South Boston Open Studios

Last weekend we spent a beautiful afternoon at the Distillery for South Boston Open Studios. It was my first visit to the space, and it appears to house artists working in an exceptionally wide variety of media. I was especially impressed with the number of artists who embraced drawing, since it's my medium of choice but tends to be less represented in the art world.

Lisa Scollan used chemical traces on industrial metal as her starting point for intricate, mostly abstract drawings. Her studio was amazing; it looked like she was just compelled to draw, all the time, on everything.

I first met Adam O'Day at the last Boston Arts Festival where we were both showing artwork. I've also seen his designs at Ward Maps and on friends' walls. I'm impressed by his facility with bright colors, and of course I love the cityscape theme.

Aimee Belanger had some great watercolor texture; I like the way this piece looks like a watercolor sampler, showcasing all the possibilities of the medium.

I actually profiled Chantal Hardy's work in an earlier post on SoWa artists after seeing it at an exhibition, but I didn't realize she was at the Distillery until I was face-to-face with her work. I don't often come across other artists who depict imaginary/invented places, and I like the way she mixes a representational style with abstract elements.

Pat Falco impressed us with his quirky poster series, including this clever one about missing cat posters. It's so rare to see humor at art events.

It was great to meet Courtney Moy in person after seeing her work at Toscanini's and following her blog for a bit. Her work is also refreshingly humorous; it mostly deals with food, and she pointed out to us a project on beer bottles, mentioning that she's working towards 99 of them (wall-mounted, of course).

I saw Sarah Gay's drawings at the exhibition "threefam" at City Hall recently, and I love the expression she puts into her houses. This "uprooted" house in particular reminds me of a lot of popular imagery that I've also put into some of my non-observational representational drawings.

Walter Crump was the last artist I saw, and he really impressed me with his range of media and styles. I was, of course, initially drawn by the maplike paintings, but soon got entranced by the texture in a few prints. Apparently they were soft ground or collograph prints using steel wool and even plant roots to get an organic texture behind his fields of color.

First Friday in the South End - August

Last Friday evening I spent several hours in the studios and galleries at the 450 Harrison area of the South End. I came across a surprising number of works that resonated with my interests. Some highlights:

The first maplike works I came across were at Kingston Gallery by Chantal Hardy, in an exhibition called "Current" which was right up my alley. Most of the works they had appeared to be abstracted aerial views of islands, but I was particularly arrested by one piece in which the artist had gone back in and added a framework on top of some of the topography. I have to paste her entire artist statement here because it just sounds so much like my approach:
"A limited palette and a narrow vocabulary of marks in pen and ink on watercolor paper hold infinite possibility. The accretion of tiny, taut tick marks and earth toned dots gives birth to continents and islands, to mountains and shorelines, to highways and harbors. Organic landscapes are bifurcated by cities and geometric, manmade infrastructures. The topography builds itself, like land out of lava, as I scrape the metal nib ad infinitum or allow the pen to linger, bleeding ink into wet paper. This truly is art as an act of creation. Having gone off the map, I am literally making a world."

I wasn't able to find anyone working in the gallery to ask if I could take a photo, and she has none (of that series) online, but I suppose that's her loss.

I also stopped into Soprafina Gallery and was a bit interested in one work by Thaddeus Beal, but my interest was cemented when I started reading about his inspiration and concepts, which apparently include fractals and chaos theory. It reminds me of how Jackson Pollock's works have a fractal structure despite (or perhaps due to?) their intuitive construction. I'll have to keep an eye on this one!

Thaddeus Beal, "Breaking Symmetry", mixed media on wood

I saw some literature outside Rhonda Smith's studio at 450 Harrison that caught my eye. Unfortunately the studio wasn't open during the event, but I'll keep it in mind for Open Studios in the fall. Her work has a lot of intricate, maplike elements, and in fact in part of her artist statement she writes "As I am working I am often thinking of water, webs, tectonic plates, even my recent subway ride: that is, any phenomena that I can map or follow"


Rhonda Smith, "Lands Moving" 2012, oil and pencil on panel

Right when I thought I had seen everything in 450 Harrison, I remembered for the first time in several months that there is actually a fourth floor with artists as well. I wandered into one studio and saw some work I'd never seen before. Apparently the artists had just moved in this spring. I was immediately stopped by a huge painting of an aerial view of Logan by Lynda Michaud Cutrell, from her Google Earth series. Something about the way the building network was depicted was very biological, almost like a small intestine. This worked well with other work in her studio, which included a layered painting of molecules and other biological building blocks. I'd be interested to see if she does any work that combines the two!

