The Art Out There

The End?

noreply@blogger.com (carmackart) — Fri, 24 Jul 2015 18:50:00 +0000

My last post here was almost a year ago. So I think it is safe to say that this blog is no longer active but feel free to look through it. There's an awful lot of really great art here. There's over 500 posts from nearly 6 years of blogging all with links to the artists websites (although some links may no longer work). Enjoy!

William D. Lewis

noreply@blogger.com (carmackart) — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 17:55:00 +0000

"Bonfire 2" gouache on paper 12" x 16" 2012

"Bonfire" gouache on paper 12" x 16" 2012

"Smith's Ferry Fire Ring" oil on canvas 68" x 66" 2012

"Campfire" porcelain 24" x 24" x 5" 2012

"Match" oil on canvas 36" x 36" 2014

William D. Lewis has a thing for fire. Among other things of course. But fire is a particular obsession. It should come as no surprise since the artist is based in Idaho, a state not only familiar with campfires and fireplaces but one that has been ravaged by it's share of wildfires.

A year after the Beaver creek fire nearly destroyed the prominent arts communities of Sun Valley and Ketchum, his work is included in a show called "Forests, Foraging and Fire" at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts (Aug. 23rd - Nov. 12th). In addition the artist is giving a 2 day workshop (Oct. 18-19) on depicting fire as both subject and symbol. Participant's will create their own charcoal with which they'll create studies of fire from photographs that they bring with them. On the second day they'll produce a painting from those studies. Fire as a subject is not as easy as you might think. For one thing it is difficult to capture even in photographs making reference material of limited use. Something is always lost because fire is in constant motion. It is ephemeral. And it is a light source, not reflected light. So you have to suggest as much as depict.

Fire as symbol however... well it's almost impossible for it not to work as a symbol. Mankind's inextricable relationship with fire goes back to our earliest ancestor's before anatomically modern human beings even emerged. It went with us across the planet and together we changed everything in our paths. Fire is deeply embedded in our imaginations.

But Mr. Lewis explores almost every subject he tackles with the same dual purpose of observation and meaning. He often depicts various objects, everyday items like the burnt match above which I included because of its relationship to the fire images, but also things like a knife, a hammer, a shovel, a paint brush, and so on. By isolating these objects and giving them both space and focus, they take on a loaded symbolic force. This is in part due to the nature of the human mind which desperately seeks to attach meaning to almost anything it encounters. We understand coincidence and randomness intellectually, but emotionally they don't even exist. Mr. Lewis' work takes advantage of this and draws the viewer into his work by forcing you to bring all the available associations you may have with his subject in order to interpret it for yourself.

You can see some work on an older post from January 2011. And there's much much more to look at on his website: wmlewispainting.com. He is represented through Ochi Gallery in Ketchum, ID.

Cogan, Uribe and Hoshine

noreply@blogger.com (carmackart) — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 03:44:00 +0000

Two artist that I've blogged about before, and among my favorites, are Kim Cogan based out of San Francisco and Nicolás Uribe from Bogota, Colombia. To my surprise I just discovered that they are showing work together this month at Maxwell Alexander Gallery in L.A. along with another talented artist, new to me, Kenichi Hoshine. The show is called "Abstracted Realities". Here's a few pieces by each with very brief comments.

Kenichi Hoshine was born in Tokyo in 1977 but earned his BFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York, NY. Although there's limited imagery of his work online it's clear from what is there that he delights in the push and pull between realism and abstraction. He frequently combines the two in ways that suggests the haunting and surreal quality of dreams without ever seeming remotely like a surrealist. It reminds me a little of the way Gerhard Richter moves back and forth between representation and abstraction, but somehow got stuck doing both at once. One might think Gerhard Richter could pull it off. But it doesn't matter because Kenichi Hoshine clearly can.

"Study of J" oil on wood 18" x 18"

"Untitled 54" 16" x 16"

"Untitled" Charcoal, Acrylic and wax on Wood 20" x 20"

Kim Cogan is quite versatile, from occasional figures, to skulls, waves and wharfs, but especially the urban landscape. He's a technically deft magician with paint. His images that haunt me the most are the lonely scenes of an San Francisco at night. I posted his work back in April 2013. Here's 2 of his pieces that will be in the show:

"Open Late" 12" x 12"

"Sunset" 60" x 40"

And here's 2 by Nicolas Uribe. He focuses on the figure, especially personal portraits of friends and family, but the personal becomes universal, his models mere studies for observing the human animal in all it's intimate idiosyncratic honesty. You can see one of my earlier reviews from July 2010.
Here's 2 of his that will be in the show:

"Wife (Breakfast)"

"Father (After Lunch)"

The opening is this Saturday so if you happen to be in LA may I suggest that this is not just something to do but a chance to see three artists who are doing some amazing work and helping to define why painting continues to be a powerful and significant medium of personal and artistic expression.

