Refereeing Blues
December 5, 2018
Inspirational Art
Today we’ll contemplate blues and beyond with the joyously colorful work of Anarina Anar.
Although the oranges dominate with their bright hues and fill the largest and terminal shape, I think the blue grounds all the colors here. Sitting in the middle like a color referee, the calm blues blush purple on one side as if the purple circle above has been allowed to drain into it. The bold oranges, on the other hand, are given a definitive border of dots that say, “Hey, you can play with us but stay on your side.” The oranges concede to have a bit of purple in their territory with an ode to the blues within the purple ring so that we have a visual connection between all the pieces and color players on this playground.
Yep, I just personified colors as if they were characters in a story. And why not? They really are, more often than not, integral to the telling of they story within any piece. Here they are central characters that give the necklace its lively spirit.
Color is at the core of all of Anarina’s work as you can see with a quick jaunt over to her Flickr site and her Etsy store.
Putting It into Context
August 8, 2018
Inspirational Art
Since we started out the week talking about two-dimensional polymer, I went looking for more polymer wall art for you. There are quite a few people who do polymer “painting” and collage work with polymer and I was having a hard time choosing but then I ran into this fascinating little piece.
Our artist here, Reuven Eliazar, a gentleman in Israel with no particular medium affiliation, created this some 10 years ago. Once I read his statement that, “The colours and the materials are the ‘subject’. My ‘stories’ are only the excuse for them to speak out,” I saw what he seems to be trying to do here and it made more sense. The butterfly is wonderful on its own, but putting it in this little scene creates context for the work and starts the idea of a story upon which Reuven can display his exploration of the clay.
Although Reuven seems to be focused on photography more than anything these days, he does have a collection of his polymer work in this album on Flickr so you can get a better idea of what he was exploring. And, of course, perhaps this example has given you some ideas about putting a scene together with your own pieces so you can tell some little stories of your own.
Fondness for a Place
September 16, 2014
Inspirational Art
Ginger’s pick for today is a bit of lovely wall art by New York’s Joan Israel. Like yesterday’s post, this polymer clay landscape scene consists of individual elements that are arranged to tell a story although I think this one is more about the artist than the town.
Although scenes and stories in polymer are most often literal imagery, the dimensionality and playfulness of the material lends itself more readily to symbolism and metaphor rather than realistic illustration. In this piece, the size of the various components relay a hierarchical importance between the images. The river, the sun, and the bird are the largest, most active and contrasting of the elements here. Light, freedom and a gentle meandering from these along with the bright and rich colors gives the viewer a sense that this is a very happy place, one the artist must be very fond of. The position of the menorah top and center helps in identifying the place if you didn’t see the title of the piece to start with. The title is “Israel” by the way, one of Joan’s favorite places, she confesses in her Flicker comments. Her love of the place does shine right through.
Bright colors and stylized imagery is Joan’s trademark from her jewelry to her covered decor to wall pieces like this. For a bright and sunny break in your day, take a look at Joan’s work on her Flickr photostream.
Ginger Davis Allman lives in Springfield, Missouri with her husband Gary, her three kids and her many craft obsessions. Subscribe to her blog and look around her website for her well-researched and in-depth posts and articles on polymer related subjects. Support her great information and research as well as treating yourself by getting yourself a tutorial or two from this talented lady.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Outside Inspiration: A Felted Landscape
November 15, 2013
Inspirational Art
Another fantastic ‘canvas’ for landscape composition is an object that is “in the round”. That term simply means something can be viewed all the way around its form. What do you work in that can viewed that way? Big beads? Earrings? Vases?
Vases, bowls, boxes and containers of all kinds can be used as landscape composition pieces, with the advantage of being able to develop multiple scenes because they will be viewed from multiple sides. Here is an unusual application of felt in a very colorful, abstract landscape built around the form of a pot.
Sharon Costello will felt just about anything, it seems. Her website features figures, wall art, clothes, lampshades, masks, and covered objects like this vessel using both wet and needle felting methods. Have some fun on her site this afternoon seeing just how inventive one inspired artist can be with her felt. Then ask yourself as a polymer artist, what do you see that you can take back to your studio?
