Currently Inspired By...

As we enter the summer of 2021, it seems we are all breathing a little easier and enjoying a collective return to life after all the difficulties + hardships surrounding the pandemic. With this inspiration board, we aim to reflect the shift in mood by offering vibrant images full of texture and color.

We have been deeply inspired by the artists who used the quarantine to truly contemplate and explore their subjects - the artistic attention to detail is clear. You will also find glimpses of nature and cool landscape vistas that celebrate what the world looks like out there. We are certainly ready to start exploring again!

Currently Inspired By...

Coming up on the vernal equinox, it’s time again to spread some seeds of inspiration. Please enjoy this Spring Inspiration Board, put together by our Visual Design Director, Sarah Knight Davis, and let us know if we can show you more work by any of these great artists.

Words with Friends | Victoria Villasana

She’s So Punk Rock

Interview between Victoria Villasana + Mallory Johnson (for APP)

Victoria.jpg

Recently I had the pleasure of speaking with Victoria Villasana about her process, inspirations, spirituality and what we can expect to see next from her in the future. Born in Guadalajara Mexico, Villasana is an artist who creates powerful work through the combination of black and white photography and colorful yarn. Her pieces stand as a reminder of the capacity for greatness within all of us and calls on textile’s ability to connect and comfort. She finds beauty in imperfection, nonconformity, and in forcing an emotional reaction from a disconnected society. 


APP: I loved the quote from you about “painting with yarn” and “dressing your portraits.” Can you elaborate on what it means to you to combine fashion and art in this way?


VV: When you’re a kid you're not thinking about if you're doing it right you just start drawing. You get into this really fun energy where you don’t want it to be perfect, you just want to create and be playful. This medium really allowed me to connect with that sensation. I never plan anything in advance, I just really go for it. I follow my intuition and start layering and enter into a kind of meditative state where other parts of myself that are not normally at the front of my consciousness start to come out in the patterns and the colors. If I am creating an image of a musician I’m listening to their music or if I’m doing an activist maybe the night before I’ll watch a lot of commentary on that person or read about them. I try to understand them, more than just the celebrity aspect. I interrogate the story behind why they made certain decisions in order to bring that into my work by dressing them with all of these colors. 


APP: I noticed a motif across many of your pieces are these rays that radiate from the heads of your subjects, is there any meaning or symbolism behind this artistic choice?


VV: The rays symbolize the life and energy that we all have. I see how powerful we can be as humans. We are more than just matter, we have an energy and presence that we can’t entirely understand. Using this design, I try to capture that feeling of radiance and power.

Take Back Your Power.jpg

APP: What do you think is the most universalizing aspect of your work?

VV: There is something about Pop Culture that we can all feel connected through. To have a subject like James Baldwin or Nina Simone is a way for people from Mexico, Europe or the US to connect. We all know them and we relate with the art they created whether it’s their music or writing, it inspires some emotion in us. 


APP: What inspired you to start creating these portraits?

VV: When I started I wanted to say something with my art. Something that bothered me about the news was that it was a lot of statistics about war and violence, people are desensitized and the group, person or culture, are dehumanized. By using black and white portraits and then adding the color I am making people connect on a more emotional level rather than see them as just another statistic. This was my inspiration in the beginning, it has now become a collage of many experiences, many feelings I have at the moment, and things that I’m questioning.


APP: Would you agree that the care you take in creating these pieces counteracts the flat monotony of celebrity images that we so often see in the media?

VV: It is important to have a holistic approach not a binary one because for me there are always two sides of the story. I don't want people to see a character in exactly the same way as me. For instance with Nina Simone, I like to share it the way I see her and people can agree or disagree. People are more complex than to just put them in black and white and I’m interested in that complexity. To be who you are is something very important and powerful and it's why I admire these people and do these portraits. They broke the status quo and changed things for the rest of us.

Nina.jpg

APP: What part does color have to play in your work?

VV: We are drawn to color because nature is very colorful. I think this attraction to color is a part of being human. There might also be a cultural ancestry background to it as well. We all had grandmas and aunties who knit or used color for something, this can bring up a really unconscious memory of a time when we were nurtured and we belonged somewhere. 


