jennilee marigomen is a photographer who lives and works in vancouver, and nature plays a large role in her work as well. she explains her approach to photography in her interview with booooooom: “i shoot spontaneously within a small time frame, so i would say that that my photographs are not calculated in a pre-determined sense. many of my photos are made through serendipity – i’ll find something interesting by chance, or i will end up with accidental and beautiful light leaks – happy accidents. however, i am drawn to interesting shapes, especially those that occur within nature, so i agree with being drawn to geometry. i like simplicity and isolation and frame the subject matter carefully so that there are the least amount of distractions as possible.”
i liked so many of her photographs i had a hard time choosing which ones to include…
read her full interview here and check out more of her work here.
yesterday i wrote about the booooooom art show taking place in vancouver…and i thought i’d share some more work by a couple of the participating artists that i really like, starting with erika somogyi...
you wouldn’t know it by looking at her work, but erika somogyi is a brooklyn-based artist. in an interview featured on boooooom she explains the inspiration behind the nature themes in her work: “sometimes i wish i were living in a log cabin in the mountains. i have spent time backpacking and sleeping outside. i love visiting the national parks. the natural imagery i use in my work comes from my travels, photos i have taken, photos i have borrowed, field studies and memories. one aspect of the work i have been making is the longing for a connection with nature. the lack of expansive wilderness here is a big part of that. in a way i feel transported by the paintings.”
"divining light"
"falling"
"walking watching waiting"
"questions and answers"
"violet"
i also like the quote she ends with:
“how we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” - annie dillard
you can read the full interview here and check out more of her work here.
any vancouver readers out there? i wish i could go to this art show taking place tonight…it’s the first art show curated by the blog booooooom in collaboration with lifetime collective, and from the looks of it, they’ve done a great job getting some local and non-local artists whose work is pretty incredible.
i recently came across the work of rachell sumpter, an artist who lives in tiny island, n. puget sound. some of her work is currently on display at the richard heller gallery in santa monica. what I love about these images is that the subject matter invokes fall, winter and coldness but the colors she uses are so cheerful and warm…perfect on a day like today.
finery, 2009
igloo, 2009
brothers in sport, 2009
jokulhlaup, 2009
ghosts, 2009
molten kin, 2009
other interesting facts about rachell…she is inspired by big, big trees, and living off the grid…she is reading born to kvetch, the orchard keeper, the lone ranger and tonto fistfight in heaven…and she is listening to beach house, bonnie "prince" billy, and bruce.
one of our new features on the blog is all about artists we love...whose work strikes us in a certain way and inspires us. this week i stumbled upon the work of joe ryckebosch, who uses found images of nature and wildlife and overlays them with brightly colored lines representing patterns he sees in nature that are invisible to the human eye.
joe answered some questions for me about the thought process behind his work...check out the interview and some of his artwork below!
"discoveries"
where are you from?
i live and work in portland, or. i’m originally from a small town in southern california. i lived in the san francisco bay area for several years and it was there when i discovered the shapes and patterns that make up the work i produce today. my wife and i lived in nyc for a short spell, but it really didn’t work out very well (living in nyc). we moved to portland in 2007 and the change of scenery really inspired me to start the nature paths and wildlife analysis series in my art.
"radiant jay"
what is the inspiration behind memory screens of things seen and unseen?
i wanted to try and convey the idea that we sometimes remember or recall things a certain way and our minds have this strict idea of exactly how we saw it or perceived it, but that sometimes is not the case and these things, such as nature and wildlife, are not exactly that way and the entire time they had this sort of aura or life force surrounding them. in my work this life force becomes palatable in the shape of colored lines and patterns.
"panthervision"
where do you find your nature imagery?
ahh, well i find these things all over the place. i like to take little trips on saturday morning up and then back down 82nd ave. (in portland) and stop at all the thrift stores along the way. there are about 4 of them and in my “rounds” i usually end up with a few good finds.
"lupine shine"
how do the “unseen patterns” come to you?
they just sort of pop out of an image as soon as i see it. It’s funny, i will walk into a place and see an image just sort of staring back at me. i instantly know if i can work with it and perhaps, hopefully, remix it to the way i see the patterns emerging.
"forest relics"
can you explain the phrase “nature authors nature”?
well, i can provide an example: the water flows down the stream and feeds all life in its path. what if the water was really this colorful life source surging forth? it is not really a liquid anymore but rather a source of power, a necessary thing that will ultimately sustain life. nature then edits the way things really are, nature’s unseen editing will dictate and govern how things should and will be. i try and bring that to the foreground in my work.
