Folk Art Mary

Guest Artist - Kiki Blumenkraft Roosli

Guest artist  Kiki Roosli, also known as Vicious Cow Art, has this to say about her bold homage to cow paintings:

"I love cows…..it is as simple as that. I think they are very special creatures and I feel so lucky to be able to take walks in the Irish countryside and observe their behaviour in the fields….so zen and yet so curious. I think they each have a unique personality and the message I strive to get across in my paintings is just that; these cows are saying to you, 'We are more than meat!' Beautiful beasts you just have to love. I like to see the humourous side of things so the expression in their faces and the exaggeration I inject is vital to my style."

Cocoricow - "This cow was created with a local French Festival in mind. I wanted to make a big friendly and proud French Friesian who would send out the message loud and clear that she is not just a big lump of beef. She is, in fact, the national representative and her pride knows no boundaries; hence the title, my reference to ‘Cocorico’, the call of the French cockerel, the national icon. This title embodies the ‘fierté’ of the French people. To compound this notion of pride she just had to feature with the French flag as a backdrop and the digits representing both ‘Bastille Day’ (French Independence) and the tagging system used for cows. Above all she is a beautiful, curious and friendly animal and proud of it!"

 

Empty Cow. "This painting started exactly like this: I was craving some red in my life and I love the contrast of the friesian colouring. Colour and shapes are what attract me in painting. I wanted to move away from ‘by heart’ shapes so I exaggerated the lines on this one to make her look like she was almost pieced together like building blocks or indeed slabs of meat, laid one on top of the other. Again a reference to food – her nostrils remind me of the pink and black licorice allsorts sweets. Her expression is bewildered…..she if looking at you saying, 'I’m drained!'. This notion of being drained then prompted me to include the curved, floaty tube behind her. It represents the milking parlour…her daily routine of having tubes plugged in and being emptied of her fresh milk. Other than that she is just made for somebody to enjoy."

 

folk art mary

 

Guest Artist - Brian Brogan

Here's what guest artist Brian Brogan has to say about his work:

"It has become a souless world in a veil of amnesia of what it is to be human. Lost wandering, and ghostly clever souls consuming the planet, and all its rich diversity of spiritual light. Objectified material base consciousness stripping the living mother earth, and awakened consciousness along with it. But all souls are not lost, with our need to keep reseeding ourselves in the ritual fire within, reuniting with our unique integral flame - is co-creative and inter-dependent with all life. Let our courageous fire bring light to the world and burn off the mind numbing dross that those in power are serving us."

Brian writes that he works in a variety of mediums including paste, stucco, polymer, pumice and acrylics. Check out Brian's video, Tribal Connection, a Painted Story .

Celebrating with the Ancestors.

 

Soul Vision, Seeing Your Soul

 

Where I identify with Brian's work is in the theme I am working, people in nature.

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Guest Artist - Linda Lou Horn

 

Guest artist Linda Lou Horn makes playful art using recycled materials. Here's what she has to say about her work: 

"I am inspired by non-art materials, old found objects that have had a previous life and not intended for the purpose I am giving them. I am inspired by the human condition, emotions, pain, fear, joy and whimsy. 

 I look to rediscover the spirited liveliness as the materials come together to form the figure. I want to show the possibilities and the best in what may have been broken, lost or abandoned.

 PS . . .I just like making stuff that makes me smile . . ."

 

Thelma Flies Again, 20" x 13" x 14 (found objects and clay)

 

 

A Trojan Hay Ride, 42" x 5" x 12" (found objects and clay)

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Guest Artist - John Simpkins

This painting by John Simpkins is special. Here's what he has to say about the piece and the inspiring place in which he lives :

"My inspiration for the Magpie piece is where I am currently living and painting: the Alvord Desert just below the Steens Mountain range. Magpies and coyotes are my companions, and the light here is very dramatic, often "spot-lighting" objects amidst dark shadows. It's a magical place! This piece, "Midnight Magpies" is 18 X 24 inches, acrylic on masonite panel.

