One of my favourite ways to spend a Saturday afternoon is poking around a thrift shop. It’s like looking for a treasure… buried deeply in a whole bunch of other crap. But, every now and then you find something special, and in the case of American artist Amy Santoferraro, a whole truck load of special somethings. Her solo exhibition titled Just Visit is an homage to all of these weird and wonderful orphans. She has created a lovely 5 minute stop-motion animation that features all of her finds {and has great music}. But don’t go home yet! Head over to the Adopt-a-Surprise shelf and buy one of the stars from the film {very sweetly wrapped I might add}. Hm, maybe next time I’ll just skip the thrift shop, and head straight to Amy’s show!

‘Keeping true to catch and release practices, it’s time to let go. Some of these objects have been with me forever, some just a couple of weeks, but all of them have boasted some degree of promise or beauty to me. I ask that you blindly take them on, not knowing, but trusting that they will do something for you too. They were just visiting.’

~ Amy Santoferraro

New York based artist Marlo Pascual might start with found imagery, but that’s not where she stops. Nope, after that she enlarges, crops and alters the images until they’re just right. Just right for what? Well, for adding pins, rocks, plants and candles to, of course. But even then, she’s still not done. She plays with the placement of the work within the gallery space creating new relationships, and allowing the images to tell stories that they have never told before… and then she calls it a day.

{More of her work can be seen at Casey Kaplan Gallery in New York.}

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again… I need multi-coloured masking tape RIGHT NOW!

I thought I’d leave you for the weekend with this incredibly meticulous, slightly sticky, and most importantly… insanely rainbowie installation by Austin based artist Rebecca Ward. Ok, I know ‘rainbowie’ isn’t a word, but in this particular case, I think it applies!

{via Design For Mankind}

Yes, that’s right, you’re looking at broken spiderwebs that have been lovingly, and very carefully, mended by an insanely talented/successful American artist named Nina Katchadourian. Now, after all of the hard work and love that went into The Mended Spiderweb Series, do you think those spiders even appreciated the help? Nope. Each morning she would find her starched {and occasionally glued} red threads lying on the ground, and a perfectly intact web that had been repaired during the night by an ungrateful spider. Luckily, that didn’t slow her down. She collected, and framed, the ‘rejected patch’, hanging it beside the photo of her efforts.

{If you’re interested in mending the webs of unappreciative spiders, Nina has created a special ‘Do-it-Yourself Spiderweb Repair Kit’… see image above.}

On first glance you might think, ‘Oh yes, an impressionistic painting of a bunch of flowers. Nice.’ Boy would you be wrong… twice.

Firstly this is not a painting, but a mixed media piece… to the extreme. Here’s the laundry list of everything that went into this installation: Color-Aid paper, 90 lb. Arches HP watercolor paper, Fabriano SP watercolor paper, Hahnemuhle photo ink jet paper, black sandpaper, silver paper, felt, screenprint, gouache, watercolor, sequins, Swarovski crystal beads, seed beads, dressmakers pins, and hat pins. Phew.

Secondly, the ‘bunch of flowers’, that have been so intricately created by the above mentioned media, are actually blooms on a tree above the site where a devastating explosion took place in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The tragedy occurred on December 6, 1917, which gives this piece it’s title. As a matter of fact, every installation in this series by Canadian artist Michelle Forsyth features something in nature that is currently alive and thriving at the scene of a horrific event in Canadian history. A pretty far cry from a lovely impressionistic painting of a bunch of flowers, wouldn’t you say?

Oh sure, just some beautifully hand-crafted crocheted animal trophies {aka Crochetdermy™}, a few of which are even kind of cute… until British artist Shauna Richardson strategically places them somewhere isolated and poorly lit! I think it’s safe to say that the ‘beautifully hand-crafted’ bear in the underground parking lot would require me to go home for a change of underpants. Oh come on, don’t judge me… you know you’d be in the same situation.

{Thanks to Liesl for bringing Shauna’s work to my attention!}

Lonely, mundane subject matter, and flat fields of understated colour… ah, a perfect combination. Whether you’re looking at one of his paintings on paper, or are in a room surrounded by his installation work, there is something very comforting about these images by American artist Chris Ballantyne. Perhaps it’s their stylized familiarity that makes them so appealing. Stylized familiarity? Hm, I just made that up… not bad hey?

Ah, there’s nothing quite as peaceful as gentle spring sunlight filtering through your window, casting soft shadows of the leaves and branches outside. Wait a second… what the?!… THAT’S PAINT! Those aren’t soft lovely shadows at all, they’re soft lovely paintings by American artist Mary Temple. The top three images are from a project called Extended Afternoon, Aldrich Museum, and the fourth piece is actually how I found her. It’s her contribution to an amazing non-profit organization called RxArt based in New York. Their mandate is to curate ‘installations in hospital settings, [providing] a creative surrounding that helps to relieve stress and anxiety.’

So inspiring on so many levels.

Flotsam’s Wonder Tonic… Oh, I gotta get me some of that! This amazing carnival-esque/folk art installation at Soap Gallery {San Francisco} is the creation of artist/advertising guy/father/surfer Mike Shine. I’m not only jealous of him, but of everyone that actually got to see this in person {see that guy drinking a beer, yeah… I’m jealous of that guy}. Mike just had another similar installation piece, called Flotsam’s Wonder Wagon, on display at the SFMOMA about a week ago, and I missed that too… I bet that beer guy was there.

{Photos via Fecal Face}

Damn, I really wish I thought of this. Mixed media installation graffiti… is that even a thing? I guess it is, because Seattle based Vincent Pacheco {aka Mudchicken} is making me insanely jealous with it. Not only is he running all over town turning concrete walls and abandoned buildings into gallery space, he’s also the founder of WAFA, ‘a global artist collective dedicated to the support and development of emerging artists.’ Wondering what WAFA stands for? Check the url when you click through to the site… I couldn’t agree with it more!

{One of my favourite artists, Anthony Zinonos, is a member of WAFA. I wonder if they’d make me an honorary member if I begged?}