To start with:

At TextileArtist.org, there's an interview with Yumiko Reynolds about her figurative free-machine embroidery "thread on paper". Really beautiful stuff, and a brief synopsis of her evolution as an artist in paper. HERE


Elizabeth Barton has a post on the importance of focal point in our work, HERE 

Over at Left Bank Art Blog, Carl Belz has a look at Dozier Bell's drawings on mylar - in terms of the pictures, they mylar creates a wonderful photographic effect (it's hard to believe that they're not photographs); the writing itself is also wonderful as an example

 "Bell’s diminutive worlds are exceptional in not actively competing or being social at all. Anchored in nature and observing nature’s rhythms, acknowledging nature as source and solace without reliance on media intervention, her worlds are secure with their autonomy

You can find that review HERE

Sharon Butler at Two Coats of Paint writes an update on a genre that she didn't invent, but did name "Casualism" and further explains why it's a valid form of art. A sample:

The casualist impulse has yielded compositionally awkward work that may seem humble and self-deprecating, and may employ ‘hobbyist’ pre-fab materials like pre-stretched canvases and canvas board. ..... The most compelling casualist work has an anti-heroic, offhand feel and ostensibly shows little attention to craft or detail. Perhaps unsurprisingly, galleries and collectors have been slow to embrace this type of work because it seems too easy...But casualist tendencies suffuse the established art world... Matisse’s casualist leanings were transparent. Picasso’s were more muted, ..."

I quite recommend this article (and the one that preceded it that she links to in her article) - it's very interesting, and educational (!) to read about the birth of a new genre in art.

You can find that essay HERE 

And because you've been saying I've been including  too many links - that's it, today!

Oh, except for this link to me! lol

It's my new online "book". You can find that HERE

Have a great weekend!