Author Archive


Posted on December 11, 2012 - by

Sigrid Neuwinger

Lots of things have been happening over here the last few weeks – from going away for Thanksgiving to getting engaged! Yay! Such a fun month but now, back to blogging :) Thanks to the ever awesome, Neil, I came upon Sigrid Neuwinger.

I can tell you practically nothing about her or her work as everything I can find on her is in German and the translations aren’t super helpful. What I can find says that she works mostly with found objects. The above is called Spirits.

The above is called Oracle. I’m not sure what it’s made of – bicycle tires?

One writer talks about Sigrid as in the tradition of surrealist, Max Ernst. I can sort of see it. The above looks like a dragon made of ladders.

Fiberglass? Not sure.

Don’t ask. Half of her images are small and the other half – I imagine, newer images, are big like the above! Being in a larger image I can tell that these pieces are all cable tied together. This piece is called tortoiseshell.

The White Woman. I wonder what the scale of this is!

About her own work she says, “by making use of structural properties of the material, I develop flat bicycle tubes and mounts to three-dimensional objects. The everyday objects get a surprising spatial presence of form and gesture, act strange and familiar at the same time and broaden the perspective of the viewer.”

Reminds me of Jordan Taler’s work.


Posted on November 8, 2012 - by

Yuriko Yamaguchi

There is a blog – I think based in France – which I’ve mentioned here before, Murmure Visible. The writer, Marie-Andree Cote and I share a similar taste in artists. I often find new artists on her site and see ones I’ve written about on hers as well. I have no idea if she’s ever been over here but it’s just so nice to know that someone else out there and I have a common eye! Yesterday, in the snow here in Boston, I was perusing her site and fell in love with Yuriko Yamaguchi’s wall art / sculptures.

I love that her pieces look like clouds and vary in their depth of color and yet are made of plastic tubing, cut to various lengths, glued together. It’s reminiscent of Tara Donovan’s straw pieces. Of her work, Yuriko says, “I like to engage in creating works in which the materials, time, and labor become life itself. I prefer not to perceive the end result before I start a work. I prefer taking the time to discover in the process a successful planned construction. My works continue to evolve and change until I arrive at a state of satisfaction.”

The above piece is only listed as being made of resin. I have no idea how resin acts as a material – I’d always thought of it as an external coating or maybe an adhesive in some cases but never as a standalone material.

More tubing – this time more regular and clear to see. It looks like maybe this is at its max depth perhaps 3 or 4 inches, which would be possible to have in one’s home unlike some other pieces I’ve looked at recently.

Resin and wire – I love that this is reminiscent of my yurt shape – it looks like an igloo or home of some kind but obviously made of featherweight, non-enclosed materials.

For Yuriko this seems like a divergent type of piece and actually reminds me of Mona Hatoum’s intestines piece that I wrote up when I started this blog.

This to me almost looks like a cluster of butterflies. One thing I really love is that Yuriko has a great website with lots of information and detail and she has obviously taken a great deal of care with how her pieces are lit, photographed, etc.

Again, another departure into cast bronze. She works in many different materials. She calls this piece, “Rapture” naturally. It looks like my Jonathan Adler vase!

A close up – I love ombre as well.


Posted on November 6, 2012 - by

Peter Crawley

In my day job I work with several music companies and one of their creative directors recently sent around the link to the website of Peter Crawley. Peter creates what he calls Stitched Illustrations and they often take on the form of musical visualizations.

One of my favorite parts of his work is that you don’t necessarily need to be a music fan to appreciate them. They are works of art, they are textile and weaving creations and more!

I love these. The colors he chooses are so vibrant and the stitching is so so exact. He apparently punctures the stock with a needle and then sews the thread through and ties it off. His puncture holes though are so small…I wonder if there’s another tool!

Look at those holes? They’re so exact and perfect. I also wonder if he freehands these works or if he uses a ruler. For some works below I imagine a ruler came into play!

The above is what a back side of one of his pieces looks like I think though I really can’t tell where the threads go in at those places where they just look like dots. It doesn’t make sense really how it all works unless those aren’t dots and instead they are just tiny tiny knots. I don’t know!

So beautiful and simple, streamlined.

The above is his visualization of the Fibonacci sequence in stitches. I like in these works that the color thread evolves throughout the piece, it isn’t just white or something else. Peter is able to create architectural detail and depth with color changes.

Beautiful color by an amazingly creative person. Based in the UK, Peter is an inspiration to people who are into detailed, repetitive work such as myself.


