Teeny Tiny #5 opens this friday!

It's finally here!! I am super busy as there is still so much to do between now and the opening tomorrow night (5-8pm)...for those of you who can't make it, the online shop will be launched tomorrow afternoon so you can see all of the amazing pieces in this wonderful show!

I hope you have enjoyed the interviews and pictures of all of the participating artists, I will continue to post to this blog, enjoy and I'll see you on friday:)

Sofia Barao!

I was thrilled when I received an email a few months ago from Sofia Barao! I have been a fan of her works and her beautiful blog for awhile now...I am delighted to announce that she will be participating in the Teeny Tiny Art Show for the first time - here's a sneak preview!

Sofia's work is based on a juxtaposition of different materials and techniques (acrylics, papers, photos, graphite, wax, collage, sewing, transfers …) that validate her ideas and make them happen to others eyes. She works in different mediums such as painting, collage, photography, lomography and she also creates unique objects.

Sofia loves everything vintage and romantic and is passionate about the end of the 19th and early 20th century era. She grew up in Portugal, studied in Switzerland, and now lives in a small town in France (L'Isle Adam, which is in the middle of a forest between a river and a lake) just 45 minutes from Paris.

A snipit from her artist statement...

"I see my work as wall pieces where layers of paint, papers, drawings and
images can be seen as if time had started its work of forgetness, of erasement.
A poetic and decay atmosphere. My work is a reflection of myself. My childhood,
the way I see life and death, my woman’s life...

I strive to keep a
trace, to question identity and memories, to reinvent a story, to rebuild a
past, maybe my own.



Nature, time and the Woman are the main themes of my work. The Woman in
particular, inspires me; I seek her, decorticate her, and invent her. She's part
of a whole in my work. I question myself about the relationship between women
and time that passes by: through them, on them, with them.



My work is definitely about my quest for my missing part..."

And here are 25 Random Things About Sofia Barao ~ Enjoy!

1. I prefer to work in the morning light

2. Scandinavia fascinates me

3. I was born one year after the Carnation Revolution in Portugal

4. Autumn is my favourite season


5. I lived in 3 countries

6. I’m a shadow chaser

7. Watermelon and Sharon fruit are my favourite fruits

8. I collect beach sand in little bottles

9. I lost my mother at the age of 13

10. I live 45 minutes away from the Eiffel Tower in Paris


11. My father was a singer and he created his own music instruments

12. I like to eat a fennel every summer day

13. I dream of a studio by the sea in Portugal


14. I was raised by my sister

15. My family emigrated to Belgium, Germany, France, Switzerland and Macao

16. I like to read philosophy and psychology magazines

17. I drink herbal and fruit infusions all day long

18. My dream place for an exhibition is the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon


19. I need to practice yoga 4 times a week

20. I would love to write a book

21.My favourite cookie is a Belgian cookie, called speculoos


22. Nostalgia is a friend

23. I always work on my knees on the floor

24. Erik Satie is my favourite composer


25. I like the smell of old books

Veronica Fuentes

The Teeny Tiny Art Show welcomes whimsical works by Veronica Fuentes!

Veronica was born in New York but was raised from the age of 2 in Bogota, Colombia. She spent most of her childhood drawing and daydreaming. Eventually she made her way back to New York City where she currently livesand works. She received her BFA from Hunter College in New York, NY in 2002.


Veronica's works for the show are embroidered. She explains in her artist statement, "In my work, I explore a whimsical vegetated world where plant-like creatures sprout an array of human emotions. In this whimsical vegetated world, emotions like fear, anger, sadness, and lust are part of the physical and subconscious make-up of the vegetated inhabitants. As the artist trying to breath life into the work, I have become a researcher, like a biologist, cataloging the inhabitants, their characteristics and habitat of the wondrous vegetated world."


And here are Veronica's responses to some of the questions I asked...enjoy!

Q. What are the main things that inspire you? Are you inspired by things that happen to you, or what you observe from life?

