Guest Star Friday #140… Helen Frankenthaler

The Bay

Helen Frankenthaler has been important to me since 1996. I took a sculpture class in college and one of our assignments was to make a piece based on a painting, interpreting a 2D work as a 3D one. I had learned about Helen in my art history survey class earlier and especially like the painting, The Bay. I chose this piece for my project and made a big sculpture with a layered wood base painted in a similar light green with billowing blue painted fabric above. I loved that piece and wish I had a photograph of it because it's long gone. Learning about this painting and creating that assignment were pivotal moments for me as a young artist. I began thinking about all art as 3-dimensional, even drawings and paintings, and, little did I know then, I also started to realize just how important emotion in art is to me. Today I'm still inspired by Helen's work with its saturated and stained color, amorphous forms, and graceful, visual movement. Each composition presents an opportunity to pause, to focus on color and shape and how it makes you feel, and then drift a little bit to another place.

Canyon

Causeway

Coalition

See more of my favorite Helen Frankenthaler works on Pinterest.

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One-a-Day: Reminant Anchors

Reminant Anchors by Spencer Herr

Today's One-a-Day is by Asheville artist, Spencer Herr. I first saw Spencer's work at American Folk Art in Asheville a few weeks ago. I'm interested in his use of opposites, something that comes up continually for me in my own studio. He uses both realism and abstraction combined with layering to create his figures--skillful detail, rough and blurred brush strokes, partially hidden thin lines. The combination of these devices conveys thoughts of things that once were, suggestions or hints of the subject existing in two different places, or a concept that is being questioned. This particular piece, "Reminant Anchors" and others in the same series have a ghostly feel that I am especially drawn to as well.

Thanks for reading.