Susanna Bluhm’s lush abstracted landscapes caught my eye at a Seattle art auction last fall, and I’ve been taken with them ever since. She works from photographs of places she’s been, sometimes combining two dissimilar landscapes into one – Croatian islands with traffic islands, for example.
I featured Susanna’s work in my guest post on Artsy Forager this week — head on over and check it out!
They Call It Way Too Rowdy, We Call It Finally Free, oil and acrylic on canvas, 95×72
This article was published in the Artsyo newsletter and is republished here for blog readers.
In anticipation of the Mad Men season 6 premiere tomorrow, we picked out a few pieces on Artsyo that would fit right in at the Sterling Cooper Draper office.
FOR THE SCD CONFERENCE ROOM:
Ann Vandervelde’s Alaskan Glaciers, with its abstract style and blue / green / neutral color palette, would preside coolly over a meeting of the partners.
ANN VANDERVELDE Alaskan Glaciers
FOR ROGER STERLING’S OFFICE:
Mollie Bryan’s Frogger would have Roger Sterling’s guests seeing dots, minus the “Italian hospital” feel.
MOLLIE BRYAN Frogger
FOR DON DRAPER:
Don always goes in for the abstracts, and we love the deep textural quality of the piece above his couch. Outgrowth, a painting from Stallman Studio made by layering and excavating, fits the bill.
JASON HALLMAN & STEPHEN STUM Outgrowth
ONE MORE FOR ROGER:
With its abstract figurative quality, Lynn Shirmer’s Occluded would be a perfect companion for Roger in his more introspective, contemplative moments.
LYNN SCHIRMER Occluded
Happy viewing this Sunday!
P.S. If you enjoyed this Mad Artsyo episode, sign up for the Artsyo newsletter for more like it!
In your office, what’s on the walls? Dogs Playing Poker? Motivational posters? Nothing at all?
It doesn’t have to be this way. Starting now, your office can rent an entire art collection for a fraction of the cost of buying a single painting.
INTRODUCING: ART RENTAL FOR SEATTLE BUSINESSES!
We’ll curate a collection to fit your office space and company culture. Delivery and professional installation come with the deal, and we’ll bring you a whole new collection every quarter to keep things interesting.
We work exclusively with Seattle-area artists, so you’ll be directly supporting local artists when you rent a collection with us. Plus, a portion of your rental payment automatically goes toward the option to purchase art that the office falls in love with.
WHY RENT AN ART COLLECTION?
Art in the office increases employee creativity, improves morale, encourages discussion, reduces stress, and enhances the overall work environment. Look, statistics!
For more information about renting art, email sarah@artsyo.com.
Here at Artsyo we finished 2012 in fine form: 1) we rescued the saddest wall in Seattle, 2) we added online payments and installation services, and 3) we got some great buzz in the local press!
Here are a few fun excerpts from articles featuring Artsyo that we clipped out and stuck to the fridge:
Best New Art Collecting Resource – Seattle Magazine (print edition, December 2012)
“So many local art galleries, so little time. In Seattle, we are both blessed and burdened with a surfeit of local art — so much that it can be overwhelming. ArtsYo (seattle.artsyo.com) has come to the rescue, with its online art matchmaking service that pairs locally made art with eager buyers. Talk about love at first sight.”
Seattle: Meet Artsyo – Seattle Star
“A self-proclaimed “OKCupid for art,” Artsyo is a brand spankin’ new online search engine that pairs users with local art and artists. Artsyo’s website offers a time-saving and less daunting alternative to traversing the city in search of your art match made in heaven.”
Looking for local art? Seattle-based Artsyo aims to make it easier - Queen Anne View
“If you’re looking to stay close to home and buy work from local Seattle artists, Artsyo can help make that happen.”
Win Free Art! Enter Artsyo’s Saddest Wall Contest – SeattleMag.com
“Every house has one: the ugly, underperforming wall. You’ve seen it: 12×10 feet and bearing only a paltry letter-sized college diploma. Or worse, an over-sized novelty clock. Meanwhile, thousands upon thousands of works by local artists live like unemployed post-grads: perpetually hanging out in coffee houses or leaning against storage sheds. Stop this neglect. Give local art a home. Thanks to locally-grown online art-finder Artsyo, you don’t have to leave your home to do so.”
