Deborah Simon

"Ursus Americanus" (Black Bear)
polymer clay, faux fur, linen, embroidery floss, acrylic paint, glass, wire and foam,
22”H x 25”D x 19”W, 2013. Photo by Dan Wonderly

Black Bear - detail

"Ursus Arctos Horribilus"  (Grizzly Bear)
polymer clay, faux fur, linen, embroidery floss, acrylic paint, glass, wire and foam,
22”H x 25”D x 19”W, 2013. Photo by Dan Wonderly

"Ursus Maritimus" (Polar Bear)
polymer clay, faux fur, linen, embroidery floss, acrylic paint, glass, wire and foam,
22”H x 25”D x 19”W, 2012. Photo by Dan Wonderly

Coyote Puppets
30”L x 15”H x 6”W each, polymer clay, epoxy, fake fur, wire, glass eyes, and foam.

Deborah Simon's "Flayed Bears" series is just one aspect of an artist whose work ranges from sculpture and installation to performance and painting.  Inspired by evolutionary thinking and fascinated by western science's obsession with collecting, cataloging and labeling she creates extraordinary creatures as lifelike as she can make them, but always slightly off, or out of place, jarring us into that state of wonder that is the province of the arts. In the "flayed bears" series, the initial image is a slightly grotesque one, but closer inspection reveals that the anatomical structures are rendered in exquisite needlework. It is such an odd choice but it gives the work an intimate feel of handcrafted care so at odds with the cold objectifying nature of dissection and vivisection evoked by the imagery. Her coyote puppets (above) were part of a multi-media presentation called "Coyote Pursues" in which the two central characters explore "an austere world newly bereft of people". I would simply love to see video of these two in motion, but alas, that is not available on her website. Plenty of other images are however, so go take a look at www.deborahsimon.net

"Brink" at Antler Gallery

My favorite little gallery in Portland is Antler. The title of their current group show is fairly self explanatory. More and more creatures teeter on the edge of oblivion and more and more fall off that edge every year. A new mass extinction event like the one that killed off the dinosaurs is well under way. And it depresses the hell out of me. But small glimmering bits of light may circle such ominous events and this show is an example. 20% of sales go to the Audobon Society of Portland which does some very fine work. Not that they can do anything to slow the crisis or even make a dent, but we must look for light wherever we find it, especially in the dark.

Kevin Sloan  "Birds of America: Memorabilia"   acrylic on canvas  20" x24"

Juan Travieso  "Endangered Bird #130"  acrylic and ink on yupo  10" x 10"

Neal M. Perry  "Abyss (Polar Bear & Mangrove Rat Snake)"  acrylic on wood 13" x 23"

 Annie Owens  "Island"  watercolor and acrylic on paper  24" x 16"

Josh Keyes  "The Messengers"  acrylic on wood  12" x 20"

David Molesky

from the series "Owlpocalypse"  6" x 6"  2013

from the series "Owlpocalypse"  6" x 6"  2013

from the series "Owlpocalypse"  6" x 6"  2013

"Polar Weasel"  oil on panel  11" x 14"  2013

David molesky apparently has some big things in the works that I'm looking forward to seeing. But for now I'd like to share some small things he just finished. His series of 50 small owl paintings is subtitled in at least one place "Owls and Flame: Sentinels aloft in a warming world". It's clear that the artist has an affinity for the natural world and a deep concern for the crisis of global climate change (In case you question my choice of the word crisis, just wait). With ever increasing forest fires in the west of North America these images look less like apocalyptic warning and more and more like a response to current events. Either way, the artist creates compelling images through sumptuous brushwork. Whether he's painting flames and billowing smoke, or steam pluming from a geyser or curling waves and foaming spume at the ocean shore, he has a gift for suggesting the movement, surging energy and chaotic power of nature. That power is now shifting, altering in ways we cannot fully predict or control. We are almost certainly responsible, but we are not the only ones who will suffer the consequences.
I first posted some of his work in January, 2011.
To see more work visit his website: davidmolesky.com
Or checkout (and like) his Facebook page.
For a little while you can see a few more owls here. They are currently on display in Pacifica, California at the Sanchez Art Center.

