Showing posts with label sculpture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sculpture. Show all posts

Friday, May 21, 2021

Make like a cicada and scream! Cicadas in and as art.

I have been following the prompts for #mathyear, created by mathematician/illustrator Constanza Rojas-Molina and computer scientist/illustrator Marlene Knoche. For the "prime number" prompt earlier this year I was reminded of how cicada lifecycles famous employ prime numbers. 

Prime cicadas by Ele Willoughby
'Prime cicadas' by Ele Willoughby

 

I printed the first 25 natural numbers with primes in green and non-prime numbers in pink with a cicada. Periodic cicadas lay dormant for years. Then in the spring of either their 13th or 17th year, mature cicada nymphs emerge from underground synchronously, in huge numbers and the males fill the air with their droning chorus. It’s been postulated that lifecycles in prime numbers of years have an evolutionary advantage. It may be predator avoidance by making it impossible for predators to boom at a divisor of their lifecycles. Or, it may be that prime number lifecycles prevents hybridization between broods (who emerge in different years), and that this was particularly important during the Pleistocene glacial stadia when there was heavy selection pressure. We've just now seeing the Great Eastern Brood (Brood X) emerge this year! It has the greatest range and concentration of any of the 17-year cicadas.⁠ ⁠ (A small confession: the specific cicada in my print is a dog-day cicada, an annual cicada and not a member of the Magicicada genus of 13 and 17-year periodical cicadas. I’m taking a little artistic/entomological liberty.)⁠

 I've been seeing that this amazing or overwhelming event, and the beauty of cicadas, has definitely inspired many artists, so I thought I would do a round up of some I enjoy. 

Cicadas Print by Rachel E Lettering on Etsy

Cicada oil painting on wallpaper by Emily Uchytil. Archival prints available here.


Angels diptych by Chloe Ashton


Eugene Alain (E.A.) Seguy’s insect illustrations from the 1920s


Kitagawa Utamaro,
Grasshopper and Cicada, 1788

Cicada, late 19th to early 20th century China, via the Met

Otani Haruhiko, 1941, Stylized Cicada Suiteki




There are also, of course, artists inspired to make art from cicadas and their sloughed off carapaces. Some Japanese high schoolers even built action figures and Godzilla from cicadas shells.

 

Defense mechanism by Adrienne DeLoe

 

“Velo de luto (Mourning veil)” (2020), magicicada wings, sewn with hair, 32 x 47 x 2 inches. By Selva Aparicio, Photo by Robert Chase Heishman.


 

Thursday, March 28, 2019

Seeds and Pods


ceramic pods by Alice Ballard

It is almost spring here and while it's too early to plant, I've been thinking about seeds. When you look at the forms of seeds, particularly magnified, they are astonishing: complex, organic, sculptural shapes. Some artists have taken seeds as inspiration or even a medium. Here are a few and their extraordinary work.

American ceramicist Alice Ballard's work features a lot of seeds, pods and other organic forms. She explores pods as a feminine form, like a womb, detailing textures and colours with wall-mounted pods. She has been exploring these ideas for years and yet still finds endless new variations.

ceramic pods by Alice Ballard
ceramic pod by Alice Ballard

ceramic pods by Alice Ballard


Carved sycamore seeds: 1 x 60 cm x 25 cm x 10 cm
1 x 48 cm x 18 cm x 9 cm by Liz McAuliffe
Seeds and pods appear in New Zealand artist Liz McAuliffe's bigger than life sculptures. By blowing up the minutiae of biological forms, she draws the viewers into to consider nature more carefully.
Abizia Pod, Size (h w d): 80 cm x 15 cm x 5 cm, acrylics on carved wood by Liz McAuliffe
Honesty Pods by Liz McAuliffe


American sculptor Pamela Sunday's work reflects natural forms, many reminiscent of microscopic seed forms. She has moved from the fashion world to build a sculptural practise inspired by science and nature, and exhibiting worldwide.

ceramic sculpture by Pamela Sunday

ceramic sculpture by Pamela Sunday

ceramic sculpture by Pamela Sunday

German artist Christiane Löhr's artworks include a collection made with plants including seeds. Piles and structures of delicate plant material take on organic architectural shapes and patterns.

