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Psst - we're offering free standard shipping for all domestically purchased prints on The Working Proof for today only, until 9:00pm! Happy cyber monday!

Gretchen Wagoner: Crosscut Exhibition

If you are in Miami between December 3-7th, be sure to check out Crosscut, an exhibition featuring ten artists, including Gretchen Wagoner.

Dan Funderburgh: Optimist Club / Midwestern Can Snake

Optimist Club / Midwestern Can Snake, by Dan Funderburgh.
15% of the gross sale of this print goes to Transportation Alternatives.

Dan Funderburgh is a wallpaper designer and artist in Brooklyn, NY. His patterns, prints and installations are varied in content but all demonstrate an unabashed love for decorative arts. With influences ranging from Moorish mosaic to American op art, the work is a repudiation of the fabricated schism between art and decoration. Some of Dan's work can be found in the collections of the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum and the Miami Museum of Art.

Optimist Club / Midwestern Can Snake depicts a fancy snake involved with plastic six-pack rings.

The print is a two-color letterpress on Crane Lettra 110lb. paper. It was printed at The Arm in Brooklyn, NY.

PURCHASE $40!

What has inspired you recently?
Jujus and enchanted objects. Magic sticks and trash.

Why did you choose to pair Transportation Alternatives with your print?
Transportation Alternatives works tirelessly to make my city easier and safer to ride in, and for that I'm especially grateful.

How have you seen art transform the world around you?
Any wall in the city is constantly being re-covered with art and ads and graffiti and buffs. I find this kind of shifting environment inspiring.



If you could pick one artist to mentor you (dead or alive), who would it be and why?
Ernst Haeckel. His dedication to detail and beauty was matched by a commitment to science and exploration.

Who are some artists you think that other people should know about?
Aaron Storck, Cody Hudson, Cal Lane are a few of my favorites working today.

OSoo: Armadillo

Armadillo, by OSoo.
15% of the gross sale of this print goes to Doctors Without Borders.

Soo Hwangbo, aka OSoo, is an artist living and working in New York City with her husband. After receiving her BFA in fine art and design from Cornish College of the Arts, OSoo studied architecture at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). Since then, she has worked in the fashion industry, interior design, and architecture.

Armadillo is about blending realistic nature with things humans have found within nature (such as geometries, textures, patterns, and colors).

The print is printed on archival Epson Velvet Fine Art paper with archival Epson pigment inks.

PURCHASE $30!

What has inspired you recently?
Armadillo gets its inspiration from a lot of different sources. In particular, the inspiration for the work comes from my love of hand-woven textiles, folk art, and ancient ceramics. The patterns and patterning, color and its combinations, and its focus on nature, have all had a profound meaning on me and ultimately this painting.

Why did you choose to pair Doctors Without Borders with your print?
I chose to pair Armadillo with Doctors Without Borders because I believe in human compassion. Doctors Without Borders is a life-saving organization that provides care to people that otherwise would have no opportunity for health-care, food, water, and sanitation. Human compassion is something that can change the world, if not the lives in it.

How have you seen art transform the world around you?
Art is nature, only translated into a universal language that we can sense. In this way, art has a very human quality to it that I believe affects those who choose to interact with it.



If you could pick one artist to mentor you, who would it be?
If I could choose one artist to mentor under, I would choose Frank Lloyd Wright because I feel a certain connection to his work. The details, geometries, quality of line, and association with nature all have some semblance in the work that I am most interested in doing.

Who are some artists that other people should know about?
I think people should know more about Ruth Asawa. She has an uncanny ability to take things that we tend to think of as simple and easy, and create works of art that are so impressive that they go far beyond what we could ever imagine. Her work exudes patience which I believe has brought upon her mastery of technique. From that she is able to fully express the beauty of her imagination.

Yasmine Surovec: Fancy Dress

Fancy Dress, by Yasmine Surovec

Yasmine Surovec is a designer and illustrator based in the Bay Area with her husband - who is a sculptor - and two dogs and two cats.

I have a love for things that are vintage and imperfect. I'd once seen an old dress with tattered laces and with the fabric worn out and stained. That image stuck in my imagination and Fancy Dress came from that. The dress was drawn from start to finish in one sitting.

PURCHASE $35!

