Week 8: Shannon Keller | Queen of the Night/ Double Bloom

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Shannon Keller
Queen of the Night/ Double Bloom,
2020
Watercolor and Pencil on paper
22 x 30inches,

Nominated by Paula Izydorek

Statement by Shannon Keller  www.shannonkellerart.com

My drawings question the very forms we inhabit; they delicately rework the makeup of our bodies by inlaying other anatomies, cross colonizing and hydridding these insides to form visual poems. I skin my studies to reveal their raw form and replace selections with flora and fauna, as well as anatomica. Using metaphor to select and craft my imagery, I recreate and redefine what is inside of us, allowing that to shine. I am guided by my curiosity of the animal kingdom and our kinship to it.

In my recent body of work, I am using watercolor and ink to map out the body and offer a fluidity to contrast my sharp detail. I have chosen red lead and watercolor because I feel deeply connected to reds, salmons and pinks as a color of life source.

Why I chose the particular artwork:

I have been fondly aware of Shannon Keller’s drawings for a long while and have two in my collection. Queen of the Night/ Double Bloom is both an evolution and a flawless continuation of her previous oeuvre. Keller's delicately use of watercolor compliments and contrasts her meticulous depiction of Queen of the Night botanical. Her signature feminine silhouettes overlaying to create multi forms and expand her visual; introducing nonrepresentational poetic narratives. Her delicate yet powerful imagery is alluring and I feel strongly that others will agree.

Week 8: Shelley Heffler | We Pride #2

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Shelley Heffler

We Pride #2

Vinyl

2019

Recommended by Nancy Kay Turner

This series of work is inspired by the vinyl banners I received from the West Hollywood Gay Pride Parade. Process and paradox are the core issues in my work, while the materials I use fuel and inspire me. Fabrication is low tech and hands on. Questions about urban environment and passage of time are elements I explore. I am deeply aware of the destruction of our throwaway society that is leading to our collective destruction. Modern times has resulted in treating the earth as a disposable resource. Through the action of painting and deconstructing, I attempt to restructure and form material to reclaim and restore a healing presence through the work. 

Week 8: Nurit Avesar | Phantom

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Nurit Avesar

Phantom

12”x12”

Mixed media on wood panel

2020

Phantom was painted recently, during the quarantine. This new realty feels very surreal, like a bad dream. As time progresses, I realize the economic and social toll of the crisis, yet my daily routine is very calm, no rushing, no traffic and no appointments. I chose this piece because it represents disintegration and a dream-like state, yet there are bright, playful colors in it. There is hope and the knowledge that eventually we will get through this difficult time.

Week 8: Carolyn Mason | Hybird perch (for a hybrid bird)

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Carolyn Mason

Hybird perch (for a hybrid bird)

2020

Mixed media including wood, copper tubing, felted wool, and machine buffer elements

25 x 17 x 12 inches

 I selected this work as it's the last piece I made before my studio building closed. I was thinking about birds -- and my sometimes-fraught relationship with nature -- as a city dweller longing for more connection with the natural world. In this work, wood and pinecones are combined with a bit shine and color provided by industrial materials. Two months later, my connection to the trees and birds around me is ever shifting as I savor more and more time outdoors. 

Week 8: Margaret-Anne Smith | White Marble, Green & Black & Yellow

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Margaret-Anne Smith

White Marble, Green & Black & Yellow

2018

Inkjet Print, Gouache, India Ink on Paper

11 x 14 inches

This is a photograph of a scrap of marble I picked up at a stone yard where I was having a piece of stone cut.  It is photographed against a yellow action painted backdrop I made in my studio.  The green textured band of paint coming down from the top right is an entry point into studying the shape of certain facets of the marble.  This entrance led me down 4 planes or angles, around an outcrop and out of the marble onto the yellow foreground.  The 2-dimensional outline of the photographed stone intrigued me, I flipped a smaller version of the shape, traced it onto the photograph and made my own strata object in front of the original stone behind it. 

The reason I chose this image is because, for me as I stay at home during the Corona Virus outbreak, it reaffirms the interconnectedness of all things, among them human and mineral.  It reminds me of the way energy is recycled by wind, sun, water and a person’s hand.   It makes we wonder at the creativity of matter and the intersection of that matter with creativity in the human spirit. 

Week 8: Steve Seleska | Micro-Environment #150

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Steve Seleska
Micro-Environment #150
2018
36x24
acrylic, epoxy resin, and black rubber

Micro-Environment is a fantasy image of something one might see at a microscopic level. An environment that exists only at the microscopic level. I think it is very pertinent in these times as we face a microscopic virus and are relying on science to pull us through.

Week 8: Regina Argentin | Alfalfa

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Regina Argentin
Alfalfa
2019
oil on canvas
48 x 53 inches

This is a portrait of a character from my original graphic novel “Cymboline and Alfalfa.”  Alfalfa is an urban coyote that resides in a dystopian Los Angeles around a department store.  I selected this piece based on how I feel about the moment we are currently experiencing. Isolation, loneliness and hope of a positive transformation.