Artist: Laurie Lax

Laurie Lax is another artist that participated in the Cow House Studios residency. She also does video, performance, and installation work, but I really like these pencil drawings. I see connections to both Lauren (Blair) and Olivia's work in the top two pictures--plants and nature for both, and large scale drawing for Lauren.

The bottom three are from a series based on a video the artist took on the boat across to Ireland. There's just enough ambiguity that they don't really need to be depicting anything, but you can see the water droplet on the lens, and all of them have the 'horizon line' composition. (and as a sort of side note, I think the white frames add to the lightness of the pieces. had they been black, it wouldn't be bad... but it wouldn't be as good)

Artist: David Spriggs

David Spriggs uses acrylic paint on sheets of transparent film, then hangs them very precisely to create a layered, 3D image.

I didn't know about him (or Xia Xiaowan who uses a similar technique) when I did my paintillation project (below). The difference is that I chose my material to be deliberately semi-opaque, and I didn't secure the bottom of each sheet so that they would be able to flow a bit.

The securing vs. not securing is interesting, though. Sprigg's pieces--the forms he is actually painting--are not precise and methodical like his installation methods. However, because they are so precise, they sort of disappear anyway (and therefore don't impede the overall sense of movement and intangibility).

Artist: Hilary Wilder

I came across Hilary Wilder's work when I was looking for my residencies. She participated in the Cow House Studios artist residency in 2011, where she made these pieces (using acrylic on paper to imitate wood).

At first glance, there doesn't seem to be much of a connection to the work that I'm making, but I think there is a common theme of 'elevation of the ordinary'. She takes it in a direction that questions reality/authenticity (with an note of humor that isn't too overt). And of course they are beautifully executed and realistic (which they have to be to make the point).

Artist: Kyle Williams

The last post put me on the subject of abstracted landscapes, so then I thought of Kyle Williams (who was one of my art teachers in highschool, and I interned under him at CSMA the summer before last). One of the things I like about this series of oil paintings is the titling (White Arc with Tower, Coast, Falls with Colossal Arc, and Bay with Weather, from the top). I think making titles this way gives just enough information where you can look at the painting again and have it transform--suddenly the negative space in Coast is land meeting the white water, and you see the water tipping over the edge in Falls with Colossal Arc.

Below are two pairs of newer works.

And weirdly there is another connection to the previous post--that he recently did a residency in Iceland.

Artist: Andre Ermolaev

Andre Ermolaev is a Russian photographer, and these are photographs of rivers moving through volcanic ash in Iceland. You can tell what they are in some of the shots, but a lot of them end up being really abstract (with just a sense of water/fluid).

Artist: Motoi Yamamoto

Motoi Yamamoto creates vast and detailed installations with salt that depict systems and labyrinths. After his sister died from brain cancer, he started to work with salt because of its ties to death (and funeral customs) in Japan. With that in mind, the installations can take on meanings of decay and memory.

With or without knowledge of the ideas behind and installation like this, the size and detail just has an automatic impact. The physical presence of large-scale work is something I love.

Artist: Jacob Van Loon

Jacob Van Loon uses a combination of organic line and geometry in his work. In addition to his formal website, he also keeps a process blog (photos below).

I'm a sucker for detailed penwork, and abstraction. In some ways, I think I'm even more drawn to the ink sketches below than his finished pieces. They're just kind of weird doodle-like shapes and lines, but it has a deliberateness about it. Maybe they're like Rorschach tests--you can see what you want in them.