Oh, well hello match made in ceramic heaven!!! Yep, it’s true, American artists Katie Kimmel and Lorien Stern have a two-person show, titled “Very Rare”, opening {virtually} at Hashimoto Contemporary in New York… well, the show isn’t virtual… it’s actually installed, but the opening will be happening tomorrow night, Saturday April 4th, ONLINE! Yes, the gallery will be doing an Instagram live walk through of the show tomorrow, and both Katie and Lorien will participate from their homes in California. Ah, technology. Here is the description of “Very Rare”:

“Drawing on their mutually playful sense of humor, Kimmel and Stern contemplated what is considered ‘very rare’, and how we come to define and categorize something as such. For Lorien Stern, this theme was utilized to place a spotlight on exotic, extinct and near extinct animals, as well as rare versions of the artists well known ceramic shark heads, finished in gold luster. One notable work is a 2+ foot tall albino Komodo dragon, standing upright, tail wrapped around itself and tongue sticking out, while cheekily displaying its long, light blue perfectly manicured finger and toe nails.

Alternatively, Katie Kimmel created a series of ceramic awards and trophies, “haunted fruit”, as well as collectible items such as kitschy memorabilia reminiscent of card store trinkets and stamps. Patron Saint of Friday’s , a large ceramic bust, pays tribute to the working class chain-restaurant waitress, suspenders full of “flair”, proudly carrying a grinning cheeseburger and fries to her next table.”

The gallery will also have a bunch of unique pieces and merchandise from each artist made especially for “Very Rare”… hence making it very rare {see what I did there?}. In addition, a collaborative limited edition print will be released titled “You Are Good” {shown above}. $10 from each print sale will be donated to No Kid Hungry, who are working with schools and food banks to ensure children don’t miss meals due to Coronavirus school closures. These pieces will be available on Hashimoto’s site starting on Thursday, April 9th. Love.

If it wasn’t frowned upon, I would totally touch {and let’s be honest, try to taste} this entire show! These weird ‘n wonderful pieces are the work of Texas based artist Dan Lam. Her newest exhibition, titled “Supernatural”, is currently showing at Stephanie Chefas Projects in Portland. Here are a few words from the gallery about this work:

“In her latest collection of work, Lam continues to explore her otherworldly sensibility, creating sculptures that push the boundaries of color and form alike. We invite you to enter a world of the artist’s creation, populated by signature spiky shells, kinetic patterns, and vivid neon hues. Inanimate perhaps, but these surrealist objects brim with palpable life and movement.

With Supernatural, Lam walks the line between numerous dichotomies to uncover new modes of expression. By navigating the realm between attraction and repulsion, motion and stillness, seriousness and playfulness, softness and hardness, Lam wields magic power over each idiosyncratic vision. The experimentation remains palpable, but the work never so abstract as to disengage. Compelled by these seemingly disparate juxtapositions, the viewer is overcome with a range of complex emotions and creative ideas.”

Love. It. All. Sigh. Soooo many shows are up, without people being in attendance. Please go and check out all of these shows online. The artists and galleries have worked so hard to put these exhibitions together. Stupid global pandemic.

Ahhh, LA based Stephanie Vovas is one of my favorite photographers… and let’s face it, one of my favorite people. Speaking of people, they are usually her subject matter, but recently Stephanie has also been pointing her camera in a few new directions. Gasp! These landscapes and interiors… but still with that golden, over-saturated, vintage Vovas flare! LOVE. To hire her for commercial work contact Stephanie here, OR purchase limited edition prints from her shop.

ps. Here’s a little reminder of her portrait work. I’m sure you’ll recognize it… I’ve written about her on the blog, curated her work into shows, told her story in my books, and she was guest number 3 on the podcast way back when! See, she really is one of my faves.

