can you bathe a hamster

It is generally not recommended to give a hamster a full bath as it can be stressful for them and disrupt their natural grooming habits. Hamsters are able to clean themselves by grooming with their tongues and paws, and they are typically able to maintain their cleanliness on their own.

If your hamster has a dirty or sticky spot on their fur, it's best to spot-clean it with a damp cloth or a damp cotton ball. You can also use a dry shampoo specifically formulated for small animals to help freshen up their coat without the need for a full bath.

If you absolutely need to give your hamster a bath, you can use a shallow dish filled with warm water (not hot) and a mild, unscented soap formulated for small animals. Make sure to support your hamster's body and keep their head above the water, and only keep them in the water for a short time. After the bath, dry your hamster gently with a towel and make sure they are kept warm until they are completely dry. However, it's best to avoid giving your hamster a bath unless absolutely necessary.

In Theatrical Murals and Dioramas by Aryz, Dramatic Scenarios Unfold in Vivid Color

“La Causa” (2020), Saint-Merri Church, Paris, France. All images © Aryz

In vibrant blocks of color, Catalan artist Aryz creates multistory murals and diorama-like artworks that radiate within their surroundings. Known for his saturated chromatic installations (previously) that fill the sides of apartment blocks or stand as panels in grand interiors, the artist emphasizes an outsized sketchy style as if the pigment were applied with giant crayons or pastels.

Aryz often reveals a grid-like structure redolent of paintings’ underdrawings, but rather than cover the structure, he creates distinct compartments containing a variety of textural and compositional elements. While much of his work emphasizes a flat two-dimensional plane, murals like “El Entreacto” expand the grid and incorporate three-dimensional depth with shadows and cartoonish details that glitch or cut off.

Often featuring figures in early 20th-century garments, Aryz’s dramatic scenes involve lions and circus performers, airplanes, or injured figures, evoking associations with early cinema and the First and Second World Wars. The murals’ locations provide incredible backdrops for the artist’s theatrical interior scenes, nodding to the rich history of crumbling old chapels or cavernous sites like Saint-Merri Church in Paris that have been damaged and reconstructed over many centuries.

Find more on his website, and see videos of his process on Instagram. (via Booooooom)

 

“El Entreacto” (2022), Mannheim, Germany

“Cocorico” (2022), Clermont-Ferrand, France

“La Muerte del Color” (2020), 19th-century abandoned chapel, Spain

“Violeta” (2020), Versailles, France

“El Auxilio” (2020), Conservatorium aan Zee, Oostende, Belgium

“La Ruina” (2021), Església de Sant Pere, Corbera d’Ebre, Spain

Installation view of “La Ruina” (2021)

“El Festejo” (2022), Ex Chiesa San Mattia, Bologna, Italy

“Descanso” (2021), Alcoy, Spain

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Join Summer Intensives at Pratt Institute’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies

Photo by Katie Kwok, BArch ’23

Conceive and achieve unique works of art, design, or architecture this summer at Pratt Institute’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies by registering for one or more of our Summer Intensives, while either earning college credits or Continuing Education Units (CEUs). Whether you’re seeking educational and/or career advancement, you can develop or enhance your creative skills and apply time-tested methods to create original final projects for your portfolio.

All offerings are designed for all levels of experience. Choose between participating online* in real-time from the comfort of your home with access to Pratt’s rich digital resources, or join us in person to gain direct access to our cutting-edge facilities while enjoying the arts and cultural opportunities in New York City. You will be part of a vibrant community and network with other peers and professionals in the creative fields at the renowned Pratt Institute this summer.

You can receive a 35% tuition discount for up to five Summer Credit Intensive courses when you register by our early deadlines: May 1, 2023, for Summer Session 1 credit intensive courses, and June 1, 2023, for Summer Session 2 credit intensive courses.

The regular Summer Credit Intensive registration deadlines are May 19, 2023, for Summer Session 1 and June 19, 2023, for Summer Session 2. There is no tuition discount for noncredit Summer Intensives.

Early registration is encouraged to secure your seat in your course(s) of choice. After the deadlines, students may be admitted if space remains in the selected course(s).

To learn more, visit pratt.edu or contact prostudy@pratt.edu.

We look forward to you joining us and making the most of your summer!

*Most Summer Intensive courses are offered with the option to enroll either online synchronously or in person unless otherwise noted. In-person course formats will follow applicable Pratt Institute COVID safety guidelines.

Pratt Institute is ranked number six and one of the world’s top 10 Art & Design Colleges in 2023 by QS World University. Learn more.

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Dyed and Spliced Wooden Sculptures by Bayne Peterson Bulge and Ooze in Playful Shapes

“Precursor 1” (2022), dyed plywood, 14 x 18.25 x 9.5 inches. Photo by Lance Brewer. All images © Bayne Peterson, courtesy of the artist and Kristen Lorello, NY, shared with permission

As artist Bayne Peterson sketches the voluptuous and sinuous shapes of what will become his vibrant wooden sculptures, he takes cues from organic movement. “I’m thinking less, ‘what does nature look like?’ and more, in a general sense, ‘what would nature do?'” he says. His geometric works echo both generative and reductive biological processes, bulging and surging in asymmetric forms that accentuate the relationship between negative and positive space.

Evoking growth, replication, and deterioration, Peterson references geometric principles when structuring his works. He begins with an initial drawing, cuts dyed and raw wood, and then splices the segments into checked patterns, stripes, and radial motifs. Each work undergoes a hefty round of sculpting with rough hand tools like rasps and files before the soft, supple curves emerge. “My process (of) shaping and sanding feels very much like erosion, and I also think of my sculptures in relation to geology, with the layers of dyed wood being like layers of sediment,” he shares, likening the lines to topographic maps.

The resulting sculptures contrast the vivid patterns with the natural grain of the raw material, and many are comprised of two larger forms stacked or slotted together. Because Peterson prefers irregular motifs and undulating forms, the works shift in perspective depending on the position of the viewer. “One of the most fun parts of making sculptures for me is the challenge of making a static object seem animated,” he says, elaborating:

Sometimes I want it to feel like the viewer’s entire field of vision, and not just the object, is in motion, like looking at an underwater object from above the rippling surface…My ultimate goal is to push all these factors to a level at which the object begins visually to swim and in which the overload of information within the work is difficult to process all at once, like the experience of watching a flickering campfire or looking at a glitching pixelated digital screen. 

For more from Peterson, who is based in Rhode Island, head to Instagram, where he shares a trove of sculptures and glimpses into his process.

 

“Untitled” (2018), dyed plywood and natural wood, 15 x 9 x 5 inches. Photo by Jeffrey Sturges

“Untitled” (2021), dyed plywood, 19 x 10 x 8.5 inches. Photo by Lance Brewer

“Untitled” (2022), dyed plywood, 15.5 x 12 x 6.5 inches. Photo by Lance Brewer

“Untitled” (2020), dyed plywood, 11 x 15.5 x 5.5 inches. Photo by Jeffrey Sturges

“Untitled” (2020), dyed plywood, 14 x 13.75 x 7.5 inches. Photo by Jeffrey Sturges

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Dyed and Spliced Wooden Sculptures by Bayne Peterson Bulge and Ooze in Playful Shapes appeared first on Colossal.

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Gracefully Elongated Limbs Stretch and Bend in Isabel Miramontes’s Figurative Sculptures

“Come On,” bronze, 26 x 24 x 12 inches. All images courtesy of CASART, shared with permission

With a flair for dramatic contortions of the human body, Spanish artist Isabel Miramontes (previously) casts elongated limbs and impossibly stretched torsos in bronze. Many of her elegant sculptures depict androgynous figures with no discernable gender or clothing who are caught in the midst of movement.  Expressive and exaggerated, the figures evoke the distinct tension between corporeal limitation and liberation.

In “Come On,” for example, one subject attempts to pull another from their collapsed position on the floor, while other works feature characters with segmented bodies or heads attached to an upper arm rather than a neck. The latter emphasizes the ephemeral aspects of both motion and the flesh, showing that each will ultimately disappear into memory.

Explore more of the artist’s recent works at CASART and on Artsy.

 

“Modus Vivendi,” bronze, 22 x 19 x 11 inches

“Freehand,” bronze, 110 x 22 x 18 centimeters

Left: “Gust of Wind,” bronze, 15 x 10 x 14 inches. Right: “Bather,” bronze, 41 x 18 x 14 inches

“Big Step,” bronze, 61 x 12 x 51 inches

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Antonius-Tín Bui Carves Spaces for Diverse Histories in Their Meticulous Paper Artworks

“Solo of Raven” (2021), hand-cut paper and paint, 109 x 60 inches. All images © Antonius Tin-Bui, courtesy of moniquemeloche, shared with permission

Intricately cutting single sheets of paper by hand, Antonius-Tín Bui (previously) reveals intimate portraits of friends, family, and the diverse narratives that shape identity and community. The Vietnamese-American artist’s subjects are delineated by elaborate geometric and botanical patterns evocative of Southeast Asian decorative motifs and are often portrayed among clusters of traditional porcelain vases, some of which contain large voids as if a piece has broken off. Among the vessels and patterns, Bui details figures enmeshed in their surroundings as words and interiors tenderly acknowledge the queer Asian American and Pacific Islander community.

Bui describes their identity as “ever-glitching” queer, non-binary, and Vietnamese-American, and as a child of refugees who immigrated to New York, they are interested in the narratives of displaced communities, the enormity of transition and transformation, and false dichotomies in geography, culture, and gender. The artist was struck by the focus that cultural institutions place on vessels—and Asian ceramics, in general—in their collections, confronted by the way that many Western museums have historically erased Eastern cultural narratives, resulting in fragmented, siloed representation of an antiquated, overgeneralized Orientalist perspective of the past.

Pieces like “There’s Fluency in Forgetting,” which is part of a series of exploding vessels, mark the transformational nature of the passage of time, visualizing the relationship between past and present to construct what Bui describes as “hybrid identity and histories.” For each figure, the artist carefully carves the details of tattoos, jewelry, and messages that reveal aspects of their stories. Each work is a meditation on presence and absence, memories, inter-generational trauma, and beauty, “metaphorically carving out space for the narratives that are so often omitted from recognized histories.”

moniquemeloche will present a solo exhibition of Bui’s work at Independent Fair in New York next month, and you can see more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

 

“There’s Fluency in Forgetting” (2022), hand-cut paper, ink, pencil, and paint, 32 x 24 inches

Detail of “Solo of Raven”

“Holding onto these fragments, all these years (The Protectors)” (2021), hand-cut paper, marker, pencil, and ink, 83 1/2 x 43 inches

“Vanguard” (2018), hand-cut paper, 78 x 42 1/8 x 2 1/8 inches

“The Resounding Echo of a Revision” (2022), hand-cut paper, ink, pencil, and paint, 34 x 28 inches

Detail of “The Resounding Echo of Revision”

“Holding onto these fragments, all these years (The Protectors)” (2021), hand-cut paper, marker, pencil, and ink, 93 1/2 x 42 1/2 inches

“Holding onto these fragments, all these years (The Protectors)” (2021), hand-cut paper, marker, pencil, and ink, 92 x 42 inches

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In Monica Rohan’s ‘Disappearing Act,’ Free-Floating Fabrics Disguise Landscapes Under Threat

“Interference” (2023), oil on canvas, framed, 180 x 150 centimeters. All images © Monica Rohan, courtesy of the artist and Jan Murphy Gallery, shared with permission

Draped over invisible clotheslines, vintage fabrics conceal seaside vistas, meadows teeming with dried grasses, and craggy walls of stone in Monica Rohan’s latest works. The artist (previously) renders the vast landscapes of her native Australia in a new series of oil paintings as part of Disappearing Act, her solo show on view later this month at Jan Murphy Gallery in Fortitude Valley, Queensland.

Known for her deft portrayals of pattern and the dimensions of folded textiles, Rohan continues to contrast domestic, human-made material with more organic surroundings. In this series, disembodied limbs draw back the suspended curtains, slowly uncovering the otherwise concealed landscapes. Rohan refers to these small reveals as “portals to seemingly idyllic environments beyond” that accentuate the way paintings—and art, more broadly—intervene in how we experience our surroundings.

The stage-like nature of the paintings draws connections between the limited duration of theatrical performances and the impending losses caused by the climate crisis as they channel “feelings of anxiety and concern toward landscapes under threat,” the artist says. Each is serene with calm waters, sunny skies, and an easiness to its existence, and all notably lack evidence of human civilization. Devoid of a body, the hands add an uncanny tension to the works, as they direct viewers toward what lies behind the curtains and emphasize, as the title suggests, “that the show is about to start.”

Disappearing Act will run from April 26 to May 13. Until then, take a look at Rohan’s Instagram, where she generously shares glimpses into her process.

 

“The Sea” (2022), oil on canvas, framed, 120 x 183 centimeters

“Strung up in late afternoon light” (2023), oil on canvas, framed, 120 x 180 centimeters

“Select” (2023), oil on board, framed, 35.5 x 28 centimeters

“Ridge between mountains” (2023), oil on board, framed, 120 x 90 centimeters

“Riverbank” (2023), oil on board, framed, 120 x 90 centimeters

“Withdraw from the hillside” (2022), oil on board, framed, 120 x 90 centimeters

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article In Monica Rohan’s ‘Disappearing Act,’ Free-Floating Fabrics Disguise Landscapes Under Threat appeared first on Colossal.

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