Toxic Pretty
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What I blew my paycheck on this week.
by Jennifer Johnson
Sep 11, 2008
Touted as Seattle’s longest running indie craft experience, Bumbershoot definitely delivered again this year. Providing more than just an amazing musical- and people-watching smorgasbord, the purely Northwest festival shines the light on and provides exposure for many incredibly talented designers, much like festivals in our own city of Tacoma have done this summer.
Fashion and art go hand in hand. Many painters have discovered an additional avenue for their canvas-based artwork and are taking imagery from their paintings and turning them into wearable art. Punk pins with miniature masterpieces are an easy impulse buy and get the art into the public’s hands. Much as a thumbnail is only a bit of a whole picture, these pins, due to size, can hold merely a portion of a tremendously larger painting. At a buck or two, these pins are the most affordable way to own, literally, a part of that stunning painting you didn’t have $800 to buy.
Spiral (Lisa Niemann) is one such savvy artist. The Seattle artist also creates painted pendant jewelry ($30-$50) that she sold at last month’s Glass Roots Art Festival. Even with similar pieces, variances occur naturally as Niemann paints each by hand. Applying her art onto wood instead of metal allows for a much greater organic feel. The finished products are varnished to make them weather resistant, a plus in our typically damp climate. A twist on Alice in Wonderland is carried over in some of the subject matter in the form of red and white toadstool mushrooms and bottles of potion with tags that read “Drink Me.” Images reminiscent of Day of the Dead skeletons, ravens, and mildly menacing stylized leafless trees are also popular. Using animals and nature as subject matter conveys a connection to the earth just as gems, skeleton keys, hearts and other trinkets mingling with swirls of silver, copper, and bronze dangle from the painted pendants, giving them an innocent playful quality.
Visit her Web site, Toxic Pretty, at www.toxicpretty.com and contact her at spiral@toxicpretty.com for commissioned work or meet her in person. Niemann will be painting live in Seattle Friday, Sept. 12, at The Mix.
[The Mix, Sept. 12, 9 p.m., 6004 12th Ave. S., Seattle]
