Artist of the Week: Elisa Werbler

I spied these prints pinned up in the hallowed halls of school last week and they literally stopped me in my tracks. Yes, I mean quite literally. I passed them, stopped, double-backed and took a good long look. I really wished I had my phone with me to take a picture. It would have lasted longer. But I committed the name posted next to the cluster of colorful images to memory and looked it up as soon as I got back to my desk: Elisa Werbler. The layered translucent colors and sharp edges of her prints are what really impressed me most—all effects rather difficult for any novice printmaker to achieve. Turns out Elisa also makes paintings, sculpture, furniture and—wait for it—Anthropologie window installations!! Her window displays are the stuff of repurposed material dreams! And her constructions have definitely made me stop to admire her handiwork on my walks around the city. You can see more of what she does on her website www.elisawerbler.com

Materials used: coffee filters, Cling Wrap, Q-tips, 

plastic spoons, cotton candy cones, wax, dye

- Cathleen 

ArtWORKS of the Week: Jim Darling

In light of many of us probably coming off the heels of some serious holiday traveling, I have somewhat of a timely post/cliched confession to make: I hate flying. Mainly it's because of the turbulence, though take off and landing aren't much of a picnic either. And if I'm assigned to a window seat, I pretty much keep the shades drawn the whole ride. No need to be reminded of the fact that I'm thousands of feet above ground with only the magic of aerodynamics keeping me from plummeting to my death. Despite all of this, however, I love the idea of these airplane window paintings by artist and illustrator Jim Darling. Each oil and aerosol painting on woodwork measures 11"x 14" and depicts a different point of view named for the seat number in which the artist sat. Each piece costs $650, some of which are still available for purchase on the Open Space Gallery website.

- Cathleen

[Images from the artist's website: www.jimdarling.com]