May Instagram Fave - Hülya Özdemir

When I find an Instagram page where I can’t stop scrolling I feel I need to share! One painting after the other made me stop and smile.

Hülya Özdemir is a Turkish artist from Istanbul who creates incredibly colorful and full of pattern watercolor paintings. The whimsical and beautiful women she portrays have vivid personalities that are full of life. I love her mix of contrasting textures within each piece. The individuality of their expressions, color and various flora and fauna that surround them, gives them vibrant life.

You can see more here.

I am super inspired! Gotta go get my paints out.

© Hülya Özdemir

© Hülya Özdemir

All images in this post are © Hülya Özdemir

© Hülya Özdemir

© Hülya Özdemir

© Hülya Özdemir

© Hülya Özdemir

© Hülya Özdemir

© Hülya Özdemir

My Minted Mural

So exciting! The final cut of my Minted vignette is done. Take a peek inside my apartment, studio, and see where I get some of my creative inspiration.

Also hear what what Minted means to me, and about how rewarding it was working with them.

Click through to watch on Vimeo.

Peter Zimmerman Installation

I love these beautiful candy-colored floors of poured resin created by German artist Peter Zimmerman. The resin covers 1,400 square feet of floor at the Museum für Neue Kunst in Freiburg, Germany, where it complements his abstract art hanging on the walls above. Click here to read and see more on thisiscolossal.com. 

All images: © Bernhard Strauss

Nature Inspired

Since I've been working from home this past year, I sometimes get a bit str crazy. For me, the best solution for this is to get out into nature and fresh air. I decided to take a drive up to Mount Tamalpais yesterday morning. It was so refreshing! It's only 40 min from the city after all and it's really paradise on a weekday morning. Very few people are up there and I kinda love to be there as the fog lifts and reveals the amazing green hills and views below. 

If you follow my two Instagram feeds (this one and this one) you might have seen a few pictures I posted. There were all sorts of sweet and colorful wildflowers all over the hills and they got me inspired to make this when I got home. 

All designs and images © Katja Ollendorff

Minted and PBKids / PBTeen - Vote on February 19th!

Vote for my design on minted.™ see more from Katja Ollendorff vote for me! Check out my competition in Christmas photo cards and Save the Date cards at Minted.

I've entered another contest through Minted.com—this time it's a collaboration with PBKids and PBTeen. My artwork is inspired by a trip to the San Francisco Botanical Gardens. Hope you like it! If you do, you can vote on February 19th. Click on the button to the right  and rate my design a  "5" to ensure a high vote tally for me. Thanks for supporting!

Artist Spotlight: Anna Valdez

I don't recall how I came across Anna's work, but when beautiful artwork is bright, colorful and full of pattern it will most definitely catch my eye. I love her still-life paintings depicting scenes in her room and studio—of various books, collected objects, plants and decorative fabrics. I like to say that they "make my eyes hungry". Hungry for more! 

Anna lives and works in Oakland, CA and you can read more about her artwork and process here. Any inquiries about purchasing her art can be sent to info@annavaldez.com.

All images shared are with kind permission of the artist.

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Strike Away Show a Success

The Strike Away show at Paxton Gate Kids is over, and it was a big success with over 100 pieces sold (still waiting to hear if mine was one of those). But in the meantime, some pretty cool articles popped up about it. 

Check them out on SF Art Enthusiast and Jealous Curator. 

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My piece for the show

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A variety of artists' works.

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Chelsea Wong

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Strikeaway Show

Do you like art? How about tiny art? How about art the size of a matchbox? If you said yes to any of those questions, then come out and enjoy some tiny matchbox art at Paxton Gate Curiosities for Kids tonight from 6:00-9:00. I have a piece in the show and so do my talented friends over at Falconette. Hope to see you there! (And if you can't make the opening, the show runs til June 20th).

Photo: Courtney Cerruti - Strikeaway Show 

Ai Wei Wei @ Large on Alcatraz

As stated by the For-Site Foundation (who made this show possible) "Ai says that for him, the dragon represents not imperial authority, but personal freedom: 'everybody has this power.' The individual kites that make up the dragon's body carry quotations from activists who have been imprisoned or exiled, including Nelson Madela, Edward Snowden, and Ai himself." Side note: Take a close look at the eyes of the dragon.

When I'm in between jobs and have time on my hands, I love to take advantage of the free time to explore the city. Most of the time, I travel alone since my friends are at work or home caring for their children. I don't mind seeing exhibits solo because it allows me the space to become involved with the show and sometimes (as was in the case of this particular show) become very emotional. Spoiler alert! If you haven't seen this show and are planning to go, I must warn that I am going to show much of what the exhibit has to offer. 

On a whim, I bought an Early Bird ticket to see the Ai Wei Wei exhibit at Alcatraz. I paid a bit more to bypass the general flow of traffic (well worth it) and have a private guide scoot me up to the good stuff before anyone else got there. She told me that it was the first time EVER that she only had one person in her group—lucky me!  

