I am waking up in Philadelphia this morning, getting ready for tomorrow’s GIRL CRUSH with the lovely Shauna Alterio {where amazing things will happen!}, and I thought it was appropriate to feature a Philly-born* artist for the weekend post! Enter the hand-lettering work of  Mary Kate McDevitt… so fun, so charming, and her color choices are fantastic! Can I get a HIGH 5? Nice!

* Mary Kate is now based in Portland, but then this post wouldn’t have been quite as timely!

…snap snap snap tappity tap… yep, I want to take pretty pictures, and then write a short novel to accompany them! Luckily, American artist Jessica Brilli has me covered! Lovely, very sweet, nostalgic paintings. Sigh.

Oh my! Jellyfish, mushrooms, flowers & fish in all their saturated, neon glory! Ok, I’m not sure I’d want them on my head, but that’s exactly where Chinese artist Zhou Fan wants them to be, and here’s why:

… my paintings are based on dreams that I had as a child of many, many jellyfish floating in the sky, some of which fell to the ground on parachutes and became mushrooms. These dreams had a strong impact on me, and I remember them vividly.

Vivid, indeed ♥

Sigh. The photographic installations of Rune Guneriussen. I wrote about him just a little over two years ago {my how time flies when you’re jealous!}, and he’s been very busy since then. Lamps, and books, and tables all finding new, temporary homes in the wilderness… just long enough for Rune to photograph them – and then just as magically as they appeared, they’re gone again. I wish he’d leave them there for a little while! I’d love to be out for a hike and come upon, well, any of these amazing groupings! Oh, and did I mention scale:

Yep… BIG and beautiful! This work is currently being shown at Rhein Galerie Bonn {exhibition shown above}, until November 10th 2012.

Ok, I love these. L.O.V.E. these! This is only a small sampling of one series by American artist Nathan Ritterpusch. All of these gorgeous oil paintings are part of  a series titled, “Old Enough To Be My Mother”. Wobbly, saturated portraits inspired by vintage film stills… frankly, it’s a miracle that I was able to control myself, and only show five. Such restraint, no?!

{Another series of Nathan’s work will be exhibited in “Wrap Troubles in your Dreams” at RARE in New York, October 11th- November 8th}

Whoa. An embroidered “carpet”, on a wall, partly finished, and then stretched across the room. This insane installation is the work of  Faig Ahmed. He is a master of textiles, and clearly has a thing for carpets… and I have a thing for his work! Not only has he created this beautiful embroidery installation, but there’s also this:

A wooden wave, covered in a woolen, handmade carpet. Whoa… x 2. Oh, and also, this:

A ‘stretched’ handmade carpet. Whoa… x 3. And on that crazy beautiful note, I hope you all have a lovely weekend ~ see you on Monday!

{first installation via the artful desperado, other images found on Faig’s portfolio site}

These paintings by American artist Kate Russo are speaking to me. It could be because we just sold our house, and have to be out in two weeks. I wish our pile of boxes looked this pretty! Anyway, I thought I had everything I needed for this post… and then I found these:

Gah! Colored pencil on graph paper. Holy moly… the detail and precision in this work is killing me! Hm, I wish I could pack a stack of these amazing drawings {there are plenty more where these came from!} into one of my moving boxes ♥

{via curate1k}

Hm… there is definitely a story in there somewhere. I wrote about American photographer Todd Hido about two years ago. I absolutely love his “homes at night” series, mainly because I’m a snoop {I prefer that to ‘peeping tom’}. When I see a warm glow coming from a window, I can’t help but wonder what’s happening inside. Thankfully, Todd has a portfolio full of lonely interiors, and a whole bunch of very sassy portraits… put them all together with a few clicks in Photoshop, and voila, my little story starts to write itself {without me getting arrested!}

Have you guys already seen this on the interweb? I just found it yesterday, and yowza… that is some fabulous accessorizing! Liesbet Bussche is making the streets pretty one giant piece of jewelry at a time… and I love all of it! What an amazing, creative idea – and executed soooo beautifully. Yep, I’m insanely jealous. Oh, and also, I want that huge anchor charm. The end.

{via Beautiful/Decay}

Maps, folded into perfect little dresses by London based artist Elisabeth Lecourt. Sigh… fantastic. All of these pieces are from her series titled Les Robes Geographiques. So delicate, so pretty… but don’t worry fellas, I’ve got a little something for you too:

Yep. Bringing new meaning to “folding your shirt” ♥

{…thanks to Hagar for sending me a link to this lovely work!}