doreen must feel as she looks down over the ocean from her studio each day. I think I understand why she is compelled to create art to express her love of nature and her respect for all living things. Being here has caused me to gain a new appreciation for these things as well as for the art that Doreen creates.

Doreen is one of the finest mosaic artists around.

One of the most defining characteristic of Doreen’s mosaic art is its resemblance to paint on canvas. She tends to lay the tesserae in concentric patterns, using a style known among mosaic artists as ‘painting with glass’. The fine detail with which she executes each mosaic must require the patience of a saint!

Doreen's imagination is clearly not limited to the natural beauty that she sees from her studio window. This piece, entitled simply, "Cheeseburger" was included in the 8th Annual International juried exhibition at the Museum of Man in San Diego last February during the convention of the Society of American Mosaic Artists. The mosaic was also featured as cover art on the "Mosaic Rocks" CD.

When her “White Rabbit” (above) piece won second place in the 3rd Contemporary Mosaic Art Competition “Breaking the Rules” also at the 8th Annual International juried exhibition at SAMA 2009,one of the judges had this to say:

“We love this mosaic! Everything about it is considered. In the first place it is very well drawn and composed – you can feel the white rabbit’s ‘lateness’ and, astonishingly, considering the strong use of complimentary oranges against greens, the overall effect is very harmonious.

Andrew commented on how the tesserae at the front are very small and detailed compared to the larger broader work at the back – this is the opposite to what one would expect and so there’s an interesting lesson to learn here – you don’t ALWAYS have to get smaller and fiddlier as you progress back into the picture.
We would therefore like to award this mosaic joint second prize.
(I will provide the prize for Doreen – namely a book on the work of Boris Anrep, which I feel will be useful to her in her future mosaics.)” Martin Cheek

Talented on many artistic levels, Doreen began her life’s journey in Edinburgh, Scotland, and has traveled the world taking classes from many inspirational artists. She describes herself as a “freelance, self-taught, self-employed artist” and writes, “My love of animals and children can be seen throughout my art whether it be my mosaics, decorative painted furniture, children’s illustrations, fine art paintings and drawings or my handmade crafts. “

Here are a few of Doreen’s watercolor illustrations:

Doreen is available for commissioned work and takes a flexible approach to these projects, sometimes working from a selection of photographs or if possible, paying visits to a specific site personally, to gather her own reference material. As she works through her commissioned art, she periodically documents her progress on her web site so that her clients can appreciate the painstaking detail that she enlists to create their mosaics.

Doreen is a member of SCBWI, (The Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators), SAMA, (The Society of American Mosaic Artists), MAA (The Malibu Art Association) and MAO, (The Mosaic Artists Organization).

Please visit her web site to see more of Doreen's beautiful art work or to get further information.

Latifah Shay – Artist by Nature

2009-07-04T14:35:00.000-07:00

Latifah Shay

“I feel such joy and freedom when I create. When I paint I am present with the
truth of who I am. I move through life enjoying, exploring and expressing this
exciting part of my being.”

Desire

Latifah Shay is an artist acquaintance whom I met through Twitter, the social networking site. Her notoriety as an artist began in third grade when she won a school coloring contest. Then, in high school, one of her architectural drawings ranked first place in the state competition. Her art fire was fueled, so off she went!
Delicate Intensity

“I attended the architecture program at Texas A&M University. Three years later I
found myself disenchanted. Plumbing, structures and HVAC held no allure for me. I
completed my degree, delving deeper into figure drawing, photography and
furniture design.

Two years later, I began pursing graphic design. Bought a computer, learned the
programs, took classes, and read voraciously. In short time I had a job at a mid-sized
creative company as a designer.”

Flamboyant

Her work characteristically consists of "geometricized", concentric forms and hues used independently of their local color. One frequently finds swirls that are full of emotion and brilliant color, moving across a plane. The swirl can be seen as a symbol for the "endless circle" (similar to the endless knot) in Chinese culture.

Feeling My Way

Latifah creates her art for many reasons, but it is, above all, informed by color and a sense of movement. As a mother of 4 yr. old triplets, she finds herself frequently in her local library where she reads with her children. While there, she loves to look at the illustrations and reading about the artists who create them. She is currently attracted to the illustration style of artist David Shannon.

The Truth About Love

“I release so much as I create. I release my emotions, my stagnations and stuckness. I connect with, experience and release my truth as I create.”

Roses and Honey

When her triplets were two Latifah began painting again.
“ Being a mother has brought ligh to my truth. I am an artist by nature. I want to paint, draw and create -- to explore my inner worlds through color, line, form, collage... as much as possible.”

