I love numbers, and I love New York … so yes… I love this photo series titled New York Numbers by Nick DiLallo. He sent me an email with a link to his number-covered instagram feed, and I wanted to start working on this post immediately. I wrote him back to do a bit of pre-post fact checking, and silly me, assumed he was a professional photographer. Nope. He’s a copywriter at an ad agency by day, and an instagramming / number loving genius later that day. Don’t you love it when super talented people surprise you like that? Me too.

*How great is that 85? Coral & teal, those shapes… it’s so perfectly 1985!  ♥

Oh boy. Everyday street corners, old cars, simple homes… yep, my mundane-loving heart skipped a beat when I saw these oil paintings {some on wood, some on canvas} by San Francisco based artist David Imlay. Sigh. So quiet, so beautifully painted, sooooo good.

{Thanks to artist/illustrator Frances Marin for sending me a link to David’s work}

Who wants to play a quick round of ‘eye spy with my little eye’ on this fine Monday?! Judge Judy, Queen Elizabeth, and a tiny little steak ~ GO! Only in the lovely portfolio of LA based artist/illustrator Erin Althea does that make any kind of sense. I am totally in love with every little, beautifully painted thing in this post. Yes, even the worm.

{Not only am I enamored by Erin’s work, I’m also completely in awe of the fact that she is a mom to twin baby girls… and still finds time to paint! GO ERIN!}

I just got back from New York last night. It would be understatement to say that I had the most amazing time EVER! I went to do a book event for CREATIVE BLOCK, but I was also there for the other part of my life, the part that I never talk about on this site… until today!

So, I’m a graphic designer by day, and have been for the past 16 years. I was recently hired by an amazing new online market place to be their creative director. There was no way I wasn’t jumping on this! It’s soooo smart and is perfect for creative people who make beautiful things, and love beautiful things. Ready? This is it, and how it works…

So smart, right?! {ps. that beautiful door is the front of our office!!!} On GREAT.LY it’s the tastemakers that have the shops and do all of the selling, so that the makers only have to worry about doing what they truly love doing… making! And for the tastemakers – they spend their days searching the world for beautiful things to write about, but rarely get paid for those discoveries {selling ads only goes so far}… so we’re aiming to make this a win-win-win situation! Makers make and earn. Tastemakers sell and earn. Buyers get one, clean, curated, non-cluttered market place filled with amazing products from all over the world brought to them by the tastemakers that they already follow. We’re launching {in May} with approximately 50 tastemakers boutiques, and so I wanted to give you a quick peek at a few of these fabulous people:

Yep. I couldn’t control myself! I wanted a boutique too! I’m going to fill it with lots of amazing art! Ok. That’s where you come in. We are looking for makers to set up their studios on GREAT.LY. Art, design objects, jewelry, linens, high-end food… basically anything beautiful and unique that you would want in your home! Any takers? If you want to apply, you can fill out this form. Hope to see you on there! ps. I’m going to have a maker studio too! Why? Because…

So true. I think I feel a new collage coming on right now! If you have any questions, you can send our lovely founder, Sarah Bryden-Brown, a note at sarah@great.ly   ~  thank you!

ps. A few photos from the NYC event… and also, I found my book at the MoMA bookstore {and almost cried. Ok. I cried a tiny bit.} I also met 5 of the artists from the book, all of whom I have insane art crushes on. Amazing.

♥

A long time ago I minored in Art History. I had a thing for impressionism… do you see where this is going? I totally thought these were grainy photos when I first saw them, but on closer inspection I realized that these Japanese fashionistas, and those Korean school kids playing in the waves were made entirely of small dabs of paint. Stunning! They are the work of  two Berlin based artists {who happen to be married} known as Römer + Römer.  Torsten and Nina Römer work together to create these gorgeous, HUGE {78″x105″ in some cases!} modern-day impressionistic work. Yep, I have a thing for these too.

{They currently have a show up at Freight & Volume in New York – it runs until April 26, 2014}

I think I had this dream once… yep, one too many purple macarons before bed, and this could very well be the result!  These crazy, narrative, over-the-top paintings are by American artist Anna Jensen. What makes them even more crazy n’ narrative? Their titles:

1. Why Are My Rehab Costs On MY Credit Report?!

2. Finally I’m A Functional Alcoholic

3. I’m So Vain I Probably Think This Painting Is About Me

4. Young Saint, Old Devil

5.  A Foreboding Shadow Befell Her So She Drowned Her Future Sorrows

6. Bunny Byrne, Macaron Baker Extraordinaire

7. Physically Impossible Entry, Hysterical Marker

8. I Found A Hair In My Pie In The Sky

9. The Bait Hides The Hook

See? The plot thickens!

POW! Stunning, large-scale, air brushed PAINTINGS of fireworks! Yes. Paintings. This is the work of LA based artist Samantha Fields. Now, here’s where my problem comes in… I can’t decide which I love more… her magical fireworks, or her rainy/misty headlights at night:

See? How can I pick a favorite? I just can’t. Here is a description of this body of work, and a fascinating explanation of her technique:

In this body of work, Fields immortalizes points in time that are relished, lost and longed for in a single instant—what the artist calls “halcyon moments.” Her paintings are documents of these otherwise ephemeral occurrences: smoke lingering in the sky after a firework has faded, the blur of colored city lights reflected on wet pavement, or transient shadows shifting across a nighttime landscape.

…

What a camera can record in a split second takes longer to translate into painting, complicating our expectations of photographs as instantaneous replications of an observed reality. Fields uses an airbrush to apply hundreds of thinly misted layers of acrylic paint to canvas or paper, creating rich, almost incandescent, surfaces. By focusing on representations of memory, enigmatic and unfixed, Fields expressively captures the energy and emotion of a fleeting moment.

{Samantha currently has a show at Traywick Contemporary in Berkeley, CA. It will be up until May 25th, 2014. You should go.}

Remember those little puzzles where you had to slide the squares one at a time until you could make the full picture? No? Well in case you have no idea what I’m talking about, these gorgeous collages by London based artist Anthony Gerace totally make me think of that! Found faces jumbled up into new peek-a-booish compositions… stunning!

There is something very calming about these washy, simple, abstract watercolors by San Francisco based artist Emily Proud… like you could hang one on your wall to look at while meditating, or doing yoga, or just sitting. This is some of her latest work, but if you dig around in Emily’s portfolio there are some fantastic florals that are just waaaay too vibrant for your morning meditation:

Florals, stripes, and leopard print? Love!

Nail polish, pretty girls, and a giant tower of ice cream… I’m in. This is the work of New York based artist/illustrator Aimee Bee Brooks, and I’m quite smitten with all of it. And now I need some chocolate chip mint. And a manicure. Happy weekend!