update

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jurate gacionyte

I’m a long-time fan of Lithuanian artist Jurate Gacionyte’s flickr page. She has an equally cool website called Amazing Tree House, where she sells notecards and shows off her fantastic drawing skills in addition to her beautiful photography.

mint will be down…

I’m having a programmer do some work on mint for me, so the site will be up and down for the next week (or hopefully less!) But I’m here to stay, so if you find the site down, just keep checking back! Thanks.

it’s not painted; it’s beaded!

For some reason, Liza Lou popped into my head the other day. I learned about her in college, and her work stuck in my brain because I just can’t imagine the amount of time that goes into her projects. The beaded tiara above was supposed to catch your eye and make you read this post, because just looking at the photos below probably wouldn’t have conveyed the materials it is made out of – it is an entire, full size kitchen, and it is entirely covered with little glass beads. They’re put in place one by one, with tweezers. Can you imagine?! I’d like to see it in person; it must be very sparkly.

kate diago & all and sundry

I found this painting by Kate Diago on her blog, All and Sundry, and I just love it – especially for the combination of lots of white with little touches of bright colors like that fantastic turquoise and red combo in the painting above.

Kate lives in Brooklyn and is trying to get back into painting, which resonates with me and my recent attempts to throw myself back into anything creative that does not relate to a computer.

And here’s some exciting news – soon you’ll be able to see Kate on Little Paper Planes! I’ll have to keep my eyes out for it.

amy bennett

I immediately thought of small scale models when I saw Amy Bennett’s moving little paintings, and sure enough, that’s what they are inspired by – that, and the themes of nostalgia for the past, families, transitions, and loss.  Amy’s themes are so perfectly captured in her paintings that you almost don’t need to read about them.  And I find that very impressive.

landscapes

I found the photo on the left on decor8 yesterday, and was immediately reminded of the fabric on the right, carried by reprodepot. It’s 99″(over 8 ft) tall so you’d get the same feel as the photo on the left. (Marimekko fabric $115 per 99″repeat.)

While I was checking out reprodepot I found these fabrics too:

From left to right, Kaakaopuu Light Green ($28.90/yd), Dadel Pink (another large pattern, $126 per repeat), and Metsanvaki ($42.60). See these and more here.

shoes as art

I recently did a post for OK Great on some great shoes covered in illustration by Masa, and they ought to be included in the Virtual Shoe Museum. I’m not that into shoes, mostly because I’m really into comfort, but even I got excited looking through all the crazy shoes in the Virtual Shoe Museum. The best part of all is that you can search for shoes by material (paper, lace, feathers) or use (furniture) or even color. (via Lost at E Minor. Thanks Brendan!).

james

It’s not just because he’s my boyfriend that I think his portfolio is awesome. Really. See his brand new site here.

sandra juto

Sandra is an amazing illustrator from Sweden who has a great flickr page (where I found the little crocheted pieces on the right) in addition to her portfolio and etsy shop, where you can find the perfect “softie” to give to some lucky kid.

the gap between art and life

When I was a senior in high school, I had to do one final, huge project on a subject of my choice (I chose modern art, not realizing how broad a topic it was). I don’t think I got a very good grade on the project, mostly because I waited until the last minute to do the actual ‘project’ part. I blame this on Robert Rauschenberg. I got so interested in reading about him and the other artists of the 50s and 60s that I just couldn’t stop reading and start writing. So, I was sad to learn last night that Robert Rauschenberg passed away on Monday at the age of 82.

In case you don’t know much about Robert Rauschenberg, or just need to brush up on your old Art History class, he was an abstract painter and collage artist, most famous for his “combines.” Combines are combinations of paint, found objects, and sometimes chairs, quilts, plastic bottles, newspapers….you name it. According to the AP article, the famous ‘Bed’ painting was created on a quilt because he couldn’t afford a canvas (and toothpaste was one of the mediums used).

“I don’t ever want to go,” he told Harper’s Bazaar in 1997 when asked of his own death. “I don’t have a sense of great reality about the next world; my feet are too ugly to wear those golden slippers. But I’m working on my fear of it. And my fear is that something interesting will happen, and I’ll miss it.” -AP

coe & waito

If you spend a lot of time looking at design blogs like I do, you probably already know about coe & waito’s beautiful work.  But, continuing on my search for ceramic inspiration I thought I’d share it anyway since I love the simple, mostly white forms and the idea of silk screening on ceramics.   All pieces shown above are for sale here.  (Their site is also worth looking at to see their jellyfish installation!)

free!

I was browsing one of my favorite graphic design firms, Fwis, today and came across this free downloadable pinhole camera they just designed for Corbis (yeah, the stock photography people.) Print and build with a few things you probably have lying around the house. How cool is that.

alexander gorlizki

Alexander Gorlizki

shameless self-promotion

I’ll admit it, I’m pretty proud of myself for this. It’s my first packaging design project!! I haven’t been doing graphic design for very long, so I still get excited each time something I make turns into more than just a document on my computer desktop. These are self-promotional projects, so none of them were actually realized, although we are thinking of giving our clients the wine as gifts. My boss gave me free reign on these pieces so coming up with the concepts, design, and then printing and making everything in house for the photo shoot was really fun.