Katherine Ace

noreply@blogger.com (carmackart) — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 21:09:00 +0000

BRIAR ROSE BIRTHDAY oil on canvas

FISHERMAN'S WIFE Oil and charcoal on canvas

FITCHER'S FEATHERED BIRD (with eggs) Oil/alkyd with paper and small objects on canvas

FROG KING Oil/alkyd with paper and small objects on canvas

TALES FROM THE GROUND UP Oil/alkyd with paper on canvas

There is a narrative aspect to Katherine Ace's paintings that does not stem solely from the fact that many of them are based on the tales of the brothers Grimm. It's rather that they function in very much the same manner as the stories. By juxtaposing unexpected and often improbable elements they create associative possibilities that encourage interpretation and meaning. Although some of the paintings have clearly illustrative aspects, picking specific visual imagery from the source material, illustrations usually interpret a text more literally. But underneath the literal imagery of folktales lies a bottomless well of meaning. As the psychologist Bruno Bettelheim pointed out in his book "The Uses of Enchantment", the message of a fairytale may change many times even for a single listener or reader depending on age and experience. Each story is so loaded with images and ideas that one must construct a relationship between it and one's personal experience in order to develop an interpretation. Interpretations will vary as widely as the audience. Ace's paintings work much the same way, attempting to trigger a kind of narrative instinct. A painting cannot tell a story on its own, being only a static image frozen in time. But stories bloom in the minds of human beings like wildflowers in spring. We dream them. We select moments in our past and ignore others in order to create stories about who we are. Stories define us. At their root, and at the root of all language, and possibly human consciousness itself, lies metaphor. Science is mankind's best tool for creating and discovering knowledge about the world around us. But far older, metaphor, in the guise of language, art and stories is how we create and discover knowledge about ourselves. These are the kind of paintings one could live with for a very long time, allowing their meaning and interpretation to slowly evolve and grow.

There are a lot more to look at on her website. Although there is no easy browsing through the images they're worth the extra little effort.
http://www.katherineace.com/

In other news: I'd like to apologize for the huge delay. Unfortunately I will be gone most of August so don't expect new posts then either. After that, we'll see. I want to continue the blog but may change it in some ways. Maybe add some interviews? Maybe more thematic posts featuring multiple artists. I'm not really sure. But thanks to everyone who's enjoyed following along.

A few new posts soon!

noreply@blogger.com (carmackart) — Sat, 12 Jul 2014 22:47:00 +0000

I will post some new work very soon. Unfortunately I will then be unavailable for most of August. But this blog is not being abandoned. I am thinking about different kinds of posts to do. Maybe some interviews. Perhaps thematic posts with different artists. We'll see. But in the short term I will post a few new people. Promise.

Apologies

noreply@blogger.com (carmackart) — Sat, 17 May 2014 19:10:00 +0000

Due to schedule changes and now computer problems the blog has gotten hung up. I will post more artwork soon. I promise.

Gwen Davidson

noreply@blogger.com (carmackart) — Thu, 01 May 2014 21:57:00 +0000

"Reflection" 48" x 60" acrylic and charcoal on paper on canvas 2014

"Wallowa Mountains" 48" x 36" acrylic and charcoal on paper on canvas 2014

"Fields near Galway Bay" 36" x 48" acrylic and charcoal on paper on canvas 2012

"Beach Fire" 24" x 36" acrylic and charcoal on paper on canvas 2013

"Neahkahnie Haze" 48" x 60" acrylic and charcoal on paper on canvas 2014

Here's another artist whose work will be on display this month in my home town of Portland, Oregon (see also Jackie K. Johnson featured in my previous post). Both artists explore the gray areas between landscape and abstraction, but while Ms. Johnson sets out on what seems to me an almost narrative endeavor, Ms. Davidson's art is more descriptive and meditative. She works initially with a combination of acrylic paint and charcoal on paper. The paper, in rectangular strips of varying proportions, are then applied to canvas. The method gives the work a rigid geometric framework but the organic nature of her subject not only survives but somehow thrives within it. Perhaps the human mind is so powerfully predisposed toward order and pattern that their imposition relaxes the eye to the point where we can more comfortably see. Or perhaps in this age of digital pixellation we are simply more accustomed to viewing re-ordered and restructured interpretations of the world than we are to looking at the real thing. Either way it is clear that Ms. Davidson is a keen observer of both. Even her most abstract pieces unfailingly capture a genuine sense of place and atmosphere.

