Anthropomorphic Monday #4

I opened up the stapler to refill it and found this guy hiding out.
He kinda reminds me of “Uncle Bill” from some of the early Saturday Night Live
broadcasts. I can hear him say “Oh, No” just as you’re about to staple a stack of paper.
Good for a smile on a Monday morning!

If you find “faces” you’d like to share, tweet them to me: @kvanartworks

Stapler guy

Black & White Friday #2

I obviously didn’t take this photo, but it is one of my favorite pictures of my mother, Sophia, who passed away 3 years ago today. I don’t know who the photographer is. She was styling, even back then.

Sophia filling some pretty big shoes

Mike’s Diner

I think this sign goes well with Sophia’s photo. When I was little she would try to teach me the Jitterbug. She loved to dance and wanted to be a professional dancer. I can just hear the music when I look at this sign. The abandoned diner was just off 95 somewhere in Georgia next to a gas station on my way Florida.

Mike's Diner © Kathryn VanAernum

Anthropomorphic Monday #3

This is another building from King street in Charleston. I love how the left “eye” looks as though he is wearing a monocle - the chain for it inferred by the street lamp. “He” seems like a character from the time period of the building itself.

Monocle. ©Kathryn VanAernum

Black and White Friday

Being in Key West last week was amazing sensual delight in too many ways to account for in this blog post. I truly forgot how beautiful it is. To be immersed in endless sky and water was a reminder in how spacious we really are inside.

In contrast, “The Island City”, is anything but spacious. Tightly packed streets and lanes are the foundation for some of the most delightful architecture on the east coast. The sub-tropical sun creates dynamic contrasts and sublime shadows that are an artist’s and photographer’s dream.

When I lived there, I used to paint watercolors “en plein air” with a woman who I consider to be my first real art teacher: Sanford Birdsey. We would go out on Saturday mornings and paint the street scenes and architecture of Key West. She would stress composition and value over color. She said that once you have the first two, it doesn't necessarily matter what color you paint with. I agree. In a place that bursts with color, the intensity of values translate beautifully in black and white. So it is with this photo that I  begin my series of posts called, “Black and White Friday”

This one is for you Sanford. Memory Eternal.

Saturday Morning on Southard - Key West
©K.VanAernum

Anthropomorphic Monday #2

This was taken in Charleston, I think it was on King Street. Can't remember if it was a theater or Restaurant. If you know where, send me a comment.

 Do you think these are just aliens looking at us?
If you find faces in you’d like to share, tweet them to me: @kvanartworks. Happy Monday.

Anthropomorphic Monday

Anthropomorphic:  ascribing human characteristics to nonhuman things.

To make Monday a bit more fun, I am starting a weekly post called Anthropomorphic Monday. I have been fascinated for a while now with “human” faces appearing in mostly man made forms.

Hope you enjoy the giggle and if you find faces you’d like to share, tweet them to me: @kvanartworks

I think what caught my eye with this “guy” was his ears.

Medical scanner of some type.

UnEarth at Saluda Shoals

Saluda Shoals © Kathryn Van Aernum

Ever since I first heard about the “UnEarth Festival - A Celebration of Naturally Inspired Art” about 5 years ago I have been a big fan. I always seemed to miss the deadline but this year I had my antenna up for the call to artists. Participating this year as an artist was a great treat. The weather was absolutely perfect for spending a Sunday on the banks of the Saluda River making art.

I demonstrated drawing and writing with objects found in nature, and I had an extra table set up for anyone who wanted to try their hand using nature tools. Mostly children dove in, but some adults were delighted to play with nature. Wisteria seed pods were the hands on favorite. So was the color purple.

As the leaves fell from the tree above, they were creatively added into the repertoire of tools

Maybe we'll see you next year!

S&S Fundraiser for The Art of Recovery

After focusing on photography for several months ( no pun intended), it has been great to go back in the studio and paint. These two images have been on quite a journey. They look absolutely nothing like what I started out with. I just gave myself permission to go wherever my instincts wanted to take me.

Risking painting over areas that weren't working, or that just wanted to go in a different direction. The process started as tenuous and ended up with a really satisfying and joyful quality. I felt confidence in my own painting process really grow with these two paintings.

The first painting is inspired by a poem title by Dylan Thomas entitled The Force That Through The Green Fuse Drives The Flower. I like the title more than the poem. What I do like about it is the connection of our lives to the natural rhythms. In these technological times, it's easy to forget that.

The Force That Through The Green Fuse - inspired by the poem by
Dylan Thomas. Painting © Kathryn Zoe Van Aernum
Mixed Media on Plywood

The second painting is called, “Holy Okra.” I got this beautiful purple okra in my CSA basket one week and had to bring it to the studio to paint. I don't like to eat okra at all - and yes, I've tried fried okra. But, I had never seen okra this color and thought it quite stunning. They way they are hovering over they made me think they were angelic. For me this painting represents that something(or someone) we don't like can be viewed as sacred.

Holy Okra © Kathryn Zoe Van Aernum

Mixed Media on Plywood

These two paintings will be up for auction at S&S Art Supply’s Fundraiser for The Art of Recovery - an art program for those suffering from mental illness.

This Saturday, July 21 • 2-6 p.m. There will be many paintings to bid on, food, adult beverages and live music.

Preparing the Meal

I'm getting ready for Columbia's Open Studios this weekend and I feel like I'm getting ready for a dinner party. There is the obvious meal prep and house cleaning; nothing like having people over to motivate you to clean your house, or studio, whatever the case may be. I want people to really enjoy the meal and be glad they came. I want people to have fun and enjoy each other's company, maybe even meet some new friends and bring old ones along.

If you're hungry for art, there's a movable feast of 69 studios to tour this weekend to satisfy your appetite.
Here is the online studio guide.  And there is also a cool interactive map

 I hope you'll stop by 2065 Blossom Street, Studio 205 in Columbia - right above OOPs (and Groucho's, speaking of food) in 5 points.

Bon Appétite!

Kale©Kathryn Zoe

Love Has Everything To Do With It - postscript

Love Has Everything To Do With It.
20" x30" Acrylic on Cold Press Watercolor Paper
©Kathryn Zoe Van Aernum

Love Has Everything To Do With It

Concrete Love © Kathryn Zoe Van Aernum

As I contemplated the lyrics of the Tina Turner song, "What's Love Got To Do With It," it hit me that Love has everything to do with "it." The "it" being life. It's love that inspires me to create. It's love that inspires me to connect, to appreciate. Without love, or passion, or heart, or whatever you want to call it, there is no point. 

I had an experience recently when I was going through my photo files. It was almost transcendent. There was the subject, the lighting, the composition and, yes, love. I saw the love that inspired me to take the photo reflecting back at me. 

So today, Valentine's day, I'm loving myself by doing what I inspires me; spending time in my art studio creating, playing and feeling the love.

"Meanwhile, once in a while, I have chanced, among the quick things,

  upon the immutable.

What more could one ask?" 

— From "The Long Black Branches by Mary Oliver

The Long Black Branches © Kathryn Zoe Van Aernum

Join me for Columbia Open Studios

April 21 & April 22

2605 Blossom Street - Above Oops in 5-points