Something my daughter drew

Here is a drawing my daughter made. I am so proud of her, because I think she is an amazing artist. I love this visual story she created. This is my favorite kind of art, that sparks my imagination and makes me wonder: What is going on with the two towers in the background? Is the girl wondering which one is hiding a treasure of gems? Or are they both hints in a puzzle that tells us where the girl is from? And isn't her bunny absolutely adorable? Is he real or a stuffed toy? What do you think? Do we really need to know the answers to enjoy the drawing? I don't think so. It is exactly this sense of wondering and the excitement and inspiration it creates that makes it so worth while.

Hanna Nitsch

I saw an ink drawing of Hanna Nitsch in a small gallery in Frankfurt. Her slightly creepy pale water color-like portraits of children are somehow dream-like and a little bit unsettling. They speak to me of the fine line between sweet, innocence and bizarr strangeness that makes childhood so interesting and fragile. She apparently paints mostly her own kids. Some of these ink drawings are really big too: 6 x 5 feet tall! So you can imagine their impact.

In love with Colonial Baroque

"Rosario de Besos " by Ray Martin Abeyta
"Mano O Mano" by Ray Martin Abeyta
"Distillacion" by Ray Martin Abeyta

By coincidence I came across these wonderful paintings. Ray Martin Abeyta is a contemporary master of colonial baroque paintings. He combines successfully the historical style of colonial retabolo paintings and the modern iconography of lowbrow culture. I would love to see his work up close.

A modern Dutch Portrait

Surfing the web I came across these interesting portraits by the Dutch photographer Hendrik Kerstens. He started photographing his daughter in 1995 and called the on going photo project "the Paula Pictures". His pictures stand in the old 17th century tradition of Dutch painters and one is reminded of the beauty and solitude in Vermeer's paintings. The modern version of girl with the pearl earrings is girl with an iPod.

Thinking about the perfect studio

The ideal studio

Fornasetti 's Studio

This is big: I am in the process of changing my studio space! I have a small office/studio space off the dining room. The space is too small for all my art supplies and so I often spill into the dinning room, cluttering everything with my boxes of art supplies. In the evening there is sometimes hardly any place for dinner and dishes on the table, because my art projects are taking up the space. Soon this will change and I am so excited to get my own clubhouse, where I can play, make art and jewelry and have tea parties.
When this whole studio idea started I ripped out pictures of studio spaces that I liked. Some are of course unrealistic, but you gotta dream first to get somewhere. My ultimate idea of an art studio (top picture) is far from my reality - love the high window!
Storage possibilities is another important issue when thinking about setting up an art studio. Picture number 2. shows the perfect drawers to keep papers and images. No wonder it is the studio of Fornasetti, the Italien master of decoupage. I love Fornasetti's art objects and would love to own one, but they are expensive. He was an artist and interior decorator in Milan and he applied his images to all different kinds of objects and furniture.

I saw the fabulous porcelain urns at Barneys in San Francisco.

Also fun is this Fornasetti lacquer tray that I found in a magazine.

I love decoupage, collage, multi media arts and an exhibition I have recently seen springs to mind: Joseph Cornell at the San Francisco Moma : Navigating the Imagination
Cornell created these fabulous boxes and multi media collages. I loved learning that he actually started out as a collector of all sorts of stuff, like postcards, photos, magazines etc. that he bought at flea markets and garage sales. Eventually he wondered what to do with all the stuff he had accumulated and started making art out of it. I can relate to the need for collecting and creating and love the surrealist aspect of his dream like images.
Tilly Losch
Painted: 1935
Construction
Untitled (Medici Princess)
Painted: 1948
Construction
Untitled (Bebe Marie)
Painted: Early 1940's
Construction

The Moma writes about Cornell: "A self-taught artist, Joseph Cornell relied almost exclusively on found materials. He collected items from books, newspapers, second-hand stores, exploratory walks — even sweepings from his studio floor — to create intricate, elaborate box constructions and collages. These enchanting works of art transformed commonplace objects into extraordinary and magical dreamscapes, earning him immediate and enduring respect as a sort of artistic alchemist."
Talking about found objects - have you heard of FOUND Magazine? My daughter Valentina bought it in the bookstore the other day and we love it. This magazine publishes found stuff, like letters, to-do lists, ticket stubs, birthday cards, doodles and photos that people have found on the street. Some of these notes/writings are random, crazy, hilarious or sad and they offer a brief glimpse into a stranger's life.
Check out their web site, because they post the "find of the day", like these following two, that I love:

note and nice wedding photo from Found Magazine


And believe it or not, continuing this perfect stream of consciousness, I found a blog today that celebrates the discreet charm of to-do lists. This girl Sasha Cagen got obsessed with to-do lists. She collected people's lists and published a magazine, a blog and now a book about to-do lists. The interesting part is that people make not only lists about mundane chores, but about important life decisions. Sasha says that a list can give away it's makers personality or at least offer a glimpse into emotional inner workings. Myself being endowed with a slight compulsive obsessive streak (how else would I enjoy stringing tiny beads for hours?), I have to admit that from the tender age of 10 I was a faithful list maker. I not only make the lists, but particularly enjoy the crowning act of crossing items off the list (preferably in a different color pencil - now, how sick is that?) Right now as I am typing this there are several lists on my desk, including the precious list-book (yes, you heard right: I own a book into which I write my most important lists) So you can imagine, that the to-do list blog struck a chord with me.
The precious tall and slender List book and a selection of my lists du jour

Looking at my desk brings me back to my research of artist's studios and I stumbled across this website, called On my desk: artists, designer and illustrators share the stuff on their desk . I would love to roam around Jane Ann Wynn's studio space and check out the goodies on her desk.
Jane Ann Wynn's studio

and desk

Last not least I saw this book on Amazon and wonder, if it is just as enticing inside as the cover is:
Maybe you have some suggestions, advice or ideas for my new studio? If you do, leave a comment.

