PAINTINGS.

Yes. They’re paintings! Large-scale oil paintings that look a whole lot like some of my favorite childhood sweaters {that I would totally wear today if they still fit me}. Seriously, I could not be happier right now… I love all of these pieces oh so very much! São Paulo based artist Rogério Degaki sent me his work yesterday, and about 26 minutes later this post was ready to go. So good… they’re PAINTINGS.

Yep. More portraits on vibrant backdrops. Here’s the thing –  I could not contain myself when I found the work of American artist Jennifer Burton {even though I wrote about similar work in yesterday’s post}. It was that bear that got me… Or those giant dandelions… Or that bird on that lady’s head… Or the detail in the vinage-ish looking people on those flat, graphic backgrounds… Or maybe it was just all of it rolled up and put together… yep, that must have been it. LOVE!!!

{via Plywerk… Jennifer is their artist of the month for May}

Oh, the stunning portraits of Baltimore based artist Amy Sherald… beautiful, strange, and insanely vibrant. To understand where this work comes from, I’ve got a chunk of Amy’s artist statement for you to read:

“The scope of my experiences involving race materialized from my upbringing in the south. While attending private schools and being one of two or three black children, I was raised to be conscious of how I acted, spoke and dressed. This performing aspect of my identity was cultivated from the beginning of my schooling. I learned this was the key to my social acceptance and assimilation. Drawing from these experiences, I am engaging from a personal perspective with the desire to extrapolate meaning on how identity is both constructed and performed within political, social, economic and cultural spheres.”

{Thanks to my friend Jen for reminding me about Amy’s work – so good.}

So, you know how “affordable art” is a hot topic these days? Well, how does FREE sound?! American artist Vincent Serritella is a fantastic painter, but he also happens to be knee-deep in a project that he calls “free daily drawings“… in which, you guessed it, he does daily drawings for free, and here’s why:

“After reading the sales at art auction houses, it got me thinking: art should not only be available to the wealthy, but available for anyone. Hence, this year I’m creating 365 drawings and giving every one of them away.”

There are soooo many good ones to choose from, but you’ve got to be quick! These were the two that I was after… but alas, I was not even close to quick enough!

*POP!* {the sound of my dreams popping when I didn’t get the “BLOW POP” drawing}

So, on Friday morning I wrote about American painter Clare Elsaesser. Well, I cannot even imagine how amazingly creative their home must be, as this is the work of her husband, Kai Samuels Davis. Sigh… so much talent under one roof.

I am a sucker for portraits of women, add to that Kai’s color choices and his simple/confident brush strokes, and I’m completely done for. Love.

Oh my word… Austin was so much fun! The multi-talented artist/designer Alyson Fox. Twelve amazing women. Delicious food. And, this crazy beautiful house…

Gah! Alyson’s home is amazing, and we were so lucky that she offered to host GIRL CRUSH right there in her stunning glass living room. And yes, there is an outdoor shower… not that any of us used it… but we totally could have! We spent the morning getting down to the nitty gritty of our creative souls – things we love, things we want, things that scare the $#&% out of us. Side note: I cannot even tell you how shocked and amazed I always am by the caliber of women that attend GIRL CRUSH. This was the sixth one I’ve done and, as usual, my mouth dropped open as they introduced themselves: writers, photographers, teachers, painters, designers, “financial advisors” who may or may not be on the run from the FBI, and the list goes on.

As the girls were working on a few inner-critic assignments, Alyson, myself and Kelly {my invaluable helper for the weekend who happens to be the woman behind the fabulous blog, Design Crush} set up for lunch:

Best napkin bowl ever, right?! Well, it’s not really a napkin bowl, but we put napkins in it just so we could leave it out on the counter! Now, all of that talkin’ really works up an appetite, and so we feasted on an amazing lunch that included chick pea stew, roasted potatoes, smoked salmon, salad, and home made roasted-red pepper dip  … all of which was prepared by Alyson. Geesh, between her house, her artistic talent, and her cooking… my girl crush on Alyson just tripled!

So, after lunch we’re supposed to move on to making collages for the afternoon, but the conversation was SO GOOD, that we just kept on talking… but, of course, we took a mid-afternoon break for these bad boys:

YUM! Peanut Butter Cup (cake), French Toast with bacon, something that seemed like double chocolate with chocolate goo inside… oh my word, these were so good! The lovely ladies of Sugar Mama’s Bake Shop generously supplied these sweet treats for our afternoon tea party… and then, just like that, there were none left. Mmm. And as if a ton of sugar isn’t sweet enough, we also got a surprise visitor part way through the cupcake binge:

What?! Magda Seyag?! Yep, another of my favorite artists, who happens to be from Austin, heard that GIRL CRUSH was happening and asked if she could pop by. Um?… YES!! I have loved Magda’s knit-bombing work for years, so I was so excited to meet her. She didn’t miss a beat – she arrived, grabbed a cupcake, and dove right into her own stories of her creative journey – the good, the bad, and the ugly.

It was a fantastic day… a really really really full day. I schedule these events to be from 9am – 5pm… but in Austin, the last person said good-bye at 8:30pm, and it could have kept on going as far as I was concerned! To all of the women who were there – I am so happy to have met all of you, and cannot wait to see where your creative path leads you.

And Alyson. Oh my gosh… Alyson. Thank you for everything. All of your help in planning, hosting at your beautiful home, that crazy delicious lunch, all of the absolutely beautiful things {ink dish mug,“shade of red” book, baggu bag!} that you put into the gift bags, and all of the hilarious conversation before, during, and after the workshop. You’re amazing xo

And finally, thank you so much to Kathleen Shannon, and Kari Crowe who were not only fabulous attendees, but also really great photographers who took enough photos during the day to make this recap post possible! xoxo

{ps. A few of the women have written their own recaps, so if you’d like to see their take on the day, you can go here, here, or here!}

Flower covered portraits… YES! This is the lovely work of American artist Clare Elsaesser. You might recognize her work, because her Etsy shop, tastes orangey, is very popular! Well no wonder, with flowered covered portraits like this, you just can’t go wrong. However… I also crazy love this portrait, and there’s not a flower  in sight:

♥

Mugshots. Woven mugshots. Elaborate, meticulous, and absolutely stunning woven mugshots. LOVE!!! This is the work of American artist Joanne Arnett, and I am completely smitten. She’s still in the process of setting up her website, but I couldn’t control myself… I had to write about these NOW!!! So here’s how she does it – she weaves large scale portraits with wire so the face is visible when light bounces off it. The images shift, like a giant daguerreotype from positive to negative depending on where the viewer stands, or sometimes they completely disappear into the plane of fabric. I need to see these in person. A lot.

Sigh. So… who wants to go to Iceland now? Yep, me too! This is a personal body of work by Sydney based photographer Anna Pogossova, quite appropriately titled, Iceland. The photos are stunning on their own, and then she added those perfectly chosen blocks of color, and managed to make them even more beautiful. Ok, go get your boots, and let’s go!

hi! just wanted to pop in and quickly say… if you have emailed me about the fig house project, i got  your message and i’m just sorting through my inbox that is now FILLED with amazing stuff! you’ve all made my job so much easier… but also, so much harder! so. much. good. work!!!

my plan is to write everyone back, but honestly, i’m having a hard time keeping up! stay tuned, and i’ll let you know what’s going on as soon as i can : )

{Image above by: Anu Tuominen… thanks to Aaron for finding this artist’s name for me!}