NANCY CHRISTENSEN // NEW WORKS

Tonight we receive Oakland artist Nancy Christensen and her new works, untitled.  The watercolor series is a zen-like exploration of space and attachment.  Her primary characters are connected to smaller entities conveying a quiet bond.

Party starts at 6pm, and we are offering 15% off storewide for the event.  Ed the Soulector will be here spinning his rare vinyl funk and R&B.  Last party of the year, hope to see you here tonight!

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Insta Love // Re Elle

What influences, inspires, sets your heart on fire?  Curiosity about what does that for other people opens up new ways to get inspired and lit up.  I love to watch what my jeweler peers are doing, what they are being moved by and how that eventually turns up in their work.

My Insta Love feature will now be all about this: my favorite outtakes from the jewelers and artists we house in the shop.This art form and craft, at its best, goes beyond making pretty little things.  It is tapping into the same human and universal mysteries that all art gets itself into.

Today I am sharing some of my favorite shots from Brooklyn designer Re Elle.  I own one of her Fold Cuffs, it is a daily wear that feels a part of my body.  Her feed is one of my most heart-throbby.

Follow her @re_elle
Enjoy.

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ORIGINS // Miguel Farias

Our current photography exhibit at Crown Nine is body of work,'Ode to My Father' by Bay Area artist Miguel Farias.  Each small photograph shot in a color film that is no longer produced, the textures are vivid and eerie, the landscapes and small worlds photographed in California and Nevada over the course of two years.  Each image is perfectly hand framed by Miguel himself.

Miguel The Master Framer.  Photo by Paul Mueller

I sat down with Miguel to talk to him about being an artist, his process and work.  Enjoy.

KE: Why do you make art?

MF:  I've loved making stuff my whole life.  I think making art is hard, so am constantly challenging myself to make stuff that interesting and perhaps if produced well, it becomes art. I may set out to make stuff with the intention that it will elevate itself to art, but that's not always the case.  I love the feeling I get when i make something good and someone is moved by it and then shares that with me, gives me chills when that happens.

KE:  What themes are in your current work?

MF:  I've been making more portraits again.  I have a few ideas going at once, hoping one will get a little traction and I'll work those images through to hopefully produce an interesting and beautiful body of work.

Pyramid Lake 1995

Botanicals 1996

Old Car 2 1995

KE:  How has your work changed over time?

MF:  Well, I think it's gotten better, thank god! I can finish pieces better, faster, stronger, kinda like the six million dollar man...

KE:  Best piece of advice you have gotten?

MF:  Do a good job, ok.  Don't fuck it up, ok.

KE:  What artwork or artists influence your work?

MF:  All of my teachers from art school had a huge influence on me.  Folks like Jack Fulton, Linda Connor, Reagan Louie, and Hank Wessel.  I also really like photographers that work in color, like Richard Misarach, Edward Burtynsky, Len Jenshel, Pete Turner and John Pfahl.  But I guess the biggest influence on me has been cinema.  I love movies and watch a ton on a weekly basis.

KE:  How do you want someone to feel while looking at your work?

MF: I don't really care how they feel, so long as they feel something.  Photographs carry so much representational weight that its tough to control how someone will feel about a piece but I guess that's what makes a piece of art or a maybe even a good piece of art.

KE:  How do you know when a piece is finished?

MF:  It's usually pretty clear to me.  With modern tools, it's pretty easy to overwork a piece, so I usually do, then back it off until it feels right again.  I'm a feel player.

KE:  What do you admire in other people?

MF:  Elegance, beauty, kindness and a good sense of humor

KE:  What special talent would you choose if you could magically gain one?

MF:  I think I'd like to fly, I have flying dreams all the time.

KE:  How does destruction play a role in your work?

MF:  It really doesn't.  I like being a creator, but am not opposed to burning all down and starting over, I just don't practice that in my work.

KE: What design are you most proud of/ sentimental/ moved by? 

MF:  I guess I'm most proud of my last body of work, 'Gh0st L1fe', I produced it in 2010 with my dear friend, Allison Reilly, who was 18 at the time.  It got the most exposure of anything I've ever made and it was really well received.  It was shown in three venues over the course of two years, and it was very exciting to get so much attention for it.  Collaborating with Allison meant a lot to me.

Gh0st L1fe explores the nature of our relationships with technology, consumption, loneliness and solitude.

I love how these images capture a sort of passive attention that is very directional, it's almost as if the computer is in charge and the subject is just absorbing.

KE:  Current obsessions?

MF:  Pliny the Elder, David Bowie, La Luz, starting a band

Miguel's show runs through the second week of August.  You can see his exhibition during our regular business hours, Weekdays 12-6 and Saturday 12-5.  Every image in the series in a limited edition pigment ink print in archival hand frame.  $180.

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Go Far // Desolation Wilderness

This week I took a couple days off to go backpacking with some of my bro-dudes in Desolation Wilderness, just west of Lake Tahoe.  We started our journey at Echo Lake and walked 26 miles to Emerald Bay, camping out at a couple lakes along the way.  Our trail was an overlapping route of The Pacific Crest Trail that extends from Mexico to Canada, and the Tahoe Rim Trail that wraps the circumference of the lake, the terrain littered with stunning swim spots and wildflowers.  This time of year the thru-hikers on the PCT are walking this stretch and we were lucky enough to meet a bunch of them and ask them about their trip.  Here are some of my favorite outtakes from the journey, enjoy.

