Whoa… has it really been three years? Yep, just checked my archives, and sure enough my first post went up three years ago today! And so to celebrate, three fabulous pieces of art that seem to fit the occassion {because you have to celebrate with cake, no?!}

Thank you so much for coming along for the ride! xo

{1. Ashlie Chavez 2. Will Cotton 3. Claire Grill}

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!)

I am always awe-struck when I come across this kind of work. The patience and control required to create cut-paper installations is truly beyond me. American artist Sharon Arnold, on the other hand, has completely mastered this art. These pieces are from a series called “nixe, chimaera, muff” {the very first piece in the post is titled Nixe 2010, and is made from an 8′ roll of Strathmore drawing paper!}

{… thanks to Mudchicken for the link to Sharon’s work.}

Yep. An old feather factory turned into a gallery, and several artist studios {psst… that are for rent!}. The Active Space is in Bushwick Brooklyn, and looks like this:

Oh, it’s like a huge blank canvas! I desperately want an artist to paint a giant feather mural all over the exterior… wouldn’t that be cool!? Maybe in gold!!! Anyway, this post is about them {not my feathery mural ideas} so let me get back to the point! It’s a space with one large showing gallery, and several individual artist studios {free heat included in the rent – you can’t beat that!}. Here is a layout of the space, two examples of the rooms, and some jealousy-inducing work from a few of the ‘Active Space‘ artists:

{1. Lauren Clay 2. Sebastian Vallejo 3. Matt Nichols }

They are having a grand re-opening this Friday night, February 24th from 7 – 10pm, and you should go!  They’ll be featuring the work of street artist Criminy Johnson:

Have an amazing time on Friday night… and tell them about my gold feather mural idea! Thanks ; )

I found this work in the ‘drawing’ section of American artist Liz Miller’s portfolio. Um, my drawings do not look like this. At all. I guess she considers these incredibly beautiful/complex pieces to be very simple sketches… you’ll see what I mean when you see her main body of work:

Yep. Crazy!

{Thanks to Carolyn at  SOO Visual Arts Center for the link to Liz’s work.}

When I first announced the Girl Crush Workshops + Tea Parties in January, I did not have LA in the schedule… but then a WHOLE bunch of you emailed, and tweeted, and left messages on my facebook page… apparently you really like art, and you really like tiny little cakes! So, all of that to say, I listened. And look who I got!!!

I’ve had a girl crush on LA based photographer Stephanie Vovas from the first moment I saw her work. She’s a very successful photographer who specializes in, well, vintage-looking sex-kitten kind of shots… um, is it wrong that I want her styling team to make me over so that I can pretend to be one of these sassy vixens? Just for one day? Please!!! Ok, look at these stunning images, and I guarantee you’ll have a girl crush too:

Love. So much love {…you might recognize some of her subjects –  Robin Tunney, Gillian Jacobs, and Diora Baird to name a few!} Anywho, I’m knee deep into a girl crush over here, and I hope you are too because, on May 26th Stephanie and I will be hosting a Girl Crush Workshop + Tea Party at Edgar Varela Gallery :

What a great space, right!? We’ll spend the morning talking artist blocks/inspirations, followed by an amazing catered lunch. But wait, there’s more! After lunch, Edgar Varela himself, will take us on a gallery tour of the neighborhood, giving us the inside scoop on the latest shows in downtown LA. It’s going to be fabulous… wait, is that a Beverly Hills word, or can I use that in this post?

Sign up here if you’re interested!

Portraits by British artist Ben Hughes. I’m really not sure what to say about these fantastic, life-sized, half illustrated – half realistic, simple, yet detailed portraits… all I can seem to muster is a jaw-dropped, whoa ♥ {Oh boy… it’s that ginger-moustached man with his floppy sunflower, and piercing blue eyes… van Gogh meets Tin Tin, no?}

{Where did I find this amazing work? Well, Ben just happens to be the brother of the very talented Seattle based artist Tif Fussell – aka the crafting goddess, Dottie Angel. Seriously. The talent in this family is insane – insane I tell you! Happy weekend, see you on Monday!}

Ok, if you have ever worked with acrylic paint you know how fun/satisfying it is to peel the hardened paint off of  your palette. During my BFA I saved a whole bunch of this strange, plastic, skin-like stuff… but alas, I never made anything with it. Well, Seattle based artist Margie Livingston did. She created this fantastic work, that she describes as “both a three-dimensional painting and a sculpture made of paint.” That’s right these sculptures, or paintings, or sculptures, were created using only acrylic paint… layers and layers and layers and layers of hardened acrylic paint. So jealous.

{via Artsy Forager}

I’ve just started an exciting new collaboration {that I’ll tell you about very soon!}, and it has required me to dig through all of my old posts. It felt like flipping through an old year book – full of really good looking friends! Enter the work of Canadian artist Eric Cator. I wrote about his paintings a loooooong time ago, so it is definitely time to show more of his fantastic work. Aah, the compositions, the color choices, that lonely police officer… yep, this work should be voted “Most likely to make me jealous!”

Now these are the kind of jewels that I hope to get on Valentine’s Day! ♥

I so badly want American artist Kirsten Hassenfeld to hang one of these gorgeous installations from my ceiling! Delicate, light-infused, paper-based mixed media jewels… yes please.

{via Sycamore Street Press}