Slugs are my new favorite.
If you feel the world does not need more sparkly-trailed slug paintings you’d better tell me now, because all i wanna do from now on is paint TONS of slugs.
mr. belcastro and his dreamy/sinister critters.
i was never a big fan of scott belcastro’s work – sorry, scott – until he released his new collection called ‘i dare the sky’. his new appreciation for silhouettes goes beautifully with his already awesome acrylics-that-behave-like-watercolors technique. the collection is full of shadowy creatures that are probably going to be friendly, but its a little hard to tell. who knows what is going on in that owl’s head.
take a look at his blog here or peruse the catalog of the collection here.
ms. judith braun and her messy fingers.
do you remember how fantastic it was to paint with your fingers in grade school? since i love all projects that involve a mess, it should shock exactly no one that i am a big fan. i have not had enough coffee this morning to get into it, but its easy to get cerebral about the existential experience of becoming the tool of your art.
ms. judith braun knows exactly what all that existential bit is all about. she’s painted in lots of styles in her past, but these finger paintings are what bring her pleasure. and her bio has this awesome sentence:
Because if it wasn’t for pleasure all we’d have is a bunch of stuff vibrating.
which is, of course, true at a molecular level even if we do have pleasure. nevertheless, i’m so pleased that judith braun is pleased, because it means she can make more of the gloriously simple and elegant (!) fingerpaintings. please see more of her work here.
new arts!
sometimes, even though you’re in the thick of research and you are thinking about science all the time and you’re sleepy you just have to stay up til 2 am and finish a few paintings.
at least i do.
all these froglets are available in the store! buy art to fund science. backwards, but true.
mr. justin kane elder is seeing spots.
i had the pleasure of going to eat with my sister at revel within weeks of its opening (how very seattle of me!). did you know they have pork belly pancakes?! also: meyer lemon soju with thyme shoots?! hoo boy. delicious. licking liquor off of herb sprouts is my new favorite hobby.
but i digress. on the walls of revel are these enormous portraits of men by mr. justin kane elder. while i’m not a big fan of portraits for the most part, these are really well done – beautifully colorful pieces without being too distracting with their brightness or their rough pointillism. it looks like he’s still figuring out his style, but it’s evolving really well. and really, who isn’t still figuring out their style?
take a look at more of his pieces at his site here.
mr. roy ruiz’s works say aloha to you.
oh, dear readers, i’ve just gotten back from my birthday trip to hawaii. it was just so lovely that it might have to become a quarterly trip. i swam with WILD DOLPHINS, readers. WILD DOLPHINS. its true.
but enough about that insanely exciting non-art-related events… i also was privileged enough to find myself in the company of mr. roy ruiz’s pieces hanging in the utterly charming surf break cafe in Hilo. it seems mr. ruiz enjoys thick outlines, tiny bits of super-brilliant color, and making sure both wood grain and paint get equal attention in his works. all of those things win me over.
the man doesn’t have a website for himself, but you can contact mr. ruiz at royruiz808@yahoo.com.
byroglyphics’ new stuff is glyph-tastic
mr. russ mills, aka byroglyphics (why do non-street artists give themselves tag names? mysterious! maybe he dislikes all the double consonants), is opening up a new show in london tonight. he’s got these amazing canvases with all sorts of mess and order hanging out together harmoniously. some of the sneak peeks he’s given out are below, and you can click here to see his older things on his site.
ms. norheim is adept at illustrating forest canopy dynamics.
if only theses could be picture books! she’d be on the cover!
do you need a little bit of mist and sunfleckiness and spiderwebs for your morning?
i knew you did. this gorgeous piece is thanks to ms. jacqueline norheim, who thinks geometry is top-notch. if you do too (and who doesn’t?) you should take a peek at her website.