You can see more of her work at Froelick Gallery where her current show which opens tonight, will run through the end of May. You can see still more at Meyer Gallery in Park City, Utah.

Jackie K. Johnson

noreply@blogger.com (carmackart) — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 21:16:00 +0000

"Lures at Mill’s Edge" 2014 oil on canvas 48” x 60”
photo by Aaron Johanson

"Paragraphs Stand in Dance" 2014 oil on canvas 48” x 60”photo by Aaron Johanson

"Stories Off the Hip #2" 2012 oil on canvas 40.75" x 32.75"

"Thinking of Shad" 2010 oil on canvas 48.75" x 60.5"

"Stories Off the Hip #1" 2012 oil on canvas 40.75" x 32.75"

"Hand Work" 1993 clay 12" x 7.5" x 8.5"

Jackie K. Johnson has a new show of work up in May at Laura Russo Gallery in Portland, Oregon, which means I get to actually go see it. I'm not sure if I've ever seen abstract art that suggested a narrative potential to me so strongly. On the face of it, this doesn't make all that much sense. How can abstract art be narrative?

Clearly the abstraction is not complete. There are representational references, not least of which is the three dimensional modeling of the shapes, suggesting that they are not simply shapes, but things, and things have names. The human mind giddily imposes meaning on everything it absorbs. In some of the paintings I see trees and leaves, hills and waterways, and bits of architecture as if they were aerial landscapes or maps.

The reference to landscape is at times unmistakable. But they don't strike me as just any kind of map or scene, mere depictions of a place, but maps as interpretive illustration, depicting journeys or histories. Some even use the imagery of lures and bobbers to accompany the occasional fish like forms that hover cloud-like overhead, lending the pieces even more specificity to their potential interpretation. And yet they remain inscrutably, mysteriously abstract.

Some of her work is organized quite differently, suggesting a kind of arranged presentation, a still life perhaps, but still grounded in a story, like Marsden Hartley's famous "Portrait of a German Officer". The fact that they are titled "Stories off the Hip" gives me hope that my narrative reaction to the work is not so far off base. Some of her older sculptural work is more obviously representational but somehow less narrative and more purely visual. But there is a definite visual consistency between them and the paintings.

I may be way off base about the whole narrative issue but it hardly matters. At any rate, artistic intent isn't everything. Skill and a practiced hand can lead artists to accomplish things beyond their ideas, and preconception can be a restraint on creative potential. At the very least these are a hell of a lot of fun to look at. I'm looking forward to doing so in person very soon.

Kris Manzanares

noreply@blogger.com (carmackart) — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 17:52:00 +0000

"Girl at Rest / Speed" oil on panel 48" x 32" 2014

"Fight" oil on panel 14" x 14" 2014

"Eggplant" oil on panel 14" x 18" 2014

"Leaving Austin" oil on panel 23" x 14" 2013

"The Mustard Eaters" oil on birch panel 32" x 49"

This is a post that's long overdue. Turns out I started to write one in 2012 but got sidetracked and apparently forgot that it never went up. I knew Kris in Arizona more than 15 years ago when she was a sculptor. Having children made that work more difficult but she found time and space to paint instead, a difficult transformation that she made look all too easy. It also transformed the very nature of her art, much of which involves metaphorical narratives based on the lives of her children. But her work is as much about atmosphere and technique as well. She combines very controlled drawing and realism with expressionistic brushwork, the backgrounds often dissolving into pure abstraction. There's something about them that really captures the bright heat of summer days in the southwest. But whether she's painting figurative psychological narrative, a simple landscape or a still life, they are all clearly echoes of her personal life, the small moments and seemingly insignificant objects that together constitute a life.
You can see much more of her work at krismanzanares.com
and if you happen to be in the Phoenix area go see her work in person at Paul Scott Gallery in Scottsdale.

Gayle Bard

noreply@blogger.com (carmackart) — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 20:53:00 +0000

"Bainbridge Island Cloud"

"Skagit Flats"

"Franklin County" 2013 oil on canvas 42.5 x 54"

"Bateman's East Sussex"

"It's a Boy"

Gayle Bard's paintings explore volume and light, most recently in the form of vast cloud forms looming over the land. The land is often, but certainly not always, somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. She currently lives and works on Bainbridge Island across Puget sound from Seattle, but she is originally from the midwest, and one senses that her youth accustomed her eye to open spaces. Her landscapes are less about the land itself that they are about abstract three dimensional space configured in two dimensional representation. And yet a real sense of place matters as well. The colors of the northwest, a subtle but radiant array of blues, greens and grays, suffuse her work. The sky in her paintings is not simply occupied by the occasional cloud but is a true atmosphere, volumes of air and moisture fading into each other and through which we all move and breathe, more like fish in the sea than figures moving about through empty space. The air is as real and present as the land below. And when it comes to light, she seems to relish not the scintillating prismatic wonder of it portrayed so famously by the impressionists, but the way it fades, and how colors ebb into gray when the sun is only indirectly present.

Her career has spanned over 40 years and covered far more territory than what I've described here, including a wide array of subject matter and approaches including installations. I'm sad to say I've only just discovered her and I wish I had been able to see a recent retrospective of her work at the at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. If you feel the same and happen to be in the area, you're in luck. She currently has work on display at Linda Hodges Gallery in Seattle.

Mark Shetabi

noreply@blogger.com (carmackart) — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 18:48:00 +0000

Afterimage (Brontosaurus)

2010

oil on linen

60" x 84"

Fog Machine

2008

oil on linen

18" x 24"

Tanker (Night)

2012

oil on linen

60" x 84"

Tanker (adrift)

2010

oil on linen

60" x 84"

Tanker In Dry Dock

2010

oil on canvas

60" x 76"

Mark Shetabi is a painter and sculptor who teaches art at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. His large, nearly monochromatic paintings cover a wide range of subject matter with a particular focus on architecture, engineering and industrial design. There is a low contrast soft focus treatment that lends the images a nostalgic quality reminiscent of old photographs. But keep in mind that many of these paintings are 7 feet wide echoing the monumentality of their themes and subjects. Some more recent paintings reverse this scale depicting such humble things as pipe fittings on canvases only inches across. But it's these epic pieces that initially grabbed and continue to hold my attention. There is a feeling of dreamlike unreality to them, as if such things are barely conceivable, much less possible. That they exist in the real world seems almost absurd.

You can see more of his work at Jeff Bailey Gallery in New York City.

Eric Aho

noreply@blogger.com (carmackart) — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 13:47:00 +0000

French Forest, 2012
Oil on linen, 52 x 48 inches

March Eight Hemlocks, 2013
Oil on linen, 36 x 30 inches

Nocturne (Apex), 2011
Oil on linen, 36 x 30 inches

Ptarmigan, 2013
Oil on linen, 48 x 60 inches

Small Lynx, 2013
Oil on linen, 36 x 30 inches

Eric Aho's work has moved more deeply into pure abstraction over the years and yet it remains deeply embedded in the landscapes that the artist so clearly loves. The line between abstraction and representation is more like a vast gray zone between two peculiar and, for my money, less interesting extremes. Magritte made it clear representational art is still essentially abstract. A painting of a pipe is not a pipe. It is a painting, an amalgam of shape, line and color. Aho makes it clear that an unrecognizable arrangement of colors, shapes and marks can still be a powerful expression of things that exist in the real world. His paintings seem to blend the old romantic landscape traditions that attempted to evoke the awe and wonder one can experience in the face of the vastness or subtleties of the natural world, with the expressive modes of de Kooning and other abstract artists. The degree to which he bridges this seemingly enormous gulf is the key to his success. JMW Turner occasionally accomplished something similar over 150 years ago before pure abstraction was even considered a viable possibility. But since then this kind of synthesis has not been particularly well explored. Which is unfortunate, since it strikes deeply into the essential truths that painting is capable of and humbles a simple narrative artist like myself.

You can see some wonderful work on the artist's website (ericaho.com). Much of it is older but it's well worthwhile to see the gradual shift in his work from representation to abstraction. For more recent work check out DC Moore gallery.

