Scott Brooks, Andy Haynes, and Marie Barr at Autumn’s Delight

Coming in three days is a show in Escondido, California, that features the works of three technically proficient artists all bonded by an unconventional, twisted flair. Here’s what you can expect in Distinction Gallery’s upcoming show.

First, there’s Scott Brooks. His warm-colored works feature warped characters who walk the fine line between human and alien. Brooks plays on this ambiguity and feeds the visual palate of folks who might like slightly bizarre things along the lines of William Burrough’s Naked Lunch. There’s something engaging and interesting about Brooks’ way of throwing the head of a man upon the torso of a chicken in The Last Humpty Dance and his way of putting disgusting items like human organs into a bright menagerie of organs in Renaissance Man (shown below).

Andy Haynes was previously featured in REDEFINE with his slightly surreal character paintings. His newest pieces have headed in a different and similarly exciting direction. In One Hour of Awareness (below), a hodge-podge of items float across the painting, creating a sci-fi environment of weightlessness and a feeling of a hyperreality. This piece and others are set in nearly futuristic states, but others fall back on humanity’s more tribal, natural roots, creating an interesting dichotomy between two polarized periods views on human existence.

The last artist in this mix is Marie Barr, who, compared to Haynes and Brooks, has arguably more grounded works. It’s a quality that makes her works accessible to individuals of all ages. In addition, whereas the other two primarily use oil on canvas, Barr’s works use watercolors, inks, pastels, and other soft, enveloping mediums, including teas. The results are highly stylized character studies imposed on textured backgrounds, as seen in Things Learned Young (below).

Artifakt’s Two Year Anniversary!

It seems like just yesterday that the Seattle urban art non-profit Artifakt was started. Run by dozens of volunteers, Artifakt brings in fresh artists and live music to nearly all of their events and have really made quite a name for themselves in the last two years.

Tomorrow is their celebration at Lo Fi for their two year anniversary. Be there or be square!

Amongst the headlining artists on display is Chris Sheridan, who has some new skateboards on display in the photos below. Which is your favorite?

Laura Breitman’s Textile Art at UC Davis!

A few months ago, we stumbled across the layered textile works of Margot Lovinger and were blown away by the intricacies in her recreation of the human form using fabrics.

Now another artist with a similar technique but much more detailed subject matter has caught our eyes. A new solo show at the Richard L. Nelson Gallery of UC Davis features the mind-blowing works of Laura Breitman, who similarly collages patterns to create art pieces. The main differences? Breitman’s works are full-blown landscapes, lovingly and painstakingly recreated from photos taken by her husband, Michael Needleman. Also, Breitman uses not only sheer fabrics, but a combination of fabrics and papers, which bring added depth and texture. Her works are not as exacting; they combine the randomness of nature with the randomness of hand-crafted works to create pieces that are organic yet much more artistic than simple landscape drawings.

[Left] Looking Up; [Right] Looking Up Detail View

Breitman’s extraordinarily multi-layered and multi-patterned pieces range in size from 10″ x 10″ to 40″ x 40″. The exhibition will run for ten weeks, from September 25th, 2008 to December 7th, 2008.

The artist will also be holding a demonstration of her collaging process, live at the gallery on November 4th at 4:30pm. The demonstration, which is open to all members of the curious public, is guaranteed to be a learning experience.