Sharks Eat Meat: October 2012

Saturday, October 27, 2012

DAY 734 - Anniversary Art Review

The Sharks Eat Meat art blog has posted a work of art every single day for 2 years now. Now that Sharks is two years old we are trying some new things. We have a for sale section with prints of popular pieces, and for the first time ever we have an art review. We thank all of our viewers, supporters and contributing artists for helping us reach our 2 year anniversary.

Prized Illustrations

by John Coulter

Libby Priess is a painter and printmaker who has been contributing to the Sharks Eat Meat blog for almost a year now.

      Libby's "Street Intersection" series includes several geometric abstract pieces. The paintings seem to share the explosive central energy present in both Marsha Cottrell and Wassily Kandinsky's work. The shapes appear in motion similar to Kandinsky's early, dynamic Improvisations and Compositions. Her series is more monochromatic, giving each a sense of completeness compared to Kandinsky's separate characters sitting in a space.

      Libby's portraiture and figure work are stronger than her abstracts. A ghostly green gent shelled in a puffy pink suit commands Libby's portrait "Green Guy." It is interesting to compare Matisse's portrait La Raie Verte (The Green Stripe) to Libby's piece. Libby's muted greens and reds form a strong color harmony, that would make Josef Albers proud. The solid color balance allows viewers the chance to absorb the patterns and expressions clearly. There are more defined and hurried brush marks that shape the Matisse's poetic experiment with color. Libby's work is full of rich color and emotion and it would be nice to see more works like these.

      "Fly nip" is a visually bold design of a female neckline. A large variety of elegant patterns are used. The figure's elongated neck calls to mind both Parmigianino's "Madonna", and Taylor Swift. The detailed line work is similar to Art Nouveau designer Erté. Delicate lines are a strength in most of Libby's work, including "Fantastic Plastic" and "Tattoo Sentimental Side." The line weight shows a great amount of control and variation including soft, tapering lines to form the figure.

          As a socio-political artist, "Fantastic Plastic" speaks to me the most. While all of Libby's work entertains they eye this piece poses questions. Pre-surgery Incision Placement Lines are drawn on the woman's face, yet her expression does not appear "fantastic" as the image's text suggests. This dissonance of image and text ask the viewer to consider their own thoughts on what is going on in this cosmetic surgery scene. The work does not aggressively propagate a message about body modification but allows viewers to contemplate the subject and inject their own thoughts.

         Visit Libby's website at libbypreiss.blogspot.com and look for more of Libby's work on sharkseatmeat.blogspot.com