Eric Joyner: Painter of Toy Robots

"The usual suspects"

"The last Tin Man"


"The Incident"

"Time Travelers"

Believe it or not, but toy robots have been somewhat a theme in my marriage. On our first Christmas together Scott gave me a red toy robot and read science fiction stories out loud to me. Connecting to the symbols from the beginning of our love story, I gave Scott a tiny little toy robot for our 10th wedding anniversary. This year for his birthday and our 15th wedding anniversary together, I had a special surprise for him. A couple of years ago when we visited La Luz de Jesus gallery in LA, we saw a beautiful small painting of a toy robot and admired it very much. This September we saw an exhibition by the same artist, Eric Joyner at the Shooting Gallery in San Francisco. Afterwards I checked out Eric's web site and saw that he had prints of his paintings for sale. I knew immediately that this was my present for Scott. The best part of this present was, that we visited Eric's studio and Scott didn't know where we were going until we rang Eric's door bell. A perfect surprise! Eric was so gracious and fun, showing us his art, although he was getting ready to pack for a show in Vegas. It was hard to pick out a print, because they are all wonderful, but I think Scott picked the best "The Time Travelers" (last image). I love the composition of the two scenes meeting in the middle. Samurai warriors fighting robots is the ultimate little boy dream. It is also interesting in the sense of two worlds colliding: the old japan versus the new.

Ephemeral Lingerie

Ephemeral Lingerie - paper cut out 2003
Showing "Ephemeral Lingerie" and "Forever Sexy" at Balazoo Gallery in the Mission, San Francisco, 2004
Art Opening of Stencilart.org's show in San Francisco 2003

I had the good fortune of exhibiting two of my cut outs some time ago at two art exhibitions in San Francisco. "Ephemeral Lingerie" is very dear to me - not only because it took a long time, but because I like the surreal notion of paper underwear. I always think I should follow up with some other garments.

The queen of papel picado

Margarita Fick is a Mexican artist I have admired for a while. We bought one of her papel picados in Oaxaca. Her work is absolutely exceptional. I found this web site, where she sells her art and you can read up on her.

Halloween Art Gallery 2: Charles Krafft

Dark Art part 2: Charles Krafft visited Sarajevo in 1998 and upon his return set out to produce porcelain replicas of the weapons used in the Balkan conflict. He borrowed weapons from black market arms dealers and created slip-molds and then cast them in white porcelain. Then he decorated the porcelain weapons with the beautiful and classical Delft ornaments. He exhibited them at the Slovenian Ministry of Defense under the title: "The porcelain war museum project" in 1999. Krafft said:"My aim is to produce a delicate arsenal of life-size ceramic weaponry so gorgeous and patently functionless that they will bedazzle and confound everyone who sees them."

I don't like guns and have a hard time with the concept, that here in America anybody has the right to bear arms (maybe , because I am European!?). Krafft's porcelain guns are the best statement of political criticism towards guns and violence. It is so poetic and therefore reaches me on a deep level. A gun out of porcelain is an object of utmost vulnerability. You have to handle it with care, because if you drop it , it will break - just like a real gun can break life...

My Halloween Gallery: Mark Ryden

Mark Ryden in his studio






I have first encountered Mark Ryden's art in the art magazine Juxtapoz in the late 90's and have been following his work since. The top 3 paintings are from his "Blood" series, more creepy than usual , but perfect for my Halloween gallery. The image of the lone girl in the big, puffy skirt is called "The Debutant" and we own this print by him. It is one of my favorite paintings and one day I'll make myself a costume like that. All these bizarre items, that are attached to her skirt, are icons of some sort or another, but jumbled together their meaning is put out of its original context. As a child my parents used to have one of these drawers with little compartments for type setting. They hung it on the wall and displayed little meaningful objects in the different compartments: a little Buddha statue, a silver dollar, my baby tooth, a sea shell, a plastic toy soldier... a collage of objects that each have memories and meaning attached to them, but together they have no relationship.
I also love the last image, which is from his latest exhibition, "the tree show" and it is called "Allegory and the four elements".

Women in Art

This is my favorite art video on YouTube. Check out this artist other stuff here.

Shoe Shrines

I am intrigued by this mixed media art. I like the idea of recycling an everyday object into an art piece. Melanie, the artist who makes them is a self-taught artist and musician. She painted for many years decorations for the House of Blues. Her shoe shrines are a homage to the Musicians and Artists she likes.