I want it, I got it

I bought it, the white cosmonaut, titled ‘Redemption’. I almost thought it would be too small (figuring the lost-in-white-space background couldn’t be over-emphasised), but I never buy anything I don’t love. And who can’t love the religio-science combination, such as the Jesus-pose iconography and umbilical oxygen mask.

While I was at it, I also bought ‘Bunny Falls’ by Kozyndan, which I’ve had my eye on for about 18 months, give or take. As with some other related prints of theirs, it’s more or less a bread-winning print (it’s not even numbered, so very non-exclusive), but it’s fucking gorgeous and I’ve always adored it.

Lost in space

I saw this at Popup and wanted it immediately. However it was in store as it is advertised in the image (that is, the ‘sold out’ line is a superimposition, not part of the work).

But then there is this next image, on the Popup website… no ‘sold out’ text anywhere. Do I like it as much? At first, I thought ‘no’. I liked the red of the other one (especially the version without doves) – it was womb-like, visceral. It reminded me a of a Francis Bacon I saw in Venice (mainly for the red background, which had an uncanny psychological impact).

But I like the white version more and more. For different reasons (I must give up the old reasons, and when I do… I am brought somewhere very different, despite the same central figure. Ideally I’d like the red and white together, to be honest. Like life and death?). I think I might buy it. I have an impulse, and it is growing.

Gizzit!

I’ve been coveting this at Popup. Somebody put me out of my desire by fulfilling it, please.

Effing glorious

Filling Little Thoughts With Little Ears

Joe Sorren is disgustingly good. I’ve not seen much work of his that hasn’t caused me to salivate.

I already own two cloth-bound hardbacks of his work: the collection In Celebration of Balance and Opposable Thumbs, and one documenting his exhibition When She Was Camera.

The latter book provided me with my first Sorren print, which accompanied it, noted as a ‘finger painting’ -  its texture is a bit like one, but the figure of the portrait also has a small finger coming out the top of its head.

I’m distracted…

Today I bought the above. It’s as the title to this post says. Discovered at the treasure trove that is Popup, it is one of 45 signed prints worldwide. As soon as I opened the display draw half an inch I knew who the work was by, and the more that came into view the more excited I became.

The arhythmic heart patterns that followed had me so concerned I had to buy it to resolve a dangerous health issue.

It’s a reasonably large print, and is brilliant above the bed, in pride of place. The theme, as the title suggests, is rather circular. Probably hard to pick out at this scale, the amorphous figures, adorning and even cocooning out of the tree, are both conveying words from the main figure and whispering back to him in a loop. There are other parallels and resonances in the detail.

There is too much that I like about Sorren, but one of the key points, brought out in a work like this, is the way he plays with layers and texture.

His website / blog has a great demonstration of a painting in progress.