Paula Scher: queen of murals.
ms. scher has just completed her second mural at a high school in queens nyc, which could very well be the most diverse place on earth. with all the languages and ethnicities in that part of the city, she used translations of street names and subway stops to make these amazing walls.
it’s huge, too! it covers 2,430 square feet and was lovingly painted by michael imlay. you can read more about the process here or see her less gigantic work here!
thanks, pentagram!
because everyone is friends with calvin + hobbes.
s. rivas just completed this perfectly soothing and 100% awesome mural for the reynolds home, a shelter for abused women and their children. he got that forest background just right, and i was instantly sent back to my 10-year-old sunday mornings spent with the comics just looking at these photos.
more from his flickr stream here.
ms. sherald has pigment on the brain.
amy sherald’s pieces probably don’t even need their own lighting they’re so bright – just the way i like it. oh, that first piece – that palette is my new favorite. i’m not sure i’ve ever seen chiaroscuro quite so amazingly done. well, you know, since caravaggio.
more on her site here!
mr. de boer’s got a thing for colors.
classical styles with non-classical subjects wins every time. lovely acrylics-and-oils by adam de boer.
edwin ushiro! ghost story teller! collage-maker! artistic genius!
o h m i go o d n e s s. sometimes i find artworks that cause my jaw to just fall right off my head, and here’s one of them. PLUS, it’s here, in person, in my city until saturday. can we say lucky?! i can’t wait to see this thing.
anyways, mr. ushiro made this. i can’t find many details on HOW he made this – it’s some magical combination of painting and collage – but i’ll let you know what i find when i see it in person this weekend. and yes, it’s beautiful to look at. but know what’s better than that? it comes with its own ghost story. a HAWAIIAN ghost story, which is somehow twelve times spookier. (when i get there in december i wanna hear as many ghost stories as possible, preferably from very old wrinkled hawaiian folks.)
from his website:
Old timers will tell you that you should never respond to someone who calls out your name when it is addressed to your back. Also, never answer a stranger when they use your name to approach it. Hawaiian mythology tells us that these are Calling Spirits – a disembodied entity that will call out to you, aggressively luring you to step towards themso they may take your soul.
When cowboys ran the hillside of old Hawaii, a young man on his way home before dusk heard his name being called. A girl emerged from the foliage. She expressed a desire to make love to him if he followed her into the woods. The young man followed. With excitement, he abruptly hesitated after being overwhelmed by an uneasy feeling. The young man explained to the girl that he changed his mind and decided to return home. The girl grew angry. She screamed out of frustration. The young man fled.
Upon returning home, he divulged this strange encounter to his Grandfather. His Grandfather scolded him, explaining that a Hawaiian does not talk to your back – it’s not polite – and strangers do not know your name unless they are Calling Spirits.
The next day the young man, accompanied by his Grandfather returned to the site of this encounter. Following the trail the girl urged him to take, they discovered a 20 ft deep lava pit that was concealed by vines.
oh, and there’s more. take a peek at his blog and his website (or if you’re lucky like me, at roq la rue until saturday!)
ms. davis and her amazing color sense.
so when i look at neon pink and chartreuse and lavender i think to myself “self, these colors will go with absolutely nothing”. then jennifer davis goes forth and makes the most amazing images with the very best palettes i’ve ever seen, involving these very same colors. clearly, she’s a genius.
she has a blog! and a portfolio site! go say hello!
mr. anthony lister has the sexiest heroes.
i’ve been kinda twitterpated with anthony lister lately, and then he goes and does something like this on the windows of the hotel standard ny. swoon. i’m such easy bait – artists with those thick black lines get me every time.
mr lister seems to enjoy walking the thin line of social-commentary/art-for-art’s-sake, and has a wide variety of damn fine grafitti to look at. please take a moment to appreciate the painted public walls and his other stuff here.
thanks lots, notcot.
amy rice’s homegrown stenciled prints
oh, the sweetness! ms. rice’s gocco-ed and stenciled and collaged pieces are fantastic. you’d practically expect them to smell like ripe peaches and good dark earth with all the country-fied goodness in her flickr page.
she has a blog, too! it’s here.
new paintings – swimming
i’ve gotta find some swimming holes, apparently. i can’t stop drawing fish and mermaids this week.
all of these guys are sitting in my etsy store if you need some art!
new paintings
a kind reader asked if i’m still painting since i hardly ever post my own art anymore – it’s true, i do! here’s a few from the farmer’s market set last week…. and some are for sale at etsy, since i retreated from the rain before i sold out!
paintings from my past for you.
all these little paintings are shiny because there’s a layer of caulking between layers of paint. it’s messier (i.e., funner) this way.
a few favorites from the farmer’s market line up
they’re the best of buds once they’re back in the port.
pugtastic.
.minimum wage art. 
