I want to go there. But I can’t. None of us can. Nope, American artist (Utah based) Laura Hendricks photographs all sorts of lovely locations, and then combines them, creating dreamy collaged together places that don’t exist anywhere else except her portfolio. Here’s why she does what she does…

… [Laura] CAPTURES THE INTERESTING ELEMENTS OF NATURE (MOST OFTEN SKIES AND LANDSCAPES) FROM TWO DIFFERENT LOCATIONS AND COMBINES THEM TO CREATE ONE IMAGE. THE END RESULT IS OFTEN OTHER-WORLDLY BUT ALMOST ALWAYS BELIEVABLE. THESE PHOTO COMBINATIONS ARE MEANT TO REMIND PEOPLE HOW THEY FEEL, INSTEAD OF WHAT THEY SEE, WHEN WITNESSING SPECTACULAR, NATURAL LANDSCAPES AND SCENES. 

Well, consider me reminded! Love.

Hey there, Campers! Welcome to week 2 of 15 at AFYE Summer Camp… but before we dive in, I want to show you just a handful of images created by some of you for last week’s art project (hashtagged #AFYEcamp). They were all so good! This was an Instagram-a-Day project, with an assigned prompt for each day. There were HUNDREDS of images taken because, well, you guys are amazing. Here are just a few from each prompt (photo credits at the bottom of this post) :

Day One : Vintage

Day Two : Wood

Day Three : Make

Day Four : Blue

Day Five : Boat

Day Six : Nature

Day Seven : Snacks

Love, love, love (and even a little nod to Twin Peaks). If you wanna see what everybody’s doing, or contribute your own work, just use the hashtag #AFYEcamp. Alright, time for today’s episode:

Art Project No.2 

Collaboration-Nation : “Ruining” perfect white paper can be terrifying… so let someone else do it! Ask a friend or family member to make the first mark (their color and medium of choice) on a white page or on that perfect canvas you’ve been avoiding, and then you take it from there! Work around their mark, over it, whatever. ps. I also suggested having more than one piece (and maybe more than one friend making marks) on the go. This idea is thanks to the wonderful advice from this week’s featured artist…

Artist Example: 

Ah yes, Lola Donoghue. She loves working on BWCs (Big White Canvases) which, quite frankly, seems like a nightmare to me. Here is some of Lola’s work, along with a few studio shots so you can see how many big canvases she manages to fit into her lovely studio in the Irish countryside:

Look at all of those glorious happy accidents and creative potholes!

And finally, I promised these images too. Marcel Duchamp as his alter-ego, ‘Rrose’, photographed by Man Ray:

You’re welcome.

Another week of camp done, another s’moreo eaten! Thank you to Saatchi Art for supporting summer camp, and thanks so much to you for listening! AFYE camp continues next weekend… but until then, be sure to hashtag your ‘first mark made by another’ on Instagram with #AFYEcamp. Have fun, and embrace those happy accidents!

Other links:

1. Your Inner Critic Is A Big Jerk, by me
2. Secret Lives of Great Artists, by Elizabeth Lunday
3. Lola Donoghue on AFYE : Episode 50

*Photo credits from Project No.1, in the order they appear above:

Vintage: 1. @septemberwren  2. @caballo_rosa  3. @vanittasr  //  Wood: 1. @catseatdogsmakes  2. @alabamathirteen  3. @cindymcd  //  Make: 1. @celkovich  2. @thejealouscurator  3. @flyonthewall602  //  Blue: 1. @juliehamiltoncreative  2. @mariko_koda  3. @stephillo  //  Boat: 1. @bababeloco  2. @taytayshenaynay  3. @meganwoodardjohnsonart  //  Nature: 1. @neotimes  2. @emilyezarse  3. @tara.axford  //  Snacks: 1. @vanittasr  2. @modernfibre  3. @heathersundquist

Hello Campers! Welcome to day 1 of 15 at AFYE Summer Camp! Here are the ins and outs from this first episode:

Art Project No.1 

Instagram-a-Day:  Take one photo each day, every day for the next week … with a camp theme of course! This way there is a starting place, and no excuse not to do it! I’m even going to give you the theme for each day:

Saturday // Vintage  

Sunday // Wood  

Monday // Make  

Tuesday // Blue  

Wednesday // Boat  

Thursday // Nature  

Friday // Snacks

I can’t wait to see what these prompts conjure up for everyone! If you want to share your work along the way {I’m going to}, just use #AFYEcamp 

Artist Examples: 

As promised, images and links for the three artists I mentioned as inspirational examples of self-directed, daily creative assignments. First up, Lisa Congdon and her “Collection A Day” project from 2010:

… and of course a few pieces from Lisa’s 2016 “Experiments in Blue” weekly project:

And, if you’d like to do Lisa’s exercise from Creative Block this week too, please do:

“Choose one thing you love to draw or paint (and feel comfortable drawing or painting) already (an animal, object, a person, whatever). For 30 days, draw or paint that thing 30 different ways, a different way every day. You can use different mediums, expressions, positions, colors, whatever. Each day, push yourself to do something much different than the day before, but keep the thing the same. See how keeping one element constant (in this case, the “thing” you love to draw or paint), can allow you to break out creatively in other ways.” ~ Lisa Congdon, 2014

So fun! Speaking of which… the absolutely gorgeous results of daily walks taken by Australian artist Leonie Barton:

And finally, the obsessive compulsive {and hilarious} daily drawings of Kate Bingaman-Burt:

Pop a toasted marshmallow in my mouth, and that’s that! Thanks so much to Saatchi Art for supporting the first day of summer camp, and thanks so much to you for listening! AFYE camp continues next weekend.

