had to have this..

i just bought this print from forestbound. it's an original vintage postcard w/ the sweetest sentiment printed on it. it warmed the wee cockles of my heart, total warm fuzzy inducing, i had to have it. there are only 2 left!

Judith Supine LADYBOY..

New Image Art opens Judith Supine's LADYBOY this coming Wednesday. From the press release:

Supine describes LADYBOY significance as “the marriage of opposites in one person — comparable to the technique of collage, combining seemingly disparate images to reveal something that wasn’t previously apparent”. An intimate encounter by the artist with a ladyboy in Bangkok served as the stimulus for this exhibition.

Images you see here are from Judith's works out on the street, along with a few pieces that will be in the show. Most of the outdoor pics are credited to Jaime Rojo from Brooklyn Street Art.

LADYBOY runs through May 13, 2011.

natural historie..

Jenny Vorwaller makes her jewelry line under the name Natural Historie. The name couldn't be more perfect. Jenny assembles metals, gorgeous stones, charms and coral and pairs them together, effortlessly, naturally. What I admire about her work is the simplistic chic and understated charm that comes with her pieces...all they really need is a white v-neck and a pair of jeans and the outfit is complete. Jenny is also a supper talented photographer see more of her work here.

Lauren DiCioccio..

In May I checked out the San Francisco Art Fair, it was an incredible schmorgisborg of what San Francisco has to offer in the department of art and errr, a few Maseratis. I was in the middle of getting situated after moving, so I never posted on the overall fair but I did take some pics that I do want to share...may not be timely, but still relevant.

Jack Fischer of Jack Fischer Gallery introduced me to the meticulous weaved and sewing sculptures of Lauren DiCioccio. Her combination of cultural commentary and old school craft had me at hello. I recently corresponded with Lauren and we'll see more of her newer work towards the end of the summer...but until then I thought I'd share these photos of her work at the fair. There were so many pieces I was in awe with...

kyle ranson at receiver..

Holy shit. That's pretty much all I can say about Kyle Ranson's new work, with out blathering on like a nincompoop. It's that amazing, I'm speechless. Joyous Marriage opens tonight at Receiver Gallery. I'm completely blown away by the images on Receiver's site. Check it for yourself. Blurb from the press release:

Drawing inspiration from William Blake’s literary work, “The Marriageof Heaven and Hell” and its religious undertones, Ranson brings unionto these concepts of ‘good’ and ‘evil’, bringing imagery of both heavenand hell into the confined space of the gallery. The artist’s intenselyintricate works embrace the dualities of man and attempt to embrace thebeast within, in order to live peacefully in its presence.Kyle did a Q&A for the blog about a year ago...you can read it here.

q a with saelee oh..

whenever i sit down to write to you about my latest q&a, my dear friends, all i really want to do is gush. each week i just want to get all shouty and tell you how excited i am! but i can't do that every q&a, not only does it smack of pollyannaism, it's just kind of boring. it's hard to keep it low though when you have kanye thumpin in the background as well... but peeps, this week i am excited to post my q&q w/ saelee oh!

i've loved saelee's work for years now. her delicate papercuts and fairytale like paintings always make me feel warm and happy. saelee's aesthetic has a sensibility that as a girl of the craft and diy movement i get, intuitively as well as visually. of the many things i admire about saelee's work is her ability to have a sweet, feminine aesthetic yet still remain strong in appearance. this sort of attitude comes over loud and clear in the following q&a. saelee addresses the use of craft, her take on modern femininity and the coveted name "pearl" in the oh household among other topics. i hope you enjoy this q&a as much as i did!

p.s. saelee's solo show tangled tales opened at tinlark gallery in la on may 17th and goes through june 14th. check out tinlark's website for more info and opening photos!

your work has a dream like quality to me, almost fairy tale-esque. can you tell us a little bit about your inspirations?

