Hott Sheets Art Exhibition
When: Friday, June 25, 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Where: Wonder Fair: Art Gallery, Shoppe and Studio, Lawrence

I’ve been thinking about starting a series of flat, graphic African masks since I really love working with the shapes, colors and emotion. This piece is an initial exploration of this concept, painted in acrylics.

This piece is based on the nursery rhyme:
Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.

There are some very colorful explanations of what this nursery rhyme means, so I thought I’d work that into the piece as well! I also wanted to work on some drawn type, so this seemed like a great place to experiment with that.

I recently did a poster for the University of Georgia that centered around a musical piece called The Here and Now by Christopher Theofanidis. The work is based on selected poems by the Persian poet Rumi and uses the powerful and mysterious qualities of band and choir. They wanted it to have a decidedly Middle Eastern/Turkish feel to it and so I thought it would be the perfect chance to try doing some hand-drawn calligraphy.

I should make it clear that I drew all of the type in Adobe Illustrator and didn’t actually get out the calligraphy pens (mostly due to a tight deadline), but it was a lot of fun to do and I hope to do more things like it in the future. My apologies to the purists out there!

Here’s a quick pencil sketch that I used as a starting point for the illustration.

And here’s the final type!

You can hear some audio clips of the piece on Amazon. It’s pretty powerful classical music written for band and choir.

Update: Here’s an interesting article about Arabic calligraphy and digital fonts.

In the “culture of the remix” that we are currently experiencing, there are some pretty fascinating and creative things going on. The appropriating of other visual elements to create new work can be seen in streets all over the world. This technique was taken further into the public eye when, in 2008, street artist Shepard Fairey became world famous (infamous?) with his graphic of Barack Obama taken from an AP photograph.

In the popular musical world, there are “mashup” artists like Girl Talk who take all kinds of different music and mix it together (check out Feed the Animals). However, this is not a new technique as DJ Shadow pioneered this on his critically acclaimed debut album Endtroducing….. in 1996.

This past week, a new website launched that really caught my eye. Thru You is the creation of Israeli musician and producer, Ophir Kutiel, aka Kutiman. He’s taken a number of unrelated YouTube videos and compiled them together to create some really amazing pieces. You just have to see it to get the full effect and I was completely impressed.

Of course, all of these different interpretations of these mediums bring a lot of questions to the surface which I can’t quickly cover here, but like them or not, they are starting to shape the culture that we live in. Feel free to weigh in and share your thoughts!

For the first studio tour of 2009, I visited the workspace of artist and illustrator, Lora Jost. I first met Lora when we worked together on a poster for the River City Reading Festival and I was so amazed by her illustration that I asked if I could visit her studio to see her workspace and more of her beautiful art. Lora uses several unique techniques in creating her work including scratchboard, ceramic mosaic, and collage. Her pieces draw from personal experiences and collected stories which are depicted with elements of beauty, whimsy, darkness, and joy. From her artist statement:

“I am drawn to experiences that are mundane, whimsical, and socially urgent. I like to mix these themes, and find how they link in spirit. I hope that viewers will identify with the stories my pictures tell. I hope that my art, in some small way, deepens our collective appreciation and compassion for each other and for life itself.”

Before moving to the studio, I wanted to show some of Lora’s artwork first. These black and white pieces were all done using scratchboard which is incredible to me! It is a very time intensive process, but Lora is able to etch extremely fine lines into the surface that create wonderful texture and a wide tonal range. I think these are fun to look at from a distance, but also very close up to appreciate the intricate detail of each line.

I asked Lora to show a little bit of her process on creating these. They generally start out as a pencil sketch before moving on to the scratchboard.

Using a variety of sharp instruments, she slowly scratches away the dark surface to reveal the white board underneath. It takes a very steady hand and a lot of patience to carve out the final image.

Some of Lora’s art is more child/family oriented and inspired by her experiences as a mother.

Her son has gone through some phases of art making as well and there are stacks of his drawings which were a lot of fun to see.

Lora has done a number of commissions and one that many people in Lawrence may have seen was for the KU Endowment Association. I love the colors in this piece! You can see the original art on the right and the printed version on the left.

The endowment piece shows a mixture of the scratchboard work and also some collaged elements which is another medium that she frequently uses.

This piece is a combination of paint, photography and thread. There are a lot of layers in her work and I like the effect of transparency that she uses.

A detail of the previous photo . . .

. . . and another. Although not necessarily a theme throughout all of her work, elements from nature and organic shapes and lines often appear in her pieces.

I also really enjoy her use of hand written type to help convey the story within the work.

