Artist a Day - Submissions Accepted

Jack Long

2009-07-10T03:16:06Z

About Jack:

Jack Long grew up in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He received his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2002. Painting in oils on wood, his work draws heavily upon the tradition of storytelling, utilizing motifs and imagery found in mythology and fairytales. His paintings reflect the modern world through a mystical mirror. Themes of community, sustainability, conflict, and love are all explored.

In these fantastic and mythological images, nature, society and our own habitats are transformed and presented back to the viewer, a process that the artist sees as inherent in our view of the world.

Jack on his work:

I feel like people think of their lives in this way, relating moments in their lives to fairytales or mythology. We have this way of seeing our world in terms of heroes and villains, embellishing certain events, and forgetting others. My paintings have grown out of this; they reveal the deeply rooted patterns of storytelling, mythology and mysticism in our lives.

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Sara Brum

2009-07-08T02:43:49Z

About Sara:

Originally from San Jose, California, Sara spent much of her adult life moving from one place to another without being willing to stick to one. Along the way she has used packing tape to lift bits of her surroundings. She sticks the tape onto paper in order to take that moment with her to the next place.

In 2003 Sara was invited to participate in the Arts Mentor Program at Santa Monica College and is a member of the Los Angeles Art Association. She has participated in many group and juried shows and is one half of Littlelift.

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Jean Bradbury

2009-07-08T02:47:59Z

About Jean:

Jean Bradbury paints plants and animals as metaphors for emotional states. Feelings of loneliness, contentment, anxiety and freedom are portrayed by small and often vulnerable creatures in fantastic garden settings.

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Resa Blatman

2009-07-07T01:32:33Z

Resa on her work:

Through my work, I attempt to show nature at odds with itself by playing with the contradictions of emptiness versus fullness, lush versus barren, and rapture versus displeasure. In my paintings, the berries, linear loops, and tiny dots represent an abundance of embryos, eggs, and seeds. Heaps are an important element: these berries, loops, tiny dots, and sometimes creatures accumulate in piles and mounds and represent the bounty of femininity and ripeness.

My compositions are inspired by the Baroque, Romanticism, and Victorian decorative art, as well as botanical imagery, to create a visual feast of fruit, flora, wildlife, and pattern. I take those elements out of their context and give them a surreal landscape or contemporary stage. Most of the elements are representationally painted with form, yet in the same picture others might be used as decorative backgrounds. The elements and patterns represent a kind of human life cycle, with all of its changes and complexities, while the juxtaposition of these “three-dimensional” and flat forms creates a visually rich dialog that refers to the ongoing contradictions mentioned above — lush versus barren. Themes of excess and beauty are also represented through the decorative qualities in the paintings. Yet, these ornamental, invasive patterns creep into the fecund environments of the birds and bats — sometimes overtaking, even strangling the animals — and along with the ominous berry, create a picture of sensuality mixed with undertones of wanting and dismay.

The new paintings include digitally created, laser cut edges. The various edges, which may include animals, insects, and flourishes, are an extension of the patterns within the paintings. These cut forms, along with the shadows made by the cuts, encourage a three-dimensionality to the work, and by doing so, the patterns become more invasive and experiential.

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Mary Jane Ansell

2009-07-06T01:54:31Z

About Mary Jane:

Mary Jane Ansell graduated from Brighton University in 1994 and now works from her studio in the heart of Brighton’s North Laine.

After only beginning to seriously exhibit her work in 2002, she was selected for both the 2004 BP National Portrait Award and The Daily Mails Not the Turner Prize she was also prize winner in LondonArts Art of Love competition held at the Arndale Gallery, Cork Street London.

2004 also saw her supporting the national charitable initiative Big Arts Week spending a week with children, at Stanford Infant School during June encouraging them to explore portraiture for themselves.

2005 continued to be just as eventful. Mary Jane won the Sussex Open Painting Award at Brighton and Hove Museum and was selected for the Royal Society Of Portrait Painters annual exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London followed by a second selection for LondonArts Art of Love competition held at the Oxo Tower Gallery, London in February.

2006 opened with an invitation to produce a portrait, one of 150 to be auctioned as part of The National Portrait Gallery’s 150th Anniversary Gala celebrations. Along with celebrities such as Mario Testino, Bruce Oldfield, Sam Taylor-Wood, Sophie Dahl and Jerry Hall - artists and sitters joined forces for National Portrait Gallery’s 150th Anniversary Appeal: ‘Collecting for the Future’ raising money for future collections.