The Alvord Desert is in the lower southeast corner of the state of Oregon.  It's about 25 miles from the Nevada border,  130 miles to the nearest town for shopping.  Andrews, where I live, is listed as a ghost town, but once, in the 20's and 30's, it was THE place to be, with a 20 room hotel, grocery, post office, saloon, and stables. Now in Andrews most of the remaining buildings are stone.  All of the wooden buildings have been destroyed by range fires over the years. This is a special place!"

folk art mary

Guest Artist - Bruce New

Bruce New makes great art!

Here's what Bruce has to say about himself, taken from his website: “My work is an attempt to document my existence - to leave a visual record of my thoughts, ideas, and fantasies. I reside in the wilds of Kentucky, with a bird and our son, on a mountaintop, right next to the sun, where I create my artwork high on butterfly wine.” Go Bruce go!

A Gathering in the Moonlight

What do you think, are the animals in this picture dogs?

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Guest Artist Mile Davidovic.

Guest artist Mile Davidovic, self described "citizen of the world", lives and works in Belgrade, Serbia (former Yugoslavia). Mile makes colorful oil on canvas and oil on glass paintings. It being winter, I thought the art below would be good for representing his work.

folk art mary

 

Guest Artist Kevin Paulsen

Here's what guest artist Kevin Paulsen has to say about his work, taken from his website:

"History records for us an imagined past in which all civilizations perish... Art history and science describe cultural remnants as fact... This shared sentiment of collective memory we call human history. History makes us feel better but only serves up the proof that all human imaginings are perishable. Mankind repeats one simple narrative in myriad form: Man comes to town, a set of circumstances change the man; man leaves town. Artists and scientists will continue to reinvent this basic narrative structure...and mankind will continue to know himself as unique to the universe. No matter the form...tell again our story, therein lies our purpose. I attempt to make beautiful and timeless paintings that tell this story.
Kevin Paulsen, May 30 2010"

An interview Kevin Paulsen did with Mark Murphy gives still more information. I particularly like what Kevin said about his The Re-Seeding painting (shown below): "I tried to keep politics out of my art until a couple years ago, but in today's climate, I find it almost impossible not to comment on, at least, the social politics. In some way, it shows up on it's own. For example, the painting Re-Seeding (Flood and Thaw series) begun as a painting about the advent of spring, the seeds floating through the air, and the thaw from the snow in the mountains. But as I was working on it, the tsunami hit Japan, which spawned a slightly different idea. I thought about the receding water, and that contributed to the double entendre in the name. They can either be frolicking or drowning depending on the viewer's take, but it's that sort of push/pull—humans being oblivious to the destruction that's right at our door at any moment. It's a comment on the celebration of spring and our inability to see our fragile place in the world. And then it dawned on me that what I thought were mountains in the background was another wave cresting in the distance, ready to hit the shore."

The Re-Seeding (Flood and Thaw series) 5' x 7'. Pigment on plaster).

Moonlit Wildlife,  Kevin Paulsen and Geddes Paulsen)

Kevin very eloquently talks about ideas that I have trouble putting into words but that well express what I am trying to do in some of my own work, in particular my "person in nature" series.

folk art mary

Guest Artist - Lisa Cain

Here is what southern self-taught folk artist Lisa Cain has to say about her work:

"I am a native of Canton, MS. My art is from my spirit and I enjoy painting about growing up in rural Mississippi. I am a self-taught artist. Through my art I tell my story of growing up in the South. I also tell the story of those who surrounded me in my community.  I tell the story of voices that may never be heard or of faces that may never be seen in the magazines or on television.  I am happy to remind people of the  culture and the traditions of the South. I am happy to pay tribute to people who were strong, united and who loved each other and who loved God."

Amazingly enough I discovered, upon going to Lisa Cain's website, that she also has painted a picture of a juke joint.

folk art mary

Guest Artist - Jeff Hughart

Guest artist Jeff Hughart currently lives in Waterloo, NY (just a hop and a skip north of me) but will be moving back to northern Idaho in the spring. Here's what Jeff has to say about his energetic work:

"I just completed this painting called “Jook Joint”. Someone who had bought one of my paintings recently had sent me a photo of his living room wall where he had hung the painting. Although the painting is 24x36 inches, the wall is so large and bare that the painting looked quite small all by itself so I commented on that fact. So his response was to ask me to do something bigger to fill the space. I asked for some direction and he said, he wanted it “really random” and the feel of a juke joint. So, I conjured up what I thought a cool old juke joint would look and feel like, went to work and this is what I created. I saw somewhere online where someone had spelled juke “jook”. As I was painting, I just kept adding and then subtracting stuff until I felt like, wow, I like this a lot. Stop! I took a picture of it and emailed the buyer who said he loved it. This is another example of my work that has obvious influences from Basquiat, to Twombly to street artists."

