art delivery : 09.06.23

Oooh, strange and beautiful… one of my favorite combos! These paintings (oil & acrylic on canvas) are the work of Germany-based American artist Ellen Akimoto :

“… The sceneries and subjects appear uneasy and distorted. The bodies are frozen in time, awaiting some future resolution, in strange and unsightly poses. These mise en scènes seem directly extracted from those moments of Hitchcock movies, when the lead actress begins to understand the horrific situation she's in. These freeze-frames leave our consciousness in a distrustful expectation of a before or an after without offering a straightforward narrative. The keys to the enigma lie in the details.” ~ @eleonoregros

Ellen has a solo show, titled ‘SPINNING IN THE AFTERIMAGE’, on right now (until Oct 27) as part of @spinnereigalleries fall tour at @shebamart. You can find Ellen on Instagram at @ellenakimoto.

Some call it ‘hoarding’, I prefer “collecting”. Here are examples of, not only some lovely collections, but also today’s jumping off point! For Dina Toporska, it’s all shells all the time, while Katie McCann and Matthew Craven use collage to assemble their finds. The other piece is an old one of mine in which I gathered up every tube of paint, gouache, etc I had, and documented my entire color collection. This is a good way to bust through a creative block… it’s also a great exercise to make you really think about what you love / why you love it. For example, if 50 of us do this prompt, I can guarantee there will be 50 totally different collections! Allow yourself some time to think about what you’d like to hoard, I mean gather… do you love sailboats? Are orchids your thing? Maybe any and every shade of yellow is your jam? Now, while you’re cutting them up, or painting them over and over again, let your mind wander to the WHY. This is an excellent way to develop — or continue to enhance — your visual vocabulary. Have fun, you can’t do it wrong.

Happy Jumpday ~ Danielle