Posted on November 6, 2012 - by

Emily Miranda

I love items, art, products and more that are inspired by nature and Emily Miranda’s jewelry takes that love to a new height with literally putting nature on your wrist, finger, neck, etc.

That’s a bangle friends. Isn’t it glorious!? Shells, coral, leather, pearls, etc. What’s not to love?

Emily’s work is all made in the US, which is a nice touch especially on this, election day. She is based in Brooklyn.

A ring of oyster shells. I know I’ve looked at naturally-inspired jewelry here before but I really think that the scale and realism of these pieces set them apart.

Winter white? Emily, in her artist statement explains that she wanted to make art that people could touch and that could be passed down – I love the idea of wearable art! She brings to her work degrees from RISD and Hunter College.

Growing up in Boston we had a bathroom in our house made of a light colored marble. Around the edge of the tub were pieces of coral and sponges that we’d collected over the years during family trips to the Caribbean. For some reason the above cuff reminds me of that tub and its decor!

The above is my absolute favorite piece – a cuff made of barnacles and shells, spikey and awesome with a hunt of jewels on the rim. I love the color, that each barnacle looks like a little vessel – I love everything.


Posted on November 5, 2012 - by

Beili Liu

Beili Liu is an artist and a teacher. Today she is an associate professor of art at UT-Austin after coming to the US from Jilin, China and studying in Michigan and Tennessee. Her installation pieces use so many different materials from typical ones like thread and wool to Chinese spirit money.

The above is made from tightly coiled Chinese spirit money and is burned on one side, a traditional action as an offering to those in the afterlife. I love how large it is and how different it may look from one side to the next.

The above piece is made of the same materials but shows the ying/yang of the lively and burned spirit money at the same time.

I love how Liu shows various folklores through her works – the above are red thread coils that connect to one other coil. This symbolizes, “when children are born, invisible red threads connect them to the ones whom they are fated to be with.” These weightless installations en masse move around as a whole in the air.

I have no idea how she creates the coils – there must be something holding them together – glue? I have no idea but whatever it is – it’s time consuming!

The above and below piece, Toil, might be my favorite. The cones are made from silk organza, cut by burning incense and rolled into the cone shape before being affixed to the wall. I love it because it looks as though they could be underwater, coral structures but instead they’re weightless in a room. Again, I have no idea how Liu gets them to stay that way.

Don’t they look like seahorses or like little fish could swim right out of them?

This piece is primarily made of wool and looks a bit like sea kelp to me.

It also king of looks like ink falling in water like those new Mio flavor things I see on TV.


Posted on November 1, 2012 - by

Anna Gunnarsdottir

A lot of times I bookmark things and then forget I did it. I should just Pin them but sometimes I Pin things I haven’t written about yet and then get confused – I’m sure you’re sensing a trend here! Anna Gunnarsdottir ended up on a “Stickie” on my desktop but all I had was her name, I didn’t make any other notes. Well today I went back in and realized why I’d flagged her to myself last November!

She calls these pieces “shells” though they nearly look like seed pods to me. I like how several European and Scandinavian artists I’ve looked at recently stage their works – I highly doubt this one lives full time on the beach! I think this is made of felt, though it could be leather or something else too I suppose.

Anna is based in Iceland and has been studying textiles for many years – she has taken schooling in leather handstitching, leather modulation, feltmaking and more. She has even studied at Haystack here in New England!

I love these felt sculptures. They remind me a lot of Michelle Lougee who also makes amazing pod-like works.

These strike me somehow as particularly Icelandic – maybe just cause they look like snowy trees or mountains. What’s neat about Anna is that she uses Icelandic wool, which is much of the same wool I’m using for the Yurt. What seems weird though is that on the Etsy Felting Group’s Blogspot they talk about those fibers being short which is exactly the opposite of what we found when buying the wool for the yurt – the Icelandic hairs were the longest – almost too long in some cases. I digress.

This piece above is actually a lamp where the ball pieces appear more dense and opaque than the rest of it when lit from within.

She also makes larger room constructions as well and I love how random and yet regular they look! Many more pieces of her work can be seen at this awesome site I just came across Fresh Winds.


Posted on October 31, 2012 - by

SerpentSea

It’s been a while since I’ve written about a product here and when I came across Sophie Aschauer and SerpentSea I thought – this is perfect! Sophie creates mats and key fobs out of recycled nautical twine, which comes in a variety of colors.

When I first started the Yurt Project three years ago I used this very same kind of rope to create prototypes because it was stiff, but not too stiff, flexible, but not too flexible, fun colored and approachable. I’m sure these mats are incredible durable – Sophie encourages them to be used indoor or out – for “nautical flair.”