 

Jook Joint. Acrylics on canvas, 36" x 48"

folk art mary

Guest Artist - Walter De Rycke

Walter De Rycke is a Belgian artist whose work I admire. I'll be brief in what I write since the pictures below are worth a thousand words. Thanks Walter for letting me post images of your work to my blog!

 

Speaking to the Gods

 

 

Cyberus

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Guest Artist - Jeff Roland

Jeff Roland is a wonderful French self taught neo outsider artist whose work just grabs me. As usual I came to know about his work through Facebook. Below are two pictures Jeff has painted that I particularly like. He talks about them in his own words.

Knight Order of the Holy Cheese (oil on paper, 2011) is 65 x 50 cm. "It was live painted during my exhibition residence in the house in which lived François Rabelais in the 16th century. It is a hommage to places of high spiritual value and mysticism, mixed with the influence of the books of Rabelais, who wrote Gargantua and Pantagruel, in which there is an Abbey called the Theleme Abbey. This painting is a caricature of strict order. The command of the members of Theleme is 'Do what you will'."

 

Pythagoras and the Golden Mean (oil on wood, 2009), 50 x 50 cm. "This is a very geometrical painting mainly based on triangle compositions, except for the character in the center.  Pythagoras, with crossed references to triangles and lines, is explaining to disciples the goal of scientific studies in his school. The "very hard to find ' Golden Mean is an expression of the tempered personality that best fits Pythagoras' theory. As they are looking for it in an abstract manner, we see the real dodo like golden mean right in front of us, unhidden, visible, as are many truths that we spend time on trying to discover."

folk art mary

Guest Artist - Annie Hayes

Here's what Annie Hayes has to say about her work. "I make handmade hooked rugs of hand-dyed and as-is wools on linen using my personal designs. My work has been featured in The New York Times, Old-House Interiors, Early Homes among other magazines." I met Annie at the Bedminster Land Conservancy show that we both did a few weeks back. I like the quote she has on the homepage of her website: "If it were left to artists to choose their own labels, most would choose none" (Ben Shahn). It's hard to define Annie's work, craftsperson? artist?. Who cares, she's just plain good.

folk art mary

Guest Artist Robin Kent

Guest artist Robin Kent has some art training but is self taught as a woodworker. This is what she has to say about her fun wooden and painted artwork:

"Since I was a child, I love getting lost in the process of moving abstract shapes around until seeing a form that speaks to me.  

In the tree leaves outside my childhood bedroom window, I saw an audience of people clapping and nodding during storms. I remember sitting on the kitchen floor moving liquor bottles around into different combinations. I didn't know what they held but they were accessible in the bottom cabinet and the forms entertained me while my parents and grandmother had adult conversations after dinner.

Nowadays whenever I see a visual cue, it becomes my next subject. The trick is to get the image down in some tangible form before it slips away.

My narrative contemporary folk art focuses on familiar, under appreciated, and possibly imagined moments.

Recycled, new wood, findings, metal and house paint create paintings, wall reliefs, assemblages, and sculpture.  Sometimes I’ll paint canvas, murals, furniture, and anything else that doesn’t move. I call myself a contemporary folk artist because although I have no formal training using woodworking tools, I sense how to assemble my vision. I do have a B.A. in art, which makes the dichotomy interesting."