Lynda Michaud Cutrell, "From Up Here... Everything Looks Organized"

Art Weekend - First Friday and Printmania

Now that the installation is up, I have a chance to mention my art-packed weekend! Last Friday I stopped by the monthly SoWa open studio/gallery event, mostly to catch a reception at Chase but also to catch up with some artist friends at 450 Harrison. Then on Saturday I checked out the end of the Printmania zine fair in Union Square, which had a surprisingly small number of zine tables (like, maybe one or two), but a lot of interesting printmakers to make up for it. Some artists I really enjoyed included:
- Alicia Tormey, whose lacy, leaf-like paintings I went to see at Chase, and
- John Dempcy, whose work ended up transfixing me at Chase. It's a little hard to tell from the photos, but there's a lot of fractal interactions going on within those fried-egg-like circles. (You have to have your face right in the work, like I'm not ashamed to say I did, to fully appreciate those tiny worlds)
- Lesley Cohen, who had a couple amazingly detailed, mostly abstract charcoal and chalk drawings in Bromfield Gallery in SoWa
- Rachel Thern, whose exhibition in the back of Kingston Gallery I came across completely by chance. Her work is also mostly abstract, and I love the way her work involves a combination of fastidious process and organic materiality.
- Adrienne Ginter, who had a table at Printmania with very detailed prints that had a lot of storytelling elements. I was really drawn to one in particular for its composition (and the little city, which of course I can't resist). According to her website she also has some unbelievable paper cutouts as well.
- Elisabeth Nicula, a Somerville printmaker who had some prints at Printmania with texture that I was instantly drawn to. After checking out her site, I can see why I was interested in her work -- her statement mentions that she's inspired by "Outer space, mathematics and machinery, cells and microorganisms". Unfortunately her site doesn't have the pieces I was most drawn to, but all of her work is great.

After listing these artists and revisiting their sites, it occurs to me that most of them focus on circles and/or dense or fractal texture. I think that says much more about my tastes than the current art scene (besides that circles are ALWAYS popular, and fractals are present in nature and proven to be unusually aesthetically pleasing).

Cambridge Open Studios

Yesterday we took advantage of the beautiful weather and biked all around Cambridge for the north/west portion of their Open Studios. We saw a variety of media, with a surprising lean towards watercolor and collage -- I guess we just avoided most of the traditional painting, in favor of more unusual works. Some of my favorites were:

- Chihiro Makio at Almost Perfect Glass Studio, who I knew from Mobilia Gallery. I hadn't seen her multicolored folded metal pieces, and I love them -- they're really delicate, and floral without being flowery. Some of her designs remind me of how I assembled my crocheted flower necklace.

- Hannah Goodwin, who does delicate, scratched drawings on rice paper with bamboo pens. I'm impressed with the control she was able to achieve; I wouldn't be able to stand it! Her drawings mostly evoked images of nests, but the titles hinted that they were inspired by more conceptual ideas.

- Janet Hobbs, who makes watercolor paintings in a variety of styles. I was particularly drawn to a few that looked like scrolls, with a balance of organic wet-on-wet blooms and thin, controlled twiggy sketches. I also liked the contrast of her "Industrial Chroma" series, which is a little more graphic.

Ceramic Vase with Houses

One of my favorite things about Somerville Open Studios last weekend was connecting with artists whose work I really respect, and also meeting new ones! I just met Arielle from Small Spaces Ceramics and I'm already a huge fan. She makes beautiful, mysterious bowls that incorporate mini houses (!) and "bubbles" of clay that look like large-scale granulation, an effect I've always been drawn to in metalsmithing. We arranged a trade, and I gave her a hairclip and a drawing in exchange for the most wonderful vase. The vase has three openings, which is perfect for my floral needs -- I usually display flowers from my porch garden, but only in the middle of the summer would I ever have enough flowers to fill a traditional vase. The flowers end up being part of the miniature scene in the vase, which is something I just love. The two houses on the vase's rim seem to have grown from the granulation around them. Unfortunately photos can't capture the most compelling part of the vase, which is that it was so touchable that I couldn't put it down once I chose it!

I also just love how it allows me to display simple weeds in a way that shows them off. Look how cute these shepherd's purse flowers are:

My tiniest fan!

At the opening reception for the Somerville Museum exhibit on Friday night, we saw this little kid analyzing my map drawing with his dad. Apparently they were charting the course they would take through this particular imaginary place. The exhibit has work by 150 different local artists participating in Somerville Open Studios, and it's on display through May 18th.