"spectral falls"
who are your heroes?
hamish kilgour, jack k., william b., the ether spring, david r., jonathan ames, sara bir, and tony turano.
"majesty tree"
what does “free people” mean to you?
free to choose, free to live, free to think. un-inhibited and never afraid to try new things, despite oppressive factions and dictatorships.
memory screens of things seen and unseen is on display at half & half gallery in portland through november 1.
the story is really moving…jamie hewlett, the artist behind gorillaz (who rock), recently traveled to bangladesh with oxfam and visited the island of char atra, where climate change has caused flooding that is affecting the daily life of the people who live there.
not only have families had to raise their homes above water on stilts, but some have lost children to the floods, and some kids in the area have to swim to school with their books on their heads due to flooding. visit the oxfam site for more info.
hewlett was inspired to record what he saw in a series of paintings that capture both the difficulty of their situation as well as the resilience of the people...can you imagine having to spend part of your day literally up a tree, for safety?
here are some of the paintings, and the explanations behind them...
"this is the river erosion, showing how the bank has almost been sliced away. you can see the men folk looking at us on our boat – watching us quizzically as to who we are.”
"this shows the kids up in the trees, which for many of them is the safest place to go during the floods – gathering some food rations to keep them going and climbing up, staying there for as long as they can."
"this is in dhaka where most people’s transport is the rickshaw. it seemed the right thing to draw really, cycling through the floods. of course, there weren’t floods there then - artistic license."
i think they’re beautiful in their simplicity. i especially like his use of materials…as he explains, “i liked the idea of putting the paintings on paper and envelopes that were a bit dog-eared, as if they had been dropped in a puddle.”
the paintings are on display as part of a free exhibit on climate change taking place now through october 31 at the dray walk gallery at the truman brewery in london, and are available for purchase through oxfam, with proceeds going towards continuing their work in bangladesh.
yesterday we told you about a show taking place at johnny brenda’s to benefit the philadelphia independent artist collective vox populi.
i went to their website to check out some of the artists and I was inspired by these paintings by local artist kate stewart, who’s work explores notions of escape and shelter.
if you’re looking for something to do in philly tonight, vox populi is holding their second annual benefit show at johnny brenda’s at 9pm. tickets are $10 and proceeds go towards supporting vox, a philadelphia independent artist collective. the benefit show will feature bardo pond, arc in round and ape school, comedian andrew jeffrey wright and dj scott sullivan.
check out some of the artists on vox populi’s website…you might be inspired to support the collective and go to the show: http://www.voxpopuligallery.org/
erica prince is freelancing for our visual team right now, and she’s also a great artist! her work is part of an exhibit called far in far out going on right now at fuel (3rd and arch in philadelphia).
erica’s drawings explore the implications of distinct design decisions within interior spaces. by arranging furniture, “art”, clutter, and décor, prince creates environments of indulgence, frivolity, and dramatic potential. as she says, "i urge the viewer to make themselves at home. become the missing character. feel the silk upholstery, meditate, host a cocktail party, and entertain a lover. try the spaces on like trying on a bad outfit. you know it is too flamboyant, but you have a sick curiosity of how it might look."
i would definitely like to step inside this space…
i love this idea…every sunday from 11am-6pm a one-of-a-kind diy market takes place at the old american can factory in brooklyn. each sunday a different “maker” creates their product live, giving visitors the chance to see how it is made. the makers specialize in a variety of crafts including jewelry, clothing, food and home décor. I definitely want to go one weekend – if any of you are attending, let us know!
artist stephen powers grew up in west philadelphia, where walls and rooftops were a blank canvas for the former graffiti artist. now, with the help of the philadelphia mural arts program, he has put a spin on the traditional notions of graffiti with love letter. the project is literally his love letter to the city where he grew up, that can also be read as a love letter from one person to another or from the residents of west philadelphia to their neighborhood.
say hello to mark khaisman, a philadephia-based artist who hails from kiev, ukraine. his medium of choice is tape.
how he gets his inspiration: "i go mostly by motivation. i conceive an idea and live with it, and if in a while it still feels right to me, i work on it."
two artists, Lenka Clayton & Michael Crowe, had this idea to send a handwritten letter to every household in a small irish town, after sending over 450 letters, they hoped it would bring the community together, promoting curiosity and discussion. and i think the end result is quite beautiful! its interesting to see how such a small idea and object become such a large creation Mysterious Letters
