Ah, I can almost smell the salty ocean air, and taste the cotton candy! This series, titled “Jersey Shore”, might just be the perfect post for the Fourth of July… ferris wheels, boardwalks, and good friends? Yep. Perfect! This is the work of San Francisco based photographer, and self-proclaimed “analog junkie”, Christine Zona – and here’s her description of the project:

“I created this series to reclaim the innocence of the Jersey Shore.  The shore that I remember as a child.  This shore still exists, but recently it’s been overshadowed by the “Snookis” and the “Situations” of the world.  So I headed out to Seaside Heights, Asbury Park, Point Pleasant, Belmar, and Atlantic City with my Polaroid Spectra Camera and a backpack full of expired film to capture it as I once saw it.”

Mission accomplished, Christine! And to all of my other American friends, may your weekend be filled with salty ocean air, cotton candy, ferris wheels, boardwalks, and most importantly, good friends!

Ok, there is soooo much I want to tell you … but I’m only allowed to give you a few little tidbits today. So, let me catch you up on what’s going on at the moment. The book is set to be released in the Spring of 2014. All of the writing/editing is completely finished, and the final manuscript is now in the hands of the lovely folks at Chronicle Books in San Francisco. Pretty much everything is ready to go to print… except the cover. The amazing design team is working with one of my favorite artists {who happens to be featured in the book}, Toronto based painter/designer Amanda Happé:

Gratitude? Yes. My world is filled with gratitude right now! Note: Just to be clear, this painting is NOT the cover… but it’s similar in it’s Amanda Happé-ness. I just saw her preliminary sketches a few days ago, and they ROCK! I can’t believe how lucky I am to have such a talented artist doing a custom piece for this project. When this is over, I’m totally going to buy that painting and hang it in my living room. I will then sit underneath it while I hold my book. Yes. That is exactly what I will do.

Ok. This info about the front cover was the first little tidbit. Now, flip it over… you will never believe the amazing group of people who reviewed the book, and then wrote endorsement blurbs that will appear on the back. Ready?

Holy SHIT. I’m sorry for the cursing, but I feel it’s necessary. I still cannot believe these people took time out of their busy lives to read the book, let alone sit down to write the nicest reviews EVER. I was really nervous to reach out to all of them, but I fueled up on caffeine, gave myself a pep talk, and sent out the emails. And they all said yes, immediately. CRAZY.

Jerry frickin’ Saltz? {Yes, that is now how I refer to him at all times, because am still in disbelief that he said ‘yes’!}. I have to tell you, writing to the Senior Art Critic at New York Magazine is terrifying. What if he wrote me back and criticized me!? Um, hello, art school nightmare! Well he didn’t, thank goodness. He was hilarious, open, and generous {ok, he dished it out a tiny bit, but I totally handled it. Must have been the caffeine.}

Brené Brown. For real. Have you seen her TED Talk on shame and vulnerability? So, so good. And maybe you’d like to see what she and Oprah chatted about. Yes. Oprah. Without giving away too much, this book talks a lot about the insecurities that artists face every day – so who better to review the book than someone with a PhD in vulnerability, right?

And then there’s Faythe Levine. She is sort of a creative hero of mine. She owns an art gallery, is an artist herself, and she directs amazing documentaries that take a beautiful look at art in America {If you haven’t seen Handmade Nation, or Sign Painters… well, you should!}. I am thrilled to have an amazing working artist review a book about amazing working artists. It just makes sense.

Now, the final bit for the back cover. My bio photo. Ugh. I tried to use my Polaroid over the face shot that I use for most things, but my editor {the amazing Kate Woodrow}, wouldn’t let me do that. So, I called this guy:

Jeff Topham is an amazing photographer, writer, and film maker. I actually wrote about one of his film projects, Liberia ’77, in 2010. If you ever have a chance to watch it, please do. It’s ah-mazing. Anywho, not only is Jeff all of these things, he’s also one of my childhood friends, so when I had to do the dreaded “head shot” I knew he was my man. I call the photo above “You better not make me look like an idiot, or I’ll tell your mom what you did at that party in 10th grade.” Well, we had a few stops and starts, but he got the shot:

Yes! Done. I will now use this shot forever. Thanks Jeff! xo {ps. I won’t tell your mom anything!}

Ok, so that’s all I can tell you so far… basically now you know what’s happening on the front and back, and as Spring 2014 approaches I’ll let you know what’s going on the inside of this fantastic cover! Thank you again to Amanda, Jerry, Brené, Faythe, Jeff, Kate and all of the other crazy amazing people at Chronicle… not to mention the 50 contemporary artists featured in the book! You’ve all made my dream a reality.