Mary Jane is currently working towards her next solo show be held at Fairfax, Chelsea in Sept 2009.

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Daniel Kornrumpf

2009-07-05T03:54:21Z

About Daniel:

Daniel received a BFA from Kutztown University in Kutztown, Pennsylvania and an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His work can be found in several collections and has been exhibited across the northeastern US states including shows at the Cambridge Art Association and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Museum.

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Heidi Cody

2009-07-04T04:16:23Z

About “Crude”:

Ten vacuum-formed plastic and steel signs depicting the abstracted logos of the ten oil companies traded on the N.Y.S.E. The size of each sign corresponds to each company’s total gross revenues in 2001. Exxon Mobil, the largest at 7.25′ x 7.25′ x 2′, was in “Open House: Working in Brooklyn,” at the Brooklyn Museum. Several of these editioned signs have sold into private collections.

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Agustin Sirai

2009-07-03T03:20:49Z

About Agustin:

Argentina based artist Agustin Sirai takes a little piece of earth and creates mini isolated dream lands. Inviting, yet remote, the floating islands would be a treat to explore. His roller coaster-esque paintings are equally interesting. Often in terrifying configurations or with other ominous elements, the pieces touch the underlying fear in all of us.

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Judith Mullen

2009-07-02T04:55:19Z

Judith on her work:

Recent sculptures evolved out of my painting process. In each of my sculptures a fallen tree branch is married to a rock-like base and adorned with mixed media bringing forth a transformation from fragmentation to wholeness.

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Julian Callos

2009-07-01T02:09:01Z

About Julian:

Julian is an illustrator living and working in Los Angeles. He recently graduated from the Otis College of Art and Design in LA.

About “Death, or a Murder of Crows” (bottom):

This work explores the many different nature symbols that people from cultures all over the world used to represent universal themes such as death, power, and wisdom. I was interested to discover just how important a role nature played in the mythologies, folklores, and traditions of these various cultures. As I researched the symbols I was fascinated by how the seemingly arbitrary plants and animals came to be associated with certain ideas in always interesting and sometimes surprising ways.

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Hank Willis Thomas

2009-06-29T02:40:35Z

About the “B(r)anded Series”:

The B(r)anded series is a result of an exploration, and subsequent appropriation of the language of advertising. By employing the ubiquitous language of advertising in my work, I am able to talk explicitly about race, class and history in a medium that almost everyone can decode. Much of the work focuses on the use of African American male body in advertisements. I am interested in the connection between this body type and the cotton and slave trade industries that brought this country so much wealth.

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Elsa Mora

2009-06-29T02:26:27Z

Elsa on her work:

My work is about human nature, about the way we are and the way we interact with each other, with ourselves and with the rest of the world. I enjoy working in different media like painting, ceramic, drawing, photography, installation illustration and in 2008 I discovered the magic of paper cutting.

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Yuko Adachi

2009-06-28T03:55:03Z

Yuko on her work:

In my work, I want to externalize my appreciation of being alive, celebration of freedom in human creativity, and my interest in expressing the spiritual journey during the process of creating art. I do not make any preliminary sketches for my works. I dive into the unknown path and simply follow where my energy and curiosity take me in the present. Through the act of creating art, I want to become one with the universe and tap into the unlimited well of imagination and express it.

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Ryan Lake

2009-06-27T04:58:02Z

About Ryan:

Ryan Lake is an artist/illustrator based in Toronto, Canada. He has a Bachelor of Design in Illustration from the Ontario College of Art and Design and a degree in Art Fundamentals from Sheridan College.

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Javier Pinon

2009-06-26T04:06:04Z

About Javier:

Javier is a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, Providence and University of Texas, Austin. His collage work has been shown in galleries across the globe. He is also the recipient of 2008 Bauernmarkt Residency from the Lenikus Collection in Vienna and the 2007 Artist Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA).

Javier’s work is also a part of the High Museum of Art’s permanent collection in Atlanta, GA.

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Ricky Colson

2009-06-24T13:44:40Z

Ricky on his work:

My work recalls a common childhood experience. When I was young I envisioned myself as a miniature person, a toy figure standing only a few inches tall. Items like pillows and radiators were transformed into massive geographical landmarks. As if attempting to explore the frontier, I could convert these man made objects into a vast, all-surrounding, natural landscape.

I am now reliving and further developing that concept with my art. By distorting the scale in my work, figures interact with the domestic environment in completely new ways. Our perceptions change when we subtly adjust our scope of the world.

