Monday 20 April 2009

Paper Goddesses

I have a love of all things paper crafted, especially from vintage and recycled materials. Two Artists who just blow me away with their vision and skill are Jennifer Khoshbin and Lisa Kokin.


Lisa Kokin
Lisa’s fascinating work revolves around re-occurring themes we can all identify with such as loss, rescuing of memory, cultural and sexual identity and a critique of social values.


These are ‘pakaged’ in a variety of ways including, mixed media books, altered books, sewn, found photographs, sculptures and button works.

I particularly like the pieces using books, which she stitches, collages, layers and digs in to produce gorgeous aesthetic artworks, which evoke feelings and memories for me with their intriguing array of mixed media imagery.

New works, not yet on her web site and from her last exhibition at the Donna Seager Gallery in San Rafael, California, are more sculptural ‘art books’ or ‘reassembled books’ as Lisa herself calls them. Catalogues can be purchased by contacting the Gallery.

I am in awe of her imagination and creativity in turning a humble rectangular book into a passionate work of art involving many meticulous processes and statements about issues affecting many of us. It is easy to smile at the humour within these pieces, where she articulates her messages.

To see and read more about Lisa’s fascinating work see: http://www.lisakokin.com/

Jennifer Khoshbin
Jen’s beautiful and evocative work revolves around narratives; objects and symbols create meaning, both past and present and this is how she makes sense of things.

Jennifer’s work consists of ‘art books’ and sculptures. An avid reader, she delves into vintage books and by altering them explores their loss and recovery of meaning. By combining cut-outs with drawings and photographic images, she creates something more tangible, look at these:

To me these evoke nostalgia through her choice of subjects and meaning through her choice of word and imagery.

The circles or holes that she cuts have a quality which creates pleasure in looking; pleasure in seeing that one word at the bottom of that ‘pit’ like hole, like finding ‘treasure’ or a lost item at the bottom of your bag or in you pocket, and thinking about it’s meaning or memory. The word has been singled out or highlighted and I find this very intriguing and thought provoking.

Purchase a book for yourself at: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6229400

Other work includes, paper covered resin animal heads, birds and insects. Some of which were originally from a collaborative exhibition called ‘Off With Their Heads’. I would love to buy one of these stag heads! And just look at the little beetle!

Purchases can be made at: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5501066
To see more of her work see: http://www.jenkhoshbin.com/

Hope you enjoyed this post, I’ll be back in a few days, when hopefully I will have finished two new lamps I’m working on.

The Art of Chess Exhibition

Just had to show you this! An exhibition, just shown at the Reykjavik Art museum and which seems to have been touring the world for quite some time now.


Fifteen established Artists from around the world came together to show their interpretations of the design of a chess board and pieces.

Artists include some from the early 20th century and current important Artists such as Tracy Emin, Damien Hurst and Rachael Whitbread.


Rachael Whitbread
Rachael produced this amazing board, made up of dolls house pieces. I love the dinky furniture pieces, made from casts of her own dolls house collection and the squares made from carpet and lino pieces, gorgeous!



Yayoi Kusama
This one also caught my eye. It’s by Yayoi Kusama. Made from porcelain it has a sliding top with tiny porcelain pumpkin pieces inside, decorated with the Artist’s signature spot motif.


The whole thing is encased in a white soft sculpture display case made from leather and again, in the shape of a pumpkin.

I love things with compartments inside and hidden drawers, so exciting to discover things.

Tuesday 7 April 2009

Wonderland

More and more we are surrounded by this trend for ‘wonderland’; of surrealism or imaginary worlds of awe and wonder. Personally, I love it; I think we all need a little bit of escapism in our lives, and now more than ever with the world recession and the long dark winters that some of us have just gone through, we need a little bit of fun and fantasy; wonderland is alive and everywhere.

copyright Tim walker

Fashion Photography
Tim walker has captured this in his delicious photographs, exhibited last year. He creates marvellous shots with vintage colours and a fairytale feel.

copyright Tim walker

My favorite is this one, ode to the princess and the pea.

copyright Tim walker

Circus inspired
Here in Denmark, we have this great style magazine called ‘Rum’; a couple of issues back, they did a shoot called ‘Vintage Circus’, take a look.

copyright RUM Magazine DK

I love these pictures

copyright RUM Magazine DK

Modern and surreal
Found a great young designer too; working in a very contemporary way with surreal themes. Ashley Thomas creates prints, wallpaper and accessories which can be purchased from her on-line or from outlets throughout the world see her site at:
www.ashleythomas.webs.com


Look at these, based on surrealism, Ashley mixes everyday objects and domestic scenes, with quirky characters. It is a world where cats wear glasses, pigeons have moustaches and Llama's wear monocles.

Over at Fairy Cake Pond

Maybe we should all indulge in some creative play; a flickr friend who is doing exactly that is ‘oldflowers4me’.


Jo from Melbourne regularly dresses in anticipation of the white rabbit, runs away with the circus, and indulges her toys and pets in tea party activities and costume changes fit for a queen.


Thank you Jo for inspiring my creativity and giving us all a wonderful bit of your magical world. Find Jo here, www.oldflowers4me.blogspot.com/


All this got me thinking about styling some ‘wonderland’ sets for our boboho interiors magazine site, might take a while but watch this space…..