Tilt-A-Whirl

Snowdomes at Chicago Artopolis Art Fair

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

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This artist presented some very curious sculpture and photography at the Chicago Artopolis Art Fair.   He filled these very traditional, rather ubiquitous snowdomes with snowy landscapes he creates in minute detail.  This one is of a woman confronting a giant man leaning against a tree.  The attention to detail is  very refined.  I would’ve enjoyed watching the casual observer take a quick second look at these domes while walking through the show.  There is so much artwork that screams for your attention that something like a snowdome goes unnoticed…until…. you really notice it.

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The artist photographs the snowdomes and enlarges the image to the point where the whole perspective changes and we see these rather surreal, dreamlike creations become huge images.  Almost like a part of one of our dreams exposed, photographed, and mounted.

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This snowdome has a man rounding a bend coming across rather large footprints in the snow, certainly not an everyday occurrence.  So is this about some person drama of confronting a possible threat or simply the humor in the possibility of really finding huge footprints on a snow trail ?

Packer Schopf Gallery at the Chicago Artropolis Art Fair

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

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This skeleton at the Packer Schopf Gallery is made entirely out of plastic cassette tapes.

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This shows more of the detail of the construction.

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The Gallery had some of this artist’s work last year at the Fair.   The attention to detail is amazing.   I  like the concept of a book pulling you through it, taking you on a journey as you read it and this artist doing the same thing in a very unique visual way.

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Another cut-out book at the Packer Gallery.

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Also at Packer Gallery are these white mac lap-tops that have been inked in a technique that looks like scrimshaw.

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“Beware the tendency to become the things you covet, it’s unsustainable & will only disappoint you in the end.”

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I am drawn to the beauty of wood, especially carved sculptural pieces.  This piece has such an elegance and strength about it.  This skull is by Laurel Roth also at the Packer Gallery.  Laurel Roth has described this new series as, “..based on the bones of food animals using  finely polished wood, crystal, and gold to highlight the sacred and the profane aspects of food in an age of industrial agriculture.”