I posted his work once before way back in November2009

Steve McDonald

noreply@blogger.com (carmackart) — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 18:54:00 +0000

"Turbine #2" from the series "out of the void"
70" x 70" Archival print on Linen with hand-applied Acrylic color

"Out of the Void #5" 36" x36" ink and water-based paints on linen

"Hillside Retreat"

"India" 60" x 45" Chalk, watercolors and pencil on paper

"The Ice-Cream Man " 24" x 24" Digital drawing with hand-applied color on paper.

Steve McDonald is an artist based in Bali that shows his art in Toronto and London. His intricate line drawings of aerial landscapes, cityscapes and cryptic machinery are executed on various scales and in multiple media, from pens, markers and paints to digital, and various combinations thereof. He also creates
numerous abstract kaleidoscopic prints in a similar vein, as well as digital paint portraiture. But it's these elaborate line drawn scenes that enthrall me the most. The mechanistic formality of the subject matter is countered with loose flowing line work that lends both machine and city a breathing organic quality. This is as it should be. Such creations may be initially designed with mathematical precision in their details but the final products are, in the act of actually building them, and even more so in using them, warped, frayed, bent, broken and patched. In the end they more closely resemble the constructs of ants or corals and other more primitive lifeforms than they do the perfectly mechanistic blueprinted plans that human beings initially envisioned. Mr. McDonald's work is wide ranging and his ideas and themes are not limited to what I've shown here.

You can see a good deal more at his website: www.steviemcd.com
But I would highly recommend browsing through his Facebook page (www.facebook.com/artbysteve) for even More material.

"View from the Tower" in progress
Pencil, charcoal and acrylic on board 72" x 72" .

Peter Rotter

noreply@blogger.com (carmackart) — Fri, 14 Mar 2014 18:11:00 +0000

After The Storm 48×60, 2012

Spring Greens, 36 x 36, 2013

Whale Island 36×60 Oil on Canvas

Winter Forest, 36 x 60, 2012

Winter Sunset, 36 x 60, 2013

And now we turn 180 degrees from abstract conceptualism to that most traditional of forms, the landscape painting. In this field it is not always easy to pick out the excellent from the merely good. But to me Peter Rotter's work stands out from the very very crowded field. His technique combines impressionist brushwork with a photographic and sometimes even graphic sensibility. The simplicity of his compositions accentuates the strengths of his technique and the brushwork is clearly apparent even in these low resolution digital images. The paint is used to depict both the edges of physical forms and the shifting hues of light with equal and naturalistic ease. The overall effect is a powerful evocation of the northern landscapes of Ontario where the artist lives and works.
You can see more at his website: www.peterrotter.com
And he'll be having a solo show opening March 22 in Wellington, Ontario at Studi House PEC.

Ellen Lesperance

noreply@blogger.com (carmackart) — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 21:57:00 +0000

My comfort zone generally runs toward representational and narrative art but I try to keep my mind as open as my eyes. Down at Upfor gallery here in Portland there's a display of work by local artist Ellen Lesperance that is worth your time if you happen to be in town. Her process is highly conceptual. Working from sweaters worn by feminist activists as well as the designs worn by Amazons on classical Greek pottery (!) she develops her own abstract pieces on hand drawn grids. Now concepts can be interesting or not, without having much impact on the visual end product. When the end product is as eloquent and captivating as these, it tends to deepen the interest, adding a layer of satisfying back story and possibly piquing the viewer's interest in those of the artist. In this case, that's the role of feminist activists who often sacrificed many other aspects of their lives to bring about necessary and still nascent changes in society. But process and intent should never be what draws you to a work of art in the first place, and they can be safely set aside until you have first taken in the finished product. Aesthetics is still the unavoidable root challenge of all visual art, despite numerous attempts to set it aside during the 20th century. These pieces meet that challenge with a startling synthesis of painstaking meticulous detail and elegant informality. The hand drawn uneven grid gives the structural aspect of the work room to breathe. The individual paintings are hung upon a background of hand-printed silks, and on a small table near the center of the room, small statuettes of activists and Amazons cavort together across the millennia in common cause. It's as much installation as it is painting and sculpture, and it's a quietly powerful room to spend a little time in if you get the chance.
The show will up through March 30 at Upfor Gallery
You can see more of Ellen Lesperance's work at her website:
www.ellenlesperance.com

Julian Bell

noreply@blogger.com (carmackart) — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 18:45:00 +0000

"Exercises at Imber" 2004

"Delhi Metro" 2007

"The Skylit Room"

"State Offices, Zadar"

