Sunday Art

Today is a special day on TMS--it's art day, in honor of May Day weekend. On display are four contemporary artists, with no particular connecting element. I sincerely hope you enjoy!

Robert Cannon
              artist site, here

About Robert's work:

Terraforming is a concept devised by the aerospace industry to describe the process of creating a habitable environments in uninhabitable places, like Mars or the Moon. I pirated the term to bring it to bear, through the works, on modernity, capitalism, indeed the whole Civilization Project which seems to me uninhabitable in certain ways. The Green movement seems too often left up to the engineers and activists, who bring science and passion, but the movement also needs vision, experiments in real Green Art, in Green Dreams, and Green Meaning, and I see the Terraforms as one of these experiments.
 

The Terraforms are constructed of hollow shells of ferro-cement or metal with earth sculpted up through the voids and planted in the exposed areas. Terraforms do grow and change with the seasons. Like the proverbial canary in a coal mine, they are very reflective of the qualities of their environments, natural and social. They would over-grow themselves if left to return to nature, or whither and die if locked away in some storage room, or remain balanced if cared for in a healthy environment.




Tobias Keene
               artist site, here



About the Artist:

Tobias Keene’s paintings continue to explore, through the immediacy of color, texture and form, a quality of lost innocence. By using negative space as part of his composition, he has created a unique exploration of displacement. His use of long shadows signify the passage of time, while using Russian linen which he often leaves raw.




Jeff Lee Johnson
                    artist site, here 



About Jeff's work:


"Fantasy and science fiction art and literature have been inspiring me since I was a young boy. Tales of magical worlds inhabited by fantastic creatures kept me reading late into many a youthful night. The incredible imagery of those genres  remains to me both thrilling and compelling. After several years following other paths I am not too surprised that I have ended up where I am, with brush in hand, attempting to make a place for myself amongst the 'legion extraordinaire' of gifted artists who have leant their skills and vision to the fleshing out of worlds hitherto unimagined, populated by peoples yet unmet."




















Jarod Charzewski
               artist site, here

About Jarod's work:

My art examines landscapes and people, man-made structures among nature, the sometimes static, often fluid designs that rise from dual environments. I harness childhood sensibilities: sights and smells, sounds, memories, feelings of rural surroundings and urban streets. I fuel my art with visuals of seasons, Prairie landscapes and recreate aesthetics that investigate mankind’s evolving influence. Artistically I try to capture the essence of mist in the Carmanah Valley rainforest, the dust of the Canadian prairies, and in turn release an ephemeral sensation of site-specific experiences.

Space motivates my concept. The visual characteristics of bridges and railroad tracks, tunnels, urban communities at large, cast against the strength of natural landscapes, reflect the relationship between viewer and the work. I enhance this relationship through accessible installations, monuments to nature, to man, to our cohabitation. The art reveals the mystery of individual perceptions and develops a platform where ideas gain scope. The art conducts experiments. It approaches common occurrences, heeds disparate interests, and injects personal stance. I express these experiments through multi-media sculpture. I use interpretation. I use light, acoustics, and kinetic energy.

Everything needs space. My work reflects nature’s response to man, and mankind’s impact on landscapes. The result is a lens through which to see our world.




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That'll be all for today.


wildcoyote