DIY menagerie!
what is the best solution for an artist who needs to paint lots of things for an upcoming show and can’t commit to any one thing for longer than twenty minutes? SEVERAL HUNDRED TINY ANIMAL PORTRAITS! there’s only 20 portraits right now, but the population is growing fast….
and you, dear readers, can buy each and every one of them at my etsy shop or at i heart indie holidays show in Wallingford on December 10th.
all ready for a stampede.
30 Canvases in 30 (or 6) Days Art Challenge
deadlines are fun! i view them like dares. can i write a brilliant paper in 8 hours? can i prepare a lecture in twenty minutes? can i draw detailed diagrams of the nuclear signaling pathways of cryptochrome 2 before my meeting in an hour? yes, yes, yes! ready go!
which is why i love the 30 day challenge so very much. last year i painted all 30 canvases in 3 days. even i realized this was absurd. this year, i decided to sleep a little and paint them all in 6 days – much better! also, i was simultaneously writing a grant proposal and a thesis proposal as well as organizing an overnight biology field trip and packing for an international vacation. too bad i can’t get paid for multi-tasking.
wanna see a few of my faves for the show? themes involved: ponies, glitter, ocean, glitter, bicycles, and glitter. Its opening December 1st if you’d like to come!
mr. dan mccarthy and his paleobsession.
i love dinosaurs. i love forests. i love secrets. i love skeletons. i love anything that glows in the dark. can you imagine the level of glee, dear readers, when i first saw dan mccarthy’s new print? its got just the right amount of new perspective to make you feel adventurous just by looking at it.
extra bonus: whose eyes do you think you are looking through? what could possibly be brave enough to be deeper in a cave fulla dinosaur skeletons except for a BIGGER, FIERCER JUST-OUTTA-SIGHT DINOSAUR?
ms. rachel caldwell and her hairiness.
rachel caldwell is really good at drawing hair. that doesn’t seem very impressive until you realize that hair is full of lots of fine lines that overlap and intersect and maze themselves out. ms. caldwell’s got it down. observe.
things i just made.
folks, did you know screenprinting is super awesome? did you know its even awesomer with glow-in-the-dark ink?! i know, i can hardly believe i know how to something so great myself. if you’re in seattle, get yourself over to the vera project for their amazingly cheap class right away. i’m so excited about how much knowledge they gave me that i’m feeling like i need to give them a little donation. what fantastic folks those vera project people are!
anyways, i’ve had a patron commission me for two swimming scottie dog paintings over the past few weeks. this is why i love commissions – why else would i paint sharks and terriers together? how else would i realize that painting kelp is super fun? these little guys were done in 2 hours tops. quick paintings = cheap paintings.
mr. dean is a gem among men.
not so long ago jason dean of the best part created an incredible print of the moon in diamond facets. now he has gone and outdone himself with this new print – there’s hundreds of shots of leaves all kaleidescoped together to create this beautiful emerald print.
do you know how much energy it takes to create a leaf? A LOT. good thing other people value them enough to compare them to gems.
“the crazy nastyass honey badger” is my friend.
it is precisely for the following reasons that i love the internets.
1) absolutely ridiculous videos of obscure animals being cute/rascally/nasty.
2) my favoritest artist jay ryan nearly immediately making beautiful absolutely ridiculous posters of said obscure animal.
folks, this gem is $20. i am a frugal girl by nature but even me and my penny-pinching ways are being swayed by this one. if you, like i, need a feral animal staring at you to encourage your ferocity, please do not hesitate.
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.
ms. debbie carlos and her wide-eyed view of still things
debbie carlos has some exquisite photography on her site, but the ones that caught my eye are from the human nature series. they’ve got that dreamy comfort of things you know, but with a bit of adventure in them too. plus, you can buy prints of them on GIANT SCALES! enjoy.
ms. jean bradbury and an abundance of fur.
i have a confession: i spend quite a bit of time on cuteoverload.com. while femininity escapes me almost entirely, 3rd-grade-girlish squeals of joy pierce the ears of anyone near whenever i am in the presence of very small fuzzy things (such as the one i own).
you can imagine the noises that happened, then, when i saw these stellar oil paintings by jean bradbury in fuel coffee months ago. look at that touchable, adorable fur! look at the careful attention to botanical details! look at the glowingness of it all! there’s no hiding that she’s a lover of fuzzy things too. you’ll see what i mean when you see all the weasel-and-small-mammal love on her site. plus, she’s got that botanist eye. i like this woman lots. would it be creepy if i, a complete stranger, invited her over for hot toddies? please voice your opinion on the matter.
