Summer Fridays For Art!

Summer Art Fridays: Photographer Eddy Vallante

It’s the end of the summer, and thus our last selection for our Summer Fridays blog. To finish up on an excellent note, we chose the work of 30-year-old Brooklyn photographer Eddy Vallante, whose portraits of musicians make his Tumblr a must-see. This shot, however, is of a puppy, gazing longingly out the window at something just out of reach. It’s how we all feel looking out at the last warm days of August.

Describe the piece you submitted to Summer Fridays.

This is a photo of Elly. I was watching her one afternoon in Crown Heights for friends of mine who had just gotten married. I was tossing a toy around with her when something outside demanded her immediate attention. She just ran over and sat down. I don’t know what it is, but I love when dogs sit and stare like this. It’s hilarious.

Summer Art Friday: Collagist Geoffrey Stein

For our last Summer Fridays feature, we chose the work of Geoffrey Stein, a New York-based artist whose collage — “NYC Sunset” — depicts that feeling of a fading summer day.How does the lawyer-turned-artist describe summers in New York? “Everything bakes,” he says.

Describe the piece you submitted to Summer Fridays.

For me there is an unrelenting heat to the city in summer. Everything bakes. I look up and see the sunset in the treetops, a building in shadow, a watertower. Storm clouds threaten to break the heat. I tried to capture this feeling in the piece. It’s a 10-by-8-inch piece created from acrylic and collage on canvas.

Explain your process.

This summer I have been making a series of small cityscape collages. The collages are based on photos I take or find on the internet. I begin the collages with acrylic on the canvas, and then I sand the acrylic and work back into the canvas with pieces of color cut from magazines and catalogues. I work back and forth between the acrylic and the collage until the color is right.

How did you end up making art?

I am a recovering lawyer who has been painting full-time since 2000. I am primarily a figure and portrait painter.

Summer Art Fridays: Seoul-Based Photographer Shannon Aston

We chose the the work of New Zealand-born but Seoul-based photographer Shannon Aston this week, who submitted this quiet image of an open window in the apartment he shares with his girlfriend.

The contemplative atmosphere is all about the laze of summer, but there’s a stasis to the photograph that speaks to the August doldrums we’re all currently making our way through. Soon the fall will come, with cooler weather and a breath of fresh air.

Describe the piece you submitted to Summer Fridays.

It’s the bedroom window of my small apartment. It was shot during the late afternoon in the middle of a heat wave. Outside of the photo, my girlfriend is below me to the right, lying on the bed, passed out from the heat and a long working week. I knew she was in there snoozing in the sun. When I walked into the room and saw her resting there, the window, the light streaming in, and the warm winds circling the room, I thought, ‘Wow, this is a pure summer moment!’

Summer Art Fridays: Laura Petrovich-Cheney

For this week’s partnership with ArtInfo, we’ve chosen the work of Laura Petrovich-Cheney, an art teacher, sculptor, and photographer whose work is inspired by salvaged materials and quilt designs. The piece above, “Barn Razing,” is inspired by her summers spent on the New Jersey shore — and composed of old barn wood, boat wood and picket fencing.

Describe your process.

I give value to objects that are normally ignored, stepped on, tossed aside, or washed up upon the shore as debris. I use motorized saws to create new relationships between colors and textures. The work investigates how I manage life’s ambiguities.

Summer Art Fridays: Photographer Cheyne Gallarde

With the help of his studio, Firebird Photography, Hawaii-based photographer Cheyne Gallarde creates poppy fashion shoots and elegantly retro photographs that bring to mind decades long past. That all-is-good vibe, plus the boundless sunshine of the photo above, is why we chose him for Summer Fridays this week. 

Describe the piece you submitted to Summer Fridays.

This was a fashion editorial for the vintage boutique CLOTH, which carried unique re-thrifted vintage items. The store itself no longer exists, but the photo (which has appeared in several magazines since then) has become very iconic and synonymous with me.

Summer Art Fridays: Artist James Zdaniewski

For our fifth weekly highlight in our Summer Fridays collaboration with ArtInfo, we chose the work of James Zdaniewski, whose drawing immediately reminded us of what it felt like to spring off a diving board and be suspended momentarily in the air. After checking in with Zdaniewski for the interview below, we found out that it was just that experience that inspired him to create the sketch, which will be turned into a mixed media collage.

Describe the piece you submitted to Summer Fridays.

I submitted the piece titled Six and Seven, a charcoal drawing. This is part of my next series of works inspired by the hype of the supposed Apocalypse coming in December 2012. Based on the idea of the seven seals that bring on the apocalypse, “Six and Seven” shows two children falling freely from the sky. From this drawing I will create a silkscreen to print the work on top of a base layer of acrylic and spray paint, currently in production, to finish the concept.

Summer Art Fridays: Photographer Cynthia Henebry

For our latest highlight from our Summer Art Fridays collaboration with ARTINFO, we chose the work of photographer Cynthia Henebry, a Virginia-based artist whose sensitive, emotional images often explores themes of childhood and growth. Henebry’s photos reflect a deep sense of place and a joy for the things that make summer great: the season’s abundance of light, the presence of family, and the sense of freedom that floats in the air.

Describe the piece you submitted to Summer Fridays.

This is a picture of two girls who I frequently photograph, Eloise and Sophia. They are friends, not sisters, by the way. Our families were at the pool together, and when I saw them hanging out under the tree in that light, I knew the shot that I wanted right away.