Jordan Nassar

July 13, 2020 12:03 AM \

Jordan Nassar is an embroidery artist of Palestinian descent who lives and works in New York City.  He embroiders his composition of repeated patterns using traditional Palestinian motifs and his own set of symbols. His favorite subject is landscape as a sort of utopian vision of Palestine.   On an interview with Berlin Art Link he says this about his patterns:   

“One of the features of Palestinian embroidery is that each town, village, and region has symbols that are distinctly theirs, that can identify them to others when an onlooker sees one such symbol on their clothing.” 

“When I began working with this embroidery, it didn’t feel right to me to use symbols that would identify me as being from Bethlehem, or from Ramallah, or from Jerusalem, as I’m from New York, and so I did develop my own lexicon. However, as the years have gone by, and as I’ve spent so much more time in Israel and Palestine, and as my work has developed from an idea to more of a way of life, I’ve let go of this concern and now freely use symbols from all over.”

The artist can be followed on his website and on Instagram.

Images:  Courtesy of Jordan Nassar.

Posted in: Embroidery, Needlework \ Tagged: ,

Tomoko Takeda

July 10, 2020 12:03 AM \

Tomoko Takeda is a designer and art director based in Tokyo, Japan. She has created these book sculptures which “are not for reading, but meant to be looked at and enjoyed“.  The artist cuts and carves away at the pages of literature classics and turns them into book art with each design relating to the content of the story.

The artist can be followed here on Behance.

Images:  Courtesy of Tomoko Takeda.

Posted in: Japan, Paper, Sculpture \ Tagged: , ,

Alexandra Buckle

July 8, 2020 12:03 AM \

Alexandra Buckle is a reduction linocut printmaker based in Bicester, England.  Reduction linocuts involves cutting and inking several layers from a single linoleum block to create a multi-colored print.  The first color is printed, then the block reduced by cutting away and the second color is printed on top of the first color. The block is repeatedly cut and inked until you have your finished print.  The professional printmaker is impressionistic in style,  colorful, full of light, depth and detail.  Many of her linocuts are woodland themed finding them a constant source of inspiration.   On Jackson’s Art she says this about her use of colors:

“I work from my own photos, so the colours are partly guided by the photo, but generally I find the photos are more helpful in guiding me with the tonal values. The colours are mainly guided from my memory of the scene with a little artistic license added in to create the correct mood! Sometimes once I start printing, the results start to dictate the colour choices and I have to readjust my plan! I normally use 5 or 6 colours in each print. The most I have ever used is 8, but I felt that the piece didn’t really benefit from having more colours.”

The artist can be followed on her website and on Facebook.

Images:  Courtesy of Alexandra Buckle.

Posted in: Printmaking \ Tagged:
%d bloggers like this: