Sara Radstone

Ever since I fell in love with clay I've wanted to do more sculptural work. Sara Radstone, a British artist, works primarily that way. You can see more of her work here, at Marsden Woo Gallery in London, where she is represented.

Jenny Sages

I'm pretty sure it's obvious to any of you who read this blog regularly why I like Jenny Sages. She is an Australian artist inspired by Aboriginal art. She works in encaustic on canvas, and for her portraits she spreads the wax over the canvas with her hands. Here is a self-portrait she did after the death of her husband, which explores her grief. This work won the 2012 Archibald People's Choice Prize.

There is a YouTube video of Jenny Sages talking about this work here. I love what she says about needing to show her work to "close the loop" in her experience of making art. I've never found a way to articulate that feeling. You can see more of her work here, at the King Street Gallery website.

Linn Meyers

Linn Meyers is an artist based in Washington, DC, website here. In 2010 she did the wall drawing, pictured above, at the Phillips Collection in DC. The work was created "in dialogue with" the Van Gogh painting you see in the foreground. I like responsive work. It's so interesting to see what another artist takes from a work of art as important. It reinforces the fact that each of us sees things so differently. How do we ever communicate effectively with one another? Through art, I believe. It seems the most authentic  form of communication to me. You can read a little about the project at the Phillips Collection over here. And, wouldn't I just love to have a studio space that large!

Corey Daniels

Work by Peter Bennett

Melissa Turner

Clint Fulkerson

Last week I went to Corey Daniels (website here) in Wells, Maine. I've been told about this place by a friend for years, but never made it there. It's pretty wonderful, as you can see by the photos. Art and antiques and STYLE. I don't know who all the artists are, so forgive me. I'm not doing much due diligence these days as we are on a 2 week vacation and promising ourselves to do only what we really want to do. You can look at an interesting article in the NYT on Corey Daniels here. Clint Fulkerson is a Maine artist whose work is on show at Corey Daniels now.  I really wish I could own that blanket!

Olson House

Here is a funny little black and white album of photos I took at the Olson House in Cushing, Maine. You know how I love that place. I took a visiting friend down there last week. She got me hooked on Instagram...uh oh. So I took these with my iPhone and then monkeyed around with various apps, and here is what I got. The amazing thing about Instagram and all these apps is that it's like having photoshop in your phone...and not having to really learn it to use it! Can you say "time suck"?

Jason Fitzgerald

I picked up a copy of Vogue Living Australia when I was in the big city a few days back, and discovered Jason Fitzgerald. He's an artist from Brisbane, who started making sculpture from the scrap he picked up off the factory floor where he works as a cabinetmaker and professional French polisher. It's the patterns I respond too. They look like wonderfully constructed drawings to me. And I admire his color sense. He is represented by Jan Murphy Gallery, where you can see more here. I apologize about the pixilation of these photos, but It's all I could find.

Mingei

We went to San Diego for a wedding last week (it's a long way from Maine to San Diego!), and got a chance to go to the Mingei International Museum. These quilts are from the Bold Expressions exhibit. They are African American quilts from the collection of Corrine Riley. I only had my iphone so the photos are not good, but I thought it was worth it to show them anyway. I was enthralled by all the tiny pieces in some quilts, and the pintucking in another one. The designs are so imaginative and fresh they just got my heart pounding. What women will do to make something beautiful out of a pile of scraps, eh? And the last two images are from another exhibit, San Diego's Craft Revolution. I loved these hand made cards. It was a very nostalgic show for me because I saw many of the mediums my mother worked in when I was a child. Copper enamel, ceramics, mosaics, hand printed textiles. It reminded me of what a creative dynamo she was, and how much I owe her.