Speaking of plastic...

Adrian Arias has some pretty great insights into the evolving role of plastics in our lives...

"Beautiful Trash," incorporates photos he has taken of plastic found on beaches around the world as well as impromptu artworks made from everyday plastic objects. "The aim of the project is to provoke a collective consciousness regarding the unmeasured use of plastic and its deleterious environmental impact," he said.


"When I discovered the existence of the garbage patch in the Pacific, I thought to myself, 'Nature is something incredible.' It takes all of these terrible things, all of our crap, and pulls it into one place," Arias said. "Our excessive consumerism is creating a new environment. It's like plastic soup."

As Arias toured the gallery, he said, "I'm looking for plastic in the right place. I'm looking for the beauty of it, to show the contradictions. I'm a poet. I explore the world of what happens when reality has changed to a dream and dreams to reality and we see the absurdity of human beings."

We know there's beauty in it, too...we've all seen American Beauty.  Read more about his project here. 

If you haven't already heard of him...

Joshua Allen Harris is the name of the artist who used the exhaust pouring from the subway vents around New York City to erect his temporary plastic sculptures. Polar Bears, Giraffes, and even a Loch Ness Monster...Harris started with just one tiny bear- as an experiment, and gained rapid popularity among pedestrians- who photographed, you tubed and tweeted the images of his work.

On another note, plastic bags! What a ubiquitous sign of our times. An ever present eye sore strewn along the streets of big cities and populated areas, a symbol of man kind's stamp on the enviornment, and now a viable artist's medium. People are doing amazing things with plastic bags these days, resurrecting and recycling the old staple and bringing awareness to the world that, well, we don't really need any  more of them! 

Bags, rugs....mostly bags, and art can all be made from recycled plastic materials. Anything that can be crocheted can be done so with stripped plastic bag 'yarn'. The above purse is from ecoist...which is definitely worth a browse. 

Angelique Kuyper

Ok, so I'm a bit biased...I know the artist in question as a former co-worker, colleague and friend. Her life itself is an art- but with my limited means on blogger, I can only do her justice by introducing her photography. Take a look...

I picked a variety to show here, but the Korea and Thailand series are the most compelling to me. The artist lives in Korea now, and shoots photos in her (very sparse) free time.

The case for staying put...

I will never leave. I have been offered money to go other places to shoot. I will not go. I don’t want to mess up my mind, my vision. I can go anywhere to shoot, but I wouldn’t feel for it.


This quote by A Yin struck me, since I have always been of the mind that seeing the world and experiencing new things is a great source of inspiration and perspective- and that artists and other professionals alike could only benefit from broadening their perspective. But what if the calling is already clear? What if the inspiration, the vision, the goal comes first...and the artist comes second. The perspective necessary to create meaningful work is already there. In this case, to leave the source of his artistic influence would "mess up" his mind, and the vision would be lost. 


A Yin makes a strong case for drawing meaning and feeling into work from one's own backyard. 

Mark Bullwinkle prints

Mark Bullwinkle's kooky prints span a vast number of subjects. Browse through his different pages of prints and other medium, and you'll see the same stylized faces, quirky scenarios and skilled carving techniques. I especially like the freaky sun....

This kind of work makes me wonder how a print maker gets by in the art world. Despite the intricacy and skill required in creating this work, I find more print makers selling greeting cards and post cards than full-sized prints. Why should a print be considered a lesser medium than acrylic or oil? Why should it be priced lower than a painting? 

Lisa Petrocco!

I am definitely a sucker for simple line abstractions. Lisa Petrocco's work resembles tangles of string, the tail end of a ball of yarn, or the scribble of a child exercising his rotator cuff for the first time. There is something very calm and familiar in these lines. Petrocco adds a touch of elegance to the work with the gold, silver and copper leaf. Beautiful!

Renee Hartig

I stumbled upon this artist's work whilst perusing the shops in the Alberta district here in Portland.

Hartig has some huge, some tiny canvases all painted with the same haphazard thick brush strokes denoting controlled shapes in familiar landscapes. The brilliant colors and the brick red under layer peeking through gives these landscapes a fantastic modern feel.

Check her blog out here.

A cool new take on the portrait, and the landscape

Just as I have been imagining the creative possibilities that lie ahead as I hone my crocheting skills, I find something that blows my ideas away...

Joe Hamilton's crocheted landscapes and portraits are just awesome. The bottom landscape might even be pdx?

This stuff reminds me of Chuck Close's recent tapestries. It's great to see what people come up with when taking what they know of design and applying it to a new medium.

Brush up on it...

Cynthia Freeland's 'very short introduction' to art theory covers it all. Concise and clear in her thought process, as in her writing, Freeland does not cut corners in leading the reader through the themes, conditions, milestones, theories and controversies that have shaped art through the years. She also examines the critics themselves, and what perspectives they have brought to the table in our efforts to understand the art world and our relationship to it.

Women are heros, art is illegal...

Here's one way to get your name out there fast: paste gigantic copies of your photographs on major public surfaces, where it is impossible for people NOT to see them.

The anonymous artists has undoubtedly taken great risks to have his work seen and scrutinized across the globe. For fear of repercussions, he has kept his identity a secret. Under the pseudonym 'JR', the artist has accrued a great deal of press, released books, has earned the Ted Prize for 2011, and is releasing a film this coming January.

Check out his videos and the questions he raises at his website.

The importance of Ai

Ai Wei Wei has to be one of the most important artists of our day. His involvement in the political scene in China as well as his fame as an artist make him a complicated issue for the Chinese government to deal with. The love-hate relationship between Chinese politicians and the outspoken artist are evident from Mr. Ai's recent house arrest to prevent him from attending the demolition of his Shanghai studio....which was given to him by the government itself.

Mr. Ai is very frank about his understanding of the reason for his house arrest, saying that they will not abide "anything they [government] don't understand, or will be out of their control". 

Mulder stole my idea

Well, maybe he had it first, but still...I have always been compelled by the mask as a symbol as well as a decorative ritualistic piece of art. What if we could change our faces to become large and primitive. What do these old images do, juxtaposed against the modern human form?

There is much more to Mulder's work. Check him out here.