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Mark Menjivar

2009-06-24T03:02:17Z

Mark on “You are what you eat”:

You Are What You Eat is a series of portraits made by examining the interiors of refrigerators in homes across the Untied States.

For three years I traveled around the country exploring the issue of hunger. The more time I spent speaking and listening to individual stories, the more I began to think about the foods we consume and the effects they have on us as individuals and communities. An intense curiosity and questions about stewardship led me to begin to make these unconventional portraits.

A refrigerator is both a private and a shared space. One person likened the question, “May I photograph the interior of your fridge?” to asking someone to pose nude for the camera. Each fridge is photographed “as is.” Nothing added, nothing taken away.

These are portraits of the rich and the poor. Vegetarians, Republicans, members of the NRA, those left out, the under appreciated, former soldiers in Hitler’s SS, dreamers, and so much more. We never know the full story of one’s life.

My hope is that we will think deeply about how we care. How we care for our bodies. How we care for others. And how we care for the land.

top image:
Carpenter/Photographer / San Antonio, TX / 3-person household / 12 point buck / 2008

bottom image:
Owner of defunct amusement park / Alpine, TX / 1-person household / Former WW II POW / 2007

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Aerick Eisenstein

2009-06-23T00:24:05Z

About Aerick:

Aerick is currently attending Art Center College of Design in Pasadena California where he hopes to obtain his BFA by 2012. Much of the work from his site is for school assignments but his talent is evident.

Aerick on his work:

Great art opens a dialogue with the audience rather then tries to make a statement. Otherwise there is nothing to gain. People don’t like to be told things, however they do enjoy a conversation.

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Amy Freeman

2009-06-22T01:58:43Z

About Amy:

Responding to everyday stresses, anxieties and wonder, Amy Freeman creates narrative imagery that embraces the use of self portraiture. By nature, she is an actress but is too apprehensive to perform on stage. Instead, the studio becomes her theater where she actively draws and paints from direct observation. Aided by wigs and the occasional costume, Freeman alters her appearance while laboring to best portray a desired emotion and endure any necessary discomforts to fully express it. Motivated by daydreams and guided by passions that play a daily tug of war, she visually integrates reality with a spectacle of childhood fantasy, creating a transition between the simplicity of long ago and the complexity of what exists now.

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Dayna Thacker

2009-06-20T03:37:18Z

Dayna on her work:

My interest lies in the systems that humans create for themselves in order to make sense of the world and our place in it. Philosophy and the various religions of the world are some of the systems that I find most fascinating, but there are many others. Science, geometry, mathematics, poetry, literature, mythology, fairy tales, music; all are the result of humans trying to puzzle out the mystery of existence, and they all describe a different part of the same story – and though the methods differ they often reach strikingly similar conclusions. Many of these systems are complex and far-reaching, created by deep thinkers. But many are of our own personal design, created to explain, organize or cope with situations in our individual lives.

Another aspect of my work is the difference between the conclusions we reach with the logical, reasoning, conscious part of ourselves, and the ones that appear suddenly from our intuitive subconscious. We accommodate an incredible amount of informational input these days, and very little of it is from the natural world with which we evolved. Most of it is information we ourselves have created, formulated and compounded, and the resulting blizzard of swirling facts and useless trivia is mind-boggling. Yet, although culturally we give ourselves very little time to be quiet and still, to mentally digest, our subconscious manages to take it all in and occasionally give back a flash of insight.

This process is reflected in my choice of media. Collage, assemblage and installation all utilize existing objects that are collected, taken out of context, and then reconfigured into new relationships. The collecting and sorting of those objects are methodical activities of accumulating information, whereas the recognition of meaning between two disparate objects is an intuitive occurrence.

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Jane South

2009-06-20T03:36:49Z

About Jane:

Jane South’s creative impulse comes from a seemingly unlikely source: bike rides around New York City. The shifting perspective that results from moving toward and away from structural objects inspires her exploration of the human relationship with architecture.

As her media, South chooses materials fundamental to art and to architecture–paper, balsa wood, acrylic and ink. With these basic elements, she creates three-dimensional sculptures that reference the industrial forms she is exposed to every day. With dozens of individual elements, folds, and marks, the meticulously constructed works are both sturdy and flimsy, modern yet archaic, encapsulating what South calls “the fluidity of our architectural experience.”

After graduating at Central School of Art (now Central/St. Martins) in London, Jane South moved to the US where she completed her MFA at UNC, Greenboro. She is the recipient of many major awards and residencies, including most recently, a 2007 NYFA Fellowship in Sculpture.

