alicia lachance

Hommage to Morris, 2008, 24 x 24 inches, fresco/oil on canvas, untitled, mixed media on canvas, 48x48, Shaw's Garden, 2008, 36 x 48 inches, fresco/oil on canvas, Walking City, 2008, 36 x 60 inches, fresco/oil on canvas, Allium, 2008, 36 x 36 inches, fresco/oil on canvas, thornbury, mixed media on canvas, 12x36, Dewansne in Marais, 2008, 36 x 48 inches, fresco/oil on canvas on panel

i first saw alicia lachance's work at melanee cooper gallery when todd and i were in chicago last year. i love her sense of color, texture and pattern.

...My work intends to create a story of continuity between the past and present by collaging small bits of, what I consider contemporary graphic symbolism with nature references. This lexicon is meant to bridge the healthy, tangibility of nature with a certain positivity regarding our modernity....

read her full statement here and see more work here and here.

Bill Reid

mice cream cone bunny, Painted Steel, 48 x 14 x 22, bush of birds, Painted Steel, 22 x 12 x 10, hole seller, Painted Steel, 25 x 10 x 26, dodo in a darker bush, Painted Steel, 80 x 50 x 31, heron's dream of a bent rule village, Painted Steel, 24 x 15 x 8, halo watermelon, Painted Steel, 44 x 36 x 14

fun animal sculptures made from thin sheets of painted and welded steel by bill reid...

books i love: look-alikes

look-alikes are a series of children's books by the artist/illustrator joan steiner, who creates dioramas made up of everyday objects. the highly detailed dioramas are amazing in their ingenuity-i see something different every time i look at this book. most importantly, seeing these objects used in a different context enables me to see the world differently and much more creatively...

rebecca rothfus

land o' silos, 2009, pencil, gouache, paper mounted on panel, 16x20x2, lookout one, 2008, pencil, gouache, paper mounted on panel, 14x11x2, red water, 2009, pencil, gouache, paper mounted on panel, 20x16x2, untitled, 2009, pencil, gouache, paper mounted on panel, 16x20x2, kassel (version 2), 2009, pencil, gouache, paper mounted on panel, 16x20x2

i was at pentimenti-my favorite philly gallery-last week and they were hanging the next show of rebecca rothfus' work. i was able to sneak a peek at some of these perfect little pieces, i love their clean lines and her impeccable draftsmanship. the show at pentimenti runs from april 21-may 30.

monday studio tip of the week

cyanotype, martha madigan

this week's studio tip comes from friend and fellow artist, kirsten stingle. kirsten is extremely prolific, making huge amounts of work while raising 2 small boys and a husband! so i asked her how she does it and she said she simply makes a check list of things that need to be done in the studio for the next day and strictly follows it.

twyla tharp calls this type of planning 'building a bridge'. in her book, the creative habit, she cites that ernest hemingway would end his work day at a point where he knew what would come next, so when he entered the studio the next day, he would pick up at that point. it is especially difficult for those of us who teach to build sufficient momentum in the studio and sometimes i spend a good hour or two mulling around, sort of warming up before i really get down to work. by ending my previous studio session with some work left to be done, i can quickly pick up the next day where i had left off and having my checklist at the ready eliminates time spent trying to remember what needs to be done. try it and have fun!

sunday church drawing

a polite winter

a polite winter is a visual 'conversation' between two amazingly talented artist friends, kenichi hoshine and james jean (one living in ny and the other in los angeles throughout the conversation). although this beautiful work has been online for a while, i find myself frequently visiting just to marvel and read the hauntingly poetic text...their own personal sites are not to be missed...

shirley tse

Chinatown, 2004, plastic, polystyrene, callus cushions, 18 x 36 x 3, Tahiti, 2004, plastic, polystyrene, 22 1/2 x 31 x 23, Economist’s Complexity Theory Under Vinyl, 2004, polystyrene, vinyl, magazine pages, 24 x 36 x 21, The Economy of Self-Generation (Bifurcation), 2002, Vinyl, 48 x 48, Polymathicstyrene & detail, 1999-2000, installation view

another artist making amazing work with humble materials...see more here and here.

stephanie snider

Parquette, 2008, oil and spray paint on panel, 35 x 45, Untitled (boxes and branches), 2007, oil on panel, 45 x 60, Untitled (interior with double zig-zag), 2006, oil on panel, 45 x 60, Untitled (braid/blindfold), 2008, watercolor, gouache, pencil, monotype and collage on paper, 6 x 6, Untitled, 2008, ink, watercolor, gouache, pencil and collage on paper, 6 x 6, Interior with Wallpaper, 2008, watercolor, gouache, spray paint, pencil and collage on paper, 11 x 14, Silver Portal, 2008, ink, gouache, watercolor, acrylic, spray paint, pencil and collage on paper, 12 x 15

stephanie snider's paintings and collaged drawings are clean, sharply executed and her use of pictorial space and materials is ingenious. visit her site to see her more awesome paintings and sculpture. of her work, she writes...

trace sites of personal and collective memories: they map anxiety, confusion, obsessive sorts of love, puzzles, nostalgia and the tricks our minds play on us. The use of narrative is present but not prescribed, yet tonalities of disengagement are articulated, underscoring a dark thread of sadness and melancholy.

anne gant

Epergne 1 18w x 24h, Epergne 2 18w x 24h, The Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune and detail, 120x 90, Archaeology 60 x 40--All pieces are on double layers of Rives BFK cotton rag paper, with concealed archival linen strips on the back side.

my friend anne gant and i went to grad school together at tyler and also shared a gallery for our thesis shows. anne is yet another artist who bridges that huge gap between drawing, printmaking and craft and her work is fabulously striking to look at. anne and i both share a fondness for burning things...! read on about her exciting process and visit her comprehensive site for more about anne and her work.

I use hot glass to make prints and drawings. Since 2001 I have been creating my own process, which is a combination of glassblowing and printing or drawing with glass. First, I sculpt hot glass into shapes and lines. Then, while the glass is still scorching hot from the glory hole, I press the glass forms into wet sheets of high quality rag paper. Instantly, the glass begins to burn and smoke the paper. In this dramatic process, the glass becomes cracked, scarred and destroyed. All that remains is its mark on the paper.

The soul of glass is its heat.
These prints function as maps of that heat.
They reveal a secret aspect of the glass normally known only to the maker.

The casual viewer may not instantly spot that these prints are made from glass, but no other material would be able to create these high-temperature, organic burns. They have a richness, translucency and liquidity that is an echo of the original glass form. The resulting burnt impressions have a high level of detail as the burns pass through layers of paper and also create embossed areas. They range in color from areas of rich, dense blacks to smoky sepias and watery yellows. The burns are full of light- they have a mysterious photographic quality; in some areas they look as if they are backlit....