I’ve written about the large-scale bling of South African artist Kurt Pio before, and for his most recent show, Kurt’s muse is one of Elizabeth Taylor’s favorite pieces of jewelry… just a little bit bigger. Why all of the cameras, you ask? I’ll let Kurt explain:

“The Elizabeth Taylor Bvlgari brooch pendant. Gifted to Elizabeth by Richard Burton while they were both filming ‘Cleopatra’ in Rome. It was the start of a love affair. The piece of jewelry was bought from the Bulgari store in Rome and became one of Elizabeth’s most iconic and favourite pieces.
In this exhibition of mine, I’ve produced some classic cameras, these are possible cameras that the paparazzi would have used during Elizabeth’s life. The paparazzi helped to make the Taylor Burton love affair so public. And I loved the dialogue, relationship and connection this specific piece of jewelry and the paparazzi cameras had.”

“You Caught My Eye” is currently showing on the walls of Gallery Orange in New Orleans, and will be there until April 8th, 2020.

Well, I guess I’m not the only one hoarding costume jewelry! These crystal-encrusted organic wonders are the exquisite work of Colorado based artist Tania Dibbs, and this is her intention behind them:

“Her sculptural pieces combine symbols of wealth and culture with their opposites, highlighting a bigger discussion about our fast changing relationship with the planet and with nature in general. This contemporary issue is indeed urgent and relevant.”

Indeed.

ps. Some of Tania’s work, her paintings, are currently part of a group show at Skye Gallery in Aspen, until April 22, 2020.

You asked {ok, more realistically, you shouted} and I listened … yes, New Orleans based artist / bedazzled ray of light, Ashley Longshore is back on the podcast today. I turned the interview over to you guys this time, pulling questions you left on my Instagram feed last week. Well, Ashley answered everything from advice on pricing work, and how to collaborate with big brands – to her thoughts on vajacials {which is a real thing, btw}, and who takes those Instagram photos of her sitting on the toilet. Yep. We cover it ALL. My favorite part of this whole interview though, is the answer she gives right off the top. Question number one, sent in by one of you: “What is the first positive thought ashley actively focuses on when anxiety hits hard.” Her answer is beautiful and something every single one of us should be doing every single day… right after we brush our fangs!  You can listen right up there under those diamond-encrusted / golden chompers, or subscribe right here.

First up, true vulnerability in all its glory… Ashley’s brand new, very powerful self portrait series:

Ashley as: Clown; Housewife; Sex Goddess; Businessman; Wonder Woman… yep, that just about covers it. Ahhh, so many expectations from the world, so little time. I couldn’t help but wonder if these pieces were inspired by this recent photo of Ashley on holiday last month:

Yessssssss! How absolutely fabulous is THAT shot!? What a babe. Now, speaking of being unapologetically vulnerable, the two ‘on the toilet’ photos one of you had questions about:

Hilarious! That said, she can get pretty fancy in photos too… you know, while doing things like guest-judging on Bravo’s Project Runway:

 

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A post shared by Ashley Longshore (@ashleylongshoreart) on Jan 23, 2020 at 2:41pm PST

Hello, style. I loooove that photo {taken by Grady Brannon} on the staircase with Ashley and her fabulous friend, fashion designer Christian Siriano, so I had to pop it in the post too.

And, of course, the coloring pages she just released a few days ago:

Love, love, love!!! Keep your kids, or yourself, busy by downloading all of them right here {and then email a photo of your final masterpiece to Ashley at: hollywood@ashleylongshore.com !}

And finally…

YES! Let’s all get up, make our beds, brush our fangs, and throw on our big girl panties so we can get through this crazy time TOGETHER. Thanks to Ashley for doing this with me {again!}, thanks to the Thrive Network for supporting the episode, and huge thanks to YOU for listening! Stay home. Wash your hands. There will be more ART FOR YOUR EAR next weekend. ~ Danielle xo

ps. If you wanna get in on the ‘distracting yourself with art’ daily hashtag, please do! There are now over 8000 posts and it’s really inspiring and fun to be part of. See ya on Instagram at #30DayArtQuarantine

Other links:

1. Download Ashley’s coloring pages
2. Food Banks to donate to: USA / Canada
3. #30DayArtQuarantine on Instagram
4. Bright Minded with Miley Cyrus {Ashley’s episode is on WEDNESDAY APRIL 1!}
   
5. Email address to use if you want to send Ashley your resume: ashleyart@ashleylongshore.com

Ahhh, the quiet work of Scottish painter Andrew McIntosh. I’ve written about Andrew before {here and here}, and just had to do it again as these lonely campers are currently hung on the walls of the James Freeman Gallery in London right at this very moment. They have very appropriately just installed a show titled “Splendid Isolation”. Here are the gallery’s words:

“As our first online exhibition of COVID-19, we are pleased to present ‘Splendid Isolation’, a collection of new caravan paintings by the Scottish artist Andrew McIntosh.