Meet Artsyo - Artsy Forager
“The brainchild of Sarah Brooks and Stella Laurenzo, Artsyo is a searchable site providing users with ways to find the kinds of local artists and artwork they love, connect with those artists and ( hopefully! ) buy a work of art they adore.”
Win free art from Artsyo! – Best of
“Artsyo’s simple goal is to make “…it easy to find, enjoy and purchase art in & around your neighborhood.” How great is that?”
DAUNTING: You bought a piece of art, but now it needs to be framed.
Yelp “good frame shop in Seattle.”
Read reviews, pick one. Borrow friend’s car, load piece of art, drive to frame shop.
Traditional black frame, or trendy white one?
High end custom moulding, or a less expensive ready-made?
Regular glass, or UV protective?
Wait for framer to call. Borrow friend’s car again, pick up piece.
Drive it home. (Very carefully!)
Your art is ready to hang on the wall! Hurrah!
Dig through closets, find hammer.
Damn! Forgot to buy nails.
We know you have a busy life, and we don’t want these time-consuming and mind-space-occupying issues to stand between you and the piece of art that you have your eye on. That’s why we’re now taking care of the “last mile” services for you: when you buy a piece on Artsyo, we can frame it, deliver it to your door, and professionally install it on your wall.
Never be daunted! Start living with art. We’ll help you do it.
Back in November, we asked you to show us your saddest walls — i.e., your walls most in need of art — in exchange for the chance to win a piece of original art by a talented Seattle artist.
The sad walls with their sad stories came in, and the best of them went on to fight it out in a public vote. A few weeks and hundreds of votes later, we have a winner!
Drumroll, please…
The saddest wall in Seattle belongs to Kim with her entry “Hexed and Perplexed”!
For the lucky winner: all that’s left to do is choose your piece! A group of Seattle curators and arts writers picked out their favorites on Artsyo to give you a place to start: For the Winner: A Guide to Choosing Your Piece.
Sincere thanks to everyone who made this contest possible, and fun: voters, entrants, curators, artists, and friends!
Winner: “Hexed and Perplexed”
There once was a wall plagued by hex’s,
sponsoring tacky “art” chosen by ex’s.
The ex’s have fled,
taking other valuables instead,
and now the wall sadly perplexes.
Stumped for what to buy your mom / your coworker / your best friend this year? Here’s an idea: give local art!
True, it’s tough to buy a piece for someone else. Your taste might favor photography…
…while what your best friend really lusts after is a Joey Veltkamp blanket.
But that’s why we have Artsyo holiday gift cards! Give them the cash and let them choose the piece!
Your lucky giftee will have over 1,200 pieces on Artsyo to choose from, all by local artists.
Support the arts, buy local, and give a gift that’s way more interesting than an iTunes gift card or another pair of socks.
Email sarah@artsyo.com to special order an Artsyo gift card for your girlfriend, your neighbor, and your yoga teacher. And hey, your grandma wants one, too.
The sad walls are in! We tried and tried to choose just five finalists, but there were so many truly sad walls that we decided to show off ten instead!
Below (in random order) are the Ten Saddest Walls in Seattle. But which wall is the saddest wall of all? You tell us: vote for your favorite! The entry with the most votes by December 20th wins!
THE TEN SADDEST WALLS IN SEATTLE
Sad Wall #1: “You Guys” (by Kirby)
See above for barren walls and cute dog.
Sad Wall #2: “I’m Wall Alone” (by Mandy)
Below me – a black box – filled with moving art, beautiful music. I? No competition.
Farther down – a fire – radiating a warm, beautiful glow. I? No glow at all.
Each side of me – world art – holding a story. I? No story to tell.
I? I’m here, Wall Alone.
Sad Wall #3: “Cougar without a Roar” (by Megan)
When I bring a date home, I am horribly embarrassed by my bedroom. The only cool piece of art I have in my house is a pair of hand-painted shoes. They’re very beautiful shoes, but meant for my feet, not for my bed. And except for the occasional foot-loving gal, most people don’t want shoes above their heads when they sleep. Still, its the best I’ve got…unless you help me with ARTSYO!
Yours Truly,
Pumps on the Bed
Cougar without a Roar
Out-of-Dater Seeking Style
Sad Wall #4: “IKEA? Obama?” (by Julie)
Pathetic!! Dirty, off-white paint with nothing but that hideous IKEA poster to cover it! I can’t bear to put it up. Maybe I should mount the Obama poster from four years ago that I never framed? I desperately need REAL, beautiful art to cover that ginormous pasty white wall. Please bring some light to my life!
