Profiles. Of dudes. Painted beautifully in watercolor, by American artist Stef Cook. Love. That is all.

Well, clearly American artist Richard Vergez has a thing for billowing smoke… hm, and it appears that I do too! His portfolio is actually full of all sorts of amazing collages don’t have smoke in them, but there was just something about these that called my name! Oh, and there was also this:

♥

You can’t help but wonder who might live in these trailers – some with so much care put into them, and others, well not so much. All of these {and there are plenty more} are part of a series called Trailers Collected, by American photographer Nan Brown. They are iconic, and flat, but at the same time, have so much detail and personality… kinda makes me want to live in a trailer with a tiny garden, and a wolf flag in the window.

HA! I love art that makes me laugh. These make me laugh. This is the work of Kelly Puissegur {aka retro whale}. I mentioned Kelly quickly in my last post, as she was one of the finalists in last year’s UncommonGoods art contest. Anyway, as soon as I started poking around her portfolio, I just kept finding gem after gem after gem! Girl fights, and animals doing ‘the robot’… oh yeah! And, because I am in fact a child of the 80’s, I had no choice but to show these:

Hahahahaha! Sigh… love.

{ps. On a totally unrelated note, I finally posted a bunch of photos from ‘beautifully boring’ on Facebook, in case you’re interested.}

Yep, it’s true! UncommonGoods is having an art contest, and they want to see what’s in your portfolio… AND, they’ve asked me to be one of the judges {pressure}. So, the deadline is MARCH 31st, 2013, and the grand prize… $500 + 5% royalties on a limited edition of 100 prints. Not too shabby! So, are you ready? Of course you are! You can find all of the rules right here. I can’t wait to see what you send in… Good luck!

{These are my three faves from the 2012 contest: 1) Kelly Puissegur 2) Kat Shoa 3) Valerie Galloway}

Ah, another weekend, another {pretend} brunch with one of my favorite artists, at their favorite brunch spot! Today I’m visiting with my lovely friend, painter Samantha French, in Brooklyn at Cafe Ghia. Grab your coffee, and join us!

JC: hey samantha! so, what’s good here?

SF: i’m starting with a coffee and orange juice. they’ve got a killer waffle with seasonal toppings, so I’ll have that along with the fruit & yogurt with maple granola. Yum.

JC: ok, you had me at “killer waffle”- i’m in! so, who do you normally share your waffles with?

SF: you can usually find me at brunch with my boyfriend, aaron and our two dogs (if it’s nice enough to sit outside)

JC:  aaron is an amazing painter too! do you ever paint together, or do you have your own separate studios?

SF: he is! and he just opened a group show in NY last week.  we’ve always kept separate studios, but still frequently bounce ideas off each other – he’s my go to when i need help with a technical drawing issue or an honest critique. though we’ve never actually collaborated on anything, we’ve talked about it. our painting styles are pretty similar already so we’d probably do something out of the ordinary from our typical work, more experimental.

JC: you should! i’d love to see what you guys might come up with! so, what are you doing later? do you normally spend the weekend in the studio, or do you use saturday and sunday for other stuff?

SF: i love going to the studio on the weekends. it’s nice and quiet and seems like there is less pressure – but it really depends – if i spent all week in the studio, and don’t have anything pressing, i might just head home to relax – especially if I just ate that whole waffle by myself. plus trying to run any errands in NY on the weekends leads to chaos. i usually spend sunday evenings working on print orders that have come in over the weekend.

JC: what about swimming? do ever spend your free time swimming – without a camera!?

SF: you know, it has been a long time since i’ve left the camera at home while swimming. you never know when you’re going to need it, and i’d hate to miss an opportunity  – but I still enjoy it, so that’s all that matters.

JC: totally! i can’t believe i passed up a chance to go swimming with you in chattanooga. next time! thanks for {pretend} brunch sam… mmmm {pretend} waffles! delicious.

psst… some of Samantha’s new work ♥ …

See you next weekend for brunch in Tennessee with Hollie Chastain!

So, you know how I love writing about hyper-real paintings that look like photographs, right? Well, this time, they’re actually photographs… that kind of look like hyper-real paintings! Brooklyn based photographer Bobby Doherty has a portfolio full of amazing work {that looks nothing like these photographs}, but I totally found myself pulling out the shots that looked like simple, perfect, paintings. Go figure.

{via Booooooom}

Drawings? No.  Prints? No.  Embroidery on paper? Yes.

I think I’ve written about every series that New York based artist Emily Barletta has ever done. And every time I think “Wow. That’s amazing. I can’t get more jealous than this.” … and then, she gets me again. Look at this work?! Embroidery on paper. Crazy, detailed, meticulous, perfectly chosen bits of colored thread {how does she get them to almost fade in and out of each other?!} working together to create beautifully bizarre mounds and hills that make me say, “Wow. That’s amazing. I can’t get more jealous than this.”

ps. Emily is one of the artists in my book, and I could not be more thrilled, and honored, that she is involved!

Original hand-printed silkscreened birthstones, by Elise Werbler. Um… LOVE! Now, what I don’t love is my birthstone: emerald. Green. I don’t want green! I want red or pink… but not green. My sister’s birthstone is ruby, and I was always so jealous. Elise’s ruby is the first print in this post, and I think it’s my favorite one in the bunch… however, I’m pretty impressed that Elise even made my dreaded emerald {last piece} look absolutely gorgeous! Hm. Maybe it’s not the emerald’s fault. Perhaps it’s just a bit of misguieded sibling rivalry? #issues

{via curate1k}

Ok. I tried to find out what these vessels are all about {why the strap?}… but I couldn’t find a thing. Honestly, it doesn’t change that fact that I love them all, very, very much. They are the work of  Norway based ceramics artist Heidi Bjørgan. Sigh. The colors, the woodland creatures strapped securely into place. Crazy good.