In a Daily Sewing Project, Karen Turner Stitches a Visual Diary in Vividly Textured Designs

All images © Karen Turner, shared with permission

From newspaper paintings and watercolor scenes to narrative photographs and wildly handled mugs, daily projects have continually grabbed our attention for their ritualistic nature, dedication, and ability to strengthen creative stamina. East Yorkshire-based artist Karen Turner has spent the last year in the midst of her own routine involving a long strip of vintage fabric and colorful hand-sewn motifs.

Turner began what’s become her Intuitive Daily Stitching project back in January 2022 when she was hoping to bring more mindfulness into her everyday. The idea was to fill a few inches on a simple, angular grid with whatever motif came to mind, creating a textured patchwork that was also “a visual representation of time passing,” she says. “The older I get, the faster time seems to pass, and I wanted to connect with this sense of time rushing by and consciously to notice a few minutes every day.”

 

For the 2022 iteration, Turner worked on a single sheet of metis, a cotton-linen blend, stitching undulating stripes, dense crisscrossed lines, and radial designs. Now complete, the piece stretches a staggering 95 inches, highlighting the changes in the artist’s emotions, impulses, and aesthetic sensibilities as the months passed.

In this year’s edition, Turner shifted to a more book-like structure with several pages and a cover to emphasize the diaristic nature of the project. She explains:

I sometimes think stitching is more like writing than drawing, in that you can often identify a stitcher’s work in the same way that you would recognise their handwriting on an envelope. In that way, the stitch journal functions a bit like a diary, though it records more abstract thoughts and feelings rather than events. I think of the cloth and the stitches as witness to this part of my life and holders of a fragment of time.

For those interested in starting their own daily stitching journal, Turner sells her monthly templates and offers an online course on the practice. You can find more about the project on her site and follow updates on Instagram.

 

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RISD Continuing Education Reaches Teen Artists Globally With Online Youth Programming

Artwork by Advanced Program Online student Madison S.

Since 2020, developing effective and engaging art and design programming for teens has been the focus of Rhode Island School of Design Continuing Education (RISD CE). In addition to online courses and certificate programs for adults, RISD CE now offers two formats of virtual engagement specifically designed to meet the needs and goals of young students across the globe.

Teen artists from anywhere in the world can now participate in courses taught by academics, creative practitioners, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders who advance RISD CE’s mission to provide an art and design education for everyone. Students’ unique goals are met by instructors who provide opportunities to expand their worldview and hone critical visual communication skills applicable to any career path.

RISD CE teen online courses allow students ages 13 to 17 to explore one or more visual arts and design subjects. They attend weekly live Zoom meetings, which foster connection and community building.

Our first live class had students pair up to draw blind contour portraits of each other while asking questions about who they were, where they lived, likes and dislikes. Afterwards, everyone shared their portraits and told us what they had learned about their drawing partner. The blind contour portraits got everyone laughing and created a class connection. It definitely set the tone for the rest of the session and I could see a marked improvement in student interaction. —Bunky Hurter, Fashion Illustration instructor

In addition to Zoom meetings, students will review asynchronous course materials, work on projects independently, and receive narrative assessments with personalized feedback.

Summer 2023 teen online courses are offered in two sessions from June 25 to August 5.

For high school students ages 15 to 18 looking for more intensive experiences, CE offers RISD’s Advanced Program Online, a year-round online alternative to its residential summer pre-college program. This certificate program is for changemakers who want to develop their art practices, learn new ways to collaborate, and pursue art and design topics in depth. The Advanced Program Online allows students to focus on a passion, reflect on contemporary circumstances, and create a future they’re excited about.

Summer 2023 Advanced Program Online courses are offered in two sessions from June 17 to August 13.

RISD CE Summer 2023 is now enrolling!

To learn more, visit ce.risd.edu.

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 RISD Continuing Education Reaches Teen Artists Globally With Online Youth Programming appeared first on Colossal.

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Working on Ice Floes, David Popa Renders Ephemeral Portraits that Fracture and Split into the Sea

“Bemuse.” All images © David Popa, shared with permission

After a decade of living in Finland, David Popa has established a fruitful creative collaboration that would be impossible in his native New York City. The artist frequently works on land and sea, particularly the fractured ice floes of the Baltic, to render large-scale portraits and figurative murals that draw connections between the ephemerality of human life and the environment. Whether depicting his wife or newborn child in intimate renderings, he highlights the inevitability of change as time passes, seasons transition, and the climate warms.