A. I am inspired a lot by nature. I find flowers, trees, fungi any kind of plants very interesting. I also find inspiration in animals but plants are just so interesting to me. I am also inspired a lot by stories. I love children's stories, fairy tales (brothers Grimm, Lewis Carroll are some of my favorite) anything that has to do with fantasy and the surreal. Things that happen to me, and feelings also influence my work.
　
Q. Sometimes an artists work gives a hint to what the artist may be like, what they believe in, entertainment they fancy. Is there anything about you that would be surprising to know, if someone only knew your art?


A. Only the people that are close to me know that I have a fear of clutter. I like things simple. Too many things around me are visually distracting. In regards to entertainment I love movies. It might not be a surprise that I like fantasy movies. Some of my favorite directors include Tim Burton (can't wait to see his interpretation of Alice in Wonderland), Hayao Miyazaki, Jim Henson, my new favorite director is Guillermo del Toro after I saw Pan's Labyrinth. I love those 80's fantasy movies like Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal and The Never Ending Story to name a few.
　
Q. Do you have any odd habits while you work?


A. I always like to have a very clean and organized work area free of any clutter before I start working on anything. I have to organized and put everything in its place or else I will not feel comfortable working. A little OCD I guess.
　
Q. When you were a kid, what did you think you were going to be when you grew up?


A. When I was a kid I liked drawing and doing any kind of arts and craft projects I could think of. I just liked making things. I remember once somebody saw me drawing and asked me if I wanted to be an artist when I grow up. I think I was around 6 years old when I first realized that artists where people that didn't stop drawing or creating when they became older. Since then I started telling people, whenever they asked, that I wanted to be an artist when I grew up.
　 　
Q. How do you get inspiration for the pieces you produce?



A. Sometimes I have a feeling or an event that I want to communicate. I just start thinking about it and just try to imagine what it would look like. For some reason ideas always come to me in the form of plant like creatures of sorts. Some times ideas come in the form of stories.
　
Q. What has been your best creation to date?


A. Wow, I don't know how to answer this. I'm still working on it.
　
Q. Describe your ideal day?


A. I think I have many ideal days. It depends on what I want to do that day. Rainy days are good for when I just want to stay home and do some work or for watching a dvd. A sunny day (not too hot) is perfect for ridding my bike with my sister around the park.
　
Q. Last book you read?



A. At the moment I'm reading a book called The Templar Legacy that I found laying around in the office. I'm a bit of a religious conspiracy buff.

Tim Yankosky

Three Graces had the pleasure of featuring works by Tim Yankosky this past May in the group exhibition "Making Their Mark in Molten Wax", alongside fellow encaustic artists Gina Adams, Robin Luciano Beaty and Linda Cordner. Tim has done a special small scale series of paintings for our upcoming Teeny Tiny Art Show #5 in September.


Originally from New Jersey, Tim currently lives and works in San Francisco. He has exhibited around the Bay Area, with shows at Soul Arch, SF State Gallery, and Space 743 Gallery. In 2004 he was included in the Heart and Soul citywide installation with his piece now displayed at Mo Mo’s restuarant. Here are 25 Random things about Mr. Tim Yankosky...

1. I was a track star in high school, now walking around the block is a task.

2. I still act like a 3 year old at times... it really helps with the creative process.

3. I was recently converted by a "Rag Doll" kitten that I bought for my partner, into a "Cat Person"... it was always dogs for me until this little bundle of fur entered our lives.

4. I now talk baby talk to the above fore mentioned kitten whose name is "Bandit", the name just seemed to fit with the mask and all, not to mention her stealing my heart.

5. I lift weights 5-6 days a week and my arm still gets tired when I paint.

6. I lost my last partner to a rare cancer, it changed my life forever and continues to influence my decisions. I mention this because during that period I created some of my most amazing work. "Deliver Me" a tribute to my partner Rich who died at 41.

7. My favorite snacks are cashews and chocolate covered raisins, on a recent visit to my studio, upon seeing the empty containers, my brother remarked "did you REALLY eat all those".

