Gerhard Richter

I now see all the fuss about Gerhard Richter when it was suggested I take a look at his work. I have selected a few of his paintings from the oil on paper series where he sometimes will combine oil and watercolor. I particularly enjoy his choice of colors and gestural painting style. Love them! Photos from: http://www.gerhard-richter.com/art/

Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin

KIBERA, NAIROBI,Kenya

RUBBISH DUMP RECYCLING, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

GARMENT FACTORY, India

PHONE RECYCLING, Mumbai, India

SOLDERING CIRCUIT BOARDS, Toy factory Shantou, Guangdong, China

SHIP DISMANTLING, Alang Shipyard, India

Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin is an Irish artist who paints cityscape's of Dublin and Irish history. His most recent works concentrate around the harsh working conditions in other countries.

Photo's from: http://caoimhghindublin.tripod.com/

Karin Daymond

Karin Daymond documents the South African landscape where she lives. Her paintings contain patterns, rhythm and color. They are a beautiful record of how she views the changing landscape and environment.

In another set of her paintings, maybe due to the more subdued color choices, she is able to give the impression of the landscapes being alone, untouched and left alone but she lets us know this often has not been the case. She says "Life in South Africa is always controversial, ironic, violent, absurd and tragic. Debates rage and yet the land is always there regardless of to whom it belongs. Natural elements reassert themselves through the seasons, patterns and contrasts."

Photo's and quote from: http://www.artprintsa.com/karin-daymond-landscapes.html

Fred Tomaselli

This is definitely a case where viewing a reproduced copy of the images does not convey the 2D aspect of the paintings. Tomaselli's paintings should be viewed in person, taking a far aways glance and also upfront view of the intricate detailed arrangements of the compositions. I find his artwork interesting in the fact he uses preformed materials (pills) which will always be part of the underlying message in his artwork.

"...Ever the idiosyncratic collector, Fred Tomaselli amasses pills, herbs and other drugs, along with a range of images—plants, flowers, birds, anatomical illustrations—cut from books and organized by color, to create multi layered baroque paintings that encompass elements of the real, the photographic, and the painterly. Drawing upon art historical sources and Eastern and Western decorative traditions—like quilts and mosaics—Tomaselli's works explode in mesmerizing, psychedelic patterns that appear to grow organically across his compositions...Tomaselli’s influences can be traced to both by the manufactured unreality of theme parks, and the music and drug counter-cultures of Los Angeles during the 1970s and 80s." quote from: http://www.artknowledgenews.com/2009-07-25-23-42-44-aspen-art-museum-features-fred-tomasellis-largest-museum-survey-to-date.html

Photo's from 1. http://www.aspenartmuseum.org

and 2. http://www.artknowledgenews.com

Miguel G. Sanchez

While my interest lately has been in finding ways to express myself and trying to paint emotions rather than an actual image. I found Miguel Sanchez who says his modern art approach has been influenced by Willem de Kooning and Jean-Paul Riopelle. His large scale paintings reflecting memories of the places he has lived, such as South American jungle environment of Suriname and the Brazilian Amazon region. "His art reflects his feeling more by color than design and his objective in painting is not to make a statement or send a message, but rather to have people look at his art to get enjoyment in their own private way." Photo's and quote are from the website www.mgsanchez.com.

Tawni Shuler

Paints from life experience, inspired by memories of growing up in rural Wyoming where she studied different stages of life cycles involving birth, growth, death and decay of organic life. Studied bones, animals and the environment. Her paintings are a blur between abstraction and representation. She uses opaque paint and transparent washes to reflect the way a memory would function and how a haze can congregated against more crisp details.

Images from the artist website: http://www.tawnishuler.com/index.ydev

Oliver Benoit

Featured is a painting from the title Outbursts, "Men Prohibited from Speaking" and "Man with Sealed Lips." The works relate to an individuals desire to escape. In this case the escape is from the self from a prevaling social order. The paint inside the canvas reflects the trepedation and freedom one would experience when posed with this question. I enjoy how the painting is an abstract representation of this struggle, the physical movement put down on canvas to display the mapping one's mind would take when questioning this type of event.

I love the rest of his painting series that include names such as: Love, After Ivan, Men without Head, Carving out on Identity, Disasters and Emotions. The titles themselves are fueled with a subject matter that included the same techniques.

Artist site: http://www.oliverbenoit.com/index.html

Images site: http://www.agora-gallery.com/exhibitionannouncement/10_27_2009.aspx

Yuriko Yamaguchi

Web #521'x8'x8‘,

Flax, abaca, wireUniversity of Maryland Gallery, 2007

Web #5 (detail), 2003

Interior Resin, 2007

Return (with heartbeat sounds)

8'x12'x12‘ Resin, stainless steel wire, 4 speakers, 4 sensors 2005


'No other sculptor can turn paper, wood, flax and wire into wall sculptures of such intriguing ambiguity as Yuriko Yamaguchi. In the ongoing series of works titled "Metamorphosis," begun in 1991, she conjures those materials into shapes so familiar yet so enigmatic that it's almost impossible to keep from touching them, from physically examining them to try to divine their meaning...Such evocative power -- aesthetically and psychologically -- of her sculpture.'

"Metamorphosis" is an apt metaphor for what has gone on in the series over the years...But what makes Yamaguchi's work so compelling is its audacious ambiguity, Nothing is quite what it seems, beginning with the physical appearance of the works. With many of the pieces, it's almost impossible to know without referring to Yamaguchi's written description whether a sculpture is animal, vegetable, or mineral.' - Ferdinand Protzman, The Washington Post.

