LOOK INTO MY OWL

The past few months I have been laying low in Western Massachusetts. During this stay, I had the opportunity to visit the studio of a very talented artist who lives in the area. Huge thanks to Lisa Foster for her hospitality and for letting me run around her awesome studio space with a camera.

Lisa has been making fantastic paintings for years but has only recently began to actively share her creations outside of her close circle. Showing work through her website and social media outlets has flourished in immediate and growing attention for more.

Her life sized, mixed media, self portraits known as “Lisa Shapes” command complete attention when encountered. It is a sensation that could be likened to a meeting as much as a viewing. Foster has been through a lot in her life. Some traumatic experiences had left her “in pieces.” Her work, the process and product, have been helping her to feel whole again. The genuine nature of this approach has been manifesting very powerful results.

The large canvases are accomplished with acrylic paint, medium and reproduction quilting fabrics. It’s easy to keep up with the production of her new work online. In addition to that, I encourage you to see the pieces in person. It is a real treat that offers new insight. I hope that you enjoy this studio visit as much as I did.

To learn more about Lisa Foster, please visit her website at: www.lisaafoster.com

Recently, we stopped in on Aaron Johnson’s new studio space in Bushwick. We were there so that he could sign the new print edition, available here, through our gallery.

It was great to see how much painting was going on in the studio. Aaron was preparing for a solo show, “Scars and Stripes” opening this Friday at Gallery Poulsen in Copenhagen, Denmark and let us take some photographs of the work in progress. He’s been instituting exciting new techniques that have brought the concentration of textural detail to new levels.

Johnson continues to explore a vibrant mythology that is a mash-up of history, biology and individual investigation. His compositions seem to grow in an organic manner with division and replication playing large roles in the layers of color that build into surface. Two depictions of God were nearing completion in the space. These pieces were clear indications that although the works explode before the viewer’s eyes they still manage to keep sight of a larger ideal.

More photos after the break.
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Last week, we had the opportunity to look around at the Starn studio in beautiful Beacon, NY. It was one of those experiences that is not easily forgotten. The building is approximately the same square footage as an American football field and filled with work in various stages of development. The director of the studio, Gaudéricq Robiliard, showed us around and explained the various experimental processes that are currently being used in the two and three dimensional artworks.

A piece of Big Bambú engaged a large part of the studio. The huge sculpture is comprised of more than 2500 strips of bamboo lashed together with nylon mountain climbing rope. The piece changes often as lengths are unattached and reattached elsewhere moving the behemoth structure in a slow, cascading manner. The rest of Big Bambú is currently occupying the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art overlooking New York City’s Central Park through October 31st. This is one artwork that you must see.

There is a constant buzz of activity that envelops visitors to this place. The inherited space has a raw, industrial feel that is completely overshadowed by the warmth of creativity and workspace ingenuity. The harsh warehouse lighting has been dispersed by hanging large white semitransparent textiles. This sort of handmade feel to the functional furnishings pervade the interior design and predicate a sense of the practical genius that is at work. We took tons of pictures so that you may share in the amazing experience.

Be sure to click through for many more photographs.

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