{If you’re still reading, thanks for paying attention all the way through this very long post. This book has been a huge part of my life for the past year and a half and I just have to tell you about it, whether you want to know or not! Ok. I’m done now. Happy weekend!}

Do you love old photos? Do you wish you could get one as a giant print to hang on your wall? Perfect… listen to this:

“PROJECT B specializes in a fascinating world: vernacular and anonymous photographs culled from the lively margins of history. We discover and preserve exceptional vintage photographs from unknown photographers and make them available in limited edition prints…. Our work is a culmination of more than 30 years’ experience in the fields of fine art, photography, folk art and material culture. By bringing together the best practices of collecting, curating and publishing, PROJECT B pays homage to the mysterious power of the anonymous photograph to transcend time and enhance the spaces we live in today.”

So cool! I want a 36″x36″ sea monster (very Scooby-Doo-esque) in my house!

Clouds, mountains, and collage. Ahhh… the only thing that might make me happier – being on that floaty mat, staring up at the sky with those gals! After yesterday’s post {filled with clouds and mountains}, I got a lovely email from a woman named Kate who said that I just had to check out her favorite artist, Canadian Becky Comber. So I did, and voila, today’s post {filled with more clouds and mountains} ♥

{ps. you can find her Etsy shop, right here, if you’re in the market for some clouds and mountains!}

Ooooh! Mirrored black and white photographs, with what is clearly the perfect amount of brightly-hued watercolor paint. All of these pieces are from a 2013 series, titled Miroir, by Paris based artist Fabienne Rivory. So just to recap… I’m jealous of her lovely work, and I’m jealous that she lives in Paris. Sigh. {ps. She has prints available right here… I dare you to choose just one!}

{via Colossal}

I get motion sick reallllllly easily, but these beautiful & mesmerizing animated gifs are totallllllly worth it. This is the work of RRRRRRRROLL, a collective from Japan. There are five artists involved in art directing, shooting, and then animating these gorgeous, simple, muted, dizzying gifs. Lovely. Ok, I have to lie down now.

{via my modern met}

Do you know this story? It’s a good one!

I wrote about Vivian and John way back in 2009. Their story is about an undiscovered, photographic gold mine. They never knew each other, but now they’ll forever be connected… A few years ago, John Maloof went to an auction house across the street from his home. For $380, he bought thousands and thousands of undeveloped negatives that had been abandoned in a storage locker by an American woman named Vivian Maier. John started developing the negatives, and EUREKA!!!… he truly did find a gold mine. This is just a minute fraction of what he found:

Vivian’s photographs are stunning, beautifully composed, intimate glimpses into American life in the 1950s and 60s. What’s not intimate though is the knowledge about who Vivian actually was. She died only days before John tried reaching out to her. He had so many questions – who was she? Why did this unbelievably talented woman never show her work to anyone? But now, thanks to a beautiful documentary that is currently in production, a few of those questions have been answered… and they’re a bit strange. A sneak peek at  Finding Vivian Maier …

We wish we knew you, Vivian {her self-portraits could be a post all on their own}:

Love.

Sigh. So… who wants to go to Iceland now? Yep, me too! This is a personal body of work by Sydney based photographer Anna Pogossova, quite appropriately titled, Iceland. The photos are stunning on their own, and then she added those perfectly chosen blocks of color, and managed to make them even more beautiful. Ok, go get your boots, and let’s go!

I wrote about Canadian photographer Amy Friend just over a year ago. It was her gorgeous series, titled Dare alla Luce, that took my breath away. Amy has had a zillion people ask her to make prints from the series… and she listened! As of this very moment, the four images shown above are available in her brand new Etsy shop…  for $35 each {wait, what?!} Ok, that’s it, I’m going over there right now – I’ll meet ya there!

p.s I got “Waning Lights” – the two ladies on the beach! LOVE it!!!

This is the lovely, and slightly disturbing, work of German artist Loretta Lux. Photographs? Paintings? Both? Well, Loretta is a photographer, but she studied painting at Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich… perhaps that’s why her photographs look like this! Some of these pieces take up to a year to complete, as she begins with a photograph but then digitally manipulates it by striping away the background and then dropping her subjects into these muted, dream-like environments. So pretty, and eery, and lovely, and strange… hey Wes Anderson, I think Loretta just cast your next five films!

ps. She photographs boys too, but there was just something about the girls… love love love!

{via The Lacquerie}