Abstract Landscapes
Posted by Leah on Sep 30, 2008
I just had to share these beautiful abstract landscape paintings by Bobbi Chukran. Bobbi is an artist, writer, and crafter living in Texas. I’ve known her in the virtual world for a while, and was excited when she recently decided to start listing her landscapes on etsy. I love them, the colors are so soothing, and despite being very abstract, they are clearly landscape images.
Blue Landscape by Bobbi Chukran
If you want to buy me one as an early Christmas gift, here’s a link to Bobbi’s etsy shop. (I guess you could get one for yourself; since I know her I could probably convince her to paint me a new one if they sell out…)
Purple Landscape by Bobbi Chukran
The Altered Object
Posted by Leah on Sep 26, 2008
The Altered Object: Techniques, Projects, Inspiration
Altering objects to create art is definitely in style these days - you can make very unique, interesting, sculptural pieces, and because found objects play such a prominent role, it’s a great way to recycle things that otherwise might be thrown out. I enjoy using small found objects in jewelry designs, so it was fun to read a book about creating larger scale found object art.
I love artist profiles, so that was my favorite part of the book. Each profile included pictures of some of the artist’s work, which I think is just as important as the text - you really get a feel for the artist’s style along with a bit of their personal story.
The technique section was also done well - and, fun for me, considering my new obsession with mica because a lot of these artists use mica in their work. If you want very specific project instructions, be warned - that isn’t exactly what this book has. Instead, what it has are good instructions on the techniques used in each sample project, so that you can find your own objects, images, and text and make something that is unique to you. I really prefer this type of instruction anyway, because it’s rare that I happen to have everything required for a specific project - but I often take a technique and adapt it to what I do have, making it my own and integrating it into my personal style.
I would say that this book isn’t for a complete beginner, since there isn’t a “basics” section, but if you have a little bit of experience working with some of the materials, you can probably learn some new techniques or see new ways of using techniques you already know. I enjoyed reading it, and got some ideas to try to use in jewelry projects.
Elegant Snobbery
Posted by Leah on Sep 19, 2008
Since my husband is an artist, I rarely purchase art for our walls. But I couldn’t resist a couple of sock monkey illustrations (well, prints, not the originals) from Elegant Snobbery. Her style is very different from my husband’s and these are perfect for our baby’s room!
I got a few other goodies too, check it out:
Art by Elegant Snobbery
Interesting article on modern art
Posted by Leah on Jun 3, 2008
Thanks to H. Palleiko for this post that pointed me to this article from American Craft on the growing trend toward art that isn’t actually handmade by the artist. It’s an interesting perspective. Since I make (or at the very least assemble) all of the jewelry I sell, and am more familiar with the modern craft community than the modern art community, I hadn’t realized this designing for mass production was so common among current fine artists.
It would definitely be too bad if artists stopped painting, and if all jewelry was mass produced - but I can definitely see the draw in having designs mass produced. It’s one way to avoid being a starving artist if you get paid by a big company to come up with a few designs for products! I personally don’t have a problem with artists doing this, but I do think it’s a big odd that this type of work would be presented in high-end art galleries. I think off one-off pieces being in high-end galleries, and what I think of as high-end design work being sold at high-end boutiques.
100 Etsy Artists
Posted by Leah on Mar 22, 2008
I was catching up on etsy news and found a link to this great article which lists 100 visual artists on etsy. Of course these are personal favorites of the author, so there are many, many talented artists not represented here, and there is definitely a preference for the style that the author prefers which may or may not be what you prefer, but I enjoyed looking through the list and discovered some artists I’d never seen before.
If I have some free time, maybe I’ll compile a list of some of my favorite craft artists on etsy someday….
One more Southbay Soiree artist
Posted by Leah on Jun 17, 2007
Joanna, another craft mafiosa, showed her original drawings and paintings at the southbay soiree.
Here’s a shot of her booth:
I wish I had gotten a good close-up of some of her work, because it’s really hard to see all the detail in her drawings from this shot. You can see her work on her website though, www.joannacrawshaw.com.
