Sunday, July 31, 2011

fernworks

Earlier this summer, I got around to visiting a few craft fairs, one of which truly stood out. The Indie Craft Experience (ICE) was really quite the experience, from vendors selling knitted baby things and comical t-shirts, to extraordinary watercolors and homemade popsicles. Though looking back, I'd have to say my favorite booth was fernworks, handmade jewelry of objects and images sealed in a high quality resin. The artist behind the intriguing pieces, Faryn Davis, has a background in painting that translates seamlessly to her work, Incorporating not only original small-scale paintings in some, but also found objects like coral, plants, moths and bees, her eye for composition and detail leads to uniquely beautiful works.



I couldn't resist purchasing this yellow jacket ring:


























Saturday, July 30, 2011

darkness in white

The porcelain work of ceramic artist Kate MacDowell is a sight to behold. Each piece is lovingly handcrafted, showing off MacDowell's obvious talent, but also capturing a a kind of beautiful grotesqueness that has you wanting to take a closer look. As commentaries on man's damaging impact on his surrounding environment, each piece assaults our sense of comfort by seamlessly blending together man and nature, offering up images of stunning pain.































Friday, July 29, 2011

gallery girl

Dad and I have been in London for about two days now. Today was "Shopping Day," so we shopped. We walked around downtown Islington near our hotel, and I bought a few clothing items (pictures to come.) But the best part of the day was our walkabout in downtown London - we visited the famous comic shop Forbidden Planet, drank coffee in a hole-in-the-wall tea and coffee shop (which, oddly enough, stops serving tea after breakfast...), went to the British Museum, bought postcards and other kitschy souvenirs, and took pictures of the work in the Paul Stopler Gallery (pictures below.)

The gallery itself is only the size of a large living room, with white walls and pale blue, wooden floors. We almost walked right past it, but it was Shaun Doyle & Mally Mallinson's cast bronze sculpture Ecce Homo Tesco placed in the window that caught our eye.

















Tuesday, July 26, 2011

tyne after tyne

A digital photographer with a degree from SUNY Potsdam, Alison Tyne composes photographs that capture a certain coquettish whimsy and all around light-heartedness. Layering several images over one another digitally, she creates dreamlike scenes that are captivatingly surreal.

















Monday, July 25, 2011

all strings considered

For almosy two decades Brazilian sculpteur Mozart Guerra has pushed the boundaries of textile art, using polyurethane as a base on which he uses colored string to establish and build up the surface. With a background in set design, he understands space and visual movement, and how his pieces relate in those principles. The completed works have a beautiful rhythmic quality that is almost dizzying. Here, I collected some of my favorites from his extensive portfolio.





Sunday, July 24, 2011

cumulus lumbus clouds

Once a maintenance man at Cabaret Mechanical Theatre in Covent Garden, British artist John Lumbus has created this wonderful little kinetic sculptural scene inside a tea cup. Says Lumbus of his appropriately named Storm in a Tea Cup, "Turn the handle and the golden boat rides the mechanical waves, above the stormy clouds periodically reveal a shining bolt of lightning."










Saturday, July 23, 2011

the russian

I find these photographs from Russian artist Oleg Dou to be intriguingly unnerving. From the paleness of his subjects to the way in which they stare blankly at the viewer, it feels as if the children photographed know everything about you. In their simplicity do these images speak volumes.
























Also, these works are printed via the diasec method, an innovative way in which an artist prints pieces directly on to a specially coated metal surface (typically aluminum), allowing for the images to be infused in to the plate and ensuring a lasting archival quality.

Friday, July 22, 2011

dollface

From the Greek word kouklo, meaning doll, comes illustrator and sculptor Andrew Yang's Kouklitas, handmade muslin dolls with hand painted faces and dressed in couture. Though these dolls differ greatly in style from the dolls I blogged about in a previous post, but the loving way in which they are fashioned and their almost unfinished look really made me enjoy them.