My Debut At Serena and Lily

My apologies if some of these images are a repeat, but I'm writing with some big news - a few of my paintings are now featured as part of the Serena & Lily catalog website in the Bazaar + Art section. This is an exciting leap for me, and I'm so grateful to have a broader audience in which to market my work. Above are their choices, and below, as it appears online professionally framed and photographed for the world to see!

Know Hope Murals in New York City - Before and After

East Village (March 22, 2012)

Chelsea, 23rd Street (May 24, 2010)

More Pattern, More Color, More Art!

From left to right: Cotton Candy Combustion, Vesica Piscis, and Colloid. Check them out in more detail here!

New Work for Early July

 

I've been working hard on some new paintings this month. 

Please see what else is new in my online shop.

Handmade Italian Paper - Collecting

I was strolling through Florence, Italy, one morning as a student when I found some gorgeous handmade marbelized paper beckoning me from a little shop. Upon entering that doorway, I couldn't get enough. Dead center was a large table of loose paper; I rifled through it endlessly. Every piece was more beautiful than the next. I set a small selection aside that I knew I would not be able to part with. On the floor, a large basket held more sheets bundled in rolls. I glanced around the room, and walls of shelving held even more. I was never surrounded by more beauty in one little boutique and I knew my wallet would suffer dearly in the end. A few years later (and still a student) I found a similar setup in Venice. Here are slices of the many pieces I came home with. Someday, a photobook or other project will claim them. For now, I appreciate the way the colors and patterns dance in an array of unmatched beauty.

Magic Carpet Ride - Looking Back on Last Summer

Last August, a landmark birthday for my mom was the impetus for a big summer adventure. After a couple of years saying that someday we would take a hot air balloon trip, we finally did. It's a good thing the other two attempts didn't quite work out because we had an absolutely perfect day. Even the pilots hailed the weather as a ten out of ten for flying the friendly skies. Our balloon along with two others was laid out and blown up in a field in a rural part of northern New Jersey.

As we gently (and quickly) floated upward, those left behind became ever smaller. My dad followed us in the "chase vehicle" where he was able to get some photos. We cruised over farms and gorgeous homes in rural New Jersey. In one direction, we could see Philadelphia. In the other, the towering cluster of buildings indicated the New York skyline.

With precision controlling, we dipped into the cornfields and greenery where we could pick acorns from the treetops. The oblivious livestock went about their business, but the family guard dogs circled nervously, unsure what to do about our alien-looking floating form in this country setting. People sitting casually on their decks or talking on the phone waved vigorously. The kids at the summer camp stopped their activities to point and scream happily at us during our voyage.

At our altitude, the mid-August moon seemed more than full as we descended into the early twilight of a clear night. The pilot shouted down to some curious onlookers and we politely landed with consent in their front yard. The neighborhood kids gathered to watch the spectacle we created, and were recruited into helping deflate the colorful nylon beast.

An elegant champagne celebration awaited our arrival as the final touch on our glimpse from the sky. We sat at the table complete with cheese, fruit, and other victuals with our new ballooner friends, and enjoyed a slideshow starring ourselves with picturesque shots from the chase vehicle. We left the farmlands of New Jersey with a whole new perspective from above.

_________

Up, up, and away!

Back on the ground (some photos courtesy of Dad).

The Glass Art of Dale Chihuly - Film Review and Exhibit

Here is a bright dash of bold color for these hot summer days after combating those long winter blahs.....the film about Chihuly's exhibit at the V&A is a treat for the eyes- as is all of Chihuly's work. There are several movies about Chihuly's work, and as I suspected, they are all fairly similar. Each one offers site-specific installations from far-flung locales like Venice and Jerusalem. This particular movie follows the preparations for his exhibition at a famous London institution. With this show, held back in  2001, the museum broke its normal rules having a one-person show for a living, contemporary artist.

The artist is consumed with organic forms and surprises that take shape in the glass. He rarely uses tools and molds relying more on gravity and centrifugal force to create his glasswork- the more organic and unusual, the better. His work is based on the "happy accident" yielding even stranger, more embraceable biology. For this exhibit, he also broke with tradition, using molds and then later seeing where physics would take the resulting form. These creations are modern sculptures amidst the arms and armor in the medieval art section of the museum. Both Chihuly's work and medieval art are colorful and exhuberant. He views his work as a collection that is ongoing. He enjoys playing with natural light and water. As the forms are placed, Chihuly likes the viewer to wonder if the work is manmade or is it natural? He doesn't want it to be overly designed with predictible placement but rather looking like it grew there naturally. When it comes to production, he stresses experimentation and teamwork.

Back in 2006, I was overjoyed when Chihuly's colorful work was featured in a similar exhibit at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. I went at night and again during the day to experience the exhibit in two different lights. As intended by the artist, I noticed the placement was natural. But somehow the organic forms were strange. They seemed to fit, yet were like nothing I had ever seen. Were they natural and real or some sort of alien life form that was placed in these gardens by an unknown hand?