"The Arrest at Nevada Bob's" 1999

Julian Bell is a British painter who enthusiastically embraces representation and narrative and finds plenty of fresh energy in that age old effort. He says he's "interested in the funny things people do on the earth," and that seems like a pretty good summation of his style and subject matter, both of which are widely varied, from landscapes to interiors and figures, depicted in rough gestural drawings or tight realism, rigid formal compositions or looping fish-eyed panoramas. The unifying element through all of it is a fascination with the comically vast range of human behavior and our often bizarre transformation of the landscapes around us. The human world seen through Julian Bell's eyes is neither a horror show, nor is it one of awe and wonder. It may occasionally strike you as one, or neither or both, but ultimately it is simply a fascinating place of unlikely peculiarities.
Enjoy.

You can see more work at his website: http://www.jbell.co.uk
or at: http://www.stannesgalleries.com/bell.html

Julian Bell is also a writer and author of the recent history of art "Mirror of the World".

I'd like to thank Chester Arnold to pointing me to his work.

Beth Cavener Stichter

noreply@blogger.com (carmackart) — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 16:15:00 +0000

"Tangled Up in You" with Allasandro Gallo

"Tangled Up in You"

"Tangled Up in You" detail

"The Adoration (from Van Eyck)" Stoneware based mixed media sculpture
168 x 36 x 16 inches

"The Adoration (from Van Eyck)" detail

"The White Hind (The Bride)" Stoneware based mixed media sculpture
68 x 50 x 18 inches

"The White Hind (The Bride)" detail

"L'Amante" Stoneware with Ceramic Glaze
45 x 60 x 44 inches

I've included a lot more images in this post than usual because the detail shots really matter. Everything about Beth Cavener Stichter's work is exquisite, from the concepts to the energetic grace of her compositions. The deft gestural surfaces of her work demonstrate the fluid grace of her hands at work and echo the fluid grace of her animals. But of course there is a tension in that grace as well. It requires the muscular tension of a dancer in peak physical condition to make dramatic motion look effortless. But it's not just physical tension that I'm talking about here. There is a psychological tension. Because her animals are not just animals. They are us. They remind us that we are animals and that more than 90% of what we do and how we act, our obsessions, our fears, desires and weaknesses, are not controlled by conscious thought, but are governed by millions of years of evolution. We are at the mercy of the animal within and no matter how much we may try to dress it up in the veneers of civilization we betray our origins every moment of every day with a tilt of the head, a gesture of the hand or a subtle shift of the eyes. And yet we seem to live in denial of all of this. Perhaps we must deny it. Perhaps the animal within requires us to constrain it with our rational cages (though it can and does escape whenever it really wants). The tension between out instinctive selves and our self-conscious selves and how it plays out in complex human behavior is the subject of her work. Though it can sometimes be grotesque or sorrowful, lonesome or bitter, it always moving, and it is always beautiful, because it is life.

You can see more of her work at her website: www.followtheblackrabbit.com
Or at Claire Oliver in New York City

"Tangled Up in You" was done in collaboration with Allasandro Gallo and was featured recently in High Fructose where you can see more detailed images of it including the process of its creation.

Deborah Simon

noreply@blogger.com (carmackart) — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 16:44:00 +0000

"Ursus Americanus" (Black Bear)
polymer clay, faux fur, linen, embroidery floss, acrylic paint, glass, wire and foam,
22”H x 25”D x 19”W, 2013. Photo by Dan Wonderly

Black Bear - detail

"Ursus Arctos Horribilus" (Grizzly Bear)
polymer clay, faux fur, linen, embroidery floss, acrylic paint, glass, wire and foam,
22”H x 25”D x 19”W, 2013. Photo by Dan Wonderly

"Ursus Maritimus" (Polar Bear)
polymer clay, faux fur, linen, embroidery floss, acrylic paint, glass, wire and foam,
22”H x 25”D x 19”W, 2012. Photo by Dan Wonderly

Coyote Puppets
30”L x 15”H x 6”W each, polymer clay, epoxy, fake fur, wire, glass eyes, and foam.

