Mayuko Fujino
Posted by Amy on Friday August 20, 2010
Beautiful collage work by Mayuko Fujino, a paper cutout artist currently residing in Tokyo. All of her works are created with an X-Acto knife, paper of Washi (Japanese handmade paper), and magazine papers. Through years of experimentation, she has arrived at her current style that marries collage and paper cutouts. Her portfolio is amazing, and is a must see for papercraft artists and lovers.
Her solo exhibition entitled Arikui Abduction (images above are from the series) have just ended but original pieces can be purchased from Megumi Ogita Gallery. And she also has an Etsy shop!
Artist interview: Katy Horan
Posted by Melanie Maddison on Wednesday August 18, 2010
Katy Horan is a painter, drawer, crafter, and maker-of-things. She loves all things folky, spooky and crafty. Originally from Texas, she now lives in Austin.
Some of Katy’s work features in The Dazzle, a group show at Narwhal Art Projects in Toronto, Canada, which opens Sept 9th and runs until Oct 17, 2010.
{Interviewed by Melanie Maddison}
Website: www.katyart.com/
Blog: katyhoran.tumblr.com/
Etsy: etsy.com/shop/Katyart
Hi Katy, how are you? What are you working on at the moment?
I am great, thanks! I’m experimenting quite a bit these days. I am trying to balance the tiny details with more texture and looseness. I am hoping to make some large scale figures that incorporate ghost and widow imagery…should be pretty spooky.
How would you describe your art?
I would say I make bizarro lady monsters out of tiny lace patterns that make my hands hurt. That’s the casual version.
Here’s the formal version: I intuitively combine fragmented visual references with imagery from my own memory to create something that is both ambiguous and familiar. I do this to filter images from my own subconscious while raising questions of what we visually identify as feminine.
What are your daily inspirations?
I get a lot of inspiration from things I read, listen to and watch. I like to use my work as a filter for all the tiny pieces of inspiration I absorb in my everyday life and that remain from my childhood. Folk and ghost stories are a source that I return to regularly.
I am also really into history, so I like to incorporate visual details from the eras that interest me. Right now, I am really into Victorian mourning customs, so there is a lot of widow imagery floating around my head and studio.
How did you first get started in art, is it something that you’ve always been interested in and excelled at?
How long have you been creating art, embracing your creativity, and working towards developing your current style and output?
I always drew. As a kid, I did all kinds of other activities….dance, theater, piano….but art was the only thing that I never got bored with. It always felt more natural to me than anything else.
I always wanted to do something visual. I went to college initially to study costume design, but became more interested in children’s books than theater. I then transferred to RISD to study Illustration. After I graduated, my work gradually began shifting towards fine arts, so when galleries began showing interest and publishers weren’t, I decided to pursue a more fine art sort of path. Since then (around 2006) I have been pushing my work and process, trying to find deeper concepts and create more dynamic imagery.
How did you personally learn to access your creative and artistic talents, and gain the confidence to make art and creative expression your career?
My work is at it’s best when I work completely intuitively. I have always sought that place where the conscious mind shuts up and the work becomes meditative. I listen to audio books to distract the nagging, judgmental part of my brain, so that I can work without thought. It’s been a lot of trial and error to find the best way to get around my neurosis and ADD, so that I can just work and not worry about it!
As far as confidence goes…I am not sure how I kept that up. I am just so self conscious about everything else that it was a natural choice to pursue the art instead of another career.
CLICK HERE to read the entire interview!
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Retrowhale
Posted by Amy on Friday July 9, 2010
I’ve blogged about Kelly Puissegur’s work before, but am delighted to see the latest works available in her Retrowhale shop! She’s gotten so much bolder in expressing ideas and concepts, and I love the various media she incorporates into her work.
She professes that she likes to change up her methods and the type of media she uses — right now it’s a combination of digitally rendered and hand painted images to create simple, child-like mixed media paintings. She draws pop culture inspired pieces (check out the coaster set of the Royal Tenenbaums) and is inspired by everything, especially 70’s and 80’s design, music, rap lyrics, animals, movies, oddities, outsider art and from skate and surf culture.
Anita Dominoni
Posted by Amy on Wednesday July 7, 2010
These beautiful life-like portraits by artist Anita Dominoni makes me conjure up fun stories about the characters she draws (it’s those eyes, I tell you!)
Anita captures each of her characters’ quirks in subtle sweeps of pencil brilliantly! And when combined with collage elements, the overall image has layers of textures that truly draws one in. See more of her work in her Flickr stream and see originals for sale in her Bigcartel shop.
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Guest post: The Bumble Bear and The Grizzly Bee
Posted by Amy on Thursday May 6, 2010
Today’s guest post is courtesy of Anna Denise van der Reijden, who pointed me to Sandra Dieckmann’s work.
