So, you’ve all seen this, right?

Of course you have! This installation {made of crayons!!!} is titled “Wildfire” and was all over the interweb awhile back. The artist responsible for this beautiful work … American artist Herb Williams. Now, his crayon-assembling talent doesn’t end there. He also made these:

Bunnies and lions, oh my! And now you can see some of his newest work. He has a show that opens this Saturday, December 1st at The Rymer Gallery in Nashville. What can you expect? A giant tree made of crayons? Yep:

The show is titled Call of the Wild, and will run until January 26, 2013.

I am so jealous of everyone that got to stand under this beautiful lightbulb installation, and pull those strings! Wow. Ok, so I know this has been floating {pun totally intended} around the internet, but I think it’s absolutely beautiful and had to share it too! This piece is titled cloud, and is the collaborative work of Caitlind r.c. Brown and Wayne Garrett. 6000 lightbulbs turning on and off in the dark night of Calgary’s Nuit Blanche this past September. Sigh… lovely.

{via Colossal}

Oh! I cannot believe I missed this just by a few days! “GOOD LUCK WITH THAT” was an amazing show {that just came down a week ago – sorry!} by American artist Trey Speegle, at Benrimon Contemporary in New York. I’ve only shown a fraction of the amazing work that was included… although, I was tempted to show it all! Here’s a little peek:

Gah! Paint by numbers on mirror?! Paint cans that promise a better future? YES!!! Oh, and then there are these numeric gems:

… and these:

Sigh. This entire show makes me want to run {not walk} to my studio, lock myself in, and just make stuff for days… hm, maybe I’ll start with a paint-by-number kit!

So, this painting is the first thing you’ll see on the site of Beijing born, New York based artist Yuanyuan Yang. Awesome, yes?! But if you click a little deeper into her portfolio {which of course you will, once you’ve seen that fantastic first image!}, you’ll find these lovely/weird little gems:

Ok, I’m just going to say it… that little nudie karate kick is my favorite. HI-YA!

{ps. Yuanyuan has a show opening in New York, at Fuse Gallery, this Wednesday, October 24th at 7pm. The work is this show is from the same series as the painting at the top of this post… you should go!}

Oh, the amazing, large-scale beach portraits of Dutch artist Rineke Dijkstra. They almost look like hyper-real paintings, don’t they? These photographs, from her series titled Beach Portraits, are not only huge {approx 46″ x 37″!!}, they are also absolutely stunning in their quiet simplicity. Sigh.

{Looking for something to do this weekend? Perfect! There is a retrospective of her work currently showing at the Guggenheim from June 29 ~ October 8, 2012}

It’s finally here… an entire weekend filled with art, design, workshops {i’m teaching one on saturday morning}, & gourmet popsicles! That’s right, GATHER POP UP is opening on Friday night in Vancouver’s Gastown. If you live in Vancouver, you have to come!

…and, if you live in Vancouver, not only do you get to hang out all weekend, you could also WIN A FABULOUS GATHER GOODY BAG! Yep, it’s true. Everything shown below is included, and all you have to do is comment. I’m drawing one winner {a Vancouver based winner… sorry rest of the world!} on Thursday at noon (PST). See you at Gather, Vancouver peeps!

{Thanks so much to everyone who popped something into this lovely gift bag: 1 My Little Lights // 2 Henderson Dry Goods // 3 Nostalgic Links // 4 Wild Rabbit // 5 Meeralee Illustrations // 6 Jola V Designs // 7 Little MoSo // 8 LoveJules // 9 Bouchée Cheesecakes // 10 THIS IS EAST VAN // 11 visamexicana }

When I was in San Francisco for GIRL CRUSH, Lisa Congdon took us on a little gallery tour in the Mission, which ended at the very inspiring Gallery Hijinks. It’s a great gallery that manages to hang amazing show after amazing show. Well, this might be your chance to be in one of those amazing shows! They’ve put out a call for submissions and the deadline is June 1st… so quick like a bunny, and get your stuff in! Here is absolutely everything you need to know:

Gallery Hijinks is proud to announce its first juried exhibition, “Visions of Yore”. Along with the gallery director, Tanya Gayer, Gallery Hijinks has invited guest juror Emily Lakin of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts to be a part of the selection process. The exhibition will occur July 7th, 2012, and include live performance and artists lectures during the month, as well as an auction at the close of the exhibition.

