Tory Van Wey

Feature, Feature! Read All About It!

I would like to give Ms. Hilary Hahn of Pink Pianos a resounding HUZZAH! for her wonderful feature on her blog! Check out the article below and be sure to stop by www.pinkpianos.com to see Hilary’s gorgeous refinished furniture, vintage gems, and worldly finds!

I’m happy to announce my new series, An Artist a Day, in which I will be featuring talented artists every Tuesday in May, that I am lucky enough to know in person.

I met Tory last year at Coachella Valley Art and Music Festival as part of an artist’s team.

Tory Van Wey is an artist and illustrator out of the San Francisco Bay Area. I like her work because it is a playful and insightful. She creates a bridge between the human and natural worlds. As her biography notes, she uses contrast and bold composition to lend a strong graphic quality to her work while her level of detail displays a dedication to finer crafts. Her works spans several mediums including silkscreen and letterpress printing with a primary focus on cut paper and ink illustration.

Tory remembers, “When I was a little girl I used to sit outside in my back yard and construct elaborate scenes using the materials around me. I would use seed pods from the ash tree to make a pair of fairy wings. A fuscia blossom would become a ballerina and acorns from the oak would be hats. I would peel the bark off a birch tree and shape it into houses for the creatures in my imagination. The tactile sense of dirt and leaves between my fingers left me with a great curiosity and love of organic forms. These daydreams from childhood are the roots of common themes present in my work; exploring the opposition and connection between the fantastic and the organic, the natural and man made and reweaving the threads that run throughout.

“The patience and tactility of paper cutting attracted me to the medium and it turned out to be a natural evolution of my drawings and design. I find the simplicity of the medium and the complexity of the final result to be a direct reflection of the contradictions in my art. ”

I think that Tory’s work is really dynamic because of her composition and use of color!

One piece from her blog, that I’d like to share was designed for Beach House the Indie soft rock group from Baltimore, Maryland.

She captures their organic sound so well in this piece. I could totally see it as their album art.

She draws inspiration from ancient Japanese woodblock carvings, vintage concert posters, European folk art, and music of all persuasions.More of Tory’s work can be seen on her blog at www.toryvanwey.com

For more of this series stop by next Tuesday, for images and a biography of artist Andrea Long Chavez.

“A self described ‘chronic doodler,’ Andrea is an artist who works from her environment. Finding inspiration in her interactions with kind people and old places, she likes drawing people on the bus and bargain hunters sifting through thrift stores for that gem.”

More to come!

Thanks Hilary!

Another year at Coachella

I have emerged from the dust cloud that is the Coachella Valley Art and Music Festival/Stagecoach Country Music Festival. It was a lovely little vacation from reality. This was my third year working as a member of the art department and I met some wonderful folks, saw amazing bands, drank cheap beer, and pretty much got paid to have a good time and make art.

I was lucky enough to get to make art for Edwarde Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, which was also the standout performance of the weekend in my opinion.

The concept art for the print I made for them:

The final poster was a little rough looking with an eerie blue tinge which actually gave it a very a very sun washed look. I think I pulled it together nicely considering I had about three weeks to do 9 pieces of art for various bands.

I also did this piece for Beach House:

I was really feeling the red and black this year and apparently the performers were feeling it to, because all but one took their pieces home with them. Next year I am shooting for a 100% non-return rate.

The other band I was impressed with this year was a group from Australia called The Middle East.