little friends

One of Those Days

Totally dig these prints by Portland, OR artist, Ashley Goldberg. I love the grumpy, serious, petulant, skeptical,
sad expressions. Makes total sense because those are my main expressions. And I love her etsy profile!
Here's a quote, so you can love her, too. 

I strongly believe in what you're happiest doing at five is what you will be happiest doing your entire life.
Growing up, I endlessly drew and embroidered onto washcloths that my grandma gave me little creatures
and animals that I desperately wanted to live in the woods of my backyard.

Oh, Ashley, how I wish you had been a part of our sister cadre! We could have played pioneers in the woods together.
Take a stroll through her prints...

Brought to you by the letters P & M.

This is a detail from Nomade, a painted stainless steel sculpture by Spanish artist, Jaume Plensa, installed in the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park in Des Moines, IA. I wandered through the park with my friends Dan & Rachel on a rainy afternoon. Rachel and I were both wearing canvas shoes--fools!--and while I can't speak for Rachel, my shoes are now the grossest things ever. Sorry for any shoe ruination you may have experienced, Rachel. Anyway, while standing inside this sculpture and reading all the angsty teenager graffiti, Rachel spotted something. She has such sharp eyes...

darling deerface

Little Bear Giclee Print

I'd like you to meet Devon Smith, the artist behind the darling Deerface. (Psst...I added the darling because she is!) This is a brief sampling of her illustrative work. Pretty pretty, right? I love how all the girls look either really petulant or really suspicious. And isn't petulant an excellent word? Petulant. Pet-u-lant. Sorry. This is how I amuse myself.

Double or Nothing watercolor & ink

Paper body tissue art...yes please!

If you haven't already seen Lisa Nilsson's amazing body tissue series then you are missing out. Lisa creates detailed cross-cut pictures of human anatomy using paper and a technique calling quilling. I mean seriously, check it out.

Be sure to check out all of Lisa's work by visiting her website here.

in good company

Have you ever turned on your computer to write a post about some awesome secret amazingness, and you open up your gmail to find your Bloglovin daily feed has a blog featuring the exact item you were thinking about posting on? Isn't that always the way? Oh well. Rather than deviate from my original plan, I'm just going to acknowledge it and revel in the good company.

I've been swooning over the work of Lucky Jackson of 365 Lucky Days for a couple months now, but apparently, I was way too lazy to dedicate any time to writing a post about her, so my discovery claim--obviously--cannot be staked. Boo to me. Let this be a lesson to you my lads and ladies, seize the day...even when the only thing it entails is writing about someone whose work you admire.

Not that coming late to the party diminishes any of this in any way. So, wolf eyebrows just featured Lucky in a delightful embroidery roundup. (Also included was the pure delight of Children Playing With Fire, which Catherine gushed over a couple months back.)

Basically this is what I'm embroidery lusting over:

Bill

Pee-Wee

Clean, simple lines juxtaposed with vibrant, energetic fabric choices. And personality for days and days. OK, let's be honest here, probably more like years and years. Lucky's blog documents 365 days of embroidered bliss--one creation for every day. And they're not all dreamy gents and funny men, but I think I'll let you discover that on your own.

Leonard

Paul

Johnny

Lucky's blog, which is--honestly--one of a handful of blogs that makes me grin ear-to-ear each time I check in (That's without fail, people.), can be found here.

You can also purchase several of her works (and even patterns) in her shop.

And view a zillion of her embroidery endeavors (including Ms. Amy Poehler!) on her flickr stream.

Still hankering for more? There's also a little video documenting the stitching of Iggy Pop.

I'm feeling a lot of giddy admiration right now, my friends, a lot of giddy admiration indeed.

tossed and found

Green bottles and containers 

Oil, Alcohol and Drugs

I ran across these intriguing photos on The Etsy Blog yesterday. They're the work of Barry Rosenthal, a photographer out of New York, who creates collage photographs of found items. From his website: The Found in Nature series is created using plastic objects, garbage, plastic waste and detritus found on beaches polluting our water and land. 

You probably know by now, I'm always game for plucking interesting items from around the high tide mark, and if it helps clean the beaches...well then, that's a terrific bonus. Way to tidy up, Mr. Rosenthal! 

Disposable Lighters, Beach Haven, NY. 

Tampax, Brooklyn, NY.

Combs, Beach Haven, NJ.

There's something about these photographs that makes me feel very quiet. Does that make sense? I just think about all the things we've created and discarded and how they've had a life beyond their intended purpose. The unexpected life of objects beyond us. It's like getting a glimpse at a secret world. And really, everything that comes out of the ocean is mysterious, yeah?


View more of Rosenthal's mesmerizing work on his website: Photobotanicus. 

instaweek

PROOF!

stone structure 

trains across Trent

Wendy by Jennifer Li

night at the Museum

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Diorama video!

This is such an awesome video that someone from work recommendation to me.
The entire thing is filmed in a way that makes it look like a living diorama.

Jarbas Agnelli is amazing!

The City of Samba from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

MONSTRO!

Youngest sister Catherine does quite the oil paintings, as you probably already know if you follow the blog. Note the recent post Amateur oils. Luckily, I am her sister and get to benefit from these lovely oily gems.

This most recent Christmas she painted me a picture of one of my favorite scenes from Disneyland. Monstro, the monstrous sperm whale from Pinocchio! He opens his mouth up wide to swallow the charming little boats from the storybook ride. The trick is not to be scared because when you emerge from the darkness of his belly, you are in a magical world of miniatures, which I love!

