What to do when you'd happily pass the days as a large scale figure painter, but the market isn't aligned? One answer: Edward Vincent Wood III's hand shadow series, a playful exercise allowing him to paint extremely realistic hands with defiantly unrealistic shadows. His love of capturing the subtleties of flesh is evident in his large- and small- scale oil paintings. His painting practice extends 16 years, though he had natural drawing aptitude from childhood. Give him a friendly welcome him to his first year at the Ann Arbor Art Fair (the Original on East Washington, near Hill Auditorium, booth A146).
Just a few doors down, Kent Ambler returns with his fantastic woodblock prints. I still love the textural quality to his work -- he's always improvising with new tools to create different marks. I visited some favorites from last year like "Crow in the Snow" -- they still appeal. I asked for background on a newer dog portrait ("Mug Shot of a Serial Barker"): "Oh, yeah," he says, "that's a new dog I got in December. The local shelter had a photo from above, so he looked like a dachshund mix; but when I got there he was long-legged and actually a hound mix, but I took him anyway. He barks ALL the TIME, howls, too --" What's his name? Mr. Whipple Was that the name he came with? Nah, they were calling him 'Roman' or some such. (booth A154)
Elsewhere in the Original, Katie Musolff won a well deserved Award of Excellence, as her River Journal watercolors continue to fly off the booth walls
Verrusio
Connie Verrusio returned with her found and upcycled metal jewelry. I bought a surprisingly comfortable bangle fashioned from a carpenter's ruler, which I thought I could actually wear around Oyo. More accurately, it is a bracelet she can wear around me, as she pointed to it the moment she saw it and repeated the word "Off" until I surrendered. She is content to play with her sorting cups, with the bracelet bouncing around her arm. On North U.
Next week I'm taking a drawing basics workshop to freshen myself up a bit, so this afternoon I popped over to Hollander's with my art supplies print out. So gratifying! I have a specific need to purchase new art supplies, outside my normal card-making and print-pulling realms. The best part of that first-day-of-school feeling, with none of the worry about buses or rosters or crushes being too near or too far. Since today was a bring-the-baby-to-work day for Javier, I restrained myself from getting sucked into all the pretty, pretty papers and cards as my projects were all waiting for me at home.
from ArtAngels website
It was, however, impossible not to notice the Mark Hearld cards planted next to the register. More precisely, the paper birds hanging above the display. Hard to say which desire came first: the desire to own them or the desire to be making and selling such lively and well done forms. His tri-fold collaged cards of leaping rabbits (excuse me, hares, he's from the U.K.), snacking mice, and questing chickens all balance spontaneous freedom with the accuracy of a practiced hand.
No surprise, then, to learn that he started out at the Glasgow School of
Art, and has excelled at printmaking, collage, and fabric design.
You also learn from an intro video (above) that Hearld is a bit of a collector, positioning the buying, collecting and arranging of objects as "almost as satisfying as creating art"; one of his past exhibits ("The Art of Acquisition") explored this and made me wonder whether he and Maira Kalman have ever crossed paths. As he said, "I enjoy objects, so I have the feeling I want to design objects. People I admire have also designed objects...It's about enjoying the visual quality of things around you." I don't have much to add to this, except that it resonates strongly for me. And it brings me back to the curious interplay of appreciating, the desire to own, and the desire to make.
2013...UK publishers Art Angels, boast an impressive artist list for their product lines, including the likes of Holly Meade, Nick Wroblewski, Angie Lewin (whose work I just saw for the first time this week, via Pinterest)...I'll definitely be trolling through their directory again. You can check out fabrics made by Hearld and other artists, here... And in his words, Hearld's Work Book looks like a behind-the-scenes visual feast.
Elsewhere in the Original, Katie Musolff won a well deserved Award of Excellence, as her River Journal watercolors continue to fly off the booth walls
