Atomic Artistry

I had the privilege of meeting Tara Zalewsky last month, who is a local artist here in Albuquerque. She is FABULOUS - articulate and adorable.

She gave a small group from my painting class a private showing of her work and it simply blew me AWAY. She gave us all sorts of secrets and insights and was just wonderful... Tara earned her MFA in 2006 at the University of New Mexico; she gives me hope that I can one day kick-ass like she does!

She had some of her work from a series she did called "Thursday Night Portraits" which were images of the creatively-costumed swing dancers at the Atomic Cantina.

This is a taste of those portraits (what I could find on the web):


She uses really loose brushwork, but it is effective and gorgeous in person.

Tara also makes these wicked Muppet-esque bird sculptures from found objects:


BUT WAIT! Then she dramatically lights the sculptures and paints portraits of them - these paintings are HUGE- immense & absolutely monumental:


Seeing the work so small in a photograph just doesn't do them justice. They are like five feet tall and they look like they could animate themselves at any moment.


LOVEloveLOVEloveLOVE.

I would buy one in a heartbeat, but they run about $1500-$2000. Out of my meager budget right now. But if I had the cash, obtaining one of these would be worth every penny.


She had these two smaller works behind where I was sitting. They made me giggle and I love them, too:


Graaargh! Ima gonna eats you! NOM NOM NOM.


People like this inspire me endlessly. I wish that there were more quirky fabulous artist people in the world.

Or at least in my neighborhood...