i like the idea of being able to make tangible dreams. lately l’ve beenfinding inspiration in: romanticism, idealism, headaches andheartaches, reading everything: fiction, non-fiction, memoirs andbiographies, libraries, puns, metaphors, traveling to places I’ve neverbeen before, discoveries of new species, the design of nature and howeverything is interconnected, relationships, decorative arts, folk art,high-brow art, gut feelings, past memories, nostalgia, weather,vagabonds and wanderers.

is there a specific narrative you return to again and again w/in your work?i guess you could say that all my artwork together makes up some kind of loose narrative. i create settings and characters.

did you grow up around traditional crafts?

my dad used to be a carpenter and has always worked with wood evenafter he quit his hard wood floor business. growing up and seeing himmake things made me want to make things too. he made a playhouse inthe backyard, a rocking horse for me, has built multiple additions tothe house and is a master re-modeler. he still helps me withconstructing a lot of my projects. he has the skills to be able tobuild something even better than noah’s ark. we’re a good fatherdaughter team. my mom is crafty too. she says that my sistersand i got our artistic talent from her but, she doesn’t really make anything. i know what she means though. i’m nothing without my family.

paper cutting is incorporated in your work, when did you first get into it?

i found a whole bunch of brown wax paper bags in the women’s bathroomstall trashcan. they’re meant for tossing tampons. i really liked thecolor and translucency of the bags, so i grabbed a bunch and wanted tomake something to go inside of it. paper cut outs would let the lightshow through in some parts and i started exploring drawing with an x-acto knife and cutting away positive and negative space.

over time, i’ve made ones that are over 4 feet wide all cut from a single sheet ofpaper. i’ve made some with slight dimensions too so that the shadows arepart of the piece. i think about lace and delicacy and fragility. ilike the flatness of paper and all of its subtle textures andproperties. i love paper. i want to make a paper burrito and eat iteveryday. i love the different smells of paper too. the process ofpaper cutting is also more of a meditative exercise for me thanpainting or drawing with graphite or ink.

do you sew or knit or have any other craftiness?

i like to sew for fun and i just taught myself. i wish i was better. learning how to make clothes from a pattern (and/or...finding thebravery to pull off wearing something quirky that I made...) is on mylong term list of things to do. it’s harder for me to make stuff where i have to follow a specific steps and do everything in order. i reallyadmire people that can make their own clothes. maybe one day i’ll makea cocktail dress with a matching set of place mats.

i learned how toknit but i was horrible at it and it stressed me out. i made a fewlumpy scarves. i want to try to learn how to crochet, whittle wood andneedle felt. i used to make handmade paper. oh, and i like to dryflowers and leaves in the microwave. does that count as crafty?

who are some of your favorite artists that implement traditional crafts in their work?

kara walker is the obvious person that comes to mind when it comes topaper cutting. nikki mcclure also pretty much exclusively works withpaper cutting i think. lately, i’ve been admiring ceramics. i always goto the american folk art museum when I visit NY. Everything there isreally inspiring.

who are other artists you admire?

there’s way too many to name and i admire different, contradictingthings about different people and/or their work. there’s all of myclose friends...and then there’s people i've never met, both alive andpassed away. i guess to give a little less of a cop out answer, i’llsay that i always admire people whose work doesn’t easily fit into onecategory.

you've said that your artwork explores modern femininity. can you tell us what that means to you?

women are expected to be and also naturally so many paradoxical thingsat once. thanks to the feminist movement, we have a lot more freedom,independence and many things to be grateful for but, there’s still moreroom for progression and i want to help contribute. i don’t want tosuppress my feminine instincts in order to be accepted as a seriousartist. to be able to make artwork with an obviously feminine aestheticis very empowering to me and all women. i don’t think girly-nessshould be considered to be weak or less of anything in any way. thingscan be delicate but still strong.

water is an ever appearing subject in your work...when you were a girl did you believe in mermaids?

