[ profile ] trish grantham

frenchy

on sunday morning, i had delicious brunch w/ my favorite somewhat-recently-married couple steve&kristin. we met up in the new annapolis town center centre - which is like a copycat of rockville town center square. and there's this "metro" silver diner there that's way too futuristic. digital menus and touch screen ordering! craziness!! me and steve got eggs and such but kristin got the most deliciously yumz french toast!!! w/ fresh fruit and some sort of sauce on it that was oh-so-m'mm.

trish grantham's characters are super-dee-duperly cute! i love the toast characters the best! the french toast above has a lil moostache, too, which makes me smile.

clockwise from top left: lucky you, milk mustache, the travelers, mother kitten, hello friends, toast eater

[ links ]

trish grantham: click
on etsy: click
on buyolympia: click

[ profile ] sylvia nakamura

edmund & lilica

i've recently gotten reallllly into 검정치마 aka the black skirts - an amazing korean indie band. the first song i heard by them is called "dientes" and it's completely in english/spanish. it's a favorite because of the silly lyrics. also, the music video is pretty amazing. which brings me to the real reason for this blog post.

sylvia nakamura is a fun artist/designer from brazil. i love her character drawings! the one above is too adorable. and it oddly reminds me of the music video for "dientes" by the black skirts. i think it's that mohawk. loveeeez it!!!

clockwise from top left: psycho bunny, untitled, untitled, untitled, sad robot, lil' hitler

[ links ]

sylvia nakamura: click
on behance: click

[ profile ] mareike auer

the fairytale apple

slow morning but another day at work soon. corporate america, how ill-fitted we are.

these prints of men in suits (and other thangs) by mareike auer are AMAZING. an acrylic painter, her work is SO gosh-darned simple. i love it. too much. and there's this bite of humour and oddness (is that a word?) to her work that is absolute perfection.

clockwise from top left: the rabbit and the wolf, the kangaroo and i, the story about me and the fox, i am a bird, odd stories (squirrel soup), little red riding hood, doglover, natural wonder, rabbit hunting, hair knitting, best before 2028, the story about me and the squirrel

[ links ]

mareike auer: click
at velocity art & design: click

[ profile ] ross mcbride, normal design

i just discovered ross mcbride today and WOW he's got some amazing product design out there. he's got an interesting history because he started off his design career as a student in california. but after he graduated in 1985, he moved to japan and has lived there ever since! he's got a unique point of view, having an american background with japanese experience. though he worked as a graphic designer for many years, he became increasingly more interested in product/furniture design.

personally, i feel like his work is fun in a very subtle way. i could see that time table working in a corporate office as the meeting table and see it in a funky design studio as well. his work is dynamic and versatile. but its the playfullness that really caught my eye! i'd want every one of his pieces in my future-but-doesnt-yet-exist design studio and/or home.

clockwise from top left: time table, time table (alternate view), anamorphic cups, digital dali, groovewear, command sit, command sit (alternate view), groovewear (alternate view), sinking clock, anamorphic cups (alternate view)

[ links ]
ross mcbride: click
on generate pipeline: click

[ profile ] caitlin hackett

(vulpes masquerade, 2010)

caitlin hackett's work really captures my attention. there's just so much to see... its so texturally rich. i just blogged some of her work in my last post on bees. in fact, the "zipper bee" drawing was the first i saw of her work. but the drawing above is definitely my favorite! it's so...... delightfully gruesome.

she works in ballpoint pen, ink, watercolor, pencil, and colored pencil in all her pieces. the subject of her work is - generally - the relationship between humans and animals. but as her work evolves, so does the aspect of this relationship that she focuses on.

clockwise from top left: fish, untitled, bat, a ball for the drowned, untitled, two-headed bird, deep sea, owl, untitled

[ links ]
caitlin hackett: click
on society 6: click

[ profile ] cart before the horse, on etsy

i was just doing my daily rounds to look up some fun stuff on etsy when i saw that cartbeforethehorse is an etsy featured seller! woohoo! i've actually seen one of their dolls before, but hadn't looked around the shop fully. they have some amazing work. my favorite is their two "underwater circus" dolls! the bearded lady! HAHA!

the oregon-based couple is an inspiration to me... especially since i wish (hope) art could be MY fulltime job. somedayyyy! sigh! best part of their featured seller interview? "make art your full time job, even if you have a full time job already." amen to dat!

