new york city polaroid project

I went into Samy's Camera about a month ago to buy whatever they had left in the way of Polaroid film. None. It's gone. Thankfully someone like Andrew Faris got a hold of some of the few remainder boxes. His shots of New York, are great and graphic and very Polaroidy. You can order posters on his site as well.

lurking and loving

This week I've been lurking and loving over here....

Nina van de Goor's blog over at Mooiedingenweblog.

Nina, a 27 year old design student who shares fabulous crafts, designs, fashion, interiors etc. all with a Dutch touch. I was particularly digging all of her bright, happy photos from a surf village excursion at a beach in The Hague

I'd love to have this image blown up, huge and hung as art.

oh, and she's a great artist as well using vintage pieces re-imagined. Check out her work {all of which is for sale on etsy}

::chelsea cardinal::

Great pen and ink, watercolor illustrations by Brooklyn artist, Chelsea Cardinal.

Cardinal, an illustrator by study, works as a designer for GQ magazine, creating beautiful art at night. I'm really inspired these days by the laying down of an image via ink combined with the looseness of watercolor.

I think those of us who are 'illustrators' can, pretty easily create art that looks like the subject. That's just what we do. But the real talent comes in with "what you do with it"; how you make it come alive with personality. It may be through the line weight {am I getting too technical?} or even the humor of the line laid down {too esoteric?}

My own work has always been so tight and when I've tried to be less so, I'm never happy with my results {perfectionist in me}

An approach like this combines both the exactness that I like but with an unpredictability {the hand lettering aspect is fantastic as well}

her paintings are pretty great too:

She sells prints.917-804-7992

along the same line:

sujean rim

caitlin mcgauley

solitude + storm

My sweet friend Audrey, who has a great blog { parcel post } with super cool stationary/paper/graphic finds, recently featured Jay Kelly's work. I love the whole feel of them- they remind me of a late afternoon snowfall in the mountains { I know, very descriptive, but don't they? } .

Kelly has done a line of very affordable small cards, suitable for framing and available only at Audrey's gorgeous shop: Urbanic on Abbot Kinney. What a great gift idea!




Audrey and her husband, Josh, are the proprietors of two fantastic Abbot Kinney staples: Urbanic and Neighborhood. Must sees if you're in Venice.

tistram lansdowne

Why join them when you can paint them. I learned my lesson in 4th grade when I was busted for drawing hearts and 'Ziggy' on an arm chair at school. Embarrassed and vowing to, never again decimate public property.

I have instead, quietly enjoyed graffiti from afar, driving past a wall along the 405 I've become an art critic to the taggers.

Artist Tistram Lansdowne, creates beautiful, delicate and gentle watercolors of abandoned buildings and rusted urban detitrus, much of it tagged to the nines.

Beauty on top of beauty.

it's almost thanksgiving ~ are your holiday cards ready?

This is the time of year when I should be making arrangements to get my holiday cards in order. I have not. And probably won't get on it until the 11th hour. In the past, I've sent out 'Valentine Cards'. Mostly because I like to make my own cards. But also, I've actually convinced myself that people really appreciate them more, as it's been a month or so since they've received a festive photo of smiling kids to add to the bowl.

This year, I'm determined to get my act together and send my holiday cards out, oh, in the month of December.

In an effort to get things rolling, I may surpass the hand made route and go directly to stationers,

Petite Alma who have some great cards this year, simple with fresh art and reasonably priced- a no brainer, making it the perfect system for me.

Pictorial Webster's: Inspiration to Completion

I have an old dictionary that I found in the basement of a house I once owned. The book sat packed away by a previous owner, at the back of what had once been the coal room of the house. Being of curious mind and not especially wanting to live with some one's left over junk, I took it upon myself to clean out the space; sorting through boxes of old letters, canceled checks, candles still in their yellowed, cellophane sleeves, a stack of old greeting cards, carefully torn so that only their fronts remained, and boxes of books. Books with great titles such as 'The Dictionary of Poisons'. {which now sits on my coffee table} , 'Sex & Marriage' {which sits on a book shelf in my bedroom, of course} and "A Child's Canadian Alphabet" - which is another post in itself.

Among the books was the 'Webster's New Standard Dictionary', with a 1911 copyright. It's yellowed pages,with their marbled edges, is fragile and well used. The broken spine holds the dark and mildewed cover together by tenuous threads; however within the battered cover, is a collection of gorgeous, fine-line engravings that are scientific and naive in a curious but visually compelling way.

When I first discovered this film, of John M. Carrera's story, I was awestruck that someone else {and it seems a lot of 'someone else's' } was drawn to these Victorian artifacts. The following film is an incredible documentary based on Carrera's story of creating a limited amount of, fine press editions, of The Pictorial Webster's Dictionary. The final product, complete with gold leaf engraving and hand sewn spines, is if anything, an incredible look at the art of book making - it's mind blowing.

Pictorial Webster's: Inspiration to Completion from John Carrera on Vimeo.

Fortunately, Chronicle books is selling an affordable version of the effort at a mere $35.00

In celebration of the book's release, Chronicle books is giving away a fine press edition of the book. Enter to win here.

shopping losts

Graphic artist, Simon Atwatter takes found grocery lists and turns them into art.
Found: Outside Sainsburys, Dog Kennel Hill, Camberwell, London

London calling...Jeremy Dickinson

loving the work of British artist, Jeremy Dickinson.

Using toy cars from his own collection, beat up, chipped, well loved... all in a crayon box color pallet paired against, grayed gritty backgrounds.

Seven Buses 2009

20 x 20 cm

Locopark II 2009

35.5 x 61 cm

Sometimes organizing the toys by color and scale...

Ten Reds 2008

46 x 46 cm

Dickinson's work brings to mind the minimalist tendencies of Donald Judd and the automobile sculptures of John Chamberlain.

Plant and truck Wall 2008

76 x 254 cm

Autopark (Causeway Spectrum) 2008

51 x 178 cm

Autostack (Plymouth Plaza) 2009

25.5 x 30.5 cm

.........wonder if I could facebook him. He seems really cool.

all images galerie xippas, athens, greece

birds on the wires

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

While looking through the newspaper one day, director, Jarbas Agnelli was Inspired by an image of birds on a wire. He wondered to himself, if these birds were actually musical notes, what would they sound like? No photo shopping done, just as they are. The apparent randomness of nature translated to music, once again makes me realize that music, art and beauty is an omnipresent element of life. Every where you look, there it is.

tweet this

Lumadessa creates beautiful, simple modern takes on the traditional, Flora and Fauna theme. The artist Josh Brill has created a the bird collections which is simply....well brilliant {I know, I'm a bit brain dead today}

The prints are of a limited addition, signed, numbered and run $20.00 for an unframed 5x7 piece.

At that price you can own a whole flock! and to make them that much lovlier, 5% of profits are donated to Animal and Environmental charities. Nice work Josh!

Pink and Blue Beaches

The color saturated beauty of artist, Isca Greenfield-Sanders.

The 30 year old Artist and Brown graduate, is the daughter of New York photographer, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. Greenfield-Sanders uses various forms of mixed media- from oils, watercolors, colored pencil, vintage slides to Mac manipulations, capturing and creating imagery that is at once nostalgic and modern. Their deep juicy colors, warm the cockles of my heart.