APP: Your subjects include celebrities as well as regular people such as farmers. Is there something rebellious in saying all of these people equally deserve our attention?

VV: I use a lot of famous actors and writers in my portraits, and sometimes I get annoyed with myself because I know there are millions of people who aren’t famous who are doing the exact same thing. I did a series of portraits of people in different trades, the focus being working class people who are really special to me. One example are Tortilleras, the women who make the tortillas. These women put a lot of care into these handmade tortillas and the tacos taste amazing because of it. Or, the guys in the streets of Mexico who you sometimes see on a bicycle carrying a basket with sweet bread. People such as these are so important in our society. They make us happy and often are taken for granted, but they are equally valuable. 


APP: Why leave the yarn uncut?

VV: I liked the concept from Japanese culture, where if a teapot breaks they highlight that crack with gold. They are able to see beauty in the imperfection. To leave these unfinished is a reflection of ourselves as well because we are always becoming. We are never perfect or done; we are always learning, evolving and expanding. I also chose to leave the yarn hanging partly because of the aesthetics; I liked the feeling of things not put into a box. I like letting things be wild a little bit, unrestrained by the edges of a canvas.

Paletas.JPG

APP: Can you tell me more about your street art pieces, how did it feel to let go and leave them to be experienced by people in the natural environment?


VV: It was really interesting to put it on the street and come back to them the next day and see that the wind had played with the strings and placed them in different ways. Sometimes I would come back one month later and see that someone had pulled the strings. They were ephemeral pieces and it was nice to see how the environment had kind of degraded the piece in what was a really natural process. I look at these changes in the same way as fruit that starts to rot, it is a beautiful process and part of the cycle of life. 


APP: Do you have a favorite piece that you’ve ever made or maybe even a least favorite?

VV: When I go through my early works some I’m very proud of, others I’m like oh my god I can't believe I was posting this! The more you do something the better you get, especially being completely self taught. I’m sometimes tempted to erase that but it's part of my story in the same way as my background with fashion and as a florist add to what I do now. I don’t ever have any that I like completely; it sounds really depressing but for me the most important thing is to be able to translate the feeling into something and be able to share it. Sometimes it’s not even the piece itself, but how people interact with it. For instance, I did a super simple piece with the words “Boys Do Cry.” It was amazing to see people actually connect with the piece and even feel inspired to share their own stories.

Boys Do Cry.jpg

APP: You bring this rebellious feminine spirit to your work, was this always a goal or is it part of who you are and it makes its way into your work?

VV: I think I’ve always been a punk. I was always a rebel with a cause, never just a rebel for the sake of it. From a really young age I questioned my culture. If I wanted to believe or think something it was something I really investigated for myself. I was able to think, at this point in my life I really resonated with this, and maybe 10 years from now I'm not going to relate with that any longer but I’m sure it will come from me and not because my parents or culture told me.  


APP: What does the future hold for you?

VV: What I have learned is that things arrive at the right time without needing to force them so right now I'm enjoying this and I'm going to give it 100% and I trust that when the time is right to leave this, and not completely, I will be more drawn to do other types of things. It would be amazing to connect textile with something like artificial intelligence or light or music. It's funny because I'm really interested in the past and history but I'm also very interested in technology and the future. I want to follow that interest and do large format artwork or art that connects with topics like spirituality, science, and the cosmos.


Please visit Victoria’s website / instagram to learn more.

Currently Inspired By (end of 2020 edition)...

Closing out 2020 with the year’s final Inspiration Board. We hope that you find delight and joy in your transition to the new year. Please call on us when you need unique, inspiring artworks in 2021.

With all the best from Amy Parry Projects, enjoy!

Words With Friends | Ken Wood

We recently had the pleasure of working with St. Louis, MO based artist Ken Wood for a custom print for the forthcoming Canopy by Hilton in Grand Rapids, MI (designed by the talented team at Anderson/Miller LTD). Ken’s gorgeous abstract prints perfectly fit the mid-century modern aesthetic of this new hotel, which opened in the city’s Heartside District in September 2020.

