Wednesday Work: Lisa Sigal

Line Up. 2008.

To pull directly from a press release: Lisa Sigal's work "lies at the intersection of painting, sculpture and architecture." The thing that attracts me to the work is the play of the artwork in and out of our "real" space - the space we inhabit both in the bodily sense and in the sense of this image up top, the "real" space of our work/play/live.

Art lives in galleries. Art work exists in specific confines. Art work is completed between certain dimensions of frame, or size of wall, area in room, the stretch of a single concrete monument.

I love the image up top because it is boundless, playing with the sea foam green from building to building on a landscape, but also sea foam green in relationship to the green bike lane on the street. Where is the frame around this piece? Where is the gallery?

The Day Before Yesterday. 2008.

I have been feeling tired lately trying to figure out where art lives, and in which medium specific that it breathes. Lisa Sigal's use of many medium & much space, both specific and ubiquitous, makes me feel sure & excited that yes - art is what it should be, part of our lives, the same way buildings and bills and work days are.

One Room Shelter. 2009.

For pure aesthetics I quite enjoy the color choices Sigal makes and her play with bright colors into and on top of worn or undone industrial spaces, along with the construction materials.

View From My Brother's Room. 2005.

The subtle nostalgia, and the abstract narrative. Both of these things I like. I am not pretending to understand it in the way it may be meant to be understood, but I am enjoying it as a tired one does, a feeling of familiar, yet inspiring with its unknown undertones, much like the fall air out there, just starting to nip at the tips of our ears and remind us, summer's over - there's work to be done, lovely, wonderful work.

(some thoughts on architecture). 2010.

All of these images were pulled from Lisa Sigal's website, here. To read more about Sigal, check out this and this.

Defy Monday: Spike the Cider!

Photo: Julie A. Wenskoski

It's that time. Leaves are crunching and orchards are starting their apple and pumpkin festivities. This week begins, in my opinion, one of the best month-long periods of the entire year.

So, you ask, how do you start the week of the best month, the month of "it's AUTUMN"!?

You spike the cider already...

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Below, I've listed a recipe to get you started. It is quick and very easy. My only advice here: put in the things that you like, remove the things you don't, and experiment. Cause if it's apple cider and it's amber-colored alcohol, you pretty much can't go wrong.

Poor-Man's Hot-Toddy

Make each drink individually, to taste.

INGREDIENTS
1 box spiced apple cider mix OR hot apple cider tea
6-8 oz water per drink
whiskey o' choice
butter schnapps (optional sweet licquor)
*orange slice
*apple slice
*cinnamon stick
*(optional garnish)

1. Boil water in kettle, or warm in microwave until almost boiling.
2. Pour contents of cider mix into (or add tea bag to) mug
3. Pour hot water into mix and stir well (or let steep).
4. Pour in whiskey and schnapps to taste, (I prefer half schnapps to whiskey)
5. Garnish with fruit slices and cinnamon sticks

Enjoy!... and remember this anytime you're near a nice roarin' fire.

Wednesday Work: Seonna Hong

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The Corrective Effects of a Brushfire 2009 

mixed media on paper

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Same Bad Habits 2009

mixed media on canvas

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Hold That Tiger 2009

mixed media on canvas

Seonna Hong works as an illustrator and animation art director. Much of her animation work focuses on children's entertainment, though, her art is appreciated by kids and adults alike. I find a truly impressive combination of playfulness and danger in many of her images.

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I Prefer the Low Notes 2007

acrylic and paper on wood

Check out www.seonnahong.com for more images (they are ALL sooo fine, too many to list here.)

The vibrant colors in Hong's work are reminiscent of the coming season. As leaves are changing, and sweaters and scarves are showing themselves, i find myself giddy and excited for Autumn's arrival. Just a few more weeks and it'll be here in full swing!

DEFY MONDAY: Retreat!

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Retreat - already? Yes!

I'm feeling like this canine here, ready to skulk alone and grumpy through the dark and vine-y woods.

