Tuesday greetings to my collector friends, old and new. Your ranks have swelled considerably since my last dispatch — last week's ridiculousness and Domino's I-couldn't-have-asked-for-anything-better feature seem to have sparked the artistically acquisitive instincts of lots of people. It's been quite a while since we've introduced a new edition, so this newsletter is both a hearty welcome to the newcomers and a "it's good to be back!" to established subscribers. Having twice weekly deadlines can be punishing, but the fact is that I love introducing new artists, and I get an awful lot of inspiration from the collectors who read and respond.

Today's fine art edition, Hermaphrodite, is by Amy Talluto, a New York denizen and New Orleans native who I had the pleasure of meeting in person just yesterday. I'm very smitten with Amy's work, which reminds me simultaneously of the golden era of our National Parks, some of my favorite roadtrips, Van Gogh (in a good, not cliched kind of way!) and Japanese scroll paintings, but I confess to being initially confused by this edition's title. It wasn't until I read Amy's statement that I realized it was a sly reference to what she describes as "curious and unexpected phenomenon that appeared while painting the main pine tree trunk." See what she's saying? Now you get it, right?

I was only able to chat with Amy ever-so-briefly yesterday, but the title seems to speak to what I got a glimpse of during our interaction: someone who's serious about her work, but doesn't take herself too seriously, and someone who both enjoys unexpected discoveries and finds humor in them. It's always great to put a face to a name, and it's especially the case when it also allows me to connect a painting with its artist.

It takes a certain kind of bravery to inject one's own psychology into the majesty of nature, as it requires the striking of a delicate balance. Amy navigates the treacherous border between representation and abstraction, using what I consider to be a really risky technique, with assurance. Her style is so assertive, her choices of color so bold and her brushstrokes so gregarious — it's like she's playing a game of chicken with cheesiness, one that she always wins. My eye follows a stroke, or encounters a color that could be garish, but she manages to exhibit just the proper amount of control over hue and medium, reigning things in before it all gets to be too much.

I'm not the only one smitten with Amy's work — as you can see on her site, she's in the midst of a busy exhibition schedule, with a solo show up in Chicago right now and work in two upcoming New York area exhibitions. She's one busy painter, and for good reason!

Me? I'm busy too, just like the rest of you are, so I'll take my leave 'til tomorrow, when I'll be back with an edition from one of the artists featured in that aforementioned Domino article.