A 9 Foot Tall Tower of 50,000 Wishbones and 20 Other Examples of Wishbone Art For Thanksgiving.

Last year I treated my readers to a selection of Wishbone inspired art on Turkey Day. This year I have a new round-up of contemporary art, furniture and other Wishbone items I'd like to share with you in honor of Thanksgiving.

"Cathedral de St. Icarus, the Wishful" by artist Berenice Rarig



While collecting wishbones artist Berenice Rarig realized that there is a relationship between the seemingly individual rituals of wishing and the more traditionally religious rituals of prayer.




This inspired Berenice to create some various pieces of 'wishbone' art. Most impressive is her Cathedral de St. Icarus the Wishful, made with over 50,000 wishbones, wire frame, lights and stands approximately 9 feet high:




(Collection of the artist - touring installation).

Offspring of Icarus by Berenice Rarig (broken wishbones and beeswax):

See more from her 'Offspring of Icarus' here

Both The Cathedral de St. Icarus and Offspring of Icarus are parts of Rarig's Soul Cages collection.

Truong Tran's Wishbone Art
Three Wishes, 2008, enamel on wishbones:



Tran's Wishbone Installation:




Truong Tran: Before the Wish, A short (6 and a half minute) documentary about the process of visual artist Truong Tran collecting one thousand wishbones by hand for his installation, Wish (2012), first displayed at SOMArts Gallery in San Francisco:

Credits: Directed/Shot/Edited by Daniel Lichtenberg, Post at Photon Creative


Lorna Simpson: III (Three Wishbones in a Wood Box)



Lorna Simpson is best known for her photography, which often combines images of black women with text as a way to explore society's relationship with race, sex, and ethnicity. Frequently elusive, her works involve the viewer in the creation of their meaning while also confronting the viewer with the underlying racism still found in American culture. Over time, Simpson's work has grown to include sculpture as a way to enrich her explorations of the relationship between words and image. With this piece, Simpson continued with that focus, and centered on the wishbone, a key of her artistic imagery. Drawing on the metaphorical meanings of the project's materials, Simpson used III as both an examination of and meditation on wishing. The set includes a wooden box filled with three contrasting wishbones, or "wishes," made from bronze, ceramic, and rubber. The bronze and rubber wishbones are unbreakably rigid. The ceramic wishbone was designed to be fragile, which was the artist's intention.


Available for purchase here at MoMA
or here at Artware Editions

"Point", "Weave" and "Float", 3 pieces from artist Dana Weir's Wishbone series. Encaustic collage with map and real bone, 2010, 6" x 6" each:




Yoga Saraswati's Little Wishes, wish bones, red thread, pastel on black paper, 19 x 27 cm:


Nina C Marrero, Handmade studies in pencil, charcoal, and ink, with a final graphic translation of a wishbone:


Ethan Patrick Harris, The Endless Throb:


Barbie KJAR, Wishbone 2005, drypoint etching, 180 x 180cm:


Joey Monsoon's Wishbone Mechanic:


Mark Beam's WISH BONE, painted mixed media sculpture, signed and dated on verso, 30” tall:


Alie Ward, Wishbone print:


Wishbones For The Home (furniture, decor and housewares):

StackLab's Wood tables with their signature 'Wishbone' legs

StackLab's Wishbone Walnut table (private commission). Solid, machined bronze stitches replace traditional bowtie joints to stabilize the natural crack in the wood. The legs are Stacklab’s signature cast bronze Wishbone design in a polished finish:



The Rubaiyat Table is a 10’ x 36” x 3” historic redwood burl paired with Stacklab’s sand-cast aluminum ‘Wishbone’ legs:


The Troost Desk is a 10’ x 38” x 3” historic redwood burl paired with Stacklab’s sand-cast aluminum ‘Wishbone’ legs.

Modern Toronto has an interesting article and interview with Jeff Forrest of StackLab about their wishbone tables here

Brass Wishbone by jewelry designer Herbert Hoover in fun packaging.


Decorative Grand Wishbones by Lunares


Lucky Break Wishbone Wall Hooks and Jewelry Holder by IMM Living



Other wishbone item links:
•Wishbone art to buy via Fine Art America
•There are almost 5,000 Wishbone items (jewelry,housewares and art) available here on etsy
 •Don't forget to see last year's 18 pieces of art inspired by the wishbone here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Pop Surrealism Of Emmy Lincoln (AKA ItchySoul).

above: In 'The deeply misunderstood friendly Shiphugger', ItchySoul has added a giant octopus and water details atop a found vintage oil painting of a classic clipper ship.

Sweden-born artist Emmy Lincoln, who goes by the artist moniker ItchySoul, creates imaginative lowbrow artwork by up-cycling flea market finds such as old oil paintings, antique photos and old book covers as well as creating her own original acrylic works.


above left: acrylic body art painting upon a 1922 book cover (Snovit) and acrylic demons painted atop a vintage 1917 Budapest photo of a one year old Hungarian boy (Ferike).

