American artist Haley Hasler… hm, the Cindy Sherman of the painting world? Yep, I think she just might be! Most self-portraits show us the exterior of the artist, however, these ones also reveal what’s happening on the inside… and clearly, there’s a lot going on in there! With great painterly skill, she places herself into all sorts of crazy, iconic, ‘I am woman hear me roar’ situations creating beautiful, fictitious worlds inspired by her day-to-day reality. I’ll have to think about what my self-portrait might include… at the very least I’d need to throw in two wacky wiener dogs, and a creamy cup of coffee. Mmm.

{Haley is represented by Alpha Gallery in Boston.}

Titles: 1) Self-Portrait as a Mother  2) Portrait as Woman with Lamb  3) Portrait as Trick Roper  4) Portrait as Woman Guarding Prairie  5) Portrait as a Mail-Order Bride  6) Self-Portrait as a Bather

Forget hanging out longer… I just wish I could hang out a little bit! I’m so totally and completely jealous of the people who will actually get to go to this weekend’s Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco! It’s a weekend chock-full of fantastic work, and amazing artists. Speaking of which, whoever takes that ceramic/thread brooch home… please, please, take good care of it. It deserves a soft and loving lapel. Sigh… I wish it could have hung out on my lapel, at least for a little while.

{The artists shown above will be there this weekend. They are 1) heyday design [jewellery] 2) heyday design [ceramics] 3) Mama’s Little Babies 4) The Mincing Mockingbird 5) molly m designs 6) The Heated 7) miki and nora 8 ) miki and nora 9) Raw Toast Design}

Ahhh, nothing says summer like drinkin’ and smokin’ in a pool.  I love these turban-toting, ridiculously pale ladies! I wish I knew what they were chatting about in there… I guess Nina Nolte is the only one who will ever really know. Well, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off for a quick smoke swim.

No pants, a weird guy with a clown nose, no pants… yep, I’m totally jealous.

So, here’s the thing… I don’t speak Spanish, but Valencia based artist Elena Cortés does. I couldn’t figure out anything about her, so I threw her site into Google Translate, and this is what I got:

“Currently the project by the end of the Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Technical University of Valencia and working as a partner in Graphic Design Culture Vice-chancellor of the Polytechnic University of Valencia. He obtained a Socrates Erasmus scholarship to study at L’Ecole de Beaux Arts in Bordeaux during the 2008-2009 school year…” and so on from there. Well, at least we got a bit of information about her, or ‘him’ according to Google Translate.

Those are some seriously pissed off little girls… and I could not love them more! California based artist Andrea Zuill liked dressing up when she was young, but I guess that’s quite obvious. I love her bold colour choices, half finished figures, and the general ‘little girl lost’ feeling that each one of them delivers so successfully {they remind me of ‘the lost boys’ from Peter Pan… but oh so much girlier!} I had a pretty big bag of costumes too, which is probably another reason why I loved these paintings the moment I saw them. Although, I have to say, I don’t remember ever being this mad about wearing a bunny hat.

Andrea has a show, titled Seriously Pretending, that runs from July 29th ~ August 30th at boltax gallery on Shelter Island, NY… hm, maybe they’re just seriously pretending to be this seriously pissed off?

So, who wants to visit New Hampshire’s seacoast this weekend? Me too! I love these beautiful little neighbourhoods by American artist Stacey Durand. The tightly packed, brightly painted houses, and the skies… oh the skies. I think that they might be my favourite part! Ok, I’m packing the car – I’ll meet you there.

In this series, Brutalized Delights, American artist Chad Wys has found his way into to my heart, by choosing thrift shop finds over canvas. And from what I understand, he just graduated from art school this past spring?!* Um, I think it’s pretty safe to say that my student work was nowhere close to being this cool {or this well thought out}. I’m definitely going to keep an eye on him… who knows what he’ll be painting on in five years!

{via Art Hound}

* This just in, via Chad… he didn’t just graduate from art school, he’s a graduate student in Art History with a Bachelor’s degree in English… hm, I think that might be even worse!

Ahh, blue skies, green grass, and relaxing afternoons in a lawn chair… well, for us maybe, but not for Leah Giberson.  Instead of hanging out in a trailer playing Go fish, she’s been hard at work in her studio preparing for a very busy summer. Leah has two solo shows happening at the same time… on opposite sides of the country. You can find her new work at Nahcotta in Portsmouth, New Hampshire from July 2nd ~ 31st, and at Rare Device in San Francisco from July 9th ~ 31st. Hopefully once both of the shows are in full swing she’ll be able to sit down, kick off her flip-flops, and have a well-deserved glass of lemonade… and maybe a few games of Go fish!

Suburbia, and stunning natural environments {made of tiny strips of paper & oil paint}, brought harmoniously together on wood panel… Um, I think I might be in love.

Maybe if suburban Long Island had actually been this beautiful, American artist Cheryl Molnar, wouldn’t have felt the need to escape it’s identical houses, cul-de-sacs and strip malls. She now lives and works in the eclectic, culture-rich neighborhood of Greenpoint Brooklyn, but luckily for us, her experiences in the burbs have become the fuel for her lovely work. Hm, I wonder where the kids growing up in suburban Grand Canyon {shown above} will end up running off to? It’s a pretty long drive to Brooklyn.

Ok, so, who feels like totally redecorating all of a sudden? Yep. Me too! I’m jealous, inspired… and wondering how long these women had to stand still for?! Well, long enough to find their way into Australian artist Emma Hack‘s Wallpaper series I suppose. Amazing.

{via Design For Mankind}