"Pinocchioooooo..."

The Christmas prior to that she gave me this sweet little portrait of Miss Olive B!

"Oh Olive."

If you love pet paintings as much as we do you should definitely check out these other painting posts by Catherine!

You should probably paint your pets

Cats and corgis!

Whiskers on kittens!



pocket totems

Seriously. I love these sweet pocket totems by Danielle Pedersen of Handy Maiden. She sculpts her animals from polymer clay and then meticulously paints each one. Their vastly different expressions, some serene, some hesitant, some perturbed, are incredibly endearing, and I think Danielle makes wise animal choices, too. I want to live inside her tiny sculpted world and hold hands with her hedgehogs and servals and lynx...and hold trunks with her elephant.
Dream come true. 

hedgehog pocket totem

serval pocket totem

lynx pocket totem

And I think everyone should receive an Extraordinary Mallard medal. 

extraordinary mallard medal

I've been admiring these for a couple months and even though I don't need a pocket totem, I just keep thinking my life could only improve if I had one of these little beasties riding in my pocket. I'm sure you'd agree. 

tiger pocket totem

For more sculpted clay sweet babies, sweet babies, visit Danielle's etsy shop.

drawing paper

Yesterday, I found this little gem via Anilú Magloire's Paper Love board on pinterest. Mark Crilley, the man behind (or attached to) the hand, is an artist and illustrator. He has tons of how-to draw videos on his youtube channel, which can be found here.  You can pick up either of his graphic novels series, Brody's Ghost or Mikki Falls here. 

lovely linnea

I discovered these calendars at Atticus, which is a local shop for local people. And when I say discovered, I mean that I stumbled upon them in December 2010. You see, the Linnea Design calendar has been around since 1987, and they're based in Seattle, so it's not like I trekked into the heart of darkness to find them. Still, I'm utterly charmed by Johanna Riley's artwork, and I've started a yearly tradition of indulging in a little desktop calendar of delight. 

Here are a few charmers from last year's edition:

And here are several from this year's edition:

I especially love all the colorful pencils. 

The tradition is currently in its second year. You can call it a tradition after two years, right? What a silly question. That's like asking yourself if 10:30 in the morning to too early to eat a bowl of delicious pea soup.
(Of course, the answer is: there's no such thing as too early.)

Lucky for me, you, and everyone else, the calendars are still available online through Linnea. Find them here.

mountaineer

Tectonic from Guy Laramee's Biblios series

OK, my book nerd ears perk up like whoa when I hear tell of jaw-dropping book sculpture. And Guy Laramee has
jaw-dropping book sculpture in spades. I feel like I'm peering in a secret world. Totally epic and immense and moody.
I adore it. And the way lighting is used in these sculptures is just phenomenal, wouldn't you agree?

detail from The Grand Library

book people from the Biblios series

jades from The Great Wall series

historia das americas (2009), from The Great Wall series

Here's what Laramee has to say about his work:

"I carve landscapes out of books and I paint Romantic landscapes. Mountains of disused knowledge return to what they really are: mountains. They erode a bit more and they become hills. Then they flatten and become fields where apparently nothing is happening. Piles of obsolete encyclopedias return to that which does not need to say anything, that which simply IS." 

You should definitely check out Guy Laramee's website here. 
And in the interest of giving credit where credit is due: StumbleUpon led me to Visual News, which led me to
Benjamin Starr, who clued me in to Laramee. Benjamin Starr's Visual News post on Laramee may be found here.

And just for you: Guy Laramee bonus art!

The Wreck of Hope, a 3D rendition of Caspar David Friedrich's painting of the same name.

If you only knew how many of my teenage sighs were expelled poring over books on Friedrich's work;
it was so darkly romantic, just like a Bronte novel. Seek out Wanderer above a Sea of Fog. Le sigh. 

The Sea of Ice (also called The Wreck of Hope), 1823/24, Caspar David Friedrich, or auf Deustch Das Eismeer
You can learn more about Caspar David Friedrich by visiting the Hamburger Kunsthalle here.

All images by Guy Laramee, except the last which is, of course, by Caspar David Friedrich.

Little boxes, little boxes, little boxes made of ticky-tacky...

So every now and then we are all guilty of gleaning ideas and inspiration. Well, here is my confession of such a replication. The picture below is a shop in East LA; I was walking by it one afternoon and noticed their window decorations. It was clear to me as soon as I saw them what must be done. Consider them the victim of gleaning. 

 

 I was going to actually construct the edifices out of cardboard but then I found these little house boxes at
 Michael's Craft store, on the cheap.

 I removed the chimney off the smaller one because I liked the look without it.

 I used a 'bleached titanium' colored acrylic paint, the coverage was thick enough I only needed one
coat and then a few touch ups here and there.

 I painted all the sides white, that I wanted white I guess.

 The roof and the chimney top would be black.

Once the paint dried, I used a grey marker and a folded paper (for a straight edge) to outline my designs.

The black completely covered any marker remnants--it was hard to make the line perfect.

But I kind of liked those imperfections in the end.

Finished product. I should have taken more pictures. Oh well, I do plan on making more of these and will have to add some more pictures. But they are fun to make and you can go crazy with the patterns. Also, they would be a really cute house warming party decoration...if you did actually make some lighter ones and hang them. Anyone moving soon?