Joy Street Open Studios

Yesterday I had a slightly rushed but still wonderfully edifying trip through Joy Street open studios. Even though I was only there for about an hour, and missed several wonderful artists that I wanted to see, I still had a lot of interesting conversations and came out of it inspired to try new things. The first studio I went into was Elizabeth Heide's, where I was drawn in by the intriguing textures in her work. She uses a variety of printmaking techniques in her work, and was kind enough to explain some of them to me during my visit, particularly gum arabic printing, in which you apply a layer of gum over a photocopied image and then ink, wipe and print it. I've used gum arabic for photo printing before, but I hadn't heard of printing with it.

I also spoke at length with Ji-eun Shim, whose does 2-D work that incorporates repetitive markmaking as well as a variety of 3-D sculptural explorations. Her work is incredibly creative, and I was inspired just standing in her studio. She works with some unusual materials such as twigs and grains - there was one amazing repetitive wall piece done in what appeared to be barley. It reminded me that someday I should try doing twig sculptures again, if I can figure out a way for them not to dry out and fall apart -- I recently lost one of my favorite ones when it fell apart out of the blue. One more project to put on my list for when I have more time...

 Ji-eun Shim, Monster Seeds

LIC Open Studios 2011

I was in New York this past weekend to see some friends at the LIC Arts Open, which this year was a week-long event. Unfortunately I didn't get to see all of them, but I did come across some fun new artists at the Juvenal Reis studios.

I was particularly taken with the detailed, almost obsessive pen drawings of Rena Teratani, who is apparently having an exhibition in Montreal in June. Unfortunately the website images and printed postcards don't really show the incredible detail in her pieces. Her work reminds me a little of Julie Mehretu's mark-making, and apparently reminds others of mine -- at open studios, a friend saw the map I have on the back of my phone and thought it might have been something Rena drew! The fact that she does detailed drawings on a large scale has convinced me that my drawings might actually look okay if I did them significantly larger than my usual 9"x12".

The other super memorable art we came across this weekend was hidden in the lower floor of a secluded gallery in Chelsea. Paul Shore & Nicole Root's photographs had made the Internet rounds a while ago, but the full collection was really amazing. They reproduce iconic works of contemporary sculpture in candy, and photograph them in mini gallery setups that make the candy to scale with the original work. I really appreciated the Dan Flavin light installation (one wax stix candy in the corner of a room) and the initially befuddling Claes Oldenburg (naturally, a real ice cream cone and slice of cake). Do check out the link above if you've ever taken contemporary art history.

Somerville Open Studios Recap

Open Studios was surprisingly hectic, but really amazing. I met a lot of people who were really interested in my work; two of my favorites were a young child who came to my table, politely asked to buy a print (after studiously perusing the designs available) and even signed up for my mailing list, and a guy who ran over on a friend's recommendation, took a glance at my table and the drawings I had on display and summed up his review by exclaiming "Holy shit."

Because I was behind the table the whole time, I didn't get a chance to look at many other artists' work, but I did take one opportunity to run around the space a little, and I even had some fans bring me business cards from other artists they thought I'd like. I was recommended to check out one of the tables in the Armory because the artist was working with cut-outs from roadmaps, and when I got a chance to see her work it turned out she already knew about my maps and had bought two pieces from me! It's getting to be a smaller and smaller world, and I love it.

I also met a lot of interesting artists by chatting with the people who came by my table. I had some new, stylized watercolor maps out, and got into a discussion with a photographer about how they resembled some work he'd done with images of cobblestones. 

 

He works with much brighter colors than I do, so his image is a lot more eye-catching. I should definitely think of using more color; even if it's not something I normally do, it does get peoples' attention. I had prints of "Growing Fields" (by far the most colorful map I've done) for the first time at Open Studios, and almost sold out of that one design. I'm thinking of doing the abstract maps (like the one above) in brighter colors, to make more graphic map representations.

Ascension by Su-Yee Lin

My friend Su-Yee has a short story online in Ideomancer's March issue. It's very autumn and very quiet, and you should read it. Su-Yee collaborated with me on an illustration project in 2009, which you can peruse on my old site here. I feel like our styles are very related, and I love reading her work.