Inspired by sci-fi, fairytales, animé, toys and all things kitsch, this is her way of paying tribute to the unknown or forgotten artist. She sees her paintings as "stories yet to be told."

Here are more of her wonderful pieces.

The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, he said (acrylics atop a vintage landscape painting):

Mermaid and Alligator (original acrylic painting in vintage frame):

Neon Menace (painting and wax seal atop an IKEA printed canvas):

Piggy's Big Day Out (acrylics atop an antique landscape oil painting):

When I Was A Young Fawn (acrylics atop a vintage oil painting):

detail:

The Good Girl (spirits in acrylics painted on 1915 Hungarian photograph):

Forest Mushroom Dwellers (acrylics on plywood) and Visiting (acrylics on canvas):

Friends (Acrylic triptych on canvas):


About the artist:


Born in 1980, Emmy grew up as a middle child in the tiny village Dösjebro. She was constantly drawing on things and her friends and family always encouraged her to. Both her grandmother Berit who was a map drawer and painter, and her mom Yvonne who is a ceramic artist, were great inspirations for her growing up.

After finishing high school in 1999 Emmy traveled for a few years and had stray jobs in hospitality in London, Tokyo and Sydney. She ended up studying graphic design at the Enmore Design Center, Sydney. Then followed internships at design studio Campbell Barnett and ad agency Arnold Australia.

Since returning to Sweden in 2005 Emmy is working as a Visual Designer in the mobile phone industry and is currently freelancing under company name ItchySoul AB.

Emmy lives in Malmö with her boyfriend Mattias where they share a cozy music- and art studio. Her debut art exhibition was at the No White Walls 43 gallery in Malmö in May 2013, where her quirky mash-up paintings were very appreciated by the audience.

all images courtesy and copyright of the artist

See more of her fun work here.

Artist Rohitash Rao's Trash Is Most Definitely A Treasure.

If Ralph Steadman, Robert Crumb and Jean-Michel Basquiat ever combined their artistic talents, the result may look something like the whimsical, but edgy illustrative art by California artist Rohitash Rao, known as Ro to his friends.


above: artist Rohitash Rao

Ro is loaded with talent. So much so it was hard to decide what of his I ought to feature on this blog. An art director, film director, animator, illustrator and all around great guy (I speak from personal experience) he has three illustrated children's books to his credit (The fabulous Herbert's Wormhole series ), multiple music videos ( "Speeding to My Death" Official Video by Still Pacific and A Great Big World - "Everyone Is Gay" are must-sees), advertisements for well known brands, his fine art and more. His fabulous 'TRASHart' is what I've chosen to share with you today.




Combining multiple aspects of popular culture - such as the consumption of fast-food, excessive waste, movies, books and cartoon imagery along with graphic design and illustration, Rohitash's work exemplifies the old adage "One man's trash is another man's treasure."  Stomped upon paper cups, crushed cigarette packs, soiled fast food containers, flattened spray paint cans and other garbage serve as the canvases for Ro's illustrated and painted figures, creatures, silhouettes and occasional commentary.






















Since I have the pleasure of knowing Ro personally through both our Alma Mater, Pasadena's Art Center College of Design, and the world of advertising, he graciously offered to answer a few questions about these works for me:

IIHIH: WHEN DID YOU START CREATING THESE?
Ro: Technically I've been painting on stuff I find in the streets since I was kid - mainly because they were free canvases. But I started up again about 6 months when I moved to Venice and discovered all this great trash in the alley behind my studio. The first thing I painted on were these abandoned lottery tickets I found by a dumpster. I painted faces of the people that I imagined angrily chucked them on the ground after obviously not winning. I showed the paintings to a few friends and the response was so positive I did more.

Now i collect trash wherever I go. I was recently in Germany and Malta and I grabbed a few things off the streets while I was there. I am also getting commissions, most recently from Brazil. People are starting to mail me trash from all over the world. I'd love to do series about the geography of trash and collaborate with a litter organization or even someone like Surfrider down the road.

IIHIH: WHAT MEDIA DO YOU USE?
Ro: Everything is a mix of gouache, acrylic and spray paint. It's usually whatever material will work on the different textures. Some fast good cups are plastic coated so water based paints don't adhere to it. It's amazing how much I suddenly know what trash is conducive to what paint product!!!

IIHIH: WHAT OTHER ARTISTS INSPIRE YOU?
Ro: I like gritty, surreal stuff. So I guess the main ones would be Basquiat, R. Crumb, David Shrigley and Francis Bacon.

Let's hope that as long as people continue to make trash, Rohistash Rao continues to turn it into art.

Visit Rohitash Rao's tumblr site to see more.


Buy any of the Herbert's Wormhole Books illustrated by Rohitash Rao here

all images © and courtesy of the artist