There are way too many amazing projects in Lauren DiCioccio’s portfolio to choose from… that’s why I’m jealous again. Last time I wrote about Lauren I showed her organza shopping bags, and today I went with my other fav, her color codification dot drawings. These are so beautiful and so labor intensive. Here’s Lauren’s secret behind them: ‘I lay a sheet of frosted mylar over a magazine page. I assign a color to every letter (numbers are shades of greyscale) and apply tiny dots of paint over every character on the page according to my color-code.’

I wonder which seven colours spell ‘jealous’?

Holly Farrell, Solo Show

December 2nd – December 31, Chase Gallery ~ Boston

Holly Farrell has been featured on The Jealous Curator more than any other artist I think, and now with a new solo show opening in Boston tomorrow night, how can I not write about her again? It’s a combination of her subject matter and her amazing technical skill that gets me every time. I saw some of her work in person this past summer and it’s even better up close. And, if you go to the opening tomorrow, you might even be lucky enough to meet her. She’s just like her work… oh so lovely.

Ah, the simple and serene suburbs. A place where nothing ever happens… wait a minute, is that a body in the front yard?

I love suburban subject matter, especially when things aren’t quite right… because, let’s face it, we all know that there’s crazy stuff going on in most of those houses! And lucky for us, painter Amy Bennett is giving us a little sneak peek into a few of them in her series entitled Neighbors. These scenes almost look like architectural models of an ideal suburb (the perspectives, the cut-aways, the perfect little trees and cars) until  you look a little closer. Obvious artistic talent and a really good story – you can’t ask for much more than that.

Carylann Loeppky was one of my favourite artists during this weekend’s culture crawl. As I walked through her open door the first thing that made me totally jealous was her studio space at 1000 Parker Street, a mecca for artists. And then, as if that wasn’t enough, I was faced with her huge white wall of tiny colourful paintings. They were all lovely on their own, each a mixture of sweet and ghostly, but what I really loved was the visual effect of them hanging in one large grouping. I wonder how much it would cost to get ’em all so that I could have this wall in my house?

Welcome to one of the stops on the Eastside Culture Crawl this weekend. A major stop. Out of the 300 participating artists, about 90 of them have studios at 1000 Parker Street. Some studios were home to only one artist, and other spaces were shared {for example, the Herd of Women studio shown above – love it!}. Ah, old wood floors, the smell of art supplies in the air, and tonnes of talented artists all around you. There were so many hallways and studio doors that it was easy to get lost. I had to follow fire exits just to find my way out… it was heaven.

{Artwork shown above: 1) Carylann Loeppky 2) Fiona Ackerman 3) Allison Shelling }

If you live in Denver, or anywhere even kinda close to Denver, you have to go to Amanda Marie‘s new show that opens tonight {November 20th} at the Andenken Gallery. I’ve posted 4 pieces, just to give you a little taste, but there are 40 paintings in the show so it should be quite something to see.  Her work totally reminds me of vintage storybooks… with an edge. Nothin’ like a bit of spray paint, a few scribbles and a one-eyed fox to add some much needed grit to a run-of-the-mill fairytale.

I could not decide what made me the most jealous of Aris Moore – her sketchbook, her paintings or her collages – so I’m showing a bit of each. I’m a sucker for an animal head on a human body, I even have a few of them in my own portfolio, but they’re not quite like this… hence the jealousy. These look effortless, lovely and a little bit sad. Now, that said, I’ve never actually tried to make a polar bear or a rabbit look sad, but I’m guessing it’s a bit tricky.

A touch of typography, a hint vintage wallpaper and a deer head silhouette too? I’m sold!  These lovely paintings are by Charlottesville, VA based artist Kazaan Viveiros.

I have always been a huge fan of Pop Art, probably because it combines the two things I love most… art & design. This work by Heath Yenna has definitely got my jealousy juices flowing on this fine Friday morning. They are a little vintage, a little Pop, a touch of modern graphic design and just a hint of street graffiti. Mmmm, a perfect mix.

It’s been two years since I saw the documentary, My Kid Could Paint That, about then 4 year old Marla Olmstead. When I wrote my original post about Marla last winter I said that I was on the fence when it came to knowing if Marla did all of the work herself, but either way I still loved the paintings. I watched it again last night, and I am now firmly on one side of the fence. I decided to see it again just as a refresher for myself, since the post that I wrote close to a year ago still gets a huge number of very ‘passionate’ comments every day. I can safely say I’m no longer jealous of her. I am still jealous of her work, but not of her. I just feel sad for Marla. I’m sure some of you will call me a fool, but after seeing the movie again I absolutely believe that these are her paintings. I’m actually a little upset with myself that I ever doubted it. I think some fancy editing and a father who really, really, really loved the fame and attention that Marla brought, skewed my original view… but I don’t think they defrauded the art world. They never said she was a prodigy, the art world put that on her. And at the end of the day, I really do think her paintings are beautiful. If collectors want to spend $20,000 per painting then by all means go ahead. After all, when it comes to modern art, 9 times out of 10 you’re paying for the story behind the art,or in many cases, the story behind the artist… And let’s face it, this is a really good story.