Shelley Evans travels all around the globe collecting textiles and making them into unique sculptures called spirit keepers. She wanted to make them look like old relics and they were about as big as my arm (maybe a little bigger). They each gave a different feel according to their colors and structure, the picture shown above is called "capture the spirit" in which the cage on its head is where it keeps spirits.
Shelley was born and raised in Southern California and as a child she spent most of her time making art out of shells and sand from the beaches. When she grew up she decided to travel with friends and was amazed at the world in which she lived in and its different cultures, food etc. The spirit keepers depict her travels.
From rags to riches to back to rags this is the story of Madam Seraphine! She began as a sweet, odd old housemade who would only paint in her spare time when she wasn't working her butt off when a German art collector discovered what she was capable of. He began to push her to make more and eventually it paid off because she made some of the first abstract arts and with beautiful floral arrangements. Unfortunately over time as her paintings grew bigger, more abstract, and exceedingly beautiful... she also went very mad! She began to be more critical of herself and cared too much for the opinions of others (and she had a nasty habbit of spending money like there was no tomorrow). She was sent to an insane asylum and passed away there. Her beautiful art should not be forgotten though. She is probably the first female artist to create works of her kind.
John Baldessari began as a painter, but in 1970 he burned all of the paintings that were in his possesion that he created between 1953 and 1966 and begin a new way of creating art with mixed media. He felt that his paintings were boring and thought that he needed to find a way to make his pieces more understandable by using photographs and words. He was very successful at using mixed media and also as a teacher. His course at CalArts was called "post-studio art" in which he believed that "there is certain kind of work one could do that didn't require a studio. It's work that is done in one's head." Baldessari would often lay out a map of Los Angeles and have one of his students throw a dart at it and wherever it landed was the location of where they would have their trips. They would take with them video cameras and still cameras and just hangout for the day to come back and use what they got on their cameras for their work. His teaching methods served to be successful for his students, but also for himself. It was during his teaching career that he became a very successful artist.
(1924-2007)