These mats have a great price point, around $250 and definitely would add some colorful flair to a house. Makes me which I had a place on the water – a dream that was smushed a bit this week by Hurricane Sandy.

I love this one – very patriotic. If we had any floor space to adorn I have a feeling I know one guy who would quickly snap it up.

I’m really into Fall colors these days – I bought a pair of jeans that red color today in honor of the season.

I love that she’s able to weave the pieces so that they’re regular, rhythmic and evolving in the color saturation. I also like that these are all from recycled rope – eco-friendly!


Posted on October 30, 2012 - by

Jennifer Forsberg

I have no recollection of how I stumbled upon Jennifer Forsberg but I’m going to assume it was through photos of her work on Pinterest. There are some incredible people curating great “boards” over there of amazing artists. Jennifer is a Swedish artist and, awesomely, her own website very clearly shows the evolution of her work and skill over time (though the appearance of polish could be a conscious choice).

I, of course, like her work as it looks like it could be coral. The above piece is from 2006 and the site gives no detail on medium but I’m going to go with ceramic of some kind. I could be way off.

I love that much of her work is monochromatic and I also like that you can clearly see her scale also change over time (it started smaller a decade ago and some of her installations now seem quite large).

Many of her works appear on these “pedestals” of sorts – this could be to elevate the works physically but also by way of emphasis. They also appear to bring the works up to the viewer’s level, which is a unique approach to incorporate into the work itself. The above, viewed on the floor, would be quite different. It also fuses very amorphous structures with more traditional spindles, which is a neat juxtaposition.

I feel like I’m looking at a punk rock Jabba the Hutt as well as a volcanic mass at the same time…

Her works are not only sculptures and installations – she has some 2D and wall hanging works. Much of her work, which I’m not showing, uses imagery of homes, paths connecting homes, coils connecting buildings, ladders, etc. I’m more drawn to her abstract works but I believe these are done by stippling, which I find cool.

This is one of the more recent works on her site from 2011. This piece was shown in the Netherlands and to me shows more physical polish.

Coil home – had to show one!

The above piece is from 2005 and is the basis for me saying the similar black one above has more polish. Not only is this literally not high shine but also even the base it’s on looks less well-done. These remind me of Louise Bourgeois.

Similar one to the first, but in black. I like the circular look too!


Posted on October 29, 2012 - by

Joelle Bellenot

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of a surprise trip to Switzerland! I went over for about a week and loved it – I didn’t know what I was in for but it was beautiful. We went to Yverdon-les-Bains, stayed in Geneva for a few days, went to Montreux to see the Castle of Chillon – it was a wonderful trip. One thing I noticed while there was that there were incredible artisan shops with terrific pieces in them. While I didn’t see Joelle Bellenot’s work while there – I did some digging when I got home and fell in love.

Joelle has worked in Geneva and is now in Vevey, which we also went through on our trip. She works in terracotta she says because it is both art and applied art, which is an interesting way to think about it.

While I’m not sure how great Google Translate is – it tells me that her use of blue is to create a relationship to the sea and her use of spherical, vessel shapes is indicative of “the parent” – take that for what it is.

I love non-solid vessels. I have no idea why.

This is one of the only pieces on her site that I found made of metal.I love how regular a grid it looks to be on.

The ones above and below are my favorites. They look like piles of grapes or beads. The colors are wonderful. Since 2005, Joelle has taught at The School of Applied Arts in Vevey – I wish we’d gotten off the train there!

Look at that color! It looks like a bowl made of peas!


Posted on October 24, 2012 - by

Stella Zhang

The weird and wonderful are often the most fun and Stella Zhang’s installation pieces of fabric and what look like giant knitting needles definitely fits into that category.

I like how she talks about using white for its flatness, delicacy, ethereal and quiet qualities.

I have no idea how those are suspended. They look like prickly butts to me. It’s funny to me that in her artist’s statement, Stella doesn’t directly reference the reproductive system or sexuality too much even but I encourage everyone to go explore the images on her pages and report back what they interpret. Stella repeatedly notes that she leaves her works open to individual interpretation.

Right?

I don’t think it’s an accident that the wood pieces she uses – like oversized toothpicks – are flesh colored but I might be reading too far into this. Born in Beijing and the child of a famous artist herself, Stella now works in the US (after years studying in Japan). Her training, interestingly, is in Chinese Brush Painting! I’m excited to see what she does next!


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