Ooooh, shoes! These beauties are the work of Las Vegas based printmaker Anna See. I found them when I was “buying art for Carrie Bradshaw” as part of a new series I’m doing over on SF Girl By Bay, and just had to show them over here too. Granted, the Chanel flats are the only pair I could actually walk in without twisting an ankle, but I could definitely hang every single pair with no trouble at all! ♥

Ok, I wasn’t going to post until next week, but then I found these oil on canvas portraits by Berlin based artist Dalila Dalléas Bouzar. I love that they look vintage yet completely contemporary at the same time. Oh, and the color palette? Bubblegum pink in a sea of golden brown sugar… gorgeous.

Happy weekend to you! I’m going to pop out and get some bubblegum. And brown sugar.

Now THIS is the kind of present I want under my tree! Yep, haphazardly wrapped gifts, which are actually insanely precise paintings {oil on canvas} by Swedish painter Yrjö Edelmann. GORGEOUS.

I’m going to take a few days off to lay around in front of the fire, lounge in my pajamas all day, and eat lots of bad-for-me-things with my husband and little boy. I’ll be back next week with a couple of sparkly new year’s posts, and then back in action on January 2nd. I hope you have a lovely holiday! See you in 2014 ~ danielle xo

{I found this amazing work on Design Crush}

Have you seen these amazing things?!

Amazingly detailed, hand-embroidered Christmas ornaments? No, although they would be perfect on my tree! These are called temari balls. I had never heard of them before, so just in case they are new to you too, here’s a bit of Wikipedia info:

Temari are highly valued and cherished gifts, symbolizing deep friendship and loyalty. Also, the brilliant colors and threads used are symbolic of wishing the recipient a brilliant and happy life. Becoming a temari artist in Japan today requires specific training, and one must be tested on one’s skills and technique before being acknowledged as a crafter of temari.

Traditionally, temari were often given to children from their parents on New Year’s Day. Inside the tightly wrapped layers of each ball, the mother would have placed a small piece of paper with a goodwill wish for her child. The child would never be told what wish his or her mother had made while making the ball.

Lovely. Beautiful on the outside, and so, so sweet on the inside. The temari balls featured in this post are the work of an 88 year old grandmother. Since the 1960s she has literally made hundreds and hundreds of them, and recently her granddaughter, Nana Akua, documented them – thank goodness!

{via Colossal}

Ooh, these portraits are so lovely, and simple, and odd, and fantastic. She could have stopped right there. But she didn’t. Nope, Mexican born – Brooklyn based artist/illustrator Rachel Levit went ahead and added a whole bunch of perfect little gouche-ie dots, making these portraits even more lovely, and simple, and odd and fantastic! Love, love, love, love!

{These were created for a group show, titled “Momentum for Tormentum”, in which Mexican Artists living in NY auctioned pieces to benefit the victims of the double hurricane that hit Mexico in September 2013 ~ via Artsy Forager on Pinterest }

So weird, and beautiful, and weird, and sad. Quite appropriate given that the title of this series, by American artist Jenny Fine, is titled The Saddest Day. It really was, and here’s why:

“In the throws of it, one hardly knows what to do.  It is a hard feeling to name. It’s a lump in the throat, a shortness of breath. It’s hands that tremble knowing that they must work fast. “This is it,” I kept thinking, I kept speaking under my breath, as if saying it out loud made the moment more real. She was leaving, we knew that full well, and there was nothing we could do.

I come from a family of farmers.  When my father was little my grandparents raised pigs.  On the coldest day of the year the hogs were slaughtered and their bodies were dragged to the roof of the house to freeze. One year the hogs took sick and the entire herd had to be slaughtered on the same day. It was my father’s job, together with the other children in the family, to help kill the pigs. This day was known as ‘The Saddest Day’.

This series of medium format photographs, entitled ‘The Saddest Day’, was originally conceived as a reenactment of this family narrative. However, when I arrived home that Mother’s Day weekend, I found my grandmother upside down on the couch, her head where her feet should have been. She was hurting. We rushed her to the hospital.

