andrew jones

East 7th Street Railings , 2008, oil on canvas, 36 x 36, West 4th Street Quatrefoils , 2008oil on canvas, 48 x 60, West 11th Street Anthemions, 2008, oil on canvas, 48 x 48, Stoop Shadows II , 2005, Oil on Canvas, 36 x 36, Jane Street Shadows II, 2006, Oil on Canvas, 24 x 30

The "stoop shadows" series employs intense light to describe a moment. The shadows transform both quickly as the sun moves throughout the day and slowly as the sun changes its angle with the seasons.

The stoop itself is also passing through time as it ages and decays. Paint begins to flake, the iron corrodes, and decorative elements begin to disappear, leaving the viewer to imagine their existence.

see more here.

Randall Stoltzfus

tellus, 2009, oil and gold leaf on linen, 16x20, pollard, oil on linen, 48x60, coriolis, oil and gold leaf on canvas, 13x32, Low, 2008, oil and palladium leaf on panel, 15x30, Bear Lithia, 2009, oil, iridescence, and gold leaf on linen, 48x72

loving the light in these paintings, see more here and here.

sunday church drawing

amy gross

Some of What I Choose to Hear, Embroidery Thread, Seed Beads, Digitally Printed Fabric, Oil Pastel, Felt, Suede, Paper, Trapunto, Applique, Sewn to Canvas, 20 x 20, Came Close to Drowning, Embroidery, Applique, Beading, Felt, Velvet, Suede, Oil on Canvas, 40 x 40, Optomist's Biotope (detail), Embroidery Thread, Ribbon, Yarn, Seed Beads, Digitally Printed Fabric, Polymer Clay, Paper, Trapunto, Applique, Sewn to Half Sphere, 8.5 x 24 x 13, Warbler's Biotope, Embroidery Thread, Ribbon, Yarn, Seed Beads, Digitally Printed Fabric, Polymer Clay, Paper, Trapunto, Applique, Sewn to Sphere, 5.5 x 6, Grown (detail), Embroidery Thread, Ribbon, Yarn, Seed Beads, Digitally Printed Fabric, Polymer Clay, Paper, Trapunto, Applique, Sewn to Sphere, 9 x 9

I started recreating nature in my own image, to try to merge together what I could not see with what I could, to demonstrate how one thing transforms the other. Sewing and embellishing is a physical act of transformation, a merging or even an actual taking over of one material by another, an alteration by human thought process and experiences. It happens with time and leaves it's own evidence. I'm fascinated and disturbed by symbiosis, whether its through thinking or illness or neglect, a strangler fig, errant cells, or mold. I make environments where everything represented is made out of something else - imitative materials: fabric, paper, applique, embroidery thread, paint, beads, oil pastel, and wax. I re-imagine the landscape and objects from nature, altered through my life and experiences of the human body. I mix anxieties and secrets, physical symptoms and the love and fear of being mortal with fabricated roots and leaves and pods and insects and blooms. I mimic the quickly changing natural world through man-made materials with a longer shelf life, an attempt, though illusory, to slow change, to consider and to hold on to life longer.

get lost in the luscious details of these amazing pieces. read the entire statement here and more work here.

sigmar polke

untitled, 2007, mixed media on fabric, 79x75, untitled, 2008, mixed media on fabric, 39x27, untitled, 2008, mixed media on fabric, 35x27, untitled, 2007, mixed media on fabric, 75x79

love the depth of pattern in these 'lens paintings' on fabric. see the michael werner exhibition here.

erin e castellan

your love was like a rainbow and also a pile of bricks, 2008, mixed media and stitching on paper, 12.5x18.5, sunbeam, 2008, gouache and stitching on paper, 11x14, release, 2007, monoprint and stitching on paper, 9x9, april showers, 2006, monoprint and stitching on paper, 11x15, bittersweet, 2006, monoprint and stitching on paper, 9x14

My intent is to capture transient states of existence that pass before we are fully cognizant of them. My images are inexhaustible narratives of color, shape, pattern, and texture intended to depict a complex web of relationships between objects, environment, and awareness. Patterns and forms rest in tense coexistence, supporting each other in an intricate system of the known and unknown. They are worlds rife with fleeting interactions and shifting spatial planes where time is unnaturally forced to stand still, poised on the brink of recognition and understanding.

i discovered this artist on my friend colleen stepanic's blog. i love how the repetitious nature of the stitching combines visually and tactilely with the painted patterns. read more of her statement here and see lots more work here.

Iva Gueorguieva

Spears, 2006, acrylic on canvas, air show, 2005, acrylic on canvas, 66x80, gyre, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 94x220, black boot, 2007, watercolor and ink on paper, 27x35, beetle shadow, 2006, acrylic on canvas, 77x77

i've been a huge fan of iva gueorguieva's work for a long time. her pieces are simply amazing and she's a truly gifted painter. see more here.

encaustic in wyoming

victoria franck-wetsch (1-2), alex keenan (3), meggan stordahl (4-5), the amazing view outside the studio (6), peggy prugh(7) meggan stordahl(8), i love pretty palettes (9), peggy prugh's coffee drawing (10), alex keenan (11), chris wimberg (12), i love wonderful workspaces, in this case meggan stordahl's (13), two exquisite corpse (14-15), great drawings by alex keenan, which came from a in-class markmaking exercises (16)

i recently returned home from a wonderful week teaching an encaustic workshop at the art association in jackson, wyoming. the landscape in wyoming is so amazingly beautiful as is the art association's facilities!! i've never taught in such a well equipped facility and i was extremely impressed by the friendly and helpful staff as well.

the workshop combined my markmaking workshop with my 5-day intensive encaustic workshop--both workshops incorporate fiber in some way. i had a small but enthusiastic and fun group and everyone had an awesome time with creative breakthroughs had by all. i even managed to finish 3 small pieces during the workshop (to be posted in the near future).

what i love about teaching workshops is that all of the participants come with different strengths and abilities and each builds on those things with the new tools that they are learning. i love to see how each person translates new techniques and interprets them in their own visual language. victoria franck-wetsch developed a technique where she used the razor blade as drawing tool, which slowly revealed collaged images under white encaustic paint. meggan stordahl has a wonderful sense of texture and materials and used the encaustic medium to collage these materials together. chris wimberg's map-like paintings reveal her great sense of color and pattern. peggy prugh does such beautiful line work and in this workshop drew with coffee and a chop stick over layers of medium! alex keenan has an excellent sense of color and pattern and experimented with the encaustic to create color fields. all did great work and i look forward to seeing what they do next!

sunday church drawing

barbara takenaga

Angel (Pink Twin), 2008, Acrylic on linen, 54 x 45, Floaters, 2008, Acrylic on wood panel, 12 x 10, Ghost Triptych, 2008, Acrylic on wood panel, 24 x 60, Red Stripes, 2008, Acrylic on wood panel, 12 x 10, Bazu-ko, 2006, Acrylic on wood panel, 12 x 10

see more funky dots here.