 

Looking at Things from a Fresh Angle

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Guest Artist- Daniel Belardinelli

The 2009 spring/summer issue of Raw Vision has an article on guest artist Daniel Belardinelli. Here's what Daniel has to say about his work:

"my work is driven by a compulsion to document the people, places, things, experiences, loves, hates, fears, fantasies, lessons, etc...I encounter every day of my life. in a sense, I am similar to a lay witness that comes into a court & gets on the witness stand & tells the court what he/she saw, heard or felt. I've been doing this for a very long time- since at least the age if 5 or 6. as I've gotten older, the details of what I'm depicting in my work have become more accurate & intense. I very much enjoy being in the belly of the beast of life, because it is there where I find the most authenticity. I have been drawing/painting inside large 'at-a-glance' business journals for over 23 years. every day I make a drawing or painting which pertains to my day. the journals are what initially got my work noticed in the late 80's. in a sense, they ate 'history' books. I prepare each page of the journals w/ gesso so that it can better withstand the scratching, collating & drawing I do on it. the journals reveal everything- nothing is sparred & nothing is sacred.

" 'Flowers for Eurydice' is a painting that I made which was inspired by one of my favorite films: 'Orfeu Negro' or 'Black Orpheus'. Eurydice is one of the central figures in the film. The film is s French/Brazilian film which was made in 1959. It was written by Vinicius de Moraes & directed by Marcel Camus. The film is a modern day adaptation of the Greek legend of Orphus & Eurydice. I am very interested in all forms of mythology, particularly Roman & Greek. There is a lot mythological symbolism & reference in my work. I also lived in Rio de Janerio in the early 80's & am intrigued w/ Brazilian culture (and other cultures).

Flowers for Eurydice

 

Out

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Guest Artist - Don Cadoret

New England story painter Don Cadoret has been painting his art for 35 plus years. He and I know each other from a long time back. We've had our work at the same galleries, and have shown at the same craft shows. Don is a meticulous painter with a fine sense of color. Here's what Don has to say about his work:

-"The celebration of life and the environment that surrounds me, is the catalyst for me being a creative person."

-"Friends, animals, landscapes and architecture are all a part of the story when it comes to composing a painting. My work would be empty without any one of those elements."

 

The Path

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Guest Artist Louis Vuittonet

Guest artist Louis Vuittonet is a self taught artist who lives in Fresno, California. I like the energy and mystery in his painted art. Here's what Louis Vuitonnet has to say for himself:

"I paint as soon as I wake, thereby releasing my dreams through every stroke I make.  Provacative or  not  I JUST PAINT."

 

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Dan Casado, Guest Artist

Artist Dan Casado knows how to make a great picture from recycled materials. Here's what he has to say about his work:

"Seven years ago I established my home-studio on the volcanic island of El Hierro, one of the seven Canary Islands, selected by the UNESCO as a Biosphere Reserve. Here, I began making artworks which turned recycled local trash and found objects into art: paper collages and sculptural assemblages.

I see recycling as a compromise and a lifestyle, giving a second life to old, discarded materials, transforming rejected objects into new, attractive, mysterious pieces of art.

Reinventing human and animal forms, freely finding and showing the figures that live inside found materials, I wonder about human relations, the possibility/impossibility of communication, affections and illusions.

Art is the tool to re-construct the world. Art is my key."

Check out Dan's facebook page for more information on his work.

 

Red Land

 

Black Sun

folk art mary

Guest Artist - Barbara Olsen

Here's a bit of a bio on the work of Barbara Olsen, an artist whose work I enjoy whenever I see it.

"Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay area, Barbara has always created art since she was a child for her own amusement and enjoyment.  In 1980, when her three children were grown, she began devoting full time to her artistic career.  A fully self taught artist, Barbara has achieved an international reputation with a style that combines shimmering colors, a unique sense of design, and the artful skills of a storyteller.

Storytelling is at the heart of this former preschool teacher’s art and her very soul.  Blessed with a fertile imagination that was nurtured early on by her Irish immigrant father, she grew up listening to his tales of mischievous fairies and leprechauns.  Today she uses words as well as images to tell her stories on canvas and handmade paper.  Using a variety of found objects, Barbara creates unique and colorful images:  snips of paper, dabs of paint, scraps of fabric are transformed into whimsical mixed media collages."

The Hammer by Barbara Olsen

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Guest Artist - Ed Pribyl

I love Ed Pribyl's carved and painted figures. Ed lives and works in Northern Illinois. I first saw Ed's work at the Traditional Folk Art website where we both are listed.

