“OMG.” A painting by artist Femke Hiemstra.
One of my great passions is art, though I would never claim to be a scholar in the subject by any means. However, I do spend an awful lot of time immersed in the process of discovery and exploration of old and new artists from all around the world. I mean, just when you think you know everything about Salvador Dali, you wake up one day and realize you just don’t and perhaps never will, which is actually pretty cool if you ask me. Now let me do you a huge favor by turning you on to the work of Amsterdam-born artist Femke Hiemstra.
I was lucky enough to get to see a few of Hiemstra’s fantastic animal-themed paintings at Seattle’s Roq La Rue gallery about five years ago. A favorite of Roq La Rue, Hiemstra was also a part of the very last show held at the legendary gallery before it sadly closed its doors last year. The never-ending news concerning the erosion of vital Seattle cultural spots aside, I was really thrilled to see that Hiemstra has been keeping busy creating more of her weirdly whimsical paintings of animals in strange situations.
In her nifty FAQ over at Femtasia (the artist’s official site), she lists a few things that inspire her such as vintage Little Golden Books and the way animals behave. That last bit gets me, as after looking through her vast portfolio I need to know if Hiemstra has witnessed a group of kitties praying to an image of a giant cat face that has just emerged from a watermelon (pictured at the top of this post).
In case you’re interested in adding some of Hiemstra’s captivating artwork to your collection, you can purchase various giclée prints here.
“Death of a Ghost.”
“The Groupies.”
“The Snack Spirit.”
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Animals armed with guns & snake oil salesmen: The confrontational ceramics of Mitchell Grafton
Nightmarish bone-and-metal sculptures of imaginary animals
Animal/human hybrid sculptures and other menacing ceramic characters
Natural History Surrealist Sculpture: Exquisite dreamlike plant-animal hybrids
Unsettling ‘Island of Dr. Moreau’-ish human / animal hybrid sculptures by Deborah Sengl