There’s a New Facebook Featured Artist! It Must be November Already!

While it certainly doesn’t feel like it here in Joshua Tree, Fall is in full swing and November is upon us!  A new month means a new Featured Artist is up over on the Artsy Forager Facebook page.  I’m thrilled to feature this month’s artist, Seattle artist Susan Melrath.

Dog Park by Susan Melrath

Stay tuned throughout the month of November for more from Susan Melrath!  Make sure you check out the Artsy Forager Facebook page to see her beautiful cover image. ( And be sure to check back often, as we’ll be rotating several of Susan’s images as our Facebook cover- fun! )

Welcome the New Facebook Featured Artist for October!

Just because I’m probably somewhere around Boise by now, listening to Mr. Forager sing along with Eddie Vedder, doesn’t mean that the artsiness stops!    It’s October 1st, which means the passing of the torch to a new Featured Artist over on the Artsy Forager Facebook page.  This month’s artist is Seattle painter and sculptor, Margie Livingston.

Painting Folded 10 Times by Margie Livingston

You’ll see more from Margie throughout the month of October and if you’re in Seattle, make sure to see her show opening this Thursday, Oct. 4th at Greg Kucera Gallery!

September Facebook Featured Artist: Christina Foard

If you’ve been reading Artsy Forager long, you’ve seen me gush about the work of this month’s Facebook Featured Artist, Christina Foard.  Christina is an artist whose work is as much about her mental and spiritual journey of creating as it is about the physical result of paint on canvas.

Urban Falling, oil on board, 36×34

Each canvas is a labor of intense devotion, worked and reworked until the artist is satisfied with her destination.

Lovers Behind the Wall, oil on canvas, 24×24

Grey Land, oil on canvas, 24×24

As she works the canvas, adding layer upon layer or excavating what lies beneath, the resulting textures become a large part of the story, until the composition she is longing for emerges.

Pink Wall Two, oil on canvas, 40×30

To see more of Christina Foard’s work, please visit her website and be sure to check out her album on the Artsy Forager Facebook page!  If you’re near the Jacksonville, FL area, you can still catch Christina’s show with July Featured Artist Thomas Hager at the Jacksonville International Airport, but only until the end of September.  She’s currently working on a special long-term collaborative project I hope to share with you once she’s ready.  Stay tuned.

All images are via the artist’s website.

Say Hello to our New Facebook Featured Artist!

Happy September, Artsies!  I’m so excited to bring you this month’s new Facebook Featured Artist.  Not only is she one of my favorite artists EVER, but one of my favorite people in the world.  Be sure to head on over to the Artsy Forager Facebook page to see the beautiful new cover image by Florida artist Christina Foard!

Flow by Christina Foard, oil and acrylic on canvas, 96×66

Stay tuned throughout the month of September for more from the fabulous Ms. Foard!

August Facebook Featured Artist: Candice Smith Corby

So while I was traversing through the mountains of Montana and Wyoming, the torch was passed on to a new Facebook Featured Artist!  This month we celebrate the work of Boston area artist Candice Smith Corby.

Dinner Table Antics

Smith Corby’s quiet, delicate drawings on paper and found materials navigate us through the worlds of childhood and traditional feminine roles.  Who doesn’t remember making forts of chairs and blankets?

Hideaway

As little girls, were we making forts inside perhaps because we weren’t allowed to play rough & tumble outside with the boys?  Were we given traditional feminine tools yet still found a way to convert them to serve a traditionally male purpose?

Pup Tent

Perhaps we found a way to use those traditional roles to our advantage? These are some of the questions I see being asked in Smith Corby’s work.  Her answers are sensitive and subtle, while still posing more questions.

Pleading ( open )

To see more of Candice Smith Corby’s work, please visit her website and Facebook page.  Candice’s work will be up as the cover image of Artsy Forager’s Facebook page throughout the month of August.  If you happen to be in MA this Fall, be sure to check out her co-curating/co-exhibiting show, Self/Fabricated at The Art Complex Museum in Duxbury, MA!

All images are via the artist.