This new piece was one of the highlights of a recent exhibit at the Lawrence Percolator gallery. Lora told me that she wasn’t sure if people would actually read the text or not, but it turns out that most people took the time and I encourage you to as well since it’s beautifully written.

This work is based on another personal story involving a police helicopter that hovered over her neighborhood one night.

In her studio, Lora has a great wall space for hanging her artwork. Although each piece tells an individual story, it’s neat to step back and see a large group of it all together.

She has an amazing art studio that was built as a second floor addition to her home. The windows and gallery lighting make it a bright workspace that welcomes creativity.

Lots of room for reference material and an office.

I always enjoy seeing the inspiration on studio walls.

The variety of materials that Lora has at her disposal is amazing and she has found very creative ways to put them to use.

She has also created a number of mosaics using broken ceramic pieces. Most of the bits come from dishware and mugs found at garage sales and thrift stores which give her a huge range of colors to work with. What a great way to reuse discarded and unwanted items!

After roughly sketching out the image on board, the tiles are glued into place one piece at a time until the final piece is completed.

The results are beautiful! Again, these works are fun to look at from a distance, but also up close where you can see the individual textures and patterns in each tile.

A huge thanks to Lora for inviting me over to look at her studio. I had a great time! You can see more of her artwork on her website at www.lorajost.org and also over at the Lawrence Arts Center. In addition to her artwork, Lora is also an educator and writer so be sure and check out the book Kansas Murals: A Traveler’s Guide, a book that she co-authored with muralist Dave Loewenstein (available on amazon.com).

Update: I’ve done a second post with more fun robot items for kids!

I thought this would be a fun way to learn ABCs!

We also have some great robot artwork from friends of ours. The Howdy Robot print on the wall is a piece by Tad Carpenter. The color match was purely a coincidence, but it’s a perfect fit! The orange robot was hand-knit and has been a guest in the house for a couple of years now. We’ve appropriately named it “KnitRobot”.

This is just a quick post to point you to a nice interview with University of Kansas art professor Michael Krueger. You can see more of his artwork on his website.

There’s one more show I’d like to encourage everyone to go check out! Heather Smith Jones has some of her beautiful work up at The Merc at 901 Iowa St. in Lawrence, KS. The show ends on February 1, 2009, but if you can’t make it to the gallery, be sure and check out her Etsy shop.

Also, if you didn’t see it, I did a studio visit with Heather recently and showcased some of her great artwork!

I have to say that it’s been a power week for gallery shows. There’s a lot to see right now, so get out there and support some artists!

In case you missed it, I did a studio tour with Justin in early 2008 that was a lot of fun!

Event Details:
Date: Thursday, December 4, 2008
Time: 6:00pm – 9:00pm
Place: Wonder Fair: Art Gallery & How!
803 Massachusetts (Below Casbah Market)
Lawrence, KS

From the artist:

Imagine a world filled with hope for new beginnings where reflection can heal in a time of change. In the past it has seemed as if this prospect of change could only exist in the imagination. Presently, however, millions of disenchanted citizens have come together to transform a broken world. This change of mind has finally forced a reevaluation of the past onto a 21st century landscape. In this body of work, I observe the surrounding social and physical landscape to retrieve bits and pieces of its present state. As with any kind of change, there can be the worry for its sustainability. How long can change hold on before it becomes a victim of its lingering past? True change requires innovation, imagination, creativity, optimism, and action, along with the will power of people to transform ideas into reality. With the bad comes the good and with the good comes the bad. In an endless balancing act, one will outweigh the other at times. In these prints I critique the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, the wrong and the right, to better understand this balance that continually exists in the world. In my imagination I can always dream of a better world, but to physically see hope in this vast sea of change, gives me assurance that beauty can prevail even when all seems lost.

Above image courtesy of Justin Marable

Here’s my poster for the event:

Don’t forget to vote this upcoming Tuesday!

Since you can get beautiful postcards and books with all of the paintings in them, I decided to shoot a handful of photos (without flash!) of people looking at the paintings. It seemed interesting at the time.

Pablo Picasso

Jackson Pollock

Auguste Rodin

Claude Monet

Vincent van Gogh

Andy Warhol

Salvador Dali

While I was there, I was also lucky enough to view the incredible 11 Spring Street building. It was truly an amazing display of street art.

Heather Smith Jones is a Lawrence-based painter and mixed media artist. When I first started doing my studio visit series, her name came up again and again in conversations with other local artists. I had seen some of her work at local gallery shows and we had met a few times through some mutual friends, so when I had the chance to hang out and visit with her in her studio, I jumped at the opportunity! She is an extremely kind and gracious person and allowed me to interrupt her on a recent Saturday morning to give me a tour of her work space.

