The blog I visit the most on a regular basis is "My Love For You Is a Stampede of Horses," and that is not hyperbole. I "stumbled" across it not by happenstance but because one day I was stalking the former editor of the blog I used to contribute to (starts with a J ends with a Z) and rummaged through her personal blog for trusted links to artists I wanted to celebrate and follow. I've loved her taste and credit much of my aesthetic to what I learned from her (J******z was my first writing gig after all, thanks to homegirl).

I fell in love with "My Love For You Is a Stampede of Horses," with this girl's style, how she's partial to line drawings paired with fluorescent and bold colors. I feel there is a kinship here of overall tonality, method and theme. So when I found out Meighan O'Toole (the blogger in question) was curating a show at Needles and Pens, I had to check it out.

It's apparent that each of the pieces in "You've Got Light in Your Eyes," are to O'Toole's liking. It's as if they're all a part of this cult of unreality and the art of dream. Many of the pieces are festooned with bright and bold color, but moreover explore faraway paths of emotions. Ashley Lande's "When I Stood Upon a Mountain and My Father's Hand Was Trembling with the Beauty of the World" charges me time and time again. The man, Jesus-like, is a fantastic, zealous, dreadful creature, moved by some folkloric earthsong, maybe something the wind sang to him, who knows?

Besides the obvious: that all these images exist in this similar dreamland curated by O'Toole, you get why she strings these particular pieces together. Pleading, ecstatic or otherwise radiantly emotive, all these works leave a residue of identifiable and poignant characteristics. Like they've all got something to scream: their wild birdsongs.

--Jolene Torr

(*Images, from top to bottom:  Know Hope, You've Got Light in Your Eyes. Ashley Lande Brown, When I Stood Upon a Mountain and My Father’s Hand was Trembling with the Beauty of the World, 16 x 20".  Bill Dunlap, Songs of Praise, 30 x 18".  All photos by Andrew M. Scott.)