Arts Everyday.

[artchipel]

Monica Boyle (b.1962, Scotland/Ireland)

Scotland-born Ireland-based artist Monica Boyle was able to pursue her interest in painting when Dublin Institute of Technology initiated a Visual Arts Degree programme on the remote Sherkin Island in 2002. This was the perfect location to explore her interest in West Cork’s island communities. All of her work in this exhibition focuses on the neighbouring island, Heir.

In this series of work I have incorporated photographic images within the painted surface. On a literal and physical level they depict the interior of Heir Island - its paths, roads, inlets and, most of all, its houses. On an emotional level the paintings convey something of my deepening relationship with the island and the people who live there.

[more Monica Boyle | artist found at iamjapanese]

[artseveryday]

Really like these paintings by Monica Boyle. Perhaps because they remind me of Turner...

[artseveryday]

What I love about art and architecture is its ability to be functional from time to time. This cabin may look like your ordinary woodsy log cabin, but it is, in fact, an RV!

I don't know about you, but I would LOVE to have a simple, small home like this that could travel with me on my many adventures. Kudos to architect/artist Kelly Davis for creating a Frank Lloyd Wright-esque movable home.

What do you think about the tiny house movement and Davis' creation?

[artchipel]

Tumblr Artist

Hilary Faye Sloane | paper orchard on Tumblr (Australia)

Hilary Faye Sloane is a Melbourne based designer. She works in a range of mediums such as illustration, collage, animation & photography. After completing her bachelor of design she has spent time travelling or working as a freelance designer.

[more Hilary Faye Sloane | artist found at Bhakta’s Weblog]

[artseveryday]

This Suggestion Saturday--Arne Svenson--comes to us by way of Alec Shao over at the BEST art Tumblr there is: Like a Field Mouse.

These photographs are from his series The Neighbors and in it, Svenson moves out of the studio into the real world to capture the intimate moments we often share (knowingly or otherwise) with our neighbors. Here is what is said of the project on Svenson's website:

With Arne Svenson's new series, Neighbors, he has turned outward from his usual studio based practice to study the daily activities of his downtown Manhattan neighbors as seen through his windows into theirs. Svenson has always combined a highly developed aesthetic sense viewed from the perspective of social anthropology in his eclectic projects with subjects ranging from prisoners to sock monkeys. His projects are almost always instigated by an external or random experience which brings new objects or equipment into his life- in this case he inherited a bird watching telephoto lens from a friend.

The grid structure of the windows frame the quotidian activities of the neighbors, forming images which are puzzling, endearing, theatrical and often seem to mimic art history, from Delacroix to Vermeer. The Neighbors is social documentation in a very rarified environment. The large color prints have been cropped to various orientations and sizes to condense and focus the action.

Be sure to check out Svenson's website for his other photography projects or just to see some more from this wonderful series.

[artseveryday]

This Favorite Friday is reserved for one particular work of art by one of my all-time favorite artists: Ai WeiWei. I chose to just highlight this piece, Descending Light, because it is less well-known--compared to his Sunflower Seeds and other projects--but it is just as wonderful aesthetically, thematically and politically.

I also got to see this work in person in Sevilla, Spain last May so the pictures are all my own, which is never a bad thing. AND it's all purty and red in honor of Valentine's Day! Okay, so that last part doesn't really matter, but look how timely!

[artseveryday]

Etienne Lavie is a Paris street artist that replaces advertisements with beautiful and somewhat famous works of art. I say "somewhat famous" because they are indeed famous and canonical works of art, but I assume the average passerby's exposure to famous works of art begins and ends with the Mona Lisa. However, this is probably not the case in France.

Regardless of the works Etienne chooses, the project--entitled "OMG who stole my ads?"--is accomplishing what graffiti is best used for (in my humble opinion): to subvert consumerist agendas of corporations and governments and to once again bring the individual and the beautiful back into the urban landscape.

I love this project--but we know how I feel about most street art--because it is arts education given to the masses and not in a way I believe is in your face. Also, I'd much rather see a Fragonard or a Caravaggio than an ad for a Big Mac.

What do you think of Etienne Lavie's project?

[awkwardsituationist]

montreal street artist roadsworth tries not only to beautify the urban landscape, often by incorporating existing street markings, but to also make a statement about the illusory urban disconnect from the natural environment. his (literal) street art is both a reclamation of a public space that as cyclists and pedestrians we are taught is dangerous, and a response to the primacy afforded to a car culture that largely dictates the planning of this public space. for his efforts, roadsworth was charged with 53 counts of mischief in 2004.

[artseveryday]

Suggestion Saturday: Vacation Edition. Or in other words, the kind of post where I just reblog something because I'm too busy living life and having fun!

Still so excited to have discovered this sweet street art while away though!

[artseveryday]

Favorite Fridays everybody!!!

Now, this FF is a contentious one. People either love or hate Gregory Crewdson. I'm on team love--especially after seeing the documentary on him and his work. If you haven't seen it, Brief Encounters, I totally recommend it.

