Caryn Drexl

Caryn sent us a link to her site (hurrah, reader submissions!), and her photography makes me remember why I was so gung-ho about art photography in college. Her take on portraiture is quite unique, and her excellent technical skills push her work over the top. Very nice.

[Link]
AND I think she's still having a sale on her already reasonably priced prints. Consume, minions, consume!

Ryan Sanchez

Unique style? Check. Big bold compositions? Check. Fresh use of recognized themes and pop culture imagery? Check. Surrealist attitude? Energetic painting technique? Tattoo imagery? Check, check check.

This guy's got a lot of stuff going for him, and some very nice work up on his site, well worth your time.

His work is not only visually pleasing but also makes you (or, at least, me) pause and consider his conceptual process. I'll try to get an interview, and we'll see if we can't all learn a little more together.

[Link]

Greg Houston

You've seen his work. You know you have. It's been in a bunch of magazines.

His caricatures have far more life and style in them than most, and carry an energy that's entirely missing from a lot of the illustrative work I see. A very comprehensive overview of his work is available at his site. I just wish the images were bigger.

[Link].
*BONUS LINK* to his store at CafePress.

GUNSHO a.k.a. James Quigley

Nobody draws like this. Primarily because they're scared to. All those lines, that detail, the color, everything looking all bold... this guy's got unique style for days. I've been checking his site often to see the progression of his "Demonology" series. From his site:

Gunsho is undertaking an intensive effort to create modern interpretations of the 72 demons of the Goetia and other works of demonology, to be completed by the end of 2006. Each demon will be the subject of a print, and the series is to be titled DEMONOLOGY.

And it shall be SWEET. I just ordered a print from this guy, and it showed up in the mail looking twice as nice as it did on the site. It's now one of the coolest things in my otherwise lame apartment.

[Link]

Matthew Woodson & Ghostco.

What better way to prove we're back to business than by pulling an ace from my sleeve? I'd been saving this one for a special day, and I might as well pull it out now.

Matthew Woodson is an amazingly talented and (I think) under-recognized artist and illustrator who currently resides in Chicago. He's been a favorite of mine for years now, and I have been keeping track of him for a while, not only to see where his career goes (it'll be a good place, trust me), but also for him to break down and finally have some prints of his work made. I would buy several.

His site Ghostco, which is currently about as updated as I've ever known it to be, is chock full of his work. Be sure and click everything, it's all well worth it.

I have several years worth of questions for this guy, so I think I'll drop him a line and see if we can't get him on board for a good old fashioned Art Blog style interview sometime soon. I'll keep you posted.

[Link] to Ghostco.
*BONUS LINK*: A very straightforward tutorial on how he goes about making his work, from way back when he was a regular on DeviantArt.

Fanfare! Choruses of Angels! We're back (we think)!

Telling someone you're coming back to blogging is like swearing that you're to quit smoking. Right, right, fine... they'll believe you when it happens. So perhaps a better title would be: we intend to be back. We really do.

Although strangely, I think the site was almost doing better in terms of comments and hits when I wasn't posting...

I myself hate it when bloggers on non-personal sites muck up their posts with personal details. And you don't likely care where I've been. So let's just say I was fistfighting dinosaurs and leave it at that. It's far more fun than the truth anyways.

Enough senseless banter! On with the art!

have faith!

we are not dead. we are merely catching our breath.

for those of you with patience, be advised, and don't be afraid to check back soon.

Video Game Art: Michael French.

Here's some information about a fascinating piece of multi-media installation by artist Michael French. You get to control God's hand to smush a neverending procession of soldiers. With all that violence, let's just hope there's no hot coffee mod as well to irk the censorists.

[Link] to Michael's site. His paintings aren't half bad, either!

12 year-old gums up $1.5 million dollar painting.

In this story on USATODAY.com, a 12-year old is in hot water for sticking his gum where it doesn't go, namely on an expensive piece of art.

The boy, who was not identified because of his age, was part of a school group that was visiting the museum last week when officials said he took a piece of gum out of his mouth and stuck it on the 1963 painting.

The gum stuck to the painting's lower left corner and did not adhere to the fiber of the canvas, officials told the Detroit Free Press. But it left a chemical residue about the size of a quarter, said Becky Hart, assistant curator of contemporary art.

Now obviously we wouldn't want to ban young people from museums, but how about getting rid of the gum? The chewing sound echoes something terrible in the gallery spaces anyways.

The Surrealist Goes To The Store.

A hilarious short piece of prose over at McSweeny's to get you in a surrealist state of mind, should you want such a thing.

The buildings turned into ice cream, which soon melted under the heat of the deep-blue sun, which was now resting 74 feet from the surface of the Earth. The townspeople were very disappointed as they watched their houses and places of business melt into ice-cream soup. They yelled in anger at Jimmy. Some of them melted, while others turned into various 15th-century English noblemen.

Ah, surrealism!