This week’s focus is Animal Art–-3 different artists using animals as their subject matter in 3 very different ways but all imply a  story or mythic feeling. I think that’s so interesting.

I hope they inspire you to carry your own ideas forward into your own unique new territory.

Do these artists speak to you?

Take a look and let me know what you think in the comments!

“Karen Knorr’s Photographs of Sacred Indian Interiors Consider Caste, Femininity, And it’s Relationship To The Animal World”

Surreal Mixed Media Animal Sculptures by Ellen Jewett

“The Art of Yong Ho Ji – Recycled Tire Sculptures”

Mythic and monumental, these sculptures are not only gorgeous, but somehow, being made out of old tires, they really bring to mind the impact of human culture on the animal kingdom.

This week’s theme is the Dress–four women artists exploring the dress as a metaphor, a symbol and a shape in very different ways.

I hope they inspire you to carry your own ideas forward into your own unique new territory.

Which of these artists speaks to you?

Have you ever considered using the dress as your subject matter–or other clothing for that matter?

Take a look and let me know what you think in the comments!

“Paris Progressives: Yiqing Yin Couture”

Often what comes down the runway by top designers can seem ridiculously unwearable, but young design world super star Yiqing Yin appeals to me as she does this because it feels more like artwork coming down the catwalk. And her work is actually inspired by sculpture as well as mother nature herself. Fresh and exciting. Check it out by clicking on the image below!

Elvira ‘t Hart

I love these drawings (definitely click on the pic below to view more of them) but what’s even cooler is that she’s taken them one step further and turned them into actual clothes by laser cutting black leather to simulate the lines in the drawings and be as true to the original as much as possible–while also experimenting to see how this process would create something new.
Love it.

Melinda Le Guay

These beautiful, fragile, ethereal knitted copper wire sculptures of dresses by Melinda Le Guay turn the empty dress into a sort of delicate vessel–I find them poignant.

Marilyn Stevens

I really like these satisfying collages by Marilyn Stevens and her use of the dress as a starting point for all her work. Click on the image below to see all her interpretations and explorations of life through this potent symbol.

This week’s theme is Reflection–the mind-bending kind.

These artists use reflective surfaces to make you think about space, illusion, reality, and the nature of seeing.

I hope they inspire you to carry your own ideas forward into your own unique new territory.

Have you ever considered making “reflective” art? Which of these artists speaks to you?

Take a look and let me know what you think in the comments!

“Paris Photos By Joanna Lemanska Capture Serene Reflections Of The City of Light”

It’s easy to manufacture reflection in Photoshop, but this artist looks for reflections naturally occurring in the water all over Paris or in combination with the reflective surfaces of contemporary buildings around her. Arresting.

“Daniel Kukla: The Edge Effect”

Kukla takes a mirror and an easel with him out into nature and then snaps photos of the mirror reflecting an image you cannot see directly as the viewer, and then extending it into the space of the natural object he rests it against. It’s kind of quietly mind-bending.

“The Skewed, Anamorphic Sculptures and Engineered Illusions of Jonty Hurwitz”

Okay, I can’t even explain this, so I’m going to have to quote the article in thisiscolossal.com:
“His anamorphic sculptures rely on scans of objects (hands, faces, frogs) that are then distorted digitally and fabricated, but when placed in front of a cylindrical mirror the projected reflection reveals the original object.”
Okay, so you really need to click on the link to see the photos of the work to get a sense of what he’s really doing. A different kind of mind-bending.

“Metalmorphosis: Incredible Moving Sculpture by David Cerny”

Photograph by David Cwiertnia

It’s massive, it moves in sections, it’s a fountain. Holy Moley. Go look.

“Mind-bending Scaling Building Illusion” Mirrored building facade installation art by Leandro Erlich

Fun. Weird. Wackadoodle. Mind-bending for the whole family.

This week’s theme is Water.

These artists use water to explore time, space, and the relationship between human beings and our natural environment.

I hope they inspire you to carry your own ideas forward into your own unique new territory.

Have you ever considered making “experiential” art like this? Which of these artists speaks to you?

Take a look and let me know what you think in the comments!

Water Drop Perfection by Markus Reugels

German photographer Markus Reugels uses high speed photography to capture water droplets–frozen in time and space like that, they take on a weirdly concrete, sculptural feeling. Very cool.

“Osaka Station fountain displays time, art in water”

What I like about this project is that the flowing water functions as such a beautiful metaphor for time while the piece serves as a literal “digital” clock in a public space. As the feeling of the water rushing through the numbers makes you more aware of them as abstractions as well, the fountain becomes this very layered symbol about that slippery notion/experience/fact we call “time.” So interesting.

