Artist Jonathan Blum will be at Jenny Bec's in Santa Monica tomorrow - Saturday, June 7 from 11am - -6pm, with monoprint demonstrations at 11am and 3:30pm.  I saw his creations when I was there earlier this week and they are fabulous!  This would be a great event for kids too.

Michael Mew has a new show up at Deborah Page Gallery in Santa Monica, and you can meet him tonight at their opening reception from 6-9pm.  I saw some of his new creations this week and as always, I love them. 

[Moonlight Bowl with Stars :: Nancy Taliaferro]

...and speaking of my friend Nancy (see previous entry), her new website is up!  I am the proud owner of a number of Nancy's dreamy creations and am always eager to see what she is working on whenever I go to her house for a visit.  Her talent boggles the mind, I tell you.  {sigh} 

I just ordered What It Is by Lynda Barry and I can't wait to get my hands on it.  Here's a great article about her from a recent edition of the New York Times. 

 “The fact that anybody knows what I do and likes it feels surreal to me.  It feels like the Make-a-Wish Foundation.”  -Lynda Barry

[Summer Bungalow by Liz Kalloch] 

The extraordinary Liz Kalloch recently opened Athena Dreams Shop over at Etsy.  Check out her gorgeous work, and be sure to bookmark her art & design blog as well.

Goddess Leonie has a re-vamped website and a brand spanking new Etsy shop - take a peek and be inspired! 

"This site is for artists, models and critics who propose creative, personal and original high quality work which is recognized and appreciated. It was designed to bring a personal vision of Art presentation over the Internet media. The idea was to propose something well designed, really fast and simple to display, with a lot of features to help artists to promote their work and share their passion and knowledge to other members. New technologies and amazing effects are interesting for games and shows, but a web gallery should help a work of art to be exhibited in the best possible way, and seen by as many people as possible. Many wonderful communities exists over the Internet and each one has its specificity, its public and fans. No one can pretend to be the best as human tastes are - still - personal. Our vision and concept is to bring a emotive dialog between creators and visitors, helping them within advanced features to meet each other." -Art Limited website

What can I say? This website is overwhelming, in the best way possible!

[Untitled :: Ivan Ivanovic-hagen]

"Artist Joe Goode lost 40 yeasr worth of valuable artwork when a fire detroyed his studio.  So what did he do?  He made art about the devastation."  -LA Times

Read the entire article here...so inspiring! 

I love the work of Jessica Martin, whose artist statement explains that her "...art process aims to...blur the line between the real and the imagined, the familiar and the extra-ordinary."

Oh my...her paintings are simply...exquisite.  Check out the work of Caia Koopman, my latest hero. 

I discovered the work of Lisa Kaus on a recent trip to Boulder and now I love her blog!  She documents her creative process with lots of yummy photos. 

He's Daniel Anthony St. George 2nd, and he has a LOT of work to browse on his website.  WOW.

I recently found the amazing work of Diana Fayt and I now can't stop perusing her online gallery, trying to decide what I simply must have.  Visit her website, blog and Etsy shop! 

My friend Outi Harma has some lovely creations available on Etsy and at Ten Women Gallery in Venice; she also recently started a blog so you can stay updated on the latest & greatest.

"Outi Harma has been a successful artist in Los Angeles for over ten years.  She has been a designer for Prosperity Tree International, creating lines of ceramics that sell all over the world.

A longtime member of Ten Women an artist co-op store in Venice, Outi’s imagery has reached far beyond the canvas to grace such materials as ceramics, fabrics, furniture, and greeting cards.

In the last few years, Outi has brought her focus back to paintings, creating exciting new realms that merge the visible and invisible worlds. Also reflected in her work are her years of exploration in dance and performance art, bringing to her paintings an exceptional fluidity and emotion.

