ETSY Portraits - Arts for Transit - Sophie Blackall

I recently watched this Etsy Portraits video featuring Australian born Brooklyn based Artist Sophie Blackall, a successful children's book illustrator, as well as author of Missed Connections - Love Lost and Found. Sophies illustrations are inspired by the many ads placed in the Missed Connections section of online bulletin board Craigslist. For those not familiar with Missed Connections/Craigslist, the idea is this: You are on a train/at a park/at a private party in some trendy Soho Loft and you happen to make a connection with a stranger and by some twist of fate, nothing ever eventuates. You cant get that person out of your head and you hope that by some chance, they feel the same. So what does a New Yorker do? they place an ad in Missed Connections. Where they hope, by some chance, to reconnect with that person. Sophie spent many hours reading the ads and drew inspiration from them to illustrate her favorites. Here are some of mine:

The New York MTA recently invited Sophie to create a poster for their Arts for Transit program for 2012.  The program invites 2 artists a year to design Subway related posters that will then appear on the trains all over the city.  For this Sophie had to to narrow down her list of characters to only 34 (as that was what the space provided would allow).  I imagine this would have been very hard for her, as looking at all her work, there is surely enough there for at least 3 posters!

Here are my 2 favorite scenes from the poster:

 

 Having ridden on the subway many times, I can assure you that Sophie would have enough inspiration to draw her characters from for many years to come.   One of the many reasons why Martino and I love the city.

View and purchase the poster via the MTA site here

Visit Sophies Etsy store to purchase her work here

Highlights from Art Sydney 2010

 
This was the first year we attended Art Sydney.  Martino had to work there for a little while so it was a great opportunity to check it out.  We attended opening night on Thursday, which apart from the air conditioning failing, was a great night.  The event normally attracts over 15,000 visitors every year all looking to find and buy art.  For an emerging or established artist, this is a fantastic opportunity to allow your art to reach the masses over a 4 day event.  The number of stands was very overwhelming for a first time visitor.  So I decided to just go off on my own, no map or guide, and stop at the art that I found appealing. This worked out to be the best way for me, as it is how I met these three lovely ladies.  An artist, a sculptor and a gallery owner.  All of them very talented and inspiring.

To start off my crafty claudes interview series I present to you the artworks of Narissa Butler:

Narissa is an Australian artist who has been painting girls as her subjects for 8 years.  Inspired by a photograph of her mother as a child, her paintings feature these girls as innocent, wide eyed, sometimes awkward creatures.   Each painting expressing feelings of nostalgia and longing. The colours include beautifully muted tones as well as much black detail.  I was drawn to many of her paintings by the detailed nature of them.  Details such as peacock feathers, butterfly wings and garden settings.

"Plume"  by Narissa Butler

Narissa is based in Melbourne where her work has been exhibited in many galleries, group and solo shows as well as in magazines.

Lovely Narissa encouraging Martino to just give it all a go!

"Swoon" - detailed butterfly beauty.....

 

It was wonderful to meet Narissa and chat to her about what inspired her creations and what challenges she faced as an artist.   A very generous and talented lady. 

You can visit Narissa's website here

For commissions or inquiries you can contact Narissa here