also, you should know that the snowberries and the beautyberries here are two of my most favoritest plants for the following reasons: 1) they are considerate enough to give us lovely berries to look at in the winter when every other plant is bare, and 2) they make excellent miniature snowball stand-ins when you need something to throw at someone. i’m quite glad she painted them together – they’re a good pair.
mr. johnathan viner is both good and creepy.
he’s released two new prints that are just gorgeous. also: creepy. go take a look here.
ms. irene wood is having a sale! you lucky people, you!
ohmigoodness, you couldn’t spend your money any wiser! look what my inbox just gave me:
IRENE WOOD IS HAVING AN ART SALE TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30th (today!) FROM 6:30 UNTIL 9
she lives up in capitol hill and has bunches of gorgeous things that you will fall head over heels for. since she probably wouldn’t appreciate me posting her important contact bits here on the interwebs for people-of-no-good-intent to find, please send her a little note right away for her address! she’s contactable here: irene@irenemachine.com.
and, if you’re not coming to capitol hill tonight, you can see her gorgeous things at cafe ladro on 15th, her etsy store, or her website. ohhhh…. they’re so dreamy.
forgotten works challenge 2010!
thursday’s the show! here’s one of my favorites. others that i remembered to take photos of just seconds before the deadline are here.
brainstorm’s new print-storm
brainstorm, a balmuhr (read: baltimore) art design group, just blessed the world with this new collection of prints. i especially enjoy the ocean poster, but there’s an earth and atmosphere print as well. enjoy (and buy) here!
ms. empedocles and her feeding-frenzy flocks.
the david b. smith gallery has just produced prints of Christina Empedocles’ print ‘landing’. you know how most art involving birds is soothing and pastell-y and easy-going? not this one. it’s awesome. if you’ve got the dollars, go buy it here. and, while you’re clicking on things, go see more of ms. empedocles’ ferociously-busy collagy goodness.
ms. o’leary is as sharp as an xacto.
because, clearly, only a super-smart human being could come up with this degree of beauty. street maps and paper cuts are merged together in glorious harmony in her incredible urban maps. someone wanna commission karen o’leary to do a large-scale regional map of, say, an entire county? please do. i’d love to see that.
also, she has an etsy site!
fuzzy warm goodness.
Jessica at Volume 25 puts together these adorable prints for you, and they’re just tiny amounts of money. This one is my most favorite. I bet Jessica had a Lisa Frank peechee in 6th grade just like I did.
plus, she’s a local! well, kinda. the other side of the mountains, where they have actual seasons. and peaches. anyway, go visit her etsy store and give her a high five for the cheap art.
she also sells overlays for folks with photoshop who wouldn’t mind a little extra help making photos extra-cute. this one is a photo by kylie clark, done up with this set of overlays.
mr. weber is creepy and good.
sam weber makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up with this new print. it’s titled oryx, and as a person who had the rare opportunity to see a scimitar horned oryx every day for a year (true story!), those creep-tastic eyes are perfectly done. are you ready?
aren’t you creeped out? isn’t it so GOOD?
have you tasted absinthe? it tastes just like this.
there is no doubt of the talent here. go! purchase (these prints are $20 or less)!!!!
stand back! i’m about to show you something amazing!
i hope you’re ready for this:
and then there’s this:
isn’t this a wonderful thing? Jessica Rosenkrantz and Jesse Louis-Rosenberg are the mathematical/biological/architectural smarty-pants wonder-duo that make up Nervous System, and they use actual scientific knowledge to construct ceramics and wood pieces that are not just beautiful, but have a thoughtful structure.
this incredible lamp is modeled after the intricate pattern-in-a-pattern of the cellular structures of seeds. not only is there the interaction of each seed cell with the neighboring seed cell, but then the interaction of ridges and valleys working together to create an overall pattern that is supposedly necessary for the seed coat to have. their blog goes into how reaction-diffusion models influence their designs, and even if you don’t like modeling (like me!) it’s still fascinating.
also, they have perhaps the coolest jewelry in the world: rings inspired by radiolaria, necklaces inspired by plants’ vascular elements, and a necklace of a dichotomous tree. truly amazing stuff.
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!
dreamy and but focused
that’s what you get with ISO50’s new set of prints released today. i’ll never get tired of photos with raindrop-spots!
take a peek (or purchase the prints!) here.
there’s a biome in you.
stuntkid’s new poster is pretty impressive, even if it has a pink background.
and you, dear reader, can buy it if you’d like! it’s $50 on his site.
ms. anderson gets winks at every RV park.
leah anderson is a treat. look at the amazing prints you can own for less than $40! go! now! your walls need some nostalgia.
omgposters! just posted some pieces by rich kelly, who has a beautifully designed website to peruse (though there’s no link to his poster store there!). delicate little sketchy lines + liberal uses of white crayon = my fave.
.minimum wage art. 