jim henson

It was in a previous 'Reasons To Be Cheerful' post, a little over a year ago, that I happily reported that I'd found a new website for artist Isabel Samaras.

- That post mentioned how the various mythologies at play in her paintings had been changing in recent years; It also displayed a few examples, provided links to more, and excitedly mentioned that a book collecting her work was being planned. (Follow link)

Now here we are, Spring of '09, and I'm excited to have received word of an Isabel Samaras double-whammy in the offing...

◀Her long-awaited monograph from Chronicle Books, 'On Tender Hooks: The Art of Isabel Samaras' is due to make its appearance any day now, and looks lovely.

Chronicle is also simultaneously releasing a fancy limited edition of the book that's packaged with a print, and a handy paperback book of 30 Samaras postcards, which will surely feature some of her earlier 'classical' riffs on pop-culture icons.


But wait! There's more - -


A new series of Isabel Samaras paintings will be unveiled in a few weeks in
San Francisco!

- Into The Woodz: New Works by Isabel Samaras will show at The Shooting Gallery, 839 Larkin Street in San Francisco, from 5/9/2009 - 6/4/2009.

◀ The new paintings take the childrens classic 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears', and re-works it as a more contemporary romantic tale.

In a preview posting at her blog, i feel it too, Isabel gives some details:

"When I started working on the paintings for this show I was thinking about the Princess culture being sold to little girls – how your highest aspiration is to be rescued, married off and whisked away to a far off castle.

"But what happened to the girl who didn’t hook up with a Prince, who stayed in the woods?

"I wanted to explore that story, so for this show I picked Goldilocks, and as I so often do I created my own version of a happier ending — that the moment when she and Baby Bear lay eyes on each other it was love at first sight. (Goldy has definitely gone to the bears.)

"In my imagination the girl who stayed in the woods got to find herself after she got lost — she didn’t trade her identity in for a tiara, and she found true love (because love conquers all, even inter-species romance)."


- Read more of Isabel's thoughts about these paintings and sneak a few further peeks of them at her blog.

- Read more about the gallery show at Happenstand and at Juxtapoz.