Insignia

The lovely photographer Dorthee took some beautiful photographs of my encaustics that are up in the the Insignia Towers in downtown Seattle. It's been a whirlwind of a year so far and I can not wait to see what the rest of the year has in store for me. I'm deeply thankful for everyone who has continued to support me and the love and light that radiates through my community.

Niki de Saint Phalle

The New Yorker recently had an article that highlighted the work of french painter, sculptor, and filmaker Niki de Saint Phalle and I have fallen in love! Niki de Saint was born in the 1930's and worked in a variety of mediums but her work was always loud and usually celebrated the female spirit and form. She had a tumultuous childhood and after suffering from a nervous breakdown in her early 20's she was institutionalized. While she was institutionalized she was encourage to paint which she claimed is what 'saved' her. She was determined to be an artist and although she had no formal training she quickly made a name for herself with her Shooting Paintings. She would put objects and bags of bright colored paint on giant  boards and then cover the whole thing with white plaster; she would then invite people to watch as she would use a shot gun to shoot at the pieces. When she would hit the art the bags of paint would explode creating a river of multicolored paint and fragments of objects. These acts were are very early form of performance art.

Niki de Saint making a Shooting Painting

Niki de Saint also used her work to explore the female figure in relation to the postion of women in society, her most noted exploration of these themes is her giant "Nana" instillation. With the help of the artist Jean Tinguely she constructed a huge hollow Nana that patrons could enter though a door sized vagina.

Her life's work, however, was a huge sculpture garden that she erected in a small community in Tuscany. The garden was based off of the tarot deck and took about 20 years to complete! It's still there and I am dying to visit it!

I am super excited to be able to finally announce that I have been chosen as one of the 60 artists from around the world to participate in the first Accessible art fair in NYC this November! Not to be confused with the affordable art fair, this is a platform for emerging and established artists that don't currently have gallery representation. Curated by Gagosian and Sotheby's and four other esteemed art advisers. It's held at one of the most beautiful and oldest venues in NYC and I am so  excited to be able to show my encaustic paintings to a wider audience.

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New Linocuts

"Mexico City" 2016

"Monstera" 2016

These are from one of my latest series "Land of Mystics", you can view the rest of the series on my website!

Greg Klassen

 Greg Klassen's furniture is unlike anything I've ever seen and I can't get over it! He hand-makes each piece out of slabs of salvaged live-edge lumber and glass and they are simply breathtaking. Klassen takes inspiration from the forest, rivers, and fields of the Northwest where he currently resides. You can view more of his work at his website.

   

Feature in Architectural Digest Magazine

I have been waiting and wondering if this would ever come out, and it finally has! My encaustic painting is featured in Architectural Digestt! Pilar Guzman's Hamptons mansion is insane, and I am so grateful.

Rituals Show at Maker Agent

My latest show at Maker/Agent in Seattle was a blast, I am working my butt off on commissions and life has never been busier...Feeling great...

Thank you so much to those who came out to see my new work! 

Photographs by Dorothee of Belathee Photography!

Well Hello

I'm sure some of you have noticed that I have not been posting here for the past few months and I would like share why. Last July, while on a family trip in Montana, I got into a traumatic accident involving a four wheeler that almost cost me my left arm. Although I immediately underwent treatment and surgery , infection spread through my arm and I was very close to losing  my life.

I am on the road to recovery but still have a long way  to go. I had to get a metal rod inserted into my arm and although I do have movement in my hand now I am still unable to use my arm except to hold things under 5 lbs. I've had three surgery's going into my fourth surgery to fix my elbow that is now dislocating. The doctors believe my body has been rejecting the metal rod which also makes me more susceptible to another infection.

I've never felt more grateful to be alive. I have a new perspective on life;  things that used to bother me are now trivial and although this experience has and continues to be one of the hardest things I have ever experienced I am grateful to be emerging from it with a new clarity and joy for life. This past month I have been able to get back in the studio and start making new work which I am so excited about ! Below is a small sample of what I have been up to.

Life is Amazing...