8. "Bandit" sleeps on my head.

9. Grade school was a nightmare but inspires many works of art... thank you Ricky Merideth (mean, mean boy).

10. Life really does get easier as you get older, or maybe I am just forgetting more and it appears to be easier because I forget most of my worries by the end of the day.

11. "What am I listing here again?" There goes that memory thing.

12. I hope one day to only have to paint and not work my "other job".

13. On that note, everyone should have to be a waiter at some point in their life.

14. I am actually enjoying making this list.

15. I have trouble gaining weight, people say "oh poor you", but to me it is the same as wanting to lose weight.

16. I have a "reality television" addiction... I know, shameless.

17. My favorite smells are fresh cut grass and gasoline when filling the car. Appears to be a "green" oxymoron.

18. It would be great to be able to buy any art pieces I wanted.

19. I only started painting when I was 43... my college art 101 professor ask me why I wasn't an art major and it went right over my head.

20. I spend hours a day painting, often forgetting to eat... that might have something to do with that weight gain thing.

21. I would much rather be in my studio than at a party... thank you grade school and high school.

22. My grandparents raised canaries and they continue to show up in my work.

23. I am watching "Big Brother" while finishing this list.

24. I just got my first book cover... Yahoo!

25. My main goal is to age gracefully, unfortunately my knees have not gotten that memo.

Tim was also kind enought to take the time to answer some other questions...

Q. What are the main things that inspire you? Are you inspired by things that happen to you, or what you observe from life?

A. I am inspired by most things that have happen to me over a lifetime, a long 50 year lifetime.

Q. Sometimes an artists work gives a hint to what the artist may be like, what they believe in, entertainment they fancy. Is there anything about you that would be surprising to know, if someone only knew your art?

A. I tend to bite my upper lip when I am sanding or cutting... I am pretty sure that I have developed a "sharp object" phobia in my older age. When I was a kid I wanted to be a vet... which considering my "sharp object" phobia may have been a problem.

Q. How do you get inspiration for the pieces you produce?

A. I am inspired by the previous pieces of art work that I have completed... they all seem to be leading somewhere. I think my best creation to date is a piece I donated to Visual Aid for auction here in San Francisco... I only have a quick snapshot of it because I finished it on the donation deadline day, but it was one of those pieces where you are kicking yourself for letting it go. It did lead to an entire series but none nearly as special as this one.


Q. Describe your ideal day...

A. My ideal day is staying away from sharp objects.

Q. Last book you read?

A. Last book read is "When You are Engulfed In Flames" by David Sedaris.

Q: Ask yourself (and answer) a question?

A/Q:What has been my most rewarding day recently?

A. Teaching a small art inspired class in my studio for some local school kids. I forgot how much I miss teaching.

The Fabulous Miss Sarah Ogren...

Meet Sarah Ogren!


Sarah Ogren is a mixed media artist with a love of vintage things. She will often encorporate vintage images into her work and trans-form them into something a little more modern. Her work has been described as dark and moody and it will often reflect her sometimes quirky sense of humor.

Here are some of Sarah's answers to the interview questions I've been asking...

Q. What are the main things that inspire you? Are you inspired by things that happen to you, or what you observe from life?

A. I’m very much inspired by antique photographs and vintage illustrations. I’m also a huge fan of field notes and drawings. The ideas for my work come partially from these influences as well as events in my every day life. I have come into the habit of writing down things people tell me or sometimes take random ideas from my personal journal pages as themes for my work. Many of the titles of my pieces are direct quotes from me or others.
　
Q. Sometimes an artists work gives a hint to what the artist may be like, what they believe in, entertainment they fancy. Is there anything about you that would be surprising to know, if someone only knew your art?

A. I think this is definitely true of me. My work is a direct reflection of what I find interesting and what I think of the world. My work has a very child-like, humorous and surrealist quality to it. In real life I’m very much a light hearted person, who is always laughing at something. I also have always been quite the daydreamer and spent far too much time in my own head.
　 　
Q. When you were a kid, what did you think you were going to be when you grew up?