Last month, Latifah attended the Unity Music Festival in Warfordsburg PA. where, for the second year in a row, her worked served as a beautiful backdrop for the main stage musicians.
(Singer Lindsay Mac with Latifah's art in background

Please visit her web site HERE (http://www.latifahshay.com/) for more information about Latifah’s art.

Deryn Mentock - Steampunk-Meets-Tiffany's

2009-06-25T08:13:00.001-07:00

Deryn Montock
This is the first time I've featured a jewelry artist on this blog. However, Deryn Mentock's artistry is so unusual and exceptional that I just had to show you her work.
Caged Charlotte

Each piece of Deryn' jewelry is like a little sculpture or a reminder of the past zapped with an idea for the future. It verges on steampunk, but is more refined than that. It almost defies description. I'd say these pieces are a melding of fine jewelry elements with rough and raw materials wrapped in wire and fashioned in unusual ways to come up with something truly unique and wonderful.
Beth's Charm Keeper

One can tell, just by looking at this jewelry, that the artist who makes it draws from multiple influences. She writes, "As a kid, my parents always encouraged me in the direction of art making. My mom was very creative and I grew up in a do-it-yourself household. Consequently, I've had my fingers in a lot of different art pies! I haven't had much formal training but I've pretty much tried it all, creatively speaking; painting, leaded glass, jewelry making, calligraphy, sewing, pottery, drawing, embroidery, collage, photography, candle making and more. I think that varied background has given me a good knowledge of materials and techniques that I'm able to apply to the artwork that I do today."

Little Green Apples

Deryn's designs mingle unique, worn and well-loved finds, religious pieces and faceted, semi-precious stones as well as one-of-a-kind handmade elements. These elements are all combined in eye-catching ways that are unexpected. She titles each piece suitably with names that characterize the jewelry's unique qualities just as any artist would title a painting or sculpture.

Miraculous

When working on her jewelry, Daryn prefers to create the look and feel of vintage, unusual and found objects. She delights in blending these treasures into her work. Each composition, infused with color and texture, reveals an intuitive message of faith conveyed through the artist’s hands.

Koi Pond

Deryn enjoys teaching nationally and is a design team member for Susan Lenart Kazmer’s “Objects and Elements.” Her artwork has been featured in several books including “Mixed Emulsions” by Angela Cartwright. “Exhibition 36” by Susan Tuttle and, most recently, “Collaborative Art Journals and Shared Visions in Mixed Media” by LK Ludwig. You can also find her work in many articles and publications, including Step by Step Wire Jewelry, Belle Armoire Jewelry, Belle Armoire, Art Doll Quarterly, Stampington's Gallery, Correspondence Art and Stampington's book Artist Trading Cards.

Amber Collar
You can contact Deryn at mocknet@sbcglobal.net and see more of her work at her BLOG; and her ONLINE STORE.

Buddhist Mandala Ceremony

2009-06-21T05:23:00.000-07:00

Back in the 80's, when I lived in Houston, I took my Goddaughter, Petunia, to the final day of a Buddhist mandala meditation ceremony. It was fascinating to watch the Buddhist monks complete their mandala sand painting, slowly and carefully using the colored sands that were all lined up in pots like the ones above. I couldn't believe how much detail was contained in every square inch of the beautiful sand painting.

During these ceremonies, the construction process takes several days. Then, much to the dismay of the viewing audience, the mandala is destroyed shortly after its completion. This is done as a teaching tool and metaphor for the impermanence' of all contingent and compounded phenomena.

For those of you unfamiliar with the mandala and its significance, it is a design that is a representation of the cosmos or the universe, created in a circular pattern which leads to a central point. It is a symbol or wholeness, of beginning and end.

Simple mandala have been drawn by many native people in many counties, including the early Australian Aboriginal people. Many Christian churches have a circular stained glass window, with the cross as the center point of the circle.

In the Buddhist mandala, the circles represent levels of the cosmos, and the squares generally depict earthly levels. The levels may have gates, which lead into the center of the mandala. The mandala is used as an external expression to help find the universe within. Often, the mandala incorporates symbols or physical representations of the Buddha to show the transition of the spiritual journey

No two sand mandalas are ever alike.

However, each one is created using the same basic concepts.

Here is a video that I found on YouTube that illustrates what the ending ceremony is like:

(If you are unable to view the video above, please click HERE.)

A Steampunk Orange

2009-06-19T20:09:00.000-07:00

Back when I was a kid, the old man who ran the local photography studio taught me how to hand tint photos with oil paints and a Q-tip. Now my Mom's album of family photos contains a number of pictures of strange-looking blue or magenta- skinned individuals.