of course. i believed in a lot of things when i was younger. i rememberlooking out into foggy oceans and imagining the thrill of being thefirst person to spot a mermaid in the distance. my sisters, cousins andI would play in the pool and pretend to be mermaids. we’d swim with ourankles crossed and let our hair float around in black curls around ourheads, underwater. we’d fight over who got dibs on the name “pearl” andwe’d reenact that scene in disney’s the little mermaid where arielrises above a rock and water splashes behind her like giant angelwings. we tried to perfect that splash. i think we just wanted to feelpretty.

you've done a little bit of animation, any thing else like that in the future?

yes! i’m very excited about an upcoming stop motion animation projectwith stephanie hutinof the echo park animation laboratory. i’m theirfirst official artist in residency and the plan is to use real 16 mmfilm and spend a full month or two to make a minute or so ofmagical-ness. the process will be very experimental, open ended and loose and sowe’ll see what ends up as the result. doing anything for the first timeis always the most exciting. i can tell already that stephanie is okwith not having any concrete plans or strict guidelines and I’m lovingthat freedom.

are there any other mediums you are exploring?

i would love to be working on a book. i think that sort of counts as adifferent medium. and ceramics, which i mentioned earlier. i also wantto get back into printmaking and i always admire people who recycle inclever ways. i guess i’m most consistently drawn to mediums where itlooks obvious that the human hand was there but, i want to alwaysembrace new technology and be open to trying new things.

you were recently out of the country, spending two months in buenos aires, how has that come to influence your latest work?

buenos aires is the best! i’d highly recommend it to anyone curiousabout visiting. i wish i was still there right now. i really needed toget away by myself to clear my head for a while and get some space andperspective and so my trip was supposed to be healing and growing time. i think anyplace on the globe where i was an obvious outsider wouldhave been just as influential to the work i was making while i wasthere.

since i freelance, i can work from anywhere theoretically, so whynot go live someplace i’ve never been to before? everything sort offilters slowly when it comes to making drawings and paintings though. the work made during that trip was more about my state of mind at thetime rather than trying to document all the typical tourist attractionsof buenos aires like tango, dulce de leche and steak. but, i have afondness for argentina now and appreciate many things about theirculture which i hope to incorporate into my own lifestyle and thus myfuture work.

can you tell us about your show tangled tales at tinlark?

it’s my third solo show and a new body of work with themes oftransitions, travel, love, vagueness and confusion. it’s all works onpaper, mostly drawing based. it had both the largest drawing/paintingI’ve ever done in my life (60 x 105 inches) and the largest sculpturethat I’ve ever made too (5 feet 4 inch wide wooden suitcase dioramathat my dad helped me build... my height is 5’4”.) it’s up from May17th – June 14th 2008. please come see it!

your shop lemonade maid is currently closed & reopening this month. can you tell us about some of the products we'll see?

jill bliss and i are already working on our fourth collaborativecalendar for 2009 to be released at the end of this year! i’ll alsohave some new prints and products. it’s been a while since i’veproduced those sorts of things. i run the shop as a side project sothings aren’t set on a strict seasonal schedule.

what else is coming up for you this year?

i’m trying to decide when and where i want to settle down. actually, idon’t ever want to settle down. there’s forecasts for a lot more travelplans so... all of my projects are designed around being portable andeasily transportable. that’s why a book project would be perfect for meright now. i want to stop time and never grow old.

of sleep and love

You know those mornings when you are so tired you don’t think you’ll be able to get out of bed?Yesterday was one of those for me.You know what helps in that situation?Bringing your boys in bed with you (and some books too, of course).I love them so much my heart hurts.

HUSH Twin at New Image Art.

Hush "Twin" Opening at New Image Art from G7D on Vimeo.

UK based artist HUSH returns to LA with his show Twin opening this weekend at New Image Art. Continuing to explore graffiti, tagging and street art within this latest group HUSH adds an element of duality - examining and playing with the idea of polarity.

Images courtesy of New Image Art/Sonja Teri