 

 

 

[ links ]
cartbeforethehorse: click

[ profile ] zara carpenter

i'm a fiend for hats. i LOVE them. i love love love love love them. and with my ridiculously-short and suddenly-curly hair, i sometimes wear a hat just to sorta...flatten the swirls and whirls out of my 'do. too bad i lost my favorite hat (a beautiful, light-weight, black bowler.... *sigh of sadness*). so im on the search for a new hat to take its place!

zara carpenter does hats and she does them oh-so-well. they're fanciful fun and make me wish i had somewhere to wear them. cus i totally would. but not in suburban american, oh nooo. i guess i'll still be on the search for a bowler replacement but, in the meantime, i'm gonna stare at these lovelies! (wouldn't they be awesome in a photo shoot??)

[ links ]

zara carpenter: click

[ profile ] dan-ah kim

the weather's finally a lot nicer. though i'm stuck in an office so what do i know, right? *sigh* it's a bit slow this week at work and i'm really thinking about taking a day or two off and just doing something fun. if it wasn't iranian new year this saturday, i'd definitely book a last minute trip to a beachy somewhere and go. but, as its iranian new year (plus my grandpa's birthday), i can't really go anywhere too far. maybe ocean city for a day or something. there's also an art exhibition i might wanna hit up. but in general, i just want to relax in a warm weather-type situation.

i just discovered dan-ah kim (by way of koream.com - thanks!). she's a korean american artist and designer living in brooklyn. which makes me want to go back to nyc, visit ed in brooklyn, and somehow find her and talk to her about art. haha her work is super surreal/fanciful/loverly. every piece tells a different story. i feel like her work could inspire great adventure novels -- of the type i love most... magic, swordfights, and the like. and her work would be the perfect book cover for these novels too! 

i couldn't pick a favorite, though the isolated and relaxing nature of the top illustration really caught my eye. i wanna go lay down where she's walking and just beeeee. i also love the one below w/ the tiger. and the ones with the foxes. and ok i love them all.

[ links ]

dan-ah kim: click

[ mark menjivar ] you are what you eat

(documentary filmmakers | san diego, ca | 3-person household | efforts have helped send millions of dollars to children in uganda | 2008)

one HUGE thing i miss about living on my own is having my own kitchen. living back with my mom and grandparents, i don't get a chance to use the kitchen very often. and even when i want to make my own food, we don't really have the ingredients i need. because i can't really grocery shop, as there's not much room in the fridge anyway.

mark menjivar has a photo series called "you are what you eat" - where he traveled all over the US photographing the inside of people's fridges. interesting that people view their fridge as a private thing... and more interesting how much what's in your fridge can define you.

restaurant owner | waco, tx | 1-person household | has a photographic memory for useless information | 2009	botanist | fort wayne, in | 1-person household | feels more comfortable with flora & fauna of his era than people | 2008
owner of defunct amusement park | alpine, tx | 1-person household | former WWII prisoner of war | 2007	bartender | san antonio, tx | 1-person household goes to sleep at 8am and wakes up at 4am daily | 2008
midwife/middle school science teacher | san antonio, tx | 3-person household (plus a dog) | first week after deciding to eat locally grown vegetables | 2008	disabled | marathon, tx | 2-person household | weighed 390 lbs earlier this year | 2007

[ links]
mark menjivar: click
on 20x200: click

[ profile ] travis louie

(miss bunny circa 1896)

been listening to louis c.k. (sometimes called louie) stand-up all morning. usually i'm all about dave chappelle (his stand-up as well as his inside the actors studio appearance) but i figured i should change it up a little today.

in any case, i've stumbled upon another louie. travis louie, that is... the painter. i had never heard of him but OMG. his stuff is freaking amazing. i love how its very reminiscent of edwardian/victorian potraits. yet, each of his subjects is just plain weird in one way or another. miss bunny was one of my favorites (though this might be biased due to my love and subsequent magentism towards all things bunny-related).

stylistically, his work takes on the quality of film noir and german expressionist films. he paints in acrylic on board, which i always find amazing because im an oil painter myself. what i love most, though, is that almost all of his paintings are accompanied by a little background story. so be sure to click through all of his paintings and check out their little histories.

"bill" - the left painting in the top row - has an especially adorable story: *Bill spends most of his time hiding under other people's beds. When he does not shower, he smells like marshmellows.

{clockwise from top left} bill, reginald whiskers mcpherson, montys day of the day, guess who, thurston from under the stairs, amelia queen of the sea monkeys, hypno-krampus, stephen of unusual circumstances, walter & larry

[ links ]

travis louie: click

travis louie's paintinigs: click