Feeling grateful to be alive this week...Life is magic and mind blowing, and this image fits my mood today. Happy Fall!

New Watercolor Work

As I mentioned in my last post I've been obsessed with the phases of the moon lately and I've been working a lot with watercolors. Here's a sneak peak at some new one of a kind collage/watercolor work that has stemmed  from my celestial fascination! These pieces and more like them are for sale up on Serena and Lily right now and will be on display at Maison Luxe this November.You can also subscribe to my email list (via the side menu) for more information in the upcoming months about new work and shows.

Hilma af Klint: October 1862-1944

Recently, with the creation of new work, I've become obsessed with celestial landscapes and the phases of the moon. Discovering this artist, Hilma af Klint, has left me speechless. Hilma af Klint was a Swedish artist and mystic; she attended her first séance in the 1870s and soon became a fixture at spiritual meetings concerned with Spiritualism (the belief that the dead can be contacted through a medium), Theosophy (empirical investigations of divinity) and Anthroposophy (the pursuit of spiritual knowledge through explorations of the imagination and sensory experiences).

Her body of work encompasses over 1,000 pieces and were amongst the first abstract art to be created. She requested, however, that the majority of her geometric abstracts not be shown till 40 years after her death because she claimed no one in the 20th century was ready for it! I think it's incredible that this women passionately explored such radical ways of creating and experimenting.

“She was doing something that was not on the retina of people at her time, in terms of size, color, composition and, of course, the abstraction — she was very much a pioneer" 

       -Iris Müller-Westermann, the curator of international art at the Moderna

I hope you enjoy her work as much as I do and have a great week !

My Daughter of the Forrest

In between being in my studio or working on my art from my home I have 2 kids that are the loves of my life, and this girl is one of them. She is working with a great photographer Dorothee, of Belathee Photography and Heffner Management in Seattle, doing a little shoot for the amazing Rachel Ravitch jewelry. This is just one of the photos, and I loved it so much I had to show you. Akira works part time at the West Seattle food bank, and has killer taste in music, even dabbling on her guitar here and there, and wants to help people for a living, whatever that may be. I am so proud of her and the woman she is becoming. 

Also her middle name is Galaxy, I am her mother after all...

Model-Akira Ament//Instagram - akira_ament

Hair and Make-up - Kaija Mistral

Styling - Jessie Jamz

Projecting Good Energy

Still no leads on who stole my art so I've been coming to terms with the fact that I most likely won't get those pieces back. I am moving forward with forgiveness. I sincerely wish the person who stole my work happiness. 

An Unfortunate End To The Week

I found out this morning that the four paintings of mine that are pictured above had been stolen from Maison Luxe in the middle of the night. I am writing this post in hopes that all of my local Seattle friends will please be on the lookout for these paintings. This feels so surreal, who steals paintings? I mean, I have heard about the Mexican drug cartels stealing obscure Picasso's from random galleries in Amsterdam with horrible security, but four large paintings from a small time artist and small shop owner that is just trying to make an honest living? Seriously WTF? I am so flabbergasted by this... I keep thinking someone is playing a prank on me but I don't think they would go to the length of breaking and entering? They can't sell these pieces online can they? And why would they hang these in their home? Wouldn't other people maybe see them?  I know it's not the worst thing that could have happened, but it feels violating and I worked very hard and long on these paintings and am so sad. My heart also goes out to Kelie and Maison Luxe for the heartbreak of having been violated to the extreme. This feels so creepy and was not the greatest of days my friends, if you see or hear of anything that may be of help to me or the owner if Maison Luxe please get in touch.. Thanks so much.

Too Many People, Trying Too Hard...

Many of us trying to make a living with what we love to do are getting sucked into the machine of becoming a product rather than just making our art. I recently read an article by Penny Arcade that said, 

"There are a handful of young artists I know who turn a skeptical eye to the golden promises the professionalization of the arts hold out. I am always happy when I have conversations with these holdouts because it is distressing to see how many really talented people give in to the demands of the market place.Yet we live at a time where the infiltration of the marketplace is almost impossible to avoid, for anyone including older artists like me. It is a constant struggle to not give in the forces that demand dumbing down and homogenization.It takes takes enormous vigilance to not succumb to it’s tyranny, to honor your own trajectory, no matter how modest it may seem in the eyes of the world.There is simply no substitute for the developmental arc, no matter what you engage in, making art or being a shoemaker. Once you develop your vocabulary and your personal style it is very easy to make your art into product but in focusing on making product, you lose out on learning how to make art." 