Kleine Fläche little surface, 2007
airborne seeds, 5 x 20 x 35 cm by Christiane Löhr
Löwenzahnkissen dandelion cushion, 2009
dandelion seeds, 18 x 43 x 37 cm by Christiane Löhr
 
Kleiner Turm little tower, 1999
ivy seeds, 16 x 13 x 10 cm by Christiane Löhr
Korean artist Heejoo Kim's metalwork jewellery incorporates beautiful natural forms of pods and seeds if you want these beautiful forms to wear.

Necklace, Enameled copper, leather and thread by
Heejoo Kim
 
Brooch by
Heejoo Kim
Brooch by
Heejoo Kim

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Found Wood Assemblage Earth and Planetary Science


http://ronvanderende.nl
Veneer Theory, Ron van der Ende, 2014. Bas-relief in salvaged wood, 60″ x 61″ x 6″.

Dutch artist Ron van der Ende wanders the streets of Rotterdam, salvaging unwanted wood to make, amongst other delightful, enormous multimedia works, wood assemblages like giant diagrams of our Earth, celestial bodies and geological cross-sections.

http://ronvanderende.nl/work/bare-bones/
Europa, Ron van der Ende, 2015. Bas-relief in salvaged wood, 168 x 168 x 14cm

http://ronvanderende.nl/work/fire-and-brimstone/
Volcano (Moses and Geology), Ron van der Ende, 2012, Bas-relief in salvaged wood,  229 x 152 x 12cm
Watershed (Yosemite), Ron van der Ender, 2013, Bas-relief in salvaged wood, 180 x 200 x 12cm.
Don't miss his portfolio, where you'll also find minerals, gems, spaceships and more.

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Multimedia Cacti

The elusive cactibou, linocut by Ele Willoughby 2014
I've been working on a sort of quite possibly completely imaginary cryptozoological menagerie, which began sometime after the elusive cactibou a prickly desert cat-cactus hybrid complete with caribou/saguaro antlers improbably appeared fully formed in my mind. (Part of the delight of this project for me is to write the pseudoscientific description of each of my beasties. You can find the cactibou's description, from zoology to ethnobotany here.)

People sometimes ask me where I get my ideas. It's not an obvious question to answer well ("from my head?"), but I do know that cats are indeed prickly, mine seems to store water and disdain drinking, and that cacti seem to be more an more apparent in art I see. I thought today I would share some of the cacti art I've been admiring.

Valentina Glez Wohlers' Prickly Pair Chair- Classic
Their unusual though organic forms are appealing, but I love the whimsical improbability of cactus as home decor, as the prickly plants do not suggest comfort. Mexican born London-based designer Valentina Glez Wohlers' heritage shines in her delightfully whimsical Prickly Pair Chairs, which merge Mexican cactus shapes and colours and patterns with traditional European chair designs.

Valentina Glez Wohlers' Prickly Pair Chair- Tenango de Doria











More straitghtforward perhaps would be a simple cactus shaped pillow. Here's a cute one complete with DIY from everything emilty

DIY a cacti sampler with a Japanese craft book
It's easy to find cacti in all sorts of different forms and media. Check out ceramicist Lina Cofán’s
amazing wunderkammer of cacti and other plants.  

Lina Cofán

Lina Cofán


Lina Cofán

There are even functional ceramic cacti, like this beauty of a teapot:

lofficina ceramic cactus teapot
 
I love also the cacti in perhaps even less expected media.

ThornAndNeedle has a series of knit cacti

Cactus cake by Tetyana
Cactus cupcakes via Alana Jones Mann




Czech artist Veronika Richterová's magical sculptures from recycled PET bottles include some truly magical cacti (and jellyfish, amongst other things, via thisiscolossal).

Veronika Richterová PET cacti

Veronika Richterová PET cacti

Veronika Richterová PET cacti detail

There are also some beautiful illustrations in more traditional media.

Cactus Nest by Michelle Morin (unitedthread on Etsy)

Cactus Trio by Michelle Morin

Bird Sanctuary No. 5 by Michelle Morin



Anatomy of a Cactus by Rachel Ignotofsky


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