Art Hound, a guide to living with art Art Hound

on the hunt for good art

Entries from February 2010

Artist Crush: Caroline Wright

February 16th, 2010 · 7 Comments

Tonight I came across the work of Caroline Wright via Art Milk and it stopped me cold. I guess you could call that the visceral affect of art- when it hits you on a deeply emotional level and it’s hard to explain precisely why.

So… I’ll keep it simple: I love the colors and the celebration of beauty in the imperfect, which Wright achieves using the simplest of forms.

Prints of Wright’s painting, Migration No. 14, are available through ArtMuse.

Out of the Mainstream: Brooklyn meets Portland….. Week 1: Jacqueline Bos

February 15th, 2010 · No Comments

Jacqueline Bos: illustrator and designer originally from Portland, OR currently living in Brooklyn, NY

Don’t forget to check out this week’s Habit of Art interview with Portland illustrator, Kate Bingaman-Burt!

How would you describe your work?

It’s a visual journey. I think it’s narrative in nature, and by using collage to combine elements from modern pop culture and photographs from the past, creates it’s own special dimension, I hope that as a body of work, it’s like going on an adventure in an imaginary world.

What are, in your opinion, the greatest challenges of being an artist today?

One of the biggest challenges is maintaining a unique voice with the amount of work being shared and copied because of the art community’s online presence. Online art sharing is something that is completely new for this generation of young artists, things spread quickly, and ideas get mixed and remixed often because of the ease of access.

What accomplishments/works of art are you most proud of?

I am so excited about finally self-publishing “I Heart the Arctic”. The process for the book started out with an illustration series well over a year ago, and it sort of evolved into a more streamlined collection of illustrations over the summer. I’m still doing the brainstorming stage for a follow-up book, there are so many topics I want to explore!

Tell us about the biggest risk you’ve taken as an artist.

Moving to New York from Portland to “chase down my dreams” was such a huge leap of faith. I really enjoy the time I’ve spent here, but leaving my tribe of friends/family was dumb.  In New York — more than anywhere else I’ve been — it is of paramount importance to have that loving support system in order to make it through. I am so thankful that all my close friends have been overwhelmingly supportive of my little adventure. In the process I’ve gotten to work on projects I never would have dreamed of, encountered famous people (always fun) and feel like I have experienced an entirely different side of the art world.

What do you love most about Portland/Brooklyn?

Brooklyn is awesome. It smells like crap, but the energy is indescribable. I love that there are always new things to explore, new places to go. Even when revisiting a familiar venue, it always feels like new.

Portland is awesome too. It smells crisp and mountain fresh. I love that Portland has more teahouses than I can count, and being an indoor kid, I love the rain, and boy does it rain.

What makes Portland/Brooklyn such a great place for independent art?

The creative community in Brooklyn is really diverse in terms of media. I’ve met artists making sewn animals, championing their own fashion labels, working as traditional painters, design gurus, and everything in between. I think Brooklyn has this crazy energy because it’s so close to the city, but at the same time it’s much more laid back and nurturing for creating.

Portland is like a small town disguised as a city. As such, the community, especially the art community is very supportive and tight-knit. There are so many exhibition opportunities, co-op working spaces, and constant skillshares going on.

As part of the Out of the Mainstream series, we invite readers to join the dialogue on Portland and Brooklyn’s art communities. Both cities are considered epicenters of the independent art scene, but how do you think the two art communities differ?

Series Launch! Out of the Mainstream: Brooklyn meets Portland

February 15th, 2010 · 1 Comment

After many weeks of planning, I’m thrilled to introduce Art Hound’s new series, Out of the Mainstream: Brooklyn meets Portland with Cathy McMurray of Habit of Art. (Maps via Ork Posters!)

You may have noticed that both Cathy and I blog about a ton of artists based in Brooklyn and Portland. It’s clear to both of us that these cities (our cities) have incredibly strong creative communities, and this project developed out of our desire to share our ongoing dialogue with all of you. So… every Monday for the next six weeks, Art Hound and Habit of Art will each feature a local artist who embodies the city’s independent art community.

.

These artist interviews will include the artist’s latest work, reflections about their experience as an artist and their take on the Brooklyn/Portland independent art scene.

The Out of the Mainstream series is intended to be an open dialogue so we invite everyone who has an opinion about local, independent art to join the conversation.