Rain Room: Installation Art at Barbican’s Curve Gallery in London

This interactive exhibit in London is so interesting because it plays with our modern notions of our control over our lives and the world around us. As you walk around the exhibit of falling water, the rain “stops” wherever you move…fun, thought-provoking, and tactile–I’d love to experience this first-hand. Click on the image below to watch the video.

“Neon Luminance: Landscapes lit up by glow sticks, road flares, headlamps, and moonlight”

Photography duo Sean Lenz and Kristoffer Abildgaard used slow shutter speeds to capture the path their glow sticks traveled down waterfalls–take a look:

This week’s theme is Typography. I love type and words and use language frequently in my own artwork.

Each of these artists is making very different work, but all use type or letters as their focus or starting point–sometimes just graphically as symbols or shapes, sometimes to evoke the past or assert the human hand–other times, to use it as a jumping off point to explore visual expression digitally.

I hope they inspire you to carry your own ideas forward into your own unique new territory.

Are you drawn to using language or type in your own work? Which of these artists speak to you?

Take a look and let me know what you think in the comments!

Carved from Crayons by Diem Chau

Artist Diem Chau carved these fun letters and animals out of crayons–sweet, intimate, graphic.

“Evolution of Type: Fossilized Typography” by Andreas Scheiger

Austrian designer Andreas Scheiger creates fossilized tpyography in his project, Evolution of Type

Typography Created with String and Nails by Corn Studio

Corn Studio was commissioned by Petrol to create a sign for their shop. They used hundreds of pins and untold yards of thread to create this elegant and graphic piece.

Lumen Type: Experimental Typography by Ruslan Khasanov

Viewing this artist and designer’s work is like seeing him mid-conversation with the world through typography and design–sometimes by pushing the boundaries of the new as well lovingly embracing its history. Very interesting.

This week’s theme is Paper Sculpture!

These artist’s are making precise, interesting, wacky, thought-provoking, exciting work.

I hope they inspire you to carry your own ideas forward into your own unique new territory.

Have you ever considered working three-dimensionally with paper? Take a look and let me know what you think in the comments!

Li Hong Bo’s Flexible Paper Sculptures Are Mind Bending

Watch this short wacky video. Then you MUST MUST MUST click on the link to see the rest of his work. It’s funny, smart, weird and wonderful. I love it.

Jen Stark‘s Totemic Cut Paper

One of the things I love about Jen Stark’s art is that it’s  both simple and complicated at the same time. Playful and provocative, each individual piece feels almost totemic and is completely interesting by itself and as part of the whole series.  Please click through her list of images–great, great stuff.

 Peter Gentenaar’s Ethereal, Organic, Fluid, Sculptural Paper…Beings 

Gentenaar seems to make living breathing paper organisms. Graceful and organic, they seem to both float and have serious substance. Truly lovely. When you visit his site, it might be unclear how to see more work. Click on the image on the right and it will open a slideshow.

This week’s list is called Sucess After Seventy!

Because our ambitious, career oriented culture can easily make you feel woefully “behind” or like it’s “too late” for you and your art dreams, I thought I’d highlight 3 women artists who created wonderful work and achieved recognition for it well after 70. (Thank you Blouin Art Info for this inspiration!)

I hope these artists inspire you to carry your own ideas forward into your own unique new territory.

Take a look and let me know what you think in the comments!

Abstract Painter Carmen Herrera Sold Her First Painting at 89

 Love this work. Bold, fresh and powerful, the Museum of Modern Art scooped up several pieces and at age 94, her goal is to make “larger works.” That’s what I’m talking about!

Early Collage Artist Mary Delany

Working in the late 1700′s, Mary Delany created nearly 1,700 intricate, botanically accurate depictions of plants and flowers with hundreds of pieces of cutout paper. Her work was so wonderful that the King started sending her specimens from the royal gardens as subjects for her collages.  Read more here and see more images here and here.

 Iranian Artist Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian Creates Gorgeous Mirrored Mosaics

 Farmanfarmaian was born in 1924 and steadily created art her entire adult life, but as Blouin Art Info explains, “she’s only become more prolific and adventurous with age.” Her work is now collected the the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Click on the header or the image below to see more work!

Here’s this week’s Art Inspiration Hit List–a few links to wonderful artwork from around the interweb to get you thinking, dreaming, and creating.

This week’s theme is LARGE beaded artwork. I like the way these artists think so big with a medium developed for creating  jewelry.

All four of these links are great, but I’m especially crazy about the musical instruments of hanging buttons by Augusto Esquival and the Star Trek installation by Devorah Sperber which is not only clever but is also a super successful example of a perfect marriage between technique and concept.

