art, o art, wherefore art thou art

I discovered something, or rather someone, yesterday at the flea market and I forgot to write about it. Her name is Charlotte Nicolin, and she is a Swedish artist who has settled in Montreal. She does these pretty, bright, happy paintings of wildlife: birds, ladybugs, frogs, etc. Maybe it’s just because it was exactly the spirit I was rediscovering after months of hibernation, but she really struck my fancy.

I keep being torn between philosophies. On the one hand, my ecological/common sense (ECS) says I have two perfectly good mouse pads: plain black with white advertising on them, received as promotional items. Functional, yes, pretty, not by a long shot. On the other hand, I want to be surrounded with pretty things that make me smile, things I really enjoy. My eco-side wants to scream consumerism. My artistic side rails against boredom.

These two sides fight constantly. I had the same argument when I had to purchase a notebook as my writing journal. I wanted something pretty, something I would want to tote around and open and fill. I came home with an ecojot notebook, made of 100% post-consumer material. Sadly, it has been underutilized since I began to blog, but I will go through it eventually. In this particular case, ECS was content, but creative was slightly disappointed.

The only I way I seem to be able to bypass this is by getting these funky, enjoyable things as presents…for those who care, my birthday is July 27 ;D

But I digress. Getting back to enjoyable artwork, I thought I’d share some of the other artists whose work makes my heart sing. Now I’ll spare you how much I enjoy the great Masters (think TMNT, particularly Raphael), and how as a teenager, I chose to visit the Uffizi with our chaperones on an overcast day in Florence, rather than strike out on the town with my classmates, and how the nuns had to pull me out the room that housed Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus.” I still wonder whether it was really to get to the other masterpieces in the place, or because I was in awe before such a delightfully pagan piece. For the record, my favourites usually have a fine sense of line, as the aforementioned Raphael, Botticelli, Dürer, Dali, Mucha…

That probably also plays an important part in my enjoyment of comic book art and tattoo art. For comics, let me name Jae Lee’s ink work and Sam Kieth (my interest in comics peaked right around the birth of Image, so forgive me if I haven’t discovered the latest and greatest…), although I was also a big fan of Simon Bisley and Joseph Michael Linsner. As for tattoos, the realism of Tom Renshaw blows my mind, and at the other end of the spectrum, Yann Black, newly settled in Montreal at Glamort.

See here:
In six: Find old pedometer. Check batteries. Walk.