Here's what Ed has to say about his work:

"I've always been drawn to things that show signs of wear, things with a history, things that have a story behind them. As an artist, my goal is to create every piece as though it were handed down from another period in time. I enjoy woodcarving because I am able to draw on my experience as a woodworker as well as a painter. My influences stem from all areas of early Americana. Old dolls, worn furniture, toys, and of course figure carvings, have all helped shape my work as it looks today. Every piece is hand carved from basswood then painted using my unique multi-layered antiqued finish. I often incorporate vintage items such as old ceiling tins or yardsticks when creating pieces like my angels. While there is an emphasis on a level of detail that was not typical of most Early American carvings, I try to maintain the warmth and soul which made those pieces so special."

The Ventriloquist

 

Life Saver

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Guest Artist Dion Hitchings

Here is what guest artist Dion Hitchings has to say about his lively and striking face and eye oriented art work:

"When describing my art you can call it primitive narrative, childlike, colorful, self-revealing, erotic, funny, strange and lots of eyes. My inspirations come from many places – people I see and work with, dreams, plants at the nursery, news items, guests on the jerry springer show and nature. I try to draw/paint a self-portrait every day to keep up the discipline and grow in what I do. Artists that have influenced me over the years are jean michel basquait, aubrey beardsley, peter max, toulouse-lautrec, gustav klimt and the illustrator alan cober."

Dion is founder of the Outsider Art Gallery in Frenchtown, New Jersey.

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Guest Artist Leigh Cooney

Leigh Cooney's pictures of people (check out his website) are quite recogniseable by the way he paints their eyes. He describes himself as a "neo-outsider" self taught artist. He is an Irish born Canadian painter living and working in Stratford, Ontario.  Here is what Leigh has to say about the piece shown below, The Masks We Wear II (Willard Scott).  "Most people only reveal a small portion of themselves publicly, hiding their true identities behind layers of metaphorical masks. I can't pretend to know what they hide, but with my portraits I ask the viewer to rethink what they know about people, and what they think they know about themselves. In the case of Willard Scott, the metaphor is presented literally; the character Ronald Mcdonald is one of the most recognizable in the world, where Willard Scott with time, will all but fade into obscurity."

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Guest Artist, Keith Newstead

Guest artist Keith Newstead makes automata, or mechanical moving art.  This is what Keith Newstead says about his work, brutal but to the point: "I make automata because I can't earn a living in any other way." Check out his YouTube Video of "The Devil Rides Out" and his blog, where he talks about the making of this piece.

Here are some still pictures of the Devil Rides out piece:

The Devil

 

The Hound

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Guest Artists - Ithaca Art Trail Show and Open Weekends Coming Up

At this very moment 55 artists in Ithaca are getting ready for the once a year Ithaca Art Trail event. 53 artist studios (mine included) will be open to the public from 11 AM to 5 PM on two weekends, October 9-10 and 16-17.  Usually the leaves are doing a good show by then, and there's never shortage of things to do while you're in town.

In October, State of the Art Gallery (120 West State Street, Ithaca) will host the "Greater Ithaca Art Trail Preview Exhibition", a show of paintings, prints, sculpture, fiber art, ceramics, jewelry, furniture, collage, glass.   A reception for all art trail artists will be held tomorrow, Friday, October 1, 5-8pm. So come on over.

Below are pictures of artwork by four other craftspeople and artists on the trail.

 

“What They Meant,” gicleé print on canvas, 15"x15" up to 55"x55, Lynne Taetzsch

 

“Great Spirit Prayerwheel,” copper, steel, 21"diam.x48", John Lyon Paul

 

“Invasive Corn,” color-reduction woodcut, 19”x24," Jenny Pope

 

Chair, ash, walnut, leather, 18”x18”x28”, Elizabeth Bly Wolff and James Nagle

 

Lots of interesting stuff.

folk art mary

Guest Artist Annie Taylor

I love the work of Annie Taylor, especially the trees, the land and the shapes that she makes with them. Here she talks about her work:

"My work is about the pleasure of solitude in the natural environment: the silence, the peace, the nurture for the spirit that the countryside can provide, but also its opposite face which is often harsh, threatening and wild. I work fast in oils using either layering techniques or rough impasto brush and knife work, often working on several canvasses at the same time.

