The Artwork of Amy Rice

posted by dennis

I am really liking the artwork Minneapolis’s Amy Rice. Amy combines spraypaint stencil, gouache, acrylic and found objects to create simple yet beautiful pieces. I love her use of stencils to create the line work and then paints in the details by hand. But perhaps my favorite aspect of her work is her use of found letters and envelopes on which she creates her pieces.

Life is Sweet for the Manifest Equality Show

Learn to Play

Dear Elizabeth

More of Amy’s work can be seen on her Flickr photostream.

Sylvia by Dennis Jacobs

posted by dennis

I completed a mixed media painting this weekend, entitled Sylvia. The piece measures 12″ x 16″ and is made of hand cut spraypaint stencils over collage on board. Below is the process by which I created the piece.

As with any painting I do, I start by laying down a base layer of collage. With this particular piece I used clippings from vintage magazines, anatomy books, old magazine ads, maps, newspaper, and photos from military books.

This particular painting required two stencils, based on a digital illustration, to complete. Rather than printing and cutting one stencil for each color I instead use the each stencil for multiple colors. For example, I will cut out the sections that for red, spray it, then tape them back into place. I will then cut out the black sections and spray them. This helps to make sure the registration of the stencil is correct and also saves time on cutting stencils. While this does result in the stencil being destroyed, I only make one off paintings, so I will never need to reuse a stencil. If i were to begin doing multiple paintings of a single image, I would then create one stencil per color needed.

See more process pictures as well as the completed painting after the break

Starred #29

posted by christina

Photo by Ingrid Fabiola (via PICDIT)

Alex Varanese (via Design Work Life)

Cisco Ksl (via Hard Feelings)

Love the lighting in Jessica Tremp’s photos (via The Strange Attractor)

Page Tsou (via OK Great)

Named after the Add Star feature in Google Reader, “Starred” is a column about things that catch my eye as I peruse the blogs I subscribe to. If you’d like to subscribe to Perfect Laughter, here’s a link to our RSS Feed.

Erik Otto: The Last Shall Be First

posted by christina

We first discovered Erik Otto while on our honeymoon in San Francisco. I remember a huge installation of multiple framed paintings that included really detailed screen printed elements. I scrawled his name in my notebook. After I got home and looked him up, I saw that he was about to embark on a four month residency at the San Francisco Dump. As part of their recycling efforts, they invite an artist to use discarded materials to create a body of work. Erik’s show was entitled “The Last Shall Be First”.

All of this was made from leftover house paint, spray paint, and found panels. I loved following along on his blog as he made amazing artwork out of what was essentially garbage. More photos of the show can be found at erikotto.com. Up next, he’ll be in a show at Whitewalls this weekend along with one of our other favorites, Armsrock.

Announcing: Our Next Print, “Clara”

posted by christina

Our latest print is done! “Clara” is a 4 color screen print. Each one is printed by hand onto a page of antique sheet music. We sized it to fit into IKEA frames so it can be framed very affordably. The print is 8.75 x 11.5 inches and we did an edition of 30 this time.

While we were trying to decide what to name her, I looked up the history behind Schumann’s only piano concerto, which is what we used to print on. It was Schumann’s wife, Clara, who urged him to finish the concerto. She was then the first person to play the solo part when it premiered in 1846. Coincidentally, Clara was my piano teacher’s name and the person who gave me the sheet music. I hope she doesn’t mind that we sacrificed it in the name of art.

We’re very grateful to 323 East and City Bird who have both decided to carry it in their stores. It’s also available in our online shop. (By the way – if you missed out on our first print, “First Snow”, 323 East and City Bird still have a couple of those left.)

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