Love Letters

Writing to artists we can’t stop thinking about

The fingers, roots of a tree stump stretch into warm green grass like veins of a river, the sky shades of pink and peach and cream, beyond, a lush treeline just below.

FROM THE ARCHIVES | Love Letter to Patricia Hagen

A Port Townsend-based painter ponders the simultaneity of life and death in her portraits of stumps.

by Lisa Jaffe January 5, 2022January 5, 2022

An image of composer and musician Pauline Oliveros performing. The orientation of the image is skewed, so the floor is slanted and angles down to the right. Oliveros sits on a chair with a large accordion, her head is tilted down, her eyes are closed, and she has an expression of deep concentration. Oliveros sits in a large gallery room, and behind her there is a giant white ear on the wall with a huge, brass ear horn.

FROM THE ARCHIVES | Love Letter to Pauline Oliveros

Over the next few weeks, the VW team is looking back and highlighting some of our favorite pieces.

by Zeny May Recidoro December 14, 2021December 30, 2021

Two naked figures interlock, each of their legs wrapped tightly around the other's, with one reclined on the floor and the other bracing themself with the other's hands.

Love Letter to Tee Corinne

Through an activist lens, a photographer makes lesbian sexuality visible, allowing others to imagine new futures for themselves.

by Sam Wrigglesworth November 30, 2021November 30, 2021

In the center of a room, two individuals lie on the ground, their gaze fixed on a massive sculpture, recalling the shape of an atomic bomb, which is hovering just above them. Around the edge of the room, people watch a chilling moment unfold; among them, more vertically hanging sculpture hang.

Love Letter to Yukiyo Kawano

A third-generation hibakusha (atomic bomb survivor) explores the DNA of grief, violence, pain, and generational trauma via sculpture.

by Jennifer Rabin September 28, 2021September 29, 2021

On the right, a toy figure reclines on a toy bed; on the left, a pile a small toy objects, including a teddy bear, a few chairs, a dresser, etc. lay in a pile—all before a red background.

Love Letter to Patty Gone

An homage to art that shatters academic and “High Art” facades of elitism with the everyday.

by Will Darling September 14, 2021September 14, 2021

A white limousine snakes around a 90 degree corner, carved into the side of a steep grass hill. In the distance, telephone wire stretches into the jungle of suburbia.

Love Letter to Torbjørn Rødland

A Norwegian-born artist casts light onto the strangeness of beauty in the US.

by Jens Pettersen August 31, 2021November 9, 2021

Blotches of color, bubbles of leaves, stamped, vivid splays of 2-dimensional fern—forested layers stretch into the foreground as they're crowded into the back, the sky barely rosy beyond.

Love Letter to Gillian Theobald

Oscillating between figuration and abstraction, this Seattle-based painter captures the depths and textures of daydreams.

by Elizabeth Arzani August 17, 2021September 29, 2021

Love Letter to Frank Paletta

A spinal cord injury survivor’s bold, expressive brushstrokes marry the essence art making and living.

by Anne Carmack August 10, 2021September 14, 2021

Love Letter to Patricia Hagen

A Port Townsend-based painter ponders the simultaneity of life and death in her portraits of stumps.

by Lisa Jaffe July 22, 2021August 9, 2021

An individual holds their breasts in their hands, the tattoos on their their chest and stomach exposed as a leather jacket is drawn open, like a curtain.

Love Letter to Suzanne Shifflett

A Long Beach-based painter subverts the fetishization of the female body through bold portraits.

by Lucy Talbot Allen July 13, 2021July 13, 2021

In the center, a sketch is pinned to a tree stump. Atop it, a plant potted in a squatty orange vase. The rest of the scene is swallowed up by leaves of varying, brilliant patterns and colors.

Love Letter to Anna Valdez

An artist’s use of color breathes new life into normal, everyday scenes.

by Nora Gaarder July 6, 2021July 6, 2021

A beast, adorned with bright blue, pink and silver scales, stands upright with its front legs crossed behind its back, its tail flared behind it like obedient coat tails and its tusks curved skyward, glimmering gold. Its ears are pointed and eyes set forward.

Love Letter to Roberto Benavidez

Explore the inner lives of inanimate sculpture in this Love Letter to an artist, whose work teeters on that delicate line between life and lifelessness.

by Jennifer Gersten June 29, 2021June 29, 2021

A colossal mass of brushstroke and shape, movement, color and sound. Squiggles and curves and blobs and clusters of dots and shapes of almost things crowd this white canvas.

