A Week Later, Sprouts

Here's a look at these seed-bean-things a week ago: Various works in progress, acrylic on canvas, 2015 by Sarah Atlee.

Since then, I've polished off three.

Reflected Root. Acrylic on canvas, 12 x 8 inches, 2015 by Sarah Atlee.

Rigor Samsa.* Acrylic on canvas, 8 x 8 inches, 2015 by Sarah Atlee.

Heavy Bean. Acrylic on MDF, 10 x 7 inches, 2015 by Sarah Atlee.

* Rigor Samsa is a term borrowed from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows:

n. a kind of psychological exoskeleton that can protect you from pain and contain your anxieties, but always ends up cracking under pressure or hollowed out by time—and will keep growing back again and again, until you develop a more sophisticated emotional structure, held up by a strong and flexible spine, built less like a fortress than a cluster of treehouses.

Some elements remain, others are covered or scraped away. Such is the evolution of a painting.

Something's Germinating

Seeds, maybe? We'll see.

Lemons out of Balance

Lemon Imbalance. Acrylic on canvas, 18 x 18 inches, 2015 by Sarah Atlee
Click here to purchase Lemon Imbalance.

Let's talk about balance.

It's overrated. It sets us up for false expectations, failure, and guilt. "It's as useful a concept as original sin." (That's from Danielle Laporte.) Actually, we don't really need to talk about balance.

Let's talk about letting go of "balance."

I've shared this Bruce Sterling quote on this blog before, and I'm sure I'll do it many more times. It's from a speech he gave at the Computer Game Developers Conference in March 1991 in San Jose, California. (Read the whole text here.) Behold:

"Don't become a well-rounded person. Well rounded people are smooth and dull. Become a thoroughly spiky person. Grow spikes from every angle. Stick in their throats like a pufferfish."

That's really all the advice you need. Now, let's look at some other artists who have embraced both lemons and asymmetry! Click on any image below to view its source.

Glass and Lemon in a Mirror. Oil and magna on canvas, 1974 by Roy Lichtenstein.

Lemon Peel. Sculpture, 1963 by Sven Lukin.

Half Lemon. Acrylic on canvas, 1969 by Gene Davis.

Lemons. 1972 by Funasaka Yoshisuke.

Lemons, May 16, 1984 by Donald Sultan.

All this imbalance making you feel icky-poo?

Feel like life handed you a couple of lemons? There are options. You can embrace the lemons, or refuse to accept them in the first place.

Lemon Imbalance is available in the Store!

Click here to purchase Lemon Imbalance.

Lemon Imbalance was shown in February 2015 at Ro2 Art in Dallas.

UPDATE: For Real has been reviewed by Jenny Block for The Huffington Post! Read the full review here: "A Hyperrealism That Questions Reality With James Zamora and Sarah Atlee at RO2 Art"

Bright as Bulbs

Peel. Acrylic on unstretched canvas, 24 x 24 inches by Sarah Atlee

It's citrus season, a time when I'm extra-thankful for living in central Texas. Just yesterday I was given what I think is my first orange with its leaves still attached:

Gosh, maybe I should paint a picture of these.

Holding, peeling, and eating a succulent orange is its own special set of pleasures. Following are some other artists' interpretations of orange - both the fruit and the color.

Vincent Van Gogh. Child with Orange, 1890.

Luis Feito. Untitled (Orange, red and purple).

You know that moment when you first dig your thumbnail into an orange and begin to peel back the skin? When the scent of citrus oil fills your nose and the juice starts running? I think Feito has captured that here.

Fernando Botero. Orange, 1977. Update: Check out Fernando Botero's page on Artsy to learn more.

Johannes Itten. Composition in Orange and Blue-Green, 1957.

Itten's composition above interests me both as a painter and as a quilter.

In a 2010 radio essay you can read here, Paul Marion describes the joy of seeing oranges in the winter:

"Bright as light bulbs on the kitchen table, the oranges promise sunshine as late December daylight shrinks in the shortest days of the year."

Avocado and Shades of Firefly

Avocado: Shades of Firefly. Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 inches by Sarah Atlee.

You already know about my love for Persea americana. Here is another tribute to this fascinating fruit.

Shades of what now?

When I say "Firefly," I'm not talking about this.

Not now, Mal. I'm working.

Nor am I referring to one of these lovelies:

Photo by Terry Priest. Click image to view source.

I mean this Firefly.

Firefly, from the first generation of My Little Pony toys. Source unknown.

Sometimes, when I put the right pink and the right blue next to eachother, I get a nostalgic flashback to the mid-eighties. I didn't collect all the My Little Pony dolls, and lord knows what happened to them. But I do remember this one. I think so, anyway - I feel like the one I had was a lighter shade of pink with a darker shade of blue...

Color can be funny that way.

See Avocado: Shades of Firefly in Person

Avocado: Shades of Firefly was shown in February 2015 at Ro2 Art in Dallas.