WEATHERED WALLS

Travel Stomach, mixed media , by Clay Ketter.


If only walls could talk ...... Well, some of them do, especially when artists capture the essence of these beautiful old walls, transforming something so mundane into works of art.


Photograph by Clay Ketter


Photograph by Clay Ketter


Gretchen Papka was captivated by the weathered walls she discovered during her travels in Italy.


Select Metal No.III. Mixed media, photo, encaustics, oils on panel. Gretchen Papka

"My work is inspired by bold architecture, textured walls, utilitarian objects and beauty. Each of these is revealed and celebrated in layers of beeswax, resin and color while subtle details are mysteriously hidden. " - Gretchen Papka

Select Metal No 6. Mixed media - photo, encaustics, oils on panel. Gretchen Papka

Wallwork - No I. Encaustic, paper, oil pigments with found materials on wood panel. Gretchen Papka.

Laurie Ann Pearsall "collects images, objects and stories that relate to change over time, more specifically, that relate to how people create a home, both metaphorically and figuratively speaking. My work depicts an intuitive interaction between these collections and my state of mind and spirit at a given moment.I begin with a gathering of concrete visual references: photographs of crumbling or dismantled homes, rusted remnants of cast-off objects from construction sites; flattened boxes and containers. These things are the imprint of a vacated dwelling, the debris of daily living. Like pieces of evidence whispering, “ I was here”, I use these images and materials as my foundation to create responses to my own search for home."

Reforms III. Mixed Media by Laurie Ann Pearsall

The piece above needs to be seen enlarged to appreciate it. Go to Lauries website here. 

Photograph by Margaret Ryall

Margaret Ryall has been photographing the layers of history in torn wallpaper since 2006. Her Remnants series formed a solo show last May and can be seen here.

"I think the best thing about my wallpaper photos is the natural layers that are created by tearing back to the final layer of board. It is so much like looking back through time."

Photo by Miquel Bohigas Costabella

On Flickr I found the most wonderful photographs of walls with a history. Those by Miquel Bohigas Costabella are stunning.

Scarred, scratched, spattered, speckled and stained. Peeling, flaking, gouged, crumbling and collapsing.

Miquel Bohigas Costabella

Miquel Bohigas Costabella

There are 16,000 Flickr Groups with walls in the title. Scrawls on Walls, Talking to a Brick Wall, Peeled and Patched Walls, Paper Wall, Up against a Wall, Dirty Walls, Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Plants on Walls. A feast for the eyes of the wall obsessed. It's worth visiting Pixmaniaque's Flickr sets, here,

PATTERNS AND RYTHMS OF NATURE

Particles of Light, etching by Fiona Watson

"It is the child that sees the primordial secret in Nature and it is the child of ourselves we return to. The child within us is simple and daring enough to live the Secret." - Lao-Tzu

Fiona Watson is certainly living the Secret. She gathers nature's treasures and creates still life compositions which she photographs. These compositions are the most beautiful zen-like works of art.

In Fiona's artists statement she says, "The patterns, rythms, forms and colours of nature in a microscopic and macroscopic sense have always fascinated me. This initially led to studying Biological Sciences at Leicester University. After several years of working for various medical journals, I eventually studied printmaking at the Glasgow Print Studio - etching copper and steel plates with acids turned out to be the perfect blend of science and art. As a complete contrast and foil to messy printmaking, I also work extensively in digital printmaking."

Fiona sums up her journey to becoming an artist with a quote from Ben Okri. “We plan our lives according to a dream that came to us in our childhood, and we find that life alters our plans. And yet, at the end, from a rare height, we also see that our dream was our fate. It's just that providence had other ideas as to how we would get there. Destiny plans a different route, or turns the dream around, as if it were a riddle, and fulfills the dream in ways we couldn't have expected.”

See Fiona's work here, here and here.

Take a look at the "Playing with the Pieces" series. Fiona writes that they are "sort of visual exercises .... like piano scales ... before I start work."

Last but not least, feast your eyes on the stunning "Unwritten Book" series. Someone ought to write a poem about it.

NOOKS AND CRANNIES

Untitled (detail ) , fabric, wood, rust, 132 x 288 x 8 inches by Leonardo Drew

Discovering the imposing work of Leonardo Drew was a turning point for me. I couldn't believe what I was seeing .....

Huge wall mounted tableaux of stacked boxes, nooks and crannies stuffed with found objects ...... rusted debris, papers, fabric, discarded wood and domestic and industrial trash.


Installation by Leonardo Drew

In a way Leonardo Drew gave me permission to continue collecting junk. Afterall, collecting and making art can go hand in hand. I had already started creating my niche carvings but I was finicky about the objects I chose to put in them..... and paying through the snout for these objects too, I might add. Since discovering Leonardo's work the more junkier junk is creeping into my art and I do like it!


Detail of one of my niche carvings.