Love Letter to Kindah Khalidy

A weird, whimsical painter inspires an artist in lockdown to pick up the brush once more.

by Cheyenne Bilderback June 23, 2021June 24, 2021

This teetering, conglomerous mass seems to stand on one leg, reaching toward the sky. Airplane parts—some conical, others wing-like—jut and stretch and bend and crowd to each other. At the top, something like hollow eyes gaze forward.

Love Letter to Nancy Rubins

An L.A.-based sculptor defies gravity, formality, and convention in her monumental practice.

by Sara Softness June 15, 2021June 15, 2021

Two wobbly rainbow-arc objects totter imperfectly and intersect, hold each other up. One is colored with darker shades and the other lighter. All against a soft beige canvas, littered with scratches and splatters and marks.

Love Letter to Alicia McCarthy

An painter uses her brush to dig deep into Californian culture and excavate meaning.

by Johnny Capetta June 8, 2021June 8, 2021

Pieces of treated, in-progress wood are organized on a white table and marked in pencil. Behind those in the foreground are triangular pieces, those in the shapes of small houses, so on; and beyond that, glances of a studio space.

Love Letter to Pamela Weir-Quiton

A woodmaker leans into disorientation, offering insight into a moment that feels otherwise aimless.

by Tanya Ward Goodman May 25, 2021May 25, 2021

A United States flag, stitched onto blue fabric, is folded on itself and spewing streams of subtle orange strips of fabric, as on fire, but nowhere near engulfed.

Love Letter to Joey Veltkamp

Seattle-based textile artist’s “soft paintings” merge subtlety and protest, queering the familiar and undermining the normal.

by Emma Banks May 18, 2021May 17, 2021

A mountainous mass of strange and abstracted facial features mold together—red-painted lips, soft peachy skin, sharp nose, sharp green eyes ,and all—and rise out of the bottom of the frame. Monstrous yet lovely, this figure is enrapturing.

Love Letter to Huguette Caland

From Lebanon to Los Angeles, this striking artist pushed cultural boundaries to carve out a space for her bold and unique, abstract landscapes.

by Nadine Nour el Din May 11, 2021May 11, 2021

A spherical, squatty bottle with two ornate necks, is draped with braids and shimmers in a semi-rusted, semi-iridescent blue.

Love Letter to Beatrice Wood

An Ojai-based potter rejects expectations to bring newly vibrant life to her work.

by Grace Linden May 4, 2021May 3, 2021

A woman wearing a black dress with rectangles stitched into it stands before a pink wall with a stagelight focused on her, casting a long black shadow behind her. The same pattern on her dress is framed and hung on the wall behind her.

Love Letter to Juliana Giraffe

L.A.-based artist and musician inspires fearlessness through song, film, and canvas.

by JB Bergin April 29, 2021April 29, 2021

A figure is seated on a chair holding a vase, their limbs drawn using simple lines and shaded in such a way that confuses both dimension and permanence. What seems to be another figure behind them reaches either to or through them.

Love Letter to Tahnee Lonsdale

As we emerge from isolation, an L.A. painter contemplates the boundaries between the world and the self.

by Emma Frohardt April 20, 2021April 20, 2021

Wedged into a large gash in a curved wall, matte gold, geometric crystallings pile up, at once coming out of and crowding into this opening in a wall.

Love Letter to Paige Smith

Crystalline urban sculptures remind us that the earth has something to say.

by Jason Keil April 13, 2021April 13, 2021

A painting of a "Chase" bank on fire, the storefront pristine and seemingly untouched with flames roaring out from the roof with gushes smoke just behind it.

Love Letter to Alex Schaefer

In an ode to LA, a painter blends his sardonic cityscapes with capitalist critique.

by Lexi Lane April 6, 2021April 6, 2021

Full-body painting on found material of a woman standing upright, her hair short and lips painted the same bold red as the rest of the outline of her body. She wears little clothing and balances a large, round object on her head.

Love Letter to Margaret Kilgallen

A San Francisco street artist teaches men to be better femimists.

by Jeff Alessandrelli March 30, 2021March 30, 2021

Small, handwritten text reading "This is WHERE THE REVEREND LIVES" is etched beneath a rendering of a small house, swallowed up by a sea of white paint. Gouging across the center-right of the canvas, a mass of black and an abutting mass of warm pink hover.