Deconstructed Maps

I came across this fascinating treatment of maps recently (via Strange Maps). The artist takes city maps and picks out the individual blocks, then arranges them neatly by size and type. It's a very different way to approach the concept of a map. This is what happens with Manhattan and Brooklyn:

Inkpunk Artworks

I had a great time yesterday at the St Patrick's Day SLAM at the Burren. I chatted with a lot of interesting people, had a lot of people sign up for my mailing list, and I got to trade with a vendor! I was given a wonderful mini painting by Brian of Inkpunk Artworks, and gave him a "Five Towns" poster. When I put them together, they looked surprisingly related:

In the mission statement on his blog, Brian mentions, "I'm finding that there is indeed a universal place where art and science, the sacred and the mundane can meet, in certain forms and colors that seem to appeal to us unconsciously on a variety of levels, and hope to take this exploration further." That's very related to how I feel about map drawing -- I approach it scientifically or algorithmically, but somehow the fractal form of a map has fairly universal aesthetic appeal. Brian's paintings remind me that when I was studying aesthetics, some of the basic findings were that people prefer centered images and round images. I always discounted this as overly simplistic, but I'm finding more and more that there's a thing for circles in art and studio jewelry. I sometimes make fun of this with my maps, drawing illogical traffic circles for purely aesthetic appeal, or making ridiculous spiral roads. But it seems there is something to that design after all.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

I was in New York last weekend, and on Sunday I took some visitors to see the Met.

Francesco Guardi, Fantastic Landscape (c. 1760)

Anthonis van den Wijngaerde, View of Rome (c. 1540)

Henry Lerolle, The Organ Rehearsal 

Ancient Egyptian stamps

Pillar in the Greek and Roman Art court

Floral pattern on a suit of armor

Vase

At my last craft fair at the Burren, I was exhibiting near a ceramicist and traded some earrings for a bud vase at the end of the day. It's so cute! I have in on my work desk right now, with a huge dendrobium orchid in it. It's nice to be able to have flowers at my desk, and the blue-green color is so pretty.

Silverware Ring

I decided to treat myself to an early Christmas present at the Harvard Square Holiday Crafts Fair one day after work last week. Last year my roommate got me a pair of spoon earrings from vendor Shine On, and I've been coveting their rings ever since, so when I ran into their stall I had to get one. It was hard to choose, but I found one with a lovely art nouveau design of a daffodil, which makes me think of spring.

TempleCon Steampunk Convention

The day after First Friday, I went to TempleCon in Warwick, RI, a steampunk-themed gaming convention. I don't really game at all, but I signed up to volunteer because I wanted to judge costumes. I didn't end up getting that responsibility, but I did see a lot of gorgeous things.

I also wanted to get a sense for the vendors there to see it would be a good venue for the things I've been posting at Valise. It definitely seemed like my Victorian-inspired jewelry and accessories would fit right in! I'll post more about individual stores when my collection of business cards shows up.

Saturday evening there was a steampunk-themed burlesque/bellydancing show. I took a lot of photos, but not many of them came out well. There was also a costume contest at the end, which allowed me to get a photo of this great character:

I hadn't thought about the brass-cyberpunk aspect of steampunk, but it does make sense.

Later that evening was a purple- and Mad Hatter-themed party. It was enchanting to be surrounded by fanciful costumes, although the pretense wore off a bit as the evening went on.

This gentleman had his iPhone on a chain instead of a pocketwatch:

The table after the party had wound down:

There was punch in teapots and guests drank it from teacups. 

In the morning before I left I had one last chance to document costumes:

It was a great weekend and I had a wonderful time volunteering. I wish that dressing up wasn't limited to that sort of event. But perhaps I just haven't found the right place for it. Wouldn't it be great, though, to see costumes like that more often?

First Friday at the South End

I was very pleased to be able to go to First Friday last weekend. I hadn't been to that event in a while, and it was awfully nice to see familiar artists again, as well as discover some new ones! It looked like there had been a bit of shuffling, which meant I got to see some interesting new stuff.

It was very interesting to speak with artist Sharon Whitham about her process. At first glance, her prints seemed ambiguous, with interesting texture. However, when I later learned that she used tape and hot glue to make her plates, the textures immediately made a lot more sense to me. I don't have a lot of printmaking experience but her innovative techniques made me want to try!

I also had an involved talk with B. Glee Lucas about color and palette. I have very little experience (or, frankly, interest) in painting, and she has a very different approach than I would take. I tend to use very muted colors and limited palette, and I was very impressed with her bright colors and photorealist approach. Her paintings are almost overwhelming, an effect I don't think work of mine would ever be able to create.

It was also great to chat with Sophie Hughes again. She makes beautiful jewelry and was full of useful advice about getting and using a studio space. It's a great inspiration to hear someone talk about deciding to just go through with making and showing things. I feel like I've been taking a more cautious route, but it's still going well, slowly but surely.

Paper and Writing in Bergdorf's Windows

I mentioned Bergdorf's winter decorations in a recent post, and wanted to show some photos of their text theme.

I liked their overall Alice in Wonderland theme, with all the various things that were going on in each window:

What really caught my eye, though, was the use of book pages and folded paper for many of the props:

I like the last two the best; they're more sculptural and less busy. I've seen a lot of paper sculpture, but it was nice to have it in such a public venue.