I find all sorts of amazing bits & pieces in my travels around the internet. I usually post them to my “random lovely things” board on Pinterest, but today I thought I’d share a few of my favorites with you… a lovely/random way to kick off the weekend, yes? I didn’t fully realize {ok, I had a hunch}, that I seem to have a thing for neons & neutrals…

… ahhh, finished off with an amazing piece by Banksy. Ok, everything in this post makes me want to make stuff… good thing it’s the weekend! See you on Monday : )

{1. inaluxe 2. Emma Dajska 3. Jack Potter 4. Feathers {I can’t find the artist? Help!}  5. Shaun Kardinal 6. Ritsuko Ozeki 7. Chris Henley 8. Keith P. Rein 9. Leah Durant 10. Banksy}

Ya know, you think you know someone… and then they show you these?! I wrote about the paintings of American artist Mark Bradley Shoup at least three years ago. Since then, we’ve become friends, and we’re even working on a few projects together {including an art show in February 2013 in Chattanooga, GIRL CRUSH Chattanooga, and hopefully a chance for me to speak at the University while I’m there!}

Anyway, Mark is known for his muted color palettes, and mundane/beautiful Americana landscapes, which I absolutely love. We started talking about collage the other day, and he said “Oh, I do a bit of collage work – I’ll send a few over”… and this is what showed up in my inbox. Um… LOVE!!! Geesh, I wonder what else he’s hiding from me? I’ll have to raid his studio when I’m there in February!

Um, Wes Anderson, if you’re reading this {insert pipedream here}, you should have an entire wall of these ship paintings in your next film… they’d be perfect, would they not?! Vintage looking work, in truly vintage frames, but these are recent pieces by American artist Mary Maguire. She clearly has a lot of talent… but wait until you hear what she did before painting. Ready?

Mary attended Rhode Island School of Design, worked at Alfred A. Knopf Publishing and Random House, followed by three years at Conde Nast Publications working on various publications including The New Yorker, Vogue and Conde Nast Traveler… inhale… she was then the Features Editor of Lauren magazine, a lifestyle magazine with designer Ralph Lauren, and then of course onto a position with The Muppets at the Jim Henson Company as Editorial Director. And then she started painting. Exhale.

Ahh, the work of Seattle based, German-born, artist Anne Siems… so beautiful, so so strange. This is actually her work from a few years ago {here’s her more recent work}, but the closeups of these paintings on panel were just too amazing not to show. There is an entire world happening in each of these pieces… lovely lambs, tiny flowers, and a strange little man riding… um,  is that a dog?

These stunning {yet simple} abstract oil landscapes, by Toronto based artist Yangyang Pan, make me want to rake up a giant pile of neon leaves, get a running start, and jump right in! The composition, the colors, and the fact that they’re at least 4 feet wide … sigh. Where’s my rake?

{…prints available in her Etsy shop}

Happy weekend! I just wanted to pop in to say a few things about the GIRL CRUSH workshops… that you may not know:

1. You do not have to be an artist to come! I didn’t realize that a bunch of people thought that… nope, you don’t have to be an artist to attend. You just have to be someone who is creative, wants to be creative, wants to recharge those creative batteries, has occasional doubts about creativity, and wants to reach out & meet some other amazing women in your city who are feeling exactly the same way!

2. I make a pretty big deal about the cupcakes, pastries, striped straws and fancy sandwiches… all lovely Pinterest-worthy perks, of course, but not the reason for coming to GIRL CRUSH. Even the afternoon of art making {which again, is a lovely/fun/creative perk} is not the main goal of this day. Granted, I wasn’t even sure what to expect going in, but after seeing and hearing what happened in San Francisco {with Lisa Congdon}, and Seattle {with Tif Fussell}, even I’ve realized it really is so much more than cupcakes and art. The conversations we’ve had, the transparency, the willingness to open up and share doubts and insecurities is beyond moving. That’s what I had hoped it would be about – creative breakthroughs, support from like-minded people, and a new group of creative friends to share success {and fears} with… and I can’t believe it’s really happening. It’s a dream come true to be perfectly honest. I am in awe of the first two groups, and cannot wait to see who arrives in doorways of the other artists’ studios over the coming months!