Love Letter to Anne Carmack

Santa Monica-based painter cracks open the ordinary, starting a conversation between image and language, seen and unseen.

by Natalie Warther March 23, 2021March 22, 2021

A dog rears on its hind legs, a snarl on its face. Its coat is multicolored and impressionistic, set against a deep blue backdrop.

Love Letter to Rick Bartow

Examining identity, struggle, and trauma through vivid and chaotic abstraction.

by Keisha Raines March 16, 2021March 15, 2021

An amorphous cloud of color and movement made up of various brushstrokes, including dabbed lines of purposeful drops of paint and more subtle, curved lines that weave and meander around, over, and with each other. The piece is sparse, the color choices bold and earthy.

Love Letter to Alexa Grambush

An LA-based painter’s evocative, abstract works explore the mysterious nature of being alive.

by Justin Duyao March 11, 2021March 10, 2021

Photograph of a row of seven tall, rectangular hedges lining the edge of what seems to be a parking lot, each with slightly different amounts of stray, untrimmed branches. Behind the shrubbery, industrial walls of various heights and colors compose the background. A single, blurred tire track is streaked across the concrete.

Love Letter to Rachelle Mendez

An LA-based photographer’s vivid portraits of suburban Southern California.

by Alison Tam March 2, 2021

A film still showing a view through a window. Behind the window, a white sculpture of a man's head in the style of Ancient Greek sculpture lies on its side on a table covered in a taupe, satiny cloth. A large, shiny, gold object that could be a sculpture of a sun shape sits below it, cut off by the bottom of the frame. The scene outside the window reflects in it, creating a surreal compression of space.

Love Letter to Nathaniel Dorsky

A San Francisco filmmaker’s intimate vision of the city.

by Chiara Reynal Brown February 25, 2021February 25, 2021

A ceramic sculpture in the shape of a torso, from clavicle to hips, made out of leaves. The warm brown leaves are layered, but don't entirely cover the torso, leaving gaps where you to see into the sculpture.

Love Letter to Linda Litteral

Processing trauma through painting and sculpture.

by Taylor Griggs February 9, 2021February 9, 2021

A painting of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The painter used large, evocative brushstrokes to create a portrait that is both painterly and immediately recognizable as Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Love Letter to Eel Costello

A time lapse video of portrait in process reveals the painting’s emotional undercurrents.

by Nora Noone January 26, 2021January 26, 2021

A room with brown walls and grey cement floors filled with headless female mannequins wearing various outfits for a range of seasons. The colors are primarily black and white, with a few yellow, brown, grey, and red garments.

Love Letter to Andrea Zittel

On finding comfort in simplicity.

by Bethy Squires January 19, 2021January 19, 2021

A black and white photograph of Laetitia Sonami crouching, viewed from above and at an angle so Sonami's body fills the space from the upper left and bottom right corners. Sonami holds her left hand over her face, wearing a glove with electronic circuits and wires extending past the wrist like mechanical tendons. Her dark hair is messy and pulled back.

Love Letter to Laetitia Sonami

Sparkling aural textures tangle with a narrative of tragedies and triumphs.

by Zeny May Recidoro January 12, 2021January 12, 2021

A painting of a lounging nude woman on the backs of other canvas paintings aligned into a grid. The woman is depicted reclined on a chaise longe, propped up on pillows, with a small dog at her feet. The woman wears a mask made of collaged brain scans, and has the white and red cane often used by blind or visually impaired people at her side.

Love Letter to Katherine Sherwood

Providing space and care for people with disabilities through references to historical painting.

by Elizabeth Rooklidge January 5, 2021January 5, 2021

An abstract landscape painting with thick brushstrokes describing overlapping, rolling hills. The artist used ochre, pale pink, moss green, Kelly green, taupe, and vermillion for the different hills, with geometric highlights in white and pale yellow. Light blue hovers over the horizon, fading upward into pale yellow.

Love Letter to Bernice Bing

On falling in love with a painter through one photograph.

by Caroline Tracey December 8, 2020December 8, 2020

A round woven basket seen from below. The basket is covered with intricate black and white beads creating a swirl pattern emanating from the center, which is a small circle of white beads.

Love Letter to Mabel McKay

Intricate baskets blur the line between functional objects and artistry.

by Katie Kheriji-Watts December 1, 2020December 1, 2020

A photograph of a square format spiral bound sketchbook with a sketchy drawing in black graphite. The drawing depicts a person bent over and walking through a crowded space. Perpendicular to the drawing horizon, cursive handwritten text reads: "A man in searching for his belongings between the..." followed by two illegible words. In the bottom right corner, the artist wrote "Jacques Francois Leroy" and crossed the words out.

