I absolutely love it when big, beautiful, high-end brands work with artists. Gucci is particularly good at this {I shared this project they did with Toronto’s Kris Knight in 2014}, and this is their latest artsy collaboration. They recently invited six artists to reimagine their DIY cardigans… I found out about this because of the unstoppable Ashley Longshore {hers is the first image above}. Ashley & Gucci … um yeah, that’s a match made in fashion heaven. Anyway, I did a little more digging and found the whole campaign. Here is Gucci’s description:

“Angela Deane’s friendly ghosts, named Sam and Wendall, wear the sweaters painted on top of winter scenes. Isabella Cotier’s portrait style illustrations are based on the characters who live around her London neighborhood, and artist and illustrator Marc Burckhardt’s richly detailed creations feature a gorilla and a tiger, chosen by the artist because “the elegance and style of a tiger seemed like a perfect fit for Gucci, and the brute strength of the gorilla felt like an amusing counterpoint to the sophistication of the DIY line.” Amber Vittoria—an artist who focuses on the accurate portrayal of women within art—imagines two female characters, Ashley Longshore paints a girl immersed in flowers and Brianda Fitz James Stuart’s whimsical illustrations, inspired by classic Renaissance paintings, feature a swan.” 

Love, love, loooooove! {ps. I also really love that 5 of the 6 artists are women}. Stay tuned because there is another top secret project that is part of this, but I have to wait until next week to show you.

Oh my word … this is the fantastical work of UK based Nora Fok {ps. that’s Nora in the photos too}. All of her gorgeous wearable art is made by hand, using only simple tools and her her own unique processes. Modern materials like nylon are manipulated with age-old techniques like knitting and weaving to create these beauties. She works from her home on the sunny south east coast of England, inspired by nature and the world around her:

Nora is fascinated by different aspects of nature, structure, systems and order, and the mysteries and magic which she sets out to capture in her work. They are often quite complicated requiring many hours, days or weeks to produce and she has the necessary dedication to see her ideas through. She likes to draw attention to the very ordinary to make something special by presenting it in her own way. Her approach is not scientific; she combines her discoveries intuitively with her personal technical skills to produce her unique pieces.

{via Hi-Fructose}

Sugar flowers and cotton pods ; gold rings and sugar ; handmade bagasse paper ; sterling silver rings, cotton, hair and cast sugar ; money and sugar. Oh my goodness, these sugar pieces by American artist Sonya Clark are beautiful and, oh, so brilliant. Here are some of Sonya’s words about this work:

“In 1870 my African great grandmother married my Scottish great grandfather and began a family in Jamaica at a time when sugarcane was more valuable than the people who cultivated the cash crop. As my forebears negotiated race and commodity in this hemisphere, across the ocean European gentry flaunted sugar-rotted teeth as the status symbol their slave trade wealth. Generations later in my family that ranges in every skin shade and hair texture, an aunt defined race this way: “You cannot tell if someone is black by skin color but by hair texture.”  Her tangled race construction was explained to me as she was braiding the legacy of sugarcane production onto my head.  She, like most Jamaicans, referred to my hairdo, as canerows not cornrows.  …  Some objects presented here are subtle … others are more overt: gold and silver rings set with sugar “diamonds”, cotton, and human hair or an unraveled Confederate battle flag that somehow remains intact despite being deconstructed. Some are visceral: edible cotton flowers made from sugar, images of brown sugar that call the tongue and reflect the viewer, and Lincoln encrusted in rock candy five-dollar bill.”

Love! Sonya’s site is filled with all sorts of amazingness, so pop over and have a closer look.

Gorgeous, organic, sculptures … that you can wear. Yes, these are all brooches!? They are the work of Finnish artist/jeweler Terhi Tolvanen. Of course she makes rings, necklaces and earrings as well, but these little sculptures for your lapel made my heart skip a beat. Ok, and I also need this ring:

Stunning.

Terrifyingly beautiful! How have I just discovered the work of Ireland based, um, “ThreadStories”. Ok, so her real name is a bit of a mystery, which is probably the point. Anyone who specializes in making weird and wonderful knitted masks has to love a good secret. Now I just have to play matchmaker between her and Erik Mark Sandberg… THAT would be a gorgeous, creepy, mysterious, ah-mazing collaboration!

ps. all of her work is on her Instagram feed. Careful, you might lose track of time over there.

Yeah, that’s all jewelry! WHAT?! I know, I had to do a double-take when I saw what I assumed were simple, lovely, illustrated squiggles… which they are of course, but then Australian artist/designer Iris Saar Isaacs (aka inSync design) turns her simple gestural marks into gorgeous wearable art. That necklace, though! Santa, are you listening?

Gasp! Sculpture? Fabric? Yes and yes… but also… jewelry! What!? This is the delicate, whimsical, gorgeous work of Japanese-born, US-based artist Mariko Kusumoto. Brooches, bracelets, and necklaces that look like they were found in a mermaid’s jewelry box… I already gasped, right?

If you were an early adopter to the world of Etsy, you’ll know exactly who my guest is today. Yep, I’m talking to Portland based artist Ashley Goldberg! I loved her work before I even started this blog {which was almost 8 years ago}, and watched from across the interweb as she evolved into what she refers to as “Ashley 2.0″… I wanted to hear alllll of the stories that went along with that, and she told me! Weird little critters, vibrant patterns, and the positive passwords that helped her along the way. You can listen right up there under those little faces, or you can subscribe on iTunes.