I am not bragging, (I am longing!), but I did used to live somewhere a lot like this pictured below. I'm just sayin' - I could leave out my back door, or even my front and be in the woods in a hop & a skip, I did not even need so much the jump.

Today, I am achin', achin' for the same.

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The best I am likely find myself in, resembles something more like the image below, and this is okay,

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Because the dogs and I will curl up and make some of these. Do you want to, too?

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But really, I need to buck up! Its a beautiful SUNNY day in Philadelphia! Oy, I am sure it is just some vitamin D that I need!

In my absence, lovely readers, get out there for me!
& whether it be those urban streets beneath your sneakers, or the green breeze across your cheeks, I suggest you listen to this, The Blow- Parentheses & do read the lyrics, they're lovely.

uh...where have YOU BEEN?!?

Woooooo - the WHIRLWIND of the last month! Where have we been? Its hard to remember, but a little run down and mash-up:


We celebrated a birthday, with YUM cupcakes from Whipped. (Following a WOW, sweetest of the sweet, birthday scavenger hunt.)

then ... summer ended,

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Wouldn't these stars & moon watermelon be B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L at a romantic summer end picnic at dusk with all of your best friends, favorite family, and every gorgeous person you see on the way to the bus? (just sayin')

And SCHOOL STARTED!

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And it was time to get organized, (and finally finish unpacking!)

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Oh, yeah, and there was an exhibition to hang at local gallery Grizzly Grizzly.

No biggie.

I gotta go comb my hair.

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I want the red one.

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We'll see you again soon & consistent.

Lot's of Wednesday Work piling up around here that we are dying to share....

Shameless Self Promotion

we are xHEREX

new work by
Tamsen Wojtanowski

@GrizzlyGrizzly
319 N. 11th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107
2nd Floor

Sept. 1-30: OPENING: First Friday, September 3rd, 2010, 6pm-8pm.

If you're in Philly, it'd be great to see you!

Wednesday Work: Arty Potties

Clark Sorensen creates some of the most interesting urinals I have ever seen!

Art you can pee on... GENIUS!

If you can stomach the price tag, you'll find something for your mother-in-law-to-be, and something for the punk-rock-kids-next-door:

Has it been a sh*tty day? 

Hmmmmmmm, a hump day, definetely a hump day.

If you'd like to see more of Sorensen's work, check out http://www.clarkmade.com/

And we wanna know - what would your fancy throne look like?

Wednesday Work: John Buck's Woodcuts (and more!)

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"The Preserve": 2005

Color woodcut : 62 x 37" : Ed. 15

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"The Coal Mine": 1996

Color woodcut : 62 x 37" : Ed. 15

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"Argosy": 1998
Color woodcut : 62½ x 37" : Ed. 15

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"War Eagle": 2010
Color woodcut with hand coloring : 37 x 73" : Ed. 15

John Buck resides between Montana and Hawaii. He not only works with these beautifully detailed woodblock prints, he also works with wood carving and bronze sculpture. He has shown his work extensively and a retrospective of his graphic work is currently on a national exhibition. To see this work in person would be a dream! It will be on exhibition at the Yellowstone Art Museum through January 2011, so if you're in the area, check it out.

Ok, now more of the good stuff:

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"Projections and Predictions", 2008

wood & acrylic, 71 x 71 x 3.5 inches

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"The In Crowd", 2003

blown glass and wood

Is there any medium this guy hasn't eloquently mastered?

And check out where the magic happens...

Now this looks like the kinda place I'd like to spend my days.

Read more about John Buck here.

DEFY MONDAY: ...

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Wednesday Work: Textile Exile

All I have been able to think about in the past few weeks is fabric fabric fabric. I'm not talking fashion design, I'm talking fabric as a canvas, for everything I've always done, but with more possibilities...

Crocheting fabric,

Sewing, Serging, Shearing,

Textile designs by way of screen prints,

Dying fabric-y things,

Okay ... you get the picture.

