Living in Color

Gentle Giant

Looking at the artwork of Minneapolis-based artist and animal lover Jennifer Davis

I am struck by her brilliant color harmonies and by the delicate strangeness 

of her menagerie. Her paintings to me are like windows onto ethereal worlds 

and stories that I don't fully understand but would love to inhabit.

Poodles

When I wrote to Jennifer about being featured on Animalarium, 

she was very sweet and linked me to some interesting interviews 

on Paper Darts magazine, Minneapolis citypages and MPLSART in 

which she talks about her life, passions, work process and projects.

I am not going to add any more words, but I'll let this gallery 

of some of my favorite artworks 

do the talking. 

Rooster

Yapper

Reverence

Flock

Unhinged

Revelation

Float

Fancy Turkey

Sleepy

Lucky

Sweaters

You can follow Jennifer through her flickr stream, website and blog

and buy her original paintings and limited edition prints on etsy.

Sunday Safari - Spring Siesta

Geninne, The Siesta

Aprile, dolce dormire!

 Sophie Blackall, Sleepy, thanks to Dominique at La vie est belle...

 Louis the fish by Arthur Yorinks and Richard Egielski, 

and Morris' disappearing bag by Rosemary Wells,

both thanks to Vintage Kids Books my Kid Loves

  Sergio Ruzzier

David Weidman, Happy dog

 Junzo Terada

Sarah Fox-Davies, The Tabitha stories, thanks to sue-tarr on Flickr

 Kitty Crowther, Alors? thanks to Elide Gramegna at In un guscio di noce

 Anthony Browne 

 Michael Wertz, A Dazzling DIsplay of Dogs

 Celia Hart, Sleeping hare

Manon Gauthier

Try a Little Tenderness

 I have recently fallen in love with Kyoko Okubo's small sculptures, 

delicately handcrafted from traditional japanese washi paper.

Okubo is a self taught artist who began playing with washi as a child, 

and in her mid-30s began making dolls for herself. After sharing 

her works with family and friends, she first exhibited them on a 

sidewalk Tokyo’s Harajuku district. Since these humble beginnings, 

she has gone on to show internationally and is currently represented 

by Mobilia Gallery in Cambridge Massachusets.

Okubo's miniature scenes realistically portray intimate moments from her poetic 

dream world, a soft universe inhabited by gentle and enigmatic wild animals

mysteriously bonding and interacting with lovely girls and young children. 

"Washi, meaning “Japanese paper”, is a crisp, sturdy material created from fibers 

from the bark of the gampi tree, the mitsumata shrub or the paper mulberry. 

While today the material is often mass-produced, it is still handmade 

in rural communities throughout the country."

From an article about Okubo at American Craft Magazine.

You can also read a nice post on her work at Art Found Out.

Stay tuned for more January in Japan findings!

Sunday Safari - Planet of the Apes

Today is my youngest daughter's 18th birthday, and along with many other privileges, 

she got to choose the weekly Safari theme. This picture gallery is dedicated

to the very bright and independent Julia, born on the Fourth of July 

John Reddinger, Sleeping ape

Leia Bell, Orangutans mother and child

Miquel Barceló

Celestino Piatti, thanks to One1more2time3

Charley Harper, from Giant Golden Book of Biology

thanks to Grain Edit

Lucho Rodriguez, from Qué monos!

James Mollison, Talita, from the fantastic

James and Other Apes

Bombo, La scimmia

Eric Carle, 1997

Sebastiano Ranchetti, Gorilla

Claude Lalanne, Gorille de sûreté II, 1970

Iwona Chmielewska from Thinking ABC

Graham Carter, Kong

John Kuzich/Ed Bedno Illustration from Graphis Annual 67/68,

thanks to pinkjetpack aka the fabulous sandiv999

Francesco Bongiorni, Risky provocation