Tattoo Tears

I need to make temporary tattoos. 

 

lawn mower man found here

Need to. 

I've been thinking about it for months and with the turn my work is going (and with the print exchange coming up quick) it's time!

I'd like to consider myself a printmaker that still loves the idea of an original.

I love the idea of alternative printmaking and using printmaking elements in original pieces to bring them together. The idea of the body as a walking print is especially interesting to me and as someone who dislikes the idea of giclee prints as reproductions, this seems to be a way I can make originals AND let people take home (hopefully after paying a small fee) a piece of my work without making giclees.

I am very excited.

We can be heroes

Evan Lindquist etching

His works are so repetitive. They're beautiful in that overly tedious way but the repetition of themes makes them feel like overly elaborate sketches rather than fine art drawings... Why do these ideas need to be expressed en masse? What does each piece gain by being in a series with the others? Work like this challenges me to push to make my works distinct, to make them build on one another, and to not fall into the comfort of an already developed visual language (like I so often am tempted to do).

But they'd make great tattoos.

Run, run, run

I'm making very personal work right now. At least, I'm making work from a very personal place that I want to remain relevant to others. I love this quote from Emily Barletta about her art making practices:


"I have a spinal disease that has always been a present and physically painful force in my life. The majority of my art stems from this fact, but to say that I make artwork as therapy would be untrue. I make artwork and it is therapeutic. This is the same to say that I make art and I am in pain; instead of saying I make art because I am in pain. I cannot separate these ideas. The objects that result from this are the invented anatomical structures of my imagination and my biology. These structures relate to cells, veins, organs, skin, blood, and bones. But they tend to express themselves as flowers, plants, tubes, topography, diseases, bacteria, growths, mold, and organisms. They spread, spill, leak, and grow their way into existence through yarn and a crochet hook.”

Pelt and detail

Center

Her work challenges me: she makes pieces inspired by biology and the body, specifically her body. I struggle with her work: I'm not sure if I think her pieces are referential or illustrative, art or craft. The reasons that I struggle with her work are the same reasons I return to it again and again. If nothing else, I so greatly appreciate her craftsmanship and the endless hours she pours into her work. I like her process, the way she uses a crochet hook as a mark-maker, and the elements of time evident in her pieces.

fever to tell

Olivia Jeffries 


I'm always interested in this aesthetic. I like beautiful things. I like thinking about why things like this are beautiful. I like time. I like delicate things. I like pieces of her artist statement about things that move her: "the complex and unknowable nature of reality, an intimate moment which exists for just a second and is then forgotten or the impossibility of feeling how someone else feels..."

and you still refuse to speak

empty vessels

my secret self: you can't always be friendly, there just isn't time

In short: I don't like all of her pieces but I like thinking about them.

hey-ay-ay-ay

Anthony Zinonos

what a great name.
found him during my 3.0 minutes of free time today... enjoy!

Figures 56 and 42

Pill Head

Triangle Exchange

Maybe it's just the weather, or the mood I'm in, or the stress that seems to permeate everything and everyone right now, but I love this. Right now, I really appreciate the lighthearted handling of the subjects. I like that it makes me laugh. Although I often tire of work like this-- i.e. Urban Outfitters-approved photocollage-- but this guy is honest in a way I don't often see... He doesn't hide anything: he's straightforward and he manages to bring to light some great ideas. His work is satirical in nature but not extreme past the point of utility.

a little bit more like Bukowski

I'm tired. The last few weeks have been tough: the next few are going to be tougher. I'm finding it hard to be creative and throw myself into my work when I only have an hour or two at a time and all I really want to do is take a nap. So, this post isn't about an artist. It's about what I've been looking at and thinking about. It's about things I need to see, remember, categorize, sort through, digest, and use.

 

(both from Martha Stewart)

(from buypetoskeystones.com)

(from yavaglass)