Sad Wall #5: “ceci n’est pas un os” (by Matt)
I can’t sleep … though my dog-bed is warm, and this human-room otherwise comfortable. Woof. To what will my dreams cling?
These past three years each attempt reverie has floated up expectantly, only to clang against the brutal off-white of the main livingroom wall. Three years — almost half my life — and you’d think my overhumans would have found something to hang here … a landscape of a grassy field perhaps, or a representation of meaty, blood-realism, or maybe a valiant-but-ironic merry hunting scene, featuring the intoxicating white blur of fleeing rabbit in the bottom corner?
But no. My dreams are doomed to the void. There is only this blankness. This wall. Tout est blanc, tout est noir. Il n’y a pas de différence.
Artsyo, help me to dream again.
- Toby the dog
Sad Wall #6: “Just Alcohol” (by Lily)
Oh so sad is our basement’s wall-
To brighten its day: just alcohol.
For a cheerier look
In this 3-transplant nook,
Please vote for our art overhaul.
Sad Wall #7: “Sad Dave” (by Eilish)
This wall is sad, and so is Dave.
Sad Wall #8: “Local Color” (by Keridwyn)
Beige, beige, beige is the theme of our place on Capitol Hill. We put up pink/orange (“pornge”) streamers for a bachelorette party this summer and kept them up – at least it was SOME color. Not OK. Michael Parkes – great artist but not enough. We need LOCAL COLOR.
Sad Wall #9: “Hexed and Perplexed” (by Kim)
There once was a wall plagued by hex’s,
sponsoring tacky “art” chosen by ex’s.
The ex’s have fled,
taking other valuables instead,
and now the wall sadly perplexes.
Sad Wall #10: “Green. with Envy” (by Michael)
Sad wall. Green.
with Envy.
Art? No. No art.
Artsyo? Art, yes. Local, yes. Pimp, yes. Rad, yes.
Pimp my sad green wall, Artsyo. Pimp it local. Pimp it rad.
Pimp it! Pimp my sad, green wall.
Rad local art wall. Yes.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? WHICH WALL IS SADDEST WALL OF ALL?
Cast your vote here: Artsyo Sad Wall Finalists
It’s open voting season from December 5th – 20th, and the winner with the most votes on the 20th will take home a piece of original art worth up to $500! Don’t forget to share this post and let your friends in on the voting fun…
Congratulations: you’re the winner of the sad wall contest! (Or you might be, if you enter by this Thursday!)
It’s almost time to choose a piece of original art by a Seattle artist to take home as your prize! But there are almost 700 pieces of art on Artsyo that are worth up to $500. Yikes…where do you start?
To help guide the winner in this tough decision, we asked eight Seattle curators and arts writers which piece they would choose on Artsyo, if they could choose just one. Here’s what they said:
BRANGIEN DAVIS, Arts & Culture Editor at Seattle Magazine
Brangien’s favorite: Feldspar (Ryan Molenkamp)
Brangien, why this piece?
“For me, falling in love with art is kind of self-centered, in the sense that I love art when I feel like it’s loving me back. It’s all about the personal connections that spark when I’m looking at a piece—when the work is asking me, “Hey, remember X?” Or, “Isn’t it titillating to think about Y?” I love Feldspar in part because because I love Devil’s Tower… because I love—yes, still love—the movie Close Encounters, and also because when I moved here from Virginia 19 years ago I stopped at Devil’s Tower and considered it symbolic of the strange new world I was about to enter. But I also love Feldspar because of the artful new spin Ryan has given to this place I already loved. The fuschia lines leading your eye up up up, the chartreuse trees gathered like guardians at the base—it’s both exactly what it looks like and not at all how it looks. So I get to love Devil’s Tower in a whole new way. Which makes looking at the piece as thrilling for me as a cross-country move, or an alien landing.”
LELE BARNETT, Curatorial Consultant for the Microsoft Art Collection
Lele’s favorite: Approaching Storm (John Armstrong)
Lele, why this piece?
“I featured this piece by John Armstrong in my exhibit presented by the American Meteorological Society and EcoArts Connections: Forecast: Communicating Weather and Climate. I love the drama in this piece. The color is dramatic, the clouds are dramatic, and even the figure’s stance is dramatic. It’s as if he’s preparing to battle the storm in a boxing match.”