It is inevitable you will be judged, hated, and idealized when you have any semblance of success as an artist, maker, designer, etc. Your art is not a product. Don't make it a product. Keep it close to your heart. Don't let it be taken away from you and made into something else.

I had an absolutely AMAZING time at Love City Love's pop-up/hang out shop a few weeks ago.  There were so many talented artists and artisans at the event, I was truly honored to have been a part of it.

Underwater Plant Life

I have a new body of work up on my website titled Underwater Plant Life, you can check it out here ! All are hand printed in limited editions and are for sale (print only though no frame) . I'll be updating my website again very soon with some more new work so stay tuned! You can also follow me on Instagram and Twitter for more regular updates. If you already followed me on Twitter I had to get a new account so follow my new one !

Doug Wheeler at David Zwirner Gallery

I really wish I could go see Doug Wheeler's upcoming show at David Zwirner in New York. If you happen to be around NYC, check out this show. Hope you are starting to thaw out from the freezing temps that seems to be hitting us even in the milder climates. Happy Winter!

New Year, New Goals, New Inspiration

Unlocking The Truth - Malcolm Brickhouse & Jarad Dawkins from The Avant/Garde Diaries on Vimeo.

Happy New Year to you all, I hope everyone had a great holiday! I am very excited for this year, I have a lot of new paintings I'm working on and can not wait to see what else unfolds in 2014. Here is some inspiration to kick off the new year; these boys are total bad ass's and great reminders to always stand up for what you love and do your art the way you want to do it, not the way other people think you should do it. Bring it on 2014.

My Show At Maison Luxe

Hi! I have been M.I.A. here in blog land as I was insanely consumed with getting ready for my show at the beautiful Maison Luxe in Seattle, painting, printing, melting, and collaging my butt off for the last couple of months. So grateful to everyone who came to support me and my work, but also just getting out to support the arts in Seattle in general. It is hard to leave my house sometimes, but it is so important to get out and support one another and be part of the community that we love and treasure, and it means so much to every artist out there. Thank you for spreading the love. Life goes by fast, man.

My new Linocuts took me into a little bit of a different direction. Adding a few abstract pieces into the mix felt right to me. Hanging this wall took hours of thought and rearranging, believe it or not. Kelie and I were a good team. I am super happy with the way it turned out.

This is for the ex- lover who have used this line with probably most of us. The last two sentences are what I believe to be true now.

Kelie of Maison Luxe did such a beautiful job setting this table up! My wall of Watercolors, Original Ink on Paper, and Collage were a year in the making. My inspiration came from planets not yet discovered, the galaxy surrounding us, and the insides of Minerals. I sold out of all of the little collage work right away!!

My friend and amazing interior designer, Kelie Grosso of Maison Luxe ,who I am so grateful to, for inviting my work into her amazing store!

My under water plant collection is inspired by my family's boating adventures. Seaweed gets caught in our prop on our boat, and kills the motor, my kids fear it, and whenever I swim it gets tangled in my legs. It used to bug me, but oddly, I have learned to love it.

 This Triptych is named "Escape Through Here" 2013, Ink On Paper

My friend and talented interior designer Leah Ball Steen, who has come to all of my shows, even the ones where there were maybe 5 people there. Every artist knows what I am talking about. The people that come to those shows are keepers for sure!

 And finally some encaustics to add into the mix! Thank you so much Dorothee from Belathee Photography and Kelie Grosso from Maison Luxe for helping to put on my most beautiful show yet, and for giving back to the community your time and efforts!

Every amazing photo (but 2) are by Belathee Photography, the other 2 by Jenny Vorwaller's iphone!