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Artist Crush From Way Back: Stacey Durand

August 16th, 2010 · 2 Comments

‘Way back’ is relative here. It was about five years when I discovered Stacey Durand but it feels like ages ago because it’s when I first started collecting art. In fact, the first piece of art I ever purchased was The Abbot Shoppe by Durand! At the time I was living in Boston and was amazed by how well Stacey captures the look and feel of the greater Boston area. Now New York is home but I still have the same admiration for Durand’s work.

Stacey is inspired by the many old, quirky buildings and neighborhoods around New England. But instead of painting these streetscapes as they appear, Stacey strings together buildings and scenes from around the area, weaving together her own collaged neighborhoods. Her depiction of these imagined streetscapes explores our complex relationships with, and memories of, physical locations. We experience the emotional aspect of geography which, as Durand’s work implies, cannot be fully communicated through careful documentation alone.

Artist’s statement: “Over the years I have lived in and around many of the coastal towns in New England. Like many, I have been drawn to the seacoast and the regional character of its cities and buildings. These neighborhoods are often filled with old homes that are packed together tightly, creating interesting, crowded arrangements and compositions.”

“These overlapping homes, quirky seacoast buildings, and urban landscapes have been the subjects of my most recent work as I am drawn to the layers and connections that these buildings and objects create. I work from photographs of actual buildings from my environment. I then take these buildings out of their original context and combine them with other images to create new connections among these landscapes. In doing this I create a new environment that feels strangely familiar and new at the same time.”

Durand currently has work for sale at Nahcotta’s Summer Group Show.

Seth Clark’s Painted Ladies

August 10th, 2010 · 1 Comment

I’m a sucker for art of houses and buildings (as is evident here and here) so naturally I’m digging Seth Clark’s paintings (via dear ada).

This is not complicated, cerebral art, and some might argue that it’s actually rather boring (there are no figures, no bold intellectual concepts, no hallucinogenic abstractions). Obviously there is the issue of talent: there’s plenty of bad art in every genre. But I would argue that the subject of the home is so emotionally rich, so memory-laden and provides such a close reflection of our lives that it is one of those eternally relevant subjects.

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Picks of the Week: Why Not Buy That Little House You Always Dreamed Of?

January 15th, 2010 · 1 Comment