February 4th, 2010
Hollie Chastain is a found paper and collage artist who pounds the pavement for the perfect (i.e. stained, ripped, doodle-covered) books and ephemera for her mixed media pieces. Her work is currently for sale at Nahcotta’s ETA 7 (one of her pieces was included in this week’s picks) and through her etsy shop, Dr. Kennedy Jones. She lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee with her husband and two children.
AH: Tell us a bit about your artistic process. Do you start with a specific idea for a piece or are you inspired by the found objects you use?
HC: It varies. Sometimes I will have a composition in mind and go scavenging for exactly what I feel is right for that particular piece. Only about 10% of the time will the end result portray the initial idea exactly but if something has been hanging around in my mind for a long time, never changing, then i stick with it. The composition and subject for some of my pieces were imagined months before I stumbled across the perfect scrap of paper that it required. But most of the time i start with one really great sheet of paper or board and start building up, pulling shapes and ideas and characters from the different scribbles and splotches and colors i find. Some of my favorite pieces have started from nothing but a coffee-stained book cover and an amazing scrap of blue from a geography book that accidentally overlapped in a great way at the bottom of a crate.
AH: What inspires you to create?
HC: Oh man, so much! A shelf of random old junk in an antique shop where each item just seems to naturally fit with everything else as a whole, anthropomorphism, really brightly colored chipping paint on abandoned walls. I’m drawn to natural textures and patterns caused from aging in any context but there is nothing like opening the cover on a textbook from the early 1900s and seeing water damage and speckled mold spots and scribbles. Music is a huge inspiration for me. I constantly have something on the ipod or stereo all the time especially when i’m working. and live music, of course. I come back from a show with lots of ideas. Most of all it’s simply people and the things they come up with when they’re only trying to entertain themselves and no one else. The silly and great things people do when they’re playing and exploring, moving from moment to moment with no end result in mind. Read the rest of this entry »
February 2nd, 2010
An awesome, enormous (sorry!) and VERY affordable show featuring work by a diverse group of North American artists. The show starts this Thursday but everything is already available online. Below are my picks.
January 31st, 2010
Newcomer Brooklyn gallery K&K opened their Small Prints Show this past weekend. The show’s concept is awesome: feature up-and-coming photographers from around the country and price everything at $100. The show is fun, energetic and affordable. When the gallery is closed, walls retract and the space doubles as owners’ Kevin Kunstadt and Andrew Kenney’s living room. All around, very creative.
There are two editions of each photograph. Stop by or email/call the gallery for availability.
January 28th, 2010
I was happy to receive an email from a reader, Karen Kang, and discover her awesome collage work. Kang did not go to art school or intend to be a working artist. In fact, she worked as a social worker until her creative impulses got the best of her! Karen’s mixed-media pieces include bits of paper, string, felt, ribbon, ink and paint. I love the work on wood below, Urban Landscape.
The pieces below are currently available for $80, $75 and $75 through Karen’s website, and additional work is for sale on etsy.
January 25th, 2010
What a lovely surprise to have come across Lisa Marie Godfrey’s beautiful and quirky work! Godfrey, a Houston native, loves to hunt for antiques and old things that offer a glimpse into the lives of their previous owners. She incorporates some of these objects, such as old books and photographs, into her paintings and site-specific installations.
There is something immediately appealing about Lisa’s work; it is evocative of a quaint, uncomplicated view of the natural world. Lisa’s paintings are filled with quintessential nature imagery, and her style is cartoony and purposefully amateurish. It’s difficult to look at Godfrey’s work and not remember how we experienced nature as children. The simple pleasure in Godfrey’s work is remembering the delight in discovering the world around us.
Godfrey recently showed her work at Domy Books and still has a number of pieces available, most for $50 – $200.
January 21st, 2010
UPDATE: Congrats to the winner of our Christine Kesler print giveaway, gretchenmist!
Holy smokes! This is Art Hound’s 100th post and to mark the occasion we’re giving away a Christine Kesler limited edition print courtesy of Little Paper Planes.
Christine is a Bay area artist whose installation work combines painting, drawing and paper sculpture. Her cerebral process involves reusing her own materials as well as found objects, adding layers of complexity. Writing and poetry also play a significant role in Kesler’s art.
To win Christine’s print (top left), leave a comment. The winner will be notified via email in one week!
(Please be patient as I have to approve each comment before it posts. Thx!)
January 20th, 2010
I’m loving Saelee Oh’s new paintings from her Infinite Roots Show at Jonathan Levine. One of the things I admire most about Saelee’s work is that it exudes a child-like innocence while also imbuing an alluring sophistication. I personally get turned off by work that feels juvenile, and Saelee’s beautiful, refined work certainly does not.
Admittedly these paintings are not what I would consider affordable to most, BUT I’m hoping Oh will release prints of some of these pieces after the show. At the moment Saelee carries prints of some of her older work through LPP and her own shop. I guess I will just have to TRY to be patient..
January 18th, 2010
A collection of work found on flickr, most by artists new to Art Hound.
