For months, I’ve had people asking me to invite this talented woman onto the podcast… and the only reason I hesitated? I knew she’d just had a baby and thought it best to leave her alone for a little while! Well, her baby is now eight months old, and I couldn’t wait any longer. Today I’m talking to California based artist Elise Morris. Her ethereal, abstract botanicals make me stop and breathe. Deeply. I’ve always imagined Elise lying in the grass, under a sun-dappled tree with the California breeze dancing through the leaves… I guess we’re going to find out if that’s how she works. Or not! You can listen right up there under those dreamy petals and leaves, or you can subscribe on iTunes.

First, her work on paper, because… well, just look at it! Graphite and acrylic {that I totally thought was watercolor… right!?}:

Sigh. Stunning.

Equally as stunning, Elise’s gorgeous paintings on canvas:

I’d love to see those up close ‘n personal … that’s why I included the closeups, so we could all pretend that we’re right in front of them.

We talked a lot about her process – from photographs of leaves and magnolia petals, to blind contour drawings, to loose color blocking – beautiful! My favorite part? That there’s no overthinking… she “just goes”. Quite appropriate that such organic subject matter is created in such an organic way, don’t ya think? Here are a few of her studio/in-progress photos, found on her lovely Instagram feed:

I want to go to there. Those colors, the scale of her work, that big lovely space. Sigh… again.

Alright, so in the not-so-speedy speed round I asked about her favorite color. Any guesses?

Yep, it was a tie between pink and green. Clearly.

I can’t believe I almost forgot to bring this up!? I’ve just “hung” the second show at my new “Fancy Schmancy” online gallery. The show is titled “Au Naturel”, so obviously I asked Elise to create a brand new original piece specifically for this show, and thankfully she said yes! I love it so much… so much in fact, that I used it as the main image for the show:

I mean, come on! Look at those pencil lines, and my goodness, I had no idea acrylic paint could do that! It’s 22″h x 24″w on paper, and is titled “Calling Dawn I.” There is only one, so go buy it right now!

And finally, Elise is the mama of two boys – eight years old, and eight months old. Those lucky boys get to have their mom’s work in the nursery, living room, everywhere:

Aw! I had to include a shot of Elise in her studio with her bebe … those cheeks! Thank you so much to Elise for using an hour of her precious studio time to talk to 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.

Other links:

1. Bunnie Reiss episode
2. “The Studio Work” – Elise’s blog
3. “Color Play” – Upcoming show at Town of Danville Gallery
4. Upcoming show at Ann Connelly Fine Art, Baton Rouge
5. Sorry, no Peace Corps mural photos – you’ll just have to imagine!

ps. I’ll be in LA next week doing all sorts of book events. One of those events is an art show at Saatchi Art in Santa Monica, Thursday February 17th. I’ll be there from 5-6pm for a little meet & greet, and if you have any of my books, bring them and I’ll have a pen ready for signin’! {more info here}  I’ll also be at Skylight Books, with Martha Rich, doing a talk/signing on Saturday Feb 18th from 5-6pm.

Today we’re taking a little trip into the woods, to a magical place called “Yawnder”. I’m talking to Canadian drawist {that’s an artist who draws}, Jay Dart. You can listen right up there under that bearded log driver, or you can subscribe on iTunes.

I’ve been a fan of Jay’s work for years, but I’m embarrassed to say it wasn’t until his most recent show,  “Greetings From Yawnder”, that I finally began to understand his work, and more importantly, the secret meaning behind it.  The “Field Guide to Yawnder”, a lovely little book that he created for the show, is to thank for this. It’s insightful, insanely detailed, and a true field guide complete with maps, glossaries, definitions and introductions to characters that I want to be friends with… like Jiggs and his trusty dog Floyd, for example. Jiggs is Jay’s muse/alter-ego who travels Yawnder searching for creative inspiration:

I want to go to there. Geist trees growing ideas, “Beyawnder” where you’re free to be as creative as possible, and a land called “The Unknowns” … nobody knows what happens there, obviously. This is the part in the podcast when I made Jay read his own poetry. I love this, especially the bit about the referers:

Hilarious and so smart! If you have no idea what this is about, then you haven’t listened to the episode yet. What are you waiting for!?

Next, this is the self-published book, “Wanderer of Yawnder”, that Jay was telling me about. I have a copy and it’s so lovely, magical, and beautifully made:

Note the author: writing credit to Jiggs! LOVE. Speaking of love… magical mystery beards, and branch libraries:

So simple. So Magical. That last framed piece is the branch library that Jay made for my Land of Nod collection.

Oh, the geist trees. The entire idea behind these rainbow-hued beauties is absolutely brilliant:

Sigh. Wouldn’t you love to spend an afternoon in Jay’s mind?

Aaaaand here we are… we’ve arrived in “Beyawnder”. This wonderful, creatively-carefree place is a collaboration between Jay and his little boy. One of them is in charge of scribbles, the other takes care of the wanderers:

Yep, anything is possible in this wonderful little corner of the map.

Now, we thought we were finished and then I realized I forgot to ask about these fabulous album covers that Jay designed for his friend, and talented Canadian musician, Donovan Woods:

Ah! I love all of them, but that geist tree cut-away?! So, so good.

And finally, in case you want to see his ginger beard, a photo of Jay mid-install at Galerie Youn in Montreal {they were the first gallery to represent his work, and he’s forever grateful.}

I think I see a bit of Jiggs in that photo of Jay, can’t you? Thank you so much to Jay for taking us to Yawnder; Thanks to Saatchi Art for supporting this episode; and you guessed it, big high-fives to you for listening! Now normally I say, “there will be more art for your ear next weekend”, but I’m in Hawaii at the moment and didn’t get organized enough to have an episode ready for next week… but there will be one waiting for you the weekend after that {I promise!}.

