Karl Reeves

I met Karl Reeves by chance. The story involves a lost flash drive and some appreciated detective work. We eventually met in person at a basement show which ironically included Kyle Hoards work, an artist previously featured on this blog. Through a series of random events, I gained an occasional coffee companion to discuss and share creative ideas.

Karl opened Art Is For Lovers Gallery located at 2228 N. Martin Luther King Dr. in Milwaukee with local painter Gabby Tesfaye.

The following photographs were taken with a 35 mm.

Shannon Lee

FINALLY! Shannon's work. I think the jaw dropping likeness speaks for itself. Yes folks, these are indeed oil paintings and not photographs. Shannon paints up close and personal larger than life sized works of her loved ones. Chuck Close should be scared of this girl.

 It was a pleasure to watch Shannon's process in studio last semester at UWM. She is now a UWM graduate with a BFA. Good luck, Shannon!

Detail of Stan

Sean Bodley

Sean is an outstanding painter who practices illustration, surrealistic figure painting, and plein air landscapes. I chose a few of my favorite paintings from Sean's site to share. Since graduating with a BFA from UWM, he has moved to Pennsylvania.

Forrest Hutchens

Forrest surprised me with his amazing scenery photographs. He really has an eye for composition and catching the aesthetics of nature. The reason Forrest surprised me with his talent is because he actually went to school for computer programming at MATC! 

I snagged the Milwaukee photos from his FB album appropriately titled Who said Milwaukee wasn't beautiful?

Nancy McManus-Subel

Nancy was a TA for my Professional Practices class last semester. It wasn't until some swapping of business cards that I found out that she was a painter. Nancy is a graduate painting student at UW-Milwaukee's Peck School of the Arts. I literally know nothing about her concepts because I've only seen the pictures but I hope to visit her studio soon and learn more about them!

Check out it out! Seriously amazing stuff.

Kyle Hoard

I met Kyle while  taking a figure drawing class at UW-Milwaukee. He has a distinctive illustrative quality that I can't deny as anything less than amazing talent. He ended up transferring to MIAD, where he is finishing up his degree in Illustration.

I wish I had better photos of his completed works, but these sketchbook snap shots are just as entertaining. You can find Kyle's work hanging on the walls of Brewed Cafe on Brady Street on the east side of Milwaukee.

 

Jonathan Ellis

Jonathan Ellis is a painter from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He attended Chicago Institute of Art from 97-99. The first series are enamel paintings on manipulated wood. The last two images are acrylic paintings.

Unlike other featured artists on this blog, I met Jonathan on the streets of Milwaukee and not in academic settings. He was displaying his work for Locust Street festival and caught my interest with his delightfully mesmerizing works! We've been in contact ever since.

Chip Humbertson

Series of oil paintings "The Power of Contortion" by Chicago artist Chip Humbertson. Truly beautiful works.

Alex Smith

The work of Milwaukee based photographer Alex Smith. Alex works in digital and manual.

Nikki Koslow

  Large scale oil paintings by Nikki Koslow. It's all about the vibe, baby.

 

Lauren Bell

Stunning oil and collage paintings by UWM graduate Lauren Bell.

Logan Stefonek

Logan is a painter who I enjoyed spending studio time with at UW-Milwaukee. He is an astounding writer and inventive painter. Below are a few pieces from the Hard Science series. This work explores the juxtaposition of nature and human fabrications using collage and mixed media on wood or canvas. Since this series he's moved onto precision.

The Future of Space Flight

2013

oil and graphite on wood

18" x 18"

Cold Fusion Energy

2013

oil and graphite on wood

18" x 18"

Erick Ledesma

Erick was probably a kid who played with his food before eating it. He certainly played with his paint before painting with it.

 Erick's work pushes definitions of 2-Dimensional and 3-Dimensional artwork. These are truly a treat to hold and play with!

Fred Stonehouse: Artist, Comedian, Storyteller

As part of the Artist Now! Lecture series, Milwaukee native Ben Stonehouse came to speak about his paintings. However, Ben did little talking about his paintings in specific to materials, content, or process (though I'm sure if someone had asked him he would have talked about those things).

Unpopular Bitch 2009 acrylic on found paper 9” x 6”

Kohler's bathroom and art and artsy bathrooms

Everyone in Wisconsin and else where has heard all the rage of Kohler bathroom products. I've noticed that Kohler has quite the creative advertising. Probably the most creative advertising they have is at the John Michael Kohler Art Museum in which I had the pleasure of visiting yesterday with the painting organization at UW-Milwaukee.

My favorite artist featured this time around was renounced artist Ray Yoshida. Not so renounced that I knew who he was prior to seeing his work yesterday, but then again I don't know every artist ever. Though that is an impossible goal I keep in mind...

BO(X7)M

http://www.booooooom.com/

Love

Love

Love

this site.

Let's look at some art that is hard to hate.

Seriously. I have written down at least 100 names of artists I randomly found on this blog. Boooooooom features contemporary artists of all types of medium. Photography, video, painting, and drawing are prominent on this site. The first time I browsed through the posts I ended up on page 124 and lost 3 hours of time in what seemed like 10 minutes. I'll never get that lost time back, but I sure did see some cool art (dork snort).

Resources for art students

MARN 
http://www.artsinmilwaukee.org/

I personally have not used MARN. However, the co creator of this organization came to a professional practices class and spoke about making a profile on their website. Since MARN had a speaker at a University level course I trust that MARN is good to go. It costs around $30 to make a full portfolio on MARN. 

Art Milwaukee Odyssey 
http://www.artmilwaukee.com/gallery.html

Christopher Roze handles the curating for Milwaukee Odyssey and is excellent to communicate with. I highly suggest contacting these guys and getting your work up on their site. It is free and beneficial to you for selling or simply showing your work around the city.

RAW Artists 
http://www.rawartists.org/

Raw Artists would not be my first recommendation. I've shown with them and it seems like a triangle scheme. If you are ever asked for money to show your work DON'T DO IT! Seriously...don't  

Milwaukee Artbeat
http://milwaukeeartbeat.org/

Artbeat is great, they host many fun art events. I have seen them actively around during gallery night/day dates and are always sending me invites for interesting shows. 

Ben Jones

"C.W.F.F. (M.O.M. Berlin)" Mail Order Monsters traveling exhibition 2007, Acrylic on Paper 24'x36'

 I found Ben Jone's work in a small book tucked away in the arts section of the Meir Library, or as I call it, the "N" section.