Notice, however, that in none of these rooms does the art overwhelm or clash with the space and furnishings. When making a statement with art, you still want to make sure that the art fits in the context of its setting. It should never feel like it’s “screaming” at you.

[View with PicLens]

 

Source: Apartment Therapy: Johnny & Stacie (1 & 3)  Erin & Chris (2)  Christen (4 & 6)  Chris & Heather (5)

Here are some tips to creating a focal point with art without overdoing it:

1) Even if the art is large, it should appropriately fit the size of the space and not overwhelm it. It should not feel like it was squeezed into the space.

2) Place the art in a central location where it will get the most eyeballing. Avoid hallways or lesser-used spaces if you want the art to have a big impact.

3) The colors of the art should jibe with but not perfectly match the rest of the room. You can pull colors from the piece of art into the room (accessories are great for this), or opt for a more relaxed look and use complementary colors (e.g. photo #1: the red table and gray chairs work actually help to highlight the yellow painting).

4) The style and tone of the art should relate to the style and tone of the room. (e.g. photo #4: the black and white painting is very graphic and playful but because of other fun details like the colorful art object on the table and the graphic blanket, the tone feels cohesive).

5) The art should be bold and visually stimulating, but you need other visual elements to balance it with; otherwise the space may feel lopsided (e.g. photo #5: the colorful, graphic shower curtain counters the bright art).

How would you describe your work?

Fantasy based semi abstract landscapes.

I’m super critical about my work so it’s hard to pick a painting that I like for very long after I finish it. I’m just happy that I have continued to make work through this market slump and that the work seems to be really moving forward. It sounds a bit cliche but not doing 3 art fairs a year has allowed for growth and experimentation in my work, that might not have occurred otherwise.

Tell us about the biggest risk you’ve taken as an artist.

Really need to take more risks in my work. I’ve been messing around with sculpture all of which have failed up to this point.  Still planning on exploring that avenue soon.

What do you love most about Portland/ Brooklyn?

I grew up in Portland and moved to Brooklyn 10 years ago. In Brooklyn I am within walking distance to almost all my closest friends, studio, and a ton of restaurants. It really has a kind of  provincial feel to it. You get to buy your meat from the butcher and bread from the bakery. You are in the city but your neighborhood is where you live. Most of all I have a really great group of friends that are very supportive.

What makes Portland/ Brooklyn such a great place for independent art?

There is really just so many people making art in both these cities, that it just makes you want to produce. Especially in Brooklyn I feel like the type of people that make the move to live here are a little more motivated type personality. You can’t help but feed on that energy. It makes it so much easier to keep working when you are surrounded by close friends that are also making work.

Don’t miss this week’s Portland artist, Trish Grantham, on Habit of Art!

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Liz Riccardi $14

Christian Breitkreutz $15

askey $20

Jacqueline Bos $30

Juliana Swaney $30

Daria Tessler $30

This week’s picks are from etsy and little paper planes.

Check out more of my favorite etsy finds.

This series will help you do just that: each week I’ll match a major artist of the 19th or 20th c. (e.g. Henri Matisse, Mark Rothko, Keith Haring) with current independent artists who share the artist’s style, subject, color palette, etc. Although there’s nothing wrong with enjoying print reproductions of famous artists, now you’ll have other enticing options to consider.

Please feel free to leave suggestions for future artists. Thanks!

If you like O’Keeffe’s flowers…

…then you might just like the work of Faith Evans-Sills, Rachel Ann Austin or Yellena James.

If you like O’Keeffe’s abstracts…

…then you might like the work of Julie Evans, Sophia Brueckner or Serena Mitnik-Miller.

And if you like O’Keeffe’s architectural work…

…you might like work by Laura Marie Walker, Ryan Kapp or Kari Maxwell.

It’d been a while since I had checked out BLIK, the Venice, CA design company that has led the pack in removable wall graphics and was blown away by all the awesome new merch. BLIK has partnered with art accessories shop, Third Drawer Down, and the ever-popular t-shirt company, Threadless. Their newly expanded offerings include work by many great artists and designers including Art Hound fav’s Saelee Oh, Camilla Engman and Amy Ruppel.

