my love for you.

Summer City.

Will Bryant and Rand Renfrow are Summer City. They've just released this print, which makes me really want a coke right now. You? Coke or Pepsi? Anyway, there are only 15 of these puppies: 4 color silkscreen print on Mr. French Pop Tone Whip Cream (18" x 24") and it's a fine art edition of 15. Sweet. Get 'em while they're hot.

A Few from Betsy Walton.

Connecting Threads.

Never, ever get sick of Betsy Walton's detailed work. Loving these pieces still and forever.

Connecting Threads (detail).

Plant Lovers.

Plant Lovers (detail).

New Work: Ehren Reed.

Collection (detail).

Thanks to the less than stellar weather here in the bay, Ehren Reed has utilized Fogaust (to rest of the world it's referred to as August) and been hard at work. Here she shares with us her latest collection for her solo show Sink & Swell.

collection.

Slippage.

Consolidation.

Consolidation (detail).

Document.

Anna Von Mertens.

Battista Sforza and Federico da Montefeltro’s auras, after Piero della Francesca, (above) 18” x 13” each, hand-dyed, hand-stitched cotton.

I really dig Anna Von Mertens 'Aura Portraits' I recently came across. Her combination of new age and old school craft combined with traditional hand dying knock my socks off. Beyond that though I love that Anna does not for a minute take herself too seriously, but yet is very quite candid her process:

"While I admit to an element of the ridiculous--painting auras of dead people--these works are sincere portraits. As I researched how to read the prescribed distinctions of the tones and placement of colors in an aura photograph, I found myself getting seduced by belief. I found that in building a narrative of the subject's life through color, an emotional presence surfaced. Allowing myself to believe seemed part of the process."

I respect that in such a big way. Plus her work is just simply gorgeous to take in. Anna's Aura Portraits will be on show at Elizabeth Leach Gallery in Portland, OR Jan 6-28, 2011 as well as at her ProjectRoom show in Lincoln, NE Oct 1-30, 2010.

To read more about Anna's work and see the paintings she has reinterpreted please check out an interview with Anna in At Length.

Kurt Cobain’s aura (Zoe’s), after Elizabeth Peyton, 13 ¾” x 11”, (below) hand-dyed, hand-stitched cotton.

Mary Cassatt’s aura, after Degas, 32 ½” x 24”, (below) hand-dyed, hand-stitched cotton.

Bacchus’s aura, after Caravaggio, 39 ¾” x 33”, (below) hand-dyed, hand-stitched cotton.

New Work: Melinda Josie.

Melinda Josie has new paintings for an upcoming group show she'll be in on September 9th. Here she shares with us two of the paintings she's ready to unveil.

Read more about her process behind the inspiration of these works and more on the group show, The Dazzle on her blog. It's quite interesting and a bit squeamish inducing to read Melinda's thoughts on her latest work.

Detail of Field Mouse.