3. Every penny is used to run the event {we have to pay for those cupcakes and striped straws, right!} I don’t see GIRL CRUSH as a revenue stream for myself, I see these workshops as an amazing opportunity to meet interesting, creative people all over the world… and hopefully be a catalyst to a new perspective, for all of us. I have been working on getting more corporate sponsors so that I can bring the fee down even further… stay tuned! {or if you know of anyone I should talk to, please let me know!}

Ok, I think that’s all. If you have any questions, let me know! There are still a few spaces left in the 2012 workshops:

Portland with Lisa Golightly – June 9th

Minneapolis with Jennifer Davis – June 23rd [SOLD OUT]

Austin with Alyson Fox – September 29th

Philly with Shauna Alterio – October 13th [SOLD OUT]

{Boston, Chicago, Chattanooga, Toronto, LA, Vancouver… and hopefully Hawaii… are tentatively on the schedule for 2013}

Photos above by: Melanie Biehle and Taylor Rae; Hand-lettering artwork found in Lisa Congdon’s studio by Mary Kate McDevitt

LOVE!!! A friend pointed me to the portfolio of LA based photographer Jen Gotch… and I have basically just shown you everything in her ‘personal’ section! Well, that was the first half… here’s the second half:

Sweet jiminy… I love it all! She also has some gorgeous prints for sale… oh, ok, I’ll show you a few of my favorite shots from that section of her site too!

Gah. So good! Ok, I’ll stop now.

Neon love letters illuminating the evening landscape. Um, yes, I absolutely love this text-based work by Korean artist Jung Lee. She had me at “WHY?”

{via Colossal}

So, someone {I won’t name names} was recently teasing me about the amount of “breast-related-art” that I show… well, this post is for you nameless friend! These paintings are definitely some of the tamest work in the portfolio of  Montreal based artist Eliza Griffiths, but they have just the right amount of “boob” for me! Add a neon coral car, and a tiny dog in the driver seat and I’m totally sold!

Yes, that is exactly how you start talking after you’ve spent a lovely, inspiring, creative day with Tif Fussell {aka Dottie Angel}

Sigh. What an amazing day we had at GIRL CRUSH Seattle this past Saturday, and it all started right here:

I had never been to Assemble Gallery in Seattle before this weekend, and I absolutely loved it! Emily and Andie, the lovely ladies behind Assemble, were amazing and made sure that everything was just right! It was beyond perfect for an art workshop & tea party… so airy, so pretty, and filled with artwork, design objects, & stacks of gorgeous books… including Uppercase Magazine! Thank you so much to Janine from Uppercase for giving each of us the latest issue… so peachy {as Tif would say!} Once we had everything in just the right spot, it was time to say hello…

What an amazing group of women. Lots of locals, and a few that weren’t so local. People came from LA, Boston, and Vancouver! We spent the morning talking… and talking, and talking. I was completely in awe of the transparency, and willingness to share. Tif’s story of her creative journey was so inspiring, and I was totally caught up in the reasons each of the women gave for being there. Painters, photographers, writers, performers, knitters. What we had in common was a passion to create… not to mention a few niggly doubts about what/how we create that have been slowing us down… well, no more!

I have a set of artist block crushing exercises that we spend the morning working through, and I am quite sure that all of us came away from them slightly changed. {There are already a few posts out there if you’d like to see what I mean… Here, here, and here.} We laughed, we cried, and so of course, by mid-afternoon we all desperately needed this:

So good! We had a lovely lunch catered by Macrina Bakery, followed by an afternoon of Dottie Angel inspired deer-adorned treats by Trophy Cupcakes… and our vintage teacups were constantly filled by the generous folks next door at Caffe Vita! Again, I am totally overwhelmed by the generosity that went into making this event happen.

So, after I finished my insanely delicious cupcake, it was time to lick the butter-cream icing off of Bambi’s hooves, and get to work!

Oh my word – I could have snipped, and glued, and painted until midnight! After a morning filled with amazing conversation, things went very quiet, very quickly. We listened to La Vie en Rose, and collaged like there was no tomorrow. It was heaven… and just like that it was over. I have to say, I felt a little sad to say goodbye to all of the beautiful women who I now call “friend”… oh well, at least we have Twitter!

Thank you so much to everyone involved in GIRL CRUSH Seattle… and to my lovely friend Tif ~ you truly are peachy, spiffy, and not at all ‘pants’ xo

ps. GIRL CRUSH Portland is only a few weeks away… if you’d like to come and spend a creative Saturday with me and Lisa Golightly {aka Kiki & Polly} you can sign up right here! If you’re thinking about it, please do come… we can’t make these events happen without you!

*Pants: adjective; British slang. Not good; total crap; nonsense; rubbish; bad; used quite a bit by the lovely Tif Fussell!

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These photographs were all taken by the ladies at the event… what talent! Thanks to Andie, Sandra, and Melanie xo