Andrew has painted caravans for many years: sometimes as a host for an Old Master painting; others, as a portal to a sunset or unexpected celestial phenomena. In all cases he taps into the curious appeal of the caravan as a miniature world within a world: a vessel for the intrepid, a means of escape, and a place for cocooned isolation.”

The show runs from March 24th until April 15th. Happy Friday. Stay home. Wash your hands.

 

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This is how I make some of my three dimensional flowers. It’s all made from oil paint and cold wax medium. The paint is thick enough that it holds its shape when applied to the surface and it dries that way.

A post shared by Nicolette Valikoski (@nicolettevalikoskiart) on Oct 17, 2018 at 11:23am PDT

Ummmm, is there such a thing as ASMR for your eyeballs… because I think this is it! These are just a few of my favorite grabs from the Instagram feed of Canadian painter Nicolette Valikoski. In this crazy time of self-isolation, I vote for watching Nicolette’s paint-mixing videos on repeat. For hours. You’re welcome. ps. please don’t lick your screen.

{found via Create Magazine’s Instagram feed}

Yep, I love everything about this project, titled “Low Supply”, by US born / Vancouver based artist Katherine Duclos. There are so many things – from emotions to politics to opinions – that come up when the topic of how women should feed their babies comes up. Well, I think Katherine is using this latest series {featuring cement sculptures and ink, acrylic, gouache paintings on Yupo} to explore this very personal subject in such a beautiful way. Here is her description of how it started, and where it’s going is fantastic:

“This project began with breastfeeding my now 11mo old, though in retrospect, the emotions and experiences driving this work began with my first child, who is now 4. This body of work is about breastfeeding, pumping, the trappings and accoutrement of sustaining a life with your body, and the emotional weight we carry as mothers, vessels, food source. For a long time I’ve made very different work that wasn’t particularly personal to me but this body of work is my soul laid bare, all of my anxieties as a mom, all the feelings of inadequacy as I feed my daughter with a low milk supply.

But my experience and emotions are not enough to sustain this work because I had a hunch the emotional weight of this experience was carried by many, many moms. So, I reached out in my online mom’s groups, my neighborhood groups, my friends’ groups, and I asked them to contribute. I asked for pumps, bottles, pump parts, nipples, expired frozen breastmilk, anything to do with feeding a baby. And the response has been overwhelming and positive. In a little over a month I’ve collected from moms as far as New York and as close as my neighborhood. I come home to bags of pumping supplies on my porch, left by moms I don’t know, who heard about my project. And I took those materials and started making work with them and about them. This project is just beginning. Please get in touch if you’d like to participate.“

{found via Pennylane Shen}

Killing me! She’s killing me with these little beauties every damn day! Let me explain… American artist Debra Baxter {who I’ve written about before, both here and here} jumped in on a hashtag that I started a little over a week ago when it became apparent that we all need to do our part by STAYING HOME. Enter, #30DayArtQuarantine … there are now almost 6000 artsy posts under this hashtag, including these stunners that keep popping up on Debra’s Instagram feed! This is what she wrote when she kicked things off with that yellow ‘n pink treasure above:

“I have decided to take on the #30dayartchallenge that is @thejealouscurator ‘s idea because I’ll likely be at home hiding from Coronavirus that long. So why not have some fun!? I’m going to make a bunch of small wacky assemblages like I did with #100daysofsculpture in 2014. Here is Day 1. If you decide to do this too use the tag #30dayartquarantine “

Sooooo good … oh man, I wonder what she’s gonna make tomorrow!? ps. Anyone is welcome to use this hashtag… let’s see what you’re keeping yourself busy with during this absolutely bizarre time.