GREG LUNDGREN, Seattle artist, curator, owner of art bar The Hideout, and the force behind Vital 5 and Walden 3
Greg’s favorite: Cranes and Pole (Jennifer Zwick)
Greg, why this piece?
“Zwick finds design and beauty in the everyday mundane – makes you look at the world in a different way. To me her work isn’t about pretty flowers or other obvious things to point a lens at, but revealing beauty in the things we pass by everyday, and that makes the world rather magical.”
JOEY VELTKAMP, Seattle artist and writer of the Northwest-centric art blog Best Of
Joey’s favorite: Pussy Riot (Ries Niemi)
Joey, why this piece?
“I love work that’s smart, political and unconventional. Ries Niemi’s Pussy Riot is all of that and more.”
SHARON ARNOLD, Seattle artist, curator, and the force behind art-in-a-box subscription service LxWxH
Sharon’s favorite: 70s Kitchen (Julie Alpert)
Sharon, why this piece?
“Not only does it have a certain sense of nostalgia, for childhood or family/friendly gatherings (because we all know that everyone ends up in the kitchen no matter what); but there’s so much said about what *isn’t* there – the spaces left by the objects that she chose to leave out. They are stand ins for figures. They are themselves, characters. It’s a simple watercolour of lush patterns, line, and form – but it’s a complex narrative that we fill in with our own stories.”
KIRSTEN ANDERSON, owner of Belltown’s Roq la Rue Gallery
Kirsten’s favorite: collected, trussed (Allyce Wood)
Kirsten, why this piece?
“It was VERY hard to pick just one, but I think I’ll go with Allyce Wood’s “Collected, trussed.” It’s different from the type of work I tend towards, but I think it offers up a nice contemplative moment as well as being aesthetically lovely to look at.”
LAURIE KEARNEY, owner of Capitol Hill’s Ghost Gallery
Laurie’s favorite: The Snake Grass Yawned (Chandler Woodfin)
Laurie, why this piece?
“Chandler’s work is eerily beautiful. This piece is especially soft in nature, with a subtle depth and fantastic use of color to form a lovely composition.”
JULIE BAROH, Georgetown Art Attack organizer and owner of Georgetown’s Krab Jab Studio
Julie’s favorite: Hut (Aaron Winnenberg)
Julie, why this piece?
“I like this piece for a variety of reasons: it has a naivety to it with the way the objects and figure are represented, but I can definitely tell the artist is very deliberate with his manner of painting, his choice of colors as well as the composition. It has a strong illustrational feel - Hut could easily be used as a editorial piece in a magazine, or even a book cover – but can still hold its own as fine art.”
Sincere thanks to the eight curators who took the time to find a favorite piece on Artsyo and share their reasons. The works they chose are all quite different — which goes to show that choosing a piece is a very personal thing. Brangien Davis said it well: “I love art when I feel like it’s loving me back.” Start with the pieces above, browse through the rest of the collection, and find the one that sparks for you.
Is a tattered Seahawks poster the pièce de résistance of your living room? Are your walls more boring than a macroeconomics lecture? Is the photo collage of your cat that’s scotch-taped above your bed just maybe responsible for the abrupt ending of that otherwise good date?
Worry not! Artsyo is here to Pimp Your Wall.
We want to buy you a piece of original art by a talented local artist. Just send us a photo of your saddest wall and tell us why you need our help. The person with the most creative and compelling entry gets to choose a piece of original art, and we’ll pick up the bill.
Your friends will be impressed! Your dates will swoon! Your grandmother will be proud!
HERE’S HOW TO ENTER:
1. Take a picture of your saddest wall and email it to sarah@artsyo.com by November 29th. Don’t forget to include a tear-jerking story (50 words or less) about why your wall needs art, and needs it bad.
2. Like Artsyo on Facebook.
3. Go pick out your favorite piece on Artsyo in anticipation of your inevitable victory!
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT:
After November 29th, we’ll choose the five most creative and compelling entries and post the finalists to the Artsyo Facebook page. Then it will be up to popular vote, and the entry with the most votes will win the prize.
THE PRIZE:
The winner of the contest gets to choose any piece of original art worth up to $500 on Artsyo. We’ll buy it, frame it, and show up at your door for a little art-hanging party (kind of like the barn-raising parties of olden times, but classier and not as physically strenuous).
Do you have any friends who could use an art upgrade, too? Give those share buttons some love.