From the website http://www.yurikoyamaguchiart.com/

Balloons

This picture had me thinking we could constructively make artwork with all the parties we have been having. Party balloons being put to good use.

Photo from http://media.photobucket.com/image/artist%20website/gmgarriock/german_panther.jpg

The Blue Feet

I couldn't pass up this find on flickr. Beautiful organic, natural images...and color! From the site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doubtful_guest/397388183/in/set-72157594553172409/

"the blue fleet is a term coined by Sir Alistair Hardy to describe a community of floating animals including the infamous bluebottle, blue dragon nudibranchs, violet snails and other associated organisms. a floating raft of monochrome drifters, the blue fleet sails the world's oceans at the whim of the tides, winds and currents.

Blue bottle

"Bluebottles have a float or bottle-shaped blue sac, which sits on the water's surface. They have many string-like tentacles hanging down from the float."

Blue Dragon
"A blue dragon, a pelagic sea slug which floats about the ocean on its back (that's it's belly and foot you're looking at) feeding on blue bottles."

Violet Snail
"violet snails also feed on blue bottles. they produce a "raft" of mucus bubbles, float about the oceans with the flocks of jellys, and, i imagine, chow down whenever the fancy takes them. this one had picked up a bunch of bivalve hitchhikers. "

Blue Button Jelly
"the blue button jelly (Porpita porpita) forms part of the "blue fleet", a huge drifting community of organisms which includes the infamous bluebottle. the blue colour apparently provides protection against uv light and, i imagine it also provides quite an effective camouflage against predators hovering above. "

More: The Blue Feet

More images of blue dragon and blue bottles

The Blue Dragon is a species of medium-sized, floating, blue sea slug, a pelagic aeolid nudibranch and preys on other larger pelagic organisms such as the dangerously venomous Portuguese Man o' War, also known as Blue Bottle.

Glaucus Atlanticus or Blue Dragon

Physalia, Portugese Man of war or also known as Blue Bottle.

‘All these animals float on the surface of the ocean being carried by the currents and the winds. Most of us are only aware of their existence when days of onshore winds blow great fleets of them on to the beaches, causing pain and angst for swimmers. Both species spend their life floating upside down in the water, partially bouyed by a gas bubble in their stomachs.'
http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet.cfm?base=glauatla, Photos by Bill Rudman

Revised Artist Statement

(if I could stop posting to the main Senior Art page, maybe this would work out)

As a visual artist, my work explores around the ideas of identity, storytelling and natural and human forms. Inspiration comes from my immediate environment of everyday domestic and natural spaces from which I document the world around me.

I love to watch a piece of work emerge from a bare surface to the painted canvas before me. My passion for painting helps me visually illustrate objects beyond what we normally see and to capture this moment in time. The excitement of the process fuels my passion and reawakens memories of the journey.

Artist Statement

As a visual artist with interests in graphic design and painting, I feel I have two spaces to work. On one side, I use the canvas as an infinite space to walk into, escape and retreat. The other side considers the viewer firmly in front of the work.

My work explores the relationship of storytelling and identity. Through my own investigation of my identity and environment, I work to create and visually express ideas and concepts that transcend the boundaries of language. By sharing stories we are providing a conversation in which we can find connections to each other.

To be able to visually communicate your intention is paramount to both fields. For graphic design this means using creative and practical elements in the design. Messages are displayed with importance of hierarchy, scale and composition in mind. In this field your work is dependant on given parameters for you to create a visual exchange between the view and receiver.

In pursuing a studio art degree in painting, I have moved away from the viewer looking at my work on just a computer monitor or printout. I have found that panting helps me visually illustrate objects beyond what we normally see. I look to create an emotional imagery that centers around my personal views and experiences. Identity, storytelling, nature and human forms all provide the basic drive for my compositions. We each have a life story that has shaped who we are today and it is through reflection that we are able to gain an understanding of our identity and realize our connection to our environment. Choosing an image is very important if you are expecting it to be your language. An image left in silence can express the most powerful story every told.

Sandra McMorris Johnson

{photo credit: sandramcmorrishohnson.com}

Sandra McMorris Johnson has been a working fiber artist for 30 years. She believes fibers are a source of connection for all of us. She uses her colored fibers much like a painter uses paint.

The enclosed pictures are from her monumental clothesline installation piece called “Millennium 2000” situated in Mount Pisgah, Lake County, Oregon. To see the exhibit, visitors had to hike a 1,513 foot mountain summit to take part in this unique connecting splash of colors and motion that zigzaged across the hillside. McMorris Johnson created this piece to serve as a colorful expression of how she feels about life. It also reflects a deeper recognition that the work might also be addressing her fear of being diagnosed with breast cancer and given a 50 percent change to live past 2000. Only when given this news do you then know how you will react? For McMorris Johnson the swatches standing tall on top of a mountainside represent strength and beauty, taking each gust of uncertain swirls of wind with a flowing grace.

I am drawn to the inviting outdoor arena in which to produce artwork as opposed to a confined enclosed cube of 4 squared walls. To hike up the mountain, breath fresh air, take in the sites and hang up 2,000 pieces of laundry would make me feel at first very domestic yet I would soon realize how far away from work schedules and daily pressures I would be….sigh!…the exhibit was over before I found it.

http://www.sandramcmorrisjohnson.com/Sandra_McMorris_Johnson/Clotheslines.html

Her 3D fiber art is also interesting. Unable to get photo's off the site. Here is a direct link.

http://www.sandramcmorrisjohnson.com/Sandra_McMorris_Johnson/3-D_Fiber.html#8