So on this blustery and foggy Tuesday morning, my guide and I stepped into the New Industries Building where the exhibit begins with the With Wind installation. Whoa. The light, the blast of color, the contrasting surroundings. Incredible! I felt very privileged to be here before anyone else and also to be in this room alone with these beautiful, hand painted kites. The colors and motifs are chosen from the countries' flags where the prisoners of conscience are being held. 

Looking out toward the bay and beyond.

"By confining the kites inside a building once used for prison labor, the artist suggests powerful contradictions between freedom and restriction, creativity and repression, cultural pride and national shame. he also offers a poetic response to the layered nature of Alcatraz as a former penitentiary that is now an important bird habitat and a site of thriving gardens." (quote: from For-Site.org)

Continuing into the next room, we approach the installation called Trace. Laid out on the floor is a vast sea of faces made of individual lego pieces which were hand assembled in squares and pieced together like a quilt. The portraits depict 176 prisoners around the world who have been exiled or incarcerated because of their beliefs or affiliations. Ai Wei Wei calls them “heroes of our time.” It was very moving for me to see these faces and not recognize most of them. I was awed by the sheer number of them, and by the way they were portrayed in this confined space. Literally brought tears to my eyes.

The last exhibit in this building is entitled Refraction. It is a large metal wing weighing several tons, made up of reflective solar panels. The theme of "confined freedom" continues here where "this piece uses imagery of flight to evoke the tension between freedom—be it physical, political, or creative—and confinement. The weight of this piece keeps it earthbound, but one might imagine its array of solar panels silently mustering energy, preparing for takeoff." 

The confinement of the guard's walkway where one is forced to view the work through cracked and rusted window panes is noticeable; and the irony of the glowing EXIT sign is not lost on me in this moment. 

The next series of works are found in the A block building. The Blossom sculptures are on display in the hospital ward and are made up of an abundant and delicate array of porcelain flowers. "The work could be seen as symbolically offering comfort to the imprisoned, as one would send a bouquet to a hospitalized patient. The profusion of flowers rendered in a cool brittle matieral could also be an ironic reference to China's famous Hundred Flowers Campaign of 1956, a brief period of government tolerance for free expression that was immediately followed by a severe crackdown." (quote: For-Site.org)

The last exhibit that I participated in is called Yours Truly. You are able to correspond directly with any of the listed prisoners by filling out a postcard (they are adorned with foliage and birds from each country of the incarcerated). There is a binder with descriptions of the captives and their stories and you may write any message to any prisoner of your choosing. The staff will mail the pre-addressed cards for you for free. Whether it reaches them or not, will remain unknown although it has been recorded that many do reach them and are greatly appreciated. Around 6 or so prisoners have been released since the beginning of this exhibit.

Here's another excerpt of the description from the For-Site website:

"Ai Wei Wei has spoken of the deep feeling of isolation that afflicts incarcerated people. He says that political prisoners often fear that they — and the causes they fought for — have been forgotten by the outside world. This work is a response to those concerns, reminding detainees that they are remembered — and reminding exhibition visitors of the detainees’ individuality and humanity. In the spirit of free expression, visitors may write any message they wish. Yours Truly brings home ideas at the heart of the exhibition: the responsibilities that we all bear as members of a community, and the importance of communication as both personal expression and a force for social change." 

To know more about these as well as a few remaining pieces in the show, I would recommend A) Go to see it in person if you can or B) Read more about it on the For-Site.org website.

It was an incredible show and day all around. I felt all sorts of emotions—from awed and fulfilled, to sad to inspired and hopeful. 

Katja Art Prints for Sale

People have often asked where they can buy my art. Well I'm happy to say that I have opened a Society 6 store online with a selection of my designs as art prints. I do hope you will stop on over and take a look. Check out my Artwork tab on this site for more info, or just head straight to the shop by clicking here. It's time to bring some color into your home!

Back to the Fog

Whoa it's fresh here. Coming from 90 degree weather with high humidity in Florida, to the cool foggy air of San Francisco is a brisk wake up. Now that the summertime fog bank has settled outside my window, it's time to play indoors!

All in the Family

My brother Max is a fantastic artist who currently does a lot of plein air landscapes. As we are preparing to sell our family home, we have been clearing out closets and in the meantime, coming across some great old pieces that he did in the 80s. One very colorful one caught our eye and we thought how fun it would be to turn it into a pattern. Here is the result of our collaboration—maybe we are on to something?

Announcing the NOYO Home Collection

Hi Friends!  I'm excited to announce that my collection of custom fabric headboards is available for purchase through NOYO Home. Now through the end of April, you can receive a 20% discount by using the code: Katja. It's a great product and I'm so excited to share it with you.