Recycle, reuse, refine

I have surfed the net and stumbled upon some fantastic art made of waste.

Like these sculptures made of broken CD's made by the Australian artist Sean Avery, found on the website Demilked.com.

And lots of amazing insects made from old electronic components, by Julie Alice Chapell, presented on her Facebook-page and on Etsy.

Electric wire is also recycled into art, like these little trees by BarbaraCCreations on Etsy

More pictures here. 

Be well, everybody!

Favorite artist: Erin Wilson, quilting queen

An artist grows in Brooklyn and her name is Erin Wilson.  We saw her work for the first time at the Philadelphia Craft Show in 2011, where her large quilts of tiny, tiny pieces of handdyed, stitched pieces of fabric caught my attention and drew me in.  I love them!  The photo above is borrowed from her website, and shows one piece of a much larger quilt.  The patterns, geometric, but also natural and slightly random invokes fantasy, imagery, and emotions in a way that no textile work ever has before for me.  Here you have architecture, geology, interior designs, sailing, machines, factories, trees, shapes, and tepees, all at once - and what one person sees is not the same as the next.  Simply wonderful!  Expensive too, so I never thought I would own any of her work. (photo above, copyright Erin Wilson)

After we came home from the Philadelphia show, my husband gave me a package and in it was, you guessed it, one of her miniquilts, a 2 x 2 block mounted neatly on a wood frame for hanging on the wall.  Here it is!  What do you see?  I love it and it is now at home in our newly renovated guestroom/office.  This is really creativity at its best.  Thank you Erin for sharing this with us.

 

And then, right after Christmas we got a little brown package in the mail.  Hmm, we thought, wonder what this is.  Erin sent us a quilted tree ornament, just like that!  What an incredibly wonderful surprise!!!  When I see this I think about the power of red love, how it cracks through hard rocks and layers. Others might see the Washington Monument at sunrise, or a rocket at the Florida seashore... the impressions and feelings and interpretations are endless.

Dear Erin, Thank You so much for sharing your work and love for fabric with us.  You are absolutely amazing! We love your work and will buy more of it, promise.  Looking at these quilts make me so happy!

 (Now, go over and visit her website and GET LOST IN COLOR AND SHAPES)

Some art from AREA

Simply a great piece of art!  Thanks, AREA!!!  (more of her art here)

Stamp of the Day: Franz Marc, painter

I still remember the first time I saw a painting by Franz Marc.  It was at the Chicago Institute of Art. I rounded a corner in a room, and there it was, unassuming, kind of hiding among the other paintings in the modern wing, and it captured me. It was like finding a perfectly polished piece of glass on a sandy beach, you hold it, look at it, and can go into it, mentally, drowning and dreaming and thinking all the way.  I remember just standing there, loving it.  It wasn't this painting, but this one is great too.  Unfortunately he died very young, and this German stamp commemorates his life and art.

Stamp of the day: the power of wind and lines

We are continuing our little series (2 so far) of energy related stamps, here with a Swedish stamp featuring wind power (vindenergi).  I love the clean lines... Sweden stuck to real engraved stamps for along time, and some are still done this way, but I think most American stamps by now are made with less time-consuming graphical techniques. The engraver of this one, Czeslaw Slania, was the master of Swedish engraving, and in fact, the world master of stamp engraving and world famous for his work for 28 countries.  He was hired by the Swedish postal office in 1959. Here is the 1000th stamp he engraved: link.

OK snapshot: Art by Stina Wirsén

Click for larger images of Swedish folklore. Snapshots by OK.

painting the dark

Making art is hard, but I think it is even harder if you paint night scenes. In a recent issue of the Pastel Journal, Don Williams is interviewed and they show some of his night scenes, which remind me of Winston Link's railroad photos, some paintings by Edward Hopper, and old black and white film noir scenes. Take a look at William's art here.

Very Swedish childhood...

"Hösten städar sig själv med vindar."
(The autumn is cleaning itself with winds.)
(first line in a poem named "Höst", Fall, by Harry Martinson).

