art 21.

if you don't have cable like me sometimes you have to make the best of the 4 channels that you do get. thank god for pbs. they have this series called art 21 which focuses exclusively on contemporary visual art and artists in the US. it's pretty amazing and chocked full of information. one of my favorite artists shown on the show is vija celmins. i saw her rock paintings at the moma a few years ago and have been following her work ever since.

one set of those rocks are natural and one set is completely fabricated and it's nearly impossible to tell the difference between the two. much of her work revolves around recreating the natural world in all of it's imperfect detail. the following image is a wood engraving, which as a printmaker totally blows my mind. i always tend to feel rushed when working on a piece, but her attention and patience really shines through, must be why she recently won the carnegie prize. you can watch clips from the show on youtube and i highly recommend it!