First off, I’d like to thank Amy for giving me the opportunity to write as a guest blogger and introduce to you one of my favorite artists out there. Sandra Dieckmann is an illustrator, graphic artist, and dreamer living and working in East London. She recently came out with her self-published book (in magazine format) The Bumble Bear and The Grizzly Bear. This book tells the story of the big Grizzly bear and the small bumble bee fighting, but eventually overcome their differences.
The story is heartwarming, but the illustrations really make this a spectacular book. Sandra used a delightful variety of color and texture throughout, focusing both on the biological features of both animals, as well as on the dreamy aspect of the story. “The characters are set in sceneries which are both assembled on my desk and sometimes digitally put together. [The multimedia] way of working was part of the concept. In a way the book really combined illustration with graphic information design. That was the aim anyway,” says Sandra.
CLICK HERE to read the rest of Anna’s review!
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Rebecca Volynsky
Posted by Amy on Wednesday April 28, 2010
The fulfillment after creating something with my own two hands is what fuels me to make artwork. The process is more about taking advantage of a variety of media (everything from screen prints to image transfers of passages from novels and poems) without even knowing what I want the final piece to exactly look like. This dissolves the pressure of creating something that solely aesthetically pleases the viewer, but eventually results in a balance of weight, energy, and personal meaning.
~ Rebecca Volynsky
Creating without knowing: do you practice it when you’re making art? Or do you consciously seek to recreate something that you see in your mind?
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Jared Andrew Schorr
Posted by Jamie Shelman on Thursday April 8, 2010
Stumbled across the work of California based artist Jared Andrew Schorr the other day and was so glad I did! His whimsical characters and sense of humor remind me of why I make and love art! I especially love his monster alphabet which includes the disclaimer “there is a possibility these letters will bite” (the letter Y is shown above).
Be sure to check out the full alphabet on his flickr account supercoolspyclub
and visit his blog and etsy shop for more great work!
Oh and I almost forgot to mention — most of his work is made out of cut pieces of paper! What a champ!
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Tom Moglu
Posted by Amy on Thursday April 1, 2010
Loving the work of Tom Moglu – look at those patterns rendered in watercolor and those collage pieces! He used to sell prints of his collages here but seem to have taken a hiatus for a bit. Maybe someone should tell him to start it up again, hmm? ;)
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Javier Enemigo
Posted by Amy on Monday March 15, 2010
Hola Monday!
How about some crazy collages to kick start the week? Javier Enemigo does wacky renderings and puts together faces with lots of chutzpah. He does lots of other funky illos as well and you can see them on his blog.
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Society6 Artist interview: Aurelie Grand
Posted by Amy on Tuesday March 2, 2010
Awhile back I posted about collaborating with Society6 to pick out an artist every month (it’s more like a bi-monthly thing though!), and our third pick this time goes to Aurelie Grand. There were tons of applicants, and while it was no easy decision to make, Aurelie stood out because of her sense of style, and the various media that she uses. Here’s definitely one lady to watch!
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Name: Aurelie Grand
Location: Montreal, Canada
Website: www.aureliegrand.com
Shop: socuute.etsy.com
Blog: lilyk.canalblog.com
Illustration media: ink, digital, photography, acrylics, fabrics
Tell us a little more about yourself!
I was born in Toulouse «Pink City», France. I grew up in a small village closer to the Pyrenees. My dad has always been an illustrator (though he was also a full time dentist for a while) and I used to spend hours in his studio either watching him or doodling. As far as I remember drawing’s always been my number one occupation. I honestly never stopped. How nerdy is that?
I currently live in Canada with my boyfriend Max who’s also an artist.
Where do you live? What stands out about living where you are, and what is your daily schedule like?
I spent 3 fun years in Vancouver, Canada and I recently moved to Montreal, Quebec because I wanted to experiment the North American East Coast for a while and we have long-time friends here. Montreal is culturally rich, there’s a lot of artists, parks and bikes (and snow), that’s enough to inspire me.
I like to wake up early and start my day by sketching ideas, new projects etc… Then I have to say I’m not very productive in the afternoon so I’m networking, reading, having a nap, or just hanging around . My favorite shift at the studio is 9pm-2am. I guess I get more focus at night. I also like to take the bus home from the studio with drunk people.
How did you get your start in illustration?
I wrote and illustrate a book when I was 9 or 10. It was an elementary school project, a sort of novel inspired by a school trip. It was about 2 detectives (a dog and a hamster) who were investigating on missing horses in a farm. We sold the books to parents and friends at the school annual show. Ha!
I didn’t go to art school right after high school, even if I really wanted to (I wanted to be a graphic designer actually) mainly because my family did not seem to agree with the idea but I know now that I wasn’t ready anyways. So I went to university to study cell biology and animal behavior for 4 years which was seriously interesting but I soon realized life’s too short and I was wasting my time there.
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