His photographs are orchestrated down to the last detail and the result, in my opinion, is the photographic equivalent to a one-act play. The mixture of meticulous detail and contextual vagueness creates an eerie, moving and utterly perplexing image.

So, what team are you on? Team Love or Team Hate?

[artseveryday]

“Maybe...you'll fall in love with me all over again." "Hell," I said, "I love you enough now. What do you want to do? Ruin me?" "Yes. I want to ruin you." "Good," I said. "That's what I want too.” ― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

Two reasons for this post:

1. I realized I have not given enough attention to the written word--one of my favorite art forms.

2. I am currently in Key West, so Ernie seemed fitting. Love this line from A Farewell to Arms.

[artseveryday]

Since I am currently in Mexico, I thought it fitting to showcase one of my favorite Mexican artists: Gabriel Orozco.

This project, entitled Asterisms, just closed at the Guggenheim in New York a couple weeks back and, boy, do I wish I had seen it in person.

As the wife of a collector of all things (namely sea glass), this piece speaks to the beauty of obsession and organization. Also, the act of collecting and documenting as a way of connecting to the world and people around you. It is a way to feel less isolated, and I really like that idea.

[artseveryday]

And now for something completely different...

I just have to say that this picture made me laugh out loud. I know we aren't supposed to touch or interact with most art in museums (ahem, Carl Andre would like for me to walk on his work, thank you very much), but this kid is doing exactly what we all would do if there was no one watching. Okay, maybe I'm alone here, but I don't think so.

And when it comes to Donald Judd, he barely touched the work so we are just giving the piece some much-deserved and much-owed physical attention.

Either way, I think people take things too seriously sometimes--especially art--so I say go for it kid. Just don't pee on Pollock--only he can do that.

[artseveryday]

French street artist Roti's New Ukraine, on display in Independence Square in Kiev, is street/graffiti art at its finest.

An unsanctioned public sculpture that is representative of the tumultuous times the country is now facing: a woman that appears to be floating on still water, OR, a woman emerging from the depths, OR a woman beginning to sink into murky water. All interpretations are symbolic for the current state of affairs in the Ukraine and are, no doubt, metaphors that Roti would encourage.

Roti put his understanding and intention for this piece best: "If I use art illegally, in the graffiti spirit, by giving all this energy inside the stone," Roti explains, "it can leave an eternal trace of this movement." Likely, this stone will remain for hundreds of years as a continuous reminder of the Ukrainian revolution.

The beauty and simplicity of New Ukraine is in sharp contrast to the current ugly and complex political and social climate in which it exists. The work demonstrates that subtlety and ambiguity can sometimes spark the loudest response.

[artseveryday]

As promised, here is a look at another photographer--who really plays with the medium--that I love (and also have the pleasure of knowing IRL).

Young Kim's Salt and Earth project was the 2009 Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts Curator's Choice prize winner and for good reason. Printing photographs on salt so they are not only visually startling and ghostly, but literally temporal and dissolving is something I have always loved about this project and this technique.

Do you know of any other photographers who print on an unusual surface or substance?

[artseveryday]

Thanks to Viralnova for my Suggestion Saturday inspiration!

Andres Amador never grew out of the love for playing with sand on the beach. He currently makes beach or sand artwork in California and the designs flow from him organically and are representative of where he is at on any particular day.

What I like about them most is that they are reminiscent of Nazca lines or geoglyphs. Here are some geoglyphs for your viewing pleasure, followed by some of my favorite sandworks by Amador...

[artseveryday]

FAVORITE FRIDAY!!!

I have yet to feature a lot of architecture on here, but that does not mean I do not appreciate, value and admire the work of architects, past and present.

In fact, one of my all-time favorite artists is the devastatingly talented architect Antoni Gaudi.

Pictured above are some of my photos that I took while in Barcelona. I also got to see the Palacio de Gaudi (Episcopal Palace) while traveling through Astorga on the Camino de Santiago.

What I love most about Gaudi is that, whether it is the world-renowned Sagrada Familia or a small house off the beaten path or his Parque Guell (also in Barcelona), his attention and dedication to detail remains the same.

Seeing La Sagrada Familia in person was a life-changing experience that I highly recommend for everyone, religious or otherwise.

Who are some artists/architects that you admire due to their devotion to detail?

[artseveryday]

In honor of Michael Snow's show "Photo-Centric" opening this Saturday at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I decided to showcase some of his photographs.

As a photographer myself (albeit a mediocre one, at best), I am always drawn to the work of photographers that pushes the boundaries of the medium. In fact, I shall put a few more photographers on here that I love over the next week or so, to give exposure to those artists that really see photographs through a new lens. (Yep, I went there.)

[artseveryday]

So today's post is a little different...

As a supporter of all art forms (including music and the comedic arts), I had to repost this fantastic picture of Thomas Lennon wearing a Bluegrass Situation t-shirt on Comedy Central's @Midnight last night. Not to mention that he is joined by the cast of The State!

I feel infinitely cooler knowing that Tom Lennon supports BGS--and, by proxy, my work and me.