Ünnecessary Ümlaut

This Saturday @ 7 pm, The Mills College Art Museum will open its ’09 Exhibition Young Americans, featuring works by their 2009 Master of Fine Arts degree recipients.

Brian Caraway, Friend of the Umlaut and one of the eight lucky artists, gave us a peek inside his studio during the final weeks of prep. Days before shaving his time-lapse beard.

See pics from the studio visit …

The cool thing about Brian’s finely striped work is that when you stare at it long enough, it starts to mess with your mind. Add striped and plaid shirts and you’re ready for a seizure.

Time-Lapse Growth This is the chair and Mac where Brian spent months taking daily pictures documenting several processes—his hair growth, the progression of his compositions, and capturing the decomposition of potatoes (see below). The video will play alongside his work at the opening.

Said potatoes.

“These paintings come from, and hopefully allude to, a certain state of mind.  Kind of like staring through a chain link fence and loosing one’s sense of depth in your field of vision.   With the use of color and line I attempt to create a dance between the eye and the brain.  I am not afraid of red, yellow, and blue.”

Read Brian’s full artist statement.

Some older work, using cassette tapes for mosaics. The case on the left gives you an idea for the scale of the pic on the right.

Lightning Bolts, Party Animal, Yacht Rock Capt’s Hat, California Raisins, and “I Got Lei’d In Hawaii”.

A classy collection. But missing the camo one with mud-flaps in the back.

Uncannily bearded, eh Archie?

Saw this flower-petal angel outside his studio.

Not sure how he got any work done with this courtyard outside his door.

Tuning Fork Tree.

See Brian Caraway’s portfolio here. And more info on the exhibition here.