Photo Manipulation has been practice since the 1800's. Before computers, photo manipulation was done with oil paints, as mentioned above, with ink, double-exposure, piecing photos or negatives together in the darkroom, or by scratching Polaroids. Now, with the use of Adobe Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Corel Photopaint, and other software program an image can now be edit with ease. A good quality and angle of both images is a must to achieve a good manipulation result.

Here are some fun manipulated computer images that I was able to dig up on the web. Some of them are downright amazing! :

Connie Cohen - Spizzi Mosaics

2009-06-17T10:29:00.000-07:00

Connie Cohen

Wouldn’t you just love to have a shower surround like this?!

Firedog Shower

If you’re a fan of modern mosaics with Old World style, you might want to pay a visit to Spizzi Mosaics, the studio of Minneapolis, Minnesota mosaic artist, Connie Cohen.

Connie began her art life as a graphic designer. Then, a friend told her about a do-it-yourself TV program she had seen about pique assiette techniques and tile cutting. The friend suggested that the two of them begin making mosaics and the rest is history. Connie very quickly became hooked on the art form. A couple of years later, she found herself in Ravenna, Italy with her Mom where she took Lucianna’s mosaic course and fell in love with smalti. Since then, she has spent much of her life creating and perfecting her beautiful decorative and fine art works. Connie works primarily with either Italian or Mexican smalti, but has recently begun to add stained glass to her work.

“I fell into the world of mosaics by chance and have discovered something far beyond what I could have ever imagined. What began as a hobby has led me deeper into the world of art, history and architecture. For me, it is the perfect synergy of my background in graphic design and architecture. I’m captivated by the process and I’m intrigued by the idea of making a fluid “painting” using a solid material. I am amazed by the magic in the process and I create to be a part of that magic.”

Whether working to music or in quiet solitude, Connie’s work reflects a deep, thoughtfulness about the designs and process.

“Whether I'm studying someone else's technique or free-forming on my own, I think my hand and personal sensibility comes through without really thinking about it.”

Connie enjoys working with and sharing her work with children and has participated in a number of Artist in Residency programs in her career. Perhaps most admirable was her stint with the Kulture Klub Collaborative, a non-profit that offers art opportunities to homeless youth. She coaches her students to find designs and colors that portray each person’s unique style.

If you happen to be in the vicinity of Long Beach, CA. this summer, you might want to stop by the 2nd. Cith Council Gallery. Two of Connie’s pieces, “The Tree of Inner Solitude” and “Kissed by the Tree of Weeping Love” , were accepted into the juried show: Tesserae: The Art of Mosaic. They will be at the gallery from June 27 - August 5.

You may view more of Connie Cohen’s work HERE.

Exhibition Notice

2009-06-15T09:46:00.000-07:00

I received the following announcement today. Imaging making 50 mosaics in 50 days!

>
> Hello friends, family, and colleagues,
> I’m writing to tell you about my art blog called Jude Pittman’s Studio,
> www.judepittmanstudio.blogspot.com
> The new artwork which I’m making every day for 50 days will be exhibited with 66 other artists’ work In the 50/50 Show at the Sanchez Art Center July 24-August 29.
>
> Whew! It’s an exhilarating challenge to make a mosaic every day for fifty days.
> A couple new pieces will be added to the blog every few days. Please join me in this creative journey by checking out my blog! Then come to the grand opening on
> Friday, July 24 7–9 pm
> at the Sanchez Art Center
> 1220 Linda Mar Blvd. Pacifica CA
>
> All of these 6" x 6" artworks are for sale
> and may be taken home at the time of purchase.
> Cheers,
> Jude Pittman
> Visit my website for more artwork at www.judepittman.com
>

German Artist, Lierre Foest

2009-05-28T14:02:00.001-07:00

Lierre Foest

Describing the watercolors of Lierre Foest is not easy. She makes whimsical creatures that sometimes verge on darkness, yet accomplishes this with rich, brilliant color. She paints abstracts and and originally-flavored fantasy art. Her style runs the gamut between cubist and expressionist influences to outsider art to naive/faux - naive/folk art, but the one unmistakable element that characterizes Lierre’s paintings is her eye for color.

Washes of primary and secondary colors sweep the viewer into the fantasy worlds she creates with her brush.

If you can’t see the vdieo above, please click HERE.

Lierre is in her 20s, lives in former communist East Germany, is married and has three children ages 3 and under. She works from a home studio as a painter, writer, and designer. Primarily self-taught, Lierre briefly attended the Albert-Schweizer School for Music and Art in Hamburg, Germany and studied watercolor under a teacher at another school for a few weeks . She quit after a few months to move east and eventually started teaching herselfI used to work under a penname.

"I'm obsessed with Poe and with James Horner's music, but I like Goethe and Mozart too. In Hamburg, Germany I attended the Albert Schweizer School for music and art and studied watercolor briefly but other than this have no formal training in art. And the absolute most important thing anyone reading this definitely needs to know about me is that I do not like writing autobiographies."

“I've found I am very comfortable as an autodidact. I started selling paintings about 4 years ago and have sold over 400 so far to collectors all over the world. My favourite medium is watercolor but I also work in ink (pen and wash), coloured pencil, charcoal, graphite, acrylics, oils, and oil pastel. “

“I prefer tiny and detailed work, using on average pens with tips 0.05 mm in width, and brushes size 10/0. Many of the paintings and drawings I do are 1" x 1", art card size (2.5" x 3.5" also called ACEO or ATC) or 4" x 6" also called OSWOA). I also do 5" x 7" and some 12" or larger but am most comfortable with tinier sizes and miniatures.”

Interested parties may view more of Lierre’s work on her web site HERE.

Photograms - Photos without Cameras

2009-05-23T21:43:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago, I had the privilege of attending an exhibit at the Frankel Gallery in San Francisco that featured photograms. Photograms are photographic images made without a camera by placing objects directly onto the surface of a photo-sensitive material such as photographic paper and then exposing them to light. The result is a negative shadow image . Man Ray is most often attributed with bringing this method into the art world, although he called his works, “rayographs”.
Man Ray Rayograh

You may have experimented with a relative of photograms if you have made "sun prints" using blue architect's paper which, when exposed to the sun, turns white. Perhaps you laid leaves across it, put down your hand, or created a composition with kitchen objects before exposing it to the sun and developing it in the kitchen sink using running water. These are photograms. The forms block the light, leaving white or gray imprints, like shadows, on the paper or film when it is developed. Opaque objects leave white areas because no light gets through them; translucent objects leave shades of gray.

River Taw 19
Susan Derges is an internationally recognized photographic artist, also uses this technique in her work . She focuses primarily on landscapes. River Taw 19 is one of her more notable images.

The German painter, graphic artist and poet, Max Ernst is considered to be one of the primary pioneers of the Dada movement and Surrealism. He, too, experimented with photograms. Photograms became a signature trademark with many of the Dada artists.

Mr. Knife Miss Fork

Photograms are a good way to teach composition, shape, and value. They can be made with a sheet of photographic paper with objects put on top. The sheet and objects are arranged under the enlarger and exposed for about 30 seconds with a wide aperture (e.g. f 5.6 or wider). The paper is then developed according to normal procedures. Photograms are one-of-a-kind prints, because once the objects are removed from the paper, that particular arrangement is gone. Photograms invite experimentation with different objects and techniques. Using a flashlight, for example, would give very different lighting than the enlarger. Liquids on glass (cliché verre), cellophane, coal pitch, chemical salts on glass ("crystallography"), and moving beams of light have all be experimented with to create different effects.

László Moholy-Nagy
László Moholy-Nagy was a Hungarian painter and photographer as well as professor in the Bauhaus school. He was highly influenced by constructivism and a strong advocate of the integration of technology and industry into the arts. Moholy-Nagy's cameraless images bore the name that we most often use now with this class of images, "Photograms." He was interested in photography as a medium of light and form, not sentiments or personal feelings that are the concerns of other art forms.

Rodchenk
Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenk was a Russian artist, sculptor, photographer and graphic designer. He was one of the founders of constructivism and Russian design is also a notable creator of photograms. His images suggest someone who is no longer there, the absence of body, yet the resonance of history.

Shadographia
This piece, entitled, Shadographia, was created by Christian Schad in Stuttgart. Schad was a German painter associated with Dada and the New Objectivity movement.

Free Radicals
Len Lye, born Leonard Charles Huia Lye was a New Zealand-born artist known primarily for his experimental films and kinetic sculpture. "Free Radicals" was among a number of his more notable photograms.

Fuss
Adam Fuss’ images have depicted babies, water droplets, christening dresses, moving light, snakes, sunflowers, rabbit entrails, and human skulls. His work was on display at the Frankel the day I went.

If you have access to a darkroom, you might want to check out these instructions on how to make your own photogram.

