Gasp! This is the latest work by San Francisco based, Canadian artist Crystal Liu. I’ve written about her before (2014 and 2010), and clearly I need to again. How can I not share these marbled mountains, delicate flowers, and trees blowing in the wind as the fog rolls in. Are you wondering what, how, huh!? Let me answer that for you… 48″x48″ gouache, watercolor, ink and collage on paper. Oh my word, so good.

Sigh. Inside on a cozy quiet day, drawing birds while drinking coffee. Works for me. These are just a few of the newest large-scale cyanotypes by Indianapolis based artist Casey Roberts … and, yes, I am totally using them as inspiration for the rest of the holidays. Coffee – check. Art supplies – check. Cat – well no, but I do have a wiener dog lying on a nearby rug, in front of the fire, right this very minute. Merry merry to you and yours.

Oh my word. So, beautiful! Born in the Philippines, Marigold Santos now calls both Calgary and Montreal home. I couldn’t decide if I should write about her dreamy acrylic paintings, or her haunting ink on paper works… luckily for me, Marigold often hangs them together, so I will too! This description is from her 2018 show, titled “in this drought, flood my hollow heart”, at Galerie D’Este in Montreal:

“Recent works of Marigold Santos continue to examine the ongoing theme of empowered selfhoods through embracing fragmentation and multiplicity of personal identity, informed by lived experience and impressed upon our landscapes, real or imagined.

In this exhibition, the emotional landscape is personified by drafting together memories and traversed physical landscapes to create a collage of meaning and experience. 

Geological forms, objects, and foliage become the characters within these surreal landscapes. Through anthropomorphisation, they embody the projection of emotionality and function as surrogates for the absent body. Layered and collaged imagery creates an expression of specific moments; interior and exterior vignettes that, through a reflection of space and surroundings, invite contemplation and awareness.

Evoking hours of transitioning light, quiet and stillness provide the setting for meditations that comfortably hover in the gradient. As enduring time pushes mountain, carves rock, and highlights the slow yet persistent growth of arid plant life, the absent figure records memories that are edited together to create new narratives. Love lost, love gained, isolation, solitude, melancholy, depression, vulnerability and courage.” 

{via Pennylane Shen – on the podcast a few weeks ago}

THEY’RE PAINTINGS. Yep, spray paint on paper. Oh my word.  These drippy rainbows, smiley faces, birds, flowers are just some of the most recent pieces by Toronto based artist Ric Santon… I cannot express how much I love them. Spray? Paint! Happy Friday.

{His work is available via Dianna Witte Gallery – formerly Parts Gallery – in Toronto}

Ooooh, I love these so much. This is the most recent fine artwork of LA based artist / illustrator Jason Holley. These pieces were all part of a show at Hey There Projects in Joshua Tree, California earlier this fall. I was lucky enough to see them in person, and whoa, they are amazing! And yes, I was pressed up against the wall looking at them from the side trying to figure out how he built these delicate beauties. Paper. It’s paper. I know… I dunno.

ps. Hey There has a few of my recent pieces available, too. 

I mean, WHAT? This is the paper-cut work of Japan-born, California-based artist Kanako Abe. Her work is unbelievably delicate – it’s like poetry made from single sheets of black paper. Sigh. Here is the description of her work found on Paradigm Gallery‘s site:

“For Kanako, creating Kiri-e [the art of paper-cutting in Japanese] is a way of meditating on everyday thoughts, emotions and interconnectivity of the nature and universe. Through her delicate visual poetry, she tries to tell stories about beauty found in fragility and transience and explore the correlation between vulnerability and strength.”

So beautiful. ps. I would not be able to meditate while attempting this kind of work … I’d be much too busy cursing.

I just discovered the weird ‘n wonderful collages of Dallas based artist Jessica Sinks. Those shoes, that bird boy… I’m both smitten and a teeny bit scared. I love these cut and pasted pieces, but I have to say, Jessica’s artist statement seals the deal on my new collage crush:

Her works center around visual puns and iconic images that play off found materials to create flat and often comedic figures. Sinks’ cutouts began as an alternative to sketching and nod to the silhouettes and performativity of Javanese shadow puppet theater. With a background in conservation, she has described the act of cutting up books as a “tantalizingly forbidden act.”

Oooh, I know all about that tantalizing act!

Oh. My. This is the large-scale collage work of Canadian artist Jennifer Murphy. All of these stunning pieces were in a show, titled In The Shadow of Sirius, that (unfortunately) just came down from the walls of the Clint Roenisch Gallery in Toronto. To make up for my tardiness, let me give you Jennifer’s beautiful words about this body of work… words that certainly hit home for me:

“Although I have worked in collage since I was a child, I really began to explore large-scale, sculptural collage after the death of a dear friend and close collaborator ten years ago. The work was a way to cope with the grief but also an outlet to hope. This series comes at another time of loss, both personal and I believe collective. We now live in a time of ecological mourning and are in desperate need for paths to rediscover hope. 

I began this work thinking about The Tommy Thompson Park and the Leslie Spit here in Toronto. This dump site of rubble and rebar on the shores of Lake Ontario, this “accidental wilderness” of trees, wildflowers, lagoons and submerged reefs.  This decades-old landfill, re-activated habitat to migrating and mating birds and insects, amphibians and mammals. I gravitated to thinking about shore birds and waders, those stilt like birds astride that liminal space between earth, air and water. 

I find hope in making my work and in places of ruin where wildflowers grow, and in the poetry of those who have felt immense loss but continue to create.”

Sigh. Poetry, indeed.

Gasp! He’s done it again. I’ve written about American born, Sweden based artist Joey Bates before, but when he keeps doing THIS to paper, how am I supposed to control myself? Must. Write. Post. His latest show, titled Everything is Fleeting, opens on Thursday November 21 {6pm} at Galerie Youn in Montreal. Here is Joey’s description of these stunning pieces:

“Energy dispersal and change comprise the impetus for this body of work. Each piece references a volcanic explosion or amalgamation of explosions to recall disruption, destruction, and eventual renewal. The flowers lend a patina of beauty and ease to a process that is jarring, disorienting, and happening constantly — whether or not we are paying attention.”

So good. Again. ps. This show will be up until January 19, 2020.

Sigh. The work of German artist Tina Berning gets me every single time. So dreamy, and ridiculously beautiful. If you happen to be in Toronto, I have some good news for you. Alison Milne Gallery will be presenting Tina’s work at Art Toronto 2019 this coming weekend (Thursday October 24th – Sunday October 27th). But wait, there’s more. Not only will her gorgeous work be there, but so will Tina… all the way from Berlin! Find her in Solo Booth #S11.

ps. Tina was on my podcast a few years ago, and it’s still one of my favorite episodes! Look/listen here.