Jeremy Geddes

These paintings by artist Jeremy Geddes, who lives and works in Australia, are SO incredible I could spend hours just staring at them. I discovered Jeremy's work a while ago, and I can't believe I haven't written about him before now. While all of his work is stunning and incredibly detailed (sometimes taking several months to complete just one), his series of astronauts in peril is hands down my favorite. There is something unsettling about them. It's beautiful realism in a surreal environment. They really make you question what is going on in these scenes. How did the astronauts end up dangling from buildings in empty urban landscapes? What has happened in these deserted streets? I don't know...but I don't have a very good feeling about it.

Visit Jeremy's website to see ALL of his incredible work.

{P.S.- Even though it's not from his astronaut series, I had to include one last image (below), titled "The Cafe," which may be my favorite piece of Jeremy's. It's just too good not to include.}

Focus Fireplaces

One day, when I eventually live in the modern house of my dreams, I know where to find the modern fireplace of my dreams. These stunning fireplaces are created by a company called Focus Fireplaces, which started as an artist's studio in 1968 and has since become an international business selling over 3,500 fireplaces a year. With so many different models it's a tough choice, but I think I'm a Gyrofocus kind of guy. Now I just need to start working on making that house a reality.

Different (key)strokes for different folks!

Early Christmas gift alert!! If anyone is feeling extra generous this holiday season, I would love to have one of these unique USB typewriters, which can connect to any PC, Mac or iPad! I can almost hear that "click...click...click" of an old-fashioned typewriter as I write this!

You can see other styles on their etsy page.

{via Whorange}

Andrea Keys Connell

I have admired the work of Andrea Keys Connell for quite a while now. Her ceramic sculptures and large installations are so impressive to me. I would love to have the opportunity to see them in person one day. For now, I will continue to follow her work online...and continue to be constantly amazed.

Andrea is influenced by many things, but she is particularly "interested in intergenerational trauma and how a person’s past, particularly a past that has been interrupted by a traumatic event such as war, can influence patterned behaviors that are passed through the family." Heavy stuff indeed...and it certainly comes across in her work. To see more sculptures, take a look at Andrea's website.

Alexa Meade

Prepare to be blown away. At first glance, the figurative paintings above, by Washington, DC artist Alexa Meade, seem like beautiful, colorful portraiture. Alexa captures her subjects with bright colors and heavy brush strokes, but wait...the hair looks SO real. Too real. That's because it is. In fact, this isn't a flat painting on canvas...it's an actual person sitting in a chair, who has been painted to look like they are in an actual painting. Make sense? No. Well, take a look at the pictures at the bottom of this post to see what I'm talking about.

Alexa has innovated a Trompe-L'Oeil painting technique than can perceptually compress three-dimensional space into a two-dimensional plane. She paints her representational image directly on her three-dimensional subjects. Her work is an impressive combination of installation, painting, performance, and photography. All of Alexa's work, the hours spent creating these images, is gone in a matter of hours (or however long it takes the model to jump in the shower and scrub the paint off their bodies). What remains after the scene has ended is a photographic reminder of what was. It serves as documentation of the performance.

Are you blown away? I thought so. To see more of Alexa's impressive work take a look at her website.

Weekend Guest on The Jealous Curator

I was beyond excited when The Jealous Curator asked me to be one of her "weekend guests" on her blog (which just happens to be the only blog I read on a daily basis...I love it!) I have been a fan of The Jealous Curator for quite some time now. She finds the most interesting artists, and as someone who can barely keep my own blog updated as frequently as I would like, I am constantly jealous of her! Her daily blog posts never fail to please. She is a witty writer and has an amazing eye for choosing exactly the kind of artists that interest me.

The Jealous Curator was kind enough to write a post about a show I was curating a few weeks ago, and ever since we have become email buddies. When she asked me to be one of her "weekend guests" it took me less than a second to respond with, "YES, YES, YES!!!" It was an honor to be asked and I was excited to be included on the impressive list of her previous weekend guests. The hard part was choosing one artist to write about. Instead of writing about any of the artists I had previously written about on my own blog, I wanted to find someone new to feature. I found some artists I loved and then realized The Jealous Curator had already written about them. Like I said, she has a knack for picking artists I love. Then I ran across the hand-stitched illustrations of Emily Eibel and I didn't have to look any further. I knew I had found the artist I wanted to write about. I mean, look at these:





To see my guest post on The Jealous Curator's site, click here. If you aren't familiar with The Jealous Curator's blog you definitely should be. In fact, one visit to her site and I think you will become a daily viewer like me.

Michaelene Walsh

Micaelene Walsh is a ceramic artist and Associate Professor of Art at Louisiana State University. According to Michaelene, "dolls and animals have always interested me because they seem to possess an inner life." I really hope these little guys don't possess an inner life because they remind me of something that would come to life in the middle of the night and attack you in your sleep. Kind of creepy, I know, but that's one reason I am drawn to them. I like to live dangerously. It's the same reason I like to go on all the rides at a county fair. Who doesn't love the thrill of stepping onto a old, mechanical ride that was put together in a day and could fall apart at any second. It gets the adrenaline pumping. Sorry...my mind tends to stray. Let's get back to Michaelene. If her unique creations weren't enough to interest me (although they totally were) just take a look at her bio and artist statement. I was hooked after I read this:

Bio: This is my story... I was raised by a family of mountain gorillas. This partially explains my love of animals. When I’m not loving on animals, I’m generally eating them.

The end

Artist Statement: If you have eaten ice cream, marveled at a monkey, played with a doll, drawn a heart or written a secret note on blue lined notebook paper, we have something in common, at least on the surface.


So great! Take a look at Michaelene's website to see more of her ceramic scultpures, drawings and installations. Speaking of her installations, I couldn't resist throwing in this photo from one of her installations titled, "Bittersweet."

Robin Venable

Working in an art gallery can be a great experience. Being surrounded by creativity is always a fun thing, and luckily I get to do this 5 days a week. Having amazing co-workers makes the day even better, and Robin Venable is one of the best co-workers I have ever had. We make each other laugh constantly, we entertain each other with stories, we get in the most ridiculous fights ever only to make-up again in 5 minutes...but even that keeps the day interesting. Not only is Robin a fantastic co-worker, she is also a great friend...and did I mention that she is also an amazing artist? Well, she is.

Robin came to the gallery a year ago having just received her MFA from Florida State University. Her work is beautiful and unique. She works on round canvases instead of the traditional rectangluar ones. She doesn't like the feeling of being "trapped in a box" with a rectangular canvas, and prefers the movement the circular base gives her work. Robin loves medieval manuscripts, transparency, religious icons and ornate designs. She is also heavily influenced by her spirituality and draws on those things, and more, to create her layered paintings. Her work attempts to make sense of life's complexity...a battle of light and dark. Her latest paintings are a reflection of her own struggles, and serve as very elaborate self-portraits. She paints herself into each painting surrounded by light, dark, pattern, shadows, animals, colors, etc. These are the most interesting to me and I look forward to seeing what new paintings will emerge in the months and years to come.

More of Robin's work can be found on her website. Take a look for more images and info. For now, Robin and I have to get back to work.

Paul Wackers

I don't know a lot about Paul Wackers. I know he received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2004, and lists several impressive solo shows on his C.V., but other than that there's not a whole lot of biographical information on his website. I do know this, though...I could stare at his paintings for hours. Take a look at his website for more images...but try not to stare for hours. Not good for the eyes :)