Deborah Simon's "Flayed Bears" series is just one aspect of an artist whose work ranges from sculpture and installation to performance and painting. Inspired by evolutionary thinking and fascinated by western science's obsession with collecting, cataloging and labeling she creates extraordinary creatures as lifelike as she can make them, but always slightly off, or out of place, jarring us into that state of wonder that is the province of the arts. In the "flayed bears" series, the initial image is a slightly grotesque one, but closer inspection reveals that the anatomical structures are rendered in exquisite needlework. It is such an odd choice but it gives the work an intimate feel of handcrafted care so at odds with the cold objectifying nature of dissection and vivisection evoked by the imagery. Her coyote puppets (above) were part of a multi-media presentation called "Coyote Pursues" in which the two central characters explore "an austere world newly bereft of people". I would simply love to see video of these two in motion, but alas, that is not available on her website. Plenty of other images are however, so go take a look at www.deborahsimon.net

Eric Joyner

noreply@blogger.com (carmackart) — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 17:09:00 +0000

"Lunch Break"

"Catfish"

"All Wrapped Up Again"

"Home Away From Home"

"Jungle Trek"

It's odd. This morning I suddenly had a craving for a donut. I don't eat donuts all that often often. But I like them. Only I'm at work and there's no place nearby to get one. So instead, I thought it was high time to revisit the work of Eric Joyner. He has turned donuts and toy robots into his personal iconography. Armed with a real talent for traditional realism, an exuberant sense of humor and a wry taste for nostalgia he has created what can modestly be described as a unique body of work. I can imagine someone saying that this isn't really serious art. To which the only reply could possibly be, hooray! Serious art can be great, don't get me wrong. But sometimes it's all just so... well, serious. It can give you a headache after a while. The perfect remedy for that sort of thing might be right here. Of course you can't fill up on donuts all the time, but every now and then they're just the thing.
His website is very complete and includes full galleries for every year going back to 2000. So go, and enjoy: ericjoyner.com

"Brink" at Antler Gallery

noreply@blogger.com (carmackart) — Thu, 06 Feb 2014 20:28:00 +0000

My favorite little gallery in Portland is Antler. The title of their current group show is fairly self explanatory. More and more creatures teeter on the edge of oblivion and more and more fall off that edge every year. A new mass extinction event like the one that killed off the dinosaurs is well under way. And it depresses the hell out of me. But small glimmering bits of light may circle such ominous events and this show is an example. 20% of sales go to the Audobon Society of Portland which does some very fine work. Not that they can do anything to slow the crisis or even make a dent, but we must look for light wherever we find it, especially in the dark.

Kevin Sloan "Birds of America: Memorabilia" acrylic on canvas 20" x24"

Juan Travieso "Endangered Bird #130" acrylic and ink on yupo 10" x 10"

Neal M. Perry "Abyss (Polar Bear & Mangrove Rat Snake)" acrylic on wood 13" x 23"

Annie Owens "Island" watercolor and acrylic on paper 24" x 16"

Josh Keyes "The Messengers" acrylic on wood 12" x 20"

Scott Listfield

noreply@blogger.com (carmackart) — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 19:29:00 +0000

"Lost Highway"

"Runway"

"Alien Crossing"

"New Moon"

"Parking Ticket"

One of the things I love about Scott Listfield is that in every email announcement he includes the phrase "that guy who paints astronauts" in the subject line. The message is clear. Don't worry about the name. All you have to do is remember what he does. And once you see these, you will remember. I don't mind at all if an artist's is essentially a shtick, as long as they're totally committed to it and can pull it off with style. Scott Listfield does so by working in a flat, almost paint by numbers kind of realism that serves his pop-culture purposes beautifully. There is no doubt that humor is at the forefront of his agenda but there's more to it than that. He's equally concerned with consumer culture, references to pop-art and how both of these these play into and against the utopian and dystopian dreams of science-fiction. The dark side of his humor suggests that the more pessimistic tales of imaginative fictions better reflect the reality we live in than escapist fantasies like Star Wars that both he and the rest of us clearly love. His paintings declare that the future is now, and frankly it's a bit depressing. But Mr. Listfield examines this fact with wry wit, and I for one am grateful for it.

I posted his work once before back in September 2010 and still stand by what I wrote then as well.

You can see more at his website (astronautdinosaur.com)
or see his newest on his Tumblr blog.

