david galletly's show jaggy nettles opens tonight at amble gallery and books in philadelphia. david has a wonderful sense of humor. his drawings often feature cootie catchers, flowers w/ their heads popped off, pointy fingers and stubbly legs. i love his references to childhood games and the little noises we make in our heads. david sent over some images of art in the show. i hope you enjoy it!
maxwell loren holyoke-hirsch just added some pieces to his etsy store, the small factory. i love the drawing, vagabond. just look at those little pine trees. there is only one print left of reunion on the island of naboombu, and seriously it really should be yours. i hung out w/ maxwell in march during my visit back to sf. he is most def one of my favorite's true and true. he should be yours too. everybody thinks so.
santogold photographed by elizabeth weinberg.
ok. let's have a chat about santogold and how AMAZING her debut album is. actually, there's not much to chat about other than it's positively dope. a lot of people are saying she reminds them of MIA, but i'd have to compare her more to esg meets le tigre. the album has been on repeat since i got it on friday. this could say more about a possible o.c.d. infliction then the album itself, but that's not the point. the point is that this is a must have album! but before you say yes or no or whatevs, just watch the video below. the beginning of the video gave me chills. chills i tell you! i wouldn't lie to you, i love you! as of now, i'm a lady is my spring anthem and i think it should be your's too. even if you're a dude. that's even better. seriously folks, this album is dynamic and worth checking out.
how could you not want something that was inspired by "office products, really bad registration and loneliness" or a casiotone lyric which was originally inspired by the smiths? i mean really folks how can you say to no to those? i dare you. well, i for one am sold on liam devowski's use of bold font, color and emotion. liam is a freelance graphic designer living in san francisco. hit him up on his website and/or check out his flickr page for more radness. both of these prints are available at little paper planes. liam has a rad zine in the works, i wait w/ baited breath.
when the royal tenenbaums came out on vhs, yes, that's right vhs, i rented it so many times that the peeps at my favorite video store lost weekend in san francisco just gave it to me one night. i still can't tell if it was just that they generally rock or that they ultimately felt very sad for me because by that point i had basically rented the video so many times i had probably bought it 4x over. ahhh. most likely a bit of both. the following combination of 3 iconic pop culture references: kermit the frog, elliot smith and the royal tenebaums makes for something just short of genius.
will bryant rules. let's just get that out in the open. but too late! it's already out in the open, because anyone who knows will's stuff, knows this to be true. his work is vibrant, bright and full of life. a florescent, magnificent wonder-ocity. (new word, pls give credit when you wiki that. k. thanks.) the boy is a walking burst of typography, design and color. his hand lettering is awesome. his hand drawn t-shirts are like nothing else. here are just some of the spots you can get will's stuff: needles & pens, rare device, good records, w00t and his etsy store. if his visual work isn't enough for you, and you need more as you do in these days and times, check out his music: the hooded deer.
a twitter friend posted this set of prints earlier from my little underground. i'm in love w/ them! as i mentioned in a post from saturday, i love language and when people fool around w/ it. i think i'll start adding mac key commands into my everyday vernacular, just too mix it up, you know? just to dance this mess around a bit and keep peeps guessing. something to the effect of "oh hey, about last night...control z that business."
check out these queer fellows by irina troitskaya. will you just look at that ridiculously happy sloth? from right to left: ant-eater, sloth, koala, armadillo, alcatraz azure, duck-bill and echidna. how wonderful. hit irina up if you'd like to inquire about purchase.
betsy walton's show sacred spring opened last thursday at my favorite san francisco store rare device. per usual betsy's work looks beautiful, full of color and layers of her signature symbolism. paper planes. water. greenery in all shades of different colors. lots of floating going on. hooded jumpsuits. betsy paints the most surreal landscapes, and i fall for them everytime! her work is by far some of my favorite out there. if you aren't in the bay area you can see the work online. her pieces are selling quickly...did somebody say economic stimulus check?
i have a small fascination w/ giant squids. i'm not sure why, but it's a mild obsession that may border on an ocd like infliction. but you and i, were friends so i can tell you this stuff right? you get me. you pick up what i'm putting down. you hear me barkin' big dog, i just know it. so i'm willing to bet you'll agree w/ me when i say scott radke's sculptures are AMAZING. i mean how could you not? just look at that little squid! scott's got new work up. peep it here.