Robert McCauley

"Meanwhile In Another Part of the Forest" 48" x 36"  oil on canvas on panel  2011

"When Worlds Collide"  48" x 32"  oil on canvas on panel  2011

"Edge of Town"  48" x 32"  oil on canvas on panel  2011

"The Discovery of Slowness"  56" x 38"  oil on canvas on panel  2008

"Don't Expect Me To Illustrate Your Fears"  30" x 48"  oil on canvas on canvas  2010

Robert McCauley's paintings are sometimes cryptic, sometimes comical, but always compelling portraits of wildlife. He often incorporates titles into the work itself, which are suggestive but never simply explanatory, allowing the work to breathe with meaning in the mind of the viewer. This is what art should do; draw you in and direct your attention without telling you precisely what to think. Rather it should prompt you to think. Like the presence of Sputnik in the piece "When Worlds Collide", it is the unexpected which often has the most powerful impact and can have the knack of interrupting our normal thought processes, forcing us to reevaluate our expectations from an image and impel us to think along new lines. These paintings will linger in my mind long after I stop looking at them. I sincerely hope they have the same effect on you.
You can see more at the artist's website: mccauleyart.artspan.com

Lindsey Carr

Platonic Solids I

"Garden"

The Flower House

"La Bizarre Singerie"

from the artist's website: Singerie is a French word meaning 'Monkey Trick' and refers to a genre depicting monkeys mimicking human behavior - it reached its stylistic epitome during the 18thC in the decorative motifs of the Chinoiserie Rococo period.
The scenes commonly involved monkeys dressed as Mandarins balancing on high wires, serving tea, fishing, playing. It gave such a saccharine and genteel view of human activities for what was to become a bloody century in European history.

Simius Religiosus

There are a few other artist out there who riff on the lush work of John James Audubon and other scientific illustrators of the 18th & 19th century. Justin Gibbens springs to mind. For originality and wit Lindsey Carr's work is on the same high level. Audubon famously depicted his birds in appropriate botanical settings. Lindsey Carr's work has animals, plants, insects and others sharing her pictorial space in completely unpredictable, sometimes downright surreal ways. Her work seems to comment on the interplay of species, sometimes meditating on the extraordinary synthesis of life and the wondrous balances of co-evolutionary processes, and then at other times fixating on the grim and brutal struggles between species that constitutes natural selection. Which is fitting. Because neither picture accurately captures the grand scope of nature, nor our fascination with it. But her primary interest may not be the natural world at all. Referencing all manner of cultural and historical practices she holds up the examination of nature as a mirror in which to examine our very strange and mysterious selves. Beyond that the work is quite simply exquisitely conceived and executed. I only wish there was a little more information about some of the pieces sizes and media. The first image here "Platonic Solid I" was posted recently on her blog with the comment that it reflects "A tiny shift in focus". I'm looking forward to seeing more of that shift! Go check out her website and look at loads more: pickle-town.typepad.com

thanks to the folks at artistaday.com for posting her work.

Judith Brandon

"Carnival Weather"  ink, charcoal and pastel on paper  2010  42" x 52"

"Green Funnel Cloud"  ink and charcoal  29" x 37"

"Light Pillars With Cyan"  mixed media on paper  42" x 29"

"Arctic Pressure"  mixed media on paper  42" x 67"

This is exactly the kind of work that can be so frustrating to try and appreciate solely through digital reproduction; large, layered multi-media works on paper. You can click on the images to view most of them a good deal larger which helps a little. But it is impossible to see how all the effects are created. That said, they're compelling all the same. Whatever her methods (She cites enameling techniques that she studied in school, the scribing of metal and the layering of transparent and opaque colors) the images are strongly evocative of all manner of strange weather. This is clearly intentional and so the work is, at it's heart, representational. But there can be no denying that abstraction plays a tremendous role giving the work a dream like, even hallucinatory feel. You can see more at her website
http://www.jmbrandon.com/
And if you happen to be in the vicinity of Cleveland, Ohio where the artist also lives and works, you might want to drop in at the Kenneth Paul Lesko Gallery where her work is currently on display.

Nuala O'Donovan

"Teasel Chrysanthemum #2"  High fired unglazed porcelain  2010

"Teasel"  High fired unglazed porcelain  2009

"Teasel"  detail

"Grid" based on drawings of Radiolaria - a microscopic organism

from "Pinecone series"

Nuala O'Donovan is an Irish sculptor whose work reflects and builds upon natural forms and structures. One of her obsessions has been taking the basic structure of the teasel plant and allowing it grow and morph into ever larger and more complex forms. Her slow and painstaking method echoes natural processes where pattern and design interact with randomness and variation, and in so doing elegantly captures the delicacy and beauty that lie in tiny details all around us. Go to her website (www.nualaodonovan.com) and look through more of her work. You'll be glad you did. And when you've done that go outside and look at all the crazy beautiful little things that you never noticed before.

