I’ve written about UK based artist Anthony Zinonos a couple of times, but that was way back in 2009… clearly, it’s time for a new post.  As you probably know, I am a ridiculously huge fan of collage, especially found image collage. A scrap of perfectly chosen paper, a few strategic snips from a stack of old magazines, and voila, you have an entirely new story being told on a field of canary yellow! Anthony’s work is so simple, and so clever. Oh, and not only is his work simple and clever, but he always has the best titles – that last piece {on the field of canary yellow!} is called … “justGOtalkTOher” … ha! ♥

ps. So I think you know that I’m working on a couple of books with Chronicle Books {it’s killing me not to tell you what they’re about… soon though!}. The first one is almost finished, and I’m knee-deep into the second, which just so happens to have a wonderful foreword written by one Mr. Anthony Zinonos! YAY!

New York based artist Trey Speegle is having a sale! He’s got an online shop set up called The RePOP Shop, and it looks GOOD! For example, you could scoop one of these prints for $50…

What?! Yes! $50!!! Or how about some paint-by-number plates? Yep, he’s got those too…

Gorgeous! And if that’s not fabulous enough, you can buy one of these original “paint cans” from his most recent solo show…

Love! And if you want something in which the paint is actually out of the can, how about one of these original paint-by-number collages…

So good, right?! And there’s plenty more where that came from. Go and have a look… and then let me know what you got so that I can be jealous of you too!

ps. THIS JUST IN!!! Trey just emailed me and said that he’d like to offer you guys 20% OFF on the site, until May 20th! Yay! Thanks Trey! Use this code at checkout: Friends520

This is the work of Boulder, Colorado based artist Chinn Wang … she screenprints on wood, and in the case of her “heraldry” series, they come in the form of a few crazy amazing family crest type things {and, of course, a couple of big blue bears to guard her own personal crest, titled “CW”} . Oh yes, and then there are these beauties:

Those owls! Pink Deer! Snap, Crackle AND Pop? Yep, it’s the whole gang! Love.

Layers and layers and layers of goodness. This is the collage, and or drawing, and or paper-cutting, and or printmaking work of California based artist Elise Wehle. I came across her work for the first time a few weeks ago when I was judging the UncommonGoods art contest… one look at her portfolio and we knew we had a winner!  You can see why, right?!  She’ll be selling prints through UncommonGoods, but boy or boy, I sure would like to see an original up-close n’ personal! Beautiful. Speaking of beautiful, read her artist statement… it’s perfect:

“I make the art I do to pull me away from the increasingly digital world that surrounds me. Every day I spend so much time in front of a glowing screen that sometimes I forget I possess five bodily senses and not just one or two. Making art makes me conscious of my hands again, and all of my work requires time-intensive, redundant movements that remind me that not everything is as instantaneous as a click of a mouse. By weaving together paper, cutting lines, and folding shapes, I manipulate drawings, photos, and prints to create new landscapes for me to explore.”

Beaver pelts, sequins, deer antlers, old axes, neon rope? Yep, these are the art supplies of Milwaukee based artist Cassandra Smith. All of the objects that she works with are found, and then manipulated in her own special, brightly colored, beautifully patterned way! Everything included here is part of Cassandra’s current show, titled ”Out of the Wild” that is hanging, until June 1 2013, at Sky High Gallery {curated by the uber-creative Faythe Levine}. Here is Cassandra’s description of this work:

“My work  is about manipulations and transformation. It is about exploring the ways that I can enhance and change found objects to give them something they did not have in their former life. I find a certain beauty in imposing my aesthetic, specifically color and pattern, onto natural or worn objects. I am fascinated by the dichotomy between organic and geometric shapes, the contrast between natural and synthetic. I strive to enhance these objects while respecting the inherent qualities that drew me to them in the first place.”

It’s amazing what a few slices of a blade, and a bit of bending can do to a photograph. Suddenly these quiet nature scenes are crisp, bold, and graphic. Brooklyn based artist Letha Wilson manipulates images just a little bit, and creates something wonderfully new. Every now and then she cuts a little more than the photo though:

In this case, she cut right through the drywall so that light from behind could shine into the gallery… um, LOVE!!!

Oh my word. These intricate paper collages are  the work of California based artist David Adey. He uses fashion magazines, and found google images as the starting point for his work… and then laser cuts, and craft-punches them into zillions of tiny fragments. He then meticulously pins each bit onto foam board, creating stunningly beautiful, and insanely elaborate mandalas. I’m pretty sure I’ll never look at a lipstick ad the same way again. Sigh. Gorgeous.

{via the artful desperado}

The first three words that pop into my mind – strange, childhood, dreamy/nightmarey. Ok, that was technically four words, but I couldn’t just leave it at dreamy… these scare me just a tiny bit. And I like it.  This is the beautifully bizarre work of Montreal based artist Dominique Fortin. Ok, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again… a finished face, and an unfinished everything else is pure magic to me… and don’t even get me started on those fire breathing dogs on paint brush stilts. M.A.G.I.C.

{ps. I featured more of Dominique’s work in my ART GOES HERE post, that just went up today, over at sfgirlbybay}

Oooooh! New work by Vancouver artist Aaron Moran. I wrote about his salvaged-wood sculptures a couple of years ago {which I still love more than I can say!}, but when I saw this series, titled Section 1, I had to share it. Boy oh boy, it’s pretty amazing what he can do with bits of wood and a tiny amount of perfectly chosen house paint. Love.

Oh, Beth Hoeckel. Every time I visit her site there is something new. Something great. Something that makes me want to find images, cut them up, and glue them onto something else. These first three pieces are similar to the other pieces I’ve written about before, but these pieces have their own feel…

… and yep, I love these too! Oh, Beth Hoeckel.