Whoa. It was a crazy week after getting home last Sunday, but the recap from GIRL CRUSH Minneapolis is finally ready!

Oh my word. I loved every second of my weekend in Minnesota, with American painter Jennifer Davis. Amazing conversations, delicious food, and lots of art! {psst… see that little birdie? That’s a Jen Davis original, that she raffled off first thing in the morning… no, I didn’t win. Damn.}

Our workshop/tea party was generously hosted by Soo Visual Arts Center – it’s a beautiful space, and we were lucky enough to be submerged, I mean surrounded, by the work of New York artist Samantha French. Gorgeous! After  filling up with coffee and breakfast pastries donated by Common Roots Cafe, we spent the morning getting to know each other, talking insecurities, motivation, and while we were at it, we tried to figure out why blank sketchbooks are so scary {still working on it, but at least now we’ve got a plan!} Oh, and then Jen pulled out a bunch of her original paintings, and passed them around so we could hold them in our hot little hands!

Yes. We got to hold these {and a whole bunch more!}. They are stunning in person. Stunning! {ps. that little black cat is a portrait of Jennifer’s cat, Nudge… I’m not sure who that little dog is though!}

Ok, so after a morning of artist-block bashing exercises, it was time to eat! Again. Lunch was donated by Chow Girls Killer Catering {thank you!!!}. It was oh so delicious, and oh so nutritious… which was good, because then we ate these:

Gah! So good! Honestly, I lost count of how many of these bad boys I ate! {Amy, from Chow Girls, picked these treats up for us from Sweets Bakeshop ~ thanks Amy!}. Now, everyone knows that once you’re full of sugar, you need a latte! So that’s what we did… we walked over to the back room at Common Roots Cafe, grabbed a fancy coffee, and got out the art supplies:

Fun!!! Paint, glue, bits n’ pieces of vintage paper, and of course Plywerk panels. The folks at Plywerk rocked my world when they donated another batch of panels for this workshop! They had just finished sponsoring GIRL CRUSH Portland two weeks earlier, and then they swooped in to help with Minneapolis. Amazing, yes!? Oh, and speaking of amazing, check this out:

1. A vintage image that Jen found in a pile of stuff  2. The sketch she did during the workshop … and then five days later, from that inspiration / sketch, she finished this final painting:

Yep. That’s why I have a girl crush on her! I think it’s also safe to say, that I might just have a girl crush on everyone that attended – here’s a peek at the work that came out of our afternoon:

Fantastic – You all make me jealous! xo

YAY! So, that was the last GIRL CRUSH workshop for the summer… Philly, with Shauna Alterio is sold out, and coming up in October. If you’re in Austin, there are still a few spots for GIRL CRUSH Austin with Alyson Fox in April 2013! It’s going to be amazing… you should come!

{…more thanks… photography: Katie Parr, and Carolyn Payne (exec director at SooVAC!) // gift bags goodies: Vandalia Street Press, Paper Darts, Hang It, The People’s Jewelry, Urbanimal, Walker Shop at Walker Art Center – thank you all so much! xo}

Oh, Wayne… just when I thought I couldn’t love you more, you make this.

Beauty is Embarrassing “is a funny, irreverent, and inspiring documentary chronicling the life and work of one of America’s most important artists, Wayne White.” Yep, as far as I’m concerned {and as my 5+ posts about him would indicate} I think he’s a creative genius! I admire his work, his passion for creativity, and his ability to bring humor into fine art… and this film documents that.

Beauty is Embarrassing has been shown at festivals all over the place {including SXSW, Hot Docs in Toronto, the LA Film Festival, and the list goes on}, and now the plan now is to get it into theaters for the masses to see {YAY!} How you ask? Well, that’s where you come in! There’s a Kickstarter project in place to make that happen. Wayne is trying to raise $50,000 to self-distribute the movie, and with 8 days left {it ends on Sunday July 8th} he’s already at $34,293. So close! If you can help, please do – I smell an Oscar, baby!

{See the trailer here}

Oh, the lovely, whimsical work of Buenos Aires based artist Maria Elina Méndez. Suddenly, I want to ride a llama {or perhaps that’s an alpaca?}, while wearing black socks. It looks strangely relaxing, no?

Pencil, gouache, and paper on panel… and a few unsightly blemishes on the horizon made beautiful. Seriously… have you ever seen such lovely power lines? This is the work of American artist Rebecca Rothfus. I have loved her paintings for a long time, and I’m so excited to find out that I’ll get to meet her next April {she’s coming to GIRL CRUSH Austin, hosted by me and Alyson Fox!}.

Now, I won’t be in Austin until next spring, but if you’re there right now, you can see Rebecca’s work at grayDUCK Gallery, from June 15th ~ July 15th, 2012.

I just got back from a fantastically fun weekend in Minneapolis, for GIRL CRUSH with the lovely Jennifer Davis {recap post coming soon!}. Jen had a long list of amazing artists from Minnesota that she wanted me to see, and am I ever glad she showed me! One of my favorites was St.Paul based artist Julie Buffalohead. Wolves, unicorns, and raccoons in tutus… um, how could I not love her work!

So simple, almost child-like… yet really hard to make look good! Simon Degroot’s compositions, color choices, and use of simple little shapes… yep, they’re kinda killing me. I can’t do this, but boy oh boy, I sure wish I could.

{Thanks to Ashley Hamilton for sending me a link to Simon’s work}

Beautiful, yet somewhat terrifying. These are the lovely, scary, washy watercolors of Australian artist Tara Marynowsky. All of these pieces are from her series, titled Tales. I love them so much, but I’m not gonna lie… I’m kinda creeped out.

I arrived in Minneapolis yesterday for tomorrow’s GIRL CRUSH workshop with Jennifer Davis. It’s being hosted at Soo Visual Arts Center, and the director, Carolyn Payne, was sweet enough to invite me to stay with her for the weekend. Nice, right? Well, wait until you see what I found when I got into her house…

Gah! My very first question… who did this work? Her husband, American artist Terrence Payne. They are large scale oil pastel drawings. You really have to see them in person – they’re bold, bright, beautiful and really, really big! Oh, and then of course, there’s his new line of wallpaper with Hygge & West:

Yep. I am completely surrounded by amazing stuff!

Ok, I’m off to GIRL CRUSH, and I’ll report back next week with photos! Have a lovely weekend : )

Never been to the MoMA? No problem… New York based artist Jason Polan drew “every piece of art that was visible to the public at the museum from January 19 to January 31, 2005” in a project, turned book, titled “The Every Piece Of Art in The Museum Of Modern Art Book” …and then he did it again in 2012. Here’s a little sampling:

Phewf. So amazing. I feel tired and inspired all at the same time… just like a long day at the MoMA!

~ and now I want to go to Italy. Jen Altman is a photographer & writer who spends half her time in Brooklyn, and the other half in North Carolina… I want to spend all of my time in one of her dreamy polaroids.