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.
Free Form Wall Flowers
November 15, 2012
Inspirational Art
Do you accent your walls?
Did your brow furrow at that question? What does accenting a wall mean?
Well, I was thinking that we accent a lot of things, ourselves in particular. We wear necklaces and earrings, jazz up an outfit with a pin, add a flourish to a dessert or appetizer, toss decorative pillows on the couch and arrange knick knacks or vases on tables for no other purpose than to visually accent them. But how about walls? Walls are more likely to be hung with pictures or shelving. But how about it? Polymer is so well suited to making bright pieces, why not create to accent an empty stretch in the living room or down a hall?
These wall flowers, with their freeform shapes and whimsical colors would be the perfect accent for a room that needs a little brightening. Can you imagine a little field of them crawling across the dead space about the front door?
The mysterious young woman of Bull’s Eye Studio in Anchorage Alaska creates these along with wall plates, business card cases, utensils, and more all with similar stylized floral designs. The making of such decorative items could give you a nice break from any heavily engineered or complicated work. Layers of color, shapes and texture … might be a great way to use up some scrap as well. Just an idea …
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.
Do you accent your walls?
Did your brow furrow at that question? What does accenting a wall mean?
Well, I was thinking that we accent a lot of things, ourselves in particular. We wear necklaces and earrings, jazz up an outfit with a pin, add a flourish to a dessert or appetizer, toss decorative pillows on the couch and arrange knick knacks or vases on tables for no other purpose than to visually accent them. But how about walls? Walls are more likely to be hung with pictures or shelving. But how about it? Polymer is so well suited to making bright pieces, why not create to accent an empty stretch in the living room or down a hall?
These wall flowers, with their freeform shapes and whimsical colors would be the perfect accent for a room that needs a little brightening. Can you imagine a little field of them crawling across the dead space about the front door?
The mysterious young woman of Bull’s Eye Studio in Anchorage Alaska creates these along with wall plates, business card cases, utensils, and more all with similar stylized floral designs. The making of such decorative items could give you a nice break from any heavily engineered or complicated work. Layers of color, shapes and texture … might be a great way to use up some scrap as well. Just an idea …