Originally from Lapland, Finland, Outi’s move to the warm,  multicultural city of L.A. was what originally catapulted her into a freedom of expression that has been the basis for her art ever since."  -Outi Art website

[Photo by Sabrina Ward Harrison]

I cannot remember how I stumbled upon Sabrina Ward Harrison, but reading her first book was an experience akin to reading SARK's first book, The Creative Companion.  Life altering is not too strong of a term.  Reading SARK's book on a summer afternoon in Columbia, MO gave birth to a dream that became Swirly and reading Sabrina's first book Spilling Open:  The Art of Becoming Yourself gave me the inspiration to start journaling in an entirely new way.  My first collage journal began in 2002, helping me work through an incredibly challenging time in my life, and from those first pages I started on a path that led me here - to a place where I am working on my own book and teaching creative journaling workshops. 

I have watched Sabrina's work evolve and expand ever since her first book and this has been a tremendous source of joy and inspiration for me.  Her latest work - True Living Project:  100 Bits of the World - is a continuation of this beautiful creative journey.

"Two years ago I ended up in a field of grass hip high. This is where I began to make the body work that has come to be called The True Living Project.

E.E. Cummings said a poet a 'someone who is abnormally fond of that precision which creates movement'.
Which is to say the highest form of concentration possible: fascination; to report on the electrifying experience of being.

On a daily basis we teeter on the edge of humanity losing history through the fading cultural landscape of our country and our interconnectedness as human beings.  Though unconscious development and historical neglect. As we have barreled deeper and deeper into a technological / result driven 21st century, now more than ever I do believe we need to be brought home to the presence of our living.  To allow the restful validation of your own tender true humanity, may this work be a living ode to our living.

I am striving to create both a visual and emotional unfolding through the textural interchange of photography, sound, collage, film and found objects.

As you observe, as you listen, may you rest into that place where this moment, and your memory, exist."

-True Living Project website 

To do list:

Buy artwork - check

Read an inspiring blog - check

Make a difference - check

Find something fun to do in San Francisco* - check

Read another inspiring blog - check

Live vicariously through a European traveler - check 

Be inspired - check 

Thank you Kate Swoboda! 

* I don't live there, but I love to visit!

[Untitled (edge) 82 :: Saundra U. McPherson]

I saw the work of Saundra McPherson recently and fell in love with it.  Her website does not include images from her nest paintings, but if you live in Berkeley you can see them at The Gardener.

"My work is shaped by my experience in the natural realm - years spent exploring wild places and abandoned urban landscapes - and by minor scientific study. Principles of geology, botany, astronomy and physics inform both my content and process.

My process takes cues from the natural order. Multi-layered surfaces are built through dripping, pooling, brushing, marking, and sanding. Driven by exploration, chance and gravity, I find equilibrium between chaos and control.

With veils of color, complex surfaces, mysterious light sources, and blurred edges, the work investigates change and the act of becoming. Phenomena from swamps to galaxies are in constant flux. Even the profile of a beach or the course of a river changes monthly, seasonally. As I witness the ubiquity of transformation, I am struck by its inevitability, and my work shifts - gradually."  -Artist Statement

[My Last Museum Piece :: Eugenia Butler] 

Conceptual artist Eugenia Butler died this week leaving a collection of 35 years worth of conceptual work behind.  I met Butler briefly a few years ago when she shared a studio with a friend in downtown Los Angeles and remember the massive scale of the pieces she was working on at the time.  More details about her life and work are here, and with that I will leave you with a question she asked guests to consider at a series of private dinners that were held in connnection to an exhibit of her "Book of Lies" series:

"What is the lie in which I am most complicit, and what is the truth that most feed my life?" 

I love the work of Seth B Minkin and wish I could see it in person. 

"My paintings show a private world of improvisation, spontaneity, humor, pathos, exaggeration and abandon. The images are often figurative, organic, personal totems reflecting my travels, and my interest in antiques and children's art. In close view, they can become highly abstract. I develop my paintings without preconceptions, letting the paintings take form from a matrix of inner-outer dialog, observation, and chance discovery. The paintings record a mnemonic journey; a metaphor rich with possibilities of surprise and reiteration."  -Artist Statement 

My creative soul sister Susannah sent me a link to the website of Brandi Strickland and I immediately fell in love with her work, particularly her Etsy shop, where everything is "100% original artwork!"