Meg Hunt’s vivacious style

Nate Ronniger

We checked in with Arizona-based artist Nate Ronniger and asked him about the process behind his elaborate creations: ‘In many ways, I think of myself as a director. Situating a still life of mine is like putting on a miniature play. There are costumes, characters and props. I want the plot to be intriguing and clear while I aim to present both drama and comedy. I’m very intrigued with the element of paper. While fashioning paper for the pedestals, foregrounds, and backgrounds, I realized that any idea I have involving color, form, texture, and pattern, can be brought to fruition with this material alone. Torn, translucent, cut, or folded, it can take on any manipulation I come up with in any dimension’.

Interview with Joe Sorren

I’ve posted the wonderfully surreal and vibrant work of Arizona-based artist Joe Sorren many times over the past couple of years, so it was time to check in with him in the workspace from which such amazing paintings are produced: Is your studio more about inspiration or functionality? ‘I was thinking about my studio the other day, and realized that I have had a fort since I was eleven. I guess this is my latest incarnation in a long string of forts’. What distractions to you paint to? ‘Audiobooks and silence’. How many artworks do you generally have on the go at any given time? ‘Between four and eight on average’. Where does the first spark for a piece usually emanate from? ‘If you lead with your hands, the mind will follow. That is a piece of advice my Mother-in-Law gave me once. I usually just begin and see what happen’. [photo by Grant Brittian]

In the morning, in the tide

One would think a life out in Arizona would produce imagery of arid deserts and funny little plants that grow under such conditions. But Joe Sorren’s paintings speak of hope, innocence and another world, with the bright sun rising high into the clouds over an endless ocean of dreams. Sorren’s new painting In the Morning, in the Tide, will show at Alix Sloane’s new gallery in New York later this month. [see more of Joe Sorren's art]

Sixth Pommery Exhibition Sons & Lumieres

How much better can it get than little dollops of contemporary art interspersed throughout the breathtaking setting of Champagne Pommery’s Domaine in Reims, France. The most interesting part here is that this is an ongoing tradition at Champagne Pommery, going all the way back to the 19th century ‘when Madame Pommery commissioned sculptor Gustav Navlet to carve four bas reliefs for the estate and later had the famous cabinet maker and glass artist Emile Gallé create a solid oak Pommery barrel that holds up to 19,816 gallons (100,000 bottles). This barrel was displayed at the 1904 Worlds’ Fair in St. Louis’. The upcoming Sixth Pommery Exhibition, Sons & Lumieres, will be curated by French artist Bertrand Lavier and will include ‘everyday objects often set in difficult spaces’. Read more

Ben O’Brien

Color heaven! Perusing UK illustrator Ben O’Brien’s portfolio feels a lot like wandering the aisles of a giant candy store. I could buy one of everything in sight. Read more

Art Decks

I love it! With the CD now being eclipsed by the MP3, I find myself feeling even more nostalgic for the simple charm of the cassette. Australian artists Andrew Smart and Jared Schmidt create ‘large scale hand-made wooden cassette tapes, routed, sanded, bogged, primed, and painted with a high quality paint finish’. Aha! The perfect way to memorialize my old mix tapes. Read more