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PaperMonster

2009-06-19T02:47:36Z

About PaperMonster:

PaperMonster is a stencil graffiti artist who’s vivid and intricate pieces explore the beauty behind the eyes and facial expressions of women. Born in Puerto Rico, PaperMonster incorporates stencil and pasting techniques to create pieces of art on any surface by incorporating pop culture icons, Asian typography, patterns and texture to present vibrant emotions and stories. His work allows the audience to take his creations for pure face value or explore deeper into each piece.

PaperMonster’s stencil art technique continues to grow and evolves demonstrating his ability to grow and explore a wide variety of themes. His work has been featured in magazines and exhibitions throughout the world such as the Melbourne Stencil Festival (Australia 2008), I Am 8-bit show (California), Stolen Space Gallery (London), Rokon Magazine (Seoul, Korea), and Proteus Magazine(Issue 5 Cover.)

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Rosemarie Fiore

2009-06-18T22:19:13Z

Rosemarie on her work:

My drawings are created by containing and controlling firework explosions. I bomb blank sheets of paper with different fireworks including color smoke bombs, jumping jacks, monster balls, rings of fire, and lasers. As I work, I create imagery by controlling the chaotic nature of the explosions in upside-down containers. When the paper becomes saturated in color, dark and burned, I take it back to my studio and collage blank paper circles onto the image to establish new planes and open up the composition. I then continue to bomb the pieces. These actions are repeated a number of times. The final works contain many layers of collaged explosions and are thick and heavy.

Be sure to check out this video of Rosemarie explaining this work further.

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Ben Roosevelt

2009-06-17T14:53:20Z

About Ben:

Ben Roosevelt is a multidisciplinary artist who makes works about the urban environment and existential confusion. He is especially interested in the combination of everyday life and the strange, dangerous, or off-putting. Recent works have focused on city infrastructure — roads, sidewalks, buildings, telephone and electricity lines, even things like road-kill and “for sale” signs — as well as the problems and experiences of people living among these things.

About “Legion”:

This installation shows silhouettes of people involved in routine activities alongside soldiers and people involved in criminal or illicit activities. All the figures are stuck against a bright orange wall, creating a variety of unusual optical effects. As part of a show also called Legion, this piece drew on current geopolitical anxieties and breakdowns where distinctions collapse between battlefield and homeland, combat and politics, and friend and enemy.

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Slinkachu

2009-06-16T01:33:43Z

Slinkachu on his work:

My ‘Little People Project’ started in 2006. It involves the remodeling and painting of miniature model train set characters, which I then place and leave on the street. It is both a street art installation project and a photography project. The street-based side of my work plays with the notion of surprise and I aim to encourage city-dwellers to be more aware of their surroundings. The scenes I set up, more evident through the photography, and the titles I give these scenes aim to reflect the loneliness and melancholy of living in a big city, almost being lost and overwhelmed. But underneath this, there is always some humor. I want people to be able to empathize with the tiny people in my works.

In 2008 I started the ‘Inner City Snail’ project, involving the decoration of snails that I find around London. After decoration, the snails are then placed back, free to go about their business in the city. In many ways similar in theme to the ‘Little People Project’, Inner City Snail can also be seen as a satire of street art and, more generally, our need to cover every available surface of our cities with graffiti, signage and advertising.

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Mike Maxwell

2009-06-14T02:18:19Z

About Mike:

Born in 1979 San Diego based artist Mike Maxwell has built a loyal following with his signature stone-blue faces, gloomy churches and beautiful windmills. Self-taught and continuously improving in his work, the poetic dreamy scenes examine humanity, conceptuality, genetics and consciousness.

With subtle changes in both theme and process, Maxwell has sharpened his skill providing more depth in his current work. Maxwell’s choice of color is deliberate and with purpose reflecting a lack of race and ambiguity in the stone-blue faced pieces.

The work has a lot to do with his personal re-education and a desire to learn and understand things that are so prevalent in our society but are often forgotten by the masses. Focusing his work around the human experience, themes of religion, sex and science captivates our attention in these acrylic beauties. Mikes work has been shown nation wide and over seas at galleries in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Japan, London, and Australia.

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Tertia du Toit

2009-06-13T04:18:53Z

About Tertia:

The paintings of Tertia du Toit have been described as an uninhibited outpouring of inspiration, life and creativity. Through a lyrical focus on the female figure du Toit evokes a sense of joyous sensuality in life itself. Not cluttered with inpenetrable symbolism her works are a classic invitation to take part in a contemporary “joie de vivre”.

