Spotlight: Kali Ciesemier

Good Wednesday, everybody!  It's a grey day in Baltimore, but as I went for a little run and had some coffee, I am all awake and happy.  As I don't have the post schedule nailed down quite yet, I figured I would post a Spotlight today, because I feel like I haven't posted one in awhile!

Today's Spotlight is on local Baltimore artist and illustrator Kali Ciesemier.  Kali is a friend and former roommate of mine, and I love her illustrations- they always make me happy, especially the above illustration of cakes!  Kali is primarily a freelance illustrator, but she is also currently teaching illustration at MICA, where she graduated from in 2008.  Kali puts a lot of heart & soul into her work, and it shows!  When I was living with her, she was always working- she really cares about what she does and is extremely talented.  I think my favorite two things about Kali's work are her colors- usually a limited color palette, but full of nuance and great shades- and her subjects, always playful and smart.  Even with the various jobs she gets- she has illustrated for Air Tran's GO! Magazine, Baltimore Magazine, Pagepath Technologies, Los Angeles Confidential Magazine, Time Out NY Magazine, and many others- her style is always recognizable and her work is always wonderful!

(Illustration for Time Out NY Magazine)

(Illustration for "Vs." Exhibition at The Wind-Up Space)

To check out more of Kali's work, you can go to her website, www.ciesemier.com or check out her blog at Kalidraws.blogspot.com!

Openings: King Me

On Saturday night, October 10, King Me opened at Open Space, the new gallery and music venue in Remington.  King Me, the second show to date produced by Open Space, presents the work of the collaborative group DUOX, composed of recent MICA grads Dan Wickerham and Malcolm Lomax.  The show will run through most of October.

This was my first visit to the space, and I felt it was well done.  Concrete floors, white walls, well-placed track lighting and garage doors equals a simple, clean, and good-sized gallery space into which you can pack plenty of people.  And it was already pretty full by 8:30pm, an hour and a half after the opening had begun.  A diverse crowd was sipping from tiny Starbucks cups of free liquor-infused punch (for those 21 and up, of course) and a bunch of chicken wings had just arrived.  Dan and Malcolm were mingling with their guests, both in snazzy get-ups, and when a close friend showed up from New York, surprising them both, there was lots of screaming and excited yelling.

As for the work itself, I have to say that I really don't know what to say.  Do I get it? Not really.  Do I have to get it? I don't know?  I often feel like the biggest complaint about postmodern art is that it seems to make no sense- the meaning is elusive and you often stand there just trying to make sense of it all.  Plastic bags filled with magazine cut-outs and drawings, videos containing sexual acts, a MICA custodial shirt with a painted 40 oz beer bottle sitting on top of it, metallic plastic lids and straws on slabs of plaster, phone books nailed to the ceiling, an aluminum foiled duck, a board with red bricks, red lights, and black belts on it.  A clear Hollister bag with a gold football in it tacked to the wall, a massive collage with black pretzels drawn on it.

They could be talking about materialization, commercialization, symbols and sex, maybe they just love metallics and random materials.  I'm not saying I get it, so I don't really know.  Rob Brulinski reviewed the show for Gutter Daily at Guttermagazine.com, and he wrote that the work, "Attempts to repackage a set of motifs: black pretzels, leisure, work and labor, vacations, journals, morning preparation, transparent Casper, work clothes, sweet and salty sex, image as sculpture, masks, soaps, snacks as lunches, beards, bugs, and hot showers."

Personally I think it's mainly about sex and found materials.  But I really, really don't know.  Regardless, I think it's worth seeing, a good use of the space and interesting at the least.  If you don't get very mild postmodern art, then I have a feeling you really won't get this very extreme postmodern art.  It is quite far from a simple oil painting of a pretty landscape.  But art isn't about getting it, as I have said before.  It's about visual imagery, creativity, and expression- and I believe everyone should expose themselves to as much of it as possible! So, check out King Me at Open Space throughout October, and continue to check out Open Space in the future, as it is already off to a good start- and I am sure there is more good to come!

Open Space is located at 2720 Sisson Street Baltimore MD behind the alligator mural.

Quotes: Helen Frankenthaler

"The landscapes were in my arms as I did it."