Heather’s work is wildly creative with beautiful line work and great use of color. She has mastered a variety of techniques including watercolor, oils, acrylics, pinholes (more on that later) and has even mixed and tinted her own paint. Her work is often a blend of media and the result is fresh and unique.

There is a very personal quality to Heather’s art that I really enjoy. Her recent work is done on a small scale which forces you to get up close or hold it in your hand and really study it. It is clear that she puts a great deal of time and thought into each piece. Her delicate pinhole work is astounding.

Heather also does a lot of collaborative work with artists, photographers and writers from around the country on a variety of projects. The two images above are from the Inspired project, a collaboration with photographer Jen Causey.

The Noticing Project is a joint effort with Alicia Alferman in which both artists take a photo a day for all of 2008. In their words:

The notion of the project is to look intently and observe the small or ephemeral moments around us.

In addition to her work for galleries, she also does a number of smaller scale pieces that she sells online. The photo above shows some custom stationary she’s designed using the pinhole technique.

All above photos of artwork courtesy of Heather Smith Jones

The art studio that contains all of this creativity is a work of art in itself. The room is very open with great natural light streaming down from the skylights above. The dark wood and clean, bright walls make the room feel very comfortable. This is a view looking in from the doorway.

The details of the studio are really interesting. The space was built by Heather’s husband Matt Jones who is a woodworker, carpenter and builder. Matt builds wonderful custom furniture and is also a partner in the design/build company Struct/restruct Associates, LLC.

All of the wood used for the flooring and trim is reclaimed lumber from an old farmhouse. Despite being newly constructed, it still has a warm, lived-in feel.

Some examples of Matt’s furniture in the sitting area.

Heather has some of her own work adorning the walls of the studio, but most of her wall space is covered with the work of friends and other artists that she finds inspirational.

The two works above are from the Inspired project and it is neat to see the work in person and notice all of the little details in each piece.

There are also great collections of reference material scattered around including some old books of illustration.

Imagery from nature often appears in Heather’s work, so there are lots of collected items like these as well.

I’m very impressed at how prolific Heather is. She has amassed a large collection of work and, although much of it is small, there is incredible detail in each piece.

Love the colors!

One unusual technique that Heather has really developed is the use of pinholes. By punching many, many small holes in paper, she creates a stunning effect that has both intricate line work as well as a 3 dimensional texture to it. The end result has the look of delicate lace.

To accomplish these pinhole pieces, she created her own custom set of tools with a variety of different pin sizes. She and Matt worked together to make the custom wooden handles.

Hanging out in the corner of the studio is an old Vandercook proof letterpress that was handed down to her from within her family. She has done some work with it and is still experimenting with the process.

Her collection of metal type would make any designer’s heart skip a beat! In addition to the fonts, there are lots of intricate, ornamental pieces as well as some handmade blocks.

In August of 2007, Heather did a cool project with Polaroid photos that incorporated photography, writing, and painting called the August Polaroid Project.

Special thanks to Heather for taking the time to let me into her studio to see her wonderful work! You can visit her on the internet and purchase her work at:

Heather Smith Jones website
Heather’s Blog
Heather’s Etsy shop
Noticing Project

This is a collage piece that I recently came up with as a study for a different project. I ended up not using it for the project itself, but I had so much fun doing it, that I’d really like to try and do some more in this style, so stay tuned! A majority of the photographs were taken from the Library of Congress’ public domain archive on Flickr. That place is a treasure chest of interesting images from our nation’s past!

The Barack Obama Campaign has a series of art prints for sale under the name Artists for Obama. The series is comprised of images inspired by the message of the Obama campaign and they’ve had some high powered artists on board already. All money spent on the prints go towards the Obama campaign, so it’s a great way to help support his bid for the presidency!

The first print entitled “Change”, which sold out in a very short time, was done by designer and street artist Shepard Fairey. Fairey is probably best known for his Obey Giant street campaign, but has also done some incredible commercial graphic design including album art for The Smashing Pumpkins and Led Zeppelin.

The second artist for the Artists for Obama series is Scott Hansen who is perhaps lesser known, but is one of my favorite designers right now. His Obama design is the one shown above. Based out of San Francisco, Scott has an incredible eye for textures and color and I love his retro and vintage inspired designs which, in an era of retro-kitsch, is amazingly fresh and beautiful. He is also a great electronic musician performing under the name Tycho. With an ambient, atmospheric feel, his music is worth checking out.