The Challenge of Change
August 17, 2013
Inspirational Art
In the back of every issue of The Polymer Arts is a wonderful one-page article in which someone tells the story of their life as an artist, or of another artist (or artists). I hold a particularly special fondness for this section because it’s the one area in which artists get personal with us as readers. It’s not a setup to teach or preach or help expand your business or make you a better artist; it’s just stories. We can certainly learn from them (what can’t we learn from?), but they are still just artists sharing their story, or the story of other artists.
In this Fall issue, Ronna Sarvas Weltman talks about Gwen Gibson, a polymer pioneer who has moved largely from polymer to work on mixed media in collage and acrylics. Ronna writes about Gwen’s view on the creative process and the patience we must have with ourselves and our medium. It’s a beautiful little article that I would encourage you all to read at least a couple times to really let the ideas sink in.
The article in hand, Ronna and I only had to gather a few images of Gwen’s work before it would be ready to send to layout; but getting artwork of Gwen’s that was of a size we could print turned out to rather difficult. When she was creating beautiful earrings like these from 15 years ago, she had photos taken; but as the years went on and her direction in art changed, the original images got shuffled away. I guess things like that are bound to happen when you buy a 300 year old house in a tiny medieval French village desperately in need of repair and turn it into a creative retreat; I can see where you might have other priorities.
La Cascade is now a beautiful center for art workshops and time out of your normal world to learn a little bit more about yourself as an artist. The story of the La Cascade renovation adventure and charming descriptions and photos of the place can be found on the website along with information about the workshops, should you be interested in attending any one of them.
And don’t forget to get your copy of the Fall issue ordered if you haven’t done so already, as they will all be out and on their way this coming week!
Stories in Nature
August 6, 2013
Inspirational Art
Meredith Dittmar has an affinity for organic forms and natural motifs; but instead of representing nature in any direct or realistic manner, she often tells stories in which nature, including leaves, vines, animals, the sun, stars, and mountains, are contrasted against men’s buildings and machinery in detailed, illustrative wall pieces. She also has a very playful side which can be seen in the imaginary creatures she calls her “Guys“.
This piece here falls somewhere between her more serious psychepolymereganic art (her term) and the “guys”. It’s a rather idyllic scene, with stylized creatures and plants that come close to a direct natural interpretation, but are more representative of a wish for something that doesn’t quite exist.
Check out the many sides of Meredith on her website. Her main portfolio has a nice overview of her work including her personal art, some of her “guys,” and client work. But if you have a minute or two more, go have fun looking through the many variations of her “guys”.
Today we’ll contemplate blues and beyond with the joyously colorful work of Anarina Anar.
Although the oranges dominate with their bright hues and fill the largest and terminal shape, I think the blue grounds all the colors here. Sitting in the middle like a color referee, the calm blues blush purple on one side as if the purple circle above has been allowed to drain into it. The bold oranges, on the other hand, are given a definitive border of dots that say, “Hey, you can play with us but stay on your side.” The oranges concede to have a bit of purple in their territory with an ode to the blues within the purple ring so that we have a visual connection between all the pieces and color players on this playground.
Yep, I just personified colors as if they were characters in a story. And why not? They really are, more often than not, integral to the telling of they story within any piece. Here they are central characters that give the necklace its lively spirit.
Color is at the core of all of Anarina’s work as you can see with a quick jaunt over to her Flickr site and her Etsy store.
Read MoreSince we started out the week talking about two-dimensional polymer, I went looking for more polymer wall art for you. There are quite a few people who do polymer “painting” and collage work with polymer and I was having a hard time choosing but then I ran into this fascinating little piece.
Our artist here, Reuven Eliazar, a gentleman in Israel with no particular medium affiliation, created this some 10 years ago. Once I read his statement that, “The colours and the materials are the ‘subject’. My ‘stories’ are only the excuse for them to speak out,” I saw what he seems to be trying to do here and it made more sense. The butterfly is wonderful on its own, but putting it in this little scene creates context for the work and starts the idea of a story upon which Reuven can display his exploration of the clay.
Although Reuven seems to be focused on photography more than anything these days, he does have a collection of his polymer work in this album on Flickr so you can get a better idea of what he was exploring. And, of course, perhaps this example has given you some ideas about putting a scene together with your own pieces so you can tell some little stories of your own.
Read More
Ginger’s pick for today is a bit of lovely wall art by New York’s Joan Israel. Like yesterday’s post, this polymer clay landscape scene consists of individual elements that are arranged to tell a story although I think this one is more about the artist than the town.