Love Letter to Norma Cole

Marvelous and strange drawings pose questions about the visual world.

by Paul Maziar November 24, 2020November 24, 2020

A marble sculpture that resembles a benign, almost blooming flower, but the pointed tips of the spiraled corolla mimic fingers pressed together to quickly, sharply pursue an object. Finally, above the base of the piece, there's a small hole.

Love Letter to Yoko Kubrick

Abstracting myths and archetypes in evocative marble.

by Kennedy Horton November 17, 2020November 17, 2020

Two photographs displayed site by side in thin, cobalt blue frames. Both are identical black and white portraits of a woman, but the left image is negative and the right image is positive. Shown from the shoulder up, her body is perpendicular to the camera and her face turns toward the camera. Her arms cross in front of her body, with her right hand placed over her left shoulder. Her right hand is raised to cover most of her face, and holds a cigarette.

Love Letter to Natalie Krick

A new blue is just one of the reasons to love Krick’s latest series.

by Tom Winchester November 10, 2020November 10, 2020

A video still of a recording of Ron Athey's performance "St. Sebastian." Athey is suspended by ropes hooked into his flesh, another person wearing latex gloves inserts a long, thin metal rod into his bicep. Athey has an expression of entranced semi-consciousness.

Love Letter to Ron Athey

On the radical queer embodiment of Ron Athey’s performances.

by Sam Moore October 27, 2020October 27, 2020

Love Letter to Bean Gilsdorf

The stiff gravitas of US politicians made floppy and satirical.

by Elizaveta Alexandrovna Shneyderman October 20, 2020October 22, 2020

A watercolor painting of a ghostly white river winding through colorfully painted, angular rocks and trees.

Love Letter to Dr. Qinqin Liu

Painting California’s watersheds as a way to cope with the climate crisis.

by Alison Tam October 13, 2020October 22, 2020

A portrait of painter Leonora Carrington with blue morning glory flowers draped around her shoulders. A bright white orb shines through a grey haze behind Carrington.

Love Letter to Katherine Ace

Exploring fantastical and surreal subjects in masterful portraits.

by Sheila Regan October 6, 2020October 22, 2020

A woman with medium length wavy brown hair is on her hands and knees on a custard yellow couch, as though caught in the act of rising from a lying position. She looks up into the camera.

Love Letter to Laida Lertxundi

The pleasure of finding ways to describe a filmmaker’s roving vision.

by Kaitlyn A. Kramer September 29, 2020October 22, 2020

a cartoon chicken at a table looking forlornly at a plate of sunny-side up eggs. The scene is comically absurd, made sinister by its sparse backdrop and message; the subdued, mustard-colored background complements the pair of potential chicks served up on a platter.

Love Letter to Luke Chueh

On feeling guilty enjoying a Luke Chueh painting.

by Sylvie Soulet September 22, 2020October 22, 2020

A shallow, rectangular box containing a figurine of the racist caricature Aunt Jemima. In one hand she holds a broom and a pistol, in the other hand she holds a rifle. A postcard of the racist "mammy" caricature holding a white baby covers the Aunt Jemima doll's lower body. A Black power fist covers the lower body of the mammy figure in the card. The Aunt Jemima doll stands on a bed of fluffy white cotton. The back of the box is covered with a grid Aunt Jemima logos.

Love Letter to Betye Saar

Betye Saar’s found object assemblages visualize the possibility of liberation.

by Ann C. Collins September 15, 2020October 22, 2020

A digital drawing of the anime character Sailor Moon, reimagined as a young Black woman. She has full lips, curly blond hair, hoop earrings, and piercing eyes.

Love Letter to Jazmin Anita

The power of Black women portraying themselves as diverse and beautiful.

by Kennedy Horton September 8, 2020October 22, 2020

Love Letter to Pauline Oliveros

Listening to music as an act of kinship.

by Zeny May Recidoro August 31, 2020October 22, 2020

A bright and colorful pastel and graphite drawing with one, neon pink person reclining horizontally next to a pale pink person with short green hair

Love Letter to Pace Taylor

Conflicting desires in fields of soft pastel and leaden graphite details

by Amelia Rina May 14, 2020October 22, 2020

Love Letter to jayy dodd

A glitchy, intimate escape during quarantine questions value systems

by Amelia Rina May 5, 2020October 22, 2020

Writing to artists we can’t stop thinking about

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