So I wrote about German-born, UK based artist Susanna Bauer about two weeks ago. She sent me a quick note to say thanks, and she also mentioned that she liked listening to the podcast… obviously I wrote her back immediately and said, “Great! Wanna come on?”  Luckily for all of us, she said yes. I loved every minute of this almost hour long call {yes I kept recording after we said goodbye… again}. Not only is her work lovely, so is she… and don’t even get me started on her Bavarian/British accent! You can listen just below those leaf cubes, or you can subscribe on iTunes. Ok, so you can picture the woman who goes with this lovely voice, here is Susanna in her Cornwall studio:

Look at all of those leaves just waiting for a turn on Susanna’s table! I wanted to hear all of her secrets and tricks, but apparently the only trick is being Susanna… slow, careful, with a delicate hand. That’s why when she said, “I’m a bit impatient”, I laughed hysterically and then immediately had a title for the episode. How can you do work like this AND be impatient?! Hilarious.

Now, before she worked with leaves there were some very beautiful, and very cozy, sticks and stones:

Oh. I love them so much. She’s taken a little break from sticks and stones, leaves being her main focus for the moment. Speaking of leaves, she sent me a photo of the first leaf she ever worked her magic on:

Wow. Beautiful. There is real genius at work there. Next up, this is the piece I mentioned… many leaves being connected in the middle. In fact, much of her work is about connection. We didn’t go into that, so I wanted to add a note she sent me, after we talked, on exactly that:

“The ‘how is it done’ element of my work, I guess, is a first and immediate connection point for someone who sees my work, but what I find far more interesting is what can happen next, when the work draws a viewer in, slows someone down to look closely at the detail of how it’s made, but also how intricate, delicate and fragile the leaf and nature as a whole really is. And also how fragile we are as human beings, subjected to the tensions and pulls in our connections and relationships, where I think the making technique of crochet becomes a nice metaphor as it is all about tension. 

For me it’s a new way of having a dialogue with the natural world and opening up a new way of looking at our relationship with it, paying attention to the very small. I have often seen people walking past my work with a quick glance, but then doing a double take, turning back and taking the time to look. And sometimes they walk away with a smile or start a conversation about what it makes them feel and a connection has been made. And if it makes someone walk a little bit slower and look a little bit closer at what surrounds them, even better….and my work is also a daily reminder for myself to do just that.”

Ah, so so beautiful. I felt like I made a connection today too… a connection with a kindred spirit. Thank you so much to Susanna for taking the time to do this with me, thanks to Saatchi Art for supporting the episode, and you guessed it… giant high fives to you for listening! There will be more art for your ear next weekend.

Other links:

1. Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED talk about the “elusive creative genius”
2. Her upcoming show in New York at Muriel Guepin Gallery {two-man show with Leigh Anne Lester}
3. Another show currently hanging in the UK, titled ‘Leaf Works’, at the Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World 

“Fruloons & Vegeloons”… I cannot even begin to express how happy these make me on a Friday morning. This is the colorful, creative, and clever work of UK based designer / stylist / artist Vanessa Mckeown. I can’t decide which is my favorite. The tomatoes? That orange? The eggplant? Impossible. And this is just the tip of the pineapple… check out her site for all sorts of other wonderfully witty work. Happy Friday!

Oh, my goodness. These stunning oil paintings are the work of London based painter Amy Judd. Delicate, mysterious, and oh so feminine. This is a description of her work from the gallery that represents her, the Hicks Gallery:

“Amy Judd’s paintings are a collection of sensitive silent moments; some full of whimsical intrigue, others more surreal and seductive. These paintings draw inspiration from the enchanting and imaginative relationship between women and nature found in traditional mythologies and folklores.”

Sigh. Lovely.

Um, I played basketball in high school… but I don’t remember it being quite this fancy! This is the stunning, and luxurious, glass work of American artist Victor Solomon. All of these pieces are from his series, “Literally Balling”:

Stained glass. Historically reserved for the religious, for the opulent, for royalty, here stained glass is juxtaposed to arresting effect. Literally Balling connotes a host of disparate narratives: a religious devotion to sport; the athlete as modern-day king of court; the proletarian drift of basketball from project pick-up games to newfound cultural heights; even a cautionary comment on the fragility of luxury.

If you happen to be in New York, this work is currently showing at Joseph Gross Gallery until March 19th, 2016.

A project for today! Listen to this…

The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NWMA), the world’s only major museum solely dedicated to celebrating great women artists, has announced a new social media campaign for this March’s Women’s History Month. If you ask someone to name five artists, they will likely name prominent male artists, but how many people can list five women artists? To increase awareness the museum will launch the campaign “Can you name five women artists?” March 1 on its website and blog as well as on social media outlets, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Using the hashtag #5womenartists, the campaign will encourage NMWA’s online community to help address the gender imbalance in the presentation of art both in the United States and internationally.

