5.14.2011

leanne shapton's painted patterns

Last month, the New York Times Interactive Op-Ed site featured this major eye-candy work, A Month Of Wednesday Patterns, by Leanne Shapton. These freehand watercolor renditions of out-in-the-world patterns have so much character and energy. This erratic little collection of swatches makes my thoughts go erratic, too, thinking about all sorts of human-nature things. I see these works as the charming documents of the simple poetry of the process; her being out in the world, noticing these patterns in their context, and recording them free-handed in an imperfect yet absolutely clear visual language. And then I think, why these patterns? What about all the other patterns she must have seen over the many months of working on this project? It makes me wonder about how our memories work, and how beauty really does stand out and impresses upon us in common and individual ways alike. And just what is it about patterns that attract or repel us so? There are boundless patterns to be found in nature, and it's only natural that we would be quite attracted to unmistakeably human-made patterns. What interesting marks we leave on the world in this way. Clothing, walls, walkways, sometimes even in food. What peculiar animals we are.

Here are some of the individual paintings featured in this online-published work;


 
Layla cotton shirt worn over a bathing suit to MacaroniBeach
Jan 6, 2010, Mustique


 

"Pillowcase in my brother's spare room
March 3, 2010, Toronto"


 
Bathroom tiles in a cottage at locusts-on-Hudson
May 19, 2010, Staatsburg, NY

 
Wool carpet in the drawing room at Calke Abbey
Sept 1, 2010, Ticknall England

 
Aaand sidebar--whoa--travel much!?  I'd by lying if I said I wasn't envious. : P

More of Ms. Shapton's pattern paintings can be found on her site, here.

Also, check out the totally rad art book imprint she co-founded at jandlbooks.org.

5.11.2011

letter 5.11.11


This is going out to the postal box in t-minus 5 seconds. . . . . 3, 2, 1, buzz off!

Just kidding, Lori. This is coming to you. Please do not buzz off.

postcard 5.10.11


I received this handmade postcard from one of my BFFs from a trip she took to Argentina. This is an artist's rendition of the Perito Moreno glacier in Patagonia.

I think of it as Perrito Moreno (little brown dog) because this depiction reminds me of a dog's molars.