Modern Embroidery Paula Sanz Caballero

I'm always intrigued when people put a fresh sprin on a traditional medium. Like embroidery. You might remember my post from a while back on awesome artist Megan Whitmarsh. (If you missed it you HAVE to check out her work....teensy little embroidered canvases with wee images of big foot and KISS! Amazing!) Spanish artist Paula Sanz Caballero is another incredible talent who uses textiles and embroidery to put an utterly modern (and stylish) twist on her work. It's almost like a fashion illustration come to life. Take a gander and you'll see what I mean!

Here's a closeup so you can see the detail. I mean honestly...I'm so impressed. Can you imagine how much time it must take to make one of these? Really cool!

PS

Thank you to everyone for indulging me yesterday and voting for Wolfie!

60s Illustrators are Peachy Keen: Margaret Keane's Big Eyed Wonders

image: the lovely whoreange

I've long been obsessed with the work of 1960s artist Margaret Keane. When most people hear the name "Keane" they think of the somewhat cheesy big-eyed orphan paintings. What most people don't know is that Margaret Keane's early work is very different. She painted some of the most deliciously languid and lovely mod portraits around. The big dreamy eyes were still there....but these paintings are decidedly more grown up. I have a few prints of hers and an amazing book with excellent photo plates. I thought it would be fun to take a look! (This post goes out to my sweet friend Danielle, of Kistchy Digitals. Thanks for asking me about Margaret Keane and inspiring this post. You're gonna love it, I promise!)




See what I mean? Totally dreamy....let's go in a little closer, shall we? I love these petulant girls sipping their coffee:



This next one is quite interesting. A portrait within a portrait. The young girl looking somewhat realistic and the canvas portraying the more classic big-eyed version.


While we are on the topic of the "classic Keane" look, allow me to dazzle you with a little of the history behind the Legend of Keane. It's a good story. Back in the 60s, Walter Keane was known as the Master of the Big Eyed Waifs. His images were largely of young children with hauntingly sad eyes. Walter and Margaret opened up a gallery in 1959 in New York. Walter was the consummate business man and the story goes that he would often leave faux packing cases addressed to famous movie stars so people would walk in and say, "Oooh, Dean Martin is buying one? I better get one before the prices go up!" Crafty, eh?



Throughout the '60s, the popularity of Keane paintings soared. Stars like Joan Crawford, Natalie Wood, Dean Martin, Dinah Shore, Liberace and even Zsa Zsa Gabor all owned original Margaret Keane paintings. My favorite is this picture of Jerry Lewis and his family. And their pets. All with longing eyes. Totally insane:


In the '70s LIFE magazine declared Keane's paintings to be the most popular art in the western world. They even got a nod in the Woody Allen movie, "Sleeper" (Diane Keaton, presented with a big-eye painting, squeals with delight, "It's Keane, it's pure Keane!").

In 1965, Margaret and Walter went through a bitter divorce—and it was revealed that Margaret was ACTUALLY THE ONE PAINTING ALL THE PAINTINGS! Walter simply took credit for them. It was never clear whether it was because they thought a male artist would have more credibility or if it was because he was a savvy, controlling business man. Either way, Walter was now attempting to stop her from painting "big eyed waifs" claiming he was the one who originated the style. They battled in court for years and finally the case made it to a federal court. The judge requested that they each paint right then and there in the court room. Margaret triumphantly dashed off a quick portrait of a saucer-eyed child looking over a fence....while Walter, in a TOTAL Brady Bunch style maneuver, claimed he couldn't paint because of a neck/shoulder injury. HAH! Needless to say, Margaret won. Bravo Margaret!


Oddly, I'm not as drawn to her more recent work—the post Walter stuff. She said that while she was "living a lie" and letting him take credit, all her paintings had "sad eyes". Her later work (in the 80s and 90s) has "bright eyes" as a result of her new-found happiness (and I think she got religious too, if I'm not mistaken). ANYWAY....let's get back to her sad eyes, shall we?






Soooooo gooood. To date, Margaret Keane's work has been discovered by a new generation and claims fans like John Waters, Tim Burton, Matthew Sweet. David LaChappelle and Kate Hudson (who is slated to star in a movie on her life).

The popularity of Margaret's big-eyed babes inspired a slew of copycats...but I think we'll save that for a follow up post, no? So whatcha think friends....are these paintings terrific or terrifying? As Margaret herself has said, "You either love them or hate them....there really is no in between."