Modern Landscapes: Tyson Anthony Roberts

February 11th, 2010 · 1 Comment

Tyson Anthony Roberts is a talented Seattle-based artist who studied both studio art and biology. His abstract urban and rural landscapes have a modernist feel from the reduced color palette and flat, pixelated brushstrokes. A distinguishing feature of Roberts’ work are the paint drips, which result from his use of watered-down acrylics. Roberts’ print The Gardens is available via 20×200, and his paintings are available starting at $125 through the artist.  Art Hound’s interview with the artist is below.

You studied studio art and biology. Are these discrete interests or do they overlap?

They do overlap.  I appreciate nature, landscapes, ecosystems, and the changing elements of the living organisms around us.  Through painting I am able to record these things and somehow preserve what they once looked like.  Biology and art are both ‘living’ as over time there is degradation / growth, new discoveries / known facts, inspiration / stagnancy.

How long have you been painting semi-abstract pieces? What’s been the progression of your work?

It has been 4 years since I began painting in this way.  I started off experimenting by painting large areas of layered color aiming to create a dense impression.  From there I gradually isolated colors, thinned them out, and became more ‘geometric’ to add to the depth of field.  The progression also included experimenting with crayons, paper cut-outs, photography and not wearing my glasses so that my visual perception was altered to stripped down blurry areas of color (thank you bad eye-sight).

Tell me about the dripped paint in your work.

The dripped paint in my work represents the tears of all generations past and the hardships we have all encountered (the paint is actually mixed with real tears!) (just kidding).

Actually I have to work fast sometimes because I use acrylic paint.  I thin the paint out so much sometimes that it drips and instead of cleaning it up I just let it be.  It isn’t really a conscious thing, it simply happens sometimes.

(more…)

Celebrating the Good Stuff: Art & Chocolate

February 9th, 2010 · 2 Comments

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day decadence, folks in NYC should stop by Chocolate & I, a week-long event celebrating chocolate, food and art in the city.

Paintings and installation by Ema. Photo by The City Sweet Tooth

Chocolate & I exhibit, Food for Art. Art for Thought. showcases a wide range of multidisciniplinary art around the common theme of chocolate. Artists were invited to explore the personal and societal relationships with the celebrated food, and the result is an integrated mash-up of sculpture, installation, video, and painting.

My personal favorites are Michelle Mayer’s gold-leafed chocolate bullets referencing the industry’s ties to violence and Ema‘s astonishingly imaginative Hedonistic Cloud (see photo above).  Many participating artists including Elim Chang, Wang and Levy of  CW&T, Jason Krugman, Meng Li and Michelle Mayer are affiliated with the creative hotbed known as NYU’s ITP.

Another noteworthy participant, Brooklyn-based artisinal chocolatier Fine & Raw, sets the bar for exquisite design and packaging.

Interview with Hollie Chastain: Artist and Treasure Hunter

February 4th, 2010 · 8 Comments

Hollie Chastain is a found paper and collage artist who pounds the pavement for the perfect (i.e. stained, ripped, doodle-covered) books and ephemera for her mixed media pieces. Her work is currently for sale at Nahcotta’s ETA 7 (one of her pieces was included in this week’s picks) and through her etsy shop, Dr. Kennedy Jones. She lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee with her husband and two children.

AH: Tell us a bit about your artistic process. Do you start with a specific idea for a piece or are you inspired by the found objects you use?

HC: It varies. Sometimes I will have a composition in mind and go scavenging for exactly what I feel is right for that particular piece.  Only about 10% of the time will the end result portray the initial idea exactly but if something has been hanging around in my mind for a long time, never changing, then i stick with it. The composition and subject for some of my pieces were imagined months before I stumbled across the perfect scrap of paper that it required. But most of the time i start with one really great sheet of paper or board and start building up, pulling shapes and ideas and characters from the different scribbles and splotches and colors i find. Some of my favorite pieces have started from nothing but a coffee-stained book cover and an amazing scrap of blue from a geography book that accidentally overlapped in a great way at the bottom of a crate.


AH: What inspires you to create?

HC: Oh man, so much! A shelf of random old junk in an antique shop where each item just seems to naturally fit with everything else as a whole, anthropomorphism, really brightly colored chipping paint on abandoned walls.  I’m drawn to natural textures and patterns caused from aging in any context but there is nothing like opening the cover on a textbook from the early 1900s and seeing water damage and speckled mold spots and scribbles. Music is a huge inspiration for me. I constantly have something on the ipod or stereo all the time especially when i’m working. and live music, of course. I come back from a show with lots of ideas. Most of all it’s simply people and the things they come up with when they’re only trying to entertain themselves and no one else. The silly and great things people do when they’re playing and exploring, moving from moment to moment with no end result in mind. (more…)