Oh, I am so in… mind you, I could name 500 women artists that I love, but I’ll play by the rules. Here are 5 of my {many} favorite artists, who also happen to be women:

Alright yes, that was 6, but I had to make sure that the mysterious and talented Vivian Maier was in there too! Ok, now it’s your turn – jump on those social media channels and name #5womenartists whose work you love {contemporary or historical} and help make it really easy for people to be able to name five women artists ♥

{click on the artwork above to see more of their work}

Oh my word. Giant, juicy paint strokes on the wall? Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. This is the work of American artist Donald Martiny… how, you ask? Polymer and dispersed pigment on aluminum. Stunning.

Ah, beautiful little sandwiches of paper, paint and found images! Today I’m talking to Austin based artist Xochi Solis. We’ve worked on a few projects together but we’ve only communicated through email, so I was very excited to hear her voice and get to know her a little better. It worked! You’ll notice throughout the post I’ve put the titles of each piece… thanks to a little tidbit I learned during the speed round. Oh, the speed round… such a wonderful source of information. Alright, you can listen right up there under “she sings hymns out of tune”, or you can subscribe on iTunes. Let’s kick things off with a few of my favorite pieces of Xochi’s:

Her work makes me want to make things. I want to find paper, flip through old books, squeeze out a few tubes of gouache and get stackin’! I was so thrilled to have Xochi as one of the artists in my book, Collage. In that book I gave all 30 artists the same starting image to do with whatever they pleased. It was a photo of my dad and uncle as kids so it was really fun for my whole family to see the amazing artwork that came back. Here’s a peek:

Love! Can you see where Dad and Uncle Bill are? And as mentioned, Xochi sweetly packed up her original piece {above} and sent it to me! It’s hanging in my living room as we speak… and so is the other piece shown right beside that photo of my dad and uncle. I had no self control so I made a collage for the book too.

Now, we also talked about her work going from paper to walls… in the form of giant installations:

Beautiful! Up next, her love of hands! Yep, she loves hands and elbows in her work. See if you can find them in these next three pieces:

Where’s Waldo… but more hand-ish. Now what kind of an artist interviewer would I be if I didn’t ask the question, “What’s your favorite color?”. Well, she had a complex answer! Sort of a peony pink/orange and an avocado/citron green. Here they are in action:

And I looooved her story about finding that green paper, hence the title of this episode! So, somehow in the excitement of talking about paper and tacos, I forgot to mention the piece she did for my Spring 2016 collection at Land of Nod. It’s so gorgeous, and surprise surprise, also includes her favorite colors:

Isn’t that lovely? My favorite thing about working on that Nod collection is having accomplished contemporary artists make gorgeous work that could hang in a nursery… or in the middle of your living room. Love.

Alright, that’s that! Thanks to Xochi for talking to me… I wish we could have shared a few tacos and margaritas {next time}; thanks to Saatchi Art for supporting the episode – and don’t forget, I’ll be drawing one name this Monday, February 29th for a $50 gift card to be used toward art at saatchiart.com… just sign up for my ‘art for your inbox’ email if you’d like to be entered;  AND huge thanks to you for listening. There will be more art for your ear next weekend.

Yessssssss. It’s amazing that a bit of skillfully applied ink and watercolor on paper could make me want to go night swimming… in February. Ok, maybe a quick flight to St.Thomas first. This is the simple and fantastic work of American artist/illustrator Ian Dingman. Happy weekend, indeed.

Modern fairytales? Kind of. These gorgeous paintings are the work of El Salvador based artist Luis Cornejo. I wrote about him in 2014 but his combination of Mickey Mouse hands and lovely portraits keeps me coming back for more!

Beautiful. This piece {and all of those gorgeous close-ups} is part of a series, by Canadian artist Lana Filippone, titled “Recursions. Crystallize”. Here are Lana’s words about her work, and the materials she chooses to create these beautiful worlds with:

[Lana] strives to access a language that allows magic to exist in our everyday lives, whether in her sculptural or functional work. This language harkens back to places that are familiar yet subversive of her material. Humorous nostalgia becoming light physical daydreams in clay, manifest from big ideas. She approaches themes of transience in shared human-experience; ephemeral states solidified in porcelain, ideas about forbearance and a gentle nod to the human Truths, mostly Impermanence. Her material once liquid, is symbolically transformed then crystallized in time.

Photographs by Jonathan Sippel Photography