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Andrew Tong

2009-06-12T03:57:37Z

Andrew on his work:

I have had a paintbrush or pencil in my hand from a very young age, and a gift of being able to transmit my ideas onto paper or canvas. I have also been blessed with having excellent teachers and a family that always gave me enormous encouragement to pursue my vision of becoming an artist. My technical ability, imagination and exploration of different mediums have made sure that I am very versatile with my art, in subject and technique.
I have worked on large murals down to tiny illustration pieces.

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Phil Irish

2009-06-11T02:52:56Z

About Phil:

Irish has been asking people to draw maps for him. Participants diagram a place of personal significance: perhaps where a decision was taken, or an accident happened, or a place of solace returned to again and againIrish follows these maps, full of curiosity and empathy. At the destination point — significant to another but new to him — Irish draws, takes photographs, and takes time to explore.

The map and Irish’s response to the place are fused as one artwork. Once the process is complete, the finished works spark imagination and wonder in those who engage them.

The visual languages in the paintings are diverse and rich, taking the cues from each individual place. There is often a collision between representation and some form of abstraction that points to a metaphorical reading of the scene. There is joy in the sensuality of the medium, pulling the viewer deeper into the experience of viewing, interpreting, and exploring.

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Joshua Flint

2009-06-10T02:06:53Z

Joshua on his work:

People are forever fascinating. I am compelled to paint them. My pursuits are driven by my curiosities about the world around me; about our nature, about our character, about our ambitions, both individually and collectively.

The work I do explores people and place. Sometimes these elements collide, other times they remain solitary; leaving the viewer with a sense of how we see ourselves and how others view us. The figurative work I do allows both myself and the viewer to stop time for a while and focus on the lifetime of events, in all of our lives, that often remain undocumented.

Painting an environment or exploring a figure gives me insight I wouldn’t receive in any other way. It allows me to have multiple dialogues at the same time. One with the subject matter, one with the paint, and one with myself.

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Roland Tamayo

2009-06-06T03:04:19Z

About Roland:

In the spring of 1999, Roland earned a BFA in illustration from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. In the years since graduating, he began a career in the video game industry as an environment/concept artist. His personal work has grown as well and he is represented by Gallery 1988 in LA and SF.

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Gilbert Garcin

2009-06-06T02:49:12Z

About Gilbert:

Gilbert Garcin spent most of his life managing a lamp factory in France. At 65, he retired and took up a trick photography workshop. For the past ten years he has been creating comical, surrealistic photographs which warmly highlight sometimes cold, existential questions. Garcin inhabits this strange world and ponders it together with the viewer; with Garcin you have a dedicated, but perplexed, guide.

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Lique Schoot

2009-06-06T02:17:08Z

About Lique:

Lique Schoot exclusively paints herself. She is making self-portraits for more than 10 years now. As of October 2003, she has been making a picture of herself every day. The paintings act as visual diaries. Some of the images started out digitally and these are used as a basis for her paintings.

The artist tries continuously challenge photography and painting; the strongly lightened self-portraits refer to studied exposures in the studio. While the paintings keep their instantaneous character of the snapshots, this brevity disappears, or perhaps better, is compromised, by the time needed for the painting procedure itself.

Nevertheless, her self-portraits are snapshots (rather than instantaneous scenes) from her daily life, with additional information provided by the backgrounds: Lique Schoot on the sofa, in the bathroom, in the garden, etc. Thus, she exposes herself in different ways, differently dressed, and with varying feelings, moods and emotions. Thus, by the act of the painting her life out, Lique distances herself somewhat from her life and her work rises above the plain self-portrait. Doing this she makes herself purposely vulnerable to the spectator, delivering a “suggestion”, or a “fragment of life”, rather than just a portrait, a graphic novel in which she acts her own life out.

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Jennifer Sanchez

2009-06-06T02:11:14Z

Jennifer on her work:

My paintings invite the viewer to experience new and emergent spaces. They explore relational space and the idea that while having no positive existence of its own, space allows everything else to exist. They are full of bright colors, circles and swirls that illustrate a perpetually changing environment. They can be best described as exploding optimism and are unabashedly happy.

At this point, I want to experiment with new palettes, add more spontaneous elements, work larger, and learn more about different conceptions of space.

