Oh. Lorna Simpson. Her hair collages make my collage-loving heart skip a beat … brilliant, beautiful, and this time a little bit rocky. These pieces are part of a series of 12, exclusive to Vogue.com. Here is Vogue’s description of this fantastic work:

Now, her subjects are more liberated than ever… in a new exclusive series for Vogue.com, Simpson has lifted the faces of 12 women from “very mundane” ’60s and ’70s advertisements in Ebony magazine—the culture and politics monthly she grew up with that “informed my sense of thinking about being black in America”—and paired them with illustrations of geological and astrological forms from a 1931 textbook. Stripped of any fundamental context, the women provide no origin story and no identifying characteristics. The geometric shapes replacing their hair weren’t chosen for their resemblance to, say, Nefertiti’s crown or Erykah Badu’s emerald head wrap—references that may spring to mind as you look at them—but rather for the same reason you might cut, color, or change the texture of your hair: simply because, says Simpson, “I thought they were beautiful.”

Sigh… I do too.

Intricate weavings. Made from paper. PAPER! This is the incredible work of India-born, Australia-based artist Gunjan Aylawadi. Here is part of her very poetic artist statement:

Through her unique and intricate, paper tapestry technique, she explores the intersection between craft traditions, sensory pleasures she experienced growing up and the new culture she finds herself in now. Crafting thoughtful mosaics out of personal reflections, she creates works with simple materials and processes that are as important as the end result – illustrating the quiet power of slowing down and a thoughtful absorption of our environments.

The patience she must have… I cannot even begin to imagine.

Today I’m talking to Swedish artist/illustrator Camilla Engman. Eep! She is one of those people who I’ve got way up on an artsy pedestal… and so do a lot of you apparently! I’ve had several people send messages asking if I can get her to come on the podcast. Yes, yes I can! Listen on the little player right up there, or subscribe on iTunes. 

Let’s start with a few of my favorite paintings by Camilla:

Ah, so good. Mysterious, narrative, and oh so beautifully painted. We talked a little bit about her strange characters… the bears and dogs etc… turns out they represent people {people that may or may not take on those animal-like characteristics}:

Ahh, I love them so much. So sweet and innocent… but I have a feeling they’re probably not quite as sweet and innocent as one might think. Next, these are the amazing envelope collages, from her “Distant Friends” series that she and Ana Ventura started together. I cannot get over them. So simple. So smart. So “damn I wish I thought of that” :

LOVE! We also talked about her studio. Sigh. I want to go to there:

She’s in her own little house which is part of a larger arts community area, in Gothenburg Sweden, called Konstepidemin, which means “the epidemic of art”. There is a little blue restaurant, galleries, AND guest studios that you can apply for as part of their artist-in-residence program. Here’s a little peek:

Yeah. Let’s ALL go there! Thank you so, so much to Camilla for talking to me, even though she was worried about her English… which I thought was perfect/much better than my Swedish; thanks to Saatchi Art for supporting the episode; and THANK YOU for listening! There will be more art for your ear next weekend.

Other links:

1. Her online shop, Studio Morran
2. Book that Camilla did with Uppercase
3. Apply for a guest residency at “Konstepidemin”

Love. These collages are the work of New Jersey based artist Kirkland Bray. He’s been painting for over twenty years, but in 2012 discovered a love for using found bits and pieces to create his work. Ah, a man after my own heart. I love his description of this…

I’m inspired by the hunt to find new materials and the challenge of editing. A piece is finished when the combination of shapes and ideas comes together like a puzzle; when the positive and negative space have equal say; when I’ve exhausted all other possibilities.

Ditto. And ps… I love these ones too:

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}

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.

The art history nerd in me just gasped. Portraits and exquisite paper cutting… ah, yes, this is the latest work from American artist Elise Wehle. I’ve written about her before {here and here}, and I was not disappointed when I popped by again today! Gorgeous. Delicate. Oh, so lovely.

{Her work is available on her site}

Tiny paper houses, clearly made with love, by Barcelona based artist Mar Cerdà. She illustrates children’s books for several publishing houses, but it’s her paper dioramas that grabbed me… painted tiles, little framed artworks, and windows lit from behind! Oh, and those final three are housed inside tuna cans from Portugal. So good.

Oh my goodness. This is the gorgeous work of LA based artist Elisa Johns. Some of her work is oil on canvas, and other pieces are acrylic & ink on paper… like those two snakes… who I had to make a bit smaller and put in the middle of the post so they didn’t freak me out too much. Luckily they’re flanked by blossoming acrylic/ink fireweed, so that helps. Here is Elisa’s artist statement:

Oh, I do love mundane subject matter and muted palettes… enter the oil paintings (on collaged paper!) of California based artist Meghan Jean. Sigh. Nothing like finding beauty in the everyday. In fact, do that right now. Look around and find something beautiful. A shadow, a texture, an old chair that you don’t even notice anymore. Yep, we’re surrounded.

{via Fresh Paint Magazine}