This summer we went to the Nordic Watercolor Museum in Skärhamn and saw an exhibit of the paintings by Elsa Beskow. In the early 1900s she started to write and illustrate children's book in a style that became famous and much loved in Sweden. When I grew up we probably had all her books, even if it was 50 years at least since they were first published. Her drawings, made at the kitchen table while she was taking care of her 5 children, are amazing in their clear colors and accurate depiction of nature, both animals and plants. But there is magic and wonder in there too - a feeling of amazement and joy. Here are some more of her drawings (click on the small images to see them bigger). I always thought that the yellow aspen leaves (falling in the drawing on the left) looked just like golden coins, but I am not sure if I read that in her book first or came up with it myself. It was probably Elsa Beskow...
































Enjoy!

Memories from a summer visit to Sundborn, Sweden

This summer we drove through the Swedish province called Dalarna and we stopped by in the famous little village called Sundborn. It is famous for one reason - this is where the painter Carl Larsson had his Swedish house which he featured in his art and several books (gallery of paintings).

The village is quaint, and even the gas station is housed in some old log barns, most likely several hundred years old. Many barns in this area of Sweden are not painted with Falu red paint, despite that Falu Mine is not far away at all. Some old buildings are raised up on rocks, and many of these 'härbren' were used to store grains and other food. The rocks made it harder for food-loving animals to get into the buildings. This is also the area that has the most traditional paintings, and the mailboxes here are generally personalized and gorgeous. No standardized US Mail boxes here!
Through the village runs a small river that has a dam with a yellow, small and local power station (the most gorgeous power station I have ever seen, and below the dam is a lake. Carl Larsson owned one of the islands in the lake right opposite his house and he and his family used to have picnics out there.

The village attracts tens of thousands of visitors each year and the villagers try to keep their appearance. Gardens are well-kept and full of gorgeous plants, and old-fashioned fences ('gärdsgård') made from spruce are kept up and repaired.


An old blacksmith near the dam had an ornate sign like something out of the Lord of the Rings. The name of the building is "å-smedjan", meaning the 'River Smith'. I had never visited Sundborn before but it was strange to see places I have seen on paintings in real life, 100 years later, and they still look very much the same. I liked Carl Larsson's paintings, but I never loved them, but suddenly they came alive. None of the paintings are in Sundborn, they are too valuable, but the interior decorating style and details in their house and gardens fascinated me. It was really an inspiring visit.



Here is the gorgeous powerstation. How is that for amazing industrial architecture? It looked like it was in use too, like many water power stations around Sweden.

And here it is, Carl Larsson's home, where he and his family lived in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It was all designed by him and his wife, both the exterior and interior desgins, and they added onto the house many times. The studio is the tall north-facing windows, and the south of the house has views out on the lake shore.

The foundation of the house is build of blocks made from iron slag, which was abundant in this area of Sweden full of iron mines and foundry's. Carl and his wife Karin designed many of their things, from furniture (like this garden table, a copy of the original), to clothes, and fabrics.


The village carpenter built the furniture to order, and much of the designs where totally against the traditions at the time - Carl and Karin wanted things to be practical, simple, and beautiful with light colors and happiness in everything. They didn't follow many rules, which must have made them stand out in the village as well as all of Sweden. They had 8 kids that they more or less let roam free, which was highly unusual at the time. To the left, two doors desgined and painted by Carl Larsson. I love how he used color, with bright contrasts and earthy hues.

The long window to the family room where Karin sewed all clothes, the children played, and books were read.


During our visit we had some of the old, but not as old as Carl Lasson, tastes of Sweden - Kopparbergs sockerdricka - literally Coppermountain's Sugar Soda - and it was so good. And no HFCS, only real beet sugar! A table in the garden was set up as a little emboidery project where anybody could sit down and start stitching.
More photos here. And here is a painting from Sundborn by Carl Larsson, showing Karin Larsson peeling rhubarb: