Etsy Top 5 of the week

this week I searched for handspun yarn - I was really looking for some unique and creative yarns with great texture and/or color.

thespunmonkey














jojocheng













WeirdAndTwisted


















delishknits













FeltStudioUK

Beatrix Reinhardt

myartspace > Artist Profile Page

check out the Club Series, photographs of the intereiors of various clubs around the world - I love the Hellenic Club... these images are really great - they say a lot - even without having any people in them, you still get an idea of who the club members are. It makes me wonder what a photograph of any of the spaces in my home might say about me....

Alison Elizabeth Taylor

Going With the Grain - The New York Times > Arts > Slide Show > Slide 1 of 11

slide show of work by artist Alison Elizabeth Taylor - she works with wood marquetry, cutting pieces of different woods and putting them together like a puzzle to create "paintings". I would love to see this work in person to really appreciate the detail - the process seems very tedious and time consuming, but from the images in the slide show it looks amazing. The article is here: Going With the Grain

inspiration - playing with my new camera

I bought myself a new camera for mothers day - our old one kept shutting off right as the button was pushed to take a picture - very annoying. so, I was taking some random pictures while on campus last week...

inspiration - Takashi Murakami

Takashi Murakami retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum - we make money not art

I love the cute and strange artwork of Murakami - although I am torn by his use of a factory of workers to help him produce his paintings. He designs them on a computer and has a team of people actually paint the canvases... it's a real cross between consumerism and fine art complete with plush dolls and keychains of his most popular characters.

inspiration ? the birds are gone

so, I have been observing and taking pictures of the birds nest in the backyard - first, there were three little eggs, then two little baby birds, then they got feathers, then they were gone! I found it very interesting that I have been really inspired by the idea of nests and birds this year and so they keep showing up in my art and in the art I'm inspired by... how do you explain this stuff?

inspiration - not a cloud in the sky

top 5 Etsy shops of the week

ACEOs (Art Cards Editions and Originals) featured this week...




Jessica Doyle
















PenGwynne Art













Kerry Kate
















mybusyfingers













Kellie Schneider

‘1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die’ - Read On! Your Days Are Numbered - NYTimes.com

Books - ‘1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die’ - Read On! Your Days Are Numbered - NYTimes.com

I love lists - a list of books to read before you die is very intriguing, since I already have my own mental list of the books I think I should read... I haven't gotten very far. This article is a great review of a new book, "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die".

Inspiration

new work - mixed media

I'm currently working on a series of small circle pieces (brooches) that are about 3 inch diameter. they are each made with mostly recycled materials: scraps of fabric, scraps of silver and pieces from unfinished projects... I think it will look really interesting with a ton of them all displayed together on a wall.

inspiration - SketchCrawl

"The basic idea: to record nonstop everything I could around me with my pencil and watercolors. A drawn journal filled with details ranging from the all the coffee I drank to the different buses I took. After a whole day of drawing and walking around the city the name seemed quite fitting: SketchCrawl - a drawing marathon."

ok, so I've been talking about drawing more often - how about a drawing marathon. The next worldwide SketchCrawl is scheduled for June 21st - check the website for more information. I think I'll try to get a group together to participate...

drawing everyday?

I'm going to challenge myself to draw everyday - even if I only have 15 minutes. I've been keeping a visual journal, but it has been years and it still isn't finished. sometimes I'll work in it everyday, but then I won't touch it for a few months. I need to develop a habit of working on my drawing everyday without thinking about making a "finished" piece - just practice.
here's an image from my visual journal - I like doing a combination of collages and drawing in this book, a quick sketch of the mess on my desk:

inspiration - Wagonized

one thing I love about reading other peoples blogs is the opportunity to visit all the links to the other blogs that they read. I spent about at least an hour surfing through other blogs looking for inspiration - I've bookmarked lots of sites to come back to and spent about an hour looking through the blog Wagonized: Drawings by France Belleville. An incredible collection of drawings - pencil, pen, whatever - everyday things, people... it's very inspiring. I need to draw more.

