Wow. Stunning, detailed, beautifully-executed beadwork over portraits, photographed by Alfred Cheney Johnston, of actresses from the 20′s and 30′s. Latvian bead-artist Binka Rigava was recently commissioned to create these pieces for the newly remodeled restaurant & bar at at Hotel Monteleone, in New Orleans’ historic French quarter. I got an email yesterday from a restaurant/hotel designer named Ashley Wilkins, who in partnership Lindsay Broad, {both of whom work at Puccini Group in San Francisco} were the amazing team on this project. They wanted to “commission art that would speak to the mystery and golden age of the hotel”… luckily, they found Binka’s work on Etsy, and the rest is history!

{Speaking of history: Hotel Monteleone is a Literary and Historic landmark. The hotel has been open since before the 1930′s and has been written about in novels from authors like Hemingway,  Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, and many more. The carousel in the bar is existing and has been there for over 70 years. The carousel even slowly spins completing a full circle once every 15 minutes.}

Have a look:

Gorgeous.

I absolutely love this series by American artist Evie Woltil Richner. Feathery, delicate drawings lovingly applied to old, family photos – memorializing those who are no longer with us. I would try to explain further, but Evie’s words are so much more powerful:

“…Each of these pieces is a burial, but also a memorial. Working from photographs of deceased relatives, I am physically burying them in a shroud of drawn feathers. Through burial, we acknowledge loss. The person is removed from our lives.
My Grammy, as I always called her, moved in with us when I was in elementary school. She had Alzheimer’s disease and we took care of her. Over time, I could see her memory disappearing. She would forget who people were and repeat the same stories and phrases over and over. She lives now only in my memory and in the memories of those who knew her, but my memories are wispy, like bits of dreams a few hours after you’ve had them. Some of the memories are barely there. I can see only a sliver of them. Afraid of the erosion of my own memory, my creations are also an act of remembrance – remembering my Grammy as she was when she lived with us, and also reconstructing who she might have been before I knew her. Through the ritual of drawing over images of her, I return to thoughts of her again and again.
When finished, the pieces become a signifier, like a gravestone, of a person who once was, and just as gravestones serve to connect us with a loved one after they’ve passed, these pieces are a physical connection I have to her. The feathers specifically reference the cross-cultural symbolism of the bird as a connection between heaven and earth.”

Beautifully said… and beautifully executed.

Found images, AND thread? Oh, be still my beating heart! California based artist Lisa Kokin is killing me with this work. Here are Lisa’s words about these images, from her Sewn Found Photos series:

Sometimes there are inscriptions on the back (“Susie, 7 years old”) but more often they come to me stripped of all identity. I sit in my studio and speculate about the nature of the photographed people’s lives. I will, of course, never know the truth, so I feel it is my job to give them new lives and rescue them from the obscurity they would be headed for were it not for me, humble servant of the arts. I try to invent an altogether different identity for them but of course, in the final analysis these works are more about me than any of the hundreds of anonymous individuals who appear in my work.

I am intrigued with other people’s photographic recording of their lives both for the generic quality they possess — the family and social rituals, studio portraits, vacation shots — and for the feeling of sadness and nostalgia that acquiring other people’s memories provokes in me. I feel somehow that it should be illegal to own them, yet since they are for sale it might as well be me who buys them.

… and this is literally only a fraction of her portfolio. Just wait til you see what she does with old books!

{I found the first image in the post on Pinterest, via Artsy Forager}

So here’s the thing… I don’t speak Spanish. However, María Revuelta and Núria del Moral, the girls behind the Barcelona based photography studio Las Coleccionistas, do. All of this to say, I love the images from this project titled Meals {perhaps because all I’ve done for the past three days is eat!}, but I really have no idea what it’s about. So I used Google Translate, and this is what I got…

Meals – Exaltation of the pleasures that produces the experience of eating. Editorial fashion in collaboration with stylists barcelonaUnnaked . Posted Pashion Magazine (Middle East), Luxsure Magazine (France) and Spot Magazine (Mexico).

Hm. Well there you go.

Ooh, steamy! This is the lovely work of London based photographer David Ryle, from a series quite appropriately titled Steam. I’m not sure if this was a personal project, or a commercial commission… either way, I’m feeling all warm & fuzzy!

{Art Director: Gem Fletcher, Stylist: Natasha Freeman, Hair and Makeup: Ellie Tobin}

Maybe it’s because people are already starting to hang Christmas lights, but today I was in the mood for some gorgeous light installations… so I googled “light installations, art”, and look what I found!!! American artist Barry Underwood and his stunning, candy-hued lights floating magically in nature. Thanks google – I owe ya one.

If my hands were this lovely & delicate, I’d photograph them in a zillion settings too! Amanda Jasnowski is an American photographer who relocated from Ohio to New York, three weeks ago… just in time for the hurricane! Don’t worry, she and her hands are just fine.

Oh, so dreamy. This is the polaroid work of LA based photographer Max Wanger. All of his photographs are gorgeous, but these polaroids… oh my. I want to live in his sunny, overexposed world!

Ahhh… is it summer yet?! If I just stare directly at the work of LA based artist/film student Valerie Chiang I think I could make myself believe that it’s the middle of July. So, so lovely. However, it is November 1st, and I do love the coziness of fall and winter:

Ah, yes… who wants a peppermint hot chocolate!

This really is happening, and YOU could be part of it! Yep, if you’re slightly addicted to documenting your life with Instagram, your photos could be included in this new book by Chronicle Books! Seriously!!! For more information on this super-duper fun project click here, and to upload your super-duper amazing images click here… oh, and since I’m totally lame, and don’t actually have a phone worthy of Instagram, please find inspiration in a few people that make me jealous with their lovely, day-in-the-life, Instagram shots:

Victoria Smith {sfgirlbybay}

Lisa Congdon… and her feet {lisacongdon}

Tif Fussell {dottie angel}

Ok, now it’s over to you! Good luck… let me know if your shots get in – happy weekend!