Ok, let’s start closer to the beginning… remember these? I love all of them, and these pieces are actually still available in Ashley’s Etsy shop:

Ah, love! Quite a few of those pieces were from the “ashley g 1.0” phase of her art career, but as 2.0 came along, so did these patterns:

Ok, I could have posted thousands of them {literally}, but I tried to control myself. Well, to a point… here are more of Ashley’s patterns out in the world! Wallpaper and bedding and teepees, oh my!

{1. Jimmy Cricket  2. Urban Outfitters  3,4,5. Land of Nod}

That teepee. I mean, come on! How cool would it be to see your work this way? Very. What about seeing your work all over your own clothes!? Even cooler:

{1,2,3. Gorman  4. Lazzari}

YES! I need that sweet “All My Little Friends” dress! I totally pictured Ashley wandering around Portland in head-to-toe “Ashley Goldberg”, but apparently it’s all black, all the time, for her. I understand. Completely.

See. Black… with just a bit of color on her paint-covered hands! I loved every second of finally getting to talk to Ashley. There are links to her karaoke choices below… yep, they paint quite a picture! Thanks to Saatchi Art for supporting episode 74; thanks to audible.com for making my new book into an audio book – it’s officially available now;  and thank YOU so much for listening every week… there will be more art for your ear next weekend.

Byeeee!

Other links:

1. Ashley’s Etsy shop
2. Ashley’s insane number of patterns on Flickr
3. Ashley’s lovely Instagram feed
4. The two karaoke songs were Biggie Smalls- Juicy (the PG version) and R Kelly ignition remix

So, my plan had been to title this episode, “Reimagining Natural History”, which is the way Melbourne based artist Kate Rohde describes her work {as you can see from that fantastical blue display case up there} … but we just had so many great bits of conversation around the idea of just ‘saying yes and figuring it out later’ that I just had to kick things off with that thought! I wrote about Kate a few weeks ago, but last week’s guest, Sandra Eterovic, told me I had to reach out to Kate. So I did. And she said YES. Now, she’s not alone on this call. Her four month old baby boy was along for the ride! So sweet. You can listen right up there, or you can subscribe on iTunes.

Let’s start off with a few of my candy-colored favorites from my recent post about Kate:

Yes! Remember those? So good.

Next, here’s an installation, titled “Chateau Fatale” from 2005 that truly does “reimagine natural history”. I would happily spend the day in this super weird museum:

Fantastic! {Photos by Harry Fatouros}. Now, speaking of fantastic, I quickly mentioned Kate’s pieces under glass … mainly so that I had an excuse to put these images in the post:

That is a whole lot of colorful craziness… very different than the “brown and green” Australian landscape that Kate grew up in.

Up next, an insane collaboration with Australian fashion label Romance Was Born. They created custom textiles using collaged images of Kate’s work, and she made bizarrely beautiful resin accessories {yes, including horns}. This collection is called “Renaissance Dinosaur”, which might be the best name I’ve ever heard in my entire life:

Oh. My word. It’s like a crazy dream that I wish I could have every night. This project led Kate to making more jewelry… candy-hued, translucent, chunky jewelry that I would have a really hard time not licking:

Sigh. Stunning. ps. You can find Kate’s jewelry at Pieces of Eight, which also happens to be where I found these images.

One of my favorite bits of this episode was when we talked about lulls. Oh, lulls. You’d think they’d be a nice time to rest and recharge, but because we can’t predict the future lulls can feel more like THE END. Good news… they’re not. Not as long as you keep making stuff. During Kate’s lull she made vases. They don’t look like a lull to me! Now, we didn’t actually talk about this collaboration, but it’s just so beautiful I had to include it:

Now THAT is how you show off vases! Kate collaborated on this shoot with Melanie Stapleton from a floral studio in Melbourne called Cecilia Fox {that’s Melanie on the left, and Kate getting things just so on the right}. GORGEOUS! 

And finally, Kate in her home studio. She lives upstairs and works downstairs:

Love it… and of course, I love that chunky bracelet! Thank you to Kate for taking time to do this with us, and HUGE thanks to Tristan for letting me distract his mama for almost an hour. He did so well  ♥ Thanks to Saatchi Art for supporting this episode, and thanks to audible.com for making my new book into an audio book! To preorder a copy for FREE {or to pick up any other book you might want} just use my link: audibletrial.com/JealousCurator. Finally, and as always, THANK YOU for listening. There will be more art for your ear next weekend.

Other links:

1. Sandra Eterovic episode
2. Kate’s work on SaatchiArt
3. National Gallery of Victoria
4. Romance Was Born Collab.
5. Kate’s upcoming show, “Luminous Realms” at Craft Gallery, Dec 9 – Feb 2017
6. Kate in her studio: Photo by Tobias Titz

Gasp! This is the Fall/Winter collection of UK based designer Edda Gimnes. Quick marker drawings that popped magically out of her sketchbook and onto the runways of London in the form of shoes, dresses, bras… so creative, so hilarious, so fantastic! Speaking of fantastic, I think Edda’s on her way to a really interesting future:

[Edda Gimnes is] a BA Womenswear graduate at the London College of Fashion who has been featured in The New York Times as one of ten Fresh out of Fashion School designers to watch… [she has an] eclectic aesthetic that typically combines disparate elements, from pink knitting, with gold and light blue embroidery to bold prints with elements of embellishments.  [Edda] truly enjoys the process of design research and always on the lookout for unique objects, as well as illustrating with opposite hand and collage. 

Ah, collage. Yep, I knew I liked her  ps. I think she do some kind of collaboration with ceramicist Katharine Morling!

{Images via Vogue, illustrations via Edda’s site}