18 July 2009

Easier to Control, What You Missed & You Like This - in the When Titles Fail show @ NOWhere Limited

NOWhere Limited is hosting a quite spectacular (if I do say so myself) 10-artist group show, on view through July 26, 2009! When Titles Fail: the group show that can't be labeled features paintings and mixed media works by:

Heather Dalton, Chris Huang, Max Kauffman, Craig Koch, Scott Lickstein, Ian Millard, Angela Oaks, Maggie Ross, Greg Willson and me.

I have 3 new paintings in the show, pictured and commented on below. Scroll down to see pictures of them in progress.

Links to photos of the show are here; Links to browse/buy works from the show are here

Unlike my other recent work, these 3 new pieces are not part of any series or planned "art experiments." I had absolutely no idea what the outcome would be for any of them: their imagery was pulled out of the ether, the materials I used to make them, and/or my subconscious. I had an immense amount of fun making messes work for these!


Pictured Above: Easier to Control, Elisha Sarti, Acrylic, pen, pencil, fake flowers and other collage on canvas, 20 x 20 inches, 2009.

For Easier to Control I collaged some relics from my days in Baltimore that I've been dying to use since 1995... mainly a mis-printed piece of paper from a kite kit I used to sell when I worked at the Kite Loft and a flowery bit of old mattress. I also threw in a bunch of de-flowered silk flowers. The figures in this painting were "divined" from People and a few "womens'" magazines, except for Magnum PI (I dunno where he came from. His pseudo-serious macho image has been burned into my brain for a while, though, and it inspired the tone of this piece more than the materials I used for collaging.)


Pictured Above: Easier to Control, detail, Elisha Sarti, Acrylic, pen, pencil, fake flowers and other collage on canvas, 20 x 20 inches, 2009.


Pictured Above: What You Missed, Elisha Sarti, Acrylic, pen, pencil, found fabric and other collage on canvas, 20 x 20 inches, 2009.

What You Missed is loosely about the futility of fashion, wall flowers, travel and the luck of the draw. Again, I used a scrap I've been saving for years. This time it's a piece from an old, fancy, silky 80's-ish blouse. I also took advantage of another mental image I couldn't seem to exorcise: cherries from a pre-packaged cherry pie circa 1998. Very mustache-y, dontcha think?


Pictured Above: What You Missed, detail, Elisha Sarti, Acrylic, pen, pencil, found fabric and other collage on canvas, 20 x 20 inches, 2009.


Pictured Above: What You Missed, detail, Elisha Sarti, Acrylic, pen, pencil, found fabric and other collage on canvas, 20 x 20 inches, 2009.


Pictured Above: You Like This, Elisha Sarti, Acrylic, pen, pencil, found fabric and other collage on canvas, 20 x 20 inches, 2009.

Ah, yes... fun with Facebook and People Magazine too. This one was the most difficult of these 3 pieces to figure out the future of... I did think of the name of this one before even starting to work on it. It might've had something to do with the difficulties. Also, the wildly colored pillowcase, see below, drove me crazy but I got it to work after it was muddied up a bit and buried under layers of stuff and now this might even be my new favorite out of the 3 for When Titles Fail.


Pictured Above: You Like This, detail, Elisha Sarti, Acrylic, pen, pencil, found fabric and other collage on canvas, 20 x 20 inches, 2009.


Pictured Above: You Like This, detail, Elisha Sarti, Acrylic, pen, pencil, found fabric and other collage on canvas, 20 x 20 inches, 2009.


Pictured Above: The first stages of Easier to Control (left) & What You Missed (right.)


Pictured Above: The first stage of You Like This - how could anyone actually get any sleep while resting their head on that neon forest of a pillowcase?


Pictured Above: The final stage of What You Missed - I'm adding some gloss to one cherry. I left the other one matte.

Definitely check out the other artworks in this show too! There's 50 pieces to browse through: http://www.nowherelimited.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=109_249