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Elana Zolotnitsky

2009-06-04T03:09:39Z

About Elana:

Elana was born in Moscow, Russia and earned an MFA from the Moscow University of Cinematography. She has had numerous solo exhibitions in the San Francisco and Berkley areas of California. In addition Elana has won several awards for her work including the Award of Excellence at Northern National Art Competition.

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Jools Blands

2009-06-04T03:09:45Z

Jools on her work:

Although I live in the country, I remain passionate about the city. I think that the city screams at you, not so much by the typical noise of traffic and people, but it screams at you visually, through signs, advertisement, logo’s, text, graffiti, window displays, neon lights and other images designed to attract our attention. Traveling the world I always bring my camera with me to capture the ‘noise’ visually. I then use these images to create artistic statements about urban life and what it evokes in me.

Today, I find myself influenced and enamored by Pop Art, in particular artists such as Richard Hamilton, Robert Rauschenberg and Richard Prince. I visited New York twice in 2007 simply to absorb the atmosphere, walking the streets day and night taking photographs and filming. My camera is constantly trained at what is often overlooked by others: the wonderful graffiti that graces the rough brick walls around the back streets of the Meatpacking district, the street market stalls in Chinatown and Little Italy, the peeling posters and the water towers atop buildings in Tribeca and the many construction sites that reflect the ever changing cityscape.

In places like New York, or any urban metropolis really, you are constantly bombarded by noise and information. It is possible to be advertised at, sold to, harassed, propositioned, detained, honked at, lectured, policed or abused on every street corner, every day. For a person who adores the wide open spaces of the country, I find it a little baffling that I am so passionate about cities, New York in particular. The truth is, I find the noise of the city soothing and comforting, even road works that continue all through the night. When I am standing on a busy street corner watching a police car muscle its way through traffic, lights flashing and siren blazing, I feel completely happy. I can’t explain it.

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Jud Turner

2009-06-03T03:11:12Z

Jud on his work:

Quantum physics tells us that apparently solid objects are comprised of vast empty spaces, populated by tiny particles whose individual relationships create the whole. And that a single particle can exist in two separate places during one moment in time.

I explore such dichotomies in my sculpture. Using welded steel and found objects, I create artwork which embraces opposites — the tension between humans and nature; the perils of balancing biology and technology; or the combination of ancient fossils with modern machinery. I also engage contradictions by the materials I choose — human forms which appear solid and realistic, but which were made with a delicate surface of thin wire, allowing the viewer to see through the figure; or by mixing the sense of scale in a piece, using large items alongside tiny pieces.

I place a high value on craftsmanship and surface appearances. I try to balance realism with a stylization that allows me the freedom to push concepts into the deepest levels of the viewer’s perception. While my vision can tend towards the darker side of human nature, my work is infused with a sense of humor which can make difficult subjects easier to approach.

I have worked with found objects and welded steel for the past 16 years; my background and training was in drawing and painting. I enjoy of the process of making sculpture — finding objects which are re-purposed in my studio, its solitude, the intensive labor, and especially the way that making art affects how I view the world around me. I have many ideas for sculptures roaming through my imagination, but only those which operate on multiple levels of meaning and visual satisfaction are realized in the physical world.

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Mark Rubenstein

2009-06-02T01:25:51Z

About Mark:

Mark Rubenstein has spent the last 6 years developing his multi-part series Common Place. A personal testament to the emotional challenges inherent within his “coming of age” narrative - set in a surreal world that uniquely encompasses what it means to grow up and examine life in a new way. The series presents a cast of characters that seem to manifest themselves as one being, uniting to embark on a grand journey.

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John Pugh

2009-06-01T01:16:21Z

John on his work:

I am a trompe l’oeil artist focusing primarily on mural painting. I have found that the “language” of life-size illusions allow me to communicate with a very large audience. It seems almost universal that people take delight in being visually tricked. Once captivated by the illusion, the viewer is lured to cross an artistic threshold and thus seduced into exploring the concept of the piece. I have also found that by creating architectural illusion that integrates with the existing environment both optically and aesthetically, the art transcends the “separateness” that public art sometimes produces.

It is important for me, as an artist, to interact with the community, formulating concepts based upon a multitude of viewpoints. Artists must be continually aware that their work can serve as a bridge between diverse cultural backgrounds. Public art is of great interest to me; providing me with a sense of purpose as it is a very powerful form of communication. It can link people together, stimulate a sense of pride within the community, and introduce the viewer to new ideas and perspectives.