A. I thought I was going to be a Psychologist or a narrator for nature programs. I did earn a Master’s degree in Professional Counseling, but I’m not practicing at the moment.
I think I wanted to be the nature program narrator because at the time I thought the narrators were actually out in the woods where the action was. After learning that they did all of their work in a sound studio that dream died for me.
　

Q. How do you get inspiration for the pieces you produce?

I get my inspirations from looking at old antique photographs and antiques in general actually. I like to spend my free time wandering antique malls when I’m feeling the need for some fresh ideas. I almost always find something there that sparks an idea for a new project.


Everyday conversations have also become quite a rich source of inspiration for me. People (including myself) say the darndist things sometimes.
　
Q. Describe your ideal day...

A. The day would be cool but sunny, sometime in the fall when the leaves have all changed. I would begin my morning with a walk in the woods, making sure to shuffle my feet through the fallen leaves. I would return home to make myself a tasty egg sandwich with bacon and cheese.
Then it would be off to my studio where I would work all day. It would be one of those days where the ideas keep coming and I can barely keep up with my own thoughts.Then I’d have dinner with friends, complete with great conversation and one of those laughing fits where your side hurts.I’d then end my day with a really good book.
　 　
Q. Last book you read?

A. David Sedaris. When Your Body Is Engulfed Ion Flames.

Sarah has been a part of each and every Teeny Tiny Art Show! She sent me some images of the mixed media sculptures she will be exhibiting in September...enjoy!



You can view more of Sarah's sculptures and other teeny tiny previews here!

Amy Gross!

Amy Gross will be exhibiting work in the upcoming Teeny Tiny Art Show! She is a surface and textile designer by day, a painter and jewelry maker the rest of the time. Plus there's a dollhouse - “which I would work on all the time if I could, but then nothing would get done...”.


Amy received her BFA from Cooper Union and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She currently lives and works in Florida with her cat, Solomon.

I sent Amy some questions about her and her work - I would love to share her thoughtful responses as they reveal much about her life and work...enjoy!


Q: What are the main things that inspire you? Are you inspired by things that happen to you, or what you observe from life?

A: I was one of those little kids completely obsessed with scale, always out in the backyard trying to figure out how ants saw the world, building twig and moss farming communities around the trunks of our Norway maples, fascinated/horrified by what lived on and under the woodpile, way in the corner, by the fence. I don't think I ever really let go of the idea that the struggle for life co-oexists on so many levels, from the microscopic to the enormous-I grew up in a time when telescopes and microscopes were gathering all these wonderful images together and setting them side by side. But it took a while for me to figure out how to mix together my own life experiences with pictures of things I find so amazing. It's one thing to study how nature and time and change battles - when things like that happen to people you love, you start to really understand how it feels. That's when my artwork started to develop.

Q: Sometimes an artists work gives a hint to what the artist may be like, what they believe in, entertainment they fancy. Is there anything about you that would be surprising to know, if someone only knew your art?

A: I'm pretty sure that if someone just looked at my work they wouldn't be too surprised to know that I love doll houses, and that I have around 40 boxes of beads, and a world globe collection, and I still have the microscope my parents gave me when I was nine.

But I think it would be pretty hard to figure out how much I love baseball. I've cried over baseball. Hard. And if I could remake my brain over, I'd probably try to be an astronaut. But we're talking serious neuro-makeover, I'm pretty sure they still look for people who can figure out a tip without a pencil.

Q: Do have any odd habits while you paint/sculpt/sew/etc?


A: Since so much of my work involves seemingly endless repetitive sewing of beads to objects, you would think that would leave a lot of room for listening to really interesting undiscovered rock bands or NPR, but I love more than anything sewing to the sound of professional golf tournaments and tennis matches. I don't like golf, I don't play golf, but there's something about the club woosh and the ball bouncing in the cup and the announcers muted monotones. And with tennis, just that thuck-thunk, thuck-thunk, it just goes with stitching. Even the annoying grunting has a nice rhythm to it. With baseball, well, I get too worked up, and it makes me look up too often.