Below are some of my favorites from BLIK.

How would you describe your work?

Narrative, slightly surreal experiences and adventures that are interested in exploring the world.  Whether the character in a piece is lonely, mischievous, or dreaming, I’d hope the emotion comes across as honest.

What are, in your opinion, the greatest challenges of being an artist today?

Staying focused on creating genuine work without giving in to a successful formula, especially in years where it is such a struggle to make a living as an artist.  It’s hard to not put your own self worth into how well received your personal work is, but to do so is a dangerous hole to fall into.  For me balancing artmaking with the rest of my life has always been tricky- Once I get into that place in my head I get careless about everything else.

What accomplishments/works of art are you most proud of?

There are some pieces I’m particularly fond of.  Ones that were a struggle to get through, or ones that started evolving my work into something a little different.  I’m always very happy to be part of a film crew and proud of our sets.

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Tell us about the biggest risk you’ve done taken as an artist.

To be honest that’s something I need to work on-  Other than moving to New York deciding to be an artist feeling like it was such the risk, I could use some getting out of my comfort zone as an artist and experimenting more.

What do you love most about Brooklyn?

I love how Brooklyn is its own experience.  The buildings, places to eat and drink, parks, interactions on the streets, cats in backyards, everything contributes to the energy and lifestyle that’s particular to here.  And the bad days, weather, moments make the good ones that much sweeter.  It’s balanced yet always changing.  Manhattan and all of it’s perks are close by, but people who live here seem to have a special affection and pride in calling Brooklyn home.

What makes Brooklyn such a great place for independent art?

Everyone is seeking an alternative lifestyle.  There are so many creative people here and everyone’s got a story.  You feel supported and surrounded by people just as strange as you.  There are endless resources and venues to see various forms of art, and Brooklyn itself always inspires just with its scenery and characters.

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This week’s Portland artist is crafter, Stephanie Congdon-Barnes, who you may know from her 3191 project with Maria Vettesse. Check out Stephanie’s interview and lovely photos here.

Putting aside the question of retained value, the fact that photographs come in editions is also one of it’s strengths: photographs can be produced in a variety of sizes, and therefore, prices. Keep in mind that many photographers accept requests for alternate sizing.

Picks are from 20×200, etsy and print society.

[View with PicLens]

Candace Feit $20

Liz Kuball $20/$50/$200

Kevin J. Miyazaki $20/$200

Raul Gutierrez $20/$200

FotoMalone $22/$37

Karissa Van Tassel $25

Lydia Polzer 19/99 GBP

Skip Hunt $150

Cate Woolner $165

 

AH: How did you get into art? Did you always know you wanted to be an artist/illustrator?

I started art school at the ripe age of 29. Before that I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life because I had a serious interest in many things, like music, writing, linguistics, literature, comics… So I took a lot of time to acquire an odd variety of skills and knowlegde, without mastering anything really, except how not to enter a traditional career path. I was a radio and TV show host in Liechtenstein, worked at a newspaper, played in bands…

I did draw a lot as a child, and I never really stopped drawing, so in that respect I got into art in a somewhat conventional way. I made multi-page comics and wrote stories as a preteen in the 80s that I stapled together (zines, really, but I didn’t know that then). I made posters, flyers and other kinds of design for punk bands as a teenager and in my twenties. I later was a university newspaper cartoonist, and, to make a long story short, that job lead me to the Emily Carr Institue of Art and Design (now Emily Carr University), from which I graduated as a designer. I also did an exchange semester at the Rhode Island School of Design.

AH: Your zines are inspired by movie stills. Why movies? Are you a film buff?

I’m interested in film as a visual language and as a vehicle for storytelling, and some filmmakers have simply created evocative imagery that I’m drawn to, or situations or moments that speak to me. If I’d be forced to decide on a favorite art form, it would probably have to be film. My film knowledge is pretty fragmented, so I’m certainly not a well-rounded film buff, if I’m one at all.

