Ooh, look what appeared in my inbox on Friday afternoon! Lovely, neon, geometric laser cut wood & styrene sculptures by Denver based artist Sandra Fettingis. LOVE! These were just a few of my favorites, but there are 23 new works in this show, titled “Tell Me When You Hear Me Falling”. You can see all of them at City O’ City {206 13th Avenue, Denver, CO} from March 13th – April 8th. Ok, I’m going back to my inbox to see what else is in there!

Yay! Thanks to these amazingly generous sponsors {and a few more that we’re currently talking to}, Girl Crush Seattle with the lovely Tif Fussell has been reduced in price. Instead of $275, it’s NOW $175! I am so overwhelmed by the generosity of everyone who is trying to make these workshops happen – thank you all soooo much. There are 4 spots left {and for those of you who have already signed up, I’ll be refunding you $100}.

If you’re thinking about attending, here’s what we’ll be doing… we’re going to spend the morning talking inspirations and artist blocks, and then try a few exercises to help break through those pesky blocks. Then we’ll have a lovely lunch followed by an afternoon of creating a collaborative piece of art that will be hung as a group show {for a month!} at Assemble Gallery & Studio!!! Tif is stepping away from her Dottie Angel persona for the day to be the artist that she truly is… and I’m actually going to get out from behind the blog, roll up my sleeves and make some art! Both Tif and I love collage work, that uses found imagery and found objects. We’ll supply all sorts of things to put into the piece. Here’s a sample of some of Tif’s work, and some of {gulp} mine:

Yep, quite the combo… I can’t wait to see what happens when all 12 of us put our work together! Oh, and half way through our amazing art project we’ll take a tea party break – art, tea/coffee and a whole bunch of beautiful cupcakes. But wait, there’s more… before we all head home, we’ll be giving out gift bags {made by Tif!} filled with all sorts of artsy surprises {you’ll have to wait and see}, along with a copy of Uppercase Magazine! See, you’ve got to come! Sign up here.

{Thank you so much to Assemble Gallery & Studio, Trophy Cupcakes, Uppercase Magazine, Caffe Vita, and the lovely Tif Fussell for helping make this happen. Oh, and ps. I’m working on lowering the price for all of the other workshops too, so stay tuned as the announcements for the other cities roll in… just working on sponsorships! Happy weekend}

Whoa. Utrecht based artist Anne Ten Donkelaar is taking cut flowers to an entirely new level! This amazing series of paper-cut collage is titled, Flower Constructions. I love the crazy combination of plants & flowers, and the mixture of color & greyscale. Gor.geo.ous. Beautiful, meticulous… and, they’ll never wilt!

{via Design for Mankind}

Tattoos, tattoos everywhere! No one is safe when Belgian artist Jean-Luc Moerman and his black pen are around. If you show skin, he’s going to draw on it. Bruce Lee, Karl Lagerfeld, some sassy nudes… and, the ultimate original sin!

{via frankie magazine}

Every day I take my laptop to the same lovely coffee shop to write my posts. And everyday a lovely young woman, named Lauren Brevner, makes me a yummy latte. I knew that she was an artist, but she hasn’t wanted to show me her work… but I a few days ago I convinced her, and look what I found!

Yep. Fantastic, right? These are all works in progress, but I love them just the way they are! Lovely paintings on wood, and hand-made ceramic ball-jointed dolls! She is completely self taught, and actually just found out that she was accepted into art school this coming September – of course! How could they not have accepted her with a portfolio like this! I can’t wait to see how her work changes and grows over the next few years ~ good luck Lauren! xo

Polka-dots, flat florals, and pretty girls. Sigh… lovely paintings by American artist Michael Carson.

“I like the fact that the face can be such a subtle subject and one brush stroke can be the difference in the feel of the entire piece.  That gives me the ability to work in one subject matter and still find that I learn something new in every painting.  I love to incorporate my love of design, fashion and architecture into my work.  My nondescript surroundings help me to create a mood or a story that I am trying to relay through my painting.  Seeing how the work evolves, the subtle and drastic differences, and looking forward to the future is what keeps me painting.  I view a painting as a success when I take from it something new that follows me into my next work.  It’s just learning to become a better painter.”

Yep. I know… I want to get my scissors out too! How can you not want to go image hunting when you come across the amazing, hand-cut work of Auckland based artist Peter Madden. I have to say, I don’t think I’ve ever written “collage” and “sculpture” in the same post, but today, my friends, is that day… and I am jealous. Yowza.

{The Fehily Contemporary, in Melbourne, has an upcoming solo exhibition of Peter’s work – oh, how I would love to see those chairs being carried away by birds in person!}

I love this work by Hanna von Goeler, and it just so happens to be a perfect intro into this bit of news I have for you.

So, as most of you know {I hope!} the Girl Crush workshops + tea parties are underway! San Fransisco {with Lisa Congdon} happened last Saturday, Seattle {with Tif Fussell} in May is almost full… but the rest only have two or three sign-ups. I did a little survey and realized that $275 was just too much money for most people in this economy. In San Francisco I used almost all of the money to put the event together {there was a little bit left over, and since I never intended these workshops as a way for me to make money, I am donating it to Southern Exposure, an arts center in San Fransisco that supports emerging artists.} Most of the money went into the tea party part of the event {which was amazingly delicious!!}, but after talking with all of the women that attended, the most important part of the day was actually meeting each other, hearing Lisa Congdon’s story/experiences, and breaking through a bunch of our insecurities/artist blocks. And so, I’m going to lower the price in all of the cities. YAY! My plan was to make them the same price in every city {seems fair, right?}, but the price will be determined by the sponsors we are able to get in each city. I didn’t go the sponsorhip route in San Francisco, but should have. I’m going to work more closely with the host artist/venue to see what we can do about having a lovely tea party {it still has to be fancy – pizza and plastic cups just won’t cut it I’m afraid!}, at a lower cost to you.

Here’s the thing {heart currently on sleeve}, I just really want these workshops to happen. San Fransisco was amazing! All of us got so much out of it, including a whole bunch of new friends/creative cheerleaders… who doesn’t need a few more of those in their life, right? Right!

Anyway, thank you for listening… I hate talking about money! As I work with each city, I’ll let you know what the prices have been changed to, and exactly what you’ll be getting at each workshop. Stay tuned! xo

Yes, I know… I have a thing for vintage portraits in which the faces have been altered in some way {please find evidence here and here and here}. I love the patterns, the colors, and the fact that these ordinary citizens look like they’ve been initiated into some kind of bizarre art tribe! American artist April Deacon uses gouache {in stunning colors!} to turn these found photographs into my latest obsession. LOVE.

ps. that neon boy is missing a pinkie, right?

{via curate1k}

Gah! I saw one of these on Pinterest yesterday, and I desperately wanted to know who the artist was… but I’m not sure that I’ll ever know. A few clicks on that pin, and I found this entire treasure trove of vintage geological illustrations! They are part of a collection on Vintage Printable, under the category of Gems and Minerals. Pages and pages from old textbooks, that are now part of the public domain. All of you collage artists out there know what that means… yep, you can use these images for whatever you like! Time to get the scissors out people.

{Thanks to American artist Shannon Rankin for pinning one of these to her ‘rocks’ board… love!}