I’ve been searching for the perfect new home. I have fallen in love with the most imperfect 10 acres. Someone else out bid me because my budget is ridiculous. Two weeks later, their contract dissolved. I have a second day to hold the hope of imperfection in my heart. Fingers crossed. Today’s AAAD Artist of the Day, Sue Hotchkis celebrates that same beauty. My totem art for the day. (continues below)
“…my work is texture and surface, strongly influenced by the Japanese aesthetic of Wabi-Sabi. I seek out imperfection, in the insignificant and the overlooked, using a camera to freeze a moment in time, recording marks and surfaces that are in the process of breaking down, ephemeral, in a state of flux. ” —Sue Hotchkis
All of us wear a mask. I don’t believe every mask is a deceit or even a conscious choice, but it still a mask, deceptive or not. I have days when a wolf in sheep’s clothing seems an overly-dramatic cliche. Today’s AAAD Artist of the Day, Miguel Vallinas creates the mask that truly fits. (continues below)
“Retrato Número 28”&“Retrato Número 10”by photographerMiguel Vallinas
Perception. “what we believe we are, what others think we are, what we really are,
and what we would like to be.” —Miguel Vallinas
In a Walmart world where most everything can be had for $10 or less, how do we avoid reinforcing a culture that regards everything is disposable? How do we discourage casual consumerism and reinforce long-term responsibility of ownership? Value. Buy what you LOVE. Today’s AAAD Artist of the Day, Emily Shane upcycles much-loved cast-offs of days past. I LOVE the texture AND how illustrative this work is of falling down the reading “rabbit hole”. (continues below)
“Reader’s Digest Condensed Book covers are my the base material for my mixed-media assemblages. I’m inspired by their vintage look and texture, the rich colors, engaging patterns & surprising beauty –all of which are usually hidden under dust covers! Now fading from the American gestalt, RDCBs speak to the baby-boomer generation as a bygone slice of middle-class life that will never return.” –Emily Shane
This site does not debate political issues –except those that surround food. But let’s speak generally. The current political circus in the U.S. and abroad seems unreal to me. I read quotes & sound bites everyday that indicate paint pervasively dark image of humanity. Today’s AAAD Artist of the Day, Don Bergland stages glimpses of the surreal world –both utopian & dystopian– only previously imagined. If feel like the perfect fit today. (continues below)
“Fallow Atonement”by AAAD Artist of the DayDon Bergland
“I like to challenge accepted cultural dogma and ideology. Each of my works features a theatrical set defined by a stage with actors, props, and a backdrop. The actors in the set consist of everyday objects brought into combinations and interactions that attempt to elicit inquiry. The content of the artwork focuses on themes such as time, aging, nostalgia, the footless pursuit of Utopia, and the conditions of ideology which disable our rational minds. Each image is constructed using conventions of visual realism, but with alterations that offer dreamlike possibilities. Themes and objects appear and re-appear. Each work becomes a framed snapshot of a moment in theatrical space, noticed briefly, and then forgotten once more, a fraction of time when reality is breached and a frozen glimpse into the mental theatre of Eternity is experienced, an opening when the viewer can catch the faint hint of cotton candy breezing in from the sideshow midway, the pastel moment of a lost memory, a slight reminder that the past is never absent, and that the future is always in front of us.” —Don Bergland
Discover dreamlike possibilities AAAD #ArtistoftheDayof Don Bergland!
We’re on snow day THREE here in the Smokies. I love snow. I love lots of snow, in fact. But, the stark isolationism associated with snow is not lost on me. Today’s AAAD Artist of the Day, Anastassia Elias seemed the ideal person to illustrate this issue. It is a very small world …and getting smaller everyday. (continues below)
These collages are interior to discarded cardboard / paper tubes like you might find inside a roll of paper towels or toilet tissue. These simple silhouettes remind me to celebrate home, and remember it IS wherever YOU are.
David Bowie influenced so much of the world — music, fashion, design. He died Sunday after a long battle with cancer. Today’s AAAD Artist of the Day, Helen Green may have captured his sense of life and change and joy the best. Thanks, Helen, for the bright spot in a dark day.
Fabulous Bowie by Illustrator Helen Green
“It’s become somewhat of a tradition for me to create something to celebrate David Bowie’s birthday – a little token of appreciation for someone that has inspired me so much over the years.” — Helen Green
I met the talented James Dickey,the author of the book Deliverance, many years ago. As I drove through the rural south today in search of the perfect patch upon which to grow the rest of my life, I felt the feral nature that must have inspired so much of the desperation with which the book reeks. When my flight instinct kicks in, I need only look up to the trees to see the topmost tiny branches swaying in the biting cold air to find my calm again. The work of today’s Artist of the Day, Fenella Elms, gives me that same sense of order in the disorder. Calm in the chaos.
White FlowbyFenella Elms, individually-made, ceramic beads on porcelain, attached with slip
“Aspects of my past career in mental health continue to influence my work with clay: the subconscious approach, a sense of rhythm, attention to detail and difference. I don’t seek to put my experiences into the clay, but marvel at how they emerge.” — Fenella Elms
It is just another day of the calendar, but January 1 brings out the worst of self-judgement & self-loathing in us all. New Year’s resolutions are rarely about self-fulfillment & more about internalizing the judgement of others –about fixing perceived faults of body image, guilty pleasures & consumer expectations. So every January 1, I just try, often in vain, to remember to live my life with eyes open, wide open, open with a renewed awareness of myself and the world around me, the people, the earth, and the food, of course. When I came across this image by today’s Artist of the Day, Jennifer Dipper, I recognized this look. Gentle but fierce, a haze of lashes softening but not obscuring the world. Strength.
“I like taking a minimal approach to fine art photography. Moments captured are not created my me. I am simply recording one possible perspective in a given time in a way that I am captivated. Capturing an image allows me to capsulate [sic] a fleeting moment, allowing that same emotion (or interpretation) to be felt over and over by even those who were not there.” —Jennifer Dipper
This is not just a season of mass consumerism, but a season of mass consumption. As a Southerner, I am unceasingly amazed by how many holiday dishes include mayonnaise. It is an embedded part of the culture. There are less-than-playful, spiteful & angry debates, conversations & argument over brands. I stand firmly on the side of homemade. *Please note, all hate mail containing the word “Dukes” has been filtered to my junk mail box. The work of today’s Artist of the Day, Robin Antar takes its own stand, intention or not. (continues below)
Hellman’s Real Mayonnaise(realism in stone) byRobin Antar
“My passion as a sculptor involves a technique I uncovered more than 20 years ago — the precise art of creating ‘virtual records’ of contemporary culture — capturing common, everyday items in stone. Essentially, I replicate these items on a real life-scale, complete with meticulous detail. I achieve this absolute realism by incorporating parts of the actual object, as well as custom-made stains, paints, plastics and gold leaf. It’s more than art imitating life, it’s art mirroring life.” —Robin Antar
Some days, one has to put one foot in front of the other and simply hope for the best. When searching for today’s Artist of the Day for AAAD, I stumbled on to the work of Julia Geiser. This work perfectly illustrates my week. (continues below)
“When I first started to work with collage (in 2012) I really got attached to the method. With collage I am allowed to work fast and the pictures I create are more likely a sketch of an idea then an in all details finished picture. I only use pictures from the Internet. So the online-voyeurism becomes an inspiration to me. In such a way my work grasps a larger ground. It becomes a debate about rights and licenses, about privacy and commons, about ownership and laws. The collages always oscillate between visual and legal borders.” —Julia Geiser