I do have some favorite directors, periods and genres, but preferences are always shifting, and I don’t want to fetishize films, I just want to be engaged and inspired by them. Having said that, current favorites would be early French New Wave films (especially Truffaut), Film Noir, Hitchcock, Lang, Jacques Tourneur, Vittorio de Seta (not to be confused with Vittorio de Sica, who’s also great!), Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, Eric Rohmer, just kind of the regular cinephile canon, mostly films from around 1920 to around 1960. As for new films, I totally enjoy big popcorn movies like “2012” on their own terms, or films by Gus van Sant or the Coen Brothers, and I thought “My Winnipeg” by Guy Maddin was one of the best films of the past few years. I’ve recently discovered the work of Owen Land, and particularly his film “Dialogues” (2007-9) made an impression on me. I also like the social aspect of watching movies together. I’ve run film clubs in the past, and right now I run a private bi-weekly film club that only shows french noirs, mostly from the 50s.

AH: What, besides film, inspires your art?

A lot of things, and it’s changing all the time. I’m inspired by artists who experiment with the publication form (not so much catalogs or monographs, but books that are conceived of as works of art in their own right, like artist books or zines): Ed Ruscha’s Twentysix Gasoline Stations from the 60s would be a famous example, or, more recently, Hans-Peter Feldmann’s photo books, or zines by Nieves or Used Future. Other influences are Raymond Pettibon, Max Ernst, Alexander Calder’s mechanical circus, the beautiful conceptual photography of Jessica Eaton, the textile art of Heather Goodchild, Dana Dart-McLean’s sense of composition, color and texture, Rodney Graham’s sense of humor, Louis by Amanda’s pattern designs.

AH: You use watercolor, a traditional medium, in fresh and unexpected ways. Tell me about your approach.

My use of the medium is definitely indebted to the work of Emil Nolde. Especially his mountain landscapes, and some of his portraits. Louise Bourgeoise has made some great expressive watercolor work. I also took some obvious clues from Francis Bacon or Paul Klee, and Daniel Richter is an important influence, although he works mostly in oil.

Watercolor often seems to be used in a very controlled, sometimes even timid kind of way. On a conceptual level I approach my work very carefully, but when it comes to the execution, the actual painting, I like to relinquish control, I just kind of give up and see what happens. Accordingly, the planning of my work takes much longer than the actual image-making. I find if I control the hands-on part of the process too much, the outcome tends to be stiff and dull. So I don’t even try.

For the Screenshots series, I extract imagery from films by tracing projected outlines, in other words by tracing an illusion of artifice (like tracing the shadows in Plato’s cave). I then let the watercolor do its thing on top of the pencil drawing, and in this process of adding a new layer, a fragment of an illusion is reimagined. I repeat the process to create a sequence, and as a result, the zine becomes a memory of the movie, a fragmented, distorted and personal interpretation.

AH: What’s the art scene like in Berlin?

Major international artists like Olafur Eliasson or Douglas Gordon live here, as do thousands of young artists from North America and all over the world. Rent and studio space are still really affordable, and the city has an enormous and diverse artistic community. Berlin has been experiencing this constant influx of emerging artists for many years now, and it doesn’t seem be stopping anytime soon.

AH: What else are you working on at the moment?

I’m working on a collaborative zine with the Canadian artist Matt James. It’s called Cheap Shots. I started work on a series of short films. I’m part of a curated zine fair. The sixth issue of Screenshots will be out by late February. I’m doing my usual graphic design work, right now mostly on two feature documentary films. And there are upcoming music collaborations, one of them with the sound artist Depatterning.

AH: What do you hope to be doing in 12 months time?

The same. But different.

India Richer: fine artist and decorative finisher based in Brooklyn, NY. India was actually born in Brooklyn and grew up mostly in nearby Queens. She’s been back in Brooklyn since 1993.

What are, in your opinion, the greatest challenges of being an artist today?

I can’t speak for other artists but staying focused can be one of the most difficult things for me these days. Other people’s images, ideas and perspectives can scatter my concentration and the internet has created a culture where turning on the computer can become a habit that fills the place of creativity with the immediate gratification of distraction. The most gratifying work for me to make is that in which I can see the both the struggle that I went through to create the experiences that I’m expressing, and the struggle to get it down on paper in a pure way. I can always make pretty images but it’s challenging to really focus and make something that feels meaningful to me.