"To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk." - Thomas Edison


Assemblages by Romanowski

Swiss-born artist, Romanowski certainly knows how to fill his assemblage boxes with prime found objects. I imagine he spends many a blissful hour hunting the streets of San Francisco or there abouts. His work can be seen at Fabric8 Gallery, San Francisco. Click here and scroll to the bottom to see the rest of Roman's work on this exhibition. 


Turntable, assemblage by Romanowski

There are a few more nooks and crannies to explore at Musing Relics where Lynne Parks features her work......


Assemblage by Lynne Parks


"I am drawn to the discarded, forgotten, and obsolete which are by no means inert. I collect fragments found in the marginal spaces of alleys and abandoned buildings, trash heaps and flea market bins."


"As a child, I explored the unfamiliar and forgotten objects cluttered in my parents' drawers. Many afternoon hours were spent guessing at their practical usage, often as not imagining unlikely ones and imbuing them with life. The fountain pen nibs, defunct cigarette lighters, sewing machine parts and broken jewelry were my "plastic animals." My father's horological tools were especially evocative, later I was entranced with his beautiful landscape designs. My brother Bob and I read mythology together and I appropriated the notion of composite beasts." - Lynne Parks


I love Lynnes statement. It reminds me of my own childhood when squirreling found objects took up most of my day. The assemblage (below) by Kecia looks much like the boxes of treasures I kept in my "museum".....hoping that one day Gerald Durrell would stop by and be very impressed.

Typesetting Nature Box by Kecia Frazer Deveney at Lemoncholy

"We are left with objects that have a hollowness that we can fill with our own wonder and fantasy." - Thomas Moore

Shadow Box, lithograph by Clayton Thiel

Last but not least, little nooks with handmade treasures within.


White Pebble, (Ceramic) by Novie Trump

The Waiting by Novie Trump.

HANDWRITING, TEXT AND TYPE

Collage by Daily Poetics on Flickr

There are many things that interest me at the moment. I feel a bit like a bee darting from flower to flower, searching and assimilating. Not that I wish to include these ideas in my own art at this stage or even try new mediums ..... I'm just enjoying the mulling over and wallowing in all the amazing art that I'm finding, both in books and on the internet. At the moment I'm drawn to art incorporating handwriting, calligraphy, lettering, text and type.



Collage by Daily Poetics on Flickr


Daily Poetics has created the most wonderful series of "personal collages, compositions or gatherings, driven by inspirations or wonder and expressed in the spirit of meditation or play ..."


There must be over 200 of them to look at here.

Beautifull photographs by Giovanni Sesia, here.

Ophelia by Dolan Geiman, here.

Silence by John McQueen (spruce bark, cord and plastic rivets), at Jane Sauer Gallery

Paper Cut Letters by Annie Vought, here.

My Ethiopia by Wosene Kosrof

In the paintings of Wosene Kosrof, "the calligraphic forms of Amharic are broken apart, abstracted, and reconfigured to create a new visual language that draws upon the artist's Ethiopian heritage while incorporating his experiences as an expatriate living in the United States."

Wood-type, photograph by Susan Lomuto

Susan Lomuto is the creator of the excellent blog, Daily Art Muse.

Detail from Tabula Rasa , a book covered in porcelain clay and wax, by Jessica Drenk.

Ceramics by Connie Norman

If you enjoy art incorporating script, calligraphy etc, you will love tackad a blog overflowing with art and links.

CONTEMPORARY PALIMPSEST

Grass Roots by Jose Parla

Jose Parla refers to his work as "a contemporary palimpsest". Looking into the detail photograph below you can see the layer upon layer of flowing calligraphy like markings.... contemporary palimpsest indeed.

Between the earthly and the divine

(Detail) Between the earthly and the divine.

"My work is inspired by the anonymous art found in the streets. The art is often in the form of calligraphy or the actions of torn or stripped posters."

"The inscriptions in my work are used as a form of drawing, and to maintain a record of my observations. In my travels I have encountered a similar dialogue that takes place in most cities. I find compositions on surfaces of deteriorated walls, and remnants of construction markings. In my paintings I create layers and textures representing the age of memories collected through different periods of my life. Evidence is left on walls by fleeting creators both aware of their message, and oblivious to what I may find in their signs. Still, they remain mostly unidentified. When working on my paintings I imagine that different people are making choices to write, paint or destroy the surfaces."

Brothers-back-2-back

"The process in my work is similar to that of the city. The work builds its foundation through memory. In order to create a good painting you must put a lot of history in the piece. With my work the details are within the layers. Each layer tells its own story. I do everything from collage, to using charcoal, oil and acrylic paints, pens, markers, aerosol, etc. I try to step away from myself and imagine the perspective of other people, the look and feel of other environments rather than just my own." - from an interesting interview on Fecal Face Dot Com

I love this photograph of the artist in his studio. See Jose's website here .