Q: When you were a kid, what did you think you were going to be when you grew up?

A: No surprises. I was going to be an artist. My Dad was, and is, and it was just what was, and we all just assumed it was genetic. And good thing-even when I was a doofy funny-looking pre-teen I knew what I was going to be, and that was infinitely helpful. I think when I was eight I considered becoming the greatest child actress who ever lived, but that was about the time that Jodi Foster was a big deal, and I think that lasted about a week and a half.

Q: How do you get inspiration for the pieces you produce?

A: It's everywhere. I started working this way after I moved to Florida, after living my entire life up until then in a pretty well-behaved New York suburb. The town I live in now is about as shopping malled and sub-divided as they come, but it's still the subtropics, and there's this strange and insistent undercurrent of wildness that we keep trying to tramp down. Things grow so fast you almost think you can see them change, and the canals between communities are like feverish little jungles. Strangler figs squeeze the life out of other trees, duckweed make ponds look carpeted, everything tangles around everything else. It's amazing, the idea that a landscape can transform so quickly, both visually and invisibly, and there are so many parallels in the human body and the way we think and remember. So I started making objects that look like found objects from nature, little biotopes that are really completely man-made, a way of mixing my own experiences with what the landscape gives to me.


Q: What has been your best creation to date?

A: My best isn't my favorite-it's a piece called "Came Close to Drowning", and it's 40" by 40", which is pretty large for me, and for a beaded and fabric painting. It was important because it wasn't just about the experience of almost drowning that I actually had, in a river in Connecticut, but about the experience of remembering it, how it changes each time you try to recall it, it gets abstracted and the scale of each part of it gets larger and smaller. I was trying to fix the memory, to sew it tight. Of course, that's impossible, artwork is an object, unlike a true fluid memory. But we don't have many ways we can try to trap time, to mark our path, and I think that's why we make things.


Q: Describe your ideal day?

A: I've always had an art day-job, a self-employed one, but a necessity and a time-eater. So there's some wish-projection involved: Up, feed cat, feed myself, morning ride on shiny new pink bicycle, coffee in large cup, stitch and bead and sew for hours, lunch, soap operas, back to stitching and beading and sewing, meet Mom for iced coffee, a little more sewing, make a miniature flat file for the doll house art studio, goof around on Flickr for an hour, design some jewelry, feed cat, eat dinner, read, pass out. Not too far from actual life, but without a day-job taking up most of it. If it were really ideal, there would be a large studio to putter around in, instead of the living room coffee table, a silver Air Stream Camper all decoupaged inside, a tricked-out tree-house, and lots of extra money for clothes and buying other people's art.

Q: Last book you read?

A: The book I'm halfway through right now is David Copperfield! It sat there on a shelf staring at me for years, and I had no idea how much fun it is. Before that, Proust was a Neuroscientist, by Jonah Lehrer. I can't back up the science in it, but there are some terrific things for artists to run with in that one.

Q: Ask yourself (and answer) a question?

A/Q: It's taken you longer than you would have planned to find a vocabulary that helps you say what you have to say creatively. If you could start over, would you have spent less time as a commercial artist and more struggling to develop your own language?

A: For me, it turned out that I had to release myself from all the preconceptions I had of what an artist should be. I was in art school in New York City during a time when the painters we heard most about had generally bombastic personalities, making gigantic paintings and a lot of noise, and I couldn't imagine how someone like me could find a place in that world. I was convinced that I was lacking some element, some piece that made an artist whole. So for a while I went in other directions, sometimes far enough away that I stopped thinking of myself as an artist, and it was only then that the need returned. Because it wasn't about the end product, finally, but about the experience of making things, of keeping a record of what's happened to me. And things had to happen first. That came with time.

These beautiful photographs are courtesy of Amy Gross - you can see more of her photos here on her flickr ("world in a matchbox")!

