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MY DEAR FRIEND LIZ SENT ME A LINK TO A BLOG OUT OF BARCELONA, SPAIN. She often sends me tidbits of intriguing things - just to share. This time, it was just a link—no message, nothing but the link. I mean, if it comes from Liz, I was intrigued. I went to it and was delighted in what I found.
These simple bird constructions, from found leaves, were my favorite from many interesting posts. I don’t know. Maybe they fall into the “cute” category of which I am not a fan. But my instinct says these are something far deeper than that. To me, these birds (created from leaves) are great transformative metaphors built with deceptively simple touches by the human hand.... much like the masterwork of Saul Steinberg (1914 - 1999). In these examples, by artist Javier Jaén Benavides, the only added feature was the cut out human eyes from magazines.
Absolutely Steinbergian!
Not cute, clever maybe, but I think they fall more into the Outsider genre, the use of the veins as expression lines and the raw deckle of the paper is enlightened.
ReplyDeletegood link - thank you!
ReplyDeleteparergon
Hi Maureen: All true- but the artist's keen sense of design and high level of visual sophistication says to me this is an example of design/illustration— using "appropriation" of found materials in a fresh way. One thing for sure: when the day comes that I see these "leaf birds" popping up at craft fairs— is when I'm out. Something like this is good the FIRST time only. After that—it's CUTE and I run.
ReplyDeleteHi, I just want to thank your support with the post.
ReplyDeleteGracias!
Javier Jaén
Splendidly weird!
ReplyDeleteJavier— I think your work and thinking is brilliant. It was difficult selecting a piece to write about since so much of your work is so exceptional!
ReplyDeleteDon't worry. These don't fall into that "cute" category.
ReplyDelete