kellysearsmith
25 September 2008 @ 12:06 pm
Vote for Art: Have an Art Attack  

A local group of Artists and Art Lovers--Fireswallow--is staging "art attacks" across our college town, such as sending a fella out at night dressed in an LED lit suit (dubbed Particle Man) to pass out glowing art cards. They are for imbuing daily life with art, taking it out of the galleries and into our homes, yards, and public spaces. A life of the mind, spirit, and heart is what they are about. And they are doing something about it -- finding ingenious ways to get noticed, get coverage, and get art awareness up. We can all join in this cause, just by spreading art awareness and giving art support as we go. They've asked us to spread the banner, spread the word.








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kellysearsmith
20 September 2008 @ 11:46 am
Wearable Art: FunckLoveDesigns  

Etsy has provided many artists with a home for selling their wares -- more power to the site. Recently, quite by chance, I discovered an artist shop there that j'adore, Funck Love Designs. FLD creates the collage jewelry with which many lovers of the paper arts are familiar, and no doubt wearing. FLD's themes appeal to lovers of literature and the arts, with their vintage museum spin on all things from Shakespeare to Kalo. I predict a self given present in my future :).




Goya Witches on Broomstick



Blake Songs of Innocence



King A Spray of Wild Hemlock

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kellysearsmith
14 April 2008 @ 07:02 am
(no subject)  
There's something wonderfully trangressive about transforming a utilitarian object, like a pail or a mirror, through art. There's the surprise of the sequined shoe; the glory of the art car and the concept car both; and then, too, as I'll demonstrate here, the lean beauty of the custom or art knife. Even in this age of high tech mass production, or perhaps because of it, the art of the smith continues, organized by guilds and transmitted by masters. For the custom knife community, magazines and conventions, websites and organizations bind together the few who make custom knife work their hobby, their profession, and for some, their obvious obsession and passion.

There are as many styles of art knife as there are types of knives. Pure ethnic, hunter (or rustic), and military styles I don't feature here, because, for the most part, they are about authenticity to a cultural tradition (a type of utility, but more sociological and psychological) or a functional utilitarian end that evokes a masculine culture that just doesn't interest me. Despite my love of the fantastic in the arts, I also pass over pure fantasy blades -- they are too over the top to suit my aesthetic tastes.

The knife smiths and studios that I feature here work in these styles, but have also created pieces that strike a fine balance between the cutting essence of the knife and its realization as something for the gaze, much beyond any practical end. In that sense, these are truly interstitial works of art.

[Rick] Dunkerley Handmade Knifes



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kellysearsmith
26 November 2007 @ 11:43 am
Brian Andreas: Story People  
We discovered artist-poet Brian Andreas in a little shop in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. The location predisposes one to look for magic and believe in it: nestled in the pine-curtained beauty of the Blue Ridge, the town quaint with white clapboard, brimming with flower boxes, shelved with art both folk and fine. The streets were punctuated with bubbles and happy faces. The shop was crowded with beauty and whimsy. There, we found Andreas' prints, with their childlike drawings and short, short stories -- Swimming like koi in the mind's pool, they slip, tickle, and transform the view.

Here's one such story, taken apart from its illustration -- and more's the pity. But I share it anyway:

I spent a long time trying to find my center;
until I looked closely one night and found it had wheels
and moved easily in the slightest breeze,
so now I spend less time sitting and more time sailing.

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kellysearsmith
24 July 2007 @ 10:18 am
Memory Stather: Living Jewels  
Memory Stather is a gifted South African artist, now settled in the UK, who works in a variety of media, but shows special talent in enamels. What's more, she is a certified gemologist, and I can't help but think her jeweled visions share much in common with her study of the plays of light upon earth in all its treasured forms. Those who love art nouveau will find a modern interpretation of it here, often but not always softer than deco, with a touch of breeze and whimsy and above all light.

I split her work samples below into two moods, one found earth and the other invented life.

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