I’ve opened my purse strings for a few art pieces recently. I’m trying to keep myself focused on photos or photo-based artwork. I bought a light box by Elise Irving from Aftermodern Gallery. Miller creates multiple transparencies of a single photo, altering different segments in each layer with PhotoShop, creating depth and variation when she stacks up the transparencies and frames them in a plexiglass box backlit by a small fluorescent bulb. The different densities of the transparencies create a saturated, superreal image.
Another indulgence…a small found photo piece by Lisa Kokin. Lisa’s work reinvents the old and discarded—found photos, buttons, old books. Lisa grew up in New York, the child of upholsterers, so sewing, thread, fabric and notions surface in her work. My piece is called “Walking Wounded” and is a row of soldiers in uniform, their torsos and heads cut out, lined up and sewn together. The tail ends of the threads that weave them together stick out like sutures.
Kim Maria and Craig LaRotonda create some amazing mixed media work—some people call it pop surrealism. You can view more on their website Revelation Studios. I bought a piece called “Joys That Are Unseen” that combines an odd assortment of things: the fragments of an old toy, a forgotten portrait, a cornice piece, a collage juxtaposing red towers with ornate flowers from an old book. The objects fit together like they were always meant to relate to one another this way. And the small hinged door that swings open gives you the feeling you’re peering into something secret.
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