I hope these artists inspire you to carry your own ideas forward into your own unique new territory: Take a look and let me know what you think in the comments!

Monumental Pieces Created with Thousands of Buttons, Pins, and Beads by Ran Hwang

Beaded Miss Havisham Sculpture from a Second Hand Furniture Shop – photo by Gareth Williams

Gareth Williams took this photo of an intricately beaded sculpture reminiscent of Miss Havisham from Charles Dickens’ classic novel, “Great Expectations.” I don’t know who made this, but I really like how the beaded over-the-topness of their technique really expresses Miss Havisham’s…..mmmm….psychological situation. Even without putting her in a flowing dress.

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Augusto Esquivel Uses Strings of Buttons to Create Pieces that Resemble Life-Sized Instruments

We found this artist on Visual News, and the best description in the blurb called this work “three dimensional pointillism.” Click on the link to see all the musical instruments he’s created–somehow the ethereal quality of these carefully hung buttons creates a visual expression of music–the most abstract art of all.

Mirror Universe by Sculptor Devorah Sperber

Even if you’re not a Star Trek fan, the marriage between technique and concept in this piece (owned by Microsoft, btw) is completely successful. It’s about a particular popular episode from the 1967 Star Trek, but what’s so perfect about it is that the beads create the “beaming up” feeling of the transporter–the half here, half not here thing perfectly–Sperber managed to create a physical expression of a sci-fi fantasy that we’ve seen over and over but only as expressed through special effects or CGI.  I think that’s very cool. Click on the link to see close ups and read more about it on the Amusing Planet website.

Here’s this week’s Art Inspiration Hit List–a few links to wonderful artwork from around the interweb to get you thinking, dreaming, and creating.

This week’s theme is TINY ART!  Small, intimate work you can hold in your hand.  If you ever feel like you have no room to create–here’s some inspiration for how to make work in the teeniest of spaces.

All four of these links are great, but I’m especially crazy about Cathy Cullis’s lovely drawings in general and her tiny book below and I love the silvery carved pencil tips by Dalton Getti–crazy small!

I hope these artists inspire you to carry your own ideas forward into your own unique new territory: Take a look and let me know in the comments–does working small like appeal to you?|

Cathy Cullis – Tiny Books of Black and Gold

Great drawings on her site in general–and I love the gold crown here and this little book format. Perfect.

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Willard Wigan – “Micro Sculptor”

Willard Wigan, “Micro Sculptor”, creates sculptures that fit in the eye of a needle! Click on the link to view more of the little narratives he manages to create in that teensy-teensy space!

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Miniature Art on Toilet Paper Rolls by Anastasia Elias

Anastasia Elias creates multiple layers of art within the rolls, so you can view each scene from both perspectives. She explains her process on her site, so make sure to click and see how it all works!

Dalton Ghetti – Pencil Tip Sculptures

Brazillian artist Dalton Ghetti carves tiny sculptures out of the tips of pencils.

Here’s this week’s Art Inspiration Hit List–a few links to wonderful artwork from around the interweb to get you thinking, dreaming, and creating.

I’m not sure this week has a theme, except it’s all women artists and I love all of it. What do you think, is there a theme? Monumentality maybe?

I hope these artists inspire you to carry your own ideas forward into your own unique new territory: Take a look and let me know in thecomments–do any of these artists resonate with you?

Toshiko Takaezu – The Earth In Bloom

OMG, I love this woman’s monumental ceramic pots–I’m working on my own (hopefully monumental) felt pots, so I’ve been obsessed with vessels of all kinds lately–by contemporary artists like Toshiko or 10,000 year old pots from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Whatever you do, click on the link to view more–huge, silent, eternal, totemic. Everything you want in a giant ceramic pot.

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Deborah Zlotsky – The Beauty of Mistakes

I’m crazy about these paintings by Deborah Zlotsky and I love the way they talk about them on this site–The Flood.
Here’s a quote from the artist: “As I adjust one relationship, another slips out of balance. Overlaying, abrading, reconfiguring, and repeatedly repainting and revarnishing create slippage between the past, present and future, as accidents and change remain visible in each work.” Definitely click on the image below to view more!

Mixed Media Art by Jill Ricci

Jill Ricci also doesn’t plan her work, but builds up layers and layers to evoke a sort of history of place somehow–kind of the way layers of torn wallpaper in an old house evoke stories in your mind of multiple lives and memories–scraps of evidence that create a beautiful new composition and story. Love these paintings!

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Wood Block Art by Betty Parsons

Even though these pieces aren’t big, they have a monumental feeling to me. And Betty Parsons was a monumental personality herself–a strong, independent, free thinking woman in the early 20th century–a successful artist, curator, and gallery owner who was an early supporter of Abstract Expression.