Work!: John Jerome O'Connor

 

 Apophis

I wrote myself a note last year - (hehe, I love the calendar change...) okay, it was really only a few months ago- to make sure to share the work of this artist, John Jerome O'Connor.   And here it is!

The artist writes about this piece above: " Conceptually, this work is my attempt to visualize a prediction, by NASA scientists, that an asteroid called Apophis will strike the Earth in 2036. (more) ...."

....YesssssssssssSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSssssssssssssssssssssss!

1 Spin.

 

And there's more, see O'Connor's website, here.

A Good Idea.

A far-out way to start the New Year right.

What are your plans for the next rotation?

John Jerome O'Connor

Wednesday Work: Speaking of Baroque - Modern Still Life Photography

(Sharon Core)

Though I referenced antique Baroque paintings in my last post about Alan Lightman's book, Einstein's Dreams, it should be noted that it was actually a contemporary still life photograph that I used as reference.

(Marian Drew)

The still life photographs of Sharon Core, Marian Drew, and Laura Letinsky, are gorgeous.

(Laura Letinsky)

Let's go eat a watermelon.

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.

Wednesday Work: speaking of Matte Stephens...

Rupert and Leonard wait for the tram on their Swedish holiday.

You've seen Matte Stephens' paintings and work whether it be for American Express, IBM, Disney or The Boston Globe - or from our last blog post - to name a few, but have you seen Matte Stephens' felted "action figures"?

Mr. Owl and Uncle Rutherford

Felted Action Figures.

I am not usually all too interested in those things (styles, ideas, etc) that I see everywhere. They often seem ungenuine, or at the very least less accessible to the individual, to myself as a person. They instead just become a commodity, an extension of the corporate working to establish something else, usually a product.

While I enjoy Stephens style, my enjoyment was purely an aesthetic one until I saw these little guys. These felted "action figures".

I'll say it again: felted "action figures".

Whimsical and endearing, I especially like the way they move from felted form to 2-D medium. See the felted figure above, and their corresponding gouache paintings below.

Mr Owl.

Uncle Rutherford.

Not only action figures and portrait paintings, Stephens weds his work with titles imbued with a sort of magic realism.

Titles like: "Felted Rooster School Bus and Mr. Owl".

And, "Alfred, Louis and Francios after 12 years of preparation were surprised to find a cafe at the top of Mount Everest".

I like that Matte Stephens' work consumes him.

Large Owl paper sculpture.

In this image titled "Large Owl paper sculpture", notice not only the sculptural object, another extension of Mr. Owl, but also the clock on the wall behind it. Stephens' style all-consuming of his reality.

These seem less like paintings for paintings sake, or ads for hire, and more like these characters, combined with their background stories and daily lives depicted in various paintings, it seems this is not work for Stephens, but in fact, that these are Stephens' friends.

This inspires me, not only as an artist, but as a person too. To see not only that which is before me, presented to me, available to me in my daily routine, but to see more, to create those things and those stories that allow me an outlet - that give me a little magic; it is a unique occurrence indeed.

The further on into adulthood I go, I am beginning to see just how important it is to be reminded of the potential and the magic all around us.

Thank you, Matte Stephens.

Lumberjack Breakfast.

Lillian playing with abstract thought.

See more of Matte Stephens at his blog, here. Buy some of Matte Stephens work from his etsy shop, here.