What has inspired you recently?
This is one of those things that is difficult to answer as I often get "inspiration overload". But I am most inspired and ideas start to flow most freely after I've taken some time away to not actually think about anything.

Why did you choose to pair the Kids in Need Foundation with your print?
I chose to pair my print with Kids in Need. Having grown up in a place where I’ve seen and worked with children below the poverty level, many children don’t go to school or have been taken out of school too early. I feel that it is important to give to organizations that help with the educational needs of children, particularly those who have very little to no education.

How have you seen art transform the world around you?
I think that it has helped to improve the lives of people. Creativity in general allows for outside-of-the-box thinking. Innovations wouldn't happen without factoring in creativity.



If you could pick one artist to mentor you, who would it be?
Henry Darger. He lived a simple, humble life yet he was able to create these wonderful works of art. He had a wild, vivid imagination and it shows in his work.

Who are some artists that other people should know about?
For the most part, I absolutely love folk art - art passed from one generation to another. I love Pennsylvania Dutch motifs, the tribal, indigenous arts of Southeast Asia and the Americas. If I were to name a few artists, it would be Gregory Blackstock, and as mentioned, Henry Darger, and quite a number of outsider artists.

Justin Richel: The Jewel Of The Mind Becomes Jaded In Time

The Jewel Of The Mind Becomes Jaded In Time, by Justin Richel

Justin Richel was born in New Jersey in 1979. He is an artist whose main focus is painting complex and detailed compositions that range in content from mountains of sweets, to men with ridiculous wigs, and presidents and birds. These works share a common theme of an underlying social commentary. He is primarily a painter, whose medium of choice is gouache. Justin received his BFA from the Maine College of Art. He also studied the technique of Icon painting at the Franciscan Monastery in Kennebunk, ME and was a fellow at The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA for two years. He now reside in the northwest mountains of Maine, with his lovely lady Shannon and their adorable kitty. His work has exhibited throughout the U.S. and recently in Switzerland, Germany and China.

Process sketch/reference drawing

About the print:
The Jewel Of The Mind Becomes Jaded In Time is from an original gouache painting. This print is about potential, and the gift that we are all given. We can choose to take advantage of this amazing faculty or squander it in vain. Our minds are our greatest gift. We have the ability to solve all of the world's challenges through positive and responsible solutions.

This print was digitally printed on Hahnemühle german etching archival fine art paper with pigment-based, Epson UltraChrome K3 inks.

PURCHASE $45!

What has inspired you recently?
Nature is my biggest inspiration. I am amazed by its beauty and its ability to function as an entity all of its own. I like to be outside as much as possible. It feeds a part of me that I don't get from creating art. It has the ability to help me find my center and nature reminds me that all of this world is running a natural course - that struggle as we might to control it, we can also go along with the flow and let go of our resistance. It's all so much easier when I am able to do this.

Why did you choose to pair Architecture For Humanity with your print?
I chose Architecture For Humanity because it's a perfect example of what I was talking about when I mentioned our ability to solve challenges through positive and responsible solutions. Architecture plays a very important role in society, now more than ever before. We are starting to see a shift away from the modern era and realizing that there is so much more to building a structure than simply aesthetic decisions. It is becoming a science of sorts and looking to include nature as a collaborator rather than something in the way.

How have you seen art transform the world around you?
Art is essentially a way of seeing and communicating the world around us. It seems the boundaries between art and life are becoming increasingly blurred to the point that one could argue that there is no difference between the two, only a choice of perception. Artists are always shaping the way we see and experience life. I don't think people should feel like art is something that hangs on a wall and that sometimes you look at it on your way to the living room. Art has the ability to transform by sharing insight.



If you could pick one artist to mentor you, who would it be?
Buckminster Fuller. He was a modern renaissance man in the truest sense, and well ahead of his time. He had a deep understanding of the role design should play in our lives and our responsibility for using our minds for the greater good of humanity. I think we could all use a little Bucky right now.

Who are some artists that other people should know about?
Well I have to start close to home and share the work of my lovely lady Shannon Rankin. She makes wonderful map collages and installations. Tim Horn - amazing sculpture. If you haven’t heard of Buckminster Fuller, I would have a look. Jenny Kendler, Walton Ford, and many others - check out my artist link page on my site.