Artist 13/20: Josephine Wall

Okie dokie. So while I'm on a run of fantasy artists, I'd like to share with you another artist. Her art actually ventures into the Surreal as her art is very dreamlike. I'm continuously forgetting her name. I wouldn't say she's influenced me per say with my art style. However, every once in a while I'll see one of her works and recognize it instantly and I'll have to look it up as I JUST did. Her name is Josephine Wall.

Several Christmases ago I received a puzzle as a present. I suppose Josephine isn't any better off than Kinkade in terms of being a sell out whore in that her work has been on puzzles, night lights, and whatnot. Anyhoo it was a puzzle of this painting of the Greek goddess Iris. If you don't know Iris was a sister of the harpies but for whatever reason she didn't have the body of a bird, only the wings. And so she's one of the first "angelic" figures in ancient history. This image is a collage of several of the significant attributes of Iris. She was more or less a female counterpart to the god Hermes and was a messenger of the gods to mankind. She would create the bridge of color (the rainbow) which connected the heavens with the land. She was also the retriever of souls which she would extract from the body through the colored part of the individual's eye (the Iris). Also her flower was the Iris, one of the only flowers to display every color. ....if you haven't noticed there is a color theme with this woman. I'm not sure about the butterflies....butterflies = colorfulness? I don't know. And in the background there is the city of Atlantis of which Iris secretly transported the goddess Hestia to deliver the 12 mortal sons of Poseidon. Anyhoo I love the use of color in Wall's paintings.

That is actually one of Josephine's more structured or solid paintings as most of her work consists of objects morphing or flowing into others. She is also likened to Pre-raphaelite artist by her use of embodying goddesses, elements or virtues with women (much like Herbert Draper) But her style of things melting or evaporating or sprouting out of nowhere is very reminiscent of Dali. Her work as become so iconic that it's been exhibited from America to Sweden to Japan and she has several contracts signed to sell prints of her work from very prominent museums.

Flight

The use of bold color is something I always shy away from. Take my last portraits of James Dean, Rock Hudson and Gia Carangi. After I scan my work I typically with tink around with saturation and contrast and it helps is seeing how I could always go "farther". I usually end up liking my edited work more than the originals. I've saturated the colors and like them oh so much more. This is a talent of Josephine Wall's that i hope to emulate in the future.