Art Hound

I’ve been saving these doggie paintings by Anja Zaharanski for a good occasion, and now I have one. It’s my birthday! Enjoy!

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Brooklyn-based artist Stephanie Chambers is on Buy Some Damn Art this week and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to share her work here too. Stephanie’s work is full of flora and fauna, and by excluding human subjects she sidesteps the many social constructs with which that we view them. She also has a deep love of Pomeranians and coconut water and was once an extra on People’s Court.

Go After What You Want, $500

Tell us about the work in this show. 

They’re chosen for both. As humans on this planet, we encounter and absorb so many stories and symbols about specific animals, and I like to play with these notions in my artwork. Even if the animals chosen symbolically are not traditionally considered beautiful, I try to represent them as beautiful aesthetically. I’m interested in making beautiful things. The butterflies often represent opportunity and change.

Together, Even At The End, $500.

You have a pretty unique style that is an amalgamation of figurative, cartoony and graphic elements. How are these visual frameworks connected in your mind?

For me, painting and the stories I tell are like the way people perceive memories. Some images in a memory are clear and rich with detail, while other aspects of that same memory may be fuzzy visually, just colors or shapes. Not everything is equally defined visually in a memory. The world in which these animals live is similarly fluid; a little like sounds you hear in the distance, but can’t identify the source. They live at the visual periphery of my mind.

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I don’t care what anyone says to the contrary, art (especially affordable art) makes a great gift! As we’re now in the midst of holiday shopping mania, I’m excited to share this little gift guide – each post will feature a different art site geared towards a particular recipient.

I’m kicking off with Animalia, a great little shop full of animal-themed art and playful ephemera for the animal-loving kids and adults on your list. Everything on this site feels really hand-picked, which is something I really admire when shopping online. No one wants a generic gift!

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Maximo Pedraza works in acrylic and watercolors but his approach at times reminds me of etchings.

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Darrah Gooden’s paper collage animals via Where The Lovely Things Are.

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These animal sculptures by  D.O.T.S. are called Massimals and were constructed of easily-recognizable materials such as cardboard and styrofoam (via of paper and things). The last two shots are the Zip Tie Massimal – made of 20,000 zip ties.

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