-Helen Frankenthaler on "Mountains and Sea"

*I am going to start including images with every quote I post- much more fun! ~Sarah

A Note on Posts

When I first started writing The Art Caravan,  I said that I would post a Spotlight and a Quote everyday, Monday thru Friday, as well as posts in other categories periodically throughout the week.  However, saying I could and would do that was biting off more than I could chew!  I think that many posts a day, or a week, is my dream- is what I want to do, and what I would do if this blog was my full-time job and not something I do when I come home from working all day.  Obviously, I have not been able to post a Spotlight or Quote everyday, in fact I have not even been able to make a post everyday.  I apologize for not living up to my original claims, and am now revising them to say that my goal is to post at least once a day Monday thru Friday, designating certain days for certain types of posts, i.e. Monday's post will be Spotlight, Tuesday's Quotes, and so on.  I am also bringing in a guest blogger to write a post a week- but more on that later! :) Thank you for reading everything I have been writing so far, and leaving your comments.  I truly appreciate it!  ~Sarah

The Mystery of Picasso

The Mystery of Picasso

The clip above is from the movie "The Mystery of Picasso," a film by 
Henri-Georges Clouzot. Produced in 1956, it is a documentary that shows 
Picasso himself, painting. Picasso made 20 new artworks just for the film, 
and we watch them be created before our eyes, step-by-step. The artworks 
were made using inks that bleed through the paper, so we are watching in 
real time from behind the canvas, as Picasso reveals "the mystery of creativity."  
By contract, most of the paintings were destroyed when the film was finished.  
The French government declared it a national treasure in 1984. I highly 
recommend it, especially for anyone interested in seeing what truly happens
when an artist- in this case, a master- makes work.


P.S. Obviously, I'm having some formatting issues with the text in this post. I think 
it has something to do with the video, but I can't seem to fix it myself. So, I apologize for
the difficult read, and if anyone has any advice on how to fix this issue, please let me 
know! ~Sarah

Quotes: Eckhart Tolle

"All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness."
-Eckhart Tolle

One of the most well-known and best spiritualists out there, Eckhart Tolle is the author of "The Power of Now" and numerous other books.  The ideas in his books are wonderful and profound, and at least for me, often difficult to truly understand and practice.  He writes about being in the present, being in the now, and how this can bring about happiness and love, as well as inner peace.  These concepts relate very much to art and the process of making art.  Art is very therapeutic for many people, and this is probably because of it's ability to pull you into the present and wipe your mind of all worries while you are engaged in the physical and mental work of the visual process.  As Tolle says, you create from a place of "no-mind", which can be very soothing!  Art comes from the subconscious, from the spiritual side of our minds.  If ever you need to get in touch with yourself, your grace, your unconscious (as cheesy as it all may sound)- or if you even just need to calm down a bit- pick up a pencil and a piece of paper and just draw.  Even if you don't consider yourself an artist, the practice of making art can broaden your understanding of yourself as well as art in general. ~Sarah

Spotlight: Molly Colleen O'Connell

Hello! I have been a little under the weather (flu shot side effects?), and am in the process of trying to get a job at the Mt. Washington Whole Foods.  Busy, busy, busy!  So today I bring you a Spotlight on the work of Molly Colleen O'Connell, whose work I own in my personal collection.  Molly is one of my favorite artists.  She graduated a year ahead of me from MICA with a Printmaking degree, and is a member of the comic book collective Closed Caption Comics.  She also is one of the organizers of the new art gallery and music venue Open Space in Remington.

I am a fan of her print work as well as her comic books, which she prints and binds herself.  Molly draws and prints images of intricate other worlds that she creates.  In these worlds, she tells the stories of the creatures that inhabit them, and the various things they do and adventures they go on.  Sometimes the narrative is strong and easy to follow, and other times the story is hard to follow but the pictures are all you need anyway.  Her creatures and her line-heavy, incredibly creative drawings are enchanting and unreal.  I particularly love (and hope to purchase one day) a print of a little girl milking (?) a huge moose (?).  Sometimes it's hard to tell what's actually happening, but that's what I enjoy about Molly's work: She is asking your to use your imagination, to enter her amazingly imaginative world, and see where it takes you.