Art Fad Gains Popularity - Matryoshka Nesting Dolls

2009-05-20T08:47:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if the shop is still in Jack London Square here in Oakland, but we used to enjoy taking our Maya there to see the beautiful, hand-pained Russian nesting dolls called, "Matryoshka"...You know the kind...There is a large one and you pull the top off and find others in graduating sizes. I had a couple of sets when I was a child.

As the popularity of Matryoshka has grown, more people are interested in making their own customized art dolls. Kits are now commercially available to allow any artist to create their own unique nesting dolls.

They are often made to resemble political favorites, movie stars or other characters, even famous artists. A few weeks ago when I was in New York, I saw a set that was comprised of the likenesses of Picasso, Salvador Dali, Magritte and other notables in the art world. It had a $3800 price tag on it.

Matryoshka dolls range in size from 1/2" to life size and larger.

Custom painted gaming pieces are also popular. These chess sets are unique and may include the King, Queen, Rook, Bishop, Knight and Pawn as interesting conversation starters.

Other games and game characters, such as Mario and company, are cool as Matryoshka dolls.

Using kits of blank nesting dolls, an artist is limited only by the imagination.

Matryoshka dolls must nest inside each other, so hand painting them is a popular option. Some designers are creative with fabric and felt and create the look of more traditional soft dolls with their kits.

Favorite characters from movies, books and folklore are also often featured on nesting dolls. Santas of all varieties are collectors’ items, so it only makes sense that Santa Matryoshka dolls are readily available. Best loved characters from movies and cartoons also make nesting dolls really special to collector and some are worth thousands of dollars.

Dictators, presidents and world leaders are commemorated in Matryoshka dolls quite frequently. Collectors value these nesting dolls as historic timestamps, as the leader’s look during a particular election of time in power is recorded on each set of dolls. Russian presidents are a particularly popular subject of Matryoshka dolls.

From endangered species to beloved family pets, nearly all types of animals have been carefully painted onto Matryoshka dolls. Some nesting doll sets feature animals you might find in a zoo or endangered species.

Whatever the subject, Matryoshka nesting dolls have the potential to make it more interesting.

Michael DeMeng - Getting Kinda Rusty

2009-05-13T21:46:00.000-07:00

Michael DeMeng
For assemblage artist, Michael DeMeng, rust plays a significant role in his work. In fact, he authored a book called, "Secrets of Rusty Things"

This is “Little Ben”, one of Michael's latest creations. The assemblage was fashioned out of a roller skate, an alarm clock and a Goodwill dolly.

About his work, Demeng says, “My work is about transformations. It is about the transformation of the common into the sacred. Discarded materials find new and unexpected uses in my work; they are reassembled and conjoined with unlikely components, a form of rebirth from the ashes into new life and new meaning. These assemblages are metaphors for the evolutions and revolutions of existence: from life to death to rebirth, from new to old to renewed, from construction to destruction to reconstruction. These forms are examinations of the world in perpetual flux, where meaning and function are ever-changing.”

An excellent example of this is his life size Mother’s Day offering that is based on one of the most complex Hindu deities, Kali Ma, the Dark Mother.

"One missing feature that I deliberated long and hard on is the traditional Kali tougue. I tried it and it was too much for this particular piece. Instead I sort of insinuate it."

In his article for the Missoula Independent, Andy Smetanka described DeMeng’s studio much the same way someone would describe mine: “...a jumbo cardboard box full of cut-up and yet-to-be-cut-up magazines here, the rusty innards of a mechanical cash register there. A bag of bottle caps. Buckets of gears and cogs. Threaded brass bushings and odd bits of rusting iron everywhere. There’s crap all over the place.” (One man's trash…
by Andy Smetanka -Missoula Independent Vol. 16 No. 3 - Issue Date 1/20/2005)
(insert Demeng’s studio)

Michael’s assemblages are created from objects that he finds here and there…yard sales, antique shops…..He transforms them into works of art that transcend steam punk into a genre of their own. He glues them and paints and welds them until they no longer even remotely resemble their original forms. Strange, other-worldly animal-based pieces called, “mmanimals” that he classifies as his “Zoo-Illogicals” seem to beckon viewers to step closer.

Each of his rusty shrines appears to commemorate some mythological metal diety or... poet, as the case may be...

No home is complete without at least one Michae DeMeng Pez dispenser:

…and this bra assemblage almost defies description.

Michae travels the world over teaching workshops to people who are interested in learning his unique assemblage techniques. Please CLICK HERE for his workshop and exhibit schedule. His ONLINE STORE has all kinds of nifty ware for the DeMeng enthusiast and readers can find out even more about Michael DeMeng at HIS WEB SITE. He has one of the best blogs out there which you can find by clicking HERE.