Sarah Sharp

I am so excited to exhibit the work of Sarah Sharp (a.ka. Trixie) here in the gallery for the first time! She will be sending a group of her photographs for the Teeny Tiny in September:)


Here is a testimonial from flickr..."Churchill said of Russia that it was a "riddle wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma", but he was probably thinking of Trix.Her pictures are shiny secrets. Her eyes see different worlds. And when she writes in her profile (see left) that "it's complicated", you just know she wouldn't like it if it wasn't.She is, after all, the world's greatest girl detective. Churchill would have fallen for her, hard." (Tampen)


...and another...

"What I love about Trixie's work is that she has such a highly developed eye and a style that is distinctively, immistakeably, trixie-esque. Trixie has a way of shedding perspective on an object, person, piece o' street art/ signs, or even on cleverly posed action figures that is both humorous and poig-nant. I could, and do, look at her pix for hours." (Sazliner)

Sarah Sharp is a writer and a photographer, recently relocated to Detroit, MI from New York City. She has shown work in group and solo shows in Detroit and Manhattan and is known to some as the greatest girl detective in the world...

Here is a list of 25 random things about Sarah with an "h"...


1. I'm from California, have lived in New York City for the last 6 years, and am just about to embark on a new chapter of life in Detroit.

2. My earliest love of photography can be traced back to a lifetime obsession with photobooths.

3. I am 28 years old and own at least as many toys as the average 8-year-old. Really, photography is just an elaborate excuse to get to keep buying toys.

4. I am working on a photo project to visit all 50 United States this year. So far I have been to 36 states. You can see more about that here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1541734301/50-states

5. I collect postcards, and am currently in the process of making my own art-postcards based on my 50 states road trip.

6. I love Walker Evans, Stephen Shore, and do not really have words strong enough for my feelings on William Eggleston and Cindy Sherman.

7. I'm not sure I believe in ghosts, but I'm definitely afraid of them.

8. I read a lot of sci-fi.

9. I cannot dance, but this doesn't stop me from doing it.

10. At times I worry that my deep affection for robots will cause me to unwittingly unleash the robot apocalypse (see item 8). I'm not proud of this, but there it is.

11. I adore pinball. one of my biggest beefs with living in NY is the lack of Williams brand pinball machines, the lack of pinball machines in general, and the fact that it costs $1 a game here, which is absolutely criminal.

12. I am exactly 5'7" and a half inches tall. the half is important.

13. I am a fan of American football, have a pretty thorough understanding of the game, and deeply resent it when women claim they "can't understand" football.

14. I have a pair of limited-edition PBR sneakers.

15. I recently passed the one-year mark without a cigarette (which I did for 10+ years).

16. I do not automatically know my right from my left, and often need to make an "L" with my fingers to tell the difference.

17. I enjoy wearing hats.

18. I derive deep satisfaction from organizing things using arcane systems known only to me. this includes my flickr photostream, which is why I currently have about 130 sets.

19. I am not a terribly good speller.

20. I really don't like bananas. I have not eaten a banana, or anything banana-flavored, for over 25 years. I think putting bananas in fruit salad is the fastest way to ruin a picnic.

21. I have never been downhill skiing. I have been cross-country skiing once.

22. Zoos make me sort of sad, but I'm absolutely crazy about aquariums.

23. I enjoy games of all sorts, including board games, bar games, shooting games, arcade games, bowling, Scrabble, various competitive sports, card games, word games, sudoku, children's games, and computer games, but I do not like video games and never play them and I don't want to watch you play them, either.

24. I am intermittently afflicted with insomnia.

25. I am something of an epistolean - I love writing letters. I send numerous postcards anytime I go on vacation, and love it when my friends send postcards to me. I have romantic notions about playing chess-by-mail with someone. I often drop in at the post office to see what new stamps have come out, and collect stamps in a very disorganized and lackadaisical manner.

...and one more for good luck...

26. I believe intelligent life exists somewhere in the universe. I would not necessarily cite the human race as evidence of it.