What is it with me and bizarre storybook imagery? Seriously, I cannot seem to get enough. These lithographs, with chine-collé, are by the multi-talented Peregrine Honig. What I love about them are the soft, delicate backgrounds combined with the bold, somewhat disturbing characters. A bear that is clearly up to no good. Kids with antlers hanging around in their underpants. Little Red Riding Hood wielding an axe and a pretty decent bikini tan… is it morally wrong that I love these?

Ah, the simple and serene suburbs. A place where nothing ever happens… wait a minute, is that a body in the front yard?

I love suburban subject matter, especially when things aren’t quite right… because, let’s face it, we all know that there’s crazy stuff going on in most of those houses! And lucky for us, painter Amy Bennett is giving us a little sneak peek into a few of them in her series entitled Neighbors. These scenes almost look like architectural models of an ideal suburb (the perspectives, the cut-aways, the perfect little trees and cars) until  you look a little closer. Obvious artistic talent and a really good story – you can’t ask for much more than that.

Forget Christmas gifts, I’m going to wrap myself in these beautiful custom patterns by illustrator/artist Julia Rothman. When I came across her work I recognized her name right away but couldn’t figure out from where… had I already written about her? Nope… Ah-ha! Of course – she’s the author of one of my favourite blogs, Book By It’s Cover. Wow, jealous twice in one post. Busy day.

Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison are the dynamic duo known officially as Gracia & Louise. They are an art team based in Melbourne Australia who make amazing things on paper… books, collages, lithographs, zines,  you name it.

When I found them, I got that feeling that I always hope for ~ a cheek-flushing rush of inspiration followed by a little soul-crushing jealousy. And then, I saw that they had a piece in Could Be Me, a project that I was totally smitten with a few months back, and I knew it was true love.

This is Sophie. She was created by Xavier Veilhan and, in all of her yellow glory, she spans two floors at Le Germain in Paris. Her head is breaking through into the VIP lounge, and her bottom is in the restaurant… boy, have I been there.

{Permission from the artist is required to show these images. I emailed and asked for permission. I waited patiently. I didn’t hear back. I posted them. Don’t be mad Xavier, Sophie is just too good… I had to show her.}

Art.

Design.

No no, art.

Wait, maybe design.

Ok, I can’t decide. Either way, I love these mixed media pieces by Able Parris. You know what else I love? How much he loves his wife Julia Parris. She’s a photographer who he links to from his site, at least twice, with a caption reading ‘check out my wife’s photography. She’s awesome!’  Able Parris… fantastic artist/loving & supportive husband.

Carylann Loeppky was one of my favourite artists during this weekend’s culture crawl. As I walked through her open door the first thing that made me totally jealous was her studio space at 1000 Parker Street, a mecca for artists. And then, as if that wasn’t enough, I was faced with her huge white wall of tiny colourful paintings. They were all lovely on their own, each a mixture of sweet and ghostly, but what I really loved was the visual effect of them hanging in one large grouping. I wonder how much it would cost to get ’em all so that I could have this wall in my house?

Welcome to one of the stops on the Eastside Culture Crawl this weekend. A major stop. Out of the 300 participating artists, about 90 of them have studios at 1000 Parker Street. Some studios were home to only one artist, and other spaces were shared {for example, the Herd of Women studio shown above – love it!}. Ah, old wood floors, the smell of art supplies in the air, and tonnes of talented artists all around you. There were so many hallways and studio doors that it was easy to get lost. I had to follow fire exits just to find my way out… it was heaven.

{Artwork shown above: 1) Carylann Loeppky 2) Fiona Ackerman 3) Allison Shelling }

This is proof that great art is all around us, you just have to look for it… and try not to squish it with your shoe. London street artist Slinkachu has a series called Little People in which tiny ‘little hand-painted people are left in London to fend for themselves’. So cool. I wonder if anyone ever finds them or if they just go unnoticed? That’s it, I’m going to check every pop can I pass from now on.

If you live in Denver, or anywhere even kinda close to Denver, you have to go to Amanda Marie‘s new show that opens tonight {November 20th} at the Andenken Gallery. I’ve posted 4 pieces, just to give you a little taste, but there are 40 paintings in the show so it should be quite something to see.  Her work totally reminds me of vintage storybooks… with an edge. Nothin’ like a bit of spray paint, a few scribbles and a one-eyed fox to add some much needed grit to a run-of-the-mill fairytale.