At the beginning of this project, we wanted to learn more about this print-maker/professor so we asked our 2019 intern, Mallory Johnson (credited below as APP) to share the following conversation she had with Ken after his work was initially approved by Canopy.


Enjoy!

Ken Wood, Argonauts 27, 2016-2017

APP: What would you say your motivation or purpose is as an artist?

KW: Making art is how I look at and reflect on things around me. I like finding shapes in the environment and then bringing them into sketches to give them a new context. Recently these sketches take the form of photographs, usually of shadows and pavement.  Instagram has been a good way to make these sketches visible, and a recent project of mine uses photography not just as the means but also as the end product. Anyway, I try to build an abstract language out of these found shapes within the compositions I make; it helps me bring the everyday into the work, and see the beauty in the everyday. 

Ken Wood, Argonauts Quarto A, 2018.

APP: What do you hope people take away from your work? What one emotion do you want your art to stir up in the viewer?

KW: I don’t like it when things get too complicated (in images as in life), so in my prints, each composition is made up of only a few simple gestures. I’d like there to be a feeling of calm in them. But at the same time I want to challenge the viewer – maybe a shape hovers between abstraction and something almost recognizable, but not quite. This is meant to engage, and to invite the viewer to connect the image in front of them to other shapes or experiences in their lives. Of course, color is the other player here – somehow being the most subtle and most powerful element all at the same time. My sense of calm from the gentle melding of two colors might be someone else’s horror at their violent collision – or vice versa. 

APP: How does being a professor play into your work; do you ever get inspiration from your students?

KW: When I was in grad school, I started to come up with assignments for myself as a way of re-learning the basics – essentially foundation drawing assignments, like trying to convey various depths of pictorial space within very tight constraints (sometimes absurdly tight). When I started teaching, I based an entire drawing course on pictorial space projects that stemmed from these studio experiments. I always return to the foundation principals when making work (compositional strategies, figure-ground relationships, color theory, etc), and I work with the same things when I teach, so they have always been woven together for me. 

What most inspires me about teaching is the moment that someone peels away from the curriculum and forges their own way - when they start piecing together a vision just as they are catching their first glimpse of it. It is beautiful and joyous (and scary);  this is the main thing that reinforces for me the need for art in our lives.

APP: Why did you choose printmaking?

KW: I was studying Architecture and taking a lot of painting and drawing classes on the side.  I had taken basic drawing and wanted to move up, but Advanced Drawing didn’t fit into my schedule, so the professor convinced me to take Lithography I. She said, “It’s just like drawing! Plus process.” What I didn’t realize was that the ‘process’ was hours and hours of grinding a stone for each drawing. It took me a couple of tries, but I finally made a print that didn’t scum (fill completely with ink), then made my first 3-color print. I signed up for Litho II the next semester; I was hooked. After college I continued printmaking with a night class; I’d stay up until 2 or 3am twice a week printing, then slog through my draughting job the next day. That’s when I decided to leave architecture and get a graduate degree in Printmaking.

APP: What strikes me the most about your work is the way you balance colorful organic forms with a level of precision. How do you achieve this affect?

KW: I really appreciate this question, because I put a lot of time and thought into trying to make the work both organic and precise. Thank you for noticing! I feel like the printmaking process is a great way to separate out all the different things you want from a project so that you can work on them one at a time. For instance, the initial sketches have the most improvisation;  the large scale templates are where I work out the exact shapes;  and the color all happens in the printing. Each step allows room for refining and micro-changes, like moving a charcoal line 1/8 inch over in the templates, or shifting a yellow to become just a smidge more yellow-orange in the printing stage. The shapes are the constant for me, whereas color is where all the surprises happen (and the most joy!).

Ken Wood, Writ Large, AP6, 2016.

APP: How do you think - or do you think - your architectural background has influenced your art making?