Frank Gonzales

"Passing Thru"  24" x24"  acrylic on canvas

"Kingfisher"  18" x 18"  acrylic on canvas

"Sharp 1"  12" x 12"  acrylic on canvas

"Gila Woodpecker" 18" x 18"  acrylic on canvas

"Sharpiehawk"  36" x 36"  acrylic on canvas

Frank Gonzales combines a naturalist's love for wildlife with a strong sense of decorative and graphic design and the confident skills of a practiced painter. It all comes together very nicely. It is possible for this type of image making to fall into the category of mere decorative poster art, the kind that lines the walls of mid-range hotels. Gonzales rises above this not only by his skill but also by his exploration of the nuances of color and paint. His approach to painting the birds in a manner reminiscent of pixelation does not feel as gimmicky as it might in less able hands. Instead we get a clear look at how the artists selects a hue and then blocks in the subject stroke by stroke. By purposely misplacing occasional brush strokes we can focus in on the intentionality of how the marks build up the image. The results remind us that pattern is at the heart of everything we see. Patterns may not be the true nature of the everything we see, but it is the true nature of how we see.
To look at more work go to his website: http://www.frankgonzales.net/
Thanks to the folks at http://www.booooooom.com/

Paul Smith

untitled  2009

2009

oil on canvas  2010

"Bawdeswell Heath"  2010

self portrait  oil on board  2010

Paul Smith is an English artist whose unpretentious goals are to capture the look and feel, and possibly something of the spirit of the woods and landscapes near his home in Norfolk. I say unpretentious, because this sort of art has been, and continues to be pursued by countless obscure artists, professional and amateur, across the globe, most of it merely reflecting what the artist thinks such a painting ought to look like, ending up a hackneyed imitation of someone else's vision. But it seems to me that Paul Smith's work genuinely conveys a deep and abiding passion for the woods, heaths and fenlands of his home. He's less interested in achieving a specific look or technique than he is in conveying to the best of his ability the world he still thrills to inhabit. He produces still life and portrait work as well. There is in fact quite a variety to his body of work, but his central passion is clearly for the leaves and trees, the rocks and waterways, and the quiet wild lands of East Anglia. Check out his website: paulsmithpaintings.co.uk or you can see larger images on his Flickr page.

Erik Sandgren

Erik Sandgren teaches in Washington state and his work primarily concerns the the land, the sea and the people of the Pacific Northwest (although not exclusively). His father was a professor of painting and his life has been filled from an early age with a vast array of influences. Although he cites none of these my own poorly educated eye sees traces of Winslow Homer filtered through the likes of Charles Burchfield and Marsden Hartley. His pieces are as much about the ephemeral personal experience as they are about the place to which that experience is tied. He works both Plein Air and in the studio capturing fleeting moments of light and atmosphere in the first case and then filtering the moment through the lens of memory and meaning in the second.
The titles, sizes and media of his work are unlisted on his website (www.eriksandgren.com) which also shows only a small portion of his output. More work can be seen at karinclarkegallery.com

Kevin Sloan

The term magic realism is easily the most apt moniker for the paintings of Kevin Sloan. They draw on the comfortable and familiar imagery of nineteenth century landscape and wildlife paintings while introducing a surrealist narrative. But they're not quite surrealism. They do not have the jarring effect that surrealist paintings often strive for to mimic the unbridled dream imagery of the subconscious. Nor are they allegories or strictly speaking, symbolic of anything in particular. They use the language of symbolism to evoke in the viewer a personal response. The artist does not seem to be interested in informing the viewer of some new insight. These are meant to entertain and engage in a more relaxed manner. The viewer is invited to speculate about the images, and is welcome to draw whatever conclusions they want. Those seeking strict meaning should probably abandon that notion. Just enjoy and let your mind wander.

There's plenty to wander through at kevinsloan.com











"The Worriers" 24" x 48"












"The Rare Flower" 30" x 60"























"Finding Time" 48" x 36"























"Abundance: Oranges" 30" x 24"























"Birds of America: Greater Flamingo" 48" x 36"

Thanks to artistaday.com for introducing me this artist.