Where does the time go? It seems as though I’ve been so caught up with recent news about my photography (me! me! me!) that I’ve completely neglected another important area of the site: the Collection! In the past I’ve regularly shared news about the incredible works of art I’ve been fortunate enough to acquire for my private collection.
I think the last update was last… March? Yikes! So isn’t it about time for an update?
First up is a really cool mixed media piece by Craig “Skibs” Barker titled I Cannot Change The Future But I’ll Find You If You’re Gone. You can actually see the painting live and in person through March 26th at Thinkspace Gallery in Culver City.
Next up is a creative little painting from Kristin Tercek that recently fell into my hands when another collector decided to prune portions of his rather extensive collection. Lucky me!! The title of the piece is Vernal Equinox and I’ve hung it over the arched doorway that leads from my downstairs hall towards the living room. Though not pictured in the jpeg below, the artist bridged the left and right corners of the painting with a colorful ribbon that forms a kind of “faux framing wire.” It’s a clever effect and really sets the painting off in its new home.
The first drawing in this batch of new art is a piece from Ana Bagayan that I coveted, big time, the first time I saw her post pictures of it to her web site. The drawing was created for her “Flutter” solo show at Mondo Bizzarro Gallery in Rome during May of last year. This is called Caged and it is now hanging in my master bedroom. It’s rather funny, looking back now, that Ana used to have a web site called “Paint Good Draw Bad” when I first came to discover her work. Draw bad… uh, yeah, right.
Wanna see another of Ana’s drawings?
Okay, this one is titled The Suitors and it was included in a charity auction at Distinction Gallery last summer. The theme of the exhibit was clowns — a subject matter that would not normally appeal to me. Ana’s take, though, was so clever, creative, and brilliantly unexpected that I found my aversion to clowns softening enough to add this wonderful piece to my collection.
Still looking for a spot to hang this (no, don’t suggest your house), so for now it is leaning against a wall in my guest room along with a Mark Ryden, a Clayton Brothers, a Kathy Stacio-Schorr, a Femke Hiemstra, and others waiting to find their permanent place on my walls.
Another awesome piece from a recent Distinction exhibit is a 24×30” acrylic from Casey Weldon titled Safe Passage — the centerpiece of his two-person show this past February. This was the first time I’d seen Casey’s work and I was extremely impressed with how masterfully he is able to meld the sublime with the surreal. Safe Passage is sharing “wall leaning space” with the Ana Bagayan drawing, but will eventually graduate to either my office or library.
As many of you know, one of my very favorite artists is Femke Hiemstra, who has been showing regularly at Roq la Rue in Seattle. I jumped on the Femke bandwagon the first time the gallery floated me jpegs of her extraordinarily tight, fairytale-like paintings of wondrous creatures, real and imagined. The Newborn is a small, incredibly detailed oil painting from her November show with Ryan Heshka. The painting is only 7×12”, but the amount of detail is truly amazing. The jpeg here can’t even pretend to do the painting justice. It waits, still boxed and wrapped in plastic, for just the right room and just the right spot. The dining room, maybe? (Which reminds me… I need to update my “living with art” series that shows all of the art in my collection hanging on the walls of my house).
How many favorite artists do I have? Actually, far too many than to actually use the term “favorite artists” (even though I just did in describing Femke Hiemstra’s work), but another (if I were to continue to use the term) is Brandi Milne. Her solo show at Corey Helford this past June marked an epic evolution in her work. Every piece was a masterpiece of imagination and technique. The piece below, Sleep Escapes Me, was one of the first she completed for the show. It’s a nice big painting — 36×24” — and now hangs above a large, old, Indonesian armoire in my living room.
Last, and surely not least is a drawing from Mark Ryden’s epic “Old Tyme Art Show” at Paul Kasmin Gallery in New York last spring. I was very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to acquire one of the drawings from the show, and I was thrilled that the drawing for The Piano Man was available when it came time for me to make a selection. Note that the drawing is a little different than the oil painting created for the show, in that the girls in the drawing are all shedding tears, whereas the girls in the painting are not.
The drawing is now hanging in my office beside a small painting by Mark’s wife, Marion Peck.
And there you have it! I promise (he said with the confidence of untested optimism) to be more diligent about future updates. Enjoy!
Wind-up Dreams & Vinyl Nightmares 