Anne Faith Nicholls Miniature Shadow Box

Today I received a beautiful hand painted "Miniature Shadow Box" created by artist Anne Faith Nicholls. I first learned about the artist from a feature in the March 2008 issue of Juxtapoz magazine. I immediately fell in love with her color palette, composition and subject manner. My favorite paintings seem to involve hearts, birds, women, whales, trees, rain and dogs. In her bio she mentions heavy influences from surrealism, early America, American folk art, animals, and the rare and unusual. I also find it interesting the influence a couple of places where she has lived have, on the narrative aspects of her work. She has lived in a couple of places distinctly known for their weather; Seattle and San Francisco and I think that is apparent in her color palette and importance of water as a theme.

Please visit her site and enjoy the photos I have taken of the box I purchased from her shop.

I Love Marcel Dzama!

Marcel Dzama is one of my all time favorite artists. I think I have mentioned this before, but I always find it fascinating how an artist is reflective of their work. He just collaborated with the band Department of Eagles for their song "No One Does it Like You". I had never heard of the band, but I love this song. I am going to have to check out the rest of their work. I love being able to see Dzama's work come to life in such a wonderful way. His work is both innocent and grotesque. But at the same time if you think about the times when war and killing was a choreographed event, and much more intimate, then this little story makes some sense. I think it is easy to forget the history we ourselves didn't live. In so many ways we live a removed, aesthetic and anesthetized life.



Here is an interview with Marcel.


In some ways Marcel's work reminds me of a quote by Thich Nhat Hahn- "Hatred and fear blind us. We no longer see each other. We only see the faces of monsters, and that gives us the courage to destroy each other."