art, music & travel.
Hello! I’m back. I’ve been busy livin’, workin’, and painting! I also revamped my art website and started to spend some quality time on Instagram doing stories and reels. Come see the latest there. Below you will see a glimpse into my latest series, dedicated to women, our hair, and our stories of strength and individuality. Do visit my new art website sometime and let me know what you think.
For those of you who’ve asked, I have a few cameras that I use pretty frequently. Some of them have ridden motorcycles with me through Barcelona, hiked to Machu Picchu and have almost taken a dip in the ocean. These are my loves:
LOMO LC-A+
The little-one-that-could. I’ve gone through about 4 of these LC-A’s in the 8+ years since I been a Lomo fan, but this particular guy I’ve fixed a couple of times, and still going strong.
Olympus OS-1
This is a special camera. It belonged to my maternal grandfather, whom I found out (recently) collected cameras… Now I know where I got it from. I prefer the 50mm lens with it, and particularly like using this camera and the LC-A as a combo.
The ’78 Hass
The tank. I love this camera. Sexy beast.
Blue
My $1 Polaroid machine. purchased at a yard sale in Long Beach, California, 7+ years ago, this blue beauty has come a long way, and it gives me the best instant memories to date.
8mm Action
The argus/cosina 8mm video camera is a gem. I can’t wait to experiment some more with it.
Home
My very small painting space is part of my very small apartment. At the same time, there’s nothing like having your own studio accessible at all times. I have a separate fridge for all my film and also stretch my own canvas when possible.
Currently I’m starting my new series which will be part of a group show this fall! I’ll post more details once I get them, but excited to show new paintings soon. If you’d like to see my work, please visit to my personal website at marikeeler.com
yours truly,
mari
I was commissioned to do these paintings for a good friend of mine and his family. I reeeeaaallly enjoyed this series and am looking forward to doing more. I have documented these in detail, their progress and more. Click after the paintings to view all the progress and detail shots of them.
Blind Snake 2. 2009. Oil on linen, backed with sail cloth
Photo: Todd White
Today I got to experience Nigel Cooke’s work for the first time. His very large, yet relatively empty paintings are filled with invoking ones emotion. Upon entering Andrea Rosen Gallery, one is greeted by Cooke’s Blind Snake. A lone, long, ready to strike snake painted with such finesse and subtle color pallete. So fragile with execution, yet such a powerful symbol…My favorite painting of the series. Inside the main gallery space, is a series of large paintings and sculptures. His work reminds me of a surreal dream. I found myself hovering inside these worlds and could almost feel the wind blowing while studying 1989 and his feeling of surrender in Heavy Beret. All the paintings felt like a journey into someone’s inner struggles, their unconscious… I felt an unvisited and unwanted ugliness in his figures yet was brought back into its beauty by their delicacy through his brushwork and technique.
This exhibit will be up until May 30, 2009.
visit www.rosengallery.com or more info.
All images are © Nigel Cooke
All images are courtesy of Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York.
Heavy Beret. 2009. Oil on linen
Photo: Todd White
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1989. 2009. Oil on Linen, backed with sail cloth
Photo: Todd White
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Experience. 2009. Oil on Linen
Photo: Todd White
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Big Predecessor. 2009. Patinated bronze with paint.
Photo: Jeremy Lawson
I had the opportunity to set up a little interview with my friend Ryder who has been rocking the art scene in NY lately. I hope you enjoy some of his thoughts and take a look at his work, which I find dramatic, clever and very interesting.
How long have you been doing art?
– I’ve been drawing and making artwork since I can remember. One of my earliest memories would be of drawing naked woman on the sidewalk in chalk after stealing Playboy magazines. My sister was pretty pissed off about that. I was about 5 years old. I’ve always been making something. I went to two different art schools, one on an illustration scholarship, the other just to figure out what else I could do. And I’m still working on that one. Still trying to see what’s next.
What/who inspires you to create it?
– I find New York very inspiring. Since my first trip here with my old band years ago I found it strangely comforting here. I find a lot of inspiration in the libraries through researching old myths and superstitions about the explanations multiple cultures put behind different things, especially in the natural world. It’s really intriguing how one object can undergo such drastic reasoning of why it exists and how it should be feared or worshipped.
What inspires you in your everyday?
– It almost always changes. But my walk to my studio from my apartment is nice and I’ll listen to music and get very driven. Conversations from the night before. The people I’m surrounded by. Other artists, designers and my fiancé. People may not have to say anything in particular at all, it’s just their energy that can be very telling. The levels of ambition we each have to accomplish something substantial versus being apathetic.
What medium do you consider most exciting or would you LOVE to master?
– I would love to master sculpture. I keep envisioning the paintings I do in three dimensional form and then some form of light splitting them open. I’ve begun work on a few new things and I’m happy with the progress. I like the idea of being able to walk around the entirety of a piece…
what IS art/music to you?
– The same thing it is to you I would imagine: very personal.
find more of ryder’s artwork at www.pantherattack.com.
I’ve been working hard for this opening for the past few months. Here are some pics of the big night. I will be updating my website with all the new work very soon.
Show stays up until Saturday Jan 24th. There will be a closing party starting at 8. Come by if you can!
Project One is on 251 Rhode Island St., San Francisco.
Spent the day yesterday walking the Metropolitan Museum of Art on 81st and 5th Ave. Its been over 10 years since my last visit (god I feel old), and I forgot how HUGE that museum is. I tried to go through the whole thing, but it must be about a weeks worth of walking….So pretty much just walked around and stumbled into places and eras that seemed interesting.
Loved the Victorian rooms:
Saw plenty of sculptures and paintings. Saw my favorite painters and also took detail pictures of their brushwork. Painters such as Van Gogh, Gauguin and Cezanne really get me in the mood to paint. I love their colors, the richness of the paint, the brushwork and subject matters. I adore the tropical still-lifes and landscapes. They remind me of Venezuela and my godmother, who’s first oil paint lesson for me was a mango still-life on her backporch over-looking the Maracaibo Lake.
Detail of Van Gogh’s ‘Shoes’ 1888
Also swung by the SUPERHEROES exhibit, which was surprisingly small and overly hyped for what it is..as well as the Jeff Koons sculptures on the Rooftop garden. the view was great…the sculptures… meh. I did get a kick of the reflections.
I love the MET. one of my favorites. So much history and so much art. I need a free week to walk it all.
Took a stroll to check out Walton Ford’s exhibit at Paul Kasmin Gallery and ended up viewing 3 other artists in the area. Yoko Ono, Paul Winstanley and Bruce Porter.
Walton Ford’s watercolor works are beautiful and impressive.
Yoko Ono’s exhibit has a fun Polaroid wall which anyone can become part of. I left one behind, see if you find me 😉
Paul Winstanley’s Paintings are soft and subtle, and very beautiful. Except for one that had reds and darker colors. Very different from his very large curtain and green paintings.
And not but not least, Bruce Porter’s paintings are cut-outs addressing mythological themes. There is pencil lines around the shapes and messy color fills. He’s work is interesting, but not my favorite. His exhibit opens tonite 5-22-08.
To view more images from all the galleries, go to my flickr.
While Google searching for Birds, a simple painting of tini red birds and a small figure caught my eye and led me to Kristiana Pärn’s website. This girl is super talented and I Love her work. She does everything!! pretty amazing and very inspiring. I hope I run into one of her pieces while visiting galleries. Check out her paintings, photos, design, flash animations, videos, and so on and so on… dang girl!
art work by ©Kristiana Pärn
you can also buy her work on ETSY.