Inspiration - Sweeney Todd

Sweeney Todd | Official Movie Site | Johnny Depp | Tim Burton

this movie was very surreal - the coloring of the scenes and the makeup was very dramatic, emphasizing the story. A little gory at times, but mostly surreal - also, the songs were awesome.

inspiration - 52 Projects: Fall To Spring

52 Projects: Fall To Spring

excellent website - this post is a great set of images all taken in the same place but at different times of the year. go check it out.

Inspiration

Top 5 Etsy Shops of the week (ok, it's really 6)

This week I searched for handbags on Etsy - specifically looking for well-crafted pieces as well as very unique "art" bags. I must say I had a difficult time finding one-of-a-kind bags that I thought looked like works of art... I may do another top 5 of bags in a couple of months as I continue to search... (apparently a little bird and flower theme going on here, too ...)
tmStudio Designs













Rachael Dear














Vonica Designs















Bayan Hippo














FibreSpace














Stacy Leigh Design

Inspiration

Inspiration - Soop

Robert Rauschenberg, American Artist, Dies at 82 - New York Times

Robert Rauschenberg, American Artist, Dies at 82 - New York Times

Inspiration

Asia Werbel : Little Dog

Inspiration - rain

yesterday was a very rainy day - I was taking pictures of our trip to Chicago and took this out the window of the car - a reflection of the window... I thought it looked kind of cool...

Inspiration: The Other Colin Darke

Click here to see an interview of Derry based conceptual artist Colin Darke

Inspiration of the Day? John Currin

I have always been fascinated by John Currin's work. He balances imagery of contemporary women and classically painted women, and is very technically talented painters. Here is one of his pieces--where, like most of his work, he makes a point to over emphasize the sexual nature of his subject by giving her Barbie like proportions. His recent work is even more sexually explicit--he is taking inspiration from Internet porn and then painting it with a classic aesthetic. You can Google his name and see some of the work (I am not posting it because I am not really inspired by it--I think that slapping a viewer in the face with the sexual theme distracts from the imagery).

Top 5 Etsy Shops

This week, I reviewed shops that featured watercolor paintings. These are my picks for the top shops for the week (in no particular order):
1. HaywardART.etsy.com









2. EggCupArt.etsy.com

3. PoorDogFarm.etsy.com

4. Labarge.etsy.com

5. ElizabethRuffing.etsy.com

new work again, better image?

Inspiration - Alison Willoughby

Alison Willoughby
I have been admiring her work for years and now she has written a book! it's very cool with great examples, photos, and patterns. definitely wearable art.

new work - Sibling Revelry

first image - your calla lily with very subtle line drawings of a window (building?) and street light. I really liked the ghost image look of the lines so I just added a small bird in the upper right corner.












second image - part of a calla lily with red lines echoing the red line you used on the edge of the flower - clouds with echoing lines and raindrops.













third image - looks like you started a still-life with an orange, so I drew a faint pencil outline of a bowl with more oranges.

inspiration of the day - oktak

oktak-handmade bags from new york

as I have been working on my bags from recycled materials, I have been looking around to see what else is out there... these bags look very well constructed and the fabric patterns are so bold and bright, with some great combinations.

Inspiration of the day - John Clark

pretty cool graphic illustrations on old book pages. I like the use of old books and words in art, even if the words are random...
found on Trunkt
he also has an etsy shop

intspiration of the day - gorjuss

gorjuss
I really like these illustrations - there is so much illustration art on the internet!! anyway, this work reminds of images from my childhood - maybe a doll or a book or something, I can't place it... anyway, love the lines and simplicity of the composition.

new work

here are a couple pictures of my new work - not great photos, I'll take better ones soon. The gray piece with pink spots is made of four 24 x 36 inch canvases - they are not strong enough on their own, but work well together. The other piece is made of 9 square of knitted red cotton mounted on shadow boxes, gessoed, painted, embroidered... it is a piece from my art therapy class, we had to represent significant events in our life. it was an interesting challenge.

Inspiration of the day - Polaroids and Pinholes

Trunkt : The Premier Directory of Amazing Artists and Entrepreneurs - polaroids and pinholes

again, found on Trunkt - guess I'm into the cool, surreal photography right now. plus, pinhole cameras are just super cool.

Inspiration of the day - sMacVision

Trunkt : The Premier Directory of Amazing Artists and Entrepreneurs

found this artist while browsing through Trunkt - sMacVision. very cool poloroid images - surreal and kind of spooky.