Submissions are open to a range of work including sculpture, painting, printmaking, sound, video, installation, and mixed media work. The exhibiting artists should demonstrate the  quality of their work and relevance to the exhibition concept. The exhibition is open to all artists aged 18 and over. Artists must be willing to take on personal responsibility for their artwork if unsold after the exhibition closes. Entries should be completed within 2 years prior to the deadline. The exhibit is open to the public.

Visions of Yore:

Katharine Harmon, the author of The Map as Art, notes that to ‘orientate’ is to, “hop back and forth between landscape and time, geography and emotion, knowledge and behavior. Associations often happen with this idea of orienting because of memory springing from these categories.” To translate memory is to recall the sensory and time sensitive elements of a memory.

Memories coexist with time and space neither in the present or past, nor in one location at one time, but in fact exist and apply aspects from different places and people at all times. The process of remembering takes place in such an instant that memories only have concrete form by way of specific documentation.

Gallery Hijinks seeks works that  come from our beliefs of memory. At times memory cannot be pinned down, but only felt as a means of consciousness vying for a state of attention. Cues encountered in everyday life evoke past recollections without effort, while sometimes we deliberately try to piece together the past. Artists are encouraged to submit work in homage to memory and how it is recognized in regards to the visual and formulated.

Exhibition Details:
Deadline for submissions: June 1st, 2012
Submission Fee: $20
Artists accepted for the exhibition will be notified by June 4th. Works must be delivered to Gallery Hijinks no later than June 27th, 2012.

To submit please visit:
http://www.galleryhijinks.com/about/juried-exhibition

Whoa. The cut and folded paper illustration work of French- born, San Francisco based, artist Chloe Fleury is, well, gorgeous! Her work for the cover of Anthology’s latest issue is amazing {look at those tiny paper lamps!}, I love those bunny heads, and her 3D San Francisco neighborhood posters… um, and now I totally want an orange popsicle sold to me from a little pink paper truck! If you live in the Bay Area you can literally be part of  the world of Chloe Fleury… her show, titled Color Me Happy – The World of Chloe Fleury, is opening at La Boutique next Friday, April 27th,  from 6 – 8pm {RSVP here}. Here’s a sweet little video to prepare you for Chloe’s lovely, bright, papery world:

Cute! And on that cheery note, happy weekend! See you on Monday!

Seinfood: An Art Show About Nothing by Rinee Shah

Um, I love this! Food from Seinfeld…

Yes, yes it is.

{…currently showing until March 10th at Pot + Pantry, in the Mission, San Francisco}

When you hear the name Dottie Angel, I’m quite sure you immediately think of the faceless, crafty goddess who resides at Mossy Shed, and looks a little something like this, yes?

Well, I am so excited for you to meet the woman {with a face} behind Dottie Angel… the insanely talented, Seattle based artist, Tif Fussell:

Tif and I have planned an AMAZING, collaborative, creative tea party for Seattle! The theme… “assembling”, and I’ll tell you why. Twelve of us are going to “assemble” at the very lovely “Assemble Gallery & Studio“, where we will “assemble” a collaborative, mixed media collage {using vintage papers, thread, text, images, buttons… whatever Tif and I can dig out of our studios, really}. After spending the morning talking artist blocks & inspirations, we’ll have plenty of ideas to work into our piece! Now, the most exciting part… our finished, “assembled” piece will hang as a group show at Assemble Gallery! Seriously. When the show comes down a few weeks later, the collage will be snipped into individual pieces, and you can each take one home for your very own studio wall. Here’s a quick look at an example that Tif put together:

Ah, so lovely! Oh, and did I mention that we’ll be eating stacks of sweet little cupcakes while we do this?! Yes, yes we will. If you’d like to join us on Saturday May 19th, in Seattle at Assemble Gallery & Studio, just click here to register. YAY!

{Thank you so much to Tif, and Andie & Emily at Assemble… and to Seattle blogger/writer/photographer Melanie B. for getting this whole Seattle Girl Crush rolling on Twitter! I think she has it almost sold out, so sign up soon!)