Articles by Tag

Paula Scher, painted maps

Painted maps - Paula Scher
Africa, 2003, Acrylic on canvas, 120” x 104.5”

Chances are you’ve already seen Paula Scher’s work outside of a gallery. A principal at Pentagram, she’s built identity systems for Citibank, The New York Public Theater, and the American Museum of Natural History. She began her career designing album covers for CBS Recordings in the 1970s.

She showed a series of paintings at the Maya Stendhal Gallery in NYC earlier this year consisting of 12 large canvases, some spanning 5’ to 12’. She uses color in a bold fashion to communicate her opinions about a particular region. She does this quite elegantly, as a seasoned graphic designer could only pull it off. Despite having a lot of text all over the paintings, there’s an understated simplicity which is pleasing and fun to interact with. I also can’t help but to feel some sort of primal obsessive-compulsive angle to these works—like aboriginal art, for example.

Emu Dreaming - Tim Leura
Emu Dreaming, 1975, Acrylic on masonite, 12” x 20”

I really love these painted maps. I’m sure in person these behemoths are even more impressive, what a pity I missed this exhibit!

Read more about her here:

date Thu, 07 Sep 2006 Bookmark comment Comments
tags Tags: , ,

Paintings…by foot or mouth

See more here.

date Tue, 18 Oct 2005 Bookmark comment Comments
tags Tags: ,

Martha Rich…Out with pantyhose, in with art!

Nina Simone | mixed media on wood | private collection
Art: Martha Rich

So, I’ve quite enjoyed my serendipitous morning/afternoon of playing some Nina Simone and cleaning my desk. I decided to read up on her, searched for some photographs of her, etc. I was pleasantly surprised to come across one painting in particular by Martha Rich, shown above. So, I checked out some of her other work and it put an even bigger smile on my face. Her work is fantastic! You’ve probably seen her murals in Beck’s Girl video as well as her illustrations and paintings all over the place.

Here’s a snippet taken from her site:

Blu Q | ink on paper | Design Ranch “Originally from Philadelphia, Martha Rich lived the typical, suburban life – until she followed her husband to Los Angeles where, just short of a picket fence and 2.5 children her average American life unraveled. To cope with divorce, fate lead her to an illustration class taught by the Clayton Brothers. They persuaded her to ditch the pantyhose world, quit her human resources job at Universal Studios and join the world of art. She graduated with honors from Art Center College of Design and is currantly based in Pasadena obsessively painting undergarments, wigs, lobsters, and Loretta Lynn.”

date Sat, 01 Oct 2005 Bookmark comment Comments
tags Tags: ,