The Jam Fancy Creepy Christmas.

Ho ho ho, my little chickadees! It's a rainy Friday here in San Francisco. Boo hoo! To warm you up, I have some fabulous photos to share. My friend Christina is a BRILLIANT artist & crafter. I met her thru our shared love of Blythe (I really need to do a whole post on the time my Blythe dolly Sophie went to visit her in Australia). Anyway, she is so wildly creative and talented I just had to share. In addition to being a wonderful illustrator, Christina is supremely talented at making things. Especially tiny things. So it didn't come as any surprised when I saw her Creepy Christmas tree. Straight out of a twisted Alice in Wonderland, Time Burton faerie tale...this little black tree is whimsical, quirky and utterly charming. Hmmm, just like Christina herself! Needless to say I'm a huge fan, and this lovely lady made every single thing on the tree herself!

(Psst! The two-headed deer is my favorite!)

All images: Jam Fancy.

I just know you'll love her blog, JamFancy.

Art from the Heart: Margaret Kilgallen.

Today is turning out to be a very education oriented day of posting! I promise to return to our usual frivolities come Tuesday. Until then I wanted to share with ya'll one of my favorite artists: Margaret Kilgallen.



I have always felt a connection to her. I can remember the very first time I saw a piece of her artwork many many years ago. I was immediately drawn to the hand lettering and folky/vintage sensibility of the pieces. I thought she had such a cool and interesting style. I also loved that she was a grafitti artist, because there are so few women out there doing that. I had heard she was married to Barry McGee (aka TWIST, who at the time was a pretty well known and respected local painter and graffiti artist) and thought "Wow, they are the coolest couple EVER!" The two of them quickly rose to fame as leaders of the Mission School art movement that developed here in San Francisco in the late 90s. Both would go on to become pretty major players in the modern-day art world.

Margaret's shows were often huge installations with massive images painted right onto the walls of the space. If you were lucky you could also spot her work throughout the city—guerilla style. Instead of the usual urban hipster angst, her influences were drawn from rural inspiration: hand-drawn signage, hobo train writing, and Appalachian banjo music:











In 2003 I became pregnant and for my birthday Greg took me to Vancouver for a little getaway. We went to the Vancouver Art Gallery which had a huge installation of her work. Surrounded by the bold, beautiful images, I was once again transfixed. As I sat on a small bench and read her bio, I was startled to realize she had passed away a few years ago. She was only 33. The story, as I recall, as that she had developed breast cancer. When she discovered she was pregnant she had to make the critical decision—continue with treatment or have the baby. She chose to have a child. Her little girl Asha was born on June 7. A few short weeks later on June 26, Margaret Kilgallen passed away in the arms of her husband Barry. Reading the story I was heartbroken and moved to tears. I can't imagine having to make such a decision. And I can't imagine what it must have been like for Barry—to lose your partner so soon after you both bring a chid into the world.

Margaret's work is still extremely influential and so many artists have been inspired by her. Because of the nature of her work (grafitti-style and murals) there really isn't a ton of her work flying around. We were really fortunate to purchase a piece of hers back in 2005 from Paulson Press. It was the first real "art" we have ever bought and we really treasure it.



Before she passed, Margaret and Barry were on Art:21-Art in the Twenty-First Century, which was a PBS documentary series about contemporary visual artists. I think this is a super interesting and cool little piece. If you have time take a gander and learn more about this lovely woman.



More on Margaret: here and here.

Megan Whitmarsh is the bomb.

I'll be impressed if you tell me you are able to create tiny, detailed needlework art pieces. But I'll be REEEEALLLY impressed if your subject matter happens to include things like Big Foot and Ace Frehley from KISS. Hello Megan Whitmarsh! Meagan crafts impossibly cool embroidered artwork that is made even cooler by virtue of the fact that the canvas size is like, 4.5 inches wide. She also does these big crazy soft sculptures, but let me be honest and say: BIGFOOT EMBROIDERED ON A TINY SQUARE WITH A BOOM BOX!!! That's really all I care about. She says her influences are The Muppets, Bob Dylan and punk rock, which somehow makes perfect sense! When I was pregnant Greg surprised me by buying two of her pieces to put in Wolfie's room (hey, anyone can have trains or teddy bears but how many kids get to claim they have a breakdancing Big Foot on their wall??).

Images from FecalFace and Lipsticktracez. Last three images courtesy of Wolfie's wall.