Although scenes and stories in polymer are most often literal imagery, the dimensionality and playfulness of the material lends itself more readily to symbolism and metaphor rather than realistic illustration. In this piece, the size of the various components relay a hierarchical importance between the images. The river, the sun, and the bird are the largest, most active and contrasting of the elements here. Light, freedom and a gentle meandering from these along with the bright and rich colors gives the viewer a sense that this is a very happy place, one the artist must be very fond of. The position of the menorah top and center helps in identifying the place if you didn’t see the title of the piece to start with. The title is “Israel” by the way, one of Joan’s favorite places, she confesses in her Flicker comments. Her love of the place does shine right through.
Bright colors and stylized imagery is Joan’s trademark from her jewelry to her covered decor to wall pieces like this. For a bright and sunny break in your day, take a look at Joan’s work on her Flickr photostream.
Ginger Davis Allman lives in Springfield, Missouri with her husband Gary, her three kids and her many craft obsessions. Subscribe to her blog and look around her website for her well-researched and in-depth posts and articles on polymer related subjects. Support her great information and research as well as treating yourself by getting yourself a tutorial or two from this talented lady.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Another fantastic ‘canvas’ for landscape composition is an object that is “in the round”. That term simply means something can be viewed all the way around its form. What do you work in that can viewed that way? Big beads? Earrings? Vases?
Vases, bowls, boxes and containers of all kinds can be used as landscape composition pieces, with the advantage of being able to develop multiple scenes because they will be viewed from multiple sides. Here is an unusual application of felt in a very colorful, abstract landscape built around the form of a pot.
Sharon Costello will felt just about anything, it seems. Her website features figures, wall art, clothes, lampshades, masks, and covered objects like this vessel using both wet and needle felting methods. Have some fun on her site this afternoon seeing just how inventive one inspired artist can be with her felt. Then ask yourself as a polymer artist, what do you see that you can take back to your studio?
Read More
In the back of every issue of The Polymer Arts is a wonderful one-page article in which someone tells the story of their life as an artist, or of another artist (or artists). I hold a particularly special fondness for this section because it’s the one area in which artists get personal with us as readers. It’s not a setup to teach or preach or help expand your business or make you a better artist; it’s just stories. We can certainly learn from them (what can’t we learn from?), but they are still just artists sharing their story, or the story of other artists.
In this Fall issue, Ronna Sarvas Weltman talks about Gwen Gibson, a polymer pioneer who has moved largely from polymer to work on mixed media in collage and acrylics. Ronna writes about Gwen’s view on the creative process and the patience we must have with ourselves and our medium. It’s a beautiful little article that I would encourage you all to read at least a couple times to really let the ideas sink in.
The article in hand, Ronna and I only had to gather a few images of Gwen’s work before it would be ready to send to layout; but getting artwork of Gwen’s that was of a size we could print turned out to rather difficult. When she was creating beautiful earrings like these from 15 years ago, she had photos taken; but as the years went on and her direction in art changed, the original images got shuffled away. I guess things like that are bound to happen when you buy a 300 year old house in a tiny medieval French village desperately in need of repair and turn it into a creative retreat; I can see where you might have other priorities.
La Cascade is now a beautiful center for art workshops and time out of your normal world to learn a little bit more about yourself as an artist. The story of the La Cascade renovation adventure and charming descriptions and photos of the place can be found on the website along with information about the workshops, should you be interested in attending any one of them.
And don’t forget to get your copy of the Fall issue ordered if you haven’t done so already, as they will all be out and on their way this coming week!
Read MoreMeredith Dittmar has an affinity for organic forms and natural motifs; but instead of representing nature in any direct or realistic manner, she often tells stories in which nature, including leaves, vines, animals, the sun, stars, and mountains, are contrasted against men’s buildings and machinery in detailed, illustrative wall pieces. She also has a very playful side which can be seen in the imaginary creatures she calls her “Guys“.
This piece here falls somewhere between her more serious psychepolymereganic art (her term) and the “guys”. It’s a rather idyllic scene, with stylized creatures and plants that come close to a direct natural interpretation, but are more representative of a wish for something that doesn’t quite exist.
Check out the many sides of Meredith on her website. Her main portfolio has a nice overview of her work including her personal art, some of her “guys,” and client work. But if you have a minute or two more, go have fun looking through the many variations of her “guys”.
