signe's holiday wish list!

Genna and I are not exchanging gifts this year since we're buying each other a house (although I secretly ordered myself a gift of new china today...shhh!). We're also scaling back on gift giving with family.

We've always been crazy Christmas gift givers with a full-on orgy of presents on Christmas Eve and Santa bringing gifts for ALL, young and old, on Christmas morning. This year we've gone to 'kids only' and I unfortunately don't qualify at 36 (our 20 year old Nastiya made it just under the wire, lucky girl).

So, my December spending bonanza has been brutally curtailed and I'm suffering from a little shopping withdrawal. Looking for relief from the retail d.t.'s today I decided I'd do some online searching of my favorite artists and share with you what I would be asking for if I was asking.

ENJOY!


This is the 'birthday suit candy dish' by one of my new art idols Jenny Mendes. I found Jenny at the Kentuck festival in Tuscaloosa and bought her quirky, sweet, subversive little bowls for all of my studio co-op partners. She has scads of new pieces in her etsy store that have all my chakras spinning.



"Wallflower" (24" square) is my most recent fave by Kathrine Allen-Coleman. I love every piece from this series, but this one also hearkens back to my 70's childhood wardrobe. One of you should snap this up to save me from myself...if I run across it in person at one more festival I'm going to have to bring it home. Kathrine wrote about this particular piece on her blog.



"Midnight Gathering" by Kent Ambler. I have a thing about black birds, bare branches, and smoky teal, so this is ticking all the boxes.



"Bottles" from Greg Turco's 'Ruins' series. I have 3 or 4 of Greg's beautiful photos that I've never had room to hang. Maybe they'll finally make it out of storage in our new place.



Mmmmmmm. My friend Scott Coleman posts a beautifully rendered little cupcake painting every day. This one is from back in October but there are also lots of great holiday ones to choose from.



"Knack" in Greenville specializes in re-contextualized furniture and 'found goodness', but they had me at 'moose head made out of old newspapers'. I discovered Knack through my new friend Theresa at Art & Light gallery in Greenville. Theresa is an excellent gallerist and curator who always has a fantastic collection of artists and mid century mod furniture on display.

OK, my eyes are tired now. Maybe more wish list later. Anyone else want to share their holiday handmade gift dreams?

Last. Mini. Ever.

I spent this weekend with my last ever batch of minis...a set of eight little couples, each six inches square and framed in black. Why no more minis? They're a pain in my ass. Each one takes easily as much time and effort as a piece nine times it's size, plus I have to hold my breath with each stroke to keep the brush steady enough for such tiny strokes.

All that said, these are some charming little buggers! Regularly priced at $150, these are $120 each through February with our 20% moving sale discount. Shipping is free as always. See the whole series plus a dozen new small pieces at www.grushovenko.com.

"Moving Sale" works are going fast with nearly a dozen pieces sold since we started it yesterday so check it out quick!

on the move!

Genna and I are just back from Gerton, NC where we spent a lovely week on the side of Bearwallow Mountain with my folks for Thanksgiving. On our way there, we stopped in Greenville, SC and BOUGHT A HOUSE! Here we are in front of our new place:



We're closing in mid-January and beginning our move in early February. We are both excited ane terrified. For those of you who don't know us well, Genna and I have been partners in a co-operative gallery and studio facility in downtown LaGrange GA for more than 12 years. Our artist partners have become like our second family and we've all grown together in our lives and careers. Upon our move to Greenville, we'll be working from home. Anyone out there who works from home and has advice for me on how to make this transition, my ears are open.

We'll be making an effort to whittle down our personal art collection through adopting out some of our babies and our art inventory by way of a big moving sale, so stay tuned!

an oldy...hopefully goody

I think I've mentioned before that sometimes as my 'artist skillset' evolves, I don't only gain things but often lose things, too. I look back at drawings from my highschool days and long for the laser focus I could hold for hours on end, rendering scenes with photographic precision. Nastiya still has this skill in spades, so maybe that has something to do with stage of life.

Before Genna and I began collaborating, I was creating texture and interest in my work with heavy 'impasto' style brushwork. As Genna brought me increasingly complex and nuanced 'start points', my painting style became increasingly flat and broad. This shift made images that used to be no brainers a huge challenge for me. I revisited one such image last week with "Logsled". Here is a 'pre-Genna' version, circa 2003:


(Logsled, oil on canvas, 85" x 65")

Each log end is a single, heavy brushstroke where the brush was loaded with multiple variations of the taupe color. The edges of some strokes are ragged and stuttering, a technique I have completed abandoned for now.

Here we are circa 2006. Simplification had begun but the underpainting process had not fully matured:


(Logsled, 40" x 30" oil on canvas)

And here's the current version, circa last week:


("Logsled", oil on linen with metallic acrylic underpainting, $2600)

Different, no? Check back in five years and I'll make it again!

my new favorite things

Last month I met ceramic artist Jenny Mendes at the Kentuck Art Fest in Tuscaloosa. I had seen her work there the year before and had despared at having not purchased any of her lovely, strange, sensitive little bowls then. Jenny had probably 100 of these enchanting little guys on view at the show and then further confused me by bringing me behind her booth to sift through a box of probably 100 more.

Her intimately sized creations would make lovely holiday gifts! Check her out at www.jennymendes.com.

gia miminoshvili

This is a sculpture by our winter 'artist in residence' Gia that was completed while he and Genna were working together in Ukraine. I'm not sure what type of work Gia will be making while he's with us as he is both potter and painter. Please see the previous post if you have no idea what I'm talking about.

two month catchup

It's been so long I don't even know what to tell you! Our fall schedule is nearly over and we're delighted to be back home. Our shows were all great (well, maybe more like 3 out of five!) and we took second place overall at the Bayou City show in Houston. Bayou City spring and fall have been consistently strong shows for us for three years and our win means that we're jury exempt for both installments in 2011/2012. What a relief to know at least one show we'll be in next year! To attend 15 shows in a year we generally apply to 30 or so.

Sausalito was FANTASTIC. I've never spent so much money to do a show before and it was absolutely terrifying but ultimately worth it. Genna was right about the big class portrait paintings. We brought two 4' x 5' versions and found new homes for both of them.

I came home thinking about the three months unfurling ahead of me with nothing to do but whatever I feel like. That lasted about a week before I hear from Genna that his good friend Gia Miminoshvilli got approved for a visa to come visit. Gia was one of Genna's early artistic mentors in Ukraine who helped him learn his craft as a potter. Originally from soviet Georgia, Gia now lives in Kiev (where Genna's from). Gia will be here at least a month, living and making art with us. At the end of his visit we'll be launching a show for him somewhere. Somewhere. Then Gia wants us to come to Georgia (the soviet one) to do a three man show with him there. Oh, and Genna's mom is going to come visit for two months this winter. The unfurling of my boundless free time has halted and begun refurling! [If you're reading this, Gia, we're totally stoked that you're coming...I just enjoy complaining.]

Here's Gia and Genna outside Gia's Kiev studio in 2006:



and in the studio, doing what they do in the studio (shooting vodka):



and with him and Genna's brothers Sasha and Costya once the singing started!



That's what our studio will look like through December!