Other links:

1. Creative Block, by me
2. Secret Lives of Great Artists, by Elizabeth Lunday
3. Lisa Congdon on AFYE : Episode 10 / Episode 77
4. Kate Bingaman-Burt on AFYE : Episode 22
5. NOTE: I said Georgia O’Keefe’s “ex-husband” – I’m not sure they were actually divorced?

Woven portraits fresh off the cutting table! This is some recent work by Brooklyn based artist David Samuel Stern. I’ve written about him two other times... let’s just say it’s really hard not to share what he’s been up to. How does he do it? Well, this time I’ve got a few ‘behind the scenes’ photos, from start to finish, to share with you:

Sigh. Gorgeous… and I cannot even imagine having patience like David. Mind boggling.

*Process photos by David Gonsier

What? Yep, that’s exactly what I thought when I saw this work by Canadian-born, Brooklyn-based artist Amanda Marchand. The answer is: photographs, and a dreamy series titled “because the sky”. Sigh… pink skies and black suns, a perfect combination. Happy Tuesday.

Silkscreen, paper collage and paint on paper. Gah!!! These gorgeous, color-saturated, flower-filled pieces are the work of Canadian artist Emily Filler. They’re already beautiful, but when you hear the story behind them, they’re even more lovely:

“The images photographs of flowers from my father’s garden that I arranged in bouquets from his vase collection.  My father is a very serious gardener and photographer, and being surrounded by flowers had a big impact on me growing up.”

Yes, clearly! {Emily must have one very proud Papa}. Happy first day of spring to my friends in the Northern Hemisphere… here’s to more flowers, less snow!

“Fragmenta” is, one of many, cut photography series by Rome based artist Micaela Lattanzio. Photographs shattered into perfect hexagons and wavy strips, then reassembled {sort of} using zillions of tiny pins. So. Beautiful. Sigh… she might have to put my heart back together this way too. 

{Thanks to Mariana Oppel for pointing me to Micaela’s work}

An Italian artist in London, who I met at a Belgian pub in Ireland… and I’m calling her from Canada. Yeah. Naomi Vona creates whimsical, wonderful work using found photos, stickers, tape, paint … a lot of which is neon. See? Right up my alley! You can listen under that lovely lady surrounded in tape {which I happen to own!}, or you can subscribe on iTunes.

First up, images covered in pattern:

Obviously it wasn’t a shock to find out that as a kid she covered all of her books and binders with dots and lines and pattern! How fantastic is it that she still does that!?

Next, there was a lot of talk about dots and tape, and for good reason:

Gah! I love them all! Now, one of the main reasons I love doing this podcast – getting all of the behind the scenes info, and images. Here is the piece just above, in progress on her cutting mat {along with a few piles of found images}:

They are all so precious … which is why I admire her even more for taking on this “fearless act” again and again and again!

Ok. Her masks! I am sooooo happy I asked her, ‘why all the masks?’:

Delicate, mysterious, beautiful. Speaking of which:

There she is! Naomi in her very own paper mask. Dreamy. Thank you so much to Naomi for chatting with me; Thanks to Saatchi Art for supporting this episode; and as always, thank you for listening! There will be more art for your ear next weekend.

ps. Tokyo galleries… scoop her! Amazing art for your gallery, and her dream comes true – win win!

Other links:

1. Naomi’s Etsy Shop
2. Naomi on Saatchi Art
3. Naomi on Instagram

Fake birds camouflaging themselves perfectly in a sea of vintage wallpaper. Gorgeous, and very cleverly titled…  “Flora and Fauxna“. So good. This is the latest series by American artist, and photography professor, Patty Carroll. Here is part of her statement about this work:

“Since the 1900’s “bird” has been used as slang to refer to women, often materially obsessed yet physically beautiful women … In their natural habitat, birds camouflage themselves in their tree homes, they sing, but remain invisible as they go about their business of feeding, fending off predators and teaching their young. Their camouflage is survival. In these still-life photographs, colorful fabric, artificial flowers and other household baubles create a sumptuous, patterned, and ornate world. This world mirrors the home life of birds in nature while symbolizing the nesting instincts of women whose homes are a sanctuary of pride and obsession.”

Happy Friday.

Oh. My. If I could figure out how to plant a double exposure garden, I would totally do it. These beautiful botanical photographs are the work of South Africa based artist Miranda Crooks. Her portfolio has all sorts of work in it, including these wonderfully weird watercolors of – you guessed it – plants, but it was this series of double exposure plant life that took my breath away.