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Erika Simmons

2009-05-31T03:02:19Z

About Erika (iRI5):

iRI5 is an imaginative painter and sculptor who is driven by an incredible passion for self-expression through art. Her works are often noted for their unique style, elegance, and technique. iRI5 has developed an innovative style that focuses on recycling found materials, such as old cassettes and used books. Her use of such a variety of techniques and materials make her work an excellent choice for a wide range of projects and purposes. iRI5 is accomplished in using traditional methods as well as modern technique. Her works have been featured in galleries in London and Brisol. iRI5’s art has also been featured in weblogs, newspapers, and magazines all over the world. Although irI5 loves to express her vision through art, she is also adept at creating commercial works and readily communicates the vision of her clientele.

Erika on her work:

I am a self-taught artist who works with non-traditional media. Most of my materials have been discarded or donated at some point. I try to express an idea, through the arrangement of very common things, with the hope that some message is conveyed without words. I love the nostalgia of the archaic and I hope that not everything which has outlived its use goes to waste.

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Geoffrey Gorman

2009-05-30T01:49:20Z

Geoffrey on his work:

A broken bent tree branch, bleached from sun and rain, makes me think of weathered bones: fingers, legs, backbone, and hip bone. Old stained strips of cloth act like bandages and clothing, hiding and holding it all together. Sculpted wax covers the frame and joints of wood. Found and lost objects assembled into curious and evocative shapes is what excites me.

When I am making objects, I think of model airplanes made of balsa wood, then covered in thin transparent paper. Or I see decoys and shapes made to attract wild animals. I visited a museum in Alaska that had drawers filled with toys that had been put together, used and collected from previous cultures. I also think of a forest of tall, dark trees covered in moss and moisture, a silent, meditative place.

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Stephanie Henderson

2009-05-29T12:43:50Z

About Stephanie:

Stephanie is an adjunct professor at The College for Creative Studies in Detroit and also enrolled in the Masters program at Detroit’s Wayne State University. She currently has work at the Robert Kidd Gallery in Birmingham and C-Pop Gallery in Detroit.

Stephanie on her work:

My work is symbolic of what is going on in my life as well as the life around me, there are often layered meanings and intimate and philosophical implications. Currently I draw inspiration from the spirit, culture, people, amazing artists, and soul of the city in which I spend most of my days, Detroit, as well as nature, my husband and his gardens, my son, a variety of writings, and the meaning of and circle of life.

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Brett Amory

2009-05-28T01:36:00Z

About Brett:

When he was 21 Brett moved to San Francisco to study motion pictures at the Academy of Arts. Soon after enrolling in school, Brett took his first drawing class and was introduced to his passion for the arts. Around the time Brett turned 24 he tried his hand in painting. In 2002 Brett switched his major to fine art and started his first body of work called “Waiting” a series of paintings about the anticipation of the next moment.

Brett graduated from the Academy of Arts in 2005 and has shown his work all over the country. In 2006 Brett along with five other artist published a book called “Convergence” and had book signings in New York, La and at the SFMOMA in San Francisco. Brett Currently works as a graphic designer at an environmental company in San Francisco and continues to show his work in galleries across the country.

About the “Waiting” series:

Since 2001 I have been developing the same body of work called “Waiting,” a series of paintings about the anticipation of the next moment. While we wait we are waiting for that moment to end. We anticipate the next moment so we are rarely in the present one. We spend so much of our lives coming and going so I paint scenes of traffic, places where we wait to be somewhere else.

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Casey Weldon

2009-05-27T00:49:52Z

About Casey:

Casey Weldon is a native Californian. He studied art at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena from which he graduated in 2004. He has exhibited his work on both coasts and continues to work as an artist and illustrator in Brooklyn, New York.

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Jenny Morgan

2009-05-27T00:08:28Z

About Jenny:

Jenny Morgan is a contemporary artist who creates large paintings. She was schooled at the School of Visual Arts in New York and the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design in Colorado. Jenny has held several solo shows throughout the Denver area and has participated in numerous other shows across Colorado and New York.

Jenny on her work:

I manipulate the figure to expose the individual’s idiosyncrasies and create a physiological portrait. Working with people from my own life as subject matter allows me to hone in on specifics of their character and present their personalities as I experience them.

