Tag Archives: Art & Design

Sara Adrian Portraits

Near the beginning of the year I attended one of my first events at 400 W. Rich where I stumbled upon the studio of Sara Adrian. Sara wasn’t in at the time but I immediately fell in love with her style of portraiture, primarily the color palet she works from and the way she manages to simplify (or would it be minimize) the structure. Having said that, when you have a chance to look closely at the detail there is nothing simple about these, so that’s the magic trick she plays.

I’m thrilled to add these paintings to my art collection and to now have added Sara as a friend.

If you click thru here you can get her take on the process and connect with her if you’re interested in seeing her work or commissioning something for yourself.

Young Art Collectors – Andrew Miller

ColumbusUnderground.com 01/09/2012

http://www.columbusunderground.com/young-art-collectors-andrew-miller

This time I was the subject and I was glad to share my collection with Anne Evans and the readers of the Columbus Underground.

By: Anne

Andrew Miller, Art Collector

As a young adult, Andrew Miller loved going to concerts. He loved supporting local music and its musicians. But as he got older and had a child he wanted to find a new way to support the arts. “I wanted to support the arts in some way, shape or form,” said Andrew. So, he transferred his concert money to buying art from local artists.

He saw many concerts in the old Little Brothers space. When it was being sold and the fixtures being liquidated, he made his first bigger art purchase, Art Peace by Paul Voker. It was a piece painted on a bed sheet, originally for display at Comfest, before it adorned the walls at Little Brothers.

Andrew doesn’t have an unlimited budget for art purchases, but he makes it a priority to support the scene by being an active buyer. He finds it helpful to attend events with a budget in mind.

“People should really buy art from local artists and galleries,” he said. “There is no reason to buy commercial art when you can just as easily go to events or galleries to support.”

Supporting the people in our own community doing the creative things that makes the community where we want to live is important to him. “We’re all trying to do what we can to make the community what we want,” he said.

Robot Tiles by Spalding Studio. Purchased at the Upper Arlington Labor Day Arts Sale.

Artwork (left and top right) by Adam Brouillette. “Swallow” mixed-media 6″x6″ by Katey Barrett.

Artwork by Andrew Miller.

“Are You Absolutely, Positively, and Wholeheartedly Ready to Publish Your Novel?” Poster in white and burgundy, left. All proceeds used to support 826national.org’s writing programs for students, ages 6-18. “Kitchen Conversions” Poster by Whimsy & Spice.

“Trees with Streams” Woodblock print by Diane Babcock, left. Bicycle print, right, purchased at Renegade Craft Fair.

Painting by Andrew Miller, left. “World Map Aqua” by These Are Things, top right. 20″x30″ silkscreen. “Magic Carpet” by Tugboat Printshop, bottom right.

“Art Peace” by Paul Voker.

Andrew enjoys taking his daughter to many of the art-centric events in Columbus. They enjoy the events at Junctionview such as Por Vida, and he thinks they are very accessible to everyone and there is room for more events in Columbus. Buying from the artists themselves allows you to communicate directly with them. He spends time doing art projects with his daughter and she has shown an interest in art as well. Her bedroom has a few collections of prints by Adam Brouillette and Jason K Burke. Many of her projects and designs hang on her walls.

“Cute Critters Collection” by Jason K Burke

Work by Adam Brouillette, left. VE 1/4 by Bailey Ruhler, right.

“Cool and Contemplative” by Wallace Peck, Open Door Art Studio.

“Golden Burst Print, 2010” by Maggy O’Reilly VanOrder, left. “Original Bird Bike, Yellow” by Methane Studios, right.

Pieces from Laura Alexander’s What the Rock?! series.

In addition to teaching his daughter an appreciate for art, Andrew works on some of his own art projects. He does paintings, builds furniture and writes. His short story, Broken, was published in Across Town: Stories of Columbus, a collection of stories presented by the Columbus Creative Cooperative.

Much of his art collection reflects his own interests. He loves typography, maps, woodblock prints and is interested in getting more paintings.

“Columbus Neighborhoods Map” by These Are Things, left. 18″x24″ lithograph. WOSU’s Columbus Neighborhoods poster, right.

Urbanized Documentary Print by Gary Hustwit, left. Chicago Neighborhood Poster, Spicy Red, 24″x36″ by Ork Posters, center. “A NOJVA SERTANEJA” Wood Block Print by Jose Francisco Borges, right.

Needlework done by Andrew’s Grandmother.

Collection of Personal Photos along the stairs.

“I would be plenty happy to have my walls covered in art,” he shared.

Artists:

826National.org

Laura Alexander

Diane Babcock

Katy Barrett

Jose Francisco Borges

Adam Brouillette

Jason K Burke

Gary Hustwit

Methane Studios – Mark McDevitt & Robert Lee

Michelle Maguire

Andrew Miller

Open Door Art Studio – Wallace Peck

Orielly Ink – Maggy O’Reilly VanOrder

Ork Posters

Bailey Ruhler

Spalding Studio

These Are Things – Jen Adrion & Omary Noory

WOSU Public Media – Columbus Neighborhoods

Floating wall credenza/buffet

I stole this idea straight from The Brick House (who also stole it from another source) and you can see that blog post here: http://www.the-brick-house.com/2011/08/fauxdenza/ if you’re interested in the materials. Regardless, I’m not finished with this project but here’s the start of it.

The Arkuram wall mounting system is just amazing and at only $6 worth probably triple that. I’ll wrap these cabinets in wood and stain them to match the bookcase credenza’s that I built a few years back. Below (will be) pictures of the finished unit. Following up with this will be some just below ceiling height book shelves and a new couch (still drawing up my plans for that one). Sophie has really gotten interested in helping out with these projects and I’m so thankful to her for it. I love spending time with her, teaching her and letting her teach me. She’s both capable and creative – I’m a proud papa.

Double bed design and build

I made several sketches of a bed frame design and ended up mostly not going with any of them, instead just choosing to freehand it, as it were. I wanted something nice and sturdy that felt less bulky and more modern than what I previously had in the bedroom. To that end, I had a fair amount of sustainably forested, cabinet grade plywood on hand that was going to be used for a buffet until I nixed that idea in favor of some floating cabinetry (coming soon in another post). So, with no materials to purchase I set about building the frame and headboard and tweaking things along the way until I finished it up.

The stain was matched to the stain I used on the dresser (a piece that’s been in my family since my grandparents purchased it, well, a very long time ago) – unfortunately I’m not as good at staining furniture as I’d like to be so more practice needs to go into that.

Dreidel dreidel dreidel, I made you out of – wood?!

Sophie is a touch Jewish by lineage and Gail is half Jewish so we thought this year we’d celebrate (as best an atheist and agnostic can) both Hanukkah and Christmas this year. To that end, I grabbed a piece of scrap from my work shop and carved this little dreidel for us to play with. For something I spent all of about 15 minutes on it works fairly well. I made some nicer Christmas orniments (that I didn’t photograph) based on some scroll saw work by my Uncle Fred.