Katie Metz

noreply@blogger.com (carmackart) — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 15:42:00 +0000

"Grounded Stories 22" acrylic on canvas 48" x 34"

"Grounded Stories 28" acrylic on canvas 33" x 24"

"Grounded Stories 38" acrylic on canvas 24" x 33"

"Grounded Stories 39" acrylic on canvas 28" x 27"

"Grounded Stories 40" acrylic on canvas 43" x 21"

Katie Metz is a Seattle based artist who captures the look and feel of her home city with a style and technique that is both ordered and chaotic, like the city itself. The gray and rain are here too, and the glimmering reflection of headlights on damp pavement. But it's that knack for combining hard rigid lines and a grid-like structure with loose expressionistic brushwork and frenetic scratching hatch marks that really suffuses the work with an urban feel. I posted some work by her once before back in July of 2011. Since then her work has become less abstract, more firmly rooted in the specific and the observable but the vibrant energy that made that earlier work successful still remains.
These new pieces will be included in a show that opens February 3rd at Abmeyer + Wood Fine Art in Seattle. You can seem more of her work online at katiemetzstudio.com

Aron Wiesenfeld 3

noreply@blogger.com (carmackart) — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 16:19:00 +0000

"The Garden" 36" x 30" 2012

"Greenhouse" 33" x 30" 2012

"The Grove" 36" x32" 2012

"The Settlers" 25" x 20" 2012

"Delayed" 31" x40" 2012

Here's another favorite artist of mine that's well worth revisiting. Aron Wiesenfeld's work has always reminded me a little of Chris Van Allsburgh, but the psychological territory of his narratives skews somewhat older and a good deal darker. The whole idea of narrative art is to tell a story. Not the whole story of course. That's beyond the scope of a single static image. But as any connoisseur of film or fiction can tell you, it is often what you are not shown, and the things untold that evoke in us the most profound reactions. Aron Wiesenfeld's paintings are the merest glimpse into elaborate stories that the mind can't help but explore, to fill out and expand upon. His characters are young, most frequently girls, on the cusp of adulthood, and his themes are the themes of youth and coming of age; vulnerability and powerlessness, fear and insecurity, but also, and most importantly, wonder. What more could you want from a story?

If you like these images, do yourself a favor and take the time to look at more. I posted his work twice before in December 2009 and June 2011. And you can see much more at his recently updated website: www.aronwiesenfeld.com

David Blackwood

noreply@blogger.com (carmackart) — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 17:58:00 +0000

"March Wesleyville, From Bennetts High Island" 1976

"Fire Down in Labrador" 32" x 20" 1983

"The 'Friend' Bound for Labrador" 20" x 32" 2007

"Hauling Job / Sturges house"

"Visitation on Bragg" 20" x 16" 1997

While I usually post current work by younger newer artists, I am occasionally made aware of my profound ignorance of older successful living artists. David Blackwood is a case in point. His piece "Hauling Job/Sturges House" was featured on the cover of E. Annie Proulx's famous novel "The Shipping News" back in 1993. But I just wasn't paying attention. Well now I am. His narrative prints capture the history, myths, legends and life of the seafaring people of Newfoundland. It's beautiful and haunting.

You can find out more about the artist at his website: www.davidblackwood.com
But if you want to see more work you'll have to troll through the many galleries that carry it. Among them are:
www.gallery78.com
abbozzogallery.com
www.mayberryfineart.com
emmabutler.com
www.winchestergalleriesltd.com

Thank you Mr. McDevitt for the heads up.

John Brosio - 4

noreply@blogger.com (carmackart) — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 16:41:00 +0000

"Bride in Headlights"

"The Last Hot Dog" oil on canvas 24" x30" 2013

"BFF" 27" x 36" oil on canvas 2012

"Breaking News" oil on canvas 18" x 24" 2013

"Dinoaurs Eating CEO" oil on canvas 55" x 60" 2013

It's often hard for me to get back to posting after the holidays. Habits are like flywheels. It doesn't take much effort to keep them going but once they grind to a halt it's a real bitch to get them started up again. Which why I'm thankful that Mr. John Brosio is out there making new paintings for me to get excited about... AGAIN. This is my fourth post of his work (Nov. 2008, Mar. 2010, May 2011). And I really don't have much to add to anything I might have said before. All visual art ought to speak for itself. It's visual after all, and any art that requires explication for appreciation is missing the point if you ask me. John Brosio's work speaks directly to my love of dark narratives with a pitch perfect blending of painterly realism and surrealist fantasy, sci-fi and horror. Throw in a dash of humor and you're off to the races. After all, I would probably fall in love any painting titled "Dinosaurs eating CEO" no matter what it looked like. It helps that it looks looks as good as its title.
you can see more at www.johnbrosio.com
or get the latest at his Facebook page.