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Mijn Schatje

2009-05-26T18:35:41Z

About Mijn:

As a small child, while other little girls were playing dolls, Marie Blanco Hendrickx AKA Mijn Schatje was making wishes and prayers on tombstones in the woods at her grandparents at le chateau des Ifs in the Paris area. She lived a tale of her own in that castle, and received memories made out of fireworks, treasure huntings, flower tiaras and ducks in the pond. Born to a Spanish father and a Dutch mother, Mijn traveled extensively as a child, all around Europe, then to Africa and Canada. Little Marie’s imagination took profit of that friendly and experiences-rich atmosphere to grow exponentially, she was obsessed with fairytales, mermaids, ghosts, carnivals and poetry. In her early years, not knowing much about spelling, she was also convinced Jimi Hendrix was her uncle.

Now at age 25, Mijn resides in Paris. Paying hommage to her imaginary uncle rockstar she got to be an active participant in the music scene, where she created many LP and CD covers for renowned « French Touch » labels like Record Makers (founded by the duo Air) and Ekler’O'Shock. She won international acclaim with her work for TimeRelease (US) and the Taiwanese label Avant Garden. The whole of the ‘08 collection of the hip Italian fashion houseFornarina is subject to the unique Mijn Schatje style, bringing her enchanted characters to the Milan and Paris fashion weeks and to high street fashion stores of Los Angeles, London, Las Vegas and Milan.

Her silenced, fantastic universe is a bizarre and beautiful landscape from which big eyed elf-like little creatures stare at you with their mesmerizing eyes. Both romantic and surreal, her work is the kind of thing dreams are made of, the worlds she creates you can easily get lost in. It is a beguiling combination of innocence and sophistication, a subtle mix of darkness and seduction, which is largely appreciated and propagated by the world’s cutting edge press and publishers since 2004.

Also, check out this video from Mijn’s recent show in March.

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Marion Peck

2009-05-24T03:11:51Z

About Marion:

Marion Peck was born on October 3, 1963 in Manila, the Philippines, while her family was on a trip around the world, and grew up in Seattle, Washington. She received a BFA from The Rhode Island School of Design in 1985. Subsequently she studied in two different MFA programs, Syracuse University in New York and Temple University in Rome. She currently lives in Eagle Rock, CA.

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Steven Spencer

2009-05-22T01:43:53Z

About Steven:

Steven Spencer’s dark and moody cityscapes have a feel of Gotham City about them.

Shot in various urban locations around Europe, the photographs in his European Views series are created by merging different elements from a particular area together to build up images that represent not only the look, but the feel of a place or space.

By photographing the more detailed aspects of a landscape such as surface marks on a wall or street, cloud formations in the sky and traces of light caused by movement, and then placing the images over one another and then over the original shot of the landscape, Spencer creates a layering system that gives a unique depth to his work, both visually and conceptually.

The result is an encapsulating collection of atmospheric portraits of the urban landscape that seem to project the viewer into an other-worldly dimension.

About “Flags”:

Spencer’s unique and stunning works on canvas represent a departure from his photographic work. These bold and graphic statements explore themes of national identity, military power and the social issues of our modern times and are produced using stencils, spray paint and hand finished brushwork.

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Albert Guasch

2009-05-22T01:49:54Z

Albert on his work:

Making the most of my own imaginary and the collective likewise, I propose reflection spaces surrounding contemporary conflicts like the dialectic about nature and culture, and the difficulties of communication.

An imagining that flees from the spectacularity and the fascination for the media, that moves away from the photographic precision, that doesn’t want the gesture of the trace or the harmony of the colour…

An imagining that arises from “realities” that struggle to go beyond the immediate in order to go deep into situations that are more mysterious and unknown than the ones left in the starting point.

A “calm” glance that moves among the gaps of what is poetic and what is incisive, that looks for a certain balance between hiding and showing in a paused and subtle way.

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Kate MccGwire

2009-05-21T03:18:55Z

About Kate:

Kate MccGwire’s work asks questions about the very nature of beauty. She’s intrigued by the possibility of envisaging beauty as something more complex than merely what delights the senses: beauty can be about a problem; it can be something that repels you or makes you question the status quo. The idea that it is a cultural phenomenon, susceptible to argument through the creative process, fascinates her.

Intrinsic to her method is the collecting and sorting of materials from hundreds of different sources over a period of months, even years. In turn, pieces evolve intuitively as if out of the subconscious, the language evocative rather than purely illustrative. As the work takes shape, a new, playful reality emerges, so that the object itself becomes a sort of prism, refracting the layers of meaning and cultural associations buried within, the quantity of materials used sometimes deliberately overwhelming, as if charged with a power and ambition beyond the reach they possess when seen in isolation.

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