Oh, yes! Flat, graphic collages with a definite design-quality to them… you might even describe them as “architectural”. Hm. Perhaps that’s because they are the work of French architect Alexandre Ciancio. AND perhaps that’s why I want to pack up my things and move right into one of these ideal little worlds. I pick that pink world with the fancy kiss… minus the baby running away.

{thanks to Pauline for sending me a link to this work}

Embroidery and photographs… yep, my favorite art recipe! This series is titled Berlin, and is the work of American artist Diane Meyer – it shows the former path of the Berlin Wall. Oh, if only that wall had actually been made of soft, colorful thread:

“This aspect of the sewing emphasizes the unnatural boundaries created by the wall itself. The sewing, which is soft, provides a literal contrast to the concrete of the wall and a metaphorical contrast to its symbolism.” ~ Diane Meyer

Lovely. But, we can’t stop there. I wasn’t quite finished snooping around in her portfolio, and look what I found from another series, titled Time Spent That Might Otherwise Be Forgotten:

Ahh… so much nostalgia! You can never go wrong with a bunch of cross-stitching, some Christmas sweaters, and a little old school Donald Duck. Love, love, LOVE!

{via The Design Ark}

Oh, the quiet blue hilltops of Atlanta based artist Lynn Pollard. We should probably just sit silently, taking them in and enjoying them for their tranquil beauty… but I also really, really, really want to tell you how she makes her indigo mountains!

“This piece is made with a special technique I developed. I dip paper into a vat of natural indigo dye and move it in ways to create the image–no paintbrush is used. The paper is dipped multiple times over a number of days to add complexity and to take advantage of the fact that the indigo vat is constantly changing. The paper has a deckled edge, and reflects the fact that it has been wet.”

Amazing! It sounds almost as relaxing as the final image looks ~ Om.

{ps. If you’d like one of her hills, a few of her originals are available through ugallery.com}

I am absolutely sure that you saw images of this stunning installation, at the Rice Gallery in Houston, earlier this summer. It’s titled “Unwoven Light” and was featured on every amazing art blog out there! {the grabs above, for example, are from a post on the always fantastic Artful Desperado}. I found it a week after everyone had written about it, ie. I totally missed the boat on this one! However, I just watched the installation video and thought it was breathtaking. What I love, almost even more than the final piece, is watching New Hampshire based artist Soo Sunny Park build, install, and be surrounded by her gorgeous, detailed, light-filled work:

So amazing, yes? Yes.

{All of these images are stills that I pulled from this lovely video by Mark & Angela Walley of Walley Films}

I have loved the work of UK based artist Olivia Jeffries since the first time I saw it. I wrote about her twice {here and here} in 2009, and can’t believe I’ve let four years go by without writing about her again! Phew. Ok, well here it is. Her lovely, lovely drawings… and delicate little burnt holes… all composed beautifully on found paper. And those tiny pink dots on that last piece. Oh boy ♥

{She has quite a range of drawings in her Etsy shop, called “Restless Things”, starting at $18, through to $460 for that larger pink dotty piece that I love so much}

Shattered ceramics patched back together with gold? Oh yes, please! This series, by Seoul based artist Yee Sookyung, is titled “Translated Vase”. The final pieces are absolutely stunning {I saw some of them in Vancouver a few years ago}, but her process is just as fascinating:

“I took ceramic trash from a ceramic master who reproduces old Korean ceramics such as Joseon Baekja or Celadon.

After baking in a kiln by using the old method, ceramic masters break almost 70 percent of the porcelains that don’t reach up to their standards of masterpieces.

I put the broken bits and pieces of ceramic trash together one by one as if I’m putting together a jigsaw puzzle. And I cover the seams with 24 karat gold leaf. The result was uncanny and bumpy objects. Each broken piece operates as a self forming into an infinite proliferation toward as unexpected fabrication–fictitious loquacity and stuttering discards from standard conventional masterpieces.”

Amazing.

Ok… this is certainly not new work by Australian artist Gemma Smith, but it’s the first time I’m seeing it. It’s safe to say that I love these pieces right now, just as much as I would have loved them when they were originally shown {2008 I believe}. Giant, colorful, perfectly precise, acrylic gems perched on white pedestals, light bouncing off and through them. Amazing… then, and right this very second!

Ok, sometimes you just need a simple collage that makes you smile… ta-dah! Here’s four! Melbourne based artist Alexandra Ethell sells her work {very affordably I might add!} under the name “in the early hours”. Hm… maybe that’s when these weird and wonderful ideas pop into her head? Cockatoos on kite strings, and jaunty rides on giant cranes. Wheeeee!

{via Poppytalk}

Is it weird that I can almost smell this post? Ahhh… delicate, feminine, washy perfume bottles by Polish born / US based  Marta Spendowska. She has a portfolio full of lovely things {lots of fashion illustration} but it was these pretty little glass bottles that got me! Oh, and I kinda crazy love these watercolor pattern designs too:

Love.

ps. I don’t usually show images with watermarks on them, just because I feel like it takes away from the art… however, Marta told me that some of her pattern designs have been stolen/claimed by other people. I know that happens way too often {which is ridiculously insane to me} so I thought this might be a good chance to just say that out loud. Not cool, art stealers, not cool.

A stack of newspapers, a very sharp x-acto blade, and Canadian artist Myriam Dion. I think all I can muster is “my goodness”… ok, I’m going back to spend my weekend staring at the perfect, detailed, poetic cuts that she has made to this pile of yesterday’s headlines. Sigh.

{…thanks to MissPixels for sending this beautiful work my way}