Chel’s mixed media art
Posted by Leah on Jun 13, 2007
This photo shows a sampling of Chel’s mixed media art (and one of her dolls). In addition to creating art, Chel founded the Pleasanton Craft Mafia and a large organization for mixed media artists called ZNE. She is definitely multi-talented! Scroll down a few posts for a link to her doll-blog story about the Southbay Soiree a few weeks ago….
Make a Scene Photography
Posted by Leah on Jun 11, 2007
This beautiful box was on display at the South Bay Soiree. Anni of Make a Scene Photography mounts her photographs on wood boxes like the one shown here. I think they would make great jewelry boxes! She also makes small books, and of course sells photographic prints. I believe she’s available for event photography too.
I tried to get a good shot of her table, but she was by a window which made all the pictures look dark. I did get this shot that shows a little bit more of the variety in her photographic work though:
Beaded Journal Project
Posted by Leah on May 31, 2007
Robin Atkins, a well known beader and author of beading books, started a bead journal project. There are over 200 people signed up to participate in this project, which involves creating one beaded journal page per month.
I can’t wait to see the results! From the main project blog, you can click over to the various members’ blogs for lots of bead eye-candy.
Carnival of the Creators - May 12, 2007
Posted by Leah on May 10, 2007
I got a *ton* of entries for this carnival (which was for May 10th, not 12th as I mistakenly wrote). If I missed your entry, I sincerely apologize - don’t hesitate to submit to the next edition. A few people submitted more than one article, and in those cases, I picked one to include. Since there are so many entries, I’ve divided them into a few categories.
Articles by and about Creative People and their Creations
Bobbi A. Chukran presents Transformations…The Art of Recycling exhibit online posted at Recycled Stuff.
Don West presents Tenacious Trees posted at Idle Minutes.
Cyndi presents Creating a digital mixed media collage posted at Layers Upon Layers, saying, “There are so many different ways to combine digital and physical art. Here’s one of my new favorites!”
Amy E. Fraser presents Dormant Canvas posted at EXALTED BEAUTY
Elvis D presents You Should Be An Actor posted at OneSmallWindow.
Kathryn presents The San Francisco Writing Life | San Fran Voice posted at San Fran Voice, saying, “A blog post about what it means to be a writer in San Francisco.”
Lexi Sundell presents Creative Burnout From Unreasonable Customer Demands | Energies of Creation posted at Energies of Creation, saying, “Burnout results from having to create ill-conceived projects. The “Omigod Ring” reached ridiculous extremes in this category.”
Derek presents Our Earth as Art posted at Acres Wild.
Articles written *for* creative people on everything from inspiration to calls for art to staying healthy
Ruth Mitchell presents Buy Outside the Box: Where Does Inspiration Come From? posted at Buy Outside the Box, Tips on finding inspiration.
Mr. Besilly presents The Power of Creative Vision posted at Mr. Besilly - One Man’s highway, saying, “The world desperately needs creative vision determined to give happiness by creating beauty. Now more than ever, in a time when we trade counterfeit happiness as if it were gold. Selling shallow and fleeting beauty to the highest bidder.”
Debra Moorhead presents The Motivational Trick that Works – EVERY Time posted at Debra Moorhead.com.
David presents How Fashion Houses and Designers Can Use Websites posted at The Alexander Report, saying, “Creative ways fashion houses and designers use websites to increase sales.”
Anmol Mehta presents 3 Most Powerful Yoga Pranayamas and Kriyas - Part 1 posted at Mastery of Meditation, Enlightenment & Kundalini Yoga, saying, “This breathing exercise enhances and develops the right hemisphere of the brain thus promoting creativity, awareness and meditative powers.”
shedwa presents LA Shorts Fest Wants Your Work posted at shedwa.
Alan presents After The Secret posted at Made to Be Great.
That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of the creators using our carnival submission form.
The next edition will be hosted at Lori Greenberg’s Blog. Last month’s host was Cyndi at Bead Arts.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