It seems though, that the more I research fabric artists, the more I am coming across the same ole quilty quilts. You know, the kind that are meaningful if Great Aunt Wanda spent hours of painstaking time, sewing it by arthritis-ridden hands for that special birthday surprise. Those quilts have their places in our hearts..... of course....

But, Oh, The Delight! when I came across these two lovely ladies and their beautiful, original textile pieces:

Leah Evans creates these quilted wall hangings using an impressive assortment of layers and different techniques. All of her work has a common theme throughout, which is how maps interact with our ideas about land. More about her work can be found here.

Sarah Symes creates abstract art about life. She uses colors and spaces to explain real life emotions and experiences. See and read more here.

Just look at the detail!...

















Tomorrow I'm off to visit a friend's fabric studio.
Ohhh, that's right, Im just getting started.

Cheers to Autumns approach, the landscapes, the colors, and the entrance of new, fresh ideas.

DEFY MONDAY: bicycles + tattoos

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Big news from this past weekend - after walking with the dogs down to the neighborhood bike shop to pick up a new tube - I fixed my first flat, all by myself!

I know, I know, not exactly rocket science or even an awesome show of physical strength, but it is those small victories, is it not(?), that put the sugar-free frosting on our mundane day-to-day.

And it was! It was exhilarating! And I did! I did want to run out and get a rad how-to-fix-a-flat-bicycle-tire-diagram tattoo. But I digress,

(Perhaps I should wait on the permanent ink until I overcome a repair which involves a little more difficulty or an awesome show of physical strength.)

Check out these illustration by Matt Taylor! I am sure all of you out there know someone around your 'hood like this. (Ugh:way to go Dad - all I can think is: where are their helmets?)

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Bicycles + Tattoos + Art = a splendid day ANY day! See more of these things at Brush & Spoke, Pedal Consumption, and Fixed Gear Blog.

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A ball-bearing hub?

Can I be honest with you out there in blog land?

I keep dreaming about a mobile made of sticks & feathers & string & rocks, I think the tattoo sitting there just inside my subconscious resembles a ... dream-catcher! shriek BaHahahaha (evil laugh), on the inside of my upper arm, The Sea won't mind, no, not at all.

Oh the lunacy of a humid August - hope you all enjoy your week!

...mhmm...

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Hope y'all have a great weekend!

-drop it like a top

pop it while it's hot-

(summer is almost over... enjoy it while you can.)

Wednesday Work: Wafa Hourani

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Wafa Hourani is a Palestinian artist combining sculpture and photography is his current body of work, Future Cities.

Paraphrased from a fellow blogger,

"Future Cities deals with the social, political, and economic realities of Palestinian life to develop grim and apocalyptic predictions for the residents of the West Bank.

Each building is a miniature light-box illuminating glimpses into the private lives of the residents through film strips placed in the windows, an unnerving reminder that this science fiction horror is, for many, an everyday experience. "

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While I applaud the ability to be real-world pertinent/political, I mostly enjoy this work for it's whimsical object-hood. Thinking about the process, and how much fun it would be to make this little world. I love the nuance the photographs of the darkened world create, but am very interested in the array of bright colors used on the models you can seen when shot in daylight.

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I can imagine the working process, but find myself curious about the thought-process. Did Wafa Hourani think first of the concept then make the model, or does Hourani enjoy model making and after constructing a few, come up with the concept.

This is something I struggle with often. You creative folks out there - what works best for you? Plan or action? Plan to action? Attack and clean-up?

Regardless, *Cribs* Goldfish Edition - yes, why I would love to live here. (Those of you in Philly, does this remind you of the secret garden?)

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I want ice cream.

You can read more about Wafa Hourani here, and here.

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DEFY MONDAY: Always lovely...

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Wouldn't you like to be here?

Always lovely images from Fine Little Day.

We missed last week's Wednesday Work - we were on vacation.

Where have you all been getting away to this summer?