BEAUTY: Art--Susan Siegel

New York artist Susan Siegel knows how to get to my heart. Long time readers of "Oh, By The Way" will have deduced by now that I am a sucker for animals behaving and dressing as humans. I love fables, ALICE IN WONDERLAND, and anything that shows an anthropomorphized view of creatures great and small. Siegel paints bucolic scenes of barnyard or farm animals, but in 18th century French country or court dress, à la Fragonard (she even has a cow on a swing!). In the 80s, there was a fantastic store in San Francisco called La Ville du Soleil which sold French housewares and objets, and every nook and corner of the store had life size mannequins with farm animal heads, all dressed like characters from a Mozart opera, just like a Siegel painting!

Her work reminds me of another artist I love, Sarah Higdon, previously here. Higdon's work is fairly clean, but I also love Siegel's very painterly, softly romantic, nearly Impressionistic style.

Top to bottom: Cow Swing; Family of Three; In Pink; Solitary Goat (Blue); untitled

More delightful images at her website:
http://susanlsiegel.com/

Animal Furniture

Spanish artist Maximo Reira has crafted a series of zoomorphic luxury chairs. The octopus is especially wild...I can see using it in a very minimal interior where the focus would be on the form.

http://www.maximoriera.com/html/

Attention: A Bunny Loves A Kitty

That is all.
Thank you for your attention.

BEAUTY: Art--Francis Livingston

What if New Yorkers in the 1940s and 1950s had to share their city with whales, sea turtles, and elephants as if they were birds or stray dogs and cats? Francis Livingston imagines what that could have looked like in his lovely romanticized surreal paintings...

Top to bottom: Light Stream; Mating Season; Penn Station; Portal; Rush Hour

http://francis-livingston.deviantart.com/

BEAUTY: Art--Martin Wittfooth

The animals in Martin Wittfooth's landscapes seem to exist in a post-apocalyptic world where human civilization has either destroyed itself or crumbled. His extremely powerful pieces are comments on our current trajectory...

Top to bottom: Capitoline; Escahton; Fall/Advent; Harvest; Nocturne; Occupy; The Baptism; The Coronation; The Heirs; The Spoils

http://martinwittfooth.com/

BEAUTY: Illustration--Terry Fan

In Canadian artist Terry Fan's delightful series "Everyone Gets Cold," the animals in the forest sport festive plaid scarves. Even a snowman needs a little relief from the chill!

http://www.krop.com/terryfan/

The Animals Don't Mind The Snow

A Monkey Rides A Deer

Why not?

BEAUTY: Photography--Tim Flach

Tim Flach's series "More Than Human" features breathtakingly beautiful portraits of primates. These magnificent apes, chimps, and orangutans are so powerful, innocent, and beautifully authentic. How can anyone be upset at the idea of being biologically related to such sublime creatures of the natural world?

http://www.timflach.com/