These photographs document the moments following our return to the farm after our first visit to the emergency room, two weeks before my grandmother died. ‘The Saddest Day’ explores my family’s collective experience of loss leading up to the death of the family matriarch: my grandmother. In this moment taking pictures seemed the only thing we could do to stop time. Putting on a costume, wearing a mask, even looking through the camera was a way to face each other, face this trauma and our vulnerability without having to look at each other straight on. ‘The Saddest Day’ portrays the beginning of our coming to terms with a looming goodbye; my father, sister and cousin dressed as pigs leading my grandmother into death.”

See? So, so sad… but at the same time, it’s also so wonderful and amazing that Jenny had that kind of relationship with her fabulous grandmother, Sarah. A woman who for years and years was a collaborative creative partner {she did this shoot when she knew she was dying – what a spit-fire, right to the end!}, and huge supporter of her granddaughter’s talent and love of art:

RIP, Sarah. I wish I had known you.

Ok, now THAT is a lot of neon! As I’m sure you’re quite aware, I do love a little pop of neon here and there, so when I found out about this show that is COMPLETELY neon, well, I was totally on board. There are sooooo many amazing artists in this show, New Neon, that is currently hanging at Bedford Gallery in Walnut Creek, California {between San Francisco and Sacramento}. I’ve only shown a fraction of the artists involved… and thankfully Sandra Fettingis, the first artist featured at the top of this post, took a few instagrams of the space so I’ve included those too. I would love to spend a little time in this ridiculously neon space, wouldn’t you? The show is up until February 23rd, so pop by if you can.

Bring sunglasses.

{1. Sandra Fettingis 2. Tim Etchells 3. April Deacon 4. Ron Ulicny 5. Michelle Fleck 6. Elyse Graham 7. Barry Underwood 8. Kristin Farr}

American printmaker Elizabeth Corkery founded Print Club Boston, a studio {open to collaboration and membership} where she creates limited edition silkscreen prints. “The Grid, The Trellis” is her inaugural collection. This work is so lovely, and so is the idea behind it:

…[this series is] based around the structural geometry of the garden trellis. A commonly used armature for the upward growth of plants, the trellis simultaneously addresses the potential for fertile, organic expansion and the unnatural geometric structure of the grid.

Gorgeous! You know what else is pretty amazing? These pieces in progress, and the up-close details of each silkscreen:

Wow. The precision is beyond me.

*fyi… each print is a limited edition of 30, is 15″ x 22″, and is printed on 100% cotton fine art paper. Oh, and they’re only $100. What?! Yep.

Oh boy. I reallllly love these new paintings by Vancouver based artist Rebecca Chaperon. I just wrote about her in July, and was a little obsessed with her dark, moody color palette… and then I saw these! She told me that she had a really tough summer playing around with this new palette {it truly is such a huge departure from her regular work} but I think she’s got the hang of it now! I’ve said this before, but one thing I admire so much is when an artist pushes past their comfort zone, yet the work is still recognizable as their own… well, that’s what Rebecca has done with these pink beauties! {ps. they’re hanging at “Make Vancouver” from Dec 13- Jan 15 2013 – 257 East 7th Ave}

Ok. You thought I was finished – nope! While we’re talking about pink icebergs, I just had to show you these little “miniature iceberg” watercolor paintings that she’s been doing as well:

So sweet… and affordable!

Oh, summer… I miss you so much. Do you ever think about me? It’s going to be awhile before we see each other again, so until then I’ll just look at these gorgeous new paintings by Portland based artist Lisa Golightly ~ sigh ~ yes, these are helping. Pink skies, lazy-hazey days at the beach, and overexposed photographs to prove what a great summer it really was. Lovely.

{Good Eye Gallery included quite a few of these pieces in their pop-up show in LA, at Deasy Penner, and they’ll be up into the beginning of January. If you can’t make it into the show, you can also buy the originals through the Good Eye Gallery site. And, a few of them are available as prints through Lisa’s Etsy shop.}