New Month = New Facebook Featured Artist!

I can hardly believe August is already here!  While you read this, I am soaking in all the delights that Yellowstone has to offer.  I hope you’re delighted by our new Facebook Featured Artist.  Make sure you head over to the Artsy Forager Facebook page to check out our new Featured Artist, Candice Smith Corby!

Bird Nest, gouache and watercolor on paper, 24×28

Watch for more to come from Candice all through the month of August!

Image via the artist.

July Facebook Featured Artist: Thomas Hager

Isn’t it amazing to think that just like many young people get a confused look on their faces when you show them a vinyl record,  so has the use of film photography reached the brink of extinction.  But there are some photographers who are keepin’ it old school, like this month’s Facebook Featured Artist, Thomas Hager.

Tom uses historic photographic processes of kallitype and cyanotype, which involves mixing chemicals and hand applying them to high quality archival paper.  The process involves contact printing an enlarged negative onto the paper, then fixing the image in a bath of sodium thiosulfate.

The results of this process create a painterly texture to each print, as the inks settle down into the paper rather than laying on top of it.

The monochromatic quality of these processes enhance the visual texture in each image, much like a black and white photograph might.  Yet the actual printed texture makes Hager’s cyanotypes and kallitypes feel more like richly hued paintings rather than photographs.

Thomas Hager’s work is currently on exhibition at the Jacksonville International Airport in my hometown ( and his! ), Jacksonville, FL.  His work is featured alongside another Artsy Forager favorite, Christina Foard.  So if you’re in Jax or happen to be traveling through JIA, don’t miss it!

Immersion, featuring Christina Foard & Thomas Hager at Jacksonville International Airport

You can see more of Tom’s work on his website.  His originals are sublime and worth every penny, but if you’re on a budget, check out Town Editions, Tom’s limited edition series!

All images via the artist.

New Facebook Featured Artist is Up!

Where did the month of June go?!  Here it is, July 1st already!  A new month equals a new Featured Artist over on the Artsy Forager Facebook page.  The featured artist for July is Thomas Hager, an incredibly talented fine art photographer ( and painter! ) who uses historic photographic processes to create incredibly gorgeous imagery.  Head over the Artsy Forager Facebook page for a peek at Tom’s work!  More features on Tom to come all throughout the month of July!

June Facebook Featured Artist: Geoff Mitchell

I first discovered the work of LA based artist Geoff Mitchell when he opened a solo show at Steve Williams’ Florida Mining Gallery last year.  Steve has impeccable taste in art, so of course, I was immediately intrigued and blown away by Geoff’s work.  In case you missed it, you can read my initial feature on Geoff’s work here.  Since that first feature, Geoff has been busy creating new work and collaborating on a book project– more about his book later today!

The Emperor’s Night Garden, mixed media on panel, 97×105

While the images with which Geoff works are representational in nature, his method of composition is free and intuitive.  Images are chosen for their sheer beauty, interest or what they may bring to the composition texturally.  Chosen found imagery doesn’t necessarily relate to the other images around it, or at least not intentionally.

Crossing the Needles, mixed media on panel, 97×105

Geoff works from the principal of the sensation of pareidolia, a “psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus, often an image or sound, being perceived as significant”.  His works are telling stories, but not of the artist’s making, but of the viewers.  He provides the stimuli, we fill in the story with our own memories and meaning.

Stage 3, mixed media on panel, 20×20

Ivory Lolly, mixed media on panel, 20×20

To see more of Geoff Mitchell’s work, please check out his ( newly designed! ) website and his cover image & album on the Artsy Forager Facebook page.  If you happen to be near Biloxi, MS, don’t miss his solo exhibition, Chaos at the Confessional at the Ohr-O’Keeffe Museum, opening June 12, on display until November 24, 2012.

Featured image is a detail of The Emperor’s Night Garden.  All images are via the artist.

June’s Facebook Featured Artist is..

.. up over on the Artsy Forager Facebook page!  Head on over and check it out!  Exciting things to come from this month’s artist.. stay tuned for details.