ARTIST: GOICOLEA, ANTHONY

Anthony Goicolea is one of the few artists that, when I look at their work, it inspires me to want to make more of my own. Not only are his pieces engaging to look at, they evoke feelings and inspire narratives to begin in my head. His figures seem so real to me, as if they actually exist and have a whole story that I really want to know.

I particularly love his drawings, but his photo work is amazing as well. He uses himself in his photographs to play the role of multiple figures, creating unspoken dialogue and ambiguous, and at times slightly awkward, situations.

Check out his website. Look at ALL of his work and be sure to read the accompanying statements in the info section. Do it! http://www.anthonygoicolea.com/

EVENT: CHEROKEE PRINT LEAGUE HOLIDAY SALE

A couple of friends and I went down to Cherokee St. today to check out the goings on at the Print League Holiday Sale. We parked at Mud House (which was rockin', not surprising since their coffee is rad) and walked all the way down to Compton and back. There were a lot of people on the street today and I was happy to see a lot of purchasing, even though art seems like a novelty most of the time in St. Louis. Stopped by Firecracker to visit with my friend Matty, and ran into another old printmaking chum Brooke there. Visited for a while, watched an exhilirating letterpress woodblock printing demo, and fleeced since time was limited. Went to All Along Press to see how things were going there (none of my bags had sold yet, boo). Bounced across the street to Snowflake to visit my darling, and tallented artist herself, Angela. Headed back east, stopped at one more place that I don't know the name of, and headed home. There's a lot of cool art for sale down there this weekend. Wish we would have had time to stop at Cranky Yellow, which is always fun, and Fort Gondo, but we had to get home so we could go to our mundane jobs. It's going on tomorrow too. If anybody actually reads this (which is doubtful at this point) you should really check it out! It's a nice walk and lots of good stuff.

ARTIST: CURRIN, JOHN

The awesome art of John Currin. I don't want to gush, but he's another of my favorites. He's fairly famous so I feel like going into a long and insufficient explanation of his work would just be pointless. Suffice to say, I'm impressed. The pictures below are some "safer" examples of his work, but be warned shold you choose to investigate further, the man takes a great deal of inspiration from Eastern European pornography. Enjoy!

ARTIST: WHITFIELD, BARNABY

Banaby Witfield is, in my humble opinion, an incredibly talented artist. I've been drooling over his work for a couple of years now, and every time I look I see something I didn't notice before. His renderings of his subjects are so visceral, confrontational, and unapologetic that one can't help but feel feelings when one looks at them. He's been written up in oodles of art rags here and there for some time now, and he has really profound things to say with his work. I found the following excerpt on the website for Stux Gallery, which represents him:

"Whitfield’s works are at once hopelessly romantic and urgently contemporary. His work simultaneously pulls inspiration from Rococo era portraiture and contemporary fashion advertising. He seamlessly weaves cleverly appropriated Old-Master quotations with images sifted spontaneously from internet sources. The result is works loaded with inside jokes that belong to our twenty-first century psyche. Whitfield’s characters are rendered in gorgeously soft and dreamy pastel, their bodies glowing with eerie internal light, but perversely marred with sickly hues that allude to bruising, rotting, sweltering flesh. Something menacing seems to have a grip on these pastel beauties and the narrative clues are compellingly composed to allow the viewer partial access but ultimate suspense. The indecipherability of Whitfield's highly personal symbolism begins to breakdown as clues to the artist's appropriations surface, illuminating the development of his personal artistic vocabulary. "

To see more:
http://barnabywhitfield.com/pages/main.html
http://www.stuxgallery.com/site/www/artist_gallery/37

SUBJECT OF INQUIRY: ANATOMY

Human anatomy has been a subject that has fascinated me for years. Our internal workings are so intricate, delicate, and complex. When you really look at them, it seems unlikely that all of these oddly shaped little pieces should come together to form one cohesive system. Anatomical imagery is often viewed as abject, morbid, or completely grusome but I look there and I see beauty. I constantly find myself drawn to it. It's truly amazing to me that, on the inside, most of us are made up of the same bits and pieces, yet somehow no two people are alike.