Dick's Pass overlooking Dick's Lake and Fontinellis Lake

Morning view at Middle Velma Lake

Loupin

Josh getting ready to fish

Lake Aloha

Campsite at Lake Gilmore

Bro-ing it out with my crew plus Michael, a PCT hiker who stayed a night with us

Mosquitos!

L O V E + M E T A L 

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Origins // Variance Objects

At Crown Nine our motto is 'Real Objects Made By Real People' because we believe that where things come from matters.  That how things are made and who makes them matters.  That objects have significant power and can deepen our everyday experiences.  So with that in mind, we are beginning a new regular blog feature called 'Origins' in which we will talk with each of our artists in depth about the origins of the objects they make.

First up is one of our newest artists, Nicole Rimedio, the designer behind Variance Objects.  Nicole founded Variance in 2013 with her partner Scott. Scott manages operations and Nicole is the artist. They both have a passion for gemstones and together they source the finest natural and unusual gem specimens and rough rock. Nicole and Scott live and work in Santa Cruz, California.  Find them on Instagram @varianceobjects .

We have met Nicole and Scott a few times over the years, and this summer added Nicole's work to the shop which they dub as Rough Fine Jewelry.  We love the cohesiveness of her irregularities, how each piece almost looks suspended in it's process.  Fusing silver and gold together for her settings, the overall aesthetic is an esoteric twist on classic gemstone-centric jewelry that we just cannot get enough of.  Here is our interview together, boiled down to the essentials.

KE:  Why do you make art?

N: I'm unhappy doing anything else.  I tried to not be an artist and I was miserable.  I think I was born this way.

KE:  What themes are in your current work?

N:  Destruction and erosion and the juxtaposition of those themes to the pristine. Those qualities become magnified when in relation to each other.  It's both pleasing and confusing to the eye.



KE:  Current obsessions?

N:  Stones.  I have lots of books on stones, both scientific and metaphysical.  Nothing better than a day at a gem show. One of the things I love about Santa Cruz is all the young travelers selling rough stones on the street.  Each room in my house has a place set aside for stones.  I hold, carry them and sleep with them.  I even hide them under Scott's pillow (my husband and co-owner of Variance).  I don't think he minds.  Well, he doesn't always realize it until he has strange dreams and I have to come clean.

 

KE:  Best piece of advice you have gotten?

N:  A glass artist I worked for in Cleveland, Steven Tater, once told me, "the key to being an artist is to keep showing up".

KE:  What artwork or artists influence your work?

N:  Abstract expressionist painters such as Agnes Martin, Jackson Pollock, Gerhard Richter.

KE:  How do you want someone to feel while wearing your work?

N:  I want them to feel like the piece is theirs, like it has always belonged to them.  Sometimes it feels like the jewelry is looking for the right person as much as vice versa.



KE:  How do you know when a piece is finished?

N:  It feels like it takes a breath.  And also there aren't any sharp edges.

KE:  What do you admire in other people?

N:  Competence and risk-taking.





KE:  What special talent would you choose if you could magically gain one?

N:  Fireproof hands

KE:  How does destruction play a role in your work?

N:  Big time!  Sometimes I think about Variance jewelry as artifacts or found in ruins.  You know what I mean if you know my work.  Sometimes the pieces are about the way the fire moves the metal; that molten quality has a destroyed feeling. It's all about the interaction of the fire and metal.



Stay tuned for more Origins posts with our house of artists.
L O V E + M E T A L

All images courtesy of the artist, Copyright 2014 Variance Objects.

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ASTRAL DECKS by Obi Kaufmann

 I first met Obi back when my studio was at The Hive.  I've been following his art ever since, so when I saw that he was in the process of creating his own 'tarot' deck based on the stars of the Northern hemisphere, I had to get my hands on them.

I love any tool that helps shift perspective and gets me out of a mental rut.  Sometimes these tools are the kind words of a friend, a song, a piece of art on a wall in a museum, astrology readings, a good self-helpie book, an inspiring quote, whatever... as long as it makes me consider a different perspective.  I often find myself guarding my own little worldview and position, and these little tools chip away at that protective instinct, in the best of scenarios absolutely exploding my old ideas apart.  I like that.  Let's shift paradigms, like on the regular.

The Astral Deck is a really self guided tool, simply open the deck and go for it.  Inspiration is to be had in the characters taken directly from the night sky, from the forms Obi calls into the world, and from our own connection to the people we are with.  Get hella deep with it or just make it a way to kill time when the sun goes down on a camping trip.

The decks are available in the store and online | $25

Enjoy

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Loren Crosier // Reception

Thanks to all who came out last night to support the beautiful work of Loren Crosier.  Her work looks so at home in the shop, and I think it will feel good at home too (I'm definitely snagging one).  Her source material collecting began when she was just 14 years old-- each composition is like a little story of who she has become in the ten years of building her archive.  Imagine where you were at 14, and what you were visually draw to.  I find it fascinating that her eye was developing at such an early age.  More incredible things to come from this young artist.

You can see her work now through the end of April.  We are going to sell this show out so I would recommend getting your behind down here to pick out your favorite, the show runs $150-$350 for original editions and we also have some prints on hand.  

L O V E + M E T A L

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