Patterns in different landscapes intrigue me and guide my work, from the gentle, rolling patchwork downs and fields of Dorset in England which was my home, to the rugged, harsh mountainous countryside of the Rousillon where I now live in France."- Annie Taylor. 

 Giant's Head © Annie Taylor

Image Bank © Annie Taylor

Other ways to find out more about Annie Taylor are her blog and her facebook page.

Thanks Annie, folk art mary 

Guest Artist - Tom Haney

Here are the words of guest artist Tom Haney as he talks about his fabulous art work:

"Although some see my work as a reaction to today’s throwaway society, I approach it as a way to reconnect with the past. I cherish traditions, not trends. I love the old ways of doing things, old tools and traditional techniques. Working with one’s hands still has value. I believe there is a magical transformation that happens when mechanical movement is added to a static figure. This movement captures a viewer’s attention and holds it to the point where they are drawn into interpreting the stories the piece conveys. They are not merely observers but collaborators.
 
My heroes have always been the pioneers, the inventors – Edison, Bell, the Wright Brothers – in the art world, the innovators – Calder, Picasso, Tinguely. The great Leonardo DaVinci, who did it all - painter, sculptor, scientist, engineer, and architect –was who I wanted to be when I grew up. Having never wanted to be pigeonholed as an artist, I’ve sought to do unique works that combined many varied methods.  Initially, I started with woodcarving - practically a lost art in our world  - a tradition people have been using for centuries to tell their stories.
 
Any kind of mechanical movement has always been a fascination of mine and to combine this with figurative carvings became irresistibly compelling. After some time I learned about automata, “a moving mechanical device made in imitation of a human being”, an ancient pursuit more thoroughly developed in the 13th – 19th centuries mostly in Europe but also in Asia. The work I create today is a modern offshoot of the time-honored European tradition of automata.
 
  With the addition of collected found objects another connection is made, albeit to a more recent past. I search out and collect, as an archivist or archeologist, discarded, obsolete artifacts and breathe new life into them as they are remodeled into devices that help tell my stories. Stories that often illustrate man’s perseverance to overcome life’s obstacles, often with open-ended narratives that are completed by the viewer."

 

Undaunted

 

Return to Dreamland

 

Return to Dreamland, detail

 

Thanks for your work Tom!

folk art mary

Julia Sisi, Guest Artist

I love the work of Spanish artist Julia Sisi. You are welcome to check out Julia's work on facebook. I like to think of her busily painting in her home in the beautiful Canary Islands. Here she talks in her own words:

"The first movie I saw in my life was 'Ulysses', with Kirk Douglas.

I was 5 years old, we had no television at home, I was not used to see fiction images... and I believed all these fantastic creatures moving on the big screen, cyclops, giants and sirens,
I believed they were real, they actually existed!
The sensation of astonishment these creatures caused on me, half marvel/half fear, opened my eyes to a new, unlimited world of wonders.The world was never the same to me, before I went out of the cinema theather.
More or less by the same time, I was also shocked when an strange black machine talked to me!
In fact, it was simply a bakelite telephone, and it was ringing...
so I put the black machine close to my ear, as my mother used to do, and, believe me, it talked, said 'Hello' to me!
The unexpected voice coming out from a machine made me understand that this telephone was a veritable 'Living Machine'.
............
Now, more than 40 years later, after 20 years of hard exile
(the same time Ulysses spent going back to Ithaca),
I found my home in the small island where I live,
surrounded by the Sea.
And now I know, and can tell you for sure, that all these fantastic creatures, cyclops, giants, medusas, angels and devils,
sky fishes and blonde sirens, living machines and flying chairs...
they exist, all of they are TRUE!

And I paint to show them, to share the wonder, to recover and bring to life these intangible, secret worlds."