KW: At my first architecture job I was put in charge of making blueprints. This was before AutoCAD and plotters, so everything was hand-draughted; nevertheless, our blueprint station was pretty high tech. We had a vacuum exposure unit and a registration system for keeping multi-layer prints lined up. What’s funny is that this is exactly what we use at my school now for making silkscreens. Later, when I started making relief prints, I made all my plates on my draughting table, with X-ACTO knives, parallel rule and triangle, just as I used in school to build architectural models. Mostly, I credit architecture school with giving me a thorough exploration in the many ways to approach composition and space. It’s a foundation that I use in everything.

Ken Wood, Each to Other II, 2015.

APP: You were an adjunct Professor for two years in Rome, Italy. As far as your time there —do you think the city itself impacted you as an artist? If so, is there a specific painting or building that continues to inspire you?

KW: Rome (the city of Piranesi) gave me a chance to reconcile the two interests in my life, architecture and printmaking. As I explored the city and started to see the layers upon layers of built urban fabric, the idea started forming that architecture and art were not so separate, and that there were many ways (historically and in the present) that they worked in tandem. I was doing a lot of running in Villa Borghese at the time, and the idea of paths started to come into my drawings; then paths on top of paths. That was the start of the body of work that I’m still pursuing today.

The Church of Sant’ Ivo has been a lasting inspiration; the way Borromini could create contrast between a curve and a curve – within the same line – is still mind-blowing. And Caravaggio’s Calling of St. Matthew, with its background that toggles between shallow and infinite depth, has always been a favorite for teaching composition, light and space.

Whenever a student protests that they can’t possibly make their drawing any more contrasty, I say: look at Caravaggio.

APP: Great advice. Thank you, Ken! We are so excited to share your work with guests of the Grand Rapids Canopy.

Click here to learn more about Ken Wood’s work.

Currently Inspired By...

Happy 2020 from Amy Parry Projects!

Hope your year has started beautifully! We are feeling very inspired by the transition into a brand new decade. Please enjoy this latest selection of new, eye-catching art; our first Inspiration Board of the year.

Lots more to come!

Currently Inspired By...

October is here. Let the leaves fall where they may…

We are entering the final few months of the year as inspired as ever by the work being created all around us. Collected here are 100 new pieces of art that are fresh and bold - lots of color, content and a variety of unusual materials. After all, the end of a decade is no time to be boring!

Currently Inspired By...

It’s already August?!

With the revived goal of bringing you a new Inspiration Board every other month, you will really see what we are actively sourcing for our hospitality projects.

This summer we have been seeking out textile work, different types of collage and work that in general, shows a level of traditional craftsmanship. In the digital era we are living and working in, it’s cool to appreciate art that shows the artists’ hand - bonus when it incorporates or re-purposes something from nature or maybe the “good old days.”

And a good painting is always in style, right?!



Currently Inspired By...

When we discover new artists or get blown away by new work from some of our old favorites, we do our best to share the work and hopefully pass on the inspired feeling. It is a very exciting time to work in hospitality design and we have enough ideas for any kind of project.

Here's to the beauty of endless possibilities!

Please let us know how we can contribute custom art to what you're working on  this summer.

Currently Inspired By...

More and more we are honoring requests to show art options with greater depth and texture. For this last Inspiration Board of the year, we would like to share a “few of our favorite (dimensional) things.”

There is so much to love about three-dimensional art; how it can punctuate a space and accentuate the overall design. Please click through these options in wood, glass, metal, fiber, porcelain and even just thickly applied paint.

Ultra Violet | PANTONE'S 2018 Color of the Year

“We’re in a complex time; this is a complex color.”
- Lee Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute

With their announcement, Pantone explains: "[Ultra Violet] is a very provocative shade, but it’s also a thoughtful color–it sounds like a bit of an oxymoron,” Eiseman says. “This is the kind of color attached, historically, to originality, ingenuity, and visionary thinking. These are the elements we need to create a meaningful future. Inventiveness and imagination is something we seek in our personal lives and business worlds. People are looking for that ‘magic bullet,’ and this shade is the perfect shade to lead right into it . . . It’s intriguing, fascinating, and magical.”

 

Please enjoy 20 images inspired by the color Ultra Violet...