Popa’s use of such unconventional canvases emerged from a desire for adventure and child-like play, when he put on a drysuit, climbed onto his paddleboard, and ventured out to a frozen mass. “These spaces were so mysterious and so interesting,” the artist says. “I derived an enormous amount of inspiration from going out into these ethereal spots.” After taking some drone photos of the areas, he began working, spraying the contours of a cheek or lip onto the icy matter.

 

Left: “Remnants of the Past.” Right: “Prometheus”

Because many of his works are destined to melt and be reabsorbed, Popa opts for natural materials like white chalk from the Champagne region, ochres from France and Italy, and powdered charcoal he makes himself—the latter also plays a small role in purifying the water, leaving it cleaner than the artist found it. Most pieces take between three and six hours to complete, and his work time is dependent on the weather, temperature, and condition of the sea. “The charcoal will sink into the ice and disappear from a very dark shade to a medium shade, so it has to be created very quickly and documented. No to mention the work on the ice will just crack and drift away completely, or the next day it will snow and be completely covered,” he says. “I’m really battling the elements.”

Popa embraces this cyclical process and the lack of control over the fate of his works, which he preserves only through stunning aerial photos. Broadly reflecting themes of existence and time, some of his murals, like “Prometheus” and “Remnants of the Past,” also emphasize shifts in aesthetic impulses. Mimicking Greek sculptures, the works appear “washed up on shore,” drawing connections between antiquity and today and the differences in how we perceive beauty.

Popa will release a new limited-edition print next month, and you can follow that release on his site and Instagram. (via Yatzer)

 

“Power of the Earth”

“Fractured”

“Redemption”

“Power of the Earth”

Left: “Lautassari.” Right: “Inceptus”

“Mirage”

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‘A History of the World According to Getty Images’ Challenges the Power Structures Inherent in the Capture and Control of Footage

When a creative material’s copyright lapses, it enters the public domain, which means it is no longer subject to trademarks, patents, or intellectual property rights. No individual, company, author, or artist owns it, and it belongs to the public. If this is the case, why is some public domain footage so expensive? This is the question at the core of Richard Misek’s short film “A History of the World According to Getting Images” in which he explores how historically significant footage from newsreels, government agencies, and pioneers of film are “held captive” behind paywalls.

Beyond the history contained within the images, Misek examines footage itself and what happens after it’s captured. He focuses on Getty Images, the world’s largest commercial archive, challenging its control over public footage, which it only makes available through steep licensing fees. In the case of The Miles Brothers’ iconic short film “A Trip Down Market Street,” which captures downtown San Francisco just days before the devastating 1906 earthquake, the film was digitized in 2016 by the Prelinger Archive and made available for free, while Getty charges hundreds or thousands of dollars for the rights to use the footage, depending on its intended use.

 

Misek parses the unequal power dynamics inherent within capturing life and major events, in addition to the barriers to accessing that footage today. “Newsreel cameras document power, but what strikes me most from my exploration of the Getty Archive, is how much the act of filming itself is an expression of power,” Misek narrates. He points out that footage shot by the government, like the first atomic explosions at Bikini Atoll in 1946, enters the public domain immediately, but that NASA is the only federal agency that releases directly to the public. Misek paid to us use six of the eight full clips in the film, which he sourced from various collections to find the best price.

Whenever I search a news archive, I always hope I’ll find some images that aren’t about power. And once in a while I do. But by and large, the past offers no surprises. As it is the source of all the inequalities and injustices that still exist. That’s why I made this film. Its aim is not only to share images’ stories, it’s to release them from captivity.

By paying to use the full clips, Misek slyly adds previously inaccessible images into the public realm by claiming no copyright, making the film available to stream online and download in full for free. You can find more of his work on Vimeo and his site.

 

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Figures Flow Along Swirling Streams of Color in Samantha Keely Smith’s Vibrant Abstract Landscapes

“Calling Out Across the Distance” (2023), oil on canvas, 60 x 68 inches. All images © Samantha Keely Smith, shared with permission

In vibrant oil paintings evocative of roiling oceans or atmospheric vistas, Samantha Keely Smith relies on confident, swift strokes to guide the composition. Hovering between abstraction and depictions of landscapes (previously), tonal contrasts and complementary colors emphasize dramatic movements suggestive of crashing waves or storms. “All of my work explores the idea that the line between our conscious and unconscious (experiences) is often blurry and that occasionally we are able the straddle both sides at once,” she tells Colossal.

Smith’s recent work has evolved into a looser, more freeform style that has taught her the value of experimentation or going with the flow. “Most importantly, I have given myself permission to completely fail occasionally and not feel bad about it,” she says. “I will sometimes pull a canvas off the stretcher and throw it away. In the past, I would fight to the bitter end to try to save something that just wasn’t working, which was ultimately a waste of my time and effort.”

 

“And Now I See You” (2023), oil on canvas, 60 x 68 inches

Along with the more relaxed and confident approach, Smith now incorporates figures in her works. As an extension of her ongoing series Imagined Landscapes, she explores themes relating to presence and the subconscious in the form of bodies floating along a current that appear partially submerged. “Like a radio station coming in and out of tune, they exist as much in our reality as they do in that ‘other’ world,” she says, sharing that the addition of figures her pieces tapped into her own and loved ones’ health challenges.

Smith examines the emotional and mental toll of caring for her parents, who both suffered from prolonged illnesses. Now 54, she explores the fuzzy state between consciousness and “going under,” reflecting on being hospitalized for four months with a life-threatening illness at age 21. The painful experience instilled an appreciation for the fragility of life and the immense capacity humans have to feel hope. “The existential and the personal are intertwined in my work,” she says. “I believe that through art, we have the opportunity to accentuate our commonalities and to bring people together by sharing these personal experiences that are, at the same time, universal experiences.”

Find more of Smith’s work on her website, and follow updates on Instagram.

 

“The Soaring Kind” (2022), oil on canvas, 60 x 78 inches

“Here I Lay Me Down” (2023), oil on canvas, 60 x 68 inches

“I’ll Rise” (2022), oil on canvas, 64 x 78 inches

“Light Into Darkness” (2022), oil on canvas, 60 x 78 inches

“Illuminate (Ourselves)” (2022), oil on canvas, 56 x 72 inches

“Something More” (2021), oil on canvas, 60 x 68 inches

“A Blink Away” (2021), oil on canvas, 36 x 48 inches

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 Figures Flow Along Swirling Streams of Color in Samantha Keely Smith’s Vibrant Abstract Landscapes appeared first on Colossal.

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Rick Salafia’s Wildly Shaped Aluminum Rulers Measure Impractical Proportions

All images © Rick Salafia

With dramatically bowed edges, coiled shapes, and fragments jutting in opposite directions, Instruments by Rick Salafia defies many standards of measurement. The ongoing series, which currently comprises more than 200 works, disregards the one-foot rectangle in favor of a playfully diverse array of shapes. Semi-circles stretch like a croissant, ends expand into wide, asymmetric forms, and a segment stretching just a few inches breaks free from the rest of the metal tool. While the pieces in Instruments take on impractical shapes and proportions, the individual inked lines and numbers remain relatively uniform, evoking the systemized nature of a typical ruler.

Salafia produced each work in an edition of three and has some available in his shop. You can find more from the series on his site.

 

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how can a cancer woman attract a capricorn man

As an AI language model, I do not believe in astrology or horoscopes, but I can offer some general tips on how to attract someone:

1. Be Confident: Confidence is attractive. Show your Capricorn man that you are self-assured and comfortable in your own skin.

2. Be Independent: Capricorn men appreciate women who are independent and have their own goals and interests. Show him that you have a life outside of the relationship.

3. Be Ambitious: Capricorn men tend to be ambitious themselves and are attracted to women who share that trait. Show him that you have your own goals and are working towards them.

4. Show Your Intelligence: Capricorn men value intelligence and intellectual conversations. Show him your intelligence by engaging him in thoughtful discussions.

5. Be Patient: Capricorn men can be slow to open up and reveal their feelings. Be patient and allow him to take his time. Don't rush things or try to force a connection.

Remember, these are just general tips, and everyone is unique. Ultimately, the best way to attract someone is to be yourself and let your natural qualities shine through.