Other links:

1. Galerie Youn, Montreal
2. University of Guelph
3. Elspeth Pratt, sculptor/professor
4. Toronto International Film Festival
5. “Beautiful Losers” documentary
6. “Greetings From Yawnder” Show, Art Gallery of Sudbury (Feb 3)
7. Jay’s next show, Wall Space Gallery, Ottawa (May 5)
8. Jiggs’ site (yes, Jiggs has his own site)

ps. “Log Driver’s Waltz” for all of you true Canadians out there:

Cats with tats… I mean, come on! LOVE! Now, that final image features a phoenix, but seeing how 2017 is the “Year of the Rooster” I’m going to pretend it’s a rooster. Go with it. This is the beautiful, and funny, work of California based tattoo artist Kazuaki Horitomo. I love the cats with their final tats in place, but I have to say those “tattoos-in-progress” make me laugh out loud … alone at my computer. So good.

{via Hint Magazine}

Oh. Where do I begin? I love this work by Chinese artist Xu Ying. The square pieces are pencil & acrylic on canvas, and the circles are pencil & acrylic on cotton fabric. Pencil and acrylic? Clearly I need new pencils because mine don’t do that. ps. Those legs. I’m dying over those fabulous floating legs. Happy Monday.

“A Brief History of Complex And Delicate Situations”.  Yes, indeed. Beautiful, clever, powerful… all of it. This is a series by American artist {and current MFA student} Katie Lochhead, and these are her words:

This body of work is made with graphite underlinings and ink on paper, and utilizes natural history illustration and botanical plate references combined with first person accounts of trauma. While some of the narratives are mine, others are attained from friends or research, but all are “true” in the sense that they originate from a living person’s viewpoint. I feel that I give myself and the other narrators more room to breath by maintaining some sense of anonymity. 

Beautiful. Clever. Powerful.

‘LOVE’ does not begin to describe how I feel about this work {acrylic & oil pastel on framed canvas}. Versace, Hermes, Ming… and those tiny pink deer. Sigh. All of these pieces are from the 2016 series, by Vancouver artist – New York based – Andy Dixon, titled “Expensive Things II”.  Yep, I want alllll of those expensive things framed and hung on my wall.

ps. Versace and Hermes are both 61″x62″, and the vases are 41″x43″  ♥

Oh. YES! “Half-finished” work gets me every time. Insane detail beside simple lines… magic. This magic happens to be taking place on mylar. Mylar! This is the absolutely gorgeous work of Toronto based artist Kristy Blackwell. I wonder if her previous life in film has anything to do with her choice in materials:

“Trained in fine art at the University of Guelph and, thereafter, in computer animation at the University of Toronto, Kristy has had an accomplished career as a digital matte painter and compositor on over 50 feature films. But Kristy’s first love is fine art and her experience creating photo-real digital images has inspired her to experiment with various traditional techniques and materials to both create and deconstruct reality on canvas or other supports.”

Note to self: pick up some mylar.

Boo! Bats, cats, and tiny little fangs that seem to glow. This is the eerily beautiful work of Baltimore based artist/illustrator Zach Montoya… I love it. And I’m kinda scared. Happy Halloween!

{ps. Some of this work is available in Zach’s shop  ///  found via Booooooom}

If you were an early adopter to the world of Etsy, you’ll know exactly who my guest is today. Yep, I’m talking to Portland based artist Ashley Goldberg! I loved her work before I even started this blog {which was almost 8 years ago}, and watched from across the interweb as she evolved into what she refers to as “Ashley 2.0″… I wanted to hear alllll of the stories that went along with that, and she told me! Weird little critters, vibrant patterns, and the positive passwords that helped her along the way. You can listen right up there under those little faces, or you can subscribe on iTunes.

Ok, let’s start closer to the beginning… remember these? I love all of them, and these pieces are actually still available in Ashley’s Etsy shop:

Ah, love! Quite a few of those pieces were from the “ashley g 1.0” phase of her art career, but as 2.0 came along, so did these patterns:

Ok, I could have posted thousands of them {literally}, but I tried to control myself. Well, to a point… here are more of Ashley’s patterns out in the world! Wallpaper and bedding and teepees, oh my!

{1. Jimmy Cricket  2. Urban Outfitters  3,4,5. Land of Nod}

That teepee. I mean, come on! How cool would it be to see your work this way? Very. What about seeing your work all over your own clothes!? Even cooler:

{1,2,3. Gorman  4. Lazzari}

YES! I need that sweet “All My Little Friends” dress! I totally pictured Ashley wandering around Portland in head-to-toe “Ashley Goldberg”, but apparently it’s all black, all the time, for her. I understand. Completely.

See. Black… with just a bit of color on her paint-covered hands! I loved every second of finally getting to talk to Ashley. There are links to her karaoke choices below… yep, they paint quite a picture! Thanks to Saatchi Art for supporting episode 74; thanks to audible.com for making my new book into an audio book – it’s officially available now;  and thank YOU so much for listening every week… there will be more art for your ear next weekend.

Byeeee!

Other links:

1. Ashley’s Etsy shop
2. Ashley’s insane number of patterns on Flickr
3. Ashley’s lovely Instagram feed
4. The two karaoke songs were Biggie Smalls- Juicy (the PG version) and R Kelly ignition remix

Gorgeous paintings… control and chaos in perfect harmony. This is the work of Italian-born, Berlin-based painter Jessica Rimondi. I love all of these pieces, but that first girl in the glasses? I’m smitten. Happy Friday to you.

{Some of Jessica’s work is available at Saatchi Art}