i'm a big fan of language, specifically adages or proverbs. such adages like "if wishes were horses then beggers would ride." is one i use often. i love how odd and often dated in language adages are, yet they still remain fitting in today's world. so you'll understand when i first saw hazel nicholls' work i was just charmed. i love the proverbs she uses; little pick me up's, nudges to not take life so seriously. my favorite is "you can't lose what you never had.". each is silk screened and fired on to ceramic tiles and priced so right you can buy a couple. just like adages, her tiles seem like something that could have been in your gram's kitchen yet they're so current and fresh, perfect for any room in your house. you can also buy prints at keep calm. do you have any favorite proverbs or adages you use often?
can't you just see the passion in elizabeth garvey's work? her use of color and expressive lines make it clear how much elizabeth loves to draw. inspired by old photographs, elizabeth is the youngest of 5 girls and often gifted her older sisters her stuffed animals she had made w/ her nimble, little fingers. check out elizabeth's website where you can see the broad range of work she's into. you can purchase work from her etsy shop and read her blog, sew kewl while you're at.
one of my favorite things to do on a saturday morning is to make a big ol' cup o' coffee, some jam and toast, stay in my jim jams (this part is very important), get back in to bed and pour over my favorite blogs. seriously pals, life couldn't get any better in these moments. one of the blogs i check on the regular is pikaland. i can't remember how i first found pikaland...but i do remember feeling like i'd died and gone to illustrated heaven. amy, the brilliance behind pikaland has a great eye, i am constantly hooked. pikaland is not only a great place to be inspired but to network and connect w/ other illustrators. don't just take my word for it...peep it yourself. while you are there be sure to check out the pikaland package.
new work by ghost patrol. can we just talk about how awesome this is? i love how he uses pencils as a back drop, just plain rad. ghost patrol had this to say about his new work and the drawing machine opening tonight in melbourne, australia:
"my new work is about pencils
powerful pencils
a pencil pine forest and the creatures that live there
it's nice to make a flat surface out of pencils
it feels new
the power of pencils.
these works are part of show i'm curating with my partner miso. we have selected 17 of our favourite melbourne artists. they are all part of a drawing machine. we are interested in people obsessed and driven by drawing. non stop drawing."
ok, the best thing about blogging is you meet so many amazing peeps that you probably never would have had the opportunity to otherwise. i recently have been emailing w/ hernán paganini, a graphic designer from buenos aires. his emails are kind, sweet and cheerful...always signed w/ "mountains of color, hernán ._.". ummm, how frickin cute is that? hernán told me a little bit about himself:
"i am inspired by everything that surrounds me, i am amazed easily as a child, playing with this environment, the actors, situations that happen within and that somehow affect me, i try to transform my daily reality, as a result emerge moments of life through materializing the sensations that i have inside.
since i was a child, i collected and sorted things i found in the street. with the passing of time this material became my raw material to develop much of my work.
impassioned, the heart awaits the passage of time to become a child again."
i think you can see why i would be taken w/ hernán and his work. i am always drawn to people that have an enthusiasm that should be bottled and sold as an elixir. recently, hernán made an amazing planter w/ found material. i'm in love w/ it. what i wouldn't do to have one in our yard and on our porch, or in fact in my bedroom. see more of hernán's work on his flickr page.
amy ruppel is having an online sale today at 10 am (pacific standard time) sharp. check it out! amy makes beautiful, encaustic paintings of birds, owls and wonderful shapes and things. i personally LOVE her work and have posted about her quite a bit. for those of you that want to spend your tax refunds or economic stimulus check...why not stimulate an artists livelihood? so, you know, they can in turn stimulate the grocery store or their landlord. what a perfect way to treat yourself and support art. aren't you smart. and kind. and pretty too. (oh, pls note...all the work here was sold in february's sale.)
jacob magraw is busy working on an etching he'll have for sale on his site, so keep an eye on things over there. it won't be hard as his apocalyptic, colored sand like drawings/paintings have me staring, never mind casually glancing. i'm so taken w/ his work, i could sit there all day and wait for the etching to arrive. but for those of you w/out ocd, i'll keep you posted. jacob has work online at richard heller and a show coming up in september at franklin art works.
