MishaCapecchi

Etsy shop: mishacapecchi
listing: Monster II


From the Item Description:

This is a one-of-a-kind hand colored etching, printed from a copper plate. This print is part of a series that I did of "monsters". The image is based on small scaled sculpture that I made primarily from found or reclaimed material. I then rendered the sculpture in a realistic and scientific manner, adding validity to this imagined sculpture. For this project I am interested in exploring the fuzzy boundaries that separate that which is imagined from that which is scientifically established as "true" and "real".

bobojunket

Etsy shop: bobojunket
listing: Abstract-Two
artist: Diana Grappasonno

BraidedLight

Etsy shop: BraidedLight
listing: Light Around the Corner

obsoleteworld

Etsy shop: obsoleteworld
listing: Forgetting The Sky
artist: Jeannie Lynn Paske

obsoleteworld's Etsy bio is the most elegant I have seen:

There is a world tucked away behind this one.
An old world made up of endless fields,
distant hills and timeworn cliffs.
A place where the sun is always setting.
A land in which extinct
slow-moving monsters and
elegant gentle-faced creatures
of all shapes and sizes reside.
Delicately balancing their hope with despair.
Reminiscent of long departed dreams
and uncollected thoughts.
Time stands still here
so as to let the residents gaze
in solitude
upon the vast
richly textured skies.
Forever in search of a place
to better sit and watch
their world pass them by.

Jeannie's watercolors are introspective, soulful visions into a sublime, melancholy world. Just read the titles of the pieces in her Etsy shop which are full of enchantment and wonder: "Magnificent Stories Grow Out of the Shadows", "Beyond The Faint Glow Of A Tired Sky", "Ships Glide Over Newly Created Seas", "Life Through Bombardment" are just a small taste.

"Forgetting The Sky" was chosen for this feature because of its curious story. On a crookedly aged naked branch of a billowing, full, welcoming green tree sits a singular bird. The bird's attention is fixed on a collection of flying creatures fading into the far distance. There's many ways the perched bird's expression can be interpreted: curiousness, resentment, anticipation. Has this bird been fixed on the other birds' departure for an expanded time? Or has the bird just noticed the scene? Why is the bird alone? Was it abandoned? Or did it abandon the other birds? Or perhaps it simply was just time for this bird's companions to leave. So many interesting questions arise from such a strikingly simple, yet visually rich scene.

hanswilson

etsy shop: hanswilson
listing: ACEO Original Hand-painted Abstract Symbol

michelleramin

etsy shop: michelleramin
listing: Chocolate Landscape
artist: Michelle Ramin

Ok, honestly, I'm not doing this on purpose. I'm not specifically seeking out art from Portland. It's pure coincidence that 33% (3 out of 9) of the art features on this blog thus far feature art from that city. I think that says a lot about the great art community that resides in Portland. Artist Michelle Ramin expresses her inspiring love for Portland in her etsy bio:

Hello! My name is Michelle and am a Portland, Oregon artist. I grew up in the comfortable rolling hills of Central Pennsylvania. About two years ago, I found myself wondering across the country in search of a creative muse. I came upon Portland and have yet to experience its equivalent anywhere else in the world. It's beautiful here! Every day I feel inspired and am constantly working on new and beautiful little pieces that reflect my every day environment.

A large majority of Michelle's etsy shop features landscape drawings. It's interesting to relate her love of Portland to her transcendental, otherworldly drawings. I call it quietly vibrant Surreal Pop. Consistently throughout, delicate horizontal lines shimmer across the horizon while crisp lines define the labyrinthine sky while falling from the sky. It's a uniquely curious exploration of the abundant natural beauty found in Oregon.

ejwarhus

etsy shop: ejwarhus
listing: like cake (be sure to hit the zoom link below the image to see all the detail)
artist: Erika Warhus

Today's etsyart.com feature is a mixed media painting by Portland artist Erika Warhus. Just the other day etsyart.com featured fellow Portlander, Sarah Kamsler. I don't know what the city of Portland puts in its water, but it sure helps their artists produce interesting abstract art.

Erika's "like cake" can be enjoyed as purely abstract art with no subjective connections or as a representational painting as implied by the title, or better yet as both. Her painting blurs the line between abstract and reality. It that respect I am reminded of celebrated Abstract Expressionist icon, Willem de Kooning. The use of repeated forms and layering of colors and shapes are more themes in Erika's work that recall de Kooning. This loose abstract association allows the viewer to use their imagination to fill in the spaces to define representation.

Yet, the spirit of the Erika's work couldn't be more different that de Kooning. Where de Kooning's paintings express feelings of anger and angst, Erika's paintings denote a sense of explorative joy.

sarahkamsler

etsy store: sarahkamsler
listing: alternate channels
artist: Sarah Kamsler

Based in Portland, Oregon, Sarah Kamsler surely has some great inspiration and it's apparent in her paintings. Nature is prevalent throughout her work with trees often being the focal point.

Consistently throughout her work, Sarah's paintings have a certain playful, yet spiritual feel to them. It's a curiously equal combination of the two that's rarely seen in the art world and Kamsler makes it work. Art that attempts to fuse both elements of playful and spiritual often heavily lean towards one direction or another. It's this duality that causes me to reflect how her paintings came to this point.

Sarah paints her trees in a simple, yet profound iconic manner. They can be interpreted as trees or as arrows boldly pointing to the heavens.

The trees are seen doing different things within each environment. Sometimes they're grounded in the earth. Other times they dance about in the sky. It seems these trees, despite their iconic state, have different lively personalities.

Trees are an easy thing to overlook in our society. After all, we see them everywhere from parks to parking lots to street corners. In her paintings, Sarah Kamsler reminds us that trees and nature offer boundless reflections of the variety of all forms of life from environment nature to human nature.