Liz Parkinson - Guest Artist

Liz Parkinson is an outsider artist from Australia. I especially like how Liz does her snakes, animals and women. He work is clearly her own. "My work often features strong female imagery, and I work in both color and black & white. Recently I've extended my artwork to painted metal jewelry and wooden masks."

black and white drawing

 

recent color drawing

folk art mary

 

Harriet Wiseman, Guest Artist

I really enjoy the work of Harriet Wiseman, one of the artists who shows at the Outsider Folk Art Gallery in Reading, Pa.. I like the colors and the soft feeling to her work.

Here's her biography.

The painting below is called Black Tie Affair:

folk art mary

Guest Artist, the work of Mary Ann Bowman

Here is one of Mary Ann Bowman's lively frogs. Each one outdoes the other. Here's what Mary Ann has to say for this piece, Frog Wagon:

"This is Frog's first GoKart, and mine, as you can see.  We haven't got the wheels on just right yet and perhaps there could be some other improvements but having wheels is so great!  I recently discovered an old sketch inspired by the idea of adding wheels to my characters.  It delighted me so much I knew I had to find a way to capture its spirit.  The body shape came easily. It is always the head, the facial expression plus getting the arms to emphasize whatever Frog (in this case) wants to express. This is the closest I've ever come to transforming the spirit of a sketch into a three dimensional being.  That makes me smile a lot."

The sketch -

The finished piece-

folk art mary

T. Marie Nolan Guest Artist

Here's the work of T. Marie Nolan. I really like her work, I keep finding surprises when I look at it. Here's what she has to say for herself -

"Whoosh, whoosh with the paintbrush. See where it takes me. Images can arise out of nowhere or spontaneous strokes spur a vision that will become a painting.

 I like to have fun with what I do and hope to create images that provoke the viewer's mind to scramble and make sense of .

 Materials salvaged from local construction dumpsters are my canvas. Dumpster diving is part of the journey."

You can reach T. Marie Nolan through Facebook.

 

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Karl Mullen's Art

Here's the work of Karl Mullen. I really like the colors he uses and how he creates soft borders very different than my own. Karl's work can be found at the Duff Lindsay gallery in Columbus, Ohio.
Here's a brief bio taken from Karl's website:

'Karl Mullen, born Dublin, Ireland, lives and works in Philadelphia. He has developed his own non-traditional approach to art making and materials, utilizing walnut oil, raw powder pigment and a wax medium that coalesce into color-saturated, luminous images. Painting largely with his hands, Karl creates distinctive, poetic figures that float on fields of color. The imagery in his paintings is born out of Irish mythology, family and dreams.''

Karl tells me he's having a show at Yard Dog Gallery, March 20th.

Folk Art Mary

Matt Sesaw Guest Blog on Chaos

Matt Sesaw just seems to never run out of ideas or energy. Although we have never met, I admire his work, how it is distinctly his own. This is what Matt wrote on the subject of chaos:

"i suppose chaos figures in daily with my work.  i sleep, paint, and eat in about 500 sq ft of space in [Washington] dc... the paint, the splatters, the brushes, the smells are constant.  in my paintings, the good ones, i like to unleash an emotional outburst onto the canvas with an idea, expression, or image in my mind.  after the paint and chaos settles, i start to make order out of the chaos.  i think of chaos as a necessary element of my paintings and lifestyle.  without it, and without control, i would be unhappy.  i think people that see and experience my chaos directly become unhappy with me (maybe they find me angry or confident), because what i prefer and usually show to others is not the chaos, but the result of my controlling chaos through my paintings (it's healing process).  somehow they must have thought i am calm and 'without edge' when i paint?"

The piece below is called "The Hair of the Dog".

Folk Art Mary

Alice Muhlback's Take on Chaos

Here it is, a guest spot. Alice Muhlback took me up on my offer of a guest artist appearance at this blog. I love the way Alice's work is so simple, zany and clearly her own style. Here's what Alice has to say, using both words and an image, on the topic of chaos:

"chaos is the infinite empty space to have existed before the ordered universe.

so here is my version. although simple, in her head there is chaos.  she is in negative with a yellow outline of creativity (light) amongst the red fervor. tension before the storm of breakthrough. really why do we expect our